Suppose we saw an army sitting down in front of a granite fortress, and they told us they intended to batter it down. We might ask them, how? They point to a cannon-ball.
Well, but there is no power in that. It is heavy; but not more than a hundredweight. If all the men in the army were to throw it at the walls that would make no impression. They say, no, but look at the cannon.
Well, there is no power in that; it is a machine, and nothing more. But look at the powder, we are told. Well, there is no power in that either; a child may spill it, a sparrow may pick it up.
Yet – this powerless powder, and this powerless ball, put into this powerless cannon with one spark of fire! Then, in the twinkling of an eye, that power is a flash of lightening, and that cannon-ball is a thunderbolt which smites as if it had been sent from heaven.
So it is with our Church machinery. We have our instruments for pulling down the strongholds of Satan, but, oh, for that baptism of fire that comes from God to the glory of God.