Paul Daugherty - Get Your Power Back
At the end of Acts 1, Jesus had told his disciples, stay in Jerusalem, stay in Jerusalem, stay in the place where you've experienced your biggest heartache, your biggest disappointment. Jerusalem represented a place where these disciples wanted to leave. They were angry at Jerusalem. None of these guys were a... Jerusalem was not their hometown. Galilee, Nazareth was Jesus' hometown. And yet Jesus said, "I want you to stay right where you saw me crucified, right where you turned your backs on me. Not just where you felt disappointment, but where you felt shame because of your own mistakes. I don't want you to run from the place where you experienced pain. I want you to stay there because where the enemy struck you the hardest, the Holy Spirit is about to strike back. Where you've experienced your biggest pain, you're gonna experience your greatest healing. And not just for you, but for Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth".
Jesus was saying there's going to be a powerful manifestation of God's presence right in the same place where you experienced hurt and pain. That's a prophetic word for someone in the room today. See, what the enemy has used to try to mess with you is gonna turn into your message. Where you've been tested, it's gonna be a testimony. We all walk through pain, we all walk through loss, but we either get bitter or we get better. And if you get bitter you run from your testimony. You get angry, you become resentful, and you think you're winning with that, but you never win with revenge. You never win with resentment. You never win by avoiding the place of pain. You win when you lean into it and say, "Satan, you came after me, but I'm coming back after you. And I'm getting my joy back. I'm getting my family back. I'm getting my peace back. I'm getting my power back".
This is what Jesus was telling his disciples to do. He was saying, "Stay in this city of religiosity. Stay in this place where people have been turned because of the Pharisees, and I want you to pour out your hearts in prayer. Go to that upper room". Now, Jesus appeared to 500 people. In the Book of Acts 1, 500 people had seen Jesus, experienced Jesus after his resurrection. It wasn't just 12 disciples. It was 500 eyewitness accounts who had seen Jesus. But only 120 gathered to pray. Out of 500 people, only 120 up in that upper room met with those 12 disciples. Those 12 were part of that 120. Isn't it interesting that only 24% of the church showed up when Jesus invited all 500 of them to be a part of preparing for Pentecost? But yet there was a remnant. There was a core. The core always wants more.
I'm looking at a core this morning that's leaning in for more. And that 24%, they said, "We're gonna pray. We're gonna pray through our pain. We're gonna pray through our tears. We're gonna pray through our disappointment. We're gonna pray through our hurts. We're gonna pray through our wounds. We're gonna pray through our grief and our loss". I'm telling you there's something powerful about prayer. Prayer connects heaven down to earth. When we begin to pray, and I'm telling you these guys had not yet experienced the new language, but they were praying in their known tongue. If you don't know how to pray in the spirit, at least pray with some words by saying, "Lord, I need you. God, I'm asking for you. Lord, I want more of your Spirit".
You say, "Well, what good does that do for me"? Prayer fills you with his power. I wanna title this message today: Get Your Power Back. Tell someone next to you, "Get your power back". How many of you guys on Wednesday night, you could feel the storms rolling through Oklahoma? You had Travis Meyers on. You were watching Channel 6, or maybe Mike Collier on Channel 2. You were tuned in. How many of y'all were watching it, right? Me and Ashley, we were watching it, we were preparing, and we had just got done laying down the kids. The kids were excited. They were like, "Is there a tornado? Is something gonna happen"? We said, "Just calm down, just go to sleep".
And right around 9:45 I said, "Ashley, I gotta go get gas". She's like, "Why do you need gas"? I said, "Well, I'm on empty, and I gotta get gas to take the kids to school in the morning". But really, I've always had a dream to be a meteorologist, like on the side. Like, the Travis Meyers inside of me has always wanted to just see what's going on out there in the storms. And so I drove to QuikTrip, and I was standing outside of QuikTrip. Thank you, Jesus, for QuikTrip. And so I was standing outside and the storm's rolling in, the lightning was striking, and people were talking inside QuikTrip. They said, "Did you hear about the power outages? There's power outages all over this way, and it's headed towards Okmulgee, and there's a tornado coming through".
So I got in my car, I start driving towards Okmulgee, and I got praise and worship music on, and I'm ready. And so I'm praying in the Spirit, and I'm watching the lightning storm going, and Ashley's like, "Get home now," you know? But here's the point. As the power outages started happening in certain places, this is what the Lord began to speak to me: that the enemy has come after people's power. And it was hitting not just businesses, it was hitting homes. The enemy has tried to strike power out in homes and families.
