I recently had the chance to speak in a class at a Christian high school. The students essentially asked me the same question most young people ask: How do I grow in my relationship with God? I gave them a straightforward answer: "You need the power of the Holy Spirit in your lives." I shared Luke 24, Romans 8 and Acts 2, and encouraged the youth to pursue and study the person of the Holy Spirit.

After the class I was politely informed by an adult leader that I needed to be careful in talking on this subject because "we don’t want to offend anyone." Now, I’ve been a youth pastor for more than 15 years—long enough to know you usually need more tact in dealing with adults than you do with teens. But this time, I had to be blunt. I responded by simply saying the Holy Spirit is the central point of living the Christian life in the New Testament, no matter what denomination you are from.

The encounter got me thinking, though. What are these students being taught? More specifically, what are they not being taught? We have got to bring back the Holy Spirit to the youth ministries of America. No matter the cost. No matter the controversy. No matter the persecution. It has to be done. If we hope to see this generation saved, we can't go on without the Holy Spirit anymore. We can't be a lukewarm people trying to win the lost but having no success because we fail to recognize the ultimate Helper. He is here to show the power of the gospel, to win the hearts of this generation.

My experience in youth ministry over the years has led to one conclusion: It is the power of the Holy Spirit that keeps young people coming back. There's an old saying in ministry, "Whatever you do to get them there is what you'll have to do to keep them." That's become the problem. We've done everything apart from making the Holy Spirit the superstar of our youth services. We have stuck ourselves in a powerless wilderness of trying to get crowds rather than seeing a generation set ablaze by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Don't get me wrong: This is the greatest hour to be alive. The Holy Spirit is what makes youth ministry fun. He is our hope for changing not just the next generation, but every age group. Would you join with me and thousands of other dedicated youth ministers around this nation in preaching a
gospel filled with the Holy Spirit? I believe as we do, we'll see mighty demonstrations of His power. Just as important, we'll see our young people turned into flames of fire as they set their generation ablaze.

All Christian denominations in their statements of faith acknowledge that the Holy Spirit comes to live in every believer. They recognize that, as part of the Trinity, He is God and dwells on the earth today. But if that's the case—which it is—why are we not telling our young people about the need for His power in their lives?

The Holy Spirit is the one who lights the fire of evangelism in a person. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll go to the ends of the earth to spread the gospel. We need a generation empowered to do what the early church did. They won the lost, healed the sick, cast out devils and spoke in new tongues. That type of power turned the world upside down. But radical evangelism won't happen if we hide Him or put Him as a second priority.

It's time to act now. It's time for a day of Pentecost outpouring. It's time to see the Book of Acts come alive today in this generation. Who will call this generation to be full of the Holy Ghost and His fire? Who will tell young people today the real way to take a stand and see their generation turn to God?

Sadly, the Holy Spirit doesn't seem to be a popular topic—at least not among those who publish youth ministry resources. I recently spent hours searching for any kind of teaching or curriculum on the infilling of the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Spirit—something I could use with my own youth group.

I found nothing. Nada. Not a single national Christian youth publication gave any prominence to the Holy Spirit. I guess He doesn't sell well.

Despite this, some leaders are boldly teaching on the Holy Spirit to a younger generation. Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne, revivalist and founder of Revival Ministries International and The River at Tampa Bay Church in Florida, is crossing this nation on what he is calling the Great Awakening Tour. He's doing something different, though: He's taking high school and college-aged students with him. Before the night crusade meetings, where thousands are being touched and ignited by the power of the Holy Spirit, these students are taking that fire to the streets during the day and seeing thousands saved. As of July 2007, approximately 100,000 decisions had been made for Christ.

"Without the Holy Spirit there is no witness of Jesus on the earth today," he told me. "Without the Holy Spirit there would have never been a day of Pentecost, and the church would have never exploded like it did. We would have nothing more than dry religion. We would be dead preachers preaching to dead people. The Great Awakening tour, which I embarked on in the beginning of 2007, is gaining momentum and thousands of people are coming to Jesus every week. … Just recently at our North Carolina Awakening a 5-year-old boy prayed for a person who was deaf and they received their hearing."

Despite such good reports, Joel Stockstill, who pastors more than 5,000 teens at Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, La., agrees that the Holy Spirit typically isn't given a prominent place in youth ministry in this nation. "I believe people are not willing to pay the cost of the high price of pursuing the Holy Spirit," he says. "People just don't know the Holy Spirit."

In hopes of changing this, Stockstill is planning to gather 1 million young people in our nation's capital in 2009. He believes they will all be baptized with the Holy Ghost and ignited with the fire of evangelism for this generation.

Jesse Quiroz is another pastor who sees the lack of emphasis on the Holy Spirit. "The problem is, people don't think the Holy Spirit is relevant or up to date even in our Pentecostal and charismatic churches," says the director of student ministries at World Harvest Church in Ohio. "And when we don't make the Holy Spirit prominent in our youth ministry, it's proof that we are not tapping into the heartbeat and cry of what this generation really needs. Today we are starving our young people because we haven't emphasized the power of the Holy Spirit and its need for our youth ministry."

This past May, World Harvest Church kicked off its Reformation Generation Student Conference, where students from all over the country were ignited with the fire of the Holy Spirit to change their generation. "We have a senior pastor here at World Harvest Church (Rod Parsley) who will only stand for Holy Spirit-driven youth ministry," says Quiroz.

We need more senior pastors like Parsley who will not settle for fluffy, trend-of-the-month messages to teens. I believe that if we as a collective body of believers gave our time and talents to touching this generation with the truth of the Holy Spirit, we could make a massive impact. If we hope to see a great awakening in this generation, youth leaders must start teaching on the person of the Holy Spirit in youth groups, on college campuses, at high schools and in middle school clubs. We are in the last of the last days, and this generation is crying out for the power of the Holy Spirit. The boats are full, the nets are breaking, and the fish are still jumping.