My Power

Well it has been 2 weeks since I was able to preach to you and boy do you have something in store today. There becomes just this pinned up energy in you when there is something you know you want to do and are supposed to do and yet you have to wait. Like a kid in a candy store and mom is saying not yet. Not yet. Not yet. You just want it so bad. So I have been waiting. Just chomping at the bit for today. Now it is here.

This series, has it been good for you? Getting to hear different voices speak, also getting the opportunity to bring to rememberance who God is and some not all of the aspects of what He can do. The first week was me and we talked about God the advocator. How he is for you not against you. How he wants you to succeed. That he doesn’t want you to mess up but when you do He is there to help you. The next week was by pastor Josh and it was God the sancitifier. How God wants you to know that you are legitimately his son or daughter and there is no dirt, he can’t clean. Last week was Pastor Jordan and he talked about God my teacher. How we have to be responsible students when the teacher is teaching.

Today, oh boy. I get to talk about

God my POWER!!!

This came from the instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples before he ascended into heaven. He said this.

Acts 1:

Acts 1:7–8 NKJV

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 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.”

You shall receive what? Power

Luke 24:19 NKJV

And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

Luke 24:49 NKJV

“Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Can I just say, we are supposed to have power. This was for the disciples and it is for us. I am so tired of people saying the opposite. You know we get called all kinds of names for being pentecostal. We get called names just for being Christians. How can you believe in a creator? How can you be so stupid? When the truth is we are the ones who are more intellectual. We are the ones who make more sense than anyone else.

What does He mean by power?

We sing the old hymn there is pow’r pow’r wonder working pow’r. I love that song. I used to sing it with the best of them and still will. But what does it mean? Unfortunately there isn’t a verse in scripture that says the meaningeth of powereth is thuseth. But we do have examples and in particular one major example given us in scritpure. It is found in

Acts 10:38

Acts 10:38 NKJV

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Uh oh. What does that say? God anointed who? With What? So you mean to tell me that God had to anoint Jesus with the Holy Spirit so that He could complete His mission here on earth. Then what are we christians arguing about. Oh you talk in tongues. Oh you are a holy roller. Oh you bleieve in that stuff. Oh you don’t talk in tongues, your missing out. You aren’t really saved. Blah blah blah blah blah. JESUS NEEDED THE HOLY SPIRIT! You need the Holy Spirit. It is really that simple and if you feel the need to argue that away, I don’t have time to talk with you. I am not the smartest guy in the room but I can surely see that. We also read that in Luke how important the Holy Spirit was to the life and ministry of Jesus. Listen to this.

Jesus is:

The Lexham Bible Dictionary The Empowerment of the Holy Spirit

• conceived by the Holy Spirit (1:32–35);

• heralded by Spirit-inspired people (1:41–45; 2:25–32; 2:36–38; compare 1:67–79);

• attested by the Holy Spirit at His baptism (3:21–22);

• led by the Spirit into the desert (4:1); and

• empowered by the Spirit as He begins His ministry (4:14; compare 4:1, 18).

Now tell me again how You don’t need the Holy Spirit. That

Luke 4:1

Luke 4:1 NKJV

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Let’s read it togehter shall we. I’ll point to you and you say the next word.

Yall know what happneed in the wilderness right? He was tempted by the devil. So the devil and Jesus face off right here. Face to face. Jesus won. Then look was Jesus does. He goes back to the synagogue to preach a message. To read some scripture. To give an explanation of himself. He picks up the scroll from Isaiah and he reads this in

Luke 4:18 NKJV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

This is what the power is for. To do the good works to those who are oppressed by the enemy. That power that was on him, is the smae power that has or can anoint you. And what does He anoint you to do? Get all the blessings? Drive cars? Have big homes or big churches? No so you

Can set others free.

Your annoyance with the anointing is that you aren’t using it right. You thought it was for you. You bleieved that God wanted to bless you for the soul pupose of blessing you. But it doesn’t. He was anointing you because the person beside you needed to be free. But you are keeping it all to yourself. Listen what He told the disciples.

