Power For Life

"Power For Life"

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Intro:

Jesus said those who receive the Holy Spirit, receive power. Power for living, power to witness, power to pray, and power to perform miracles. What it amounts to is power to be like Jesus in this world. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him. (1 Jn. 4:16-17) Power to live like He would have us live. Power to emulate Him with our lives. Power to do the things He did - and greater. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (Jn. 14:12) How can we do the miracles Jesus did? With the help of the same Holy Spirit by which Jesus performed them. With our immersion into the Holy Spirit’s influence comes an opportunity to be clothed in power from above.

Power ... To Live for Jesus

So many people struggle in their Christian walk. Part of them want to live a consistent Christian life and live godly in Christ but another part of them keeps them from being successful in doing so. It is the classic struggle of Romans 7, 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. . . . 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. . . . 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Ro. 7:15, 18-19, 21-25a)

Thank the Lord for not having Paul stop writing with, 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? He doesn’t leave us without the hope of victory in life with Jesus. He concluded by saying, 25 Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!.

In another place Paul compares the Christian life to walking with the Spirit. He says, Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Gal. 5:25)

In another place he presents the Spirit as the Sanctifier and the alternative to succumbing to the sins which weigh down so many. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. (Eph. 5:18) It is the power of the Holy Spirit which enables believers to turn from the sins that hinder them and live in spiritual victory. Wednesday night we heard Maria Khaleel say,

"You can make it to heaven without the baptism in the Spirit. We need the baptism in the Spirit to live here on earth until we get to heaven." (Maria Khaleel, Pembroke Pines, FL, Power for Purpose, DVD, 2003)

I like the truth our General Superintendent, Brother Trask, underscored in the video, Power for Purpose. He said,

"The purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to endue a person with power to BE a witness, not just to say, to live the Christian life.

We are to witness with our lives, by what we are and who we are, as well as what we say.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit gives us power to live for Jesus.

Power ... To Witness

... you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses...

One of the things Jesus told us the Spirit would do is to empower us to share our faith. To boldly proclaim the truth. Think of Peter’s transformation at Pentecost. He went from being scared by a school girls’ question to pointing his finger in the face of 3,000 Jews and telling them about Jesus. This man (Jesus) was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. 24 But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. (A 2:23-4)