LIVING WATERS from Lightbearers

Hey guys! Next Tuesday – October 4^th – you will want to be on Zoom with Joe and Maureen for HOUSE CHURCH ADVENTURES at 5PM PACIFIC time. It will be a lot of fun! Respond to this email for a link to the meeting. See you then! KRP

THE QUEST FOR POWER

But you shall receive power…Acts 1:8 NKJV

Power! Why do we seek power? Why is it such a fundamental human need?

We bought a 13000-watt generator that could power our house in a time of emergency, which happens somewhat frequently where we live. The generator required assembly by someone who knew what they were doing. We had had our house electrical system modified to receive power from a generator. We got our assembled generator back from the shop on Monday, and on Wednesday the power company informed us that they were shutting down our power lines on Friday for two days because of an extreme fire threat due to high winds coming on the weekend. Between Wednesday and Friday I learned I still needed a very powerful cord to attach the generator to the house. So, I contacted an electrician who custom made us a 25’ 50-amp cord. We did a dress rehearsal on Thursday that exposed a few small details we still needed. But when the power went off on Friday, we were ready!

A house without power is a manmade cave, just as a life without the power of God is an empty shell.

The quest for power has animated every culture since Nimrod, the first king. Someone who ruled was someone who had power over others. Wealth, the accumulation of private property, gave people power, so the concept of money – gold and silver and clothing as a means of exchange – was invented. Good government was invented to protect the property rights of those who were governed. Riches for power! Since man had an unsaved, fallen human nature and was a slave to sin, it was easy for man to be exploited by others and become a part of a slave political system. The fact is…his nature demanded slavery, submitting to someone with great power, because it had so little power. Fallen man was also introduced to demons, which gave him demonic power. Witchcraft became a power source and still is today, everywhere.

But God the Father, our ABBA, the Creator, intended His sons and daughters to have great power. He gave them authority which is delegated power over all the earth, and Holy Spirit was the Agent and Executor of that power. What Adam lost in the fall has been restored to the Church. All that was lost in Adam, and even more than Adam had, has been redeemed by our Lord Jesus and given to the Church. The access to that power and delegated authority is available to every born again one. Wonder working power!

When we witness, we should tell people about the power of God and then demonstrate it to them. People want power. They legitimately need power. They read books, attend seminars, work, exercise, gamble, seek to become ‘influencers’ on social media, and all number of other things, to gain one thing – power. A case could be made that the great aim of higher education, the great motivation, is power, to gain an edge over others, to be the first with the most. None of that power satisfies for very long! What their heart truly longs for is only found in God in Christ. True, lifechanging, circumstance overcoming power!

And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” Matt 8:7 NKJV

Never argue with anyone. Demonstrate. Go and heal their children!

The power of God is available to you, indeed to every born again one. The will of God is clear. He wants you to be full to overflowing with the same power Jesus had upon earth – “…he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also…” (John 14:12). It needs to be said that there is no greater miracle, no more effective lifechanging wonder than when someone is truly born again. The effect of a life truly saved cannot be fully appreciated this side of Heaven, but it is monumental. One time I was praying about homosexuals when HS said, Just get them born again and I will clean them up! That’s the power of the new birth, overcoming the most wicked of sins. So real, so true, so simple!

I am convinced that most people even born-again ones, only give ‘lip service’ to the reality of prayer because if they really believed that God answered prayer, they would make it their highest priority. Then we get stupid explanations for unanswered prayer like, God answered…the answer was no! Unbelievable! Especially when the Word says, whatsoever I shall ask in prayer believing I will receive. Our poor, weak teaching on prayer causes people to rightly question our integrity, and even the integrity of God.

Suppose that like Jesus you had the confidence in God to say, I know that You hear Me always (John 11:42)! How valuable would that level of confidence be? What would you give to have that kind of confidence?

