Principle and Power

Principle and Power

The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of Power

Read: Ezekiel 37:1-10

Zechariah 4:6 “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”

Ezekiel wrote that, “The hand of the Lord upon me,”

This means that he was led, guided, protected, and empowered by God. It is a wonderful thing to know Gods hand is on your life.

He also said that he was carried out in the Spirit. If we are going to see the glory of God revealed, we must get out of our flesh realm and into the spirit realm. I believe that the reason we don’t experience more glory and more power, this is the reason why we experience so little of the demonstration and the manifestation of the Power of God, is because we are fixed on our flesh. God works through us by the Power of the Holy Ghost, and the only way to participate in the manifestation of His power is to get out of our flesh and walk in the Spirit.

The spirit is not just the feeling of God touching you, or even God moving inside of you, by the Holy Ghost: the spirit is speaking of the realm, and of the dimension and of the environment of God.

The Apostle John said, “I was in the Spirit on the Lords day.”

When John got in the Spirit, he began to see the glory of God. Ezekiel was in the Spirit when he had the vision of the dry bones coming alive and when he saw the great whirlwind of fire, the living creatures, the throne of God, and he saw the appearance of a man who was on fire, from his loins upward, and from his loins downward as the appearance of brightness as the color of amber. I know this is going to sound a little crazy, but that’s where we belong, that’s our environment, I’m not talking about dying and going to heaven, I’m talking about living in the realms of the glory of God.

Galatians 5:16 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

Galatians 5:25 “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Please do not misunderstand what I am saying, I am not insinuating that we should all walk around seeing angels everywhere, and hearing voices and trumpets, and that if you’re not experiencing these things that you’re not spiritual.  I’m not saying that at all. What I am saying is that to experience the operation of the Spirit, we must be filled with the Holy Ghost and walking in the Spirit. I am saying that the realm of the glory of God’s presence must become more important to us than this flesh realm.

Healing, deliverance, miracles, signs and wonders all emanate from the Spirit of God. All supernatural activity of the Spirit of God belongs to the Kingdom of God. Jesus revealed to us that Power over the enemy, or power to destroy the works of the devil, or power to cast out the devil was the direct result of the Kingdom of God being present.

Matthew 12:28 “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.”

The command to do these things, the authority to do these things, is the principle, but the Holy Ghost is the power. Jesus said that everything He had done, His disciples would do, and even greater things. He said, “these signs shall follow them that believe.” That was the authority, the principle. But he said to wait for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and when the Holy Ghost came upon us, we would receive the power.

We may talk about the kingdom, sing about miracles, preach and teach about deliverance, because we have been given the authority – we have the principle, but principle is not enough. Principle won’t heal the sick, Principle won’t deliver the bound and the oppressed, and principle won’t set the captives free. Principle is important: Principle is the foundation on which we stand, principle stabilizes us, and holds us in the right place. Principle is truth, but just the knowledge of truth is not enough. You can know all the truth about healing and live all your life sick. You can know all the truth about salvation, and still go to an eternal hell.

The Kingdom of God is both principle and power. I Corinthians 4:20, “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”

I Thessalonians 1:5, “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, (Not in principle or truth only) but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.”

Jude 1:3, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Jude knew by the Spirit that the time would come when the body of Christ would slip into a state of complacency that it would begin to settle into a powerless faith, a faith without substance, a faith that consisted only of words, and ideas, and philosophies. This is a head faith, and head faith is dead faith, it’s a faith that nods its head that the bible is true, but never presses in to experience it personally.

Everything the bible says is ours is ours by right of inheritance, but even though you hold the title deed to a property, you will never benefit from it until you press your claim and take possession of it. God has willed his power to the church, it’s our inheritance. But the majority of the Church World is satisfied just with the principle, satisfied to know it’s true, just happy to know that it’s there, and that it belongs to us by inheritance.

Jude warned us to not accept that powerless message, and not be deceived, and to contend for the original faith that the early church had which was a vital living faith that produced the miraculous. He pleaded with believers to contend for the Apostolic Faith.

I’m not pointing fingers at anybody because I have fallen into that trap. The trap of believing that because I knew it, I had it. I believed that because I could quote it, I had it. The problem was that I was lying to myself. It makes a comfortable cushion, and I began to believe that I had it just because I could say I had it. But the truth is, if you can’t manifest it and demonstrate it, then you don’t really have it. All we have a profession, and there’s a big difference between profession and possession.

Wherever the Kingdom of God is truly present there is a manifestation of power. In other words, it produces what it speaks of. True faith is not just in word alone, not just in the profession, not just in the principle – true faith manifests itself when the principle walks hand in hand with the power. This is the only type of faith that glorifies God and edifies the body of Christ!

7 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. 8 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.

Good things happened, the bones came together, things got shook up, there was some noise, and sinews and flesh came upon them and the skin covered them. But there was no breath in them. In other words: Principle, truth, knowledge, did some good things, it brought them together, it shook them loose from some stuff, it made them look good. But there was no breath in them. They were dead, pretty but dead, all put together but dead, smelling good, but dead, looking good but dead. Had on a suit and tie but dead, had their favorite pew but dead, sang in the choir but dead, payed their tithes but dead. Principled but dead, knowledgeable but dead, biblical but dead.

I don’t want to say this, but I have to say it - The devil is not afraid of Pretty bones! He doesn’t care how many scriptures you can quote, or how programmed we are. The devil doesn’t care that we got all dressed up and we smell good. None of that bothers him because dead is still dead. You can have the biggest church in town and be dead. If all we have is principle, we’re dead! If the kingdom of God is present, where there is principle combined with power, there is manifestation.