Believing for Breakthrough II - Releasing God's Power

Okay. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe according to the working of his might. I missed the Word. The working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when He raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power, dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he's put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church. That sound familiar? Hello? Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all a magnitude of the purpose of God in His church. Beloved, it's just so astonishing when you come to grips with what the Word says about the church. We're going to talk this morning about the power of God. It's a subject that I expect that most of us, at one time or another, when we began to think seriously about it, had to admit that there was a little bit of ambivalence in us, that there was some questions in us about what really is this power of God all about? You see, on the one hand, we believe, don't we, that, well, the power of God is our only hope. The Scriptures plainly teach that it's only by the power of God that you're kept unto the day of salvation. It's only by God's power that you're ever going to stand before God and rejoice with the angels in heaven, Right? So we believe that that power has got to be working in us. And yet. Well, I mean, if we're really honest with ourselves, not only does our salvation depend on it, but every breath depends upon it. And yet if we reverse that and we say, well, if a skeptic or a critic comes to us and would say, show me the power of God in your life. Show me some evidence that would prove to me that God is powerful as you say he is, well, then that's when we get a little bit dry. Well, I'm not sure if I can really show you that. But I know it's out there. I know he's working. I mean, I can tell you about somebody. Did you ever have that experience that I've had from time to time that you wish that just this one time you could take that coffee table or that desk or that ornament and turn it into a solid gold block right there in front of that person, say, see, that's the power of God. Then make it vanish again. You know why that will never happen, don't you? Do you? Because you probably would be so astonished yourself that you'd. God, in my experience, rarely does things in a dramatic way that causes people to ooh and ah. And he never seems to do things out of some sort of I told you so kind of defiant attitude. But the power of God, beloved, is always available and always plainly visible to the eye of faith. You see, in this day in which we live, we are privileged to see more evidence of the power of God now than I believe has ever been seen in the face of the earth. I, for one, as I watch and listen to what's out there, I hope you turn your TV sets on from time to time and just listen to what's going on around the world. And here in the United States, television has made a great difference, hasn't it, in our knowing what's going on. Like, for example, the 700 Club reports that they have some 50,000 miracle reports every year, evidences of God's power. 50,000 a year. That's 200 or so a day. Or think, for example, of some things that are happening in other parts of the earth where there's less of a resistance in the mind and less of a rationalistic worldview. Many evangelists and many crusade ministries go across the oceans and find a much more receptive audience because there's no disposition against it. And so you tend to get more and more and more evidence as you go around the world. You know when you see pictures of these hordes of people and they're waving their canes and their crutches, and you hear all these stories of blind eyes being opened, so on you say, well, do you wonder why that never happens here? You want to know why that is? Because here in the United States, we're just defying no God. But in other places, they're so desperate to see the power of God, they see it even more than we do here. But I'm glad to say I'm rejoicing this morning that here at North Way, we're not just talking about Something that happened somewhere else, are we. We're talking about what we see, as John said in First John 1, what we see with our eyes and touch with our hands. We know God's power is at work. Paul Dutt and his family can tell you a story about how God met him in his power on his literally what Satan would have had to be his deathbed with no heartbeat, lying on the concrete outside of Passaven Hospital two weeks later after having been diagnosed as having a massive heart attack. Here to praise the Lord and give thanks. We can tell you the stories of just person after person. Jan Heberly, 18 years without a child, here to give praise as God just gave them a little daughter last year to give him glory. We can tell you story after story. Stevie Dorn. Doctors gave him a 1 in 3 chance of surviving of his liver disease. You have to run to keep up with him. You see, beloved, it's happening all around us. We just don't always know it. We don't always give God the glory for it. And yet it is happening right here. We're seeing the Lord deliver, set people free in their personalities. We've seen the Lord transform marriages. There's people here today whose marriages were just a thread away from dissolution. God's move to save a marriage and a family relationship. God's here to provide financially. We've seen financial miracles, people on