Power From On High!

‘We need the power in this last hour.’

The above words are from an old chorus we used to sing. I woke up singing this song in my heart this morning. I believe it was there because we studied a chapter from Bill Johnson’s book ‘When Heaven Invades Earth’ last night in our Life Group. It was his chapter on ‘Powerlessness: Unnecessary and Unbalanced.’

There were a few ‘ouch’ paragraphs in that chapter. ‘Ouch’ means a thought that struck deeply in my soul, made me feel uncomfortable, and I definitely got the point. Here’s one:
Many believers have made it their primary goal in life to be well respected citizens of their communities. Good character enables us to be solid contributors to society, but most of what is recognized as a Christian lifestyle can be accomplished by people who don’t even know God. While character must be at the heart of our ministries, power revolutionizes the world around us. Until the church returns to Jesus’ model for true revolutionaries, we will continue to be recognized by the world merely as nice people—while it is overcome with disease and torment, on its way to hell.

Many people think they are going to heaven because they live as good a life as the Christian they know. You hear it time and time again. They may be able to duplicate our good conduct, but they can never duplicate the power of God unleashed through us!

Even after being trained by Jesus Himself, the disciples were told by Him to wait in Jerusalem because they had need of power for the future task at hand. When they got it they knew it. It was an encounter with God that transformed them! We too are to receive that power not to help us overcome sin but to be active agents in changing the world around us!

Other ‘ouch’ comments from the book; Johnson states that too many Christians think they have to become better Christians before God can use them. That single lie has kept us in perpetual immaturity because it protects us from the power-encounter that transforms us. The result is we have converts trained and over trained until they have no life, vision, or ingenuity left.

Revolutionaries win because they have power. Saints, we need the power so that we can do what the disciples did, change the then known world. We deceive ourselves if we think we can do it without it!

They did it with power from on high!