Luke 10:19

Luke 10:19 NKJV

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Did he mean that they were to start stepping on snakes and scorpions. Uh no he meant we can shoot them. lol No those were metaphors for the demons and the enemies that would poison people’s lives and swallow them whole.

The POWER is for defeating the enemy.

But here is a major difference between us and the disciples at this time.

The Holy Spirit was on them but it is in us.

How do we get the Holy Spirit? You know that is a great question and i am so glad that you asked me that. Before I answer this question, know this. When you receive this power, this is not the ride you will have. If you want a pristine life which is tranquil and calm, (show peaceful picture) don’t ask the Holy Spirit to come in. Because this is the ride you will get. (show the rough water picture) But this is actually me right here. (show air guitar picture)

So if you are ready for that then here is the first step.

Repentance

The first thing you have to do is realize that you need this power and cannot make it to eternity in heaven with out it. You cannot save yourself. The relationship with Jesus Christ is a necessity and in order to have that relationship just like John said, just like Peter said, just like Jesus said, repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Which means to change the way you think. Becuase the bible says the way you think will run your life and you are sitting there thinking that you are defeated before the battle even begins and you will lose. Stop living defeated. Stop thinking that you are less than. Stop believing that you are powerless. REPENT!!

See what the Israelites were doing is the same thing we do. Let me set this up for you a bit. There had been 400 years of silence in which God hadn’t spoken to the israelites. He had brought them out of Egypt, they sinned. He had brought them back from babylon, they sinned. He brought them back from syria, they sinned. They had continued in this viscous cycle of feeling defeated and then acutally getting defeated. They didn’t realize who they were. They thought they were helpless. They also thought they had it all together. It is the same problem we have in the church. This is life and we know and you don’t.

That makes you powerless and prideful.

I am not attempting to blow smoke or give a puff piece. i am serious about this. So is the Lord. You cannot be defeated. You just have to change your horizon. You are looking right here and God is trying to get you up here. YOu are thinking short Game and God is trying to prepare you for the long game. I know it is hard to think eternity while still here on earth. I know that everything doesn’t seem like it is going your way but He says it is. Everything isn’t exactly the way you want it but it is exactly what His will is. Trust me I have questions also. I even have complaints to be honest. There are certain things that I wish he would change and do differently. I can address that with Him but that doesn’t change anything that He says about me. I am powerful. You are powerful. You are not pititful. Jesus died and lived and returned sot hat you could succeed just as Him. So that you could over power the enemy and overcome your sins and live a life that is above and not below. So that you could be the lender and not the borrower. He is hwat is so funny about that saying. People always tend to make that about money. However, when you are lending, that means you are not lacking. Listen to me. If I lacked food, I would n’t be able to lend because I would need my money to buy food. If I lacked shelter, I wouldn’t be able to lend. If I lacked authority, I would be lacking in permission to lend. So If I am lending then I have everything I need to be able to do so. This is what is ment by that statment. You will be able to lend joy to other nations. YOu will be able to lend peace to toether nations. YOu will be able to lend healing to other nations. You lend love to other nations.

Stop staying in a thought life of defeat. The next thing you have to do is.

The next part you do is

Ask

John 14

John 14:13–14 NKJV

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

So you say, I have recieved the HOly Spirit when I was saved. I a mnot arguing with you on that one. Are you living in the power of that and have you redieved the entireity of that gift or are you living in lack? Are you living in a situation in which your cinsistantly being defeated. Have you tapped into the power of that baptism in which the Lord told the disciples to go and wait for. He said for them to go and wait for that gift of full baptism of the Holy Spirit. So you need to seek the gift as well because everythign that you need to thrive in this life and be victoriuos is in the Holy Spirit. You have gifts of the Spirit and you have fruit of the spirit. The gifts come to produce the fruit. But they are all found and related to the Holy Spirit. YOu must work with him and lallow Him to work in you. Let’s look at these gifts:

prophecy; teaching; exhortation; apostle; administration; craftsmanship; discernment; evangelism; faith; giving; healing; helps; hospitality; intercession; knowledge; leadership; mercy; miracles; missionary; music/worship; service; tongues; wisdom

Now look at the fruit that will come forth if we really set those into affect.