Many people are living defeated Christian lives simply because they do not know about the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit within them. In Pecos County in West Texas, there is a famous oilfield known as Yates Pool. It was called Yates Pool because the oilfield was discovered on a sheep ranch that was owned by Mr. Ira Yates. During the Depression years Mr. Yates was not making enough money on his ranch to pay the mortgage and it looked as though he might lose the ranch. He scarcely had enough money to buy food and clothing for his children, and like so many people in that day he lived off of government relief. Many times he must have wondered where the next meal would come from and how he could continue to exist under those circumstances.
One day a seismograph crew came through Pecos County and asked for permission to drill a wildcat well on his land. Mr. Yates signed the lease, they drilled the well, and at 1,115 feet they struck oil. The first oil well produced 80,000 barrels of oil a day. Then they began to sink more wells, some of them producing twice that much oil. In fact, 30 years later, a government test revealed that one of those wells was still capable of producing 125,000 barrels of oil a day. The amazing thing is that Mr. Yates owned it all–every bit of it. The day he bought the ranch, the oil and mineral rights were his. But he was living on relief. He was a multimillionaire but he was living in poverty because he did not know the oil was there. He owned it, but he did not possess it. He was ignorant of its existence and consequently lived in poverty until he discovered the resources available to him.
In exactly the same way there are many Christians who live their lives in spiritual poverty instead of spiritual abundance because they do not know the power and the resources available to them through the Holy Spirit who dwells within them.