Power of the Holy Spirit

Good morning everybody.

Good morning Dawn.

So I'm going to, I was asked to teach this morning.

And so there was a line that actually sent Jacob in the week, so he said teach on that.

So it's basically going to be talking about the power of the Holy Spirit.

The problem is that this subject of teaching on the power of the Holy Spirit,

if there's no power then the teaching is just going to stay a teaching in our lives.

There must be an activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

So this is what A.W. Tozer said.

He said, we go astray when we attempt to do spiritual work without spiritual power.

Can I say that again?

We go astray when we try and do spiritual work without spiritual power.

And as Dawn was doing the welcoming, it is like that is part of spiritual work.

We need the power of the Spirit to do what Jesus has asked us to do.

If it's go to nations, if it's to heal, if it's to set the captives free,

if it's to tell people about Christ, we don't need intellectualism.

We don't need to be very clever. We need the power.

If you think of the eleven disciples that were left, these were young men in their twenties.

They were uneducated.

Well, they could know the Torah, but they were fishermen.

They were just plain young guys, maybe still trying to fool around,

but they had the power of the Holy Spirit.

And sometimes I disqualify myself thinking, I'm not good enough.

I need to get educated more in what those things are before the Lord can use us.

And that's not the truth.

The truth is we don't need a lot of that.

What we do need is we need the power of the Holy Spirit.

So when A.W. Tozer said this, he said, we go astray.

And so the question is, how do we go astray?

And I was thinking about this.

I believe we go astray in this one, is that religion kicks in

when we try and do spiritual work without spiritual power.

Religion kicks in.

Religion means I'm trying to do this in my own flesh.

I'm trying to work it up.

I'm using self-effort to do what Christ is asking me to do.

And religion normally sounds like this in my life.

I'm not too sure about yours, but in mine it sounds a lot like this.

After a while I'm going, I'm tired.

This is not working.

Have you ever felt like that before?

I feel like that.

Like this is tired.

And then I have to realize, I have to backtrack and go back and go,

hold on, is this the power of God working in me or is this my...

I'm going to do this.

Because that I'm going to do this, it doesn't really last that long.

Anybody gone to the gym and said, I'm going to get fit.

I'm going to go to the gym.

And a month in you're like, this doesn't work.

This is not fun anymore.

It kind of happens to me.

That's why I don't have big muscles.

Because it just doesn't work for me.

So how do we go straight, number one, religion kicks in.

Number two is we accept a gospel.

We start to accept a gospel with no power.

And we start to hear that these days.

We accept a gospel with no power.

That's when we go straight.

Number three for me is we normalize the gospel to mere principles and teachings.

Go for it, yeah.

Can you explain number two when you said we have a gospel without power?

So I think it looks like that we're preaching a gospel where we teach the kingdom,

but we're not always teaching the people around us about the gospel of the good news.

Because when Christ takes over our lives,

there's something that shifts, man.

It's like the day when Christ entered me and when I surrendered, something shifted.

And I think what I'm seeing is that the gospel these days is without power,

but it's just the slight confession.

Just try and do the right things for Christ.

I'm not saying here, I'm going, this is what's happening,

and we got to combat that with the power of God.

There's good teaching.

We need good teaching, but we need the power as well.

So the third one was we normalize the gospel to mere principles and teachings.

Does that mean that you're teaching the gospel with your self-expectations?

You're expecting something out of that without the power?

Could be, yeah.

You're teaching it out of a place where you've come from.

You're expecting something.

And we've got to go back to Acts.

I'm going to read some scripture for us.

I don't want us to take it back to our church experience.

I want to take us back today to what scripture says.

So I'm going to be sharing some scriptures in a few seconds.

Because we've got to take it back to when the gospel started,

when the power of the Holy Spirit arrived, what were some of the effects?

We've got some traditions we need to let go of, and we have to adopt what scripture says.

So number four is 1 Corinthians 6 verse 17.

1 Corinthians 6:17

Listen to this.

This is so powerful for me.

It says, But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

Can I say that again?

So when we got born again, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 17 says,

1 Corinthians 6:17

But whoever is united with the Lord is one spirit with him.

Oh, come on.

Another portion, I think it's the message or the passion translation says,

My spirit and Yahweh's spirit become one.

