RECEIVE GOD’S POWER · Mar 27, 11:27 PM
RECEIVE GOD’S POWER
I just returned from New York last night where my son, John, and I attended an International Arts conference that applied the principles of the kingdom through the arts…using musical, dramatic and visual arts as metaphors. The kingdom is moving through new channels in the earth.
As you might imagine, we have given a lot of thought and study to the issue of God’s power (gr: dunamis) since Debbie received a medical diagnosis of stage 4, metastasized breast cancer 18 months ago. Don’t bother looking up information in books or on the web about stage 4, metastasized cancer … it is uniformly depressing. The medical field has nothing hopeful to offer in that scenario.
After duly facing and processing worst case scenarios… Deb and I realized that we have to look to another source for hopefulness. We have released our lives to God, and I have released her to God. We began doing an internal emotional and spiritual inventory…discovering and dealing with any and all hindrances in our lives (Heb. 12) while we fixed our eyes on Him and set ourselves to run our race with endurance…
We have learned a lot in the past 18 months about God’s power. Perhaps one of the most important is that God’s power is not a tool for us to use for our own purposes… rather it behooves us to find the correct “alignment” with His purposes so that His power can flow through us with a minimum of hindrances in order to accomplish His purposes in His timing. Most of the time we have major emotional and mental incongruities in our lives that block or restrict God’s power from being able to flow freely in and through our lives. We are often unable to “receive” God’s power. The key is not trying forcefully to GET God’s power…but rather to find a place of quiet rest in Him where we can fully RECIEVE the power that He is already giving us!
The purposes of trials and testing is to expose those hindrances and incongruities that are still restricting or blocking God’s power from flowing through our lives. That is why we should “rejoice” when we encounter various trials…it means that we are going to grow and become more receptive to, and congruous with His dunamis…dynamite miraculous power!
We don’t know how our story will end yet….but Deb and I are walking on the water, there is no boat to get into…and we are having fun learning so many wonderful new things! We are greateful for the test. If we keep walking on water…it will be for His glory…if we sink…we go into His presence….that is what I would call a win/win situation! Whatever happens, we know that we can count on His superlative, abundant, beyond-all-that-we-can-ask-or-imagine goodness!
It has been enjoyable to share this journey of studying the teaching of Jesus with you. I know that I will never be the same after these last 3 years of studying the life and teachings of Jesus, and learning to love him by obeying his commands.
joseph
Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
JOH 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
When do we receive God’s Spirit?
The moment we put our faith in Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16; John 3:6-7; Romans 8:15-16; 1Cor. 3:16).
What are the goals of God’s Spirit in us?
1) Called to Holiness: (1 Peter 1:15-16; Rom 12:1; 2Cor. 7:1).
2) Called to suffer: (Matt.5::11-12; 1 1Peter 2:21; 2Tim 1:8-9;
3) Called to Fruitfullness (John 15:16; John 15:7-8;).
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Joseph,
The site is great! Keep it coming, and I’ll look forward to seeing it develp and emerge.
Regarding “Recieve God’s Power”, I can relate to the “emotional and life issues” dynamics that can hinder our reception of God’s power. I have been going through a time personally for the last couple months where God has been faithfully fingering some very significant and serious blockages in my own life. I am grateful for His grace and asking Him to help me not to remain in these patterns that go back to childhood. It is a vulnerable, painful and blessed time. I think I had concluded that I had been taken apart and reassembled for the last time. Now I know that that process doesen’t end as long as we’re breathing (maybe even after we physically stop breathing???). My need for continued and new renovation is crystal clear at the moment. I want to get aligned so that I can be a recpient and conduit of His power.
On another note, I deeply appreciate the way you and Debbie are dealing with her cancer. It is an incredible journey. I love the hope and reality and sense of adventure that you all demonstrate. Your attitude generates a positive vibe for the rest of us who are walking with you through this. The emails and updates I get from some of my other friends, (Andrew and Margaret Howell and the Petrie’s excepted.) sometimes seem to convey a sense of guilt that if I don’t fast, pray, do warfare, and storm heaven with enough intensity that I will be contributing to the problem — that somehow my level of intensity determines or helps to determine the outcome. And the outcome is seen as win/lose, not win/win, with winning being total healing and losing being death. I identify with your approach of getting in a quiet, receptive place to recieve His power rather than trying to screw up my intensity to “get” His power. Thanks for your refreshing perspective.
John Meadows
— John Meadows · Apr 1, 07:39 AM · #
Thank for your rich and encouraging reflections John. I am grateful that you and I are still on the journey, and that God is able to reveal the areas where we need to change and grow… “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (PHI 1:6). He is a good shepherd.
Something that almost frightens me is how many people at our stage of life seem to “plateau” or get stuck. They sort of just give up and try to coast to the end. Keep up the good spirits on the journey John!
As as Debbie and me and our journey with cancer… there has been lots of grace. We are seeing the goodness of God and we have surrendered ourselves into his capable hands.
— Joseph · Apr 1, 04:05 PM · #