the skids about to go over. And God marshaled the people of God around some individuals and have seen them through interventions. The power of God. So I'm not just talking about something I read. I'm talking about things I'm seeing. How about you? Are you seeing them? Do you know they're out there? You're saying, well, it hadn't happened to me. I'm still struggling, I'm still broke. My marriage is still a mess. I'm still sick, I'm still grumpy, I'm still tired. You know, brothers and sisters, it is very possible for you to be here in this environment week by week, hear the testimonies, as Blaine was pointing out, listen to the word, soak in the glory of God and still not see anything happen to demonstrate God's power in your life. Do you know that's true? It happens. It happens. I just want to tell you a story. This literally happened to me this Monday that illustrates the possibility of being in touch with power and not really knowing it or how to get to it. I was moving a freezer on Monday and I borrowed Ron Meyer's pickup truck and it's a fancy new one that they recently got for the company, I guess. I picked up this freezer and I had to go out to Mars and back. So I was feeling a bit generous and I pulled into a gas station and got $5 worth to replace what I drained off, Stuck the pump in there. I remember it was going very slowly because it was cold. And I just remember thinking, this thing is going just so slow. But I got the $5 and went in and paid, got in the truck and pulled out of this place. It was up here in the flats. And I looked at the gas tank and you know, that thing was laying on empty. It was just down there. And I knew we were in trouble. And I looked at it again and it hadn't moved at all. And I said, well, I'll be darn, that thing isn't working. So I went back around, went back in the station, turned the pump on. I said, I'm just going to see if this thing's working right. So turned the pump on and I pulled the nozzle out, you know, the gas was coming out and stuck that thing in there and said, well, I better go tell her what happened. I went in and told the sales guy, I said, I put five in, but nothing happened. I didn't register in my tank. She said, well, you know, I could tell she was thinking, yeah, I've heard that before. So I put five more dollars in, but I didn't pay her for it. I just said, I didn't get my first go round there. So I put the $5 in, put the pump in, waved, got in the truck, pulled out, went down the highway, looked at that thing again and you know, it hadn't moved at all. It hadn't moved one fraction. I said, well, I know it went down, but why isn't it going up? So I figured it just must not work right on the way up, I know I'd put $10 worth of gas in there. So I drove the truck to Ron, to Ron's house. He wasn't there. The next morning I saw him at the prayer meeting and he was looking pretty happy. So I figured I hadn't run all the gas out of the truck. And I said, is there something wrong with your gas gage? And he said, oh, no, it has two tanks. You just had shown the gage on the back tank and you were putting it in the front and all there was was a switch on the dashboard that said front or rear? And see, I never knew it. I mean, it didn't say gas, it just said, Front or rear? I thought it was the heater. I don't get these fancy electronic things. But I dealt with Ron and he was laughing and everyone thought it was cute and all that stuff. It was just a little bit interesting. When I went back to the gas station to tell her that I had really put $10 in and I needed over five. And so I just slipped in there and quickly kind of like this. Well, I just didn't have enough money. Then I put $5 out and got out the door. You know, it was one of those things of having to face the embarrassment of not being able to tell why I had come back and accused them basically of not delivering the goods. I just wonder, have you ever had that experience of feeling like it's coming in but never seeing it work? Feeling like the power is all around me but I'm not hitting the switch? If you look at yourself, your spiritual power tank just seems to stay on empty. Beloved, do you see the picture? Do you see what I'm trying to say with that illustration? God's been pouring in. You just got to find the switch. So when you look at that tank, you see that it's probably full, not empty. Now I want to just highlight Here in Ephesians 1 a couple of things that will help us get in touch with the power of God. Look, first of all, with me, The first thing to get to that switch to turn it is to see this, that God's power, this is the first thing on the overhead, is immeasurable. Hallelujah. His power is immeasurable. Look at verse 19. That word means infinite. It means without boundaries. I just can't help but be reminded of just numerous conversations I've had with people when it comes to their personal situation. They say something like, well, I know God's doing these things and I know that some things reach. But you don't know my husband. And I've always wanted to say, but never have. Well then you just don't know God because there's not a husband alive that if God doesn't want to deal with them, they're not going to come under conviction. There's not a wife in the world indifferent towards spiritual things that God can't soften her heart. Remember Nebuchadnezzar back in the book of Daniel, the greatest king of the earth, mighty man had 90 foot images made after him, his