Provoked From Powerlessness

Beloved, God does not want His children to be spiritual weaklings, hence He gave us power to live a strong and vibrant Christian life. Therefore, God is not to blame if despite the power He has made available, you still remain a powerless Christian. When a Christian finds it difficult to overcome sin, flesh and Satan, such a Christian is in a state of powerlessness. Also, a believer is powerless when he or she finds it difficult to perform his or her spiritual obligations and responsibilities. So, it is very necessary for us to consider this message entitled, “Provoked from Powerlessness.” Matthew 3:11 says, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” In the above passage, we find three kinds of baptism:

1. Baptism with water.

2. Baptism with the Holy Ghost

3. Baptism with fire.

These three kinds of baptism are aimed at achieving one goal or the other. Before the departure of our Lord Jesus Christ to heaven, He told His disciples in Luke 24: 49: “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Also Acts 2: 1-4 says, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

According to these three passages above, we can see that fire in the Bible represents the life, power, presence and anointing of God. Anywhere you see the manifestation of God in the Bible, He is always associated with fire. For example, when God drove Adam and Eve away from the Garden of Eden, an angel with the sword of fire was put there to guard the garden. Right from Genesis 3, you find God calling from a burning bush. As you continue in Exodus you see how God led the Israelites by a pillar of fire. We also know Elijah as the prophet of fire.

Many years ago, in the fellowship where I used to belong in England, there was a man who was always quiet. He talked only when he was asked to read the scriptures or pray. One day, he was asked to interpret the tongues of a preacher who was invited to minister that day. The challenge came to him unawares and immediately, he started to pray, shivering and sweating. However, as he provoked the Holy Spirit into action, the Spirit of God took over him and he interpreted everything the preacher spoke in tongues.

The spiritual state of the disciples declined after the death of Jesus. They all went back to fishing. We remember that Peter had previously denied Jesus. Thomas was bent on seeing Jesus and dipping his fingers inside the holes perforated by nails in His hands before he could believe. This shows the kind of people Jesus left behind. Their attitude indicated that something was missing in their lives and that thing needed to be imparted into their lives to enable them to become mountain movers for the Lord. Their lives at that time could be likened to a delicious soup prepared with assorted ingredients, yet it lacked salt. And an expensive soup without salt would amount to nothing. Samson was like any other man as at the time he was attacked by a lion, but something extraordinary happened. The Bible says that the Spirit of the living God came mightily upon him and right within his system, power changed hands and he grabbed the lion and tore it into pieces.

Sometime ago, as I was praying with a girl, the Spirit of God said, “Stop. Command every spirit of the forest to depart.” When I did that, the voice of an old woman spoke from the same girl and said, “She originally belongs to me, she cannot belong to Jesus. Please, leave us alone, she is mine.” I told the evil spirit that she was now a child of God and filled with the Holy Spirit. But it insisted that she belonged to them, that she was still a fornicator. The evil spirit even said that they have put a vagabond spirit in her and that was why she was roaming about all over the place without achieving success. I asked the girl if she heard all that the demon said. She said yes that she heard the words coming from her but did not know who was talking. I asked her if she had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and she said ‘yes.’ When I tried to find out how, she said that somebody gave her a piece of paper and asked her to be repeating some words after him and as she did that, all of a sudden, she got confused, her tongue changed and she was congratulated. I said, “No, you need to receive the proper baptism of the Holy Spirit with fire.”