Some of you have experienced power outages in your own life where you've lost your joy. You've lost your peace. You've lost your sense of direction. When the power went out at certain intersections, I noticed this, I pulled up to certain intersections, and the lights were just going off like crazy. Or some, the lights were totally out. And cars didn't know whether to stop or to go. This is what the enemy does. When he tries to come after your power, he creates a confusion and you don't know, do I stay or do I go? Do I go? Do I go stay? And crashes start happening, 'cause they're not being directed at what time. See, when you're in tune with the Holy Spirit, you have direction of when to go. You have direction on where to go. You have direction on when to turn. You have direction on what's in front of you.
When the power goes out, the lights go out, it's dark in that place. But this is where the disciples were at. They were in Jerusalem, and they were praying almost in the dark. They were praying in an unknown moment. They didn't know when the Holy Spirit was gonna come. They didn't have Bibles back then. They didn't have what we have. You and I, we know the story. We go, "Yeah it fell on Pentecost". Pentecost hadn't happened yet. All they knew was to keep showing up and praying, praying. Before you make another decision, before you move through that intersection where you're not sure, bathe it in prayer. We're in a time right now where we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit.
We need to be praying like never before. Prayer should be our first response, not our last resort. I'm gonna say that again. Prayer should be our first response to things, not our last resort. So when you are faced with the decision, how many of you guys got decisions you gotta make? How many of you guys are feeling the pressure in some way to make decisions? You're like, "I didn't have to make a decision, but all of a sudden I got pressure to now 'cause other people," you know? And when that pressure starts coming, the question is, did you pray about it? "Well, no, but I've talked to people about it". You've talked to people about it? Have you talked to God about it?
"Well, yeah, I mean, I threw up a prayer on the way to church this morning". But, see, God wants us to bathe it in prayer. These disciples were bathing every decision in prayer. They would shut the door. Some of us have left the door open, so we're distracted during our prayer time. We've got our phones out. We're on Instagram. We're on Facebook. We're checking in with society. We're checking in to see what's the government saying? What's President Biden saying? What's Governor Stitt saying? What are these people gonna do? You know, when our church started making decisions during the pandemic, we stopped consulting with everybody else's opinions and we shut the door and we said, "We're gonna do what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do".
I would rather disappoint man and please God than please man and disappoint God. Well, Facebook's happy with me, and God's going, "You didn't even ask for my opinion on that". God's not pleased just 'cause Facebook's happy with you, just because other people are. See, we've gotta come back to these disciples. They were in that upper room and they were saying, "Lord, if you're not in it, we don't want it. God, if you're not speaking it, we don't wanna do it". If you're not leading us, if it's not God, who chooses the directions of your life? People or God? Pressure or God? The paranoia of people or the Prince of Peace? These disciples, they were gathered in that upper room, and they were getting power just through prayer. Prayer produces power. Just say that with me, prayer produces power.
How has the enemy come for your power? For some of you, it's been fear, the fear of man or the fear of the lack of provision. Paul, if I do this, what if I run out? What if people don't like it? What if? And I'm afraid, I'm afraid. Fear has struck so many people in this season. The fear of being canceled by society. The fear of not measuring up. The fear of, "Man, what if I don't have what it takes"? For some, where the enemy has come after your power, has come after your power, it's been offense. John Bevere calls offense the bait of Satan. The bait of Satan. I was talking with my boys the other day about fishing, and they said, "Daddy, we need some good bait. We need some bait where the fish go, 'Ah...'"
You know what I'm saying? Where the fish are hungry for it, 'cause the bait we've been using hasn't been working when we've gone fishing. They said, "We need to find some good bait, some bait that is delicious to these fish". Can I tell you the enemy knows what's delicious to church people? When the church is not fighting darkness, listen to me right here, when the church is not fighting darkness, the church starts fighting each other. This is why Jesus said, "Be in one accord. Lord, I pray that my disciples". Jesus' prayer in John 17, he says, "I pray that they would be one as you and I are one". You can't be one with your brothers when you're fighting with your brothers. When you're fighting with your sisters. And a house divided cannot stand.