Americans always think that we can buy anything. “Yeah, sure, love it! Where’s my American Express card?” No, you cannot buy that kind of confidence, not with money, anyway. If your currency is your life, then maybe you can buy it. Understand, for me, if I know I have done my best, I KNOW He will do his best. If I truly protect my integrity, I know He will protect His. A powerful prayer starts with the words, “Dear ABBA, You said…”

The most amazing thing is when He does things so intimately and so personally for you and I that there is just no question but that God did that thing for us. So many times, when I’ve been ministering, I’ve done or said something that I couldn’t possibly know that personally shows them how God is ministering to them through me. It’s a flash of insight into the loving heart of our Father that He knows us so personally and loves us so completely. You can get answers all the time from a God like that!

Are you willing to develop a prayer life that releases the power of God?

There are two things that ABBA wants from us in prayer – ‘open-ended time’ and ‘undivided attention.’ I used to walk and pray with Toby the prayer dog until I realized that God did not want me to share my attention with Toby. He wanted ALL my attention. One time I sat in a woman’s house for four hours while she cooked food because I did not want to embarrass her by leaving (I learned not to go in anyone’s houses!). One time Carl and I sat in this guy’s house all afternoon while he shared his foolish theories with us, simply trying to be loving and build relationship, at which we didn’t succeed. How willing are you to sit in God’s presence until He speaks? Five minutes? An hour? All night? Three days? Job’s friends sat in his presence for SEVEN DAYS AND NIGHTS WITHOUT SAYING A WORD (Job 2:13) because of the respect they had for Him. Do we have even the same respect for ABBA that Job’s friends had for him?

So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Luke 5:16-18 NKJV

Consider Jesus’ prayer life and how it relates to the power of God. Interestingly, there is a big divide in the NKJV that separates verse sixteen and seventeen. Its almost like they are trying to camouflage this truth!

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralytic

(Matt 9:2-8; Mark 2:1-12)

Jesus spent much time in prayer, staying refreshed with fresh oil (Ps 92:10), so that when He went to minister, the power of the Lord would be present to heal. Do you think these were twenty-minute prayer sessions? No! Jesus gave ABBA open ended time and His full attention. Can we do less? Notice he withdrew into the wilderness. He got away from all the distractions. Sometimes our ‘busy-ness’ inflates our pride with how important we are, how needed we are, so we actually invite the busyness and the distraction, then use it as an excuse not to pray. Sad conclusion! So many days and years of my life were stolen with prideful busyness that sapped my anointing. Don’t let this happen to you!

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Heb 13:15-16 NKJV

Praise, worship and prayer are sacrifices before the Lord just as bulls and goats and turtle doves were in the OT. We as priests of the Lord offer daily sacrifices to Him. Now, here is a question for you dear one to pose to HS as to our quest for the power of God – “What do You require of me, what daily sacrifices, in order for me to be mantled to walk in the power of God like Jesus did?”

Orel Roberts would spend five hours praying in tongues each day – his daily sacrifice – of the crusade when he was doing his healing evangelism ministries. He documented over one million healings and eight million decisions for Christ. Dave Roberson spent eight hours daily praying in the spirit when he first became a pastor in Oregon, launching him into a powerful ministry. His book THE WALK OF THE SPIRIT THE WALK OF POWER is required reading for our students. Francis Frangipane would spend all morning until 1pm with the Lord, and his ministry grew very successful. As his ministry grew, he began to spend less and less time with the Lord. Everything looked good! Everything looked successful, but he was missing his time with the Lord, the foundation of it all. Finally, the Lord told one of his intercessors, who had no idea of what was going on, saying, “Tell Francis I miss him!” With tears, Frangipane delegated all of his work and went back to spending time with the Lord until one pm. Daily sacrifices!

I have a daily sacrifice assignment that I keep six days a week. What’s yours? Everyone – the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker – needs power. All of it is readily available and found in Christ, but in Christ alone. Maybe you have some power but need more. Go before the Lord, find out what you need to do, and then do it. Don’t tell anyone about it until they see results in your life and ask, “What in the world has gotten into you?” Then, you have an attentive audience! The real quest for power begins and ends in Him. Amen? Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…