POWER FOR THE SUPERNATURAL
Study Text: Luke 5: 15 - 16
Introduction:
- You can live a life of extraordinary, supernatural power! The secret is actually quite simple. God's power is obtained through a lifestyle of intimacy with Him.
- Jesus understood the connection between power and intimacy. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
- Jesus was constantly flowing in the power of God and releasing it through His life to others. The level of His anointing was in direct proportion to His prayer life.
- You need to continually develop a lifestyle of intimacy with God. Not only will you experience His tremendous power, but you will also enjoy getting to know Him, walking closely with Him and learning the secrets of His heart. You will discover that fellowship with Him is the greatest joy a person can experience.
- God’s supernatural power is a part of the Life given to us by Jesus . It’s what enables us to be sanctified, to become partakers of Christ’s Life, and what empowers us to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.
- Let’s delve into the empowering aspect of God’s Life (His dunamis power). Let’s explore what it is; how we get it; and, how we learn to depend upon it.
A. What Is God’s Supernatural Power?
- What exactly is God’s supernatural power and how does it manifest itself in our lives?
- God’s divine power was manifested in the Old Testament by miraculous deeds. A special and sometimes temporary anointing often accompanied these miracles, for example, as with Moses, Samson, Elijah, Elisha, and so on.
- The second aspect of God’s divine power is called “the power of Christ’s resurrection”: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” (Philippians 3:10).
- This power is given to every believer by the Holy Spirit at his new birth—it is part of the Life of God that He has instilled and sealed in our hearts.
- Consequently this supernatural power resides in every Christian, but it requires a submitted and sanctified life in order to partake of it.
- Just like God’s Love, it can be quenched and blocked by emotional and “fleshly” choices.
- Paul prayed for the saints at Ephesus to know this kind of resurrection power: “That the eyes of your understanding [may] be enlightened; that ye may know [1] what is the hope of His calling, and [2] what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and [3] what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18–19).
- The “hope of His calling” (our inheritance in Christ) and “the riches of His inheritance” (our future blessings in the kingdom) are linked here with the “exceeding greatness of His power.”
- God’s challenge to all of us is that we must learn to partake of, rely upon, and be controlled by the exceeding greatness of His power. And, by so doing, we’ll not only apprehend the hope of His calling, but also the riches of His future inheritance.
B. How do we Operate in the Supernatural? :
- The source of all power, therefore, is God. It’s His saving power, His pardoning power (Matthew 9:6),His infinite power (Matthew 28:18), His power over nature (Luke 8:24), and His life-giving power (John 17:2; John 10:10).
- Romans 13:1 tells us, “For there is no power but of God.” He is the One who places rulers in positions of power, and He is the One who controls our lives and our destinies by His power.
- In order to operate in the supernatural we must seek God by His Spirit and not seek after power. When His Spirit comes upon us, the power will flow naturally for the supernatural manifestations. Acts 1: 8.
1. Cultivate God’s presence in your life.
- The more you can cultivate an environment that’s conducive to the Holy Spirit, the more of God’s presence you will carry. The more of His presence you carry, the more power you will have.
- You cultivate this environment by spending time doing whatever it takes to have the person and presence of the Holy Spirit hanging out with you.
2. Cultivate God’s faith in your heart.
- True supernatural faith flows out of the spirit and affects the mind—not the other way around.
- Faith defies logic and natural reality for a higher spiritual reality. It causes natural things to line up with what God has already accomplished spiritually.
3. Add action to your faith.
- The power anointing comes for a reason and has an intended purpose. Isaiah 61:1
- The power anointing for healing and miracles will manifest only if you’re praying for sick people to be healed. You must be intentional in looking for opportunities in which this anointing will be needed
4. Passionately pursue spiritual gifts.
- First Corinthians 14:1 tells us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts of healing, working of miracles, words of knowledge and faith are all invaluable manifestations for the ministry of the miraculous. As you ask God to stir them up, He will.
- You can’t work for or earn them. They are given freely by the Holy Spirit just as salvation is. You can have all of them—and the more you pursue them, the more you will have!
5. Practice prayer and fasting.
- Matthew 17:14-21 gives an account of the healing of an epileptic boy. The disciples couldn’t cure him, but Jesus did. When Jesus was asked why the disciples had no success, He said it was because of their unbelief.
- It wasn’t a question of God’s will. Nor did Jesus focus on the boy’s faith. It was the level of faith in the disciples’ hearts. Yet He also pointed out that “this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (v. 21).
- Prayer and fasting help to release God’s faith within us. It’s the faith that produces the miracle, not the fasting. Fasting and prayer in this instance serve as the passageway into the fullness of faith that exists in God’s heart. Again, it isn’t by our works, but by His faith and grace extended toward us.
6. Learn to hear God’s voice.
- To operate in the supernatural we must develop a keen sensitivity to the person of the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t work the same way all the time, and we need to hear His direction for each situation.
- When you exercise your spiritual senses by learning to listen and not just talk, you will be led by the Spirit to see wonderful manifestations of His power.
7. Associate with the anointing.
- Find people and ministries that are carrying God and get around them. We learn from one another and receive impartation of power through association.
- These corporate encounters with God do not replace your hidden devotion expressed in the place of private prayer. They simply add to and enhance your relationship with God.
8. Be motivated by love.
- Love must be the foundation for everything you do. Without it, power can lead to pride and self-inflation.
- Love is the greatest manifestation of God’s power. It was because of love that Jesus walked in total obedience. It was because of love that the power of sin and Satan were defeated.
What is the Purpose of God’s Supernatural Power?:
- The purpose of God’s power in our lives is to come alongside us and help us learn three things: 1) how to be sanctified, 2) how to partake of Christ’s Life, and 3) how to become those overcomers (faithful ones) who bear righteous fruit.
- Sanctification leads to partaking, partaking to overcoming, andovercoming to inheriting. God’s resurrection power accomplishes all three of these things.
- His power not only gives us a new spirit when we are born again, His power also produces a transformed life through the sanctification process (1 Peter 1:5).
- God not only teaches us how to live through His Word, He also gives us the power to live through His Spirit.
- “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of who the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:14–16).
- What good is knowing God’s will, if we don’t have the power to perform it? His power enables us to do what His Word demands.
- The Holy Spirit is the enabler, the executor, and the implementer of God’s will being accomplished in our lives. Our responsibility is simply to make the choice to let Him do so!
- It’s really a partnership. We offer our bodies as a “living sacrifice,” God then fills us with His Spirit and accomplishes His will through us (Romans 12:1–2).
- Christ is the perfect example of the manifestation of God’s power. He lived His entire life depending upon this power. The Holy Spirit empowered Him to do all His miraculous acts and, of course, the Resurrection was the supreme manifestation of that power (Acts 2:24).
- The purpose of Christ’s incarnation was to nullify the power of the devil and to free those held in bondage (Hebrews 2:14).
- The Lord first passed along this resurrection power to His disciples in order that they might accomplish the work He called them to do.
- “He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases… Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 9:1; 10:19).
- The power the disciples received is, again, called “the resurrection power of Christ.”
- Christ then passed this same life-giving power on to us. This endowment took place at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon thousands of believers and bestowed upon them a new and divine power (Acts 2:1–4).
- Personal union with Christ gives believers this same divine power (Hebrews 6:5). “According as His divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3).
- He imparts His resurrection power to each of us the moment we believe so that we, too, can overcome the enemy, proclaim the message of the gospel, produce the “fruit of the Spirit” and persevere to the end.
- This saving power will deliver us from the power of sin, from the draw of the world, and from demonic attacks. It will protect us, preserve us, guard us, and keep us from falling. “God strengthens our soul with His strength” (Psalm 138:3).
- Our responsibility is to simply learn to walk by His Spirit of power, not by our flesh. A true disciple can only minister in the power of the Spirit, just as Jesus did (Luke 4:14).
- The outworking of that power—the fruit that is produced—is the hallmark of a true disciple. A disciple is not just someone who has been born again, but someone who is a participant, a partaker, and a sharer of God’s resurrection power (1 Corinthians 9:12).