own likeness. And God wanted to show him his condition. And what did God do to him literally overnight? He made him a babbling, grass eating lunatic for a year. That's right. So don't ever tell me. I just don't know your husband. God knows your husband. And I know God. And you know God. And God can do anything he wants to do. We talk about man's power to blow the earth apart with his atomic warfare, atomic weaponry. There's more atomic energy in one of these huge sunspots than we have all the atomic bombs combined in our world. I mean, God just isn't out there wondering if he can get the job done, folks. Well, I know if we save up for a few months, we might have enough power just to pull off that little miracle. We start thinking about confining God somehow. Listen to me. You know why that is? Because we look at this person, we say, they haven't changed in 25 years, and that's the way they're going to die. And the more you say that, the more you believe it. And the more you believe it, the more you're going to be right. Instead of looking at that person and saying, they haven't changed in 25 years. The power of God in a moment can change him. Right now, he can change him. And that, brother or sister, will be the thing that will bring the release of God's power. There is nothing limiting the power of God. It's immeasurable. Paul uses four words. We have an overhead that talks about that four words in the Greek. He's in effect saying here in verse 19. I don't know how to say it any other way. So I'm going to tell you all the words I know for power, just to get the point across. The first one is dunamis, translated power. In your scripture there, which means inherent in and of itself, it has power. It's a throbbing power. The second word is energia, which means working. That's the word from which we get energy. You see there? That's operative power. It's power to perform. The third word that's in there in verse 19 is the word for mighty. In the Yaros fee, it says great might. A better translation is mighty power. But kratos means ultimate mighty. Ultimate, no, higher power. And the fourth word is ischus in the Greek. Means an endowed power. In other words, a power which has authority to perform. He's saying. I don't know what else to say. It's a power like no power that ever was. It's God's power. And beloved, look where it is. Where is it? Say it. Say it again. Where is it? In US. What? 30% have said it. Where is it? Say it again. Turn to someone and say, in you, Beloved, It's the Holy Spirit in us. That's the power of God. I mean, that kind of power is in me. That's what I'm saying. That's what the Bible says. What's more important? It's in us. It's in us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You remember, particularly men I'm talking to now when you were probably about junior high age back, and then maybe even more lately, but when you would get with Mr. Big on camp, I mean, Mr. Musk, Mr. Muscles, you know, Mr. Workout, and how if you were just with him and he was paying attention to you at the moment, you just did something to your ego, you know, if he'd walked like, you know, like he couldn't move his arms like this, you kind of felt yourself just moving along like that, you know. And when you were with Mr. Big, you felt like, you know, Mr. Junior Big, right? Even though you might only weighed 87 pounds. Do you know what I'm saying? Sure you do. Some of you still like to be around people like that. Why do you think people go with these athletes sometimes? Some these big strapping, particularly the football players? There's something about them that lifts your own perception of yourself. Well, you know, I just wish that we would think that way about God sometimes. I mean, when we see who we are, when we see who he is in us, we're Ms. Big. We are the power of God being displayed wherever we go. Remember when the man in Acts chapter three was laying there in front of the temple gate and he was lame and he asked for alms? What did Peter say to him? But that which I have, I give. In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. Name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. See, beloved, the key is that which I have. And the church, by the power of the enemy, has been blinded to see for years what they have. We have the power of God. It is in us. It's in us. It's not around us. It's not out. So much of our ministry is third person ministry. Well, I'm going to pray for you. And maybe God's power will come down. I mean, this is what we think. We think of. I'm sort of a. All I'm doing is asking God to do something. God is saying, no, it's through you. That's why we lay hands on people. That's why we have ministry. Because it's through us. Through us, through us that the power of God flows. You say, well, oh, look at me. I'm a chipped, cracked, misshapen, decrepit old vessel. Or perhaps you say I'm just not appealing as a vessel. In fact, God, this must get in the way, this vessel of mine, who I am. Do you know something? Paul says so clearly in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, that these vessels are earthen, and the word just means made out of dirt. Made out of dirt. That's what it means. These are dirt made vessels so that the transcendent glory of God can be seen in them. God isn't looking at your vessel. He wants people to see his glory. Have you ever noticed that God seems to use the weirdest vessels to do the greatest works? There