Acts 1:8 "But you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
I just don't get it. Sorry I may blow off a little steam here so bare with me. This verse says that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us we will have power, right? Then why are so many Christians living weak, pathetic, pitiful lives? I just don't get it! The whining, the moaning and groaning. The complaining and the "poor pitiful me" attitude it like an epidemic in Christians. I've seen and I am sure most of you have too, or maybe you are one of the ones I am talking about. If I have offended anyone, I am sorry but I need to be real here and honest. Jesus says it right here plain and simple, as believers who have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we have power. Not simple ordinary, run of the mill, just help us get through the day power. Not a just let us barely get by power, we have God power inside of us. "Is this one of those prosperity gospel things?" No. Actually I'll be honest I am tired of people saying certain preachers have a prosperity gospel and that is wrong. Yes there are some who TV preachers who preach prosperity, but the ones I have listened to is talking about this power God has given us through the Holy Spirit. They aren't talking about financial prosperity, their talking about the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit and the power we have to use these and tap into them.
We are sometimes so quick to judge preachers that we are missing out on what God is telling us through them. We listen to the first couple sentences of a message and if it's not what we want to hear, we tune out the rest of the message. We make snap judgements without really seeing if what they are talking about is Biblical. People we are missing out on this power Jesus talked about. A lot of churches will not talk about this power we have, why? When my pastor talks about the power we have through the Holy Spirit, his legs start twitching and his steps get quicker and his voice fills with excitement and gets a little louder. What's wrong with power? Why are so many of us Christians afraid of this power? Why are so many of us Christians willing to live weak, pathetic lives instead of tapping into this power? "Oh it'll go to our heads" "Then we will think we are God" Are you kidding me? That's the biggest load of bull I have heard. Listen if someone is afraid that this power is going to make them think they are as powerful as God or even if they think they are equal to God, then I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that they missing the point here. We have a direct power line to God Himself. Unlike our electricity, our powerline to God cannot be broken. Our transformer to God cannot be blown. Think about it, when we lose our electrical power, we are lost. No TV, no radio, no XBox, no hairdryer, no anything. We rely so much on the power we get from our electricity, we need to learn to rely on the power we get from God.
This power is not something that will push us up the ladder of success faster. It's not the type of power that will make us win the lotto or strike it rich at the local casino. This power will not silence our critics and rid the world of all evil. This power will help us get through some of the roughest times of our lives. This power will give us peace in the midst or turmoil. It will give us strength when we are about to pass out from shear exhaustion. This power will give us the ability to forgive the wrongs others have committed against us. It gives us the power to love those who don't deserve our love. This power gives us the faith to endure financial and medical disasters. This is the prosperity gospel I hear. The fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit are magnified and supercharged through this power. God does not want us to live weak, pathetic, pitiful lives. That "poor pitiful me" attitude is not from God! "No that's humility" I am sorry but that is not the humility that Jesus talks about, otherwise He wouldn't have given us power in the Holy Spirit. Why would He give us this power if He didn't want us to use it?
The greatest example of humility with the power of the Holy Spirit I ever witnessed was a close friend of ours who came into our office announcing he was going through his second bout of cancer. Now this gentleman had lost his son the year before, he lost his son's dog (the one who died) a few weeks before we saw him and a week before he found out his cancer had returned, he buried his grandson. People he came in our office with a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eyes. I asked him how can you be so positive. "God will get me through this." WOW! I was blown away. My friends that is power filled humility! I can do nothing without God! I cannot do this blog without God. I cannot take another breath in this world without God. I am no one and I can do nothing, but with the power that is made available to me through the Holy Spirit, I can do all things. You see we are missing out on that power. The power Jesus promised us is available to us today. Stop missing out on it! Stop denying this power we have. Stop confusing humility with pitiful and pathetic. We are powerful, power filled, Holy Spirit filled Christians! We can move mountains and we can leap over tall buildings with a single bound (oh that's superman. Sorry I got confused for a moment,) Anyway, please take some time and think about this. If all us Christians grabbed a hold of this power and began to use it, we could change the world!!
May the power Jesus gave us through the Holy Spirit, invade our hearts, our minds and our words today. May we learn to live powerful, power filled lives. May our humility be one of remembering that it is only through God's strength and power that dwells in us, that helps us accomplish His purpose for our lives, in Jesus name I pray, amen!
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