The Power At Work Within Us (Part 3)

Allow John Meckley to speak to the men about a men’s retreat this fall.

Trevor Wyatt birthday today!!!!!

Well, good morning to everyone, to those of you who are here, as well as those watching via the live stream. Let me start off by addressing everyone, just as the apostle Paul would always say to the church bodies when opening up his letters, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

You know, I was looking at the Pauline epistles yesterday and I noticed something that would probably start an argument and most definitely create an offense in the body of the modern church and with the people existing in it today!

In all of Paul’ s letters to the churches and to the individuals that he wrote to, (or at least the ones with which we have copies of as found in the Bible), Paul always opened up with the same greeting that I just gave to you. However, in both of Paul’s epistles to Timothy, one of his beloved spiritual sons, he added an extra blessing, where he would say, “Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Not even to Titus, his other beloved spiritual son, did Paul add this extra blessing!

I say this jokingly, but there is some truth in what I’m saying. Some people are so quick to take offense and they walk in a state of perpetual self dissilusionment about who and what they think they are, that if they saw someone else in the body receive one extra accolade or blessing from a notable leader, like Paul, (such as we see in Timothy’s letters), they would instantly be offended and likely walk away From the church!

So, here is our admonition and take home for the day, “It’s time to put on our BIG BOY and BIG GIRL spiritual pants and stop acting like it’s all about ourselves, and start looking to bless others and show the love of God to others!

It’s all about Him and His glory and serving Him in His kingdom, AMEN?!!

So, we are continuing our series today, entitled “The Power At Work Within Us”, which is about the power of prayer in our personal lives. The verse that this series is based upon, is Ephesians 3:20, which reads,

Ephesians 3:20 NKJV

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

Last week, I took everyone back to the fall of mankind in the garden and showed you how that God, in His perfect infinite wisdom and knowledge, had put into place, a plan to eradicate the works of the enemy and in doing so, had made the provisions to give us back the authority over this earth, which He had given to us at creation!

The enemy of our souls, the devil, does not have the power to create anything, nor does he have the power or authority to change what does God has created and implemented!

And as I mentioned last week, spirit beings on the earth do not have legal access to operate freely, apart from us, because we are the ones whom God has given authority on this earth.

Remember me saying that spirits cannot stay here legally and do anything without a body to operate from?

That’s why when we die, our spirits have to leave this earth, because we have just lost our legal permission to reside here! (Our passport’s just expired and we have to return to our natural country!)

The devil, being a spiritual being, had to operate through mankind, in order to bring about change on this earth; he had no legal authority on his own, so he deceived and took what was not his.

And until Jesus came, AS A MAN, and legally took back our authority, the devil had it. He had the authority over the earth, just not a body to use it from. Which is why he used mankind.

The devil still deceives and lies to manipulate people into doing for him, what he cannot do on his own, because he DOES NOT have the legal authority to do so!

He must go through us to bring about change for his agenda, because without our authority, his plans are useless.

He needs our bodies to operate from and through lies and deceit, he uses our authority to carry out his plans here on the earth.

This is why we now see churches embracing blatant sin and operating out of man’s own agenda, because the enemy has gained access and used people and their authority to rebel against Yahweh!

The enemy comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but make no mistake about it, he uses us to do so.

In John 10, when Jesus made one of His great “I am” declarations and said that He is the Good Shepherd, He also mentioned about the thief coming to steal, kill and destroy.

In this passage, Jesus specifically mentioned that His sheep hear and recognize His voice and follow Him, but they do not listen to the thief.

The understanding is simple, if we truly belong to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, then when we hear His voice, we will follow Him and His commands.

If however, we are not truly His sheep, then we will recognize the voice of the thief and follow his commands and thus the devil will operate through these people and they will carry out his will and his agenda using their legal authority!

You and I have the authority to empower the works of the enemy, or the works of the one true God, Yahweh!

We get to choose which power is at work within us!

And so, today, we will continue our series dealing with the power that is at work within us.

The power that quickens and strengthens our prayers to the Lord.

And the power at work within us, comes from..........................?

Right, the Holy Spirit of almighty God!

Remember what Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”

The Bible tells us in I Thessalonians 5:16-18,

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

“REJOICE ALWAYS”...............why would the Apostle Paul give this instruction to the Body of Christ?

And remember that Paul was writing to a people and in a time, where Christians were suffering for their faith and belief! (The same thing is happening all around the world to this very day!)

