Mary led group in worship…
Erika shared…
I’m reading today from the book of Acts 26:16–18. “But arise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, that I might appoint you to serve as [My] minister and to bear witness both to what you have seen of Me and to that in which I will appear to you, 17 Choosing you out [selecting you for Myself] and delivering you from among this [Jewish] people and the Gentiles to whom I am sending you—18 To open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may thus receive forgiveness and release from their sins and a place and portion among those who are consecrated and purified by faith in Me.”
1st Thess. 5:24, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
2nd Tim. 2:13, “If we believe not yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.”
In preparing for today, the Holy Spirit had me look at the book “The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor.” It’s a marvelous story about Hudson Taylor and his call to missions to China. It talks about an abiding place in Christ, His power and presence. I often go back to it to keep myself stirred up in my heart to keep it soft and tender toward the souls of men. And toward the fact that sometimes in our lives we think things are pretty tough. You just need to hold up a comparison and it will cause you to say, “My life is blessed.”
The scriptures today will help us in regard to strength as the body of Christ. He’s the one that called us. He’s the one that gave us the purpose and plan. He is the one that is faithful to us and empowers us to do the call. That same call is on us today individually. Every one of us is called to be a minister and witness. Right? He will do the same for us. He called us to a purpose and plan. So wherever He has set you, you have the ability that He will deliver you. We’re called to turn them from darkness to light. That call of God was foremost in not only Hudson Taylor and countless other believers across the land, but in Paul and should be also in us.
Mark 16 says, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those that believe. In my name, they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”
Even though the specifics and details are different for every life, the call is still the same. So whether you are a stay at home mom raising children or you work in the work place or you’re a teacher, whatever your call is, it’s still the same. In light of that, does anyone here believe that for one moment of His life Jesus was fuzzy and forgot about that? Not one moment. As the church of the living God, there should not be one day in the life of a believer that we get up out of bed and we go, “I don’t know about today. What I’m going to do today. I’m going to have the bushel basket off my head and filled with the Word. I’m going to be very conscious and aware of the call of God to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, to lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, to cast out devils…” and I think sometimes we get so engaged in so many different things that the basic call of God on our lives gets obscured. This is for the whole body of Christ. Think of it. If every believer spent every moment of every day going about thinking the way Jesus thought… We’re talking about and praying about the body of Christ and the impact and assignment for the Church in these last days. To be lights. To have distinguishing differences between us and the world.
1st Thess. 5:24, “He who calls you is faithful who will also do it.”
Too often I think we go, “Okay, I’ll do that” and we kind of creep over to the call, so to speak. He who called you, God almighty Creator of the universe, the one who is revealing Himself to a greater degree, will do it in you and through you. Basic Christianity. I want us to be so stirred up today about that and about praying and believing for each of our members in the body of Christ across the state, this nation, and world. For in the mind of God, He fills you with the same Spirit, I’m giving you My Word and given you everything you need to be overcomers in this life. Advancing the kingdom.
Did Jesus care what the religious leaders thought? Did He say some controversial things? Did He do some extremely radical things?
I’m going to read from the Passion translation today. Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came close to them and said, “All the authority of the universe has been given to me. 19 Now go in my authority and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 20 And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.” (Passion)
Let’s go to Mark. “As you go into all the world, preach openly the wonderful news of the Gospel to the entire human race. Whoever believes the good news and is baptized will be saved. And whoever does not believe the good news will be condemned. And these miracle signs will accompany those who believe. They will drive out demons in the power of the name. They will speak in tongues. They will be supernaturally protected from snakes and from drinking anything poison. And they will lay hands on the sick and heal them.”
Acts 26, “And the Lord replied, I am Jesus. I am the one you are persecuting.” Do you think we need visitations like that? That’s what I’m believing. That’s the church I’m seeing in my spirit.