See, this pouring out of the Holy Spirit, it wasn't just multigenerational, it wasn't just multiethnic, it wasn't just for fathers and daughters and sons and mothers. It was about a unified church carrying revival that was gonna turn cities upside down because they had unusual camaraderie, they had unusual unity. They were sharing what they had. They were working together. They were forgiving their brothers and sisters. They were taking care of widows and orphans. They had cleansed their heart of all offense. Don't take the bait of Satan. The enemy comes for your power with fear, with offense. For some of you, he comes with anger, confusion, comparison. I wish I had what they had. I wish I could do what they were doing. Pride, selfishness, sin, shame. The shame of missing it.
Did you know that God was about to use a man who was full of so much shame to preach the greatest sermon for the early church? That this man, Peter, who had been canceled by so many people, disqualified by so many people. Peter had a foul mouth. Peter was cutting dudes' ears off. Don't try to polish Peter. Peter, he had issues just like us. How many of y'all got issues? And those of you that didn't raise your hands, you can come to the altar at the end 'cause your family's like, "She has issues. She didn't raise her hand, but trust me I've seen her when y'all haven't seen her. She's got issues". Don't tell her on Mother's Day. But we all know, how many of y'all know, we all got issues, right? And there's good news because God uses people with issues.
When the world had canceled Peter, Jesus said, "I've prayed for you, Peter. Satan came for you. He tried to use all your insecurities, all your weaknesses, all your shortcomings, but I'm praying that you're going to be restored and that you're gonna preach your best sermon yet. You're gonna write your greatest message yet". And the world's gonna be changed through broken people like these ordinary men who followed Jesus, not because they had great degrees, not because they came from wealthy families, not because they were all cleaned up and perfect and never missed it, but because they had been with Jesus. And because they had been with Jesus, they prayed in that upper room.
And in Acts 2:1, "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place". I'm looking at a room of people that are all together in one place. Don't underestimate the power of showing up together in one place. Can I tell you not everyone who started with these guys finished with these guys? You go through seasons where the Lord thins out. Not everyone who starts with you finishes with you. And so these guys had looked around and they're looking and they're going, "Where's Zacchaeus at? Where's Nicodemus? Where's blind Bartimaeus? Where's Judas at"?
And they had to make a decision. It doesn't matter who's not here, what matters is who is here, and we're gonna stand together, and we're gonna be in one accord. And we're gonna gather where two or three gather. All I need is two or three to gather. All I need is just a couple of people who come in agreement and prayer to say, "Lord, I wanna see revival in my family. I wanna see restoration in our cities. I wanna be a repairer of broken down walls. God, I want the prophecy of Isaiah 58. I want our church to be known for turning cities and towns and countries upside down". God's getting ready to shift things in America. Can you feel it? There's about to be a suddenly, there's about to be a Pentecost day, there's about to be an outpouring.
Verse 2, "Suddenly," as these men and women were praying together, young and old, black and white, Asian and Hispanic, "Suddenly there was a sound like the blowing of a violent wind come from heaven, filling the whole house where they were sitting. And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them". Now, you might be going, "Paul, what language is that? What are you talking about"?
When I was really little, I remember my parents praying for me. I remember being baptized here in the church. And when I came out of the water, my dad said, "God wants to give you a language". The Holy Spirit is not reserved to 18 years old and up. There is not a junior varsity Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that speaks to parents wants to speak to children. The same gifts of the Spirit that flow in Oral Roberts want to flow through you. It's not just reserved for the 12 apostles. There was not a stop to the gifts of the Spirit in the Book of Acts. It still wants to continue through the church today. And I remember as a kid I received this language, and I didn't know how to say it at first, and it didn't come, all these words didn't start coming at first.
You see, receiving the language of heaven, and it is a language of heaven. And when you don't know what to pray, you can begin to pray in the Spirit. And you say, "Paul, it's gibberish. It doesn't mean anything. None of us know what you're doing". But you're building yourself up. Jude says, "I pray in the Spirit to build myself up, to connect myself with heaven's will". When I don't know what to pray about a situation, I begin to pray in the Spirit and the Lord begins to give me the wisdom and the understanding. And I'm praying the will of God when I pray in the Holy Spirit. And then God begins to give an interpretation for that tongue.
Now, I don't get up on this stage for 30 minutes and just speak in tongues because we wouldn't really know what's being said. And that's not what happened here. They begin praying in tongues, and then God gave Peter a sermon from that moment. God gave Peter a message. People in the city started hearing their own language in Jerusalem. There's always someone watching when you start moving in power because there's other people, they don't have the same power as you, they're threatened by the energy. They see a fresh wind, they see a fresh fire. They say, "I need what he's got. I'll have what she has".
