Power For Living

There is only one source of power that the Christian can tap into, to overcome life’s difficulties.  There is only one source of power that we can receive to live in a manner that brings glory to the name of Jesus.  A believer that is filled with power, is baptized in the Holy Ghost, and living by the power and the anointing of His indwelling presence.

Acts 1:5-8

For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”  Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Pentecost marked the introduction of a completely new dynamic in the way to live according to God’s standards.  In the Old Testament (OT) they relied on their own ability to follow a rigid set of standards to achieve a right relationship with God, to be “righteous.”  Now, in the New Testament (NT) with the infilling, baptism, of the Holy Spirit the believer now had a source of power for righteous living that dwells within us and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. 

Every covenant with God is intended to be sealed in blood.  In the OT God gave Moses the Law which laid out the rules for sprinkling the blood of animals over the sins of the people to restore them to fellowship with God.  In the NT Jesus sealed the covenant with his own blood.  His blood is the signature that life in the power of the Spirit is now available to every believer who wants it

Every believer should be experiencing the power of a Holy Spirit filled Life.  I am going to make a very bold and controversial statement now, please don’t stone me.  The Son of the “Most High God” did not shed his blood just to save you from your sins. That blood cleanse you from your sin, but it also seals you into a life of covenant living.  Because of this wonderful blood we have become joints heirs with Jesus, the seed of Abraham and children of the promises of God.  The Magnificent blood of Jesus is the introduction of the believer into the life of the Spirit, or living.

Lev 14: Tells of the cleansing of the leper.  First the blood of the guilt offering was applied to the unclean person’s body and then the priest would apply the oil.  This is symbolic of how the blood prepares us for the anointing.

How it must grieve the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit, for us to stop short of what he paid so high a price for us to have.  To be filled with the Spirit was not a mere suggestion, but rather a command to his disciples, which we are if we continue in His Word.  Luke 24:49 – “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” 

Ephesians 5:17-20 - “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The will of God is that you be filled with the Spirit.  The will of God is actually that we become the channels through which his spirit flows through, that we become ministers of that anointing.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 – “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

John 7:37-38 – “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

In Ezekiel 37:7-10 we can see “type” of, or picture of the New Testament Church, The power filled church.

“So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.  And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus says the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

Notice: Everything from a natural standpoint may be perfect, but from God’s perspective it is dead until the Spirit has come upon and into. It is the Spirit that turns these bones into an army.  The greatest need in our country right now is not different leaders, it is not a better economy, what our country needs now more than anything else if for the Church of Jesus Christ to receive a fresh outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit and to be revisited with New Testament Power and Anointing.

A power filled church is a church that is living the life of dependence upon the Holy Spirit