esus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
By Michael Adekoya – Jesus said, “You shall receive power.” My friend, do you know how the dictionary define “power”? It is defined as ‘a great and an exceptional ability to do something or to perform an action.’ In other words, when a person is referred to as “powerful”, the dictionary says that such a person has an ability to do something or influence others. In physics, power is described as energy, a force, and a momentum that gets things moving. No matter how you describe it, you must have the power of the Holy Spirit – be a carrier of God’s presence – if you’re really passionate to impact your family, community, nation and the world! Could lack of power possibly be the biggest problem in the Church today?
My friend, is this your question too? Jesus Christ commissioned His disciples, including us, and sent us forth to live as ministers and witnesses. Speaking to Saul, who later became Paul, the Apostle, Jesus says, “Rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you (saved you) for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you” (Acts 26:16).
I believe He is saying the same word to us today. We’re saved to carry the Good News to everywhere and He promised us of the power that we would need for living the Christian life and gets the job done. But God wants to work in us, with us and through us! It is so sad that today, we go out and try to do God’s work, try to fulfill the Great Commission and try to live the Christian life without connecting with the power that Jesus promised us. That calls for concern!
My friend, I like to announce to you that the Church of Jesus Christ that was born over 2000 years ago was not born of silver-tongued orators. It was not born through the slick preaching of the Gospel such as we have today. It is easy to preach the Gospel today because we no longer have to prove anything. All we have to do to be successful now is to be a graduate of a university or seminary with degree in preaching, teaching or inspirational speaking. But preaching or teaching without God’s power is a fruitless and frustrated exercise! Today, as a preacher, when you articulate your first, second or third point and a conclusion; interject it with a nice story and a little humour or joke; talk about the power of positive thinking and the power of mind over a matter; get the people worked up, then you are deemed to be powerful and successful.
My friend, listen! I thank God for great preachers. We have awesome preachers today but the concern is that many people in the world are going to hell. There are many preachers on radio and television in every kind of outreach or ministries today, yet we cannot stop the influence of abortion, pornography, homosexuality, alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, occultism, idolatry, witchcraft, corruption, AIDS, terrorism, and other evils. The Early Church was not born over 2000 years ago through great education, grammar, entertainment or motivational speaking, nor was it born through the manipulation of people. It was born in a demonstration of God’s power – the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). The Early Church was born in power that saw a total of 8000 souls giving their lives to Jesus and added to the Church in just two open services; the kind of figure that most churches dream of today. In Acts 2:41, the Bible says, “Those who gladly received Peter’s Word, energized by the Holy Spirit, were baptized; and the same day, there were added unto them 3000 souls.”
In Acts 4:4, the Bible says, “Many who heard the Word believed and the number of men was about 5000.” No TV adverts, no gimmicks but just through demonstration of pure power of God – the power of the Holy Spirit! Today, we are living in a technological age; an age of computers and modems, televisions and radios, aeroplanes and satellites, cell phones, iPods and iPads. All these things work effectively as they are driven by power that comes from their connections to source.
My friend, how can we possibly think we can be effective in the purposes, works and assignments of God by using our natural human power rather than on the power of God, the power that Jesus promised us? Listen! No matter how religious we are, Pharaoh won’t let people go without first a demonstration of God’s power, our education or grammar not withstanding. Jesus “summoned His twelve disciples and gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. And He sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God” (Matt 10:1). He said to them: “Take nothing with you for the journey, neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.” (Matt 10:9).
My friend, if Jesus is giving this instruction today, He might have said: ‘take neither an ipod, PC with PowerPoint, or Ipad and gift aid forms, even a single credit card or debit card in their pocket! But go with the power that you have received from Me.’ Jesus was telling his disciples: “Do not put your confidence in human power, in your own talent and gift, or in your money, even if you have millions of it but put your trust on the power of God”. The Bible goes on to say “and they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the Good News and healing everywhere” (Luke 9:6). Peter and John have no money to give to the lame man but gave him what they have – the power of God – which healed the man (Acts 3:1-11).
My friend, AIDS would not have had a chance if we are doing this today everywhere we go. We need enormous power to go to houses, streets, villages; not cities only for the salvation of lost and dying souls. Gasoline is needed to move a car; electricity is needed to turn the lights on and to spin the motor; fire is needed to cook the food and warm the house; a jet motor is needed to fly the aeroplanes; and even more than all of these, every one of us needs the Holy Spirit to live a Christian life and fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ as documented in Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:15-18).
My friend, whether you are a Preacher, politician, professional, professor, practitioner or a person, we need the power of God – power to decree a thing and it will be established, power to resist temptation, power to preach the Gospel, power to confront evil, power to change our city and nation, power to live Christian life and be light to this dark world, power to obey God, power to get genuine wealth, power to succeed, power to finish our divine assignments, power to cast out devils. We need God’s power to save and heal!
Remain blessed! ….To be continued…
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