Joyce Meyer - Releasing God's Power (08/23/2019)
In this inspiring message, Joyce Meyer teaches how to release God's resurrection power in daily life, emphasizing that the same power that raised Christ dwells in believers (Romans 8:11). By acknowledging our weakness, waiting on God, confessing His Word, and relying on the Holy Spirit, we can live strong, joyful, and victorious lives as more than conquerors, even amid storms and challenges.
Do You Want God's Power or Weakness?
I want to teach this weekend on how to release God's power in your life. How to release God's power in your life. Let me ask a question. Are any of you believing God to be weak? Which do you want? Do you want power? Or do you want weakness? Is power really available to us? And what kind of power is available to us?
You know, we know that God is powerful, but can we actually share in His power in our lives? The Bible says, if the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, and it does, it will quicken your mortal body.
Now what does that mean? It will make you strong, it will energize you, it will activate you, it will enable you. Now listen to me, it will enable you to do whatever you need to do in life, without murmuring, without complaining, without murmuring, without complaining, uh-oh, without murmuring, without complaining.
It will enable you and me to do whatever we need to do in life.
Holding Steady Through Difficult Seasons
How many of you have noticed that not every day turns out the way you'd like it to? And sometimes you might have a few months or even a whole year that doesn't turn out the way that you would like it to.
And in those times we have to hold firm and be steady and fight that good fight of faith and not let the enemy steal from us the hope and the vision that we have for our life because of what we have found as promises in the Word of God.
And even in those difficult times, we can still treat people good, we can still have a smile on our face, we can still walk in peace. Not by our own power, but by the power of God.
Not only is God powerful, but He wants to fill us, fill us, fill us, fill us with His power.
And I want you to understand, not only here in this place tonight, but all around the world, that you do not have to live a weak, wimpy, pitiful, pathetic, barely-get-by life.
Jesus came that we might have and enjoy our life and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows.
Problems Come, But You're Already a Conqueror
I cannot promise you a problem-free life. I cannot promise you a faith, no matter how great your faith is, that does not insulate you from ever having problems.
Matter of fact, sometimes when we make a bold stand to serve God, that's when the enemy really comes against us and tries to steal that faith.
The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, 9, that a wide door of opportunity had opened unto him, and with it came many, many adversaries.
So I'm not going to tell you that you're going to have a problem-free life. But I will tell you that you already are more than a conqueror through Christ who loves you. Already are more than a conqueror.
You don't have to try to be, you already are. All you need to do is learn how to believe that and walk in it.
Because you know what? No matter what God has offered us through His Son, Jesus Christ, and what He's offered us is quite amazing. It is never released in our life if we don't believe it.
So I just want to ask you tonight, do you believe that God's power is available to you to help you do whatever you need to do in life with a reasonable amount of joy and peace, and that no matter what's going on in your circumstances, that you can still be a blessing to other people?
Do you believe that the power of God is available to you for that kind of a life? Amen.
Well then, if we believe it's available, then we need to make sure that we know how to appropriate it, how to release it in our lives.
Change Starts With Us, Not Circumstances
Because you know it's fun to come to something like this and hear somebody tell you all about this, but the thing is, and I tell people this pretty much in every conference, you're going to have a great time here, but you have to go home.
I would like to say that we're going to do some magic thing this weekend, and boy, when you go home everything is going to be changed, and you're not going to have the same problems you had when you came here, but we all know that that's not going to happen.
However, you can change, and I can change, and those of you watching by television, no matter where you're at in the world, you can change.
We're always wanting God to change our circumstances, but the fact is, He's more interested in changing us than He is in changing our circumstances.
Because when we change, the more we become like Christ, and the more of the power of the Holy Spirit we walk in, the less we are going to be concerned about our circumstances, and listen to what I'm going to say, when we learn to stop being so concerned about our circumstances, then, and only then, the devil will go and find somebody to bother that he can upset.
Admitting Weakness Opens the Door to God's Power
But in order to qualify for the power of God, you must first come to a place where you realize that in and of yourself, you are weak. You have weaknesses. You have limitations.
God has no limitations, but we have limitations. Apart from Him, we can do nothing of any real value.