are some. I'm serious. How many of you ever went to Kathryn Kuhlman? She was a wonderful instrument of God. She was. Just in terms of a vessel, though, she was formed out of different hunk of clay, it seemed like. But, boy, did God use her right. And you think a lot of these people that God uses power powerfully are just vessels that are unusual. Why? Because he wants to receive the glory. You know, many times people who come in with pretty slick vessels have a long row to hoe. Seeing that vessel, they think their vessel is pretty hot stuff. Look what I'm bringing into the kingdom, folks. This is the neatest piece of pottery we've got around here. I remember when I was healed of this. No, not that. This attitude, you guys. I haven't been healed of that yet. Don't make me start watching my words around here. We're going to be in trouble. I had early in seminary, I went up to a small church outside of Bakersfield, California, and there was an Oriental gentleman, an Asian. I don't know where he was from exactly, but he was just really not particularly attractive at all. And the worst thing, he didn't smile at all. He just looked unhappy. He just didn't have any reflection of anything on the outside that made me have much expectation. I remember thinking, well, this little church, it was a little rural church outside in the farmland in Bakersfield. We were there visiting a friend. And I remember thinking so clearly, well, I guess this is probably someone that just moved here. This is maybe the best they could do. And I was ready to just have somebody come up there and in an accent, start to sort of labor their way through some old hymn. And this man got up and sang so beautifully. I mean, I started to weep. Everyone around me was weeping because he just glorified his little body. This giant voice came out I just didn't know how it could all get in there. It was glorious. And I just remember, never since then have I to my knowledge judged what God would put in someone by their cover, as it were, by the vessel itself. We just need to see this, beloved. We need to see that the power is in us. It's not what we are on the outside that matters. Do you hear that? You need to know that. And by vessel, I'm talking about a lot of things. I'm talking about your experience, your education, your economic standing, doesn't matter, your denominational background. You're just a vessel. But the power is great. The third thing is that his power must be released his way. Look at verse 19. What is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who say the word believe? Our problem isn't one of trying necessarily to manipulate the power of God. Most of us aren't looking to make a buck on the power. Is that right? Remember Simon in Acts 8 was. But ours isn't that way. We're not trying to get out there and get people to ooh and ah at us. Most of us have the problem of not knowing how to release this power or even being convinced that it's there. Last week we said, the beginning of breaking the limits in God is number one. To what? Know him. Verse 17. Know God, the Spirit of wisdom. Revelation number two. It was to what? Know yourself. That's right. Know the hope of your calling. Know what God says about you. But this third thing of seeing that God has put in you a capability, a power to do his will. It's so important. We'll never fulfill the Great Commission without the power of God. He told Peter and James and John and the ones who saw him eye to eye. Listen, he said, you've seen me. You know my power. You've seen me raised from the dead. But don't you leave this place until you receive the power of God? And how can we even presume that we're going to go out and do what Jesus says without that power? Well, how do I get in touch with that power? Let me just conclude with this. First of all, in general, there's a few things you need to do. Feed your spirit, feed your mind, and involve yourself, your body and your senses in the things of God. Do you know that most of the world works backwards to this? Most of the world sees what's out there, materially involves themselves in getting it, fills their mind with it, and finally, ultimately, that's what they spiritually live on. That's right. God says, if you want to see the power of God released in you, work the opposite. Feed your spirit. How do you feed your spirit? Word of God in prayer, communing with the Holy Spirit. Feed your mind. Feed your mind with things of God. Listen. Oh, we are so blessed here. We have tapes, we have books, we have people to talk to, to converse with. We have tv, we have radio. There's no excuse not to be filling your mind with the things of God and then begin to speak it. Use your body, use your hands. Speak your mouth with your mouth. Involve yourself in the things of God. Specifically. Let me give you a couple of suggestions to release the power. The first thing you've got to do is hear the Lord. Listen, you can't make up situations where God's power. You're not. I want to say this in a way that encourages you and yet speaks the truth in this. You're not some sort of a whirling dynamo of deific power that whatever you touch is going to be transformed. You know that just wherever you bounce isn't suddenly going to be changed. God leads you. Do you remember Jesus? His model in this life is so important. Church. When he walked in, for example, to Solomon's portico, it was filled with people who were infirmed. Is that right? Filled with people laying on pallets, cripples, people with terminal cancer and all the rest waiting for the angel to stir the water. How many people did Jesus heal when he walked into that portico? 