YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

he Christian life is a life of power. You can never be a

victorious Christian without the power of God.

power of God, no Christian life.

Everything we do for Christ

must be done with His

power.

The power of God makes all the difference. Power in

the Christian life is so essential that Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

Himself needed the power of God when He began His ministry

(Luke 4:18).

The Power Of God Is The Power Of The Holy Spirit

Jesus said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy

Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

This power is not a force or energy. It is the Holy Spirit,

the third Person of the Godhead. As Christians, we have been

given the Holy Spirit’s power i.e., the life-giving power of the

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

The Christian life can only be lived

by the power of God

Kingdom of God. This is the same supernatural power of the

Holy Spirit that has been at work since creation.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was

upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the

face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

(Gen 1:2-3)

The power of God parted the Red Sea, drowned the army

of the Egyptians, held back the River Jordan and brought down

the walls of Jericho.

The Holy Spirit manifested as a pillar of cloud by day and a

pillar of fire by night to lead the children of Israel in the desert.

As long as the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire stayed still,

the people remained where they were. When they saw the pillar

of cloud or the pillar of fire move, they moved (Ex 13:21-22;

40:36-38).

Moses and the people of God experienced the physical

manifestations of the power of God: fire, thunderings, lightning

flashes, trumpet blasts, thick darkness, Mount Sinai quaking and

smoking (Ex 19:18-20; 20:18-21).

The Power Of God Transforms

It was the power of God that transformed Moses from

being a person who could kill in anger to being the meekest

man on earth. The Moses who previously could not handle two

quarrelling men now had the power and patience to deal with

around three million people and their complaints.

Even God wanted to wipe them out and make of Moses

a nation mightier and greater than them. But Moses was so

changed that he stood in the gap and interceded on their behalf

with the Almighty God. He waited 40 days in the presence of

God twice (Ex 24:15-18; Deut 9:14-29).

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

Whenever “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon

him”, Samson did extraordinary things that were beyond

his abilities as a natural man.

He tore a lion apart with

his bare hands, killed 30 men in Ashkelon and single-handedly

slaughtered 1,000 men in Lehi (Judg 14:6,19; 15:14-15). When

God heard his prayer and strengthened him one last time,

Samson brought the temple down on 3,000 men and women

(Judg 16:27-30).

If Samson, who only had a visitation of the Holy Spirit of

God, could become so strong and do such amazing feats, how

much more can we do, who in these days have the Holy Spirit

living in us, a God Who would never leave us nor forsake us?

More than that, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the

dead is quickening our mortal bodies.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead

dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also

quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

(Rom 8:11)

Only Through The Power Of God Can We Overcome

Why is the power of God so important?

Because the Christian life can only be lived by the

power of God.

It is impossible to live a victorious Christian life

without the power of God.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the

excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Cor 4:7)

The power of God enables us to experience the reality of

God and live in the supernatural. It transforms us, helps us to

pray and defeat the powers of darkness, sin and temptation.

This power that has overcome death and hell has been given to

us to overcome sickness and disease, discouragement and

disappointment, rejection and hurts, fear and intimidation,

You Shall Receive Power

persecution and opposition.

The power of God gives us a burden for the lost and a

boldness to preach, teach and minister. It makes us effective

witnesses for God and enables us to fulfil His call upon our life,

freely giving what we freely receive from Him (Matt 10:8).

The power of God carries us through hardship and

suffering for the Master

. It enables us to live a life that is

pleasing to God, knowing that although we are in the world, we

are not of this world.

We must know that as Christians, we have the power of

God.

Only with this power can we lead powerful Christian lives

and be effective in ministry.

There may be many Christians today but not many have

experienced the abundant life that Jesus died to give us. Many

are struggling, trying to live a Christian life. Many are sick,

defeated and discouraged. Paul also faced this struggle.

For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will

not to do, that I practice. (Rom 7:19, NKJV)

Paul rejoiced that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus,

but only for those who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh

(Rom 8:1). He saw that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ

Jesus had made him free from the law of sin and death (Rom

8:2). Although these two opposite laws were operating, Paul

found victory.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but

Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live

by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for

me. (Gal 2:20)

Paul suddenly realised that he could not live the Christian

life by his own strength but only by the power of God. This

power was the life of the Son of God flowing through his life by

the power of the Holy Spirit.

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

To Be Clothed With The Power Of God

Is To Be Filled With The Glory Of God

We need to be endued with the power of God to do the

work of God, to live a Christian life.

To be endued with the power of God means to be clothed

with power from on high, to be filled with the glory of God.

When God created man, man was filled with the glory of

God. The glory of God was the clothing of man. But when man

fell into sin, he fell short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). In

falling short of the glory of God, man could no longer have

fellowship with God.

That is why Adam and Eve hid themselves from the

presence of God after they sinned. Suddenly they realised that

they were naked. They hid themselves from the presence of

God (Gen 3:8).