That just, we've got to start experiencing that.

I'm not trying to get there.

I am there, but my mind needs to start realizing that my spirit and Yahweh's spirit is now intertwined.

It's one.

And this is what we need to start realizing.

This is the power of the gospel.

We go astray when that is not a reality in our lives.

So in the kingdom, I'm going to try and write this.

I'm not great at writing, but let me try.

In the kingdom, there is a political system.

All right, so I love the kingdom of God.

I absolutely love the kingdom of God because it brings answers to every single aspect of society.

So in the kingdom, there's a presence of God.

There's a political system and it's called the kingdom, the king, and he's a monarch.

There's no capitalism, socialism in the kingdom of God.

There's a king.

So there's a political system.

There's a health system.

There's a health system.

And the health system is called, anybody want to take a guess?

Healing.

It's Christ's blood.

He's dealt with, he's got a hospital system, a health system in the kingdom.

The next, there's an educational system.

And it's called the church and it's called Ephesians 4.

Train up the saints, equip the saints for their work of ministry.

He's got an educational system that's very different to the world system.

There's a security system.

The security system is called the angels of heaven.

I don't know if you've been in any place where your life has been a danger,

but there's a security system and we know how to operate and how to tap into all of these.

This is like a government.

It's called the government of the kingdom.

There's a security system.

There's a financial system.

There's a financial system.

And Jacob's been teaching on that the last couple of weeks about how do we access the financial system.

And when we obey those principles, we're accessing that.

It's very simple.

Next is there's a social system.

A social system.

And that's called family and marriage.

When you start applying the family of God, when you start applying the principles of the family of God,

then the social system starts to work.

And so this is the kingdom of God.

I absolutely love it.

And it works.

It works so well.

Imagine if our governments would start to apply some of these things.

But the last aspect which I want to touch on today is there's a power system.

A power system.

And without the power system, we're going to start struggling to operate in this.

And the power system is the Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit.

So when we start talking about power, we have to ask ourselves the question, what is the purpose of power?

What is the purpose of power?

So there's power in this room right now, correct?

There's power.

Some of the power is running in the walls.

Some of it's running in the roof.

It's coming down to the light bulbs.

And BC is, thank goodness, has got the power on.

Otherwise, we'd all be getting very cold and living darkness.

And I know all about that, where I'm from.

And so there's a power system.

And every government needs a power system.

And so does the kingdom of God have a power system.

And when we try and live out these things without the power of God, it becomes the religious dead works.

It's good.

It's good.

But we miss that finesse, if I can say that.

We miss something that's actually empowering all of this to work.

And it is the Holy Spirit.

So what's the purpose of power?

Number one, it's not.

It's not to show off.

All right, very simple.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to show off.

For me, I've got four reasons here.

The purpose of the power, and this is what Dawn actually started off with,

it's to rescue men and women that are in your life from hell and introduce them to the king and his kingdom.

Can I say that again?

The purpose of power, number one, is to rescue people in your life from hell

and introduce them to the king and his kingdom.

It's really simple.

And people need rescuing.

But people don't need arguments.

Have you ever tried to talk to someone about Jesus and you get stuck in an argument?

Yeah, it's the worst thing.

It's the worst thing.

Can I tell you a little testimony?

It's not really a testimony, but I had to stop it very quickly.

We went to do some shopping two weeks ago, and outside the shop, there's an old lady bent over.

Did I tell you guys this?

No.

There's an old lady bent over walking with those walkers.

I don't know what you call them.

Yes, that's why I'm looking for words.

If I miss the word, just shout it out and it's going to help me.

And I like, yes, an opportunity.

So my family is there, my kids are there.

As we get to the entrance of the shop, there's a little bench there, so she sits down.

I'm like, thank you, Jesus.

This is going to be easier.

So they go in and I'm standing there like, hey, are you in pain?

And she said, yes.

I said, can I pray for you?

And she says, it's not going to help.

So I'm like, oh my gosh.

But boom, she just hit me out the park already.

And I just came back and I said, you know what?

I know Jesus and I've seen miracles.

I've seen his power heal.

I said, can I please pray for you?

She says, no, it's not going to help.

So I'm like, oh, shucks.

So I just stayed pressing in.