Now, I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven scriptures that we're going to look at to get us convinced that our weaknesses really don't have to make that much difference if we know how to let God fill our weaknesses with His power.
We get too overwrought about what we can't do, and we don't get excited enough about what God can do.
You see, no matter what you can't do or what I can't do, God can do. And miracles don't come in can'ts. They come in cans. Amen?
So we want to get rid of the I can't word. We want to get rid of the it's too hard phrase. It's too much for me. I can't do this. I can't stand this.
Because, as a matter of fact, if we are indeed filled with that resurrection power that Paul talked about in Philippians chapter 3, he said, I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while I'm in the body.
So what was he saying? There's a power available to us that no matter what is going on around us, we can be lifted above it.
Mounting Up With Wings Like Eagles – Isaiah 40
You know, an eagle... And in the first scripture we're going to look at, which is Isaiah 40, the Bible says that we can mount up with wings as eagles.
Well, what does that really mean? You know, an eagle is not afraid of a storm. Matter of fact, they have what's called tunnel vision, and they can see a storm coming from miles and miles and miles away.
We need to have enough discernment that we're not taken by surprise, and we can sense, even before the full attack is on, what the enemy's trying to do, and already set our mind before the whole problem starts that we're going to come out the winner on the other end.
To be more than a conqueror means that you know you've got the victory before you ever get the problem.
Can anybody have enough confidence in this place to know that before... So see, you don't have to live in fear of what's going to happen tomorrow. You don't have to live in fear of what's going to happen in these last days.
God's Power for the Weary and Faint
So many people ask me now what my input is on the last days. And I just tell them frankly, I'm not an expert in end times. I do have enough sense to not try to get into something that I don't feel that I'm qualified to get into.
I have a very simple philosophy about it. Maybe it's too simple for you. Maybe you'd like to worry about it. If you want to, you can.
But my simple philosophy is that if I trust God and to the best of my ability, I do what I believe he's asking me to do, then he is going to take care of me.
And if I am more than a conqueror, then I can have the confidence right now that whatever happens in the end times, that we can handle it.
That's what it means to be more than a conqueror. You don't have to be afraid of what's going to happen tomorrow, or what's going to happen when you retire, or what's going to happen with this, that, or something else.
Because you say, I'm in Christ, and that same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in me. And I can do, I can do whatever I need to do through Christ who strengthens me. I can do. Not I can't, but I can.
Just take a pause break and give God a big shout.
Isaiah 40 verse 29. I decided I'm just going to have you look at every one of these scriptures. Because I think sometimes we rush around too fast, and I can quote them all to you, but I want you to see them.
Isaiah 40, 29, He gives power to the faint and the weary. And to him who has no might, he increases strength, causing it to multiply and making it to abound.
So you see, even if you walked in here tonight feeling like I am at the end of my rope, then you can depend on God to give you power, refresh you in this place tonight, and send you out ready to start all over again and not give up.
He gives power to the faint and the weary. He doesn't give power to the powerful, he gives power to those who need power.
And God doesn't give us his power for nothing. God's not going to give us his power so we can sit around on church pews until our bottoms get flat, and do absolutely nothing but be a pew-sitter. Amen?
Renewing Strength by Waiting on the Lord
Verse 30, Even youths, that means even really young people that are in great shape, shall faint and be weary, and selected young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted.
Now that's not being negative, it's just saying that everybody has their limitations without God. No matter how young you are, no matter how great of a shape you're in, no matter how smart you think you are, no matter what you think you can do, you will ultimately display weakness in your life.
And thank God for it, because if we didn't have any weakness, then we wouldn't need him. Amen?
So God leaves weaknesses in every one of us, so we will constantly cry out to God, God, I need you and I'm nothing without you.
But those who wait for the Lord, and waiting for God doesn't mean to sit around passively doing nothing, actually waiting on God is to be very spiritually active.
You're praying, you're seeking God, you're loving God, you're obeying God, but you're refusing to get into what the Bible calls works of the flesh, trying to make your own way.
Because you learn that if you don't have his plan, your plan is not going to work.
