Power
After God walked me through my greatest hurdle at training camp I felt lost at where to go from there. The nights following that healing I didn’t know where to go during my time of worship. It had been ten years of going to God for comfort and asking for the same thing forgiveness and healing. Now that I was healed, this new sense of healing was foreign to me. I was told by a friend to just be thankful. Since then, I have been praying to God and telling Him how thankful I am for my life, for this opportunity to serve, for this chance to experience God in new ways in foreign countries, for the struggles I have been growing through, and what God was working on in me. I have felt extremely grateful for everything; yet I have been longing for something more. This longing comes to me because I am searching for a deep-rooted sense of purpose and power. I had this sense of longing that I thought would be satisfied by just leaving the country and entering the mission field.
As my teams’ leader I am observing and looking at ways my team is growing and changing within their relationships with God. I see my teammates and what they are working on in themselves and in this time on the world race. I have felt like “what about me God?”, I prayed to Him to reveal to me what it is I should be doing and working on. I know I can always work on patience, acceptance, etc. but I feel a lack of power behind my intentions. For example, when I pray I speak the words that I want to pray but there is a sense of sluggishness behind them.
Our team is doing a bible study right now in the book of James. We read chapter 1 of James this morning, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me”. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” We as a group talked about how we overcome things in our lives. The group agreed that to truly overcome addictions, jealousy, anger, hatred we need the power of God. The question is, what is the power of God and how do we use it? In 1 Corinthians chapter 4:20 it states, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but power.”
The power comes from the Holy Spirit.
“What?!” is sort of what I said to myself, there’s that concept that has just boggled my mind forever. The Holy Spirit is the power. The Holy Spirit is what I am lacking, what I have been searching for. Marie shared many examples in the bible (there are literally hundreds) where the Holy Spirit gave some average Joe Shmo the power to do EXTRODINARY things only possible through the Holy Spirit itself.
{Study opportunity- Read these and find the power behind the Holy Spirit. I promise they will blow your mind.
– Gensis 1: 1-3
– Judges 3: 7-11; Judges 6: 33-34; Judges 11: 29-31; Judges 13: 24-25; Judges 14: 29-31
– I Samuel 16: 11-13
– I Chronicles 12: 18
– Psalm 51:11
– Acts 8: 26-40; 10: 19-48 VERSE: 46
-Matthew 1: 18; Matthew 3: 13-17}
After the bible study this morning I asked my team to give me some time without anyone talking to me (thank you team.. you are the best). In this time I had the chance to read in the bible and talk to God. He revealed to me what I am lacking and why I have felt a little blah/ without the fire I have so desired. I thought that in going on this trip I would be filled with fire and power, but I was wrong. God called me, and the Holy Spirit gives power. It is not a given when leaving the country on a missions trip that power is given.
Reading in Acts, it talks about in chapter one Jesus being taken up to heaven and God is talking to His people saying, “For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” God baptized His people with the Holy Spirit just as He will with us. God is a giver of life, ask and you shall receive. I am asking God to baptize me with the Holy Spirit. I want to be filled fully with the power of the Holy Spirit in a way that will give strength, love, and grace on the missions’ field, in a way that I can show the gift that God has given us through his son, Jesus Christ. Next it states in Acts, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 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 don’t know when the Holy Spirit will come upon me, but I know God has a power waiting for me. He will reveal the time and place he wants to give power through me to impact the kingdom and to further it.
I pray Lord you fill with peace your children searching for purpose and your presence. Give them hope that you are with them. Give them a desire to keep searching and pursuing you. Amen