And so I said, what's your name?

She says, why do you want to know?

I'm like, this is getting worse, Paul.

And so as I try to convince her, it got worse.

She needed the power of God.

Now she just totally rejected me, battered me up.

And I just said, you know what?

The Father loves you and I'm still going to pray for you for healing.

I walked into the shop and I prayed because I realized I was intruding

in some way where she didn't want anything.

But this is what happens is sometimes when we try and convince people

with what we know and we're lacking power, we go to our mental place.

And when we see an act, it's a little different.

It's a little different.

And this is where I believe the Lord wants to take us to.

Number two, the reason for the purpose for power is to live a life

that overcomes the enemy and subdues.

We need to live a life that overcomes the enemy and subdues him.

Number three, we need to walk and live in the authority,

mandate and permission that Christ has given us.

We need to walk and live in it.

In the authority, in the mandate and the permission that Christ has given us.

And you need power to walk in that, guys.

Do not think you can walk in that through mere willpower.

It doesn't last. You need a force.

You need an energy that's strengthening you to go through those times

when you want to give up.

And the fourth reason for power for me is to show the world a true and living God.

You need to show the world a true and living God.

If it's miracles on the street, if it's your ability to say no to things,

we need to show the world that he lives.

So here's the challenge with this Holy Spirit and with this power,

is that it's really a heart thing.

It's a heart thing. It's not a mental thing.

And this is why the challenge is to talk about this,

is that it could go in here and it stays in here,

but when we're not practicing this,

the enemy actually can steal the power of that word in our hearts, in our minds,

and then it becomes mere knowledge.

Yeah, we know about the power of God.

It's like, yeah, we know about the love of God.

Those things are not to be known.

Those things are meant to be experienced.

You know what? To preach to Christians the love of God is one of the most difficult things.

Why? Because we all say we know it.

We know it. But there must be an experience.

And today I want to talk about the experience, the experience in our hearts.

We all have gifts, correct?

1 Corinthians 12 tells us we've been given a gift.

Your gifts are a little bit different.

Everyone operates in different gifts and these are spiritual gifts.

So we need to discover what these spiritual gifts are,

and then we need to steward these spiritual gifts.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells about the talents, the gifts that we're given.

So when we steward these gifts well,

we get to hear the praise of Jesus to say,

well done, good and faithful servant.

So we've got being given gifts,

and these gifts are super important for the power of God to flow through.

This morning we saw a bit of gifts operating.

Your teaching ability, your ability to discern,

your ability to prophesy is the gifts of Christ that are working in and through you.

And as much as we enjoy that here, the world needs to get to see these gifts.

And these are gifts that are given to us by Christ.

So we have these gifts,

but fear will keep you back from operating in your gift.

Fear will keep you back from operating in the very gift that God has given you.

And guess what? God's not going to give you a gift

that doesn't align with your personality and your destiny.

I'm thinking like Chiara is in Los Angeles the weekend,

and she left me with the three girls.

Praise Jesus, you know.

I have made it this far. I'm so grateful.

This is the first time she has left me with all three.

She left me with one for a while.

And I'm in a foreign country,

and they a little bit got runny noses and stuff.

And I realized that I don't have a gift to work with children.

You know, it's not like, hey, put me in kids ministry,

because I'm just like, the kids just love me.

I'm trying to survive, and I'm trying to keep them fed, clean,

and they're hairbrushed kind of thing.

Yeah, and I made it. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.

But there's different gifts that just come natural,

and you've got gifts, but I need to steward those gifts.

But fear will keep you away from that.

Number two, that I'm just thinking of, fear is an indicator.

You've got to see fear as an indicator.

It's like, you know when you're driving your car and a red light goes on?

What's the red light?

Indicator, something is going wrong,

and if you don't address it, it's going to get worse.

So deal with it as quick as possible. Fear is an indicator.

It shows you there are areas in your life

where the love of God and the spirit of God has not permeated.

Can I say that again?

Fear is an indicator.

It shows you where the love of God and the spirit of God

has not permeated that area.

Because why? Because love casts out all fear in every area.

And so when fear arises, I've got to be sharp and quick to go,

hold on, this area of my life, what is this?

And I need to deal with it so that the life and the spirit of God

can permeate that area, freedom can come,

and all of a sudden, it starts blossoming.