The reason that Paul gives this instruction, is shown in another letter of his, Romans 12:11-12, where Paul says to the Christians church in Rome, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in HOPE, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

It is because of the HOPE that lies ahead of us, that we are to REJOICE at all times!

Paul was instructing the believers then as well as now, that our eyes are to be turned towards the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus the Christ, and in doing so, our eyes and our hearts will be attuned to what lies ahead.........our glorious HOPE, and not what is directly before us at that time!

Remember Stephen in the Bible? When they were getting ready to kill him and he looks to heaven and not to what was getting ready to happen and he was given a glorious vision.

The Bible records, “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

And thus Stephen rejoiced for the hope of glory before him!

“GIVE THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES”................OK, so it makes sense to be thankful for the good things that we experience in this life, but why would we be thankful for the bad ones?

Well, if you read this passage closely, that is not exactly what it is saying.

It reads, “Give thanks in all circumstance”, not “give thanks for all circumstances”, right?

So, if you lose your job, or your home, which are both trying and painful experiences, you are to rejoice IN the midst of these circumstances, not for these circumstances!

And as you rejoice IN, or DURING, these circumstances, something amazing happens.......you discover that your Lord and Savior meets you there in the midst of what you are going through, because you are seeking Him first, above what is going on around you.

You are keeping your eyes on your future HOPE and GLORY that is found only in Him!

When you look past the pain and sorrow, you will always see Him standing there with His loving arms open, waiting for you to run into them!

“PRAY WITHOUT CEASING”..................this is the other part of this passage that we find, that is easy to say and less easy to carry out, for many, if not most of us, right?!

Praying without ceasing, is more than just an instruction, or a guideline, it becomes a mindset, a way of life, to those who have their eyes fixed upon God and His will for their life!

When you desire to share everything that is going on in your life, the good and the bad, with the One who loves you infinitely more than you can understand, then you will begin to pray without ceasing!

It cannot be a form of liturgy, or religious practice, like the Muslims do, where you have to stop and say your prayers 5 times a day. This is religion and not relationship, which, by the way, is one of the main differences between the Christian faith and all other forms of religion.

The God of Christianity, the ONE TRUE GOD, Yahweh, wants an intimate relationship with you and I. Every other religion is based upon you trying to appease and please some deity with which there is no true relationship or intimacy!

Our God, sent His own Son to us and for us, because He loves us that much!

So, when your heart’s desire is to be talking with the Lord all of the time, then the power at work within you, HOLY SPIRIT, will be so much more active!

The problem with too many Christians today, is that we either tend to pray as a duty (religion), or we tend to pray when things have gone bad and we are desperate!

We should be continually talking with our heavenly Father, not just when things get bad enough to prompt us to!

It’s like the late Billy Graham said, “If you do not feel like praying, it is probably a good indication that you should start praying immediately.”

Or as the late minister, J.C. Ryle stated, “What is the cause of most backsliding? I believe, as a general rule, one of the chief causes is neglect of private prayer. Of course the secret history of falls will not be known till the last day. I can only give my opinion as a minister of Christ and a student of the heart. That opinion is, I repeat distinctly, that backsliding generally first begins with neglect of private prayer.”

Just a thought, but isn’t it funny how we refer to those who have gone to be with the Lord, as the late “so and so”?

It seems to me that if they’re already with the Lord Jesus, that they are right on time and we are the ones who are LATE!!!!

So, what does your prayer life look like? You know, in marital counseling, one of the things that usually gets brought up and enquired about, is, “How is your communication with one another?”

The counselor will ask each person, “how would you describe your level of communication with your spouse” and then the counselor will turn and ask the same question to the other spouse.

If Jesus were sitting here right now, in the flesh, and I were to ask Him about how your time talking with He and the Father could best be described, what would He say about you and your prayer life?

Would He say that it’s a beautiful and continual and a powerful line of communication, an atmosphere where His Holy Spirit thrives and moves all of the time?

Or would He just lower His head and say, “We hardly know one another. We never really talk and when we do, it’s always about what he/she wants, or they complain about their life and why am I and My Father not fixing things for them?!”

Is your prayer life “powerful”? Do you expect and believe that God is hearing your prayers and that He will answer you when you pray?

Or is your time in prayer an afterthought and an inconvenience at best; one that is racked with disbelief and doubt?

