Thursday, November 16, 2017

#10 The All-Essential Power

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: "You are witnesses . . . but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:48-49).

    This was said to a large group of the disciples by Jesus. The command is clear. We are not ready for Christian witness, service, or leadership until we are clothed with the promised power of the Spirit. (Google image, Jesus instructing His disciples).
   
   There was a tremendous difference in the ministry of the disciples before and after the power enveloped and clothed them. Jesus had told them that the Spirit was already with them as His disciples (John 14:17). If any person does not have the Holy Spirit he does not belong to Christ (Rom. 8:9).

    But there is always a tremendous difference between being a disciple of Christ indwelt by the Spirit, and being clothed with the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit.

    The Spirit must penetrate and possess all of our being. He must control us in all of His lordship. He must pervade our personality. He must add a dimension of supernatural power. 

    It is not enough for us to say that since Pentecost every Christian has the power of the Spirit. The question is, "Are you and I fully appropriating the power available to us?"

   You dare not serve merely with a love for Christ. You must serve in the authority of Christ, with a personality consecrated to Christ. You must be infused with power from on high, suffused with the supernatural, imbued through and through with the holy, dynamic power of God (1 Thess. 5:23).

    The one clothed with the power from on high, though still a dependent child of God, is enabled to live and serve in a new level of Spirit-given effectiveness. It is not the effectiveness of the person, but of God working through the person. 

    It is the divine clothing, pervading and empowering the human 
as long as the person serves in total dependence upon the divine person, in total obedience to the divine guidance, and in total appropriation of the divine provision.

    The sacred mystery of divine empowering is that it is all of God in and through you, but it is always dependent on the obedient cooperation of your surrendered being. God does not force himself upon you. He does not violate your will. He does not manipulate you. Satan manipulated, the occult manipulates. God works in and through you.

    God does not automatically manifest His presence in us and His power through us just because we accept Christ as our Savior. He indwells us from the moment we are born of the Spirit. But indwelling and manifestation are two different things.

    God chooses when to manifest Himself. We must prepare the way of the Lord by remaining cleansed, obedient, consciously dependent upon Him, and hungering for His manifested presence and power. Is this true of you?

    Paul was always conscious of God's mighty power working in and through him. To him it would have been unthinkable to labor for God without that power. God's working in and through him was far more important than his working for God.

    He labored tirelessly because God worked in him so powerfully. To Paul, the outworking was dependent on God's inworking. He could do for God only as God did in and through him.

    There is no other way to effective ministry. We are foolish to think that training, skill, and experience constitute an alternative to God's power. There is no alternative.

    Sometimes God works with great might without our being aware of it. God is often working silently in the hearts and lives of people as His prevenient grace prepares them for His great day of salvation, revival, and victory.

   We must persevere in prayer, total obedience, and total dependence on God through those waiting times. God has not forgotten us or His divinely chosen goals. He is marshaling His resources. He is building up His all-essential preparations for his great day of power and triumph toward which He is leading.

    As certainly as you have sensed God's presence and power in the past, just so certainly you will sense it again. You are in the midst of a conflict with the power of darkness. 

    Your experience is not unique. God's choicest saints have at times had days, weeks, and even months of such darkness. But God's answer always comes again. Don't try to get off the train while you are going through the tunnel. You are still en route to God's great victory. Hold on, and God's power will be revealed again.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
   Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. Creative reading style by Jean.

Ablaze for God
#10 The All-Essential Power
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 44 - 49) ZondervanPublishingHouse







Our prayer today-
Woman praying

   Father, as Jesus was explicit about His disciples waiting in the city for what He called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, (Acts 1:5-8), so it is important for us today to desire this filling. 
   Jesus knew that they were not ready to be the witnesses He needed, without empowerment from His Spirit, once He left them.
   As we read of their stories, we can see a big difference before the Holy Spirit was given them (Acts 2), and afterwards!
   When we merely serve the Lord with our love and devotion, we're not allowing Him to infuse us with power from on high. Our consecrated lives will take on the authority of Christ when we submit to His Spirit to fill us.
   May He find us persevering in prayer, total obedience, and total dependence on Him through our waiting, as He has not forgotten us or His divinely chosen goals.
   In His building up His all-essential preparations for His great day of power and triumph toward all He's leading us to, may we be cooperative and submissive, as well as ready to be used.
   In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Today's Bible verses-

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still 
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. (8) But
God demonstrates his own love for us in this;
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"
(Rom. 5: 6, 8).

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through 
faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the 
gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).

"So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or 
effort, but on God’s mercy” (Rom. 9:16).




 Dr. James Dobson's FREE- E-book on marriage: Enjoy Greater Intimacy In Your Marriage



Today's quotes-

~ Ernie Miller- Perfection
"The standard by which men are judged by God is perfection. There's no wavering, no easing up, no lowering of the bar. Judging not only actions but the motives of the heart . . .
From this judgment none can escape . . . but one, our Lord Christ Jesus. And all who are redeemed by Him. For there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.
Perfection . . . demanded by God and performed by Christ.
God in His wisdom demanding from men what only He can 
provide . . . the Love of God for us."
~ Keila Ochoa: “So many times we remember our sins and feel we must do something to earn God’s forgiveness. But God has said it is by grace, not by works, that we are saved (Eph. 2:8-9).
   “We may still feel sad about our past, but we need to trust His promise and believe His grace and forgiveness is real through faith in Jesus Christ. This news should lead us to thankfulness and the assurance faith brings. When God forgives, He forgets.” Taken from Our Daily Bread®, © 7/82017 by Our Daily Bread Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. www.odb.org


Today's popular post-


Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: As you pray together, the prayer of each helps deepen the hunger for God's answer and helps fan into flame the spirit of prayer.


Today's question-

   When what the Lord tells us doesn't make sense, what are we to do?

   We'll need to remind ourselves that He is worthy of our trust, and that obeying Him will bring dividends. It takes trust to submit to the Father's will, and to humbly do what He has instructed us. The Lord Jesus' orders to fill six 20-30 gallon jars with water, didn't make sense, but because He was known among them to be one to be trusted, they obeyed. (see John 2:1-10).What happened was that the water turned into wine, needed for the wedding guests! There will be rewards for our obedience, too. He can be trusted!


Upcoming posts-

What Is Repentance?
18th- Saturday's post by "Gipsy" Smith

# 11 It Takes Power to Extend the Kingdom
21st- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

#12 God's Power in the Ministry of John Wesley
23rd- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

I Am a Stranger in the Earth
26th- Saturday's post by James H. Cagle

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