Has anybody ever tried to work your own plan, and just made your problem a whole lot worse? Well, of course, we've all tried that. That's one of the ways that we find out that we need to lean on God.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and power. They shall lift up their wings and mount up close to God, as eagles mount up to the sun.
They shall run and not be weary. Don't you love that? They shall run and not be weary. They shall handle anything that comes their way, and not get weary, and worn out, and exhausted, and feel like I just can't take it.
But we can actually have the kind of life where other people look at us and say, I don't know how you can be that happy with what's going on in your life.
How can you just keep reaching out to other people with all the problems you have in your own life? And you say, well, it's not by my might and power, but it's by His.
Letting Storms Lift You Closer to God
Now, the eagle sees a storm coming a long way off, but it takes advantage of the storm. You see, storms in our life do have an advantage because they force us to seek God. They force us to seek God.
How many of you have found out that when you get a problem so big that you finally figure out that it's way over your head, then and only then do we normally seek God with our whole heart?
It's amazing how much time we find for God, how much time we find to pray and seek God and read the Word when we are desperate. It's amazing how little time we have when everything is going good.
But, boy, we find all kinds of time to seek God when things are desperate.
So, I learned from God a long time ago. He said, just act like you're desperate all the time, and then you won't actually be desperate at any time.
Because, really, we are desperate, actually. We are just a total, complete wreck and a mess without God.
So, the eagle waits for this storm, and when the storm hits, it bounces him up, and he mounts up close to the sun, as we should let the storms help us mount up close to God.
And the eagle literally flies around above the storm and can look down at it and wait for it to pass.
We do that when we're in airplanes. Sometimes you've got to get through the storm, and that's a little bumpy, but then when you can get above it, you're up in this place where it's just so peaceful and calm, and you're just looking down at it, waiting for it to pass.
And that's the way God wants us to live. He wants us to not be afraid of those storms.
You know, I don't know about you, but I finally got tired of worrying about what was going to happen next. Amen?
It's wonderful to not have to be afraid of whatever's going to happen next, because you know that you know that you know that God is in control, and that he does work all things out for our good if we continue to love him and trust him.
How wonderful it is to have that confidence.
Admitting Weakness Like David and Paul
In Psalm 6, verse 2, the psalmist David said, Have mercy on me, and be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am weak, faint, and withered away. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
So David, the great psalmist David, who became a great king, had no problem saying, In and of myself, I am weak. There's nothing that I can do without God.
You see, people who think they've got it all together can't really have God's help. You have to wait and wear yourself out first.
Matter of fact, I really believe, and I've talked to somebody at length about this in the last few months. Because this person struggled quite a bit for many years, and now has had a real encounter with God, and everything has changed for them.
And the question has been, well, why now? Why not two years ago? Why not five years ago? And I said, I really believe that God was waiting for you to come to the end of yourself.
You know, sometimes we say, God, I can't do it, but we really don't mean it. Because the next morning we get another plan. Come on. We get another bright idea about how we're going to fix this.
And so then God has to wait again for us to realize that's not going to work.
You know, when Abraham and Sarah were waiting for the promised child, they got tired of waiting, like a lot of us do. And so they got a bright idea. You take my handmaiden, have intercourse with her, she can be your secondary wife.
I don't know what wife in her right mind would give her husband a secondary wife. I mean, that's just trouble brewing from the get-go right there.
And sure enough, she did get pregnant, and then that caused all kinds of problems between Hagar and Sarah. And then she had a baby. And so it was another 13 years of waiting added on to what they already probably would have been waiting, now trying to deal with the mess they created by trying to fix their own problem.
Boy, do we ever need to learn how to not move in the flesh, but to move in the spirit.
When God says move, we move. And when he says stop, we stop. When he says wait, we wait. And when he says go, we go.
We have to come to the end of ourselves. And sometimes, depending on your temperament, how you're put together, how full of yourself you are, that takes longer for some people than others.
The Flesh Is Weak, But the Spirit Is Willing
Do you think that, well, I'm a strong person. I can, I don't, do you have trouble taking help from people? Do you have trouble asking people for help? Do you have trouble letting go? Are you stubborn? Proud?