1. How many could he have healed? If his power is immeasurable, there wouldn't have been any problem. What happened? He heard what the Lord was saying. The Lord saying, here's one that I've prepared. We need to hear the Lord. We need to seek God. Lord, what do you want me to do today in my office to transmit your power? What do you want me to do today in my family? To be an instrument of power toward my husband? What do you want me to do at my school desk or in my classroom to be an evidence of your power? Ask the Lord. Hear what he has to say. Secondly, once you know, listen. Once you know, it's no problem to know that you have the whole entire authority, the word of God behind. Just speak it out in the name of Jesus. Lord, if this is what you want to do, I speak it out. I believe that you're going to change this situation right now. You have confidence. I was asked to pray. It's been a couple years ago now for someone who had a very serious automobile accident. Thought it was Going to be a fatal accident. I went in, saw the person, could not pray at that time for them to be healed. Just couldn't do it. Left the room, went, spent some time with the Lord. Came back an hour or so later. Because the Lord had put in my heart a confidence that he wanted to work to touch that person. I went in, I said, in Jesus name I bound the spirit of death. I release the spirit of life and healing. I spoke to specific parts that I knew were potentially damaged, such as the brain and so on. And I had confidence. The third thing I believed, God. I left the room. There was no change. The person didn't shake or stand up or open their eyes or anything. I just left the room. The next day, the doctor said there was a marked improvement. And then over the next few days, the person became conscious, began to open up and eat and talk and converse. And really, it was just kind of like the thing that happened to Paul Dutt. It was a radical transformation. And the final thing I think that I have up there is to persevere. Persevere and believe. And I'll tell you, church, sometimes you've got to just keep believing. Let me conclude with an illustration of that. May and Joe Lemke were an old couple, older couple, that had as a ministry the care of foster children. Some years ago, they were invited by an agency to take a boy who the agency said was really a hopeless case. He had been abandoned by his original parents in a hospital in Milwaukee that had been diagnosed accurately as having had cerebral palsy, which had cost him severe mental retardation and the loss of both of his eyes. Surgically, they had to take his eyes out. He was really accurately described as a vegetable. He had no response to verbal commands. He did not even know how to take a bottle. As an infant, he had to be taught how to suck on the bottle to eat. He was totally helpless. He had to be moved around just to show them that his body moved. From time to time, May would put a belt around him and just drag him from room to room as he grew up, just to show him that he could move. He couldn't communicate. He couldn't talk. He couldn't feed himself. He couldn't do anything. For years and years, May believed and prayed, God, Jesus, I know that you have something for this boy. I know you just didn't create him to do nothing. But there wasn't any evidence of it. And for hours, he would just sit there. Just sit there. Just sit there. One year, Mae bought him an old piano and Put it in his room and from time to time would play some songs on it. And always when he was alone by himself in the room, she'd put on the radio and play music. For 18 years, they believed God. One night, after May and Joe had put Les Leslie was his name, to bed at three in the morning, they were awakened by the sound of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. They looked at each other. They said, did you leave the radio on last night? He said, no. They got out of their bed and walked in his room and Les had lifted himself up, was seated at the piano and was playing Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. From that point on, he was able to play any song that he heard. One time he could hear a song and then play it from memory perfectly according to his ear. You see, God had quickened a part of him that received music. And he could. All the songs that he'd been hearing on the radio, he could just play freely. And from that point a new release started. He began to be able to talk, communicate, to eat. To be a man who reflected in his own broken way the glory of God. All that says to me, beloved, is never say there's no hope. Never say the power of God isn't able. Believe the Lord. He can do it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that your power is a great, immeasurable power. We thank you that your power is in us, our God. And we thank you, Lord, that it can be released through those who will simply follow the instruction of your word. Father, I ask you to lead us now as we minister in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, I'm going to ask you to do this. We have enough time just to spend a few minutes in the first service. You know, we were pushing the clock. His faithfulness, his goodness towards us. It's just how thankful we are.