Word for Today:  May 11

Power’s evidence.

Pentecostal Power so prevalent in the New Testament is, unfortunately, not a present day reality in the majority of churches.

Signs, wonders and miracles are not the real evidence of Holy Ghost Power.  What is the evidence of the Power of God?

• Changed lives.
• Sin, repented of and removed.
• Love and forgiveness prevailing toward those who have wronged us.
• Clean living and holy thinking and right doing.
• Caring more for prayer and fellowship with the Father than for personal pet pastimes.
• True Worship, Joyful Praise and Strong Word Preaching and Teaching.
• When we desire God more than anything else… when we seek Him and cry out to Him and long for Him.
• When everything that offends is cut away and put down… when all our Idols are smashed and reduced to dust..

You cannot experience the Power of God without SOMETHING HAPPENING.

God’s Power produces results.  It is not more education that we need.  It is not “super-star” preachers that we need.   It is not bigger and more comfortable buildings that we need.  It is not more efficient organization and more talented administration that we need.  It is not more professional choirs and musicians and more highly skilled worship leaders that we need.

What we need is the Power of God

And ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you… Acts 1:8

Word for Today:  May 10

Faith comes by hearing.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  Rom 10:17

Bartimaeus the blind beggar heard about Jesus.  What do you suppose he heard?  Did he hear that the “day of miracles is over”?  Did he hear that “healing is not for this dispensation”?  Did he hear that the “supernatural” has no place in the modern, structured, organized churches?  Did he hear that the “GIfts of the Holy Ghost” and that the Supernatural Manifestation of the Presence of God were not for today?

Did he hear about all the hypocrites and the charlatans and the false prophets and the greed and the graft and the merchandising in the ministry?  NO! He heard that Jesus was coming his way! He heard that Jesus was healing the sick and raising the dead and casting out demons.  He heard that Jesus had GOOD NEWS and that Jesus had the ABSOLUTE ANSWER for every problem and every pain and every impossibility!

If he had heard all the negative stuff that most people are hearing today I really wonder if he could have had his blind eyes opened….

Hearing leads to seeing

Word for Today:  May 9

Faith eyes

It is our old human nature that really wants to “see” results.  When we do not see re­sults, the natural tendency is to get discouraged and back off of our faith stand.  Remember, we walk by Faith and not by sight.   Walking by faith means that we see the “invisible” with our faith eyes.  When we see the invisible, we can do the impossible.  The Believer really “believes” when there is no natural evidence.

 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)  2 Cor. 5:7     

God is working in our behalf even when we see no results.  Our miracle is on the way.  Our answer is coming.  The great temptation is to “look” for something and “hope” to “feel” something in order to keep on believing.

Keep on believing and in God’s time you will not only see it but feel it as well.

We are promised that we will “reap in due season if we faint not…”  Gal 6:9

This is the unfailing promise given to us by our unfailing God.

Use your faith eyes.

What you see is what you get

Word for Today:  May 8

Rejoice.

“IT is finished!” It is done. It is settled. It is established. It is accomplished. It is MINE. God says so. The Word declares it. I believe it. Therefore I will be glad and rejoice in it. I will praise Him. I will worship Him. I will thank Him. I will show Him my appreciation.  It is Done.

Now, it’s time. It’s time for you and me to move out of our complacency and comfort and begin to take back what the devil has stolen. It is time for us to be aggressive. To be on the offense. Not the defense, but the offense. If we are satisfied to remain in our comfort zone… in the place we now are, we are backslidden.   We are not keeping up with God and His divine purpose and plan for us.

Are you ready?

Will you volunteer? Will you be one of the ones who will demonstrate the Power and the Glory of Letting God do in you whatever it takes? I believe you are.

Now, where do you start?

Right where you are.

TODAY

Word for Today:  May 7

Be willing to wait.

Don’t be impatient. You don’t have to rush God. The production time of the Word is programmed in and it is as dependable as God is dependable. What is programmed will come to pass. In due season you shall reap if you do not faint (Gal 6:9).  Waiting will develop your patience and James tells us to let patience have her perfect work, that we may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing… (James 1:4).

Here is the hardest thing to do in Word production. It is not hard to sow. It is not hard to believe…. But it is next to impossible to wait, with patience, until God will produce in us the “wanting nothing” condition. God HAS SAID that we would “reap in due season IF we faint not… “

In Hebrews the Word declares: “For consider Him (Jesus) that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds…’ (Hebrews 12:3).

“Contradiction” here is anything that appears to disagree with God’s Promise. It is the “High Thing” that exalts itself against God that Paul writes to the Corinthians about.

The contradictions are what cause our patience to waver. When we see those things that seem to make God and His Word out to be a lie… these are the things that attack our patience.

Consider HIM… lest ye be wearied…

Word for Today:  May 6

See what you are believing for.

The farmer wants to harvest a crop.  So he begins with seeds.  The farmer will look at the seed package. The seed package has a picture of a healthy, fully matured, producing plant on it. That is the goal the farmer is shooting for…. a healthy, fully matured, producing plant.

