A desire to Move in Power

As a young minister I pastored a small church in a small town. I became a bi-vocational pastor to a church that had struggled to keep their doors open. The building they met in was old, needing a lot of attention, and in the two years prior to me coming, the church had accrued a lot of debt. It had also lost most of its congregation, so resources were scarce. When this assignment was first presented to me I decided to spend time praying about what I should do. In fact, I offered to be their interim pastor for three months so that we could all spend time in prayer discovering God’s plan for the church. During this interim time I kept asking God one simple question: “Why should this church continue in this community”. There were already many churches within the community, and certainly plenty of other churches in the surrounding communities. Little did I know it, but that one simple question during those first three months would define the kind of person and minister I am today. During those first three months I began to realize that though there were several good Bible believing churches in the community and surrounding areas, there were no real Pentecostal fellowships focusing on the Power of the Holy Spirit. I am a Pentecostal Pastor who believes in the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit that comes upon His people to help us accomplish the tasks that He has created in advance for us to do. I became their Pastor and decided to dedicate the first year to praying for a vision statement. The statement we feel God gave us is the vision statement that I have adopted as my own. It is “to bring God’s healing and life changing power to the community through prayer, praise, the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, the pursuit of His Presence, and by the Power of the Holy Spirit”. It is what defined us a church and it is what defines me today as a minister. During my years at Christian Life Center there were many big challenges. As stated earlier, there were limited resources so we became totally dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and provide. As the congregation grew, so did the challenges. As the challenges grew, so did our dependence on the Holy Spirit, and our Faith in the Power of God. There were churches in our community that were known for their type of worship, or the size of their building. Other churches in the area were known for their philosophies of ministry or for the pastor’s personality. We became known as the church that believed in miracles.

On one occasion, early on in my tenure there, I remember being home for lunch when there was a knock on our door. I lived in the parsonage behind the church, and when I answered the door, there was an older gentleman there looking for the Pastor. This was a common occurrence living in a parsonage in close proximity to the church, but I will never forget this particular gentleman. After our introductions, he proceeded to tell me why he was there. He said that his pastor sent him to us because we were the ones who believed in miracles and the power of God to heal. His wife had been in a car accident and was near death. He was desperate for a miracle. I was a bit taken back at his remarks. I couldn’t understand why a pastor of a Bible believing church would send him to us for a miracle. Early the next morning he and I went to visit his wife in the hospital. I brought my anointing oil with me ready to pray, fully expecting a miracle to take place. I felt that this was a divine appointment from God that, in the end, would confirm the vision He had given to us as a church. I wish I could report to you that this woman made a miraculous recovery, but she didn’t. She stayed in a vegetative state for several weeks before dying. When this happened I remember feeling frustrated and almost angry at God. I had no doubt that the vision statement of “Bringing God’s healing and life changing power to the community…” was birthed through prayer and fasting, and was indeed what God had been speaking to us. I couldn’t understand why this obvious divine appointment didn’t result in a miracle. What it did result in however, was a passion in me to study the scriptures concerning the power of the Holy Spirit that comes upon His people. I began looking at and studying very familiar portions of scriptures like Mark 16:17-18 (NIV) that records the words of Jesus just after His resurrection. “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well”. Mark 16:20 (NIV) says “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His Word by the signs that accompanied it”. Also, Acts 14:3 (NIV) says “So Paul and Barnabus spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders”.

These scriptures that had always brought encouragement to me now caused a restlessness within me about how I ministered and more importantly about the state of the church today. I was no longer satisfied with preaching, teaching and believing in the power of the Holy Spirit to do miracles, and not see miracles take place. If the Word that I’m preaching and teaching is God’s truth, then my now constant prayer is that He would confirm that Word through miracles the way He did with the apostles and the New Testament church that we read about in the scriptures. I cannot completely answer the question as to why some people are healed and others are not. I don’t know that anyone can completely answer that question, but I do know that the experience I had with this gentleman on that day changed my life and our church. We were determined to be a people who moved in power the way the New Testament believers did. Through that experience we would come to realize that there was a lot we needed to learn and establish in our lives and church if we were to begin moving in power, but it started with an increased desire to move in power, and that desire started us on a journey that would see God, once again, confirming His Word with signs following. In the months and years to follow we would see many testimonies of God’s healing and life changing power take place. From miracle babies being born to rare lung diseases being healed, God confirmed His Word. From heart conditions to spinal cord tumors that disappeared, God confirmed His Word. When a new testimony occurred we would write it down and nail it to a cross we had made and displayed in our foyer. Everyone who entered that building would see the many testimonies of God’s healing and life changing power.

I encourage you today to pray for an increased desire to move in power like Jesus and the New Testament believers did. The scripture I quoted in Mark 16 starts by saying “And these signs will accompany those who believe…” This is speaking to all who believe. It’s not just directed to all who pastor a church or preach behind a pulpit. If the Word that you live your life by is truly the Word of God then God wants to once again confirm that Word with signs following. The focus of any miracle should be on the Word of God that is being spoken or displayed through your life. If you believe in the life changing power of God’s Word and you are sharing that Word through speech and actions then do not be afraid to publically pray or lay hands on someone who needs a touch from God. God wants to use you to confirm His Word that you live your life by. I would love to hear your story of how God used you to confirm His Word. If you have a testimony of God’s healing and life changing power working through you please comment or message me.