“Get up and stand on your feet for I have appeared to you to reveal your destiny and to commission you as my assistant. You will be a witness to what you have seen and to do the things I will reveal whenever I appear to you. I will rescue you from the persecution of your own people and from the hostility of other nations and I will send you to. And you will open their eyes to their true condition so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the power of God by placing their faith in me, they will receive the total forgiveness of sins and be made holy, taking hold of the inheritance that I give to my children. Now may the God of peace and harmony set you apart, making you completely holy and may your entire being, spirit, soul, and body, be kept completely flawless in the appearing of the Lord Jesus. The one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete His work in you. If we are joined with him in his death then we are joined with him in his life. If we are joined with him in his suffering then we will reign together with him in his triumph. But if we disregard him then he will also disregard us. But even if we are faithless, he will still be full of faith for he will never wavers in his faithfulness to us.”
The bottom line is, apart from Him, we can do nothing. There are so many people who are gifted. They can do things exceedingly well. However, that does not mean they’re anointed or empowered to do something. You can do something that even something that God has called you to do apart from His power. It’s no good. It’s no fun to do that. So we’re going to talk a little bit about the power of the Holy Ghost.
Excerpt from “Ablaze for God”
Wesley L. DuewelIt Takes Power to Extend the Kingdom
The kingdom of God, of heaven, of Messiah is a great Bible theme that was proclaimed by Old Testament prophets and repeatedly mentioned by Christ in the Gospels. God is our sovereign King. His reign in our hearts today and in the world until the return of Jesus is His saving kingdom. It is built through human hands but not by human hands. It is built by the power of God working through the cooperating joint ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit-filled.
The kingdom of God never means an action undertaken by men or a realm which they set up … the kingdom is a divine act, not a human accomplishment, not even the accomplishment of dedicated Christians. The power of the kingdom is operative in and through God’s representatives. But the power is not their power; it is the power of God. Christ gives to His own the keys of the kingdom to use binding and loosing through prayer and obedience. But the power of the keys remains God’s power and is usable only by the Spirit’s guidance and enabling.
Kingdom power was present in the ministry of Jesus and it was present in the ministry of His followers. Indeed, it can be present in your ministry today. But it is not your power. It continues to be given and manifested through you only as God makes it operative and evident.
Our best efforts of themselves do not build or advance the kingdom. Christian efforts are not sufficient. Even the best endeavor of the Spirit-filled is totally inadequate. Nothing less than the Holy Spirit guiding, empowering, and using the efforts of the Spirit-filled can extend Christ’s reign in any heart or in any group. The extent to which God can use the influence, witness, and service of a holy people is governed by the extent to which He sovereignly empowers and works through them.
Purity and power are closely associated, but they are not identical. We need both. God wills both for us. They are essential in our living. They are even more essential in our service. Purity can be beautiful and positive, or it can be largely negative. Purity can be retained; power must be renewed. Purity in the form of positive goodness and righteousness is the result of power to be what God wants us to be. God wants to give us the Spirit’s power both to be and to do what He has called us to be and do. Purity pertains to living, power specially to service.
The spiritual measure of Christian leaders is the fullness of the Spirit and His enduement of power. Oratory, effectiveness of delivery, and speech are good, but they are not enough. Content, orthodoxy, and solid biblical truth are essential, but they are not enough. Personality, graciousness of speech and action are important, but they are not enough. The power of the Lord must be upon them. All these qualities can exist on the human level. The kingdom must be built, advanced, and manifest on the level of the divine empowerment of the human. It must be God working through us.
When some in Corinth began to criticize Paul and His ministry judgmentally, it did not concern Paul greatly. The apostle regarded the Lord as his judge. Only God knows the measure of His power working within us. Paul makes it very clear: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” Paul said he would come to Corinth and check both the words and the power of those who were creating confusion. Truth is essential, but in Christ’s service it must be truth on fire. Truth without power does not accomplish the will of work of God. It may only deaden or offend.
