Do you keep your check book reconciled to the monthly bank statement? Are you content with it just being close or do you work it out to the penny? Do you even bother with? What about your beliefs? Do you check them regularly? Are you content with them just being close? Do you bother with it?
A few years ago I decided it was time for a major overhaul with my beliefs. My Christian life did not match up with the life I read about in the Bible. It was close, but somewhere I had missed something. So, I decided to back up and take a closer look at things I used to just blow by to see if I could find what I had missed.
In years past, with my preconceived ideas, I would have passed right by this passage at the beginning of Luke 9. “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick”.
There are three references to power associated with some type of healing and one associated with preaching. This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say my life does not match up with the Bible. It is like I have chosen to live out of balance.
Isn’t the world, and even the church, not in desperate need of this power? Aren’t there just too many people who without it will not be helped? Are we content to just preach the kingdom to people when we have been given authority to bring the kingdom into their lives? Has He taken the authority back or is He waiting on us to take hold of it? It is time to reconcile these thoughts.
Hunger and Thirst 
Preaching the Kingdom is about learning to live in Christ, learning how to live immersed in His Spirit and then telling others about it. Most churches today are preaching about salvation, which to them means joining the church, but they do not follow up about the maturation process involved in living in Him day by day.
Oh yeah, they will fill your mind with a bunch of hooplah about their denominational rules, but they are noticeably weak on what Spiritual growth is really all about. They do not teach about it, because they do not know about it.
It is all about Him, it is not about the church, it is not about what we want to do and the power we want to wield, it is about Him and what He is doing in our lives and what He is going to be doing in us and through us. Much of His work with you is not accomplished in a corporate setting, it is in the quiet of your heart in your times alone with Him. Then, when you are on the beam, so to speak, you will get together with other mature believers and you will all be led by Him.
We must remember who is the head of the church. Is it your pastor? No, it is Jesus, and while so many churches say He is alive, few will admit that He will speak to all of us, therefore they say that they must teach us. That puts them in the class of robbers, thieves, and strangers according to John 10.
If He is alive, He will speak to you (My sheep hear My voice). Take some time, leave the world behind for a little while, and tell Him what is bothering you, the questions you have, the worries, and doubts, and listen to what He has to tell you. Be still and know, then when you are connected with Him, His power will fill your life.
Nathan,
This is not as much me seeking power as much as it is Him luring me down this path as I seek Him. Another layer in this is the situations that keep crossing my path that He alone can fix. I am being challenged by it all to pray until He does. Yet another layer is the results. It is not as much a dramatic turn around as much as a gradual turn, but it is enough to assure me I am on the right track.
Stick with it Bro’. It is so cool when He draws us nearer.
Mike,
I agree with you on this one. Like you, I am asking myself some hard questions and at the same time, feeling powerless to do much about what I already know. But…thanks to you, I know now that I need to desperately desire for His power…to be made manifest in my life. Because without power, my race will be and can be short-circuited.
God bless you!
Gladwell
Mike,
This question has been rolling around in my heart for quite some time – where is the Lord God of Elijah? Recently I read this quote by James Gilmour:
Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of the flesh? Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Do not the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth still to show Himself strong on behalf of those who put their trust in Him? Oh, that God would give me more practical faith in Him? Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him.
It seems a lot of us are trying to wrestle this out. I’ve been wrestling with my next piece of writing for at least a couple of weeks. I’ve lost track of how many times I have rewritten it. It never seemed right but I couldn’t let it go. I think the Lord was stalling me until you posted this quote. It was what I needed. I used it to conclude. Will post Wed. Thanks