It was only when they had sinned that they realised they

were naked. They had not realised this before because they had

previously been clothed with the glory of God.

As long as they were sinless, they were filled with the glory

of God and could have fellowship with the Lord of glory. The

minute they fell into sin, their fellowship with God was broken

and they were filled with shame at their nakedness.

As long as man was filled with the glory of God, he had the

authority and power to rule. As long as man was obedient to

God, man ruled but the minute man disobeyed God, he lost the

right to rule. When he lost the glory of God, he had to leave

Eden even though God had given Eden to him to rule.

We must realise that there are two powers that are at work:

the power of God and the power of Satan. The power of Satan

destroys but the power of God gives life. T

o be a Christian is not

only to receive forgiveness of sins but more so, to be delivered

from the power of Satan to experience the power of God.

You Shall Receive Power

Acts 26:18 sums up the Christian message:

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light,

and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive

forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are

sanctified by faith that is in me (Acts 26:18)

Jesus Christ came to restore God’s glory back to man so that

man could once again be filled with the glory of God. When man

is restored back to the glory of God, he will once again rule and

reign as God had intended him to. When the Holy Spirit, the

power of God, came upon Peter on the day of Pentecost,

he was

transformed into a man of boldness, power and authority.

Jesus came not only to forgive us of our sins but also to

reconcile us back to God. He came to restore us back to the

glory of God and to re-position us into a place of power and

authority. This is the same place of power and authority that

Jesus had in His ministry

He was effective against the powers

of darkness because He had the power of God.

Even Jesus Christ Needed The Power Of God

Jesus Christ Himself operated by the same power of the

Holy Spirit. Although He was the Son of God, He only began His

ministry after He was baptised by the Holy Spirit. In fact, right

from His conception to His birth, baptism and ministry, Jesus

Christ’s whole life was lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The power of the Highest overshadowed Mary when Jesus

was conceived (Luke 1:35). The Holy Spirit descended upon

Him in bodily form like a dove when He was baptised. God

anointed and empowered Him.

Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that

Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove

upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my

beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:21-22)

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit’s power when He was

led of the Holy Spirit into the wilderness (Luke 4:1). After His

40 days of fast, He was tempted by the devil but He overcame by

the power of the word of God.

He returned in the power of

the Holy Spirit

(Luke 4:14).

By the time He announced His ministry

, Jesus was fully

equipped to minister

, fully empowered by the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed

me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the

brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and

recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are

bruised. (Luke 4:18)

Jesus was confident in His ministry because He knew

that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him.

Because the

power of God was evident in His life, the people recognised that

He ministered with authority and power.

His ministry and

teaching were completely different from all that they had

previously known.

And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was

with power. (Luke 4:32)

And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves,

saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he

commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. (Luke 4:36)

Over and over again, our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated

the power of God. He preached, taught, cast out demons,

healed, delivered, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead, opened

blind eyes and caused the deaf to hear. Many miracles took

place because of the power of God released through His life.

In Mark 5:25-34, the Bible tells of a woman who had

suffered an issue of blood for 12 years. She had such great faith

in Jesus that she believed that if she could only touch His

garment, she would be made well. She pressed through the

You Shall Receive Power

crowd surrounding Jesus and touched His garment.

She immediately received her healing. And Jesus

immediately knew that someone had touched Him even though

there were multitudes around Him. How did He know?

Because He felt that power had gone out of His body to

bring healing.

Jesus healed by the power of God. He touched

multitudes with the power of God.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their

synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing

all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to

Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and

torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and

paralytics; and He healed them.

Great multitudes followed Him. (Matt 4:23-25a, NKJV)

And He came down with them and stood on a level place with

a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all

Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon,

who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases,

as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits.

And they were healed.

And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went

out from Him and healed them all. (Luke 6:17-19, NKJV)

This was the same power that empowered Jesus

throughout His ministry.

The Holy Spirit had taken over.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD

of hosts. (Zech 4:6b)

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost

and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that

were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts 10:38)

Jesus’ life is an example to every one of us. He always

ministered in the power of God. The ministry of our Lord Jesus

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

Christ was power-packed.

Jesus Gave Us The Same Power He Had

Jesus Himself demonstrated the power of God and

promised it to His disciples.

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in

their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and

healing every sickness and every disease among the people. (Matt

9:35)

And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he

gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out,

and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

(Matt 10:1)

And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at

hand.

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out

devils: freely ye have received, freely give. (Matt 10:7,8)

And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom

he would: and they came unto him.

And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and

that he might send them forth to preach,

And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out

devils (Mark 3:13-15)

After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and

sent them two and two before his face into every city and place,

whither he himself would come. (Luke 10:1)

And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even

the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from

heaven.

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and

scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing

You Shall Receive Power

shall by any means hurt you.

Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject

unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in

heaven. (Luke 10:17-20)

As the Son of God, Jesus had the right (Greek “exousia”)

to heal sicknesses and cast out demons. When He sent the

disciples out to preach, He delegated this authority to them

so that they too could do what He did. In fact, Jesus said

that the works His disciples do would be greater than His own

(John 14:12).