And then the power of God starts working in that.

Does it make sense?

So in the Kingdom of God, we should only be driven by two aspects.

Two things should motivate us in the Kingdom of God.

Number one, the love of God compels us.

And number two, the spirit of God compels us.

Those are the only two indicators that should move us in the Kingdom of God.

There should be no other reason why we are compelled to do what we do

in the Kingdom, except for those two things.

So if you've got your Bibles here, you can just take notes.

Luke 24, verse 49. Jesus is busy teaching.

Luke 24:49

Luke 24, verse 49.

Luke 24:49

So guys, without the Holy Spirit active in our lives,

listen carefully, without the Holy Spirit active in our lives,

all that we become are visitors in the Kingdom.

We're only visitors when we are not allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us.

We remain visitors, and we don't step into that place of friends of God.

Yeah? Does He love us? Absolutely. Is He for us? Yes.

Are we sons and daughters of God? Yes.

But there must be an element of the power of God working in us

and through us to those around us.

And I'm going to share with us what does that look like.

Because I always want to say, I always ask myself, how does this look in my life?

How can I practice this in my life? Yeah?

So Luke 24, verse 49 says, and this is Jesus talking.

Luke 24:49

He says, and behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father.

This is interesting. He says, there's a promise that's been waiting in heaven,

I'm sending forth this promise of my Father upon you.

But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with singing from on high.

Or you are to stay in this building until you are clothed with reading from on high.

Or studying from on high. No, the scripture doesn't say that.

The scripture says, you're to stay in this place until you are clothed with power from on high.

So from the word go, Jesus telling his disciples,

hey listen, I'm preparing you, you're going to start waiting soon.

But something is going to come upon you.

And this one thing that's going to come upon you is power.

And I feel like we've sold ourselves short of the power of God through beliefs or experiences that we've maybe had in the past.

And today I want to awaken. I just want to awaken a desire in you.

If that's all that happens today is to awaken a desire in you to say, hold on, where is my power?

That stuff that you have for me, God, where is it that I can start working because I must desire it?

And I want to awaken a desire in you to start saying, where is my stuff?

Where is the power, the promise of the Father that wasn't just given 2000 years ago, it was given for today.

It's as relevant today as it was there and it is for you.

And can I just tell you what?

Your character has got nothing to do with the qualification for that power.

I know it messes with us.

You know how messed up the 12 disciples were?

They were still fighting and jealous and cursing and leaving and deserting Jesus.

And Jesus says, yes, I'm power. Go into go two by two and go and go and heal the sick.

And these these 12 guys were messed up.

And so their character was there was not the qualification for the power.

It was their ability to receive it and to believe it.

Come on. Listen, I'm all for character.

I am all for character.

We're not just look operate on the gift.

We operate on character.

But can I just can I just entice you to say, where is my power that God has promised me?

So Act one eight says, but I promise you this.

I promise you this man.

Jesus wasn't just saying, hey, I've got this.

He says, I promise you this.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be seized with power.

You'll be seized with power.

Now, you know what the challenge is?

And I realize this the other day is when we talk about this in acts to when you start reading the stories in acts,

the way that we see this is we try and teach these things.

And then we're hoping for an experience or an encounter.

We teach and we say, can we experience some of these things in our life?

What we've been taught?

Can I just show you how it actually worked in scripture from acts every time men or women of God were touched by the power of the Holy Spirit?

They'd experience something and then they try and figure it out.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Peter and them are touched.

Peter's like, man, what's going on?

We're full of fire, full of power.

We're speaking in weird tongues.

Peter steps out and now he starts preaching from Joel.

He's not saying this is what God promised.

So because of our intellectual state, we try and teach it and then try and experience it in the word.

They experience the power and then they try to figure it out.

And can I just submit to us?

Can we let go of the limitations that we've placed on the Holy Spirit?

Can we let go of how we think he should come?

Let me just imagine, imagine this.

Imagine the power of the God hits us right now and it looks ugly.

Because I've never really experienced it looks really pretty.

And we're saying, what's going on here?

Like, what is this?

Like, I don't know.

And then we try and figure it out afterwards instead of trying to presume how we want the Holy Spirit to fit into our little comfort boxes of power.

