The Change

The Change

“For the kingdom of God is not one of talk but of power.”

1 Cor. 4:20

As I was sitting in the back today for staff prayer/devotional, Rick was giving us our little devotion before the prayer portion and he read the scripture above and something inside of me began to get stirred up. It was cool because, not only had I never read that before, but it was timely.

Mark 16:17-18 says that signs and wonders are going to accompany those who believe. It says that we shall lay hands on the sick and watch them recover. We’re going to cast out demons. If we drink some kind of poison, we’ll be okay. The list goes on.

Jesus himself said that we are going to do even greater works than he did…but, what does that mean? Does it mean that we’re going to be greater than the Messiah? Well, quite simply, no. It does, however, mean that the same Holy Spirit that resided in Jesus and gave him the power from on High resides in those who believe…us.

Acts 10:38 says “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who oppressed of the devil…” You see, it wasn’t until after Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit that he became the Christ.—the Messiah. Jesus did not do ONE miracle until after he was baptized with the “Fire” that John the Baptist spoke of. In that moment, he went from being Jesus of Nazareth to Jesus Christ.

To get back to tonight, we were watching a movie in Rise Up tonight called Finger of God. This movie is fantastic! You should all go rent it and watch it. It’s amazing…seriously.

The movie is a documentary. This guy goes around and he’s filming all the awesome moves of God all around the world. It’s incredible! So many people around the world can grasp the concept that God is completely awesome and He’s real and His power is real; His Spirit is real.

It makes me wonder why we, the United States as a whole, cannot grasp this concept. We were noted as one of the most powerful, rich (though at this current point in time, that would be debatable,) and opportunity providing countries in the world, and yet what rest of the world gets...we can’t conceive of it. Why? I don’t know. That’s what I don’t understand. How can not get it?

We are looking for some kind of challenge in life. We need something, but we can’t explain what it is. We have this intense desire and this passion for something that we don’t understand.

It doesn’t matter what university you graduated from (or go to). It doesn’t matter what “denomination” you were raised in or what church you go, if you even go to one. In order to do anything in life, you have to have passion. It doesn’t matter how high you scored on your ACT or SAT. It doesn’t matter what level of math or science class you got into. If you don’t have that passion, it’s all for not.

The worship leader at Rise Up, Josh, was saying something tonight that really hit home with me. He goes to university where some of the smartest people go. He was saying that as he looks around and sees all of these people who will be CEOs and bosses and company owners and fill in the blank, that they’re so intelligent, but yet they’re idiots. As he was talking, I began to think about it. He’s right.

You see, those people may be highly intelligent. They may very well be some of the top minds, at least in this state. I was thinking about it, just as the words were being uttered out of his mouth, that no matter how smart they are, Josh is smarter. Not in a conceited, “I’m more intelligent than you” way, but he has something that most of them don’t: hope.

I think about Josh and where he’s at, and I can tie it into what’s going on in my life right now. No, I’m not in college anymore, but it’s still applicable. I think we can all apply it to our lives in some way or another because we do have something that the rest of the world doesn’t have and that is that hope and that passion for our Savior.

I said all of that to make a point. We live in a world that is falling apart at the seams. Is it our fault? Probably not, but that doesn’t matter. What the generations before us did, it’s time for us to fix it.

They call our generation “lazy,” “worthless,” and “silent.” They say that we have it easy. That’s not true. Our generation has it toughest of them all. We deal with things that were deemed “unimaginable” to the previous generations.

We’re a generation that’s striving to see God move. We’re starving for more and more of Him. We’re experiencing the supernatural and walking in it. We’re living supernormal lives because “normal” isn’t good enough anymore. The standard has been raised. We’re a generation that refuses to compromise who we are—who God says we are: a generation of power.

We’re a generation that strives to live God-satisfied. We don’t care, nor do we want, what the world has to offer. We don’t merely want to keep what we’ve seen and what we’ve learned to ourselves. Our heart’s cry is to bring it to the ends of the earth. The Bible says not to conform to the pattern of this world any longer and we’re not.

We’re the generation that says “good-bye” to carnality and steps outside of ourselves. We understand that we’re crucified with Christ and now HE is in control. We’ve laid our own lives down and set ourselves aside to see His kingdom come and His Will established on the earth. Do we do it out of selfish ambition? Absolutely not.

We’re the generation that is breaking down the walls of religion, doctrine, and tradition and we’re saying “Lord, send me. I’ll go.”

We long to take the Power of God out of the four walls of our churches and run rampant with it. We long for the world to see the awesomeness of our unmovable, unshakable God

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James 1:23-24 says, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes way and immediately forgets what he looks like.” We don’t want to merely be hearers of the word, but we want to be doers of the word. 1 Timothy tells us not to let anyone look down on our youth, but to set the example.

We’re the ones who are taking what we hear and applying it to our lives. We’re seeing God move and we’re taking it into our schools and throughout our towns. I’m not saying that the older generations aren’t applying it to their lives as well. Some people may very well be, but the difference is that our generation, as a generation, is searching for the things of God. We want what’s on the heart of God and we want to live our lives accordingly. We have and want that pure, childlike faith.

This is where we make the change. This is where we walk by example. This is where we let the Holy Spirit run rampant do the will of God. It isn’t about us anymore.

We’ve been empowered to do the works of the ministry. We’ve been given that power and anointing to usher in all that God has in store…and we will.