The Power

It seems that when God speaks to us, it’s often repeated.  This is the third time that He has spoken to me about His power.  The first time was through a study with Beth Moore about the life of John.  She discussed the power of the Holy Spirit.  Then Nathan’s VBS week at church was titled the Power Lab and each day the theme was about power; like the power to be thankful and the power to help others.  The 2 that struck me the most however was on day 4 and 5. The theme was Jesus gives us the power to live forever.  The bible story was about Jesus dying and coming back to life and the fact that b/c He lives, we too can live forever through Him.  Then day 5 was about the power to tell others about God.  The bible story was about The Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost and that we are to go into all the world and preach the Good News.  The third time God spoke to me about His power was today at church.  Our pastor kept speaking about the power of the Holy Spirit to change our hearts.

My heart is broken about our nation, and how ironic that we are celebrating our freedom this weekend when in fact much of our God given freedom has been misconstrued in some fashion or another.   It astounds me that only 20% of Americans are in church; my heart aches over this fact.  I think people are really missing out on the joy that a relationship with God brings and the fact that our purpose in life is to spread the Gospel.  When people seek out the church to meet their needs, we (us, you and me) need to be there to love on them.  I know we can do this in ways other than being in church, but we miss out on so much by not being a part of this one entity.

Then our pastor also spoke about the KS senate opening prayer and this so hit home with me.  I’m downright fearful of what will happen when Obama takes office.  I know we have nothing to fear but fear itself and I am so thankful to know that my God is always in control.  It’s too bad you can’t hear the passion in my voice as I type this.

 

The Kansas Senate Prayer Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe on those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that: We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism. We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn children and called it a choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Christ. Amen. What awesome insight !!! With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called a Christian nation that fears the Lord!   As Paul said why do I do the very things I don’t want do and I don’t do the things I want to? We are sinners yet Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.  When we are at our worst, he died for us.  Not only that but then He gave us the greatest threat to Satan, The Holy Spirit.  Jesus didn’t just send His spirit to be with us but to live in us.  Think for a moment about our spirit, it makes us who we are right?  Well then think about the fact that Jesus sent His spirit to live in our sinful bodies just waiting for us to call on His power.  He is there waiting for our beckoning call to give us POWER and if He’s in us then he knows our thoughts without us even speaking them.  Wow! So we can’t hide anything from Him.  Nor should we want to after all He can deliver us from anything. According to 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.  We have the power to do so much more than we even know capable.  Our nation is torn and weary in so many ways.  We have the power to be faithful, to pray, and to love His people the way He did.  This is spreading the Gospel.