Now That’s Power!

The pastor told a few men in his church that if they wanted the power of God, the quickest way to get it was to undertake a six week fast, which is what he once did. The men were impressed; in his ministry they saw he had the power. As well as being an excellent expository preacher and teacher, he regularly demonstrated the revelation gifts of the Holy Spirit – the word of wisdom, knowledge and discerning of spirits. Given that these gifts of the Spirit, including the inspiration and power gifts were neither taught nor demonstrated in any other churches for miles around, the man’s reputation spread quickly and the church grew.

However, within five years the pastor was gone and the church has been spiritually dead ever since … now over twenty years! He also taught that one’s ability can take one to the top very quickly, but that it would take character to stay there. That’s why he and the church fell over; plenty of ability, but no character. In other words, he and the men wanted the Spirit of Power so as to become powerful, but they did not want the Spirit of Holiness so as to become holy. And so far as I can discern, that’s pretty much the way it is in too many churches around the world today. How foolish, for a church to join the world and embrace the devil’s quick fix lies … but how wise a church that separates from the world and embraces God’s sustainable truths.

Had that man taught and lived the sustainable truth that obedience to God is the key to the power of God, he and his men would still be experiencing the power today as an on-going by-product. There are no quick fixes in God. We rightfully possess the power of God only as we obey the word of God; no more, no less. New Testament ‘Power’ means to express: ‘might’ ‘strength’ ‘mighty work’ ‘authority’ ‘right’ ‘dominion’ ‘jurisdiction’ and ‘liberty.’ Without obedience, God’s people are most certain to usurp their “power” when it comes to those meanings and when they do so God can most certainly be relied upon to bring them undone. The power is released to be rightly used and withdrawn when wrongly abused.

That’s the first lesson we learn from the man and woman in the Garden of Eden. They had it all – power, authority, dominion, jurisdiction, Genesis 1:26-28 but the moment they disobeyed the word of God, the moment they usurped their power and authority, God had no more use for them. The same applied to King Saul, the first King of Israel. While he obeyed God all went well but the moment he disobeyed all went unwell. First he usurped his authority by engaging in an unlawful sacrificial offering 1 Samuel 13:9-12, then he disregarded a direct order from God by sparing those whom he was told to kill 1 Samuel 15:3, 10-11. He tried to cover up his sin by lying and blaming others. The end result? God withdrew His Spirit from Saul.

Disobedience to God is rampant in the church, but being so different than worldly disobedience, it’s often not easy to detect. In the world they’ll come straight out and tell you to, “Go jump…….I’ll do it my way, nobody tells me what to do, to hell with you!” Not so mature church people; they are never so crass. Whether in the pulpit or in the pews they often appear to be the most gentle and spiritual of people, until you say or do something that cuts across their will or conflicts with their theological beliefs. When that happens, one begins to discover who has the Holy Spirit’s power and who hasn’t. It gets further confirmed by their attitude towards you days, weeks, months or even years later.

Obedience to God is not an easy principle to understand at times, nor an easy truth to embrace. In the process of trying to do both, God will often cut across our will as well as reveal something sure to conflict with our present theological beliefs! In other words, in the discipling process, just as we believe ourselves to have certain truths and doctrines all nailed down, He sometimes revisits them with His spiritual nail puller in hand and pulls them up again. It’s not that what we’ve embraced is not true or no longer relevant, but it is that He has more to add. Our natural mind loathes that process! But if we can grasp the profound truth that God enters into no dealings with our natural mind then it’s much easier to choose obedience.

The natural mind is dead towards God. That’s the legacy left to us by the first man and woman! God has never had anything to say to it apart from, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand……Repent, and believe in the gospel Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15. It was dead before we turned to Christ and it remains dead after we turn to Him. We now have the mind of Christ; it’s a supernatural mind. Only a supernatural mind is capable of obeying all that God requires from us. That’s why non-believers and unredeemed religious people haven’t got a clue where we’re at. However, given that death means ‘separation’ and not ‘annihilation’ it is the intention of Satan the devil to have us operating from death, rather than Life.

