Need Some Power?
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” —Acts 1:8
After Saul of Tarsus became a believer on the Damascus Road, God led Ananias to go and pray for him. He was then filled with the Holy Spirit, and from that moment on, he went out and proclaimed Christ in the synagogues.
This power is for a purpose.
* It is not power to be crazy or power to do weird things.
** It is power to be a witness . . .
** power to have the courage to tell someone about Jesus Christ . . .
**power to tell people about what Jesus has done for you.
If a Christian has an intensity for a holy life—if he/she desires to give his all to the Lord—there can be only one reason why he fails to enjoy the blessing and freedom promised by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
*** That reason is unbelief. As surely as Jesus could not perform his works when there was unbelief, so his Spirit cannot do anything in our lives when we harbor
unbelief.
2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Hebrews 6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Hebrews 3: 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
Verse 12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Why so many people are so busy as if life is all about doing many things that make them stressful and tired? Did God promise a life without trouble? If not,just think– what is the use of looking for God?
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
The Lord does not promise a world without trouble, but He promise peace in His presence. You can be peaceful inside even the world is in total turmoil.
** Stillness is not an absence of trouble.
What causes people restless?
In Hebrews 3 & 4 gives the answer to the question.
People are troubled and restless because they don’t follow God’s command:
1. Do not provoke God by hardening your hearts,Heb 3:8;
** Friends, are you still hardening our heart that we don’t like to obey God and be subject to Him? Don’t waste time while there is a time! Be included to enter God’s rest.
2. Do not test God of what He can do,Heb 3:9;
Even we are a follower of Christ, sometimes, we don’t trust God in our family problems, financial difficulties, relationship matters or even our love life.
3. Don’t let your heart go astray,Heb 3:10a;
*They (Israel) did not enter God’s rest (promise land) because they heard the Word of God but it was not accompanied with faith and they disobey the LORD.
4. Know His ways through His Word,Heb 3:10b;
*Why so many people in this whole world afflicted with terrible disease like HIV Aids, lost, forsaken, destroyed, and even died early before their time? Like the Israelites we are destroyed because of lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). It’s the Holy Bible that give us the knowledge and direction in life.
(2Tim 3:16, Heb 4:12)
5. Do not forsake the Day of Rest(Jews: Sabbath [Saturday]; Christians: Sunday), Heb 4:10.
*God created the universe for six days and the 7th day he rested.
Who among us invited Christ to come in their life during the high peak of their lives? It’s rare, right? Almost all of us here, Christian, accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior in the time we are downcast and heavily laden.
The Lord Jesus Christ is inviting those who are weary and heavily laden to come to His rescue and He will you REST. Because His yoke is EASY and His burden is LIGHT (Mt 11:28-30).
Working Versus Striving
Human might or power will never be a sufficient resource for living life as God intended. Rather, the Holy Spirit must supply what we need for a life of service to the Lord.
“So he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty.”‘” – Zechariah 4:6
Your greatest obstacle in fulfilling God’s purposes in your life is the skills you HAVE acquired to perform well in your life.
One of the great paradoxes in Scripture relates to our need to depend on the Lord; yet at the same time, we’re instructed to use the talents and abilities God gives us to accomplish the work HE GIVES us to do.
It has been one of the most difficult principles to live out.
**How do we know that what we achieve is by the power of the Holy Spirit in our life versus our own abilities, and is there a difference?
*When we Reach a level of Excellence and Performance in our fields, it actually becomes an obstacle to seeing God’s power manifest in our work.
***What we Naturally do well becomes the Object of our Trust.
PONDER a Minute: What we Naturally do well becomes the Object of our Trust.
*** When this happens, God retreats. You see, God allows us to develop skills, but these must be continually yielded to God’s Spirit.
*There will be times when God will use these skills to accomplish His purposes. *There will be other times that God will not use any of our skills just to ensure that WE Know it is by His power that we can do anything.
It is the oxymoron of all oxymorons for Christian believers. Learning not to act Until GOD shows you to act is a sign of maturity in God.
“Do not LEAN on the natural skill which you have been given. Let God manifest Himself in what you are doing,” said a mentor who has learned this balance of skill and walking with God. “You must almost restrain from doing those things you know you are prone to do and actually go against them.”
*It is easy to revert back to an Area I know comes easy for me to do—- when the Heat is turned up in or on my Circumstance!!!
Here and in all things I need to FIRST *Ask God to teach me what it means to walk according to the power of the Holy Spirit in my everyday life Circumstances.
* Develop a listening ear to the small voice inside that wants to direct your efforts by His Spirit.
God is at work. His Spirit is working to get you to stop considering the impossibilities—
*To stop looking to human ways and means.
*To stop trying to think your way out of your situation.
Allowing God to purify our hearts deepens our relationship with Him.
“He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious, the king is his friend.” Proverbs 22:11
1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Father God, thank You for the power of Your Holy Spirit at work in me. Today, I surrender every area of my heart, my mind, my will and my emotions to You. Thank You for directing my steps and giving me the power to overcome in this life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen