TV 1731 | We've Got the Power Part One

Well, the thoughts I've had coming into this weekend are not new. But guess what? How many of you know that we don't just need new, exciting insights and revelation about all this doctrine and that one? We need the stuff that, like when we eat, we eat the same things a lot of times, don't we? There are foods we like that are nourishing and we eat them because we enjoy them but because they do us good. Well, there are things that we need to hear in the Spirit that are in that same category. And I feel like some of the thoughts that I've had this morning are particularly applicable to me, but I just suspect I'm not the only one. Praise God. I'm going to go back to a scripture we've used a lot lately. There's so many aspects of truth and there's one that I want to get to, but this is the one in Colossians. You remember we had this service several weeks ago where we had prayers that God answers and we read prayers that Paul was inspired to pray for God's people. We know this was God's will. And so there are prayers that we can, in faith, pray concerning ourselves and know that, yes, we're praying according to the will of God and we have every expectation that He will answer. So anyway, so in verse 9, Paul's prayer is this, for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience and giving thanks, joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of

the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Praise God. How can you ever get tired of hearing those words? Praise God. I need them every single day. But you know, we kind of need food every day, don't we? We need things that sustain us. And this is certainly very central. All the thoughts that have been expressed here are just right from the heart of God Himself expressed through Paul's pen. But I just, you know, we've talked recently about living a life worthy of the Lord and last week the emphasis was on love as the central thing. But always in Scripture, particularly in the New Testament, we discover things that God is looking for from us. He's done so much for us, but what is He looking for? And obviously it involves changing us from what we are into what He has designed us to be. Because we know that we are in fact born into this world and we have a nature that hates God and resists Him. In fact, I noticed something that if I'd noticed it before, I'd forgotten it. But anyway, we've often pointed out about how He's rescued us from the dominion of darkness and I thought of that in terms of force, power in the sense of force. But the word is not actually force. The word is authority. You know, God has given Christ all authority in heaven and earth. Now, He's got the power to go with that, all right? You know the difference between power and authority? Suppose you had a criminal gang that was ruling over a town and mistreating its people and somebody, you know, the governor sends somebody in and says, I'm giving you authority to rule here.

And he begins to make demands of the criminal gang and they say, you know, do this or else. And he says, you and what army? You know, you need some power to go with the authority. But here the interesting thing is we were saved from the authority of darkness. How many of you know that when Adam and Eve turned over, when they obeyed Lucifer, when they obeyed the devil, they literally gave him the authority that God had given them. That's why Satan was able to come to Jesus and say, all this has been given to me, talking about the world and everything in it. We handed it over. And Satan has the rule over the people of this world legally because of sin. It's because of the choices men make. And so he rules here over people's hearts and lives. But what Jesus came to do was to absolutely rescue. us, to where we can literally look Satan in the eye and say, you have no authority over me anymore because of what Jesus did. I can't point to anything in me, but it's all him, but he has removed your authority to rule over me. Of course, we let him, don't we, sometimes. But I'll tell you, that's something that we can rejoice in. But anyway, it talks about how we need to grow in knowledge and all of those things. We've talked about that many times before. We're like a little child coming into this world. They don't know much. And so they've got to be taught and they've got to learn how the world works and how you're supposed to take care of yourself and react and interreact with other people and just gradually learn responsibility. And that's a lifetime process, isn't it? Not something where you can suddenly say, hey, sit in my class for a day and then you got it. This is an everyday thing.

And that's one of the things that I felt like the Lord emphasized to me, that what he's talking about is certainly not an event where all this happens, but this is rather a lifestyle. This is something where every single day, this is what my life is about. It's not about the secular things that I do and all of that. I mean, that's involved. We do all those things that are our responsibilities, but that's not what my life is about. What did Paul say? Think about all the things that Paul went through and I mean, how many points of suffering, all the difficult things that he had to deal with, but what was his testimony? What was his life about? For to me, to live is what? It's Christ. That's the whole point. When I wake up in the morning, my life is not about what have I got to do today? My life is about Christ. Now I will do all those things, but it's the person doing them and the quality of the life of the person who's doing all these things. And that's what God wants to teach us. But you know, as little children, we've got to learn all the things that we have to do just to get along in this world. Well the problem, it comes when all of the things that we have learned here basically get in the way of what God wants to do. Because we absolutely have been called out of this kingdom of darkness where we were under the authority of Satan because of sin. But God has called us out and given us a brand new life. What did it cost Jesus to possess the life that he had when he came out of that tomb? He had to let go of this one, didn't he? He had to lay it down completely. Isn't that what God calls everybody to do that comes to him? Exactly what that girl, that young woman did.