And that is the yielding.

That is the surrendering.

That's saying, God, I'm yielding and surrendering.

Please touch me, fill me up.

This is how it happens in the word.

There's a total surrender and yieldedness to what God wants to do.

So there's three aspects to this power.

The power touches your soul.

The power touches your character.

And then the power touches your spirit.

So this soulish power, this character power, and then there is spirit power.

You got those three.

And we need the power of God in all three aspects, guys.

Power in our soul, number one.

Power in our character, number two.

Power in our spirit.

So let me touch on soulish power first, because we need this.

So soulish power.

When the Holy Spirit touches and infuses us with power, he gives us the ability, number one, to obey him.

Our soul needs to obey him.

Yeah.

And I'll explain the rest later.

We need to obey him.

In Ezekiel 36 verse 27 says, it says, I will put my spirit within you and cause you,

Ezekiel 36:27

the word says, and cause you to walk in my statutes.

It says, when you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, there's something working in you to help you to obey.

In my soul.

So when in my soul, I don't always want to forgive.

But when the power of the Holy Spirit is working in me, he gives me the ability to forgive when I don't want to forgive.

He gives me the ability to serve when I don't want to serve.

He gives me the ability to not criticize or judge in my soul when I want to do that.

It's the power to obey.

Number one.

Number two.

It's a power to lay down my life for him.

My soul needs to lay down to my spirit.

Number three.

When the power comes into my soul, he gives me the ability to say yes to certain things and no to certain things.

Yeah, you got that?

To say yes.

So my yes becomes stronger and my no becomes stronger.

No, we will not do that.

Yes, we will do this.

There's a power that works in us.

Number four.

He gives me the ability to have self-control.

That's the work of the spirit inside of my soul.

Character power looks like the following.

And this happens in Acts 2.

Character power is he gives me the ability to have great confidence and great courage.

One of the things that happen when the Spirit of God comes over us is we grow in boldness and in courage.

And I believe we need to have greater boldness and courage in these days to stand up for what is right as believers.

Boldness and courage.

Number two is in our character we have the ability now to resist the enemy.

To resist the enemy.

Because the enemy comes against us and the word says resist the enemy.

Meaning hold your shield high, resist it.

This is part of your character that holds, that resists the enemy.

Number three in this is to flee from temptation.

It doesn't say fight temptation.

It says flee from temptation.

So this is character power that we need.

And the last one I have here is to have strong convictions.

To have strong convictions in my character is to say this is who we are as sons and daughters of God.

We will not do that.

We are not that.

We will not have these kind of conversations, whatever.

I mean I had to have strong convictions last week, Monday.

When some of my neighbors which were believers were asking us, hey so did you guys enjoy Halloween?

And I thought I've got an opportunity right here.

And I said no, we don't celebrate Halloween.

And this is why we don't celebrate Halloween.

The guy was like, I don't know if you should swallow or stand back.

And I didn't judge him.

I go, I put the truth in front of him because I have a strong conviction.

I will not celebrate Halloween.

This is not me.

This is the spirit of God that works in us to have strong convictions.

This is not who we are.

We are sons and daughters of God.

We look different from the world.

We act different.

We spend our money different.

We do everything different from the world because we're in a kingdom system.

But we need the power.

Alright, spirit power.

This one is also, this is a fun one.

Spirit power is to heal, set captives free, deliver people from bondage.

And we know this is Luke 4 verse 18.

Luke 4:18

The spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Not for my sake, for your sake.

Can I say it again?

The spirit of the Lord is upon me, not just for my sake, but for others sake.

For others.

To heal up the broken wounded, to set the captives free, to deliver them from demonic oppression.

This is the power of God that works from our spirit.

Number two, to stand against adversities.

We need the power of God not to give up, guys.

We need the power of God to press through those moments where we want to stand still,

we want to sit down and get comfortable.

We need the power of God to work in us there.

And number three, is to break off yokes of others.

To break off yokes of others.

So, can I give you an example?

Can you come stand by me quickly?

Just keep smiling.

So, you have a spiritual gift.

And I think what I sense from him, he has this ability to love and to, there's a warmth about him.

Okay, that's what I perceive.

And he's inviting of people.

So, hospitality could be one of those things.

