Over a period of several weeks the Lord began to speak to my heart and reveal to me the multiple answers to my singular question: "Why don't we see the power Jesus promised here in America?" The answers to that question came over a period of several weeks's and I am going to give them to you, the reader, one at a time as well. This will give you the time to prayerfully consider these answers; prayerfully consider how they apply to your life; and hopefully, through repentance and by the Holy Spirit, put them into practice in your own life.
The first response from the Lord to my question of "Where is the power?" actually kind of surprised me! It wasn't what I anticipated could possibly be "AN ANSWER" to this perplexing question. However, what the Lord shared with me, as the first reason we do not see the power of the Lord in most of the Followers of Jesus here in America, is because we need to go to the desert and through the authority of the Lord, and by the Holy Spirit, defeat the devil over THAT THING in our life! Ok Steve, WHAT thing in my life are you referring to? I'm referring to .....THAT thing! You know,........ THAT THING! That thing (sin) that you just can't seem to get victory over. That one sin that just seems to keep haunting you, and calling to you, and defeating you! That sin that you keep going to the Lord and confessing and repenting of! That sin that you beg God to forgive you of and that you PROMISE to never do again, until you find yourself stooped in it's mire once again! And then the GUILT comes! Oh man, how the guilt comes! You KNOW what I'm talking about, and if your reading this, and this is resonating with your heart, YOU have been Divinely appointed to read this blog!
Ok, before we go any further, let's take a look in the Bible to our reference for this answer to my question. It's the temptation of Jesus, and it's in Luke 4:1-21 NLT:
1 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,[a] 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.
3 Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’[b]”
5 Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. 7 I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”
8 Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say,
‘You must worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.’[c]”
9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the Scriptures say,
‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you.
11 And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’[d]”
12 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’[e]”
13 When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.[f]”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
We are not going to take the time here to go over all of the truth that can be drawn-out of these verses, but I do want to share 3 things with you that stick out very blatantly: 1) Immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit at His baptism, Jesus is led into the wilderness to do battle with the devil. While there, He is fasting, and after He becomes very hungry, tired, and spent, the devil attacks. And he attacks Him at the areas where he perceives he could be vulnerable! First is hunger. Second is fame. Third is His belief in the Father (who Jesus really is). The devil attacks Jesus with temptation, at the very places He would be most vulnerable! He still LOVES using this tactic on you and I, and has become quite proficient at it. 2) The second point is that only AFTER Jesus had defeated the devil in regard to those THINGS that He could be weakest at, did Jesus return to Galilee to begin to minister God's Kingdom. Notice the text says AFTER He had defeated the devil, He (Jesus) returned to Galilee. But He didn't just return. He returned "filled with the Holy Spirit's power!" 3) Jesus then goes to the temple and declares that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 61 and leaves from there and begins to do miraculous events which support and validate the Words of the Father and His kingdom are TRUE! Are you getting the connection? Why would God the Father mandate that God the Son MUST go into the desert in a weakened condition and in this weakened condition, do battle with the devil? The answer is to show you and I that we can defeat the devil no matter what our condition, not within our own human power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit! C'mon, make the connection! It was only AFTER Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him filling Him with His power, that He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to first become weak, and then defeat the devil and his temptations. Only then, did Jesus go back into His hometown and begin to do miracles that validated His preaching!
So, how does this apply to Believers in America and our apparent lack of power? Simple, we are holding onto that THING, our "pet sins!" The sins that the devil attacks us with when we are weakest and most vulnerable. The sins that keep causing us to stumble and never quite reach our potential. Those sins we cry, confess, and repent over and over and over again! And the problem is, as humans, after awhile of not defeating these sins, we simply begin to peacefully coexist with them. We live for the periods of closeness to God and victory between the periods of defeat. And this my friend, is why we don't see the power of God manifested for many believers here in America. The "hidden" "besetting" sin renders us impotent in our kingdom battle against the devil and his forces! How can we bring "freedom" to those who are in bondage, when we ourselves are in "bondage?" The devil laughs! Ok Steve, what's the answer? The answer is: "Go into the desert, not in YOUR power or YOUR might, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, do battle with the devil, and DO NOT return to do ministry until you have defeated him and are ready to return and proclaim the Kingdom of God, validated with the power of the Holy Spirit!