Hand it over to him and say, Lord, my life does not belong to me anymore. My purpose in even living in this world is to live for you and to learn your ways and to learn how to express your heart and your life here in a daily basis. I'm afraid that a lot of the times what people tend to do is just to relegate the things of God to ... Some people, it's a Sunday morning. I'm going to come in and I'm going to sing songs, I'm going to be spiritual and I'll talk about the Lord and I'll believe in him and all of that. But then we just, okay, what's for lunch? Back to real life. My real life, our real life is meant to be every moment learning from him and living out his nature. Now, if that means laying bricks, that's fine, but what kind of person is laying those bricks? What do people get when they're around us? May God help us, every single one. You know you don't take a vacation from being a Christian, from being a Jesus follower. Jesus didn't say, come to your part and party a while, he said, come to your part and rest a while. There's a time and place for that. You know, I was thinking about how ... Well, there's so many thoughts I've had, Lord, organize them. But you know, he talks about all that we're supposed to do, pleasing him, bearing fruit, growing in knowledge and all of that, but how does that happen? Where do we get the resources to do that? He says, I don't have them. Do you? Anybody here have the resources to be the kind of person God wants you to be? I don't have it. But what does he go on to say? Strengthened, in verse 11, strengthened with all power. Boy, I like that word all, don't you?

Not leaving anything out. Strengthened with all power. That power there is force. That's the strength that I don't possess in order to be all that He wants me to be. It's strengthened with all power, but where does that come from? All right, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. Does He have what it takes? Is there any lack in His power? Has He got the power, the source of all the power that every believer needs to possess and needs to have in order to live what we call the Christian life? How many of us live by that and access that all the time? You know, that's kind of what brought this to my mind, because we don't live this out like we should. We profess to believe it, but I dare say we've got a lot to learn in this area. The first thing that came to me when I was thinking about all this was a song that our ensemble used to sing, and it's We've Got the Power. It's a wonderful song, and it makes us feel good to sing. We've got the power to tell the devil to take a hike or whatever. We got all that we need. Well, the reality is we do, but learning how to live that out on a moment-by-moment, 24-7 lifestyle is another story, and this is where growing and learning comes into play, because you think, again, about a child. Now all of the things that we do in our earthly lives, we have these bodies that we live in, but everything we do requires an expenditure of energy, doesn't it? There's going to be a source of energy that comes from somewhere, but where does that energy come from? We're going to have to eat. We're going to have to drink water, water and food, and it probably helps to breathe. We don't think about that, but if we didn't take in oxygen, nothing would happen. On top of that, we need some rest.

These bodies, in order to be sustained and be able to put out and be able to lay bricks, for example, or anything else we do, just to get up in the morning and overcome gravity, we're going to have to put some stuff in here that enables us to do that. In order for me to have the strength I need to do the stuff I need to do, I've got to eat, I've got to drink, I've got to rest, I've got to breathe. Fortunately, breathing just happens because we know it happens, we know we need it, but every one of these things has to do, has a spiritual counterpart, because yes, we need to do those things to live here, but the life that God is ... This life is going to end. I don't care what you do and how well you feed it, how well you take care of it, we're going to die. This life is going to end, but God has given us a life that is incapable of dying. And the call that He has upon us is to come to Him and learn how to live this life and to grow up. How many times in the scriptures do you see where the Lord will ... Or an apostle will talk to believers and say, now you as young children, as little babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. That's the imagery here. Every one of us needs to grow. The reality is there's stuff we don't know, we think we know, or we're relying on earthly wisdom to think we can get along in the kingdom of God, and we can't. God is going to have to change everything about the way we see ourselves, everything about the way we think, and we're going to have to spend time literally eating and drinking and breathing and resting, and all the things that we see in the natural, we need them in the spirit. And I need more than I do, probably undoubtedly, to walk with Him and to learn and to have an attitude where I say, Lord, I don't know the stuff I need to do, and here I am facing life. You're telling me that you want this from me. You want me to live a life that's pleasing to you and bearing fruit and all these supernatural things.

Don't do that. And even if you give me the power, Lord, I need you to explain this to me and help me to understand my part so that I can intelligently grow up as your child. Do you see the counterparts with the natural and the spiritual? Is He willing to do all these things? Do we have the power? Well, we've certainly got it. I don't care what kind of an awesome machine you have that has power to do stuff, if you don't plug it in and get the power, it ain't going to do anything. Oh, God help me. God help every one of us to live with more of a consciousness of where God is going with this and what He's seeking to do so that we can go to Him and pray this prayer, but we can do it with an expectation. I know, I mean, boy, I struggle with this. I know I'm not the only one. We can say all day, we've got the power, but how do we live? Do we act like we've got the power when we have a real need? Notice what the power has to do with. It says, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, so He's got all we need. Why? Why do we need that? So that you may have great endurance and patience. Now you see why I need power, because everything about this world is against what God wants to do and what He wants to see in me. Everything is against it. I need to be able to have something that gives me the power to endure that and to keep on going, to put up with it in the first place, but also the patience. Now patience is not just waiting for something to happen, it's acting out, it's living out, it's walking out something where I'm literally not, I'm never giving up.

