How to Receive God's Miraculous Power to Minister

Holy Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke: Burial place of its founder, Lord Sandys (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One day the Lord began to show me there was more to the Christian walk than just being filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. He reminded me that in Acts 1:8 we were to receive "power after that the Holy Ghost" would come upon us. I had the Holy Ghost and tongues, but I was missing the power. He also brought to my attention that John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:11 the Lord Jesus Christ would baptize us in "the Holy Ghost, and with fire." I was not only missing the power, but the fire as well. He showed me to minister to people with miraculous power I would need the power and fire of the Holy Ghost.
Whether you are a teacher, student, real estate broker, professional athlete or in the ministry full time, God wants you living and walking in such power, fire and love that wherever you are, your presence is making a difference in people's lives because of the Christ in you, the Hope of Glory. You bring healing, deliverance and salvation to people wherever God leads. But you might say, "Is that scriptural? Isn't that only for those in full time ministry?" No. "But is it really for everybody that's a Christian?" Oh yes. Are you saved? Did you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Are you a believer? Then you qualify:
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17-18).
Now let me show you what I learned so you can begin walking in God's power and fire to see people miraculously healed, delivered and coming to Christ. Let me pose a question. What is the power of the Holy Ghost? It is the power of God. God is omnipotent, meaning He has unlimited power. He is able to do anything. This power has been graciously given to the Church through Jesus Christ. This Holy Ghost dynamite power released through God's sons and daughters brings forth healings, miracles, deliverances and resurrections that draw people to Jesus Christ to be saved.
Next question. What is the fire of the Holy Ghost? The fire of the Holy Ghost is the presence, passion, and purity of God. To receive the presence of God is to walk in an awareness of God living in and through you. His passion motivates you to reach out in love to a world needing the Savior. The purifying fire of God burns out of you those carnal things that would hinder God's power from being manifested through you to perform miracles, healings and resurrections that attract sinners to Christ. Timidity must flee because the fire of God gives you a boldness to face any opposition, even death.
An example of the power and fire falling on Christians is written in Acts 2:2-4:
"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Just one result of this mighty Pentecostal outpouring was the salvation of three thousand souls through the powerful anointed preaching of Peter.
One morning the Lord revealed to me that to walk in God's power and fire, I must have the right motive or I could fall into sin, such as pride. It's not about you and it's not about me. It's about Him, Jesus Christ. He is to get all the glory. We are to desire the baptism of Holy Ghost power and the fire because the result will please our Heavenly Father. Souls will be saved, healed and delivered. We are to love God so much that we are always about our Father's business advancing the kingdom of God.
So, how do you receive God's miraculous power and fire to minister life to people? You receive it like anything else you receive from God. You receive it by faith. Simply ask God the Father in Jesus' name for the baptism of Holy Ghost power and fire. When you pray you are to believe your petition has been granted, you have the title deed, the ownership of what you prayed and asked God for. If you pray and do not believe you have received your prayer answered the instant you prayed, then you are not in faith. Faith says, "I have it, it belongs to me now." Doubt says, "I'll believe it when I see it."
You release and activate your faith by thanking, praising and worshipping God that you have been granted your prayer request. Your faith gives substance to what you hoped for, the Holy Ghost baptism of power and fire. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrew 11:1). No substance, no hope becoming reality. May your hope for God's miraculous power and fire become reality as you pray and believe you have received your prayer granted. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).
Want to learn more on how to use your faith to get your prayers answered? Click on "Overcoming Faith" below.
Would you like to graduate to Christian maturity and leave babyhood behind? Click "Three Stage Christianity" below.

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The Evil of Pride

Lexi Proud (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Sunday Joseph Adenuga

Pride is defined by a Dictionary as having a high opinion of one's worth or possessions when one have a very high opinion of him or herself, one is said to be proud. A conceit somebody who feels he or she is better than others, scorning others and didadaining other people's opinions and worth. Many people are proud and they do not know it, after reading through this article, you will be able see yourself and judge whether you are indeed proud or not.

When you always think yourself to be the right fellow and all others wrong, when you feel you are the best and every other people are not as important as you, then look to it, it may be a seed of pride in you, get rid of it today before it gets rid of you. When other people's opinion is of no consequence to you and have no consideration in your heart, that may also be a seed of pride. Also you have the seed of pride when someone offends you and begs you but you refuse to forgive and forget the offence, especially when the offender has called other people to beg you and you still refused bluntly, check yourself for cleansing from the seed of pride.

Pride comes because of one's great accomplishments and success, when you excel beyond others, you need special grace to remain humble, when God blesses you above your equals and mates, you need special grace to keep humble. Some become proud because of their beauty, some because of their position of power, some because of their parents wealth.