In part 2 of this first answer to our question of "where is the power," we will delve into "HOW" we acquire the Power of the Holy Spirit to defeat the devil in the wilderness and overcome once and for all, ........... THAT THING!
The first response from the Lord to my question of "Where is the power?" actually kind of surprised me! It wasn't what I anticipated could possibly be "AN ANSWER" to this perplexing question. However, what the Lord shared with me, as the first reason we do not see the power of the Lord in most of the Followers of Jesus here in America, is because we need to go to the desert and through the authority of the Lord, and by the Holy Spirit, defeat the devil over THAT THING in our life! Ok Steve, WHAT thing in my life are you referring to? I'm referring to .....THAT thing! You know,........ THAT THING! That thing (sin) that you just can't seem to get victory over. That one sin that just seems to keep haunting you, and calling to you, and defeating you! That sin that you keep going to the Lord and confessing and repenting of! That sin that you beg God to forgive you of and that you PROMISE to never do again, until you find yourself stooped in it's mire once again! And then the GUILT comes! Oh man, how the guilt comes! You KNOW what I'm talking about, and if your reading this, and this is resonating with your heart, YOU have been Divinely appointed to read this blog!
Ok, before we go any further, let's take a look in the Bible to our reference for this answer to my question. It's the temptation of Jesus, and it's in Luke 4:1-21 NLT:
1 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,[a] 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.
3 Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’[b]”
5 Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. 7 I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”
8 Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say,
‘You must worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.’[c]”
9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the Scriptures say,
‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you.
11 And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’[d]”
12 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’[e]”
13 When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.[f]”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
We are not going to take the time here to go over all of the truth that can be drawn-out of these verses, but I do want to share 3 things with you that stick out very blatantly: 1) Immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit at His baptism, Jesus is led into the wilderness to do battle with the devil. While there, He is fasting, and after He becomes very hungry, tired, and spent, the devil attacks. And he attacks Him at the areas where he perceives he could be vulnerable! First is hunger. Second is fame. Third is His belief in the Father (who Jesus really is). The devil attacks Jesus with temptation, at the very places He would be most vulnerable! He still LOVES using this tactic on you and I, and has become quite proficient at it. 2) The second point is that only AFTER Jesus had defeated the devil in regard to those THINGS that He could be weakest at, did Jesus return to Galilee to begin to minister God's Kingdom. Notice the text says AFTER He had defeated the devil, He (Jesus) returned to Galilee. But He didn't just return. He returned "filled with the Holy Spirit's power!" 3) Jesus then goes to the temple and declares that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 61 and leaves from there and begins to do miraculous events which support and validate the Words of the Father and His kingdom are TRUE! Are you getting the connection? Why would God the Father mandate that God the Son MUST go into the desert in a weakened condition and in this weakened condition, do battle with the devil? The answer is to show you and I that we can defeat the devil no matter what our condition, not within our own human power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit! C'mon, make the connection! It was only AFTER Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him filling Him with His power, that He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to first become weak, and then defeat the devil and his temptations. Only then, did Jesus go back into His hometown and begin to do miracles that validated His preaching!
So, how does this apply to Believers in America and our apparent lack of power? Simple, we are holding onto that THING, our "pet sins!" The sins that the devil attacks us with when we are weakest and most vulnerable. The sins that keep causing us to stumble and never quite reach our potential. Those sins we cry, confess, and repent over and over and over again! And the problem is, as humans, after awhile of not defeating these sins, we simply begin to peacefully coexist with them. We live for the periods of closeness to God and victory between the periods of defeat. And this my friend, is why we don't see the power of God manifested for many believers here in America. The "hidden" "besetting" sin renders us impotent in our kingdom battle against the devil and his forces! How can we bring "freedom" to those who are in bondage, when we ourselves are in "bondage?" The devil laughs! Ok Steve, what's the answer? The answer is: "Go into the desert, not in YOUR power or YOUR might, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, do battle with the devil, and DO NOT return to do ministry until you have defeated him and are ready to return and proclaim the Kingdom of God, validated with the power of the Holy Spirit!
In part 2 of this first answer to our question of "where is the power," we will delve into "HOW" we acquire the Power of the Holy Spirit to defeat the devil in the wilderness and overcome once and for all, ........... THAT THING!
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