By the presence or absence of God’s power in their lives and ministry, Paul wanted the Corinthians to evaluate the credentials of Christian leaders who came among them. How would you have passed Paul’s scrutiny and inspection? In 2 Cor. 6, Paul gave a list of many ways in which he commended himself as a servant of God. Important among them was ministry “in the Spirit” and “in the power of God.”
Paul reminded the Thess. Church, “Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.” Paul was deeply conscious that the power of God was at work. The Christian leader is usually aware when God’s power is specially present. Are you frequently aware of this in your ministry? It was normal to Paul.
Leon Morris spoke the truth when he said, “whenever the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, there is power. Not simply exhortation, but power. Paul knew that a faith built on words alone, i.e. the message alone, might be tempted to waver. This is why he reminded the Corinthians that both his message and his manner of preaching the message were with a “demonstration” of the Spirit’s power and so their faith could be based on that demonstration of power that added to the content of his words. The Greek word translated “demonstration” suggests evidence or proof. “It was a technical term for a compelling conclusion drawn from the premises.” God’s power was so evident in Paul’s message that the Corinthians were compelled to conclude that his message and he as the messenger were from God. Power confirms truth. We dare not depend on truth alone; we must minister truth aflame with God’s power.
To Paul this power was so all-essential, so characteristic of his ministry, that he was willing to pay any price so that Christ’s power could rest on him. It was as if Paul kept crying to God, “Oh, for more of Your power upon me; oh, for more of Your power manifest through me.” Paul had already known so much of the power of the Spirit that to him this is the mark of his being in the will of God. It is not visions and revelations which are important to him. With reluctance he had just testified to such precious and secret dealings of God with him.
No, what Paul wants is more of the abiding power of Christ communicated through the Spirit. What he desires is not an occasional mountaintop experience. He longs for the continuing experience of God’s power every day of his life and ministry. He hungers for, yearns for, and is willing to pay any price if only that power can abide upon him day after day.
“So that Christ’s power may rest on me” is his heart cry. Christ had promised power when the Holy Spirit came upon His disciples. Paul had over and over experienced that power. It had become characteristic of his ministry. He testified to it repeatedly. He wanted that power to “rest” on him. The Greek word means “to tabernacle.” Just as Christ came and tabernacles among us during His incarnation, so Paul counts his highest ambition in ministry to have Christ’s power tabernacle over him. He wants to live day by day within that atmosphere of power.
Most commentators recognize in this heart cry a reference to the Shekinah glory of God which was over the tent in the wilderness, which entered the tent and covered the ark of the covenant in the tent. Later it entered the temple and “tabernacle” over the ark in the Holy of Holies in the temple. As the Shekinah covered the ark, Paul wanted Christ’s power to cover him, overshadow him, and continually rest upon him.
Jesus had told him that such power “is made perfect in weakness.” Weakness does not create power. But weakness drives us all the more to God, the source of all divine power. When we recognize how weak and insufficient we are, we call on God, cling to God, and make this the constant cry of our hearts.
When through revelation, Paul recognized that his thorn in the flesh, all the other opposition, dangers, and sufferings during the years of all-out service for Christ served to drive him closer to God and to constant dependence upon God, the apostle responded, “that is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
For Christ’s sake, for the continuing experience of His power, His shekinah glory tabernacling over me, resting upon me, I will accept any suffering, says Paul. I am completely satisfied, in fact, I rejoice in anything which increases Christ’s power on me. This is not the cry of a fanatic volunteering to be a martyr. This is the cry of the foremost apostle of the church who has experienced so much of the power of God that he counts all else as nothing if he can only experience constantly more of that power.
How important is it to you to have the power of Christ, yes, more and more of the power tabernacling, resting, remaining upon you? What have you experienced of this holy power? Not visions, not miracles, not gifts or manifestations, but the silent, all-pervading, all-crowning power of Christ upon you? Filled with that power, energized by that power, clothed with that power, endued for your ministry by that power. That power is the Spirit; that power is Christ himself manifest through the Spirit. Is that power available today?