But he's a gift to the body of Christ, correct?

You're a gift to the body of Christ.

And so, he's like, woohoo, I've got this gift.

And let's just call him a heater.

He's a heater.

Because you feel warm and snuggly when you come around him.

He's a heater.

Alright, and so you've got a heater.

And so, we could say, man, your gift is so powerful, it's so amazing.

But without the power of the Holy Spirit working inside of him,

this gift just looks like a heater.

And this heater means nothing for the world.

And what he needs to do is, he needs to plug into the force field of the kingdom.

He needs to plug into the power.

Can I just say, just stay there?

Yeah, it is a force field.

There it is right here.

BC Hydro is sending this from a couple of miles away,

coming through these walls, however it gets here.

I know we've got a little electrician over there that can help us out with that.

But yeah, it's a force field.

And what needs to happen is, you need to be able to put your fingers in this plug.

And I bet you, when you put your fingers in this plug,

you're going to have a story to tell.

And so, it's fearful.

You're like, man, this thing is going to shock me like this.

Who's ready to catch me?

There's a force field right here.

But for this TV to work, for a heater to work, you need to put it in here.

And we're not really after the heater.

We're after the effects of the heater.

We want to feel the heat coming from Him.

It doesn't make sense.

I'm not really interested in the TV.

I want to see what the effects of the TV are.

But for that to work, it needs to be plugged into the force field.

And so, if we come around Him, and He is plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit

that's generating Him, we get to feel the heat and the love and the acceptance from our brother.

Exactly.

I don't care what gift you got.

I don't want to look at a wonderful heater.

You're such a nice heater.

No, I am feeling something coming off this man, which is changing my life.

Thank you. Thanks.

This is what God calls us for.

But guess what?

As much as there is a force field coming out that wall,

can I just say there is a force field of the power of God here right now.

There is a force field all around it, and it's called the spiritual atmosphere.

It's called the working of the Holy Spirit.

He's not far away.

He's not being generated by some BC Hydro.

He is made by God.

He is God, and He is all around us.

But I can tell you what, if we ignore the Holy Spirit, we are visitors to the Kingdom.

All we do is we are there.

But we need to put our fingers into the force field of the Kingdom, into the power,

and something starts shifting inside of us.

He makes us come alive.

He gives us the ability to do these things.

And sometimes, I don't know what that looks like for you.

I know what it looks like for me.

I remember times where I encountered the Holy Spirit in such a powerful way,

and I don't want to call it Pentecost.

I don't want to call it charismatic.

I want to call it this is what happened in the Word.

Men and women's lives were touched when the power of the Holy Spirit came on them.

There was fire on their heads.

Something shifted in them.

Guys, something shifted in these people when we read Scripture, and it kept happening.

You know what? And when it happened to Paul,

Paul got knocked off his horse or donkey or whatever, blind for two days.

Boom, something shifted in his life.

It wasn't just a trying to serve God.

It was a going, God, touch me.

And when that shift in his life, guess what happened?

In Acts 17, I think it's on the road to Emmaus,

he meets two disciples who were baptized by John.

And he said to them, have you guys been baptized in the Holy Spirit?

And they said, we don't know what that is.

You guys know the stories.

You guys have been taught well.

So what Paul got to receive, he then says, let me lay my hands on you.

He lays his hands on them.

They received what he got.

You will only give what you have received.

To the measure of power that you have received, to that measure, you'll be able to give.

And I know there's a desire in this church for the miraculous.

We hear it every Sunday.

We hear it in people's hearts.

There's a desire for science, wonders, and miracles.

There's a desire to travel the earth, but it needs an infusion of the Holy Spirit.

And to try and do those things without that, it's going to be tiring.

And I want to place a desire in you.

I remember, guys, in my life, where I met the Holy Spirit and where he touched me on a number of occasions,

I can take you to the specific area in that room.

I can take you to moments.

It's like when the Holy Spirit touches you, everything shifts in your life.

It's like burnt into my memory.

I know where I was sitting.

I know where I was standing.

There are moments.

This one day I was 18 years old and I was just sitting in the corner of our gathering and they were worshiping.

And I said, Lord, I need to experience your touch.

And I was sitting with my hands on my knees like this.