God's Warning Against Pride
In the Bible, the book of Proverbs 6: 16-19, Psalm 138: 6, The Lord warns that He hates the proud one, God keeps a very good distance from the proud one, so be careful that God do not keep a disturbing distance from you. We are told in Proverbs 11:2 that pride brings shame. At the end of the day pride brings strife and un-necessary fighting because pride is not of God. He expressly commanded us never to be proud see 1 Samuel 2: 3

The following people were recorded in the Bible to have exhibited pride and faced the music in a hard way, one of them is Pharaoh Exodus 5: 2. He ended up loosing all his precious souldiers, chariots and horses in the red sea. Naaman the captain of the host of Syria was humbled by a simple Word of the Lord from the mouth of Elisha, Nebuchadenezar was sent to the bush for seven years when he became proud. The art of pride has always led to destruction from all available records of history from age to age. The fall of Lucifer who later became Satan is the best illustration of all, please see Isaiah 14: 12 - 17, Revelation 12: 7 -12, and Ezekiel 28: 14 -19
God bless you.

Related articles

• FRUITFULNESS IN PRAYER (Part 8) ~ INFLUENCE OF HUMILITY
• The Root of Pride
• The Attack of the Worm Part 1 by Robin Kirby-Gatto
• Just Obey
• Pride
• Pride

This Life 2

Image via Wikipedia

By Sunday Joseph Adenuga

In part one of this series I drove in the point that Jesus Christ is "The Life", and this is not my own opinion but what God said in the Bible and I believe it. In this article, I want to begin the exploration of this important topic by going to the origin of life itself. You have to understand the fact that God is the origin and source of all form of life: He is the beginning and the end; the Alpha and Omega; the First and the Last; the Creator of all things and beings physical and spiritual. When you understand this point then it will be easier for you to have a good understanding of life, and the purpose of life.

Were you created the day you were born or the day your dad's sperm fertilized the egg inside your mum's womb? The Bible tells us that Jeremiah was known by God, called by Him and ordained to be a prophet to the nations even before he was formed in his mother's womb, and I know this is true of many people including you. See Jeremiah 1:4,5. Infact God said, "before I formed thee in the belly" meaning that God Himself formed people in their mother's womb, and he knows them before forming them. Samson's life was revealed to his mother before she ever conceived him: Jacob and Essau were well known to God before they were born hence God said, "Jacob have I loved and Essau have I hated". The truth is very clear, YOU existed before you were ever born. This is the truth of life you have to grapple with and understand well, and also that, departure from this phisical world is not the end of you or any body else who is human. Man cannot ever cease to exist, he is alive somewhere in the spirit or in the physical for as long as only God knows when.

Study the Bible very well and you will understand that God have you in mind before the foundation of the earth. Let's read Ephessians 1:4

"According as He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world..."

You issued out from Him. It is a fact that you got your life from your parents, they got their's from your grand parents, and so on till we get to the first parents on earth. The first parents were Adam and Eve, these first parents got their lives from God. We are told in Job 33:4 that, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life". For better understanding of the above point from the Bible, see also Job 34:12-15. The understanding of this point is the beginning of knowing the meaning of life and its purpose and this is wisdom.

You really need to work on yourself to love the Lord because you are an extention of Him, you are his and you are from his bossom. The fact that you belong to Him should thrill you, but I am more thrilled to know that I am of God (1John 4:4). When he says that you are of God He is saying that you are made of God's stuff; you are made of God's properties or materials; meaning that you matter, no matter what anybody thinks or says, pure and simple. You are not only God's property, you also carry part of God's breath, you are not ordinary. There is something about you that the enemy hate, it is the great thing that God put inside you, it is the life that I am writing about in this article. There is a reason why God gave you this life, use it to the glory of God.

This life is broad and nobody can understand everything in this world, we know in part, but you cannot afford not to have some basic understanding of your life. You are what you know; you operate at the level of your knowledge; nobody can perform beyond his actual knowledge. You are limited in life by your knowledge, for example when I gave my mum who never went to school a laptop computer, she couldnt use it because she didnt know anything about it, she was limited or couldnt enjoy this technology and the internet facilities I put into it because of her limited knowledge. I hope you understand the point I am trying to prove here. This is the reason you must have some basic understanding of life so that you can master some aspect of it and that is the reason for this series of articles to help you; to open you up to success; to open you up to wisdom.

Let me drive home the point here once again that you existed before you were born and you will continue to exist after departing from this world, an experience we call death. So you have to take heed to the way you live your life because it matters and can affect your existence in the next world. Nothing that is done goes un-noticed; all things done by you is recorded somehow for or against you and there is a record for all spoken words and actions. To this end, as I round up this article, I want to charge you to do the good you can now, do your best, help people, speak kindly to them for all these things matter.

Next in this series I am going to delve into the very purpose of life, watch out for part three, coming soon