Living Boldly for Christ: Daily Reflections on Faith, Prayer & Spiritual Life by David Hathaway
Just as the disciples saw Him ascend into heaven, those who are alive when He returns will see Him come again in the same visible and glorious way. Until that day, the Church has a mission: to continue the work of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, faithfully witnessing to Him until He comes again.
We need the power of the Holy Spirit to see miracles! There are nine gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12: – three vocal gifts, speaking with tongues, the interpretation of tongues, and prophecy – three intellectual gifts, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and the discerning of spirits – three practical gifts, the gifts of healing, the working of miracles and the gift of faith. The gift of faith is NOT an intellectual gift! If you see faith as only an intellectual gift, you will never see its power. It is a practical gift; it’s the one I ask for – more than any other gift!
God had to reduce Gideon’s army to only 300. Why? Because God can only use willing, obedient, committed people who will make His glory the first priority. God needs the right men and women in order to do what He wants, to bring glory to His Name, to bring deliverance to nations, to build His church – He’s looking everywhere, to find those through whom He can direct all His power, and energy into saving sinners.
If you want to meet with God, you don’t have to wait until you have done this or that. I would never have become an evangelist, never seen a miracle of healing if God had waited until I was perfect before He answered my prayers. I call on God, He deals with me where I am. That’s why I was healed, not because I was ‘holy’. What God looks at is the deep desire of your heart.
Today it’s time that we began to rise up and recognise the power and authority that we have in Jesus’ Name. Power to preach a life-changing Gospel, power to bring healing miracles in order that He might receive the glory, and so that we as ‘ordinary’ people might have something dynamic to demonstrate in our lives! When Jesus healed the paralytic man (Matthew 9:6) He said, ‘So that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth... rise up and walk!’ Today we must become men and women of action to continue the demonstration begun by Jesus, so that non-believers will desire to have what we have!
I am calling you to do something, which I Myself am going to make absolutely impossible! I will cause him to refuse you, and make him stronger than ever in his anger against you – why? So that I can then demonstrate that I am God by destroying the power of Pharaoh and delivering My people – and this will not be with human power.
God chose a baby, born to a slave woman, who became the son of the king’s daughter by the plan of God. Later, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Israelites and killed him. As a result, he fled Egypt to escape justice; married, had a family, looked after sheep and worked for his father-in-law until he was 80 years old; now suddenly God called this man, saying, ‘Go back to the place that you came from, challenge the greatest leader in the world, the most powerful nation on earth, demand that they release your persecuted, suffering people, command Pharaoh to let them go!’
Sometimes God has to do something unusual in our lives to attract our attention, to make us turn aside from the cares of the world, from the responsibilities that we have, from those business problems, from our sickness, our pain, and all those other problems we’ve got. God wants us to turn aside like Moses and look at Him.
God needs people. He needs people to give financially, especially He needs businessmen, who will turn their businesses over to work for Him and produce money for the Kingdom. God will honour and prosper businessmen when they get that vision to devote their money to winning souls. And we need people who will intercede and pray – I couldn’t achieve what I do without people all over the world who are interceding and praying. And we need the preachers.
I want to challenge you to rise up and do something for the Glory of God in the Power of the Holy Ghost and in the Name of Jesus. We’re living in a time of real spiritual warfare – not just saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to bind the power of the devil’ – but getting out there where the devil is and trouncing him head-on until we get the victory!
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