You know what I'm saying? They could hear a change in the city. There's about to be a change in the city of Tulsa. There's about to be a shift. There's about to be a suddenly. And in Jerusalem, verse 5, it says, "God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound". And I circled those two words, this sound. God wants to give a fresh sound to his church. We've heard some beautiful sounds over the years, but let's not keep regurgitating the sounds of the past. God wants to give a fresh sound, a new sound for 2022. And when people hear this sound, it says they gathered in bewilderment. Suddenly people who were all separated became unified because they saw another group of people that were unified with a fresh sound.
God's about to connect all these people who were in bewilderment, and they begin to ask one another, "Do you hear what they're saying? Are you hearing that? That's our language. Aren't all of these people who are speaking these languages Galileans? Then how is it that each one of us hears them in our native tongue"? And they begin to describe that they could hear their language in Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia, the Cretins, the Arabs. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and confused, they said, "What does this mean? These people must be drunk". And Peter stands up.
When you begin to pray in the Spirit, it is a power supply. It's a power supply to speak the Word of God. It's a power supply to know what to say and who to say it to and when to say it at the right time. Peter begins to stand up. He says, "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. This is not drunkenness. It's only nine in the morning. It's too early for us to be drunk," he says. I love Peter's candidness. He says, "This was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, all people.'"
Everybody say "everybody". Even your enemies. Even the people you've canceled. I'm gonna pour out my Spirit. Your sons and your daughters. This is a prophecy over every family in the room who's got a son or a daughter that's away, that's prodigal, that's not here yet. God says, "I'm coming after them. I'm going to pour out my Spirit on them. I'm coming after with love. I'm coming after with peace. I'm coming after them with prophetic words. Call 'em back. Call 'em. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams". Church, God has a multigenerational revival coming. Peter says in the last days. We are in the last days.
I was reading my dad's book this last month, "Heaven is on its Feet". My mom and dad wrote it 20 years ago. And in that book, it talks about how heaven is cheering us on, that we are in these last days. Let us throw off every weight that's holding us back. Let us throw off every entanglement. Let us run the race. Heaven is on its feet. I was playing video games the other day with my kids, and there's two buttons you can push that take you into turbo power: Control + Shift. And I remembered this as a kid. When I was a kid, we had Super Nintendo "NBA Jam Tournament Edition". Y'all remember that? Anybody grow up on Super Nintendo and "Donkey Kong"?
And, you know, back in the day, PlayStation 1, "Blitz '96". And so there was these two buttons you'd push, Control + Shift, Control + Shift. And if you push Control first and Shift and you held it down, you could tap into turbo power and you would run faster, you could dunk the ball over people, you could have like invisible features. There was all kinds of stuff, but it was through Control + Shift. And here's what the Holy Spirit's saying. The church needs a Control + Shift. We need to stop trying to control our lives and shift the control back to the Holy Spirit. We need to stop trying to control our services, stop trying to control our ministries, stop trying to control, stop trying to shift the control to the government or shift the control to the opinions of man and bring a shift control back to the Holy Spirit, and say, "Holy Spirit, we want your way. We want your will. We want your power".
I want you to stand on your feet all over this room. Y'all, it's time for a Control + Shift in your life. Some of you have walked through a power outage. You've walked through a hit towards your home, a hit towards your marriage, a hit towards your son, a hit towards your daughter. And we're not here to describe what that hit was, because that's really not the point. The point is it's time to get your power back. "Well, we need to dissect what it was". No, I just need my power turned back on. "Well, hold on. Let's go look at the light pole and see what knocked out the line". No, let's get our power back, and let's get our power back with a sustainable source, 'cause there's a little bit of power that might come from inspiration, motivation, little things.
I was praying this last week, and I felt like so many people are living off of unsustainable power shots. So we're taking our espresso beans. We got a little bit of energy. We're taking our protein shakes, a little bit of energy. We're watching our Instagram sermon clips, one minute long, a little bit of spiritual. You can't become spiritually mature through TikTok and Instagram. You gotta get in your Bible. You gotta get in the Spirit. You gotta get in the upper room. God says, "I have fresh wind for you. I have fresh ideas for you. I have fresh manna for you. You don't have to carry that heavy burden". You saw me last week carrying this pulpit. God wants to lift off. Some of us have lost our power 'cause we're carrying loads we weren't meant to carry.