Beth Moore calls out Christians: What She Told Pentecostals about the Holy Spirit

Bible study author and speaker Beth Moore thinks the modern-day church is making do with a "few splatters of the Holy Spirit" when we should accept nothing less than an outpouring--and she's calling on leaders to lead the way in repentance.

Moore delivered her message to the 28th General Conference of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Orlando last month and posted a tweaked version of it to her website this week.

J. Lee Grady, former editor of Charisma magazine, attended the conference and calls Moore's address "one of the most spiritual moments of my lifetime."

He describes pastors streaming to the altar after the message. Many lay prostrate on the floor and sobbed uncontrollably. Others wept and prayed.

Moore told those in attendance that her recent readings of the New Testament have convinced her that the church today has become complacent. "I keep studying those early followers," she said, "noting how the Holy Spirit looked on them and operated through them. I don't think this is it. I think we're settling for woefully less than Jesus promised us He'd do."

Moore cited that talks about suffering, joyfulness in the midst of it and confidence. She also quoted --29 and 40-42 which describes the apostles rejoicing after a beating because they were "counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name."

Moore told the thousands in attendance from the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Assemblies of God, the Church of God and Nigeria's Redeemed Christian Church of God that the early followers of Christ were unstoppable in not only works but in their faith and their joy.

And she diagnosed the problem--calling out Christians who, she says, compete for the spotlight and have settled into their affluence. "We need less so we pray less, plead for less, believe for less, live for less. I'm not proposing we go sell everything we have but I am proposing we not sell our souls to everything we have," she said.

Moore said that believers are called to a fearlessness in the Spirit that will release repentance, salvation, true humility, reconciliation. She says the results will show in practical evidence such as believers overcoming sin like pornography.

She called out leaders to lead in repentance. "The way to the altar of repentance is so overgrown with the weeds of neglect it's not even visible," she said, "It's up to us to hack the way through it and make the way clear again."