My plan was to prepare my spirit for a fresh outpouring
of His, you know, get pumped up in anticipation of what I know will be a great
service at church today.
As I was doing my Bible study the cell phone thing
was on my mind, I wanted to check Facebook, check my email, check the weather,
but I couldn’t because the power had gone out of it, I forgot to plug it in. I
was thinking to myself, “Hey dummy, cell phones weren’t designed to work
without power.”
That’s when the Lord whispered to me, “Hey dummy,
neither were you!”
I wonder how often I am unable to be used the way
God intends because I forget to plug in to His source of power?
Acts
1:8
“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.”(NKJV)
“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.”(NIV)
Throughout scripture there is a very powerful
truth that can be seen to all who study it: We serve a God who manifests
Himself to His people and He will make His power available to all who draw near. In Genesis He actually walked in the garden
and had conversations with Adam, face to face.
In the book of Exodus, He appeared to Moses as a flame in a burning bush. David felt His presence and danced before Him
when the Ark of the Covenant was returned to Israel.
In 1 Kings 18 He was fire falling from heaven and
consuming the sacrifice altar and all.
And after the worldly distractions were removed, the prophet Isaiah saw
Him as Holy and wonderful and repented for having taken His presence for
granted.
In the New Testament His presence appears to us
robed in the flesh of man, first as a baby in a stable, and then ultimately as
the suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah who brought us peace with God by
taking our punishment to atone for our sins.
In the book of John and
here in the first chapter of Acts, Jesus promises that God’s power and presence
will once again be given to all who draw near.
Then in the very next chapter of the book of Acts,
that promise is fulfilled:
Acts
2:1-4
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all
together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind
came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw
what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of
them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in
other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.”
Acts
2:15-19 tells us that this is that which was spoken of by
the prophet Joel and that this is God, and God is a signs and a wonders God.
“15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since
it is only the third hour of the day. 16
But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days,
says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.”
It is Gods choice to use us to manifest his power
to the world:
Acts
5:12-16
“12 And through the hands of the apostles many signs
and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in
Solomon’s Porch. 13 Yet none of the rest
dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. 14 And believers were increasingly added to
the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
15 so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on
beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on
some of them. 16 Also a multitude
gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and
those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.”
You were created for the power of God.
Through Christ, in Jesus name, we have been born
of the spirit, through the baptism of the Holy Ghost we have been filled with
the spirit, we are to be led by the spirit, taught by the spirit, kept by the
spirit and empowered by the spirit.
There are only two essential powers in the earth,
the power of God and the power of the Satan. Scripture makes it very clear that
you cannot serve two masters, you cannot follow two rulers, and you cannot be a
part of two kingdoms. There are two worlds,
but once choice: You cannot live in God’s Kingdom and derive your pleasure and
your enjoyment from Satan’s.
1Corinthians
10:21
- You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: you cannot be
partakers of the Lord’s Table, and of the table of devils.
1John
1:6
- If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and
do not the truth:
Ephesians
5:11
- And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
them.
You have a High and a Holy Calling on your life
Matthew
5:14
- You are the salt of the earth.
Salt has a healing influence, it preserves, it
seasons, it makes thirsty. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ in you causes
your life to be a channel of healing and comfort, a seasoning and preserving
influence, it makes your life exciting and joyous, and it causes those around you
to yearn for what is in you.
Matthew
5:14
- Ye are the Light of the world
Christ in you causes your life to be a beacon of
light to those who are trapped in darkness.
Your life, your words, your attitude, your actions can be and should be
a light to those who are searching for a kingdom that provides hope.
This is no time for an attitude of indifference,
of who cares or what difference does it make, or I can’t make a difference
anyway so why even try.
An old man was found at the beach throwing the
drying star fish back into the ocean, the tide had washed them ashore, and they
were dying. Some young folks came by and
saw it, they said you’re wasting your time you’ll never make a difference there
are millions of star fish here. As the
old fellow lifted one star fish and threw him back into the ocean he said with
a smile, “it made a difference to that one."
There is nothing Satan fears more than to see God’s
people who are on fire to reach the lost, and there is nothing that he desires
more than to see their energy perverted by pursuing carnal and selfish desires,
or wasted wrapped up in an attitude of indifference.
God wants to set your life on fire, to fill you
with his power, power to be a witness, to cast out devils, to lay your hands on
the sick and see them recover. You were
created for power!
There is only one answer for the ills of this
world, and it is not science, psychology, or political correctness, it is the
Power of God!
You were created for the Power of God!
II
Corinthians 4:7 - But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
As a fish was created to live in the water, we
were created to live in the atmosphere of the supernatural Power of God. As a fish living on land would be unnatural
and abnormal, so is it unnatural and abnormal to be called a Christian and have
no fire of God in our lives, and no taste or desire for the supernatural
presence of God.
You were created for power!
Someone may say: “That’s too strong, we can’t
handle this.”
The fact is, while we are content or satisfied to
be powerless, satisfied not to pursue the supernatural power of God, we are
leaving the door to the power of Satan wide open and multitudes of spiritually
hungry people are marching in.
You were created to receive the power of God and
to be a channel for his power to flow through to meet the needs of humanity. I encourage you on this Sunday when we
celebrate the outpouring of His gift of the Holy Ghost, plug into God’s power
today!
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