There's no such thing as giving up. In other words, if you have real patience, the patience that He's talking about, there's a sense of endurance, of a willingness to keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter what happens. Folks, this world will throw every challenge at us, as you well know, to our being, what God has called us to be. Every single challenge will be thrown at us as to who we are, what we are, what we're able to do, what we think of ourselves, what other people think of us, circumstances that are difficult. Every bit of that will absolutely, will stand like a wall in front of us and say, you can't do that, you're not that. There's a thousand and one things that cause us to say, yeah, I've got the power, but where is it? I'm not really experiencing that like God wants me to. I'm not talking about somebody who wants power so they can do amazing things and everybody say, wow. God can do that, but it won't be somebody who looks at it that way. But I'll tell you, there is a power that you and I need. If we're going to just be, let alone do, I mean, the first thing, I've got all this stuff that we've talked about so many times that wants to rule over me and I grew up with these things gaining a hold on me and I believe things that have to, that facilitate that, that make that, that help them to gain a hold. There are lies that I believe. And so here I am, my old nature wants to rule over me and maybe it does in some areas. Is that what God wants or do we just sort of say, well, I guess it's just the way I am. He's taken care of it. He's already, I mean, I know I'm going to mess up, but he's already taken care of it at the cross. Praise God.

God wants his children to absolutely experience the new life and grow up. Now I'm thankful that he's not expecting us to just snap our fingers and suddenly leap into this great place of high spirituality, whatever that means. But it's like a little child. They're going to learn. They're going to make all kinds of mistakes and messes, but a wise little, a wise child is going to learn from things that go wrong and they're going to keep on growing. But here we are as God's children. Think of what he's done for us. Think of what he paid, the price that he paid. Think of the call and the hope that he's planted in the heart of something beyond all this. If we'll lift our eyes from the battles that we fight, from the weaknesses that have bound us and we realize I have access to the power of God to be able to say no to this nature and I need to start believing it instead of just saying, well, I have the power, but again, we need to get our butts in the right place. We can say, yeah, there's all kinds of challenges to living the Christian life, but God's grace is sufficient. Praise God. Praise God. So this is what it's all about. It's not only what we need to be, but the fact that being that requires overcoming a whole lot of stuff that we just do not have the power to do. And I'll tell you, part of growing up in him is learning that. And wow, there's so many different directions you can go here. But how do I learn, for example, that I can't do something if I think I can? Trying and failing. And I wonder how many times we're asking God, oh God, teach me your ways, help me to grow. And his answer is to throw us in a situation where we fail miserably. Now how do we react to that? Do we say, oh God, I thought you were going to help me, smooth my life out and give me

a victory in this area, and here I am, I'm failing worse than ever. And what's the Lord's wisdom in this? See, that's earthly thinking. We want God to move all the obstacles and help us just up. Take that obstacle out of my path so I can move ahead. And God wants us to learn how to overcome by his power and by his strength. By his strength. And 99 times out of 100, that's the problem that God is addressing in our lives. When we experience failure, God has allowed us to be in a situation where we are trying to do something in our own strength and failing. And that's God's love and God's mercy to allow that. Because he wants us to learn how to reckon on his power and to ask for it and to expect it and to believe it. Whether we feel something or not, we're going to step out and say, God, I can do this because you have given me the strength to do it, and I'm trusting in you. Praise God. So is God mean when he does that to us and allows us to fall in the mud? Or is he doing that because he says, child, you want to serve me, but you don't understand. You just don't ... this area here, you just don't quite get this. You can't do it. That's why you need a savior. That's why I couldn't ... why I had to save you in the first place. That would be ridiculous for me to tell you, this is what I want you to be and expect you to do that. But I have got everything that you need. But I need you to ... I want you to experience this. I'm going to go over, I think it's just a page in my Bible, to another passage that we see a lot and we have used a lot. And this is back in Philippians chapter three. And this is Paul talking about how he ... first of all, how he came to a knowledge of Christ

and realized that the religion in which he thought he was such a master and so acceptable to God, he basically tossed that in the garbage and said, that's totally worthless. I need Jesus. I need Christ. I need what he has done for me, all of that and none of this other. Praise God. I thank God we can leave the law behind and we have a law that produces a better righteousness than the law ever could. But listen to how he expresses that. In verse 10, I want to know Christ. Now that word know, I know we pointed these things out many times, but let's just focus for a moment here. I want to know. What's the difference between knowing about somebody and knowing them? To know somebody, you're spending time with them. You're communicating. You're walking and that person is walking with you. Do you believe that Jesus actually wants to walk with us? Why would he want to walk with somebody like me? Look at poor old me. That's why you need him. That's why I need him. Oh, how many lies the devil wants to plant in our minds that undermine this simple truth. He literally wants to walk with us and us to him so we can know, we can experience him. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, the Midnight

Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.