When he plants the little seed, he can already see in his heart what the healthy, fully matured producing plant looks like. He sees hundreds of them. They are all lined up in neat rows and they are unrestrained and unrestricted … no fungus, no bugs, no imperfections … he sees the PERFECT FINISHED product IN HIS HEART.

To increase your crop see what you sow.  See it in its COMPLETED, GOD-CREATED form. See it with your eye of faith.

“Take heed (blepo: to see) what you hear, with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you; and to you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath (the Word) to him shall be given, and he that hath not (the Word), from him shall be taken even that which he hath … And He said, So is the kingdom of God… Mark 4:24-26.

We are told to walk by Faith (believing) and not by Sight (reasoning).

When we walk by Faith, we see with our Faith Eyes the finished product.

Just like God created it to be

Word for Today:  May 5

What God wants.

God wants His Kingdom to come in the earth.  God wants His will to be done in the earth.  God wants the same things that are happening in heaven to happen on earth.  This is the prayer that Jesus prayed in Matthew chapter 6:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven…

This is what God wants.

This is why you have a purpose in life.  This is why you can do all things through Christ.  This is the reason for the existence of the Church.  The Church is here to bring God’s Kingdom from heaven to earth.  If we are not bringing God’s Kingdom from heaven to earth we are not doing what we were born again to do.

The Christian Faith is not a salve for the guilty conscience.  The Christian Faith is not a passive religious experience to make people “feel” good.  It is a dynamic declaration of victory to the powers of darkness and a furious fight to take enemy territory.  The Christian Faith… especially the Spirit-Filled Christian faith is Warfare. We are fighting the Good fight of Faith.  The battle is the Lord’s and WE WIN.

Every time.  All the time.  Any time.

Word for Today:  May 4

Power

When Jesus announced the birth of the New Testament Church He said:

Upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) shall not overpower it– or be strong to its detriment, or hold out against it… Mat 16:18 Amp.

God never intended for His church to be lukewarm, tepid, wimpish and “wore out.”   God never planned for His church to succumb to every attack of the enemy.  God never intended for His church to bend to the world or blend with the world.

• The Church is the power of God on earth.
• The Church is the Power of God released in the earth.
• The Church is the means of bringing the Will of God into the earth.
• The Church is POWER.

You (if you are saved) are the church.  I am the church.  We are the church.

This is the Age of the Church.  The Church is here to demonstrate the power of God.  The Church of the Living God is the place of Revelation.  It is the keeper of the Truth.  It is the Standard of and for God.  It is Power.  It is effective.  It is alive.  It is heaven on earth.  It is active and not passive.  It is explosive and not lifeless.  It is energized by the Power of God and it is effective in keeping satan and the powers of darkness in check.

The one Primary Characteristic of the New Testament Church is POWER.

Holy Spirit Power

Word for Today:  May 3

God has given us WEAPONS

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;  2Cor. 10:4

And they are mighty weapons given to every believer by God for the pulling down of strongholds… they are not carnal and they are not natural… they are Supernatural and they are efficient and they are effective and they work.  They are given to every believer in order that every believer might overcome the attacks of the enemy.  These weapons are for warfare.  They are not for vacation or for R and R.    They are for pulling down and destroying.  They are locked, loaded and ready to be used.

The reason we have these weapons is that we might overcome the powers of darkness…. that we might stop the devil.  If we do not used them, they will not work for us, and we will not stop the devil.  If we do not exercise them, we will not break through and put the devil on the run.

God gave them.  God gave them to Believers.  God gave them to Believers in order that Believers might confirm what Jesus did to the devil.  Jesus destroyed the works of the devil.  Those works are still destroyed.  The Bible says that

 to as many as received Him to them gave He power to become…  John 1:12.

You have the power and authority to become whatever God has purposed for you to become.  This is why Paul says…

I can do all things though Christ…  Phil 4:13)

If he can, so can you

Word for Today:  May 2

My most challenging job is to convince people to believe what God says.

Most are so influenced by what is happening in the world they are oblivious to what the potential is within them.  God tells us some awesome stuff.  Stuff that is truly hard to believe.  Since it is easier to disbelieve than to believe, most are held captive by their unbelief.  No faith.  No confidence in God.  Convincing the Body of Christ to REALLY BELIEVE is our greatest challenge.  However, it is the same problem that folks have had throughout the history.  Isaiah said:

Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?   Isa. 53:

We must come to the place of BELIEVEING what the WORD SAYS instead of what the WORLD SAYS.  Some of the things the WORD SAYS are so “unreasonable” and so “radical” and so “impossible” that it is a real chore to believe them.  It is probably not what we have been taught in our Religious Environment.  It is probably not what is considered “traditional” or even “normal” in the Christian Walk.

Vance Havner once said concerning the Church:    “We have been subnormal so long, that once we become normal, folks will think we are abnormal…”

Man’s “religion” will keep you in bondage.  It will put burdens on you that God never intended for you to bear.  It will ultimately kill you.  Likewise, unchanging Religious Tradition will keep you in bondage.  A refusal to change, simply because you have “always” been this way or have “always” done it like this is dangerous.  It limits the ability for one to receive fresh revelation.  Organized, Mechanized, Man-Managed, church programs will sap your strength, wear you out, do you in and leave you empty.

Be unreasonable.   Believe God.