There is a very familiar passage that talks about one type of prayer that gets results!

That passage is found in the epistle of James 5:16 and it says, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Does pretty much everyone recognize this passage?

Does this passage describe in any way, your prayer life?

What is this passage really saying to us? What is an “effectual, fervent prayer” anyway?

Well, the Greek word that is used here, for “effectual, fervent”, is the word, energeo, and it is a cousin to our word, “energy”.

So, basically, this refers to something that is mighty, powerful, ENERGIZING!

Like when you plug something into an electric outlet and the electricity energizes your item!

That is “effectual, fervent”!

I like how the AMP version of the Bible reads with this passage. It says, “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”

This type of prayer is described of, or spoken of a person who is going after God with all of their heart! Not the sluggish, half-baked prayer that many people offer up as an afterthought to Him!

The prophet Jeremiah said this from the Lord, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

The late British Methodist minister, William Booth, who founded the Salvation Army, with the intent to evangelize the poor, said this of prayer, “You must pray with your might... That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel, with eyes wide open, while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God. It means that grappling with Omnipotence, that clinging to Him, following Him about, so to speak, day and night, as the widow did to the unjust judge, with agonizing pleadings and arguments and entreaties, until the answer comes and the end is gained.”

And when Mr Booth said this about wrestling with God and grappling with Omnipotence, the one thing that comes to mind, is that of Jacob in Genesis 32 and of his wrestling with the Lord, until he received the blessing that he sought from God!

Friends, have you wrestled with God about the subject of your prayers?

Do you grab hold and grapple with Omnipotence each and every day, and refuse to let go until you have received your answer?

And who is this person that grapples with the Lord and wrestles until they receive an answer? James says that it is the “righteous” person. Well, who is a righteous person, according to the Bible?

2 Corinthians 5:21, says,

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And then Romans 3:21-22 tells us, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.”

We are “righteous”, in right standing with a perfect and holy God, only through our faith and belief in Jesus the Christ!

God imparts His righteousness to everyone who humbles themselves and comes to Him through the shed blood of His own Son, Yeshua!

Your being found righteous in the eyes of God, is not linked to how much you pray, how often you pray, how much you serve at the church or in the community. These are all “works” in the eyes of God, and according to Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”

In other words, your works and my works will NEVER make us righteous in the eyes of God!

Only those who come to Him through His Son’s shed blood, in true faith and belief, will ever be found righteous in God’s eyes!

It’s not the “super Christians” that get’s their prayers answered. Like we tend to think of certain people as being those whom God answers!

Like we tend to think that if the pastor or a certain evangelist prays for us, then God will answer.

James used Elijah as an example of someone whose prayers were heard and answered and in doing so, James said this of Elijah, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.”

Did you ever stop and consider what that means?

Elijah was the prophet who called down fire from heaven which consumed the altar, the sacrifice, the rocks and all of the water in trench. That same day, he wiped out 450 prophets of Baal!

Then Elijah went on the mount and prayed 7 times, until he saw God answer and send the sign for rain!

Sounds like a pretty righteous man, right?

Yet, James says that he had a nature like ours. Why did he say this about Elijah?

Simple, because after Elijah called down the fire of God, killed the prophets of Baal and prayed continually for rain until he saw it happen, Elijah turned tail and ran from the wife of King Ahab, Jezebel.

This mighty prophet of God, who had been an agent in dispensing the omnipotent power of God, ran and his because of the threats of one woman!

He ran and hid under a tree and asked God to kill him right then and there!

Elijah was just like you and me! On fire one minute and then defeated and weak another!

And yet, God honored his prayer, because Elijah believed and prayed and prayed to God!

And like Abraham in Genesis 15:6, where the Bible records, “And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

So too, was Elijah righteous, because of his faith and belief in God. Even though he was weak in the flesh, he was still found worthy of God and God answered his prayers, mightily!

And this is the man that Holy Spirit inspired James to use as an example of “effectual, fervent” praying!

We pray until God answers. We keep offering up our prayers to heaven with faith and wait for something to move, or change.

We store up those prayers in heaven and believe that their surplus will eventually do something!

What does this look like in heaven? Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 5:6-8 and then Revelation 8:1-5,

Revelation 5:6–8 ESV

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 8:1–5 ESV

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Psalm 141:1-2 says,

Psalm 141:1–2 ESV

O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!