The next moment, it felt like there was fire burning on my hands for more than 40 minutes.

Eventually, I was saying, God, remove this, please.

It is actually hurting me.

Where I couldn't stand up, where the Holy Spirit was touching me.

Many moments like this that are burnt into my memory where I'm going.

I know that the Lord has touched me.

And those moments fuel us.

It fills us up for the work that is called us to.

It fills us up for those hard decisions we need to make.

It's the power of God that we need.

This is what acts is full of.

This is what the Word is full of.

It brings your convictions to a new level.

It gives you that boldness that you so crave for and desire.

It gives it to you.

It's the effect.

It makes your gift come alive.

And there's a new effect that works inside of you.

So how do we get there?

How do we get there?

Well, it's very simple.

Desire it.

Desire and then receive.

It's not trying to figure it out because I tell you what, the Lord will mess with your mind so much.

He will go beyond your mind.

He will not come in the way that you want him to come in a box.

The Lord is bigger than your box.

And so number one, desire it.

And if I can awaken a desire in you that you just start praying,

Holy Spirit, fill me up.

And it's not just that Jesus would use specific words.

He says, I will give you power.

So Lord, fill me up with that power.

Fill me up with that power, God, because I need this.

And number two, we need to learn how to receive.

We really need to learn how to receive because God has given us so many gifts.

We need to learn how to receive them freely.

Freely, guys.

This power of the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a beautiful gift.

But I pray today that there'd be an awakening in our hearts for power.

And as I explained on all three dimensions over there, we need to have that.

It doesn't help. We're healing the sick.

And then we can't say no to sin.

No. It's power on all levels.

Can I pray for us?

Father, I thank you.

I thank you, Father, that you've given us your Holy Spirit.

You've given us your promise.

It's a great promise.

It's a promise that's called, that's being given for your children.

We don't deserve it and we cannot earn it.

So Lord, would you teach us how to receive the power of the Holy Spirit?

That will infuse us.

That we will know that we know that we know that we've put our fingers in the force field of heaven.

There's been a power exchange from heaven to earth in my body that I cannot explain.

I will not try and figure it out.

But I pray, Father, you'll go beyond the dimensions of our limitations and our minds to say, yes, Lord.

Yes, Lord, we yield ourselves to receive a power transaction.

So I pray that, God, I pray for humility in our hearts.

A total humility just to say, yes, Lord, I'm desperate.

Awaken a desire in us, Holy Spirit.

You do the work, Holy Spirit. I know you do it.

Awaken a desire in us for the power of God.

For the power of God. Awaken that desire.

Our prayer language would start to change because we're saying, God, baptize me afresh with the power that you've given.

The same that they gave to acts.

Those men and women in acts.

I pray for that portion for us in this church.

I pray, awaken that cry in our hearts for more, for the more of the Lord, for the more power.

That there'll be a fire that burns inside of us, Lord.

I ask for that. I ask for that, Holy Spirit.

Can we just practice that?

Can I just give us a moment, every one of us, just to pray that, make that our prayer right now in this room.

If you just raise your voice and say, I pray that for myself.

A more, Lord. A great desire for your power, God.

A great desire, Lord.

We need your power, God. We need your power.

The world must see your power, God, and I pray, awaken that desire in us, Lord.

We want more. We want more, Lord. We want more.

We want more, Father.

We want more, Father.

Give us that foolishness, Lord.

Give us that foolishness that will put our fingers in the socket, Lord.

It's like a childishness.

I pray that, Father, God, we'll go beyond what's comfortable for us.

Put a foolishness in our hearts, Lord.

We will not relent, Lord. We will not relent. We will not give up.

We'll say, this must be my portion.

This must be my portion, what the Lord has promised me.

That I will not give up.

This, I cannot go on without the power of God in my life.

I cannot go on. There must be more for me, God.

I pray for a relentless, a foolishness in our hearts to go, yes, God.

Yes, Lord, to this.

That we will see it in our lives. We'll see it in our church.

We'll see it manifest in our gatherings, God.

We'll see it in our businesses.

Wherever we move, we will see the people will not see me as a gift.

They'll feel the power of the gift working through my life.

I pray that, God, awaken that in our hearts as a church, as a family today, Lord.

Do Your callous work, in Your mighty name. Amen.