Exousia power is found in the name of Jesus

and in the blood of Jesus.

Jesus wrought miracles through using might and great force

(Greek “dunamis”). This power is associated with words such as

“dynamite” and “dynamic”. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus

was an awesome example of the exercise of dunamis power.

These two power words may be explained this way: A

policeman at a blockade has the right and delegated authority to

command a car to stop. When the car does not stop, he has the

might and the force to shoot.

God has given us His authority (“exousia”) over the enemy,

to stop him from whatever evil he wants to do. When the enemy

does not seem to obey, we have the might (“dunamis”) to

destroy his works.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He spent 40 days teaching

the disciples about the Kingdom of God before He ascended to

heaven to be with the Father (Acts1:3).

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them

that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the

promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. (Acts

1:4)

And, behold, I send the promise of my F

ather upon you: but

tar

y ye in the city of Jer

usalem, until ye be endued with power

from on high. (Luke 24:49)

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

This is a very powerful key to successful living for every

Christian. We need to be endued or clothed with power from

on high.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all

with one accord in one place.

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.

(Acts 2:1-4)

The Early Church Demonstrated The Power Of God

All the 120 disciples who waited in the upper room were

mightily endued with power from on high. Let us look at the

life of Peter.

Before Peter received the power of God, he behaved like a

coward and denied Jesus three times, once even before a

servant girl (Luke 22:54-62).

This same Peter was so transformed by the power of God

that he could rise to defend his brethren against charges of

drunkenness. He preached to a multitude gathered from the

different nations of the world with such power and conviction

that 3,000 people were saved.

It was indeed the power of God at work. The power from

on high gave Peter boldness and his preaching cut the people to

the heart. Peter demonstrated the transforming power of God

and multitudes came to know the Lord through his ministry.

It was the power of God that enabled Peter to pray. In the

Garden of Gethsemane, he could not watch and pray with Jesus

for even an hour

. But after receiving the power of God, P

eter

was continually found praying.

You Shall Receive Power

In Acts 3:1-10, Peter and John went to the temple to pray

and saw a man lame from birth begging for alms. Peter told the

man, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee:

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”

He lifted the man by the hand and immediately power

flowed from P

eter to the man. The man was completely healed.

Such was the power of God.

When Peter said, “Such as I have give I thee”, what did he

have? The power of God. Peter was so led of the Holy Spirit

that he gave the man what he actually needed

the power to

walk and to be set free.

Peter was warned not to preach but he still did. He was put

in prison but he still praised God. He lived by the Spirit of God

and had such a power of God that even his shadow healed the

sick (Acts 5:15).

This same power is available to us today just as it was

during the time of Jesus and the disciples.

Stephen had to be “of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost

and wisdom” to be a deacon in the early church (Acts 6:3). He

was “a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 6:5a).

Because he was “full of faith and power”, Stephen “did

great wonders and miracles among the people” (Acts 6:8).

Stephen was so filled with the life and power of God that

when Paul persecuted Stephen, it was as if Paul was persecuting

Jesus (Acts 9:4).

When Stephen was made a martyr for his faith in Jesus, Paul

was a fervent persecutor of the church. But when Paul met

Jesus on the road to Damascus and

was confronted with the

power of God

, he made a 180-degree turn and became a

powerful witness for the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 9:1-22).

aul was sovereignly chosen by God to turn the

people

from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18). He

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER

acknowledged the importance of the power of God and spoke

in “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor 2:4). He

believed that

“faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,

but in the power of God”

(1 Cor 2:5).

Paul experienced such an outworking of the power of God

upon his life that he was able to do great exploits for his God.

It enabled P

aul to go through hard times and stand in the face

of severe persecution. He could live a victorious Christian life

overcoming discouragement, temptations, trials, persecutions,

hardships and opposition because he had the power of God

within him.

Paul was even willing to die for the Lord. The life of Christ

was powerfully manifested in his life because he experienced the

life of God flowing through him (2 Cor 4:8-11; 2 Cor 11:22-28).

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the

excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Cor

4:7)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but

Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live

by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for

me. (Gal 2:20)

Paul was like any other ordinary man but when the power

of God came upon him, he became extraordinary and was used

of God to work “unusual miracles” (Acts 19:11, NKJV). He

could do unusual miracles because of the power of God in his

life.

Paul was always talking about the power of God,

conscious about the power of God that worked mightily in

him (Eph 1:19). This power can also work mightily in us. We

too must encounter the real power of God, “the power that

worketh in us” (Eph 3:20).

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead

You Shall Receive Power

dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also

quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

(Rom 8:11)

Having experienced the power of God in his life, Paul asked

us to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might”

(Eph 6:10). He encouraged us as Christians that we should

not

only be strong in the Lord, but we are also to be strong in

the power of His might.

YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER