'For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power,' (1 Corinthians 4.20). I live not by word, but through the power of God. I also want to share with you Romans 1.16, 'For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.'
The Gospel is Good News. This is the key which I want to share with you, all the power of God is in the Gospel we preach. If you want to see miracles, lives changed, the power to work these is in the Gospel. Never neglect the simple Gospel message of Jesus Christ. I have experienced the power of God all my life.
When I was in a communist prison fifty years ago for Bible smuggling, I was almost one year in the prison, believing that God would work the miracle to get me out – but that year was the best year of my life! Yes, I was separated from my wife and my children, my youngest daughter was only three years old – but I grew all the time in my experience with God! It was a testing of my faith, but God when did it, it was sudden, a big miracle! I travelled the world for two years afterwards, talking about that miracle. I preached to more than a million people, sometimes ten thousand at a time – a quarter of a million came to Christ because of that testimony!
I was forbidden to have a Bible in the prison (it was only after nine months that I managed to smuggle one in), they gave me twelve books to read in English. This included six hundred pages of the history of the communist revolution in China. However, to my amazement, I found that one of the books was the story of Marco Polo who was born in Venice in the 13th century. Together with his father and uncle, he spent most of his life-time as a merchant adventurer in China. He became a favourite of the Emperor Kublai Khan. Travelling through China with him, they came to a village where they found a group of believers. The Emperor was going to have them put to death immediately, but then he said, ‘Your Bible says that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can command a mountain to move – and it will move! I will prove that your God is dead and that the Bible is a lie. Outside this village is a mountain. I will come back in three days, and if it has not moved, I will put you to death.’ The first day the believers pleaded with God to move the mountain – but mountains don’t move! The second day they chose a believer more ‘holy’ than themselves to plead with God. Still nothing happened. The third day, Kublai Khan returned, ‘Before I kill you, I will give you one more chance, I want to see you pray,’ he said. This time the desperate believers COMMANDED the mountain in Jesus’ Name – AND IT MOVED!