Without a heart attitude for obedience to the word of God one can never tell which is which. That’s why “powerful” men and women in the church call down heaven to crush hell, so to speak, and yet they themselves live like disobedient devils. God  honors their faith for the benefit of the people sitting under their ministry, but He’s not honoring them. Worse. It may be years before He catches up with them; but sooner or later He will, and then it’s crunch time. It’s also decision time … a time when they can decide to humble themselves by taking advantage of God’s gift of repentance and start over, or they can remain as they are and God will see to it that they are of no further use to Him.

The only “quick way” that I know of to getting the power of God is to come to terms as quickly as possible with the truth that as redeemed people we no longer belong to ourselves, we become the property of God 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Then over a very long period of time we have to learn what that means in practical terms as well as spiritual terms. For me it has meant being stripped of all self-reliance, people-reliance and things-reliance. I have self, people and things and I love them all, but I do not rely on any of them for anything. I’m God-reliant and I have no desire to go back on that deal. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him 1 Corinthians 6:17. Anyone who is truly one with Jesus has all the power they need.

Think what that means for a true Christian … no wonder Satan and his minions hate us, mock us and ever seek to blind and deceive us. As one spirit with the Lord, each of us has the power of God, the power of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the gospel, the power of God’s kingdom, the power of God’s word and the power of new life. No king, queen, president, premier or prime minister can get anywhere near such power. Unless they belong to Christ (given their collective desire for bringing in the One World Order, there’s no evidence any of them do), their power is puny and fleeting by comparison. Their power is as attractive to me as Esau’s mess of pottage.

As well as being stripped of all to become God-reliant, the power of God comes from being locked away with Him in the Most Holy Place. Silence, prayer and meditation on God and His word is the name of the game, not getting caught up in theological clutter and busyness, running here, running there. Be still and know that I am God Psalm 46:10. The Lord Jesus Himself is our best example of this, always being led by the Holy Spirit to times appropriate to the Father, not to Himself. Whilst we see He is relational and social, we don’t see Jesus engaging in small-talk and useless chatter to win friends and influence people. Church politics, political correctness, religious tolerance – all of it sure to snuff out the power of God! “No deal,” Jesus would say.

Now to holiness. Without holiness no one will see the Lord Hebrews 12:14. That’s not just future, it’s also present. That’s why the Holy Spirit has been given to us. Before He gives any power, He first convicts us of our sin. No conviction, no Holy Spirit. It’s as simple as that and only a fool would deny it. Sadly, there are fools mixing it with the holy in churches. Equally as sad, there are the holy mixing it with fools in churches. Fools ought to be discerned and separated from until there is evidence that there’s something redemptive about them. Holiness is rooted in a relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, always. The relationship must be first and foremost otherwise we have nothing lasting to offer anyone else.

The Scriptures show us that as born again believers, we are elected to holiness, called to holiness, created in holiness and possessed by holiness. We are a holy nation 1 Peter 2:9. That is our official position in Christ but, only a commitment to developing a strong relationship with the Lord confirms it to be our experiential position.  We must experience the reality that we’re now set apart from the world, living unto God. No more double standards and compromises of any kind … only one standard for living and it’s not the world’s! A holy Christian is an obedient Christian, an obedient Christian is a holy Christian. That’s it; you can’t be one without the other. That was the real undoing of the pastor, men and church spoken of earlier – they demonstrated neither.

Be holy, for I am holy, God says 1 Peter 1:16 cf. Leviticus 11:45. That’s not a suggestion it is a command. Multitudes of Christians don’t like being commanded. They don’t mind being asked, but not commanded. To be asked is to be given a choice; to be commanded is to be given no choice. That’s why disobedience to God is rampant in the church. Whilst there are no quick fixes in God, there is a “quick way” to holiness and obedience and that is to love what God loves and hate what God hates. If we are one spirit with the Lord we’ll discover very quickly which is which. After all, to be one spirit with Him makes us like-minded – which is Christ-minded. Now that’s power! “…..to obey is better than sacrifice…..” 1 Samuel 15:21 “And we are witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him” Acts 5:32.