Too often, people in our churches are living “defeated lives.”
It is evident that a change is needed... when many attending our churches are hooked on internet pornography (as well as other harmful addictions)... when the divorce rate of “Christian” marriages is “skyrocketing,” (even reported higher than “secular” marriages)... when our members are struggling with depression... when we have lost much of the younger generation who have grown up in our churches... when many think they have need of nothing, yet they leave our services languishing in spiritual poverty and squalor... then it should be evident that we MUST have a change!!!
Remember how the Beverly Hillbillies were living in poverty - completely unaware that hidden just beneath where they were living, was something that would completely change their lives? What was it? Oil!
What a change it brought! Overnight, the Beverly Hillbillies went from rags to riches... from a shack in the country to a mansion in Beverly Hills.
What do we have in common with the Beverly Hillbillies? A lot!
Too many of God’s children are living like “spiritual paupers,” when Christ has deposited such vast and unlimited spiritual resources within each one of us. He has given us ALL we need to live in untold “spiritual wealth.” But IT is all to no avail... if we do not tap into it!
Are we praying “over and over” for the healing of our bodies, only to finally settle for the Lord to guide the surgeon’s knife?
If we do not have “the faith” to believe for a miracle, how can we have the faith “to believe” for divine intervention concerning the movement of “a knife”? Why don’t we just “bypass” the surgeon (and his knife) and “let God be God” and “His Word” be true” by “activating” His miracle healing power?
Just having “church as usual” is NOT the answer. It is unwise to continue doing the same things... hoping we will somehow experience different results. IT will not happen!
I believe many of our churches in the U.S., are experiencing a “spiritual cardiac arrest”!
What happens when we have a “cardiac arrest” in the natural?
1) Because of the failure of the heart, the blood ceases to circulation.
2) When the circulation of blood stops, oxygen is no longer being delivery to all parts of the body.
3) When the brain is no longer receiving oxygen, the victim loses consciousness.
4) Normal breathing stops, although shallow breathing may still occur.
5) If the victim is not treated within five minutes, brain injury is likely.
If a church has experienced a “spiritual cardiac arrest,” then we will find:
1) The normal circulation of souls being saved is stopped.
2) Members of that body will have lost their zeal for winning souls.
3) Lack of God’s Spirit working in the services will cause the members to “lose spiritual consciousness” about what is “right and what is “wrong.”
4) Normal operating of the “gifts of the Spirit” will be halted although there may be sporadic manifestations.
5) If that church continues in this condition for too long, it will be cut off from “the head - the brain - Christ Jesus. When this happens, all power of “spiritual reasoning” and “spiritual saneness” will cease.
Is the church experiencing a “spiritual cardiac arrest”? Then what are we do? The same thing that is done in the natural.
If the victim is to survive, “an immediate response” to the problem is “imperative”!
In the natural and spiritual alike, if this condition is treated early enough, it is reversible!
The primary first-aid treatment for cardiac arrest is CPR, until more support becomes available.
I believe many wonderful pastors are performing CPR on their congregations each week trying to keep them alive... not realizing that what is needed is “defibrillation”!
That’s right! As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. We need to be “jump started,” by the “two paddles” of the “power of the Word and the “power of the Spirit.”
Just like we “jump start” a car that has a weak or dead battery, I believe “the church” needs a spiritual “jump start.”
Too often, we have been guilty of “quenching” the Spirit. There are rivers of “living water” within us just waiting to flow. Before it’s too late, we must ACTIVATE the SPIRITUAL RESOURCES within us! We must be obedient to God’s Word and “stir up” the “spiritual gifts” that have been lying “dormant” far too long!
I believe the Lord has laid on my heart... THE PLAN and THE MESSAGES that will “jump start,” “unlock” and “activate” a spiritual RENEWAL in the Church.
Activating the Power of God is the result of my 40+ years of ministry in a host of countries. After training literally thousands of ministers and toiling diligently on foreign soil, I believe I have “struck oil.”
The Lord willing, I will go to as many churches as possible and “deposit” in THE SAINTS what God has placed on my heart and in my spirit. I believe there are six steps to activating God's power in our lives.
These steps include six “spiritual principles” or “spiritual laws” that I believe, when ACTIVATED and UNLEASHED... WILL RELEASE the power of God in our midst!
These SIX STEPS are:
1) THE POWER OF REPENTANCE.
2) THE POWER OF A RENEWED MIND.
3) THE POWER OF FAITH.
4) THE POWER OF LIVING HONESTLY.
5) THE POWER OF SUBMISSION.
6) THE POWER OF RECIPROCATION.
That’s it! It’s really that simple! I believe all the Church needs to do to EXPERIENCE God’s power in our lives... is to follow God’s plan for a SPIRITUAL ACTIVATION!
Just as we must follow “the directions” to activate a credit card... so must we follow the instructions of our CREATOR in “stirring up” the gifts that are within us. When we follow God’s directions, it always produces phenomenal results!