CHAPTER 5: WALKING IN POWER
Power is a necessary requirement for every believer who is committed to doing the work of the ministry, because there are many adversaries in the field of the harvest who are constantly raising oppositions and waging war against the laborers.
Ministry is service in the kingdom to the King, and anyone who is committed to that service will have the opposing kingdom as their enemy, hence the need for power, with which to dislodge the opposition and keep them at bay.
The work of the ministry would be impossible without power; not even Jesus could fulfill His ministry without power, which is why He had to tarry in the wilderness forty days and forty nights for power.
Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.
(Luke 4:14 KJV)
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
(Acts 10:38 KJV)
So in the same vein, Jesus commanded His disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they receive power from God, before going out to carry out any ministry activity.
“But tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
(Luke 24:49 KJV)
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
(Acts 1:8 KJV)
Power is the energy that comes from the presence of God; it is generated in the place of prayer. As a believer in Christ, the presence of God should be your habitation, not simply a place you visit when you are in trouble.
“And His brightness was like sunlight; rays streamed from His hand, and there [in the sun-like splendor] was the hiding place of His power.”
—Habakkuk 3:4 (AMP)
The presence of God should be the believer’s dwelling place. When you learn to dwell perpetually in His presence, you become a reflection of Him—His character and ability will rub off on you.
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
—Psalm 91:1 (KJV)
Other references: Exodus 34:29–35; Psalm 63:1–3.
The power of God is only available to those who have the staying power to survive the wait in His presence. Power is for waiters, not visitors. We must wait on the Lord in order to lose weights and gain strength.
“And the LORD said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’”
—Exodus 33:14 (NKJV)
“He said, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ Then Moses said, ‘If Your Presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.’”
—Exodus 33:14–17 (NKJV)
“He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
But those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.”
—Isaiah 40:29, 31 (NKJV)
Wait on the Lord and tarry in prayer, and you will see the power of God.
The Maturity of the Saints
The saints of the Lord Jesus are those who have sworn their faith in Him; they have pledged their allegiance to serve His will in life and death. They bear the mark of Christ in and on them, as the Apostle Paul wrote:
“But I have… the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body.”
—Galatians 6:17 (KJV)
These are those who are willing to serve His will with integrity regardless of conditions; they have committed themselves to be bondservants even in the midst of trials, temptations, and tribulation. They are the perfect example of what the Apostle Paul calls a “living sacrifice.”
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
(Romans 12:1)
The maturity of the saints entails training and building the believers in Jesus Christ to know Him: to know His person, His character, His love, His ways, and His laws. It is for this course that God gave the “five-fold” ministry to the Body of Christ to take on the responsibility of training and building the saints unto maturity in Christ, well-furnished and equipped with Truth and Love for the work of the ministry.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ,
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, …but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in
all things into Him who is the head—Christ.”
(Ephesians 4:11–15)
The system of training and building the saints unto maturity is called “Discipleship.” After the new-birth experience, the newly born believers are admitted into the School of Discipleship where they are fully immersed into the knowledge and understanding of the Father’s love to mankind in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. Thereafter, they are indoctrinated into the basic tenets of the Christian faith so that their convictions become firm and stable as followers of Christ rather than as religious fanatics.
The saints are built unto maturity through doctrine; doctrine is the spiritual requirement for the development of the saints.
(1 Timothy 1:10; 1 Timothy 4:6; Titus 1:9; 1 Timothy 6:3)