You know, the Bible talks about something that we don't really like to talk about much. It's something called brokenness. And that's kind of like a, people of faith just kind of think that's a dirty word. It's like...
But the truth is, God has to break the outer man. Just like the woman who came with the alabaster box full of sweet perfume to anoint Jesus. She had to break the box. She had to break the jar.
And there's a lot of great things in us that Christ has put in us by His grace. We didn't do anything to get them. But at the new birth, He put them in us.
And He wants those things to come out of us and to be shared with other people and for us to glorify Him. But if that sweet, wonderful thing that God has done in us is encased and enclosed in a stubborn flesh, then that flesh has to be dealt with.
And many of you, some of the things that you're going through right now in your life that you absolutely hate and despise, someday you will find out that these problems were indeed your very best friend.
You don't believe me now, but check with me in ten years. Come on now.
How many of you have gone through some wretched things in your past, but if you look back, man, you can say, that's what brought me close to God.
Now, the fact of the matter is, you could be that close to God without having to get it that way. But, you know, it just kind of comes with a package. I mean, we're stubborn, we're proud, we want to do it ourself. We want to take the credit. It's hard to totally lean on anybody.
Matthew 26, 41, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and asking His disciples to pray with Him, can you not pray with me one hour? They kept falling asleep.
And He said, get up and pray. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
So you see, no matter how many good intentions I have, and really, no matter how many victories I've had in the past, that doesn't guarantee me a victory today if I'm not leaning on God today.
Leaning on God yesterday doesn't help me today. I have to lean on God today.
I suggest starting every day saying, God, I am absolutely nothing without you. I can do nothing without you. I lean entirely on you today. I am desperate without your help.
Not get up and say, I got this, piece of cake. No problem. No time to pray this morning. Got to rush on. Do my plan.
Do you know that spending time with God honors Him? And I might even go on to say, I think it's quite insulting to Him when we don't spend time with God.
Because really, what we're saying, in essence, is, I don't need you.
I mean, come on, don't look at me like that. Well, no, I'm just busy. Well, you know what? If you get a big enough problem, you're not too busy for God. Come on, am I telling the truth?
You get a big enough problem, you're not too busy for God. And, you know, some of us can get that after two or three times around the mountain. I wasn't like that. I needed about a thousand trips.
Until I finally got it. Apart from you, I can do nothing.
Now, when I come to that point, now I am a candidate for God's power. But I'm not going to have that power until I know that I have to have it to survive.
Well, God is mighty, and He wants to share His power with you.
Releasing Power Through Speaking God's Word
One of the best ways to release God's power is by confessing His word out loud.
Today, we're offering you a book that has been a favorite of hundreds of thousands of people. It's called The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word. It's a gift edition.
And I think when you learn how to speak the Word of God out loud, write words on the right occasion, you are doing warfare with the enemy of your soul, Satan, and you're going to have a lot more victory.
Remember, you can do all things through Christ who is your strength.
Learning how to do battle with the enemy with the Word of God is the best thing you can learn. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. It is a weapon against forces of darkness.
Jesus was trying to tell the disciples that they were going to be tempted. They didn't believe it. They thought more highly of themselves than they should have.
Matter of fact, He tried to tell Peter, you're going to deny me. And Peter said, I would never, never, never, I would never do that.
Be careful when you think you stand, the Bible says, lest you fall.
We need to say, well, but for the grace of God, there go I. I'm not going to judge you and criticize you. I'm going to pray for you.
And He told the disciples, you will be tempted and if you don't pray, you will fall into the temptation.
Do you know that every day of our lives we are tempted? In some way, shape or form.
And if your goal is to get the devil to leave you alone, you can forget it because that's a goal that you'll never realize.
The point is not to get him to leave you alone, but to get to the point where he will leave you alone. Because he knows that no matter what he tries, you're going to come out victorious on the other side.
And that can't just be words, it has to be tested in our lives.
You know, let me just give you a real practical example. If you have a real problem with appetite and you're tempted every day, then don't wait till you sit down at the table or you're at the buffet and then start praying for God to rebuke the calories.
But whatever you know that your weaknesses are, pray constantly and early.
The Spirit is willing, we want to do what's right, but the flesh is weak. Amen?
Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Because that's how we release God's power in our life.
From Willing to Performing – God's Strength in Weakness
In Romans 7 verse 18, the great Apostle Paul said, I can will what is right, but I have no power to perform it. I have the urge to do what's right, but I never carry it out.
You see, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it.
Isn't it frustrating when you want to do what's right and you still end up doing what's wrong?
You know, I have a holy plan for every day while I'm laying in bed in the morning. Today, God, I'm going to be so lovely. I'm going to just be sweet and have all good words and all good thoughts and I'm going to be so good to people and that works great.
I have great success until I put my feet on the floor and get out of bed. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
I can remember when I first started my journey with God back in the 70's and I had three small children. Well, they were school-aged kids. They weren't all small. Some of them were teenagers, but...
You know, I'd listen to my music CDs and my teaching at that time, cassette tapes. And my, I felt so spiritual. And you know, I got along with everybody until somebody came home.
The problem was when the people came in. Those people that won't do what I want them to do and they're annoying me.
God, you need to change them so I can be happy. Come on, you need to change them so I can be peaceful. Not... Not... Not gonna happen.
God wants to use them to change us. I said God wants to use them to change us.
So we can have a holy plan, but we can't pull it off without God's help.
John 15, 5, apart from me you can do nothing, nothing.
In 2 Corinthians 12, we see that Paul had actually been given by God a thorn in the flesh. I don't know what that thorn was, I don't know that anybody else really does.
It was a messenger from Satan to buffet him, to aggravate him, to annoy him. Could have been a person. Could have been a backache. Could have been a headache.
It could have been the devil himself just tempting him and tormenting him. It could have been a lot of things, but frankly, it doesn't really matter what it was.
The thing that God said to him is, My strength is made perfect in your weakness. My strength is made perfect in your weakness.
So he was basically saying to him, Stop worrying about your weakness, because that's where my strength will show up, if you'll trust me for that.
So then Paul said, I glory in my weaknesses.
Can I tell you something? We worry too much about our weaknesses. We get too concerned about every little thing that's wrong with us, and we focus on that, which actually makes us self-centered.
Do you know that focusing on what's wrong with you all the time, is just as wrong as focusing on what's right with you all the time.
Well, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. Well, who is? That's why we need Jesus.
So you say, Lord, I'm weak in this area. I need your strength. I believe you're changing me every day, and I'm not going to spend today worrying about what I did wrong yesterday.
I trust you to strengthen me in my weakness.
Crushed to Depend on God – 2 Corinthians 1
And then one of my very favorite scriptures in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 1, 8 and 9. Boy, did these scriptures explain a lot to me many years ago.
2 Corinthians 1, verses 8 and 9. For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and the oppressing distress which befell us in the province of Asia.
How we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life itself. That's some pretty serious problems.
Maybe somebody came in here tonight, or somebody's watching by TV, and you think, I don't even know if I want to keep living. If this is what life is, I don't even know if I want to go on.
Well, that's exactly what the devil wants you to think.
And then Paul said, indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the very sentence of death. But now watch this.
But that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God who raises the dead.
They had a season, and I want to say again, season. What's going on in your life right now will not last forever. It is a season.
After winter, we always have spring. It was a season in his life of terrible problems, but they were actually designed to keep him depending on God.
And I can tell you one thing. God does us the favor every time we start to drift away from him. He has his own little ways of bringing us back to being very needy.
Can anybody say? Amen.
So even if you're going through a difficult season right now, no, none of us like trouble. None of us like problems.
But you can soften the blow to your soul. Instead of just... You can say, God, I trust you in this. There's a purpose. You're going to work some good out of this.
And just draw as close to God as you possibly can during that period of time. And learn how to depend on him for everything.
So, how can we see God's power released in our life? That's the subject matter this weekend.
First thing we have to do to qualify for God's power is to realize that in and of ourselves, we are weak. And we really have very little ability to do anything really successfully without God.
So, everybody shout out real loud, I need God. I need God!
Boy, don't you wish that everybody in the world knew this, that they needed God?
You know, that's what's wrong with the world today is we've got so many people who think they don't need God.
And so, things just have to keep going bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, until it gets so bad that people can't stand it, and then maybe they'll come back to God.
All you've got to do is read the Bible when people were trusting God, loving God, believing in God, things were good, and when they turned away from God, things got bad.
It doesn't... it's not rocket science. Nobody has to be Einstein to figure this out.
Turn to God, be needy, cry out to God, and things turn around in your life.
Believe the Power Is Available to You
Now, the second step to releasing God's power in your life is something to believe that God's power is available to you.
And I have to press this point because there are many Christians. Christians. I mean, they're Christians. They've received Christ. They believe they're going to heaven.
But still, they're giving up on life. Sinking into depression and despair. Discouraged and sad most of the time. Downtrodden. Selfish and self-centered.
Absorbed in their problems. Not doing anything to help anybody else.
And although they do have a love for God, they get out in this ungodly world and behave just as ungodly as all the ungodly people out there.
And most of them live that kind of a life because they don't know that God's power is available to them. Or somehow or another, they discount themselves.
And they think that God's power is not available to them because of their flaws and their faults in the life they've lived.
Well, it's that very power that we need to lift us out of that life that we've lived. And to help us overcome the weaknesses that we have.
Let me tell you something. It's never too late for a fresh start with God. Never too late. Never too late.
You should enjoy this life that Jesus died to give you. I mean, I'm looking forward to going to heaven, but I'm having a good time right now.
It's not going to be as good as that, but I'm enjoying this journey. And for a lot of years, I didn't.
And every one of my days are not perfect. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
God's power is available to you.
We're going to look at a few scriptures again.
Acts chapter 1, verse 8. When the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall receive power. Ooh, hallelujah.
Don't you just love that word? Isn't that like a wonderful word? Power. Power. Holy Ghost, oomph. Amen. Amen.
But you shall receive power, ability, efficiency, and might, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses.
I want you to notice that he did not say, do witnessing.
You see, the sad thing was, before I really knew anything about the power of God, I was on the evangelism team of my church.
And I went out every Wednesday night with my friends, knocking on doors, telling people about Jesus. And my life was so pathetic.
I could tell people about Jesus, but I did not have the power to act like Jesus. Amen?
And if you study that word dunamis, which is the Greek word for power in Acts 1-8, this is the way it's defined.
That power is strength. Strength. Ability. Power to perform miracles.
Well, how far does that go over everybody's head? We hear that and we're like, well, yeah, maybe some super special gifted person, but that one just goes right over our head.
Well, we get what we believe for. Let's start believing that the power of God is available to us to see miracles in our lives and in other people's lives.
We're not going to have miracles if we don't believe for miracles. We have to believe in the miracle-working power of God.
But then I especially love this part, and I really think this part is probably more important to God than all the other things I've already said.
This word dunamis, translated power, says it is moral power and excellence of soul. Wow.
So, what is moral power? It means that I have the power to be a moral person. I have the power to bear the fruit of the Spirit when it's hard.
Matter of fact, in all seasons, we can bear good fruit if we have the power of God in our lives.
It means that we can go through difficult times. We can go through times that we don't understand, and we can still bear good fruit.
When something ungodly is happening to us, we don't need to act ungodly. That's when we need to call on the power of God to have that moral excellence of soul that enables us to act like Jesus would act in a similar situation.
And when I was first taught about resisting the devil many years ago, myself as well as many other people that I knew thought that meant to resist problems.
I have a problem. I resist you, Satan. Somebody's annoying me. I resist you, Satan. Anybody go through that?
You know what I meant? And I'll never forget the day that the Holy Spirit whispered to me. Resisting the devil, Joyce, doesn't mean resisting the problem.
It means resisting acting like the devil while you have the problem. That's what it means to resist the devil.
When we have this power of God, it's a moral excellence of soul that enables us to be Christ-like in every situation.
We are God's representatives in the earth, and it is very important how we behave out in the world, and especially in the parts of the world that are lost and don't know Christ.
And maybe who already have a bad opinion of Christians. You know what? We need to change their attitude.
And we can't talk them into it. We have to show them something.
Authority and Power Given to Believers
Luke 10, 19. Behold, which means look and see. I love this. I have given you authority and power. Not I'm going to give you. I have given you.
So, will you believe with me tonight that you have power in your spirit? Everybody say, I have power. I have power.
To do whatever I need to do. In every season of my life.
See, that already feels better. I mean, you already feel so much better than you did when you walked in here thinking, this is too much for me. I'm so tired of this.
I just can't do this. I'm in over my head. I'm going to quit. I'm going to give up.
God, if you don't do something tonight, I'm out of here.
Now you can go out and say, I'm not worrying about the stinking problem. God is in me. He is on my side. I am more than a conqueror.
This too shall pass.
Honestly and truly, we just camp too much on top of the problems. When this one's gone, there'll be another one in its place.
So just... You know, I'm not trying to be negative. I mean, that... It just happens, you know?
Man, I have fractured three toes this year. I mean, I walk all the time. You know, it is not fun to be up here trying to preach the gospel with fractured toes.
And I took the tape off for tonight because it's not very cute. I stumbled up a set of steps and fractured one. The one next to my big toe.
Then, in my workout regime, I was doing these things called calf raises where you get way up on your toes. Broke the one next to that one then.
I'm trying to do what's right. I'm working out. Then, just about the time it started feeling better, I re-broke the first one. I have no idea how I did that.
You know what? This too shall pass. You know? I mean, I went to a very good foot doctor. You know what his great advice was? It is what it is. It'll get well.
So, you know, that's life.
I don't know what kind of allergies you guys have here in Arkansas, but they are nasty. My gosh. Do you have some kind of special brand of allergies here or what? I don't...
So, I'm just making a point that you don't have to be unhappy because you don't feel perfect or everything is not going exactly the way you want it to.
God's power enables you to preach with fractured toes, without fractured toes. Come on.
Are you with me tonight? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Luke 10, 19. Behold, I have given you power. I have given you authority and power.
We're going to talk about that authority tomorrow morning, tomorrow night.
To trample upon serpents, which means evil spirits, and scorpions, and physical and mental strength and ability over all the power.
Now, please notice that we have power. The devil has power. We have authority.
There's nothing there that says the devil has authority.
This is really big. The only authority that the enemy has is what we give him through lack of knowledge or through passivity, which is just sitting by lazily letting him do whatever he wants to do and not aggressively coming against him.
You know, if you didn't plan to be here all weekend, you ought to change your plans.
And you ought to go get some of your beat down, broken up, messed up, downtrodden Christian friends who want to do nothing but complain all the time and bring them over here and say, I got your answer, let's go.
And then it goes on to say that scripture, and nothing shall by any means harm you.
It doesn't say nothing will ever come against you, but it won't have ultimate victory over you.
Paul's Prayer for Knowing God's Power
And then in Ephesians 1 19, well actually starting in verse 17, Paul prayed three prayers for the church at Ephesus that are so important.
First he said, I pray that you will know God personally for yourselves, know God.
Don't have second-hand faith, have your own faith, have your own relationship with God, have your own experience with God.
Know your Bible for yourself, don't try to have it through somebody else.
The second thing he's prayed is that they would know who they were in Christ.
You've got to put on righteousness, be confident, hold your head up high, I am a child of God and I will not be defeated.
And then the third thing that he prayed was that those believers in Ephesus would know the power that was available to them who would believe.
So even back then we had believers who didn't know anything about the power of God.
You know why? Because the devil wants to hide that from us.
You have power available to you. Power to overcome temptation. Power to see addictions broken off of your life.
Power to deal with annoying, irritating people. And actually feel sorry for them instead of getting angry at them.
Come on, we can get there. Granted, it may take all the way until Saturday morning, but we can get there.
Are you with me? Power!
We have the power to love the unlovely. We have the power to be peaceful in a storm. We have the power to be joyful in adverse circumstances.
We have the power to help other people when we are hurting so bad ourselves that we can't hardly stand it.
We have the power to wait and to wait well. We have the power to be patient. We have the power to do whatever we need to do.
Through Christ, who strengthens us. Amen?