There Is No Power In Neutral

I Kings 18:21

21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

How long halt ye between two opinions?

There is one thing that I have come to understand as a professional mechanic: You can have the most powerful engine in the world under the hood of your car, but until you select a direction by putting the car in gear, you ain’t going anywhere. There is no power in neutral.

Revelation 3:13-17

13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”

A Christian life in park or neutral is as useless and powerless as a car without an engine.

You cannot be for true worship, worship in spirit and truth, without being against selfish living and spiritual idolatry.  A Christian cannot be for humility and service without being against Pride and carelessness.  A child of God cannot be for holiness and sanctification without being against impurity and corruption.

Satan accomplishes his greatest work when God’s people fall into the sleep of indifference. It’s not the devil who defeats backsliders, it’s the slumber of indifference, indecision,  and neutrality.  It is the spirit of indifference that produces spiritual impotency in the life of a believer. Why?  Because power can only be channeled through passion.  It is a passion for the presence and the voice of God that causes the power of God to be manifested in our lives: Power follows Passion!

What causes an individual or church, or ministry to lose it’s passion and Power? Loss of vision.

Proverbs  29:18  - “Where there is no vision the people perish”

Even the evil Jezebel knew this.  She knew that in order to lead God’s people into apostasy she first had to blind them to God’s purpose for them.  She thought that she could accomplish this task by destroying the prophets of God.  She discerned that once God’s true prophets were destroyed Israel would have no divine vision and could be led Into witchcraft and idolatry.

In the church today “Jezebel” is the spirit of religion that despises and rebels against the vision and the authority of the prophetic ministry.  Why does this spirit of rebellion exist?  Because prophetic ministry calls people to repentance and a passionate commitment to obey the righteous commands of God.

How does this “Spirit of Jezebel” destroy God’s prophets today and blind His people?

Exodus 20:19  - “And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

Today the “Spirit of Jezebel” destroys the prophetic voice in the church by producing an attitude and mindset that disassociates the man of God and his message from the power and authority of God.  By mentally separating the prophet from the authority of God it produces a “spirit” of individual sovereignty.  Once this “spirit” is produced in the body or individual, they then feel qualified to analyze, criticize, condemn and ignore the word of God.  It is this “spirit” of individual sovereignty that is killing the prophetic vision of God in our churches.

Why do many people not want to recognize God’s voice and authority in his prophets?

Exodus 20:19 - “Lest we die.”

Most people in the body of Christ have come to understand that a God encounter means self has to die: pride, lust, criticism, self-righteousness, slothfulness, prejudice, traditions, stubbornness, anger, resentment, and religion will all have to die.

By mentally separating the prophet from the spiritual power and authority of God, God’s people lose their spiritual Vision.  The only place the Body of Christ can receive God’s vision is through the prophetic ministry.  The ministry that brings to us uncompromisingly God’s voice or His Word revealing his plans and purposes for our lives.  The prophetic voice is never a multiple choice, but rather a simple and undeniable, “Thus Saith the Lord.”  Specifically speaking, the pastor is the prophetic voice to any given church, he speaks for God, with God.

The voice of God brings God’s Vision, when this vision is received it produces passion in the people who receive it, and when the people of God become passionate for His vision, God’s power is manifested in our lives through the Holy Spirit.  It’s a progressive process: God’s Voice, then God’s Vision, then a Passion for His plan, and finally Power to do His will.

I Kings 18:30  - “And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him.”

Elijah stood on Mt. Carmel that day not only as a man, or even as a man of God, but a prophet.  He was the very representation of God’s voice. God’s pure, undefiled, undiluted, uncompromising, inexpressible, inescapable voice.  

Jezebel had tried to destroy it by destroying the prophets, but she could not destroy it because it was not the voice of the prophets but in fact the voice of the living God speaking through them.  She had made the same mistake as the Children of Israel in Exodus 20:19, She had separated the prophet from God. She thought if she could kill the man she could silence God.

Elijah knew Revival in Israel could only come when prophetic authority was restored, When they came around him, and near to him it symbolized their return to the prophetic Voice of God, the would restore the Vision of God, and produce a Passion for God, resulting in a manifestation of Power to serve God.

The only way we will see the Power of God is to embrace The prophetic, The word of God as the final and supreme authority, that calls us above and beyond anything we have ever heard or seen before.  Jesus said my sheep know my voice, today as never before we must become intimately acquainted with the voice of the Lord.

When we hear His Voice it will give us His Vision, which will in turn give us Passion for His work which will produce Power through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.