Probably YOU, too, are spiritually powerless!
Here is the shocking TRUTH!
Read WHY your prayers are not directly — miraculously — answered!
THE CHANCES are that even you, if you believe you are a Christian, are today on mighty dangerous ground!
You'd better STOP — and check up!
Open your Bible! Take a look at the real Christians back in the days of Peter, John, and Paul — AND COMPARE! Take a look at the POWER in the original true Church — in the lives of those Christians. See how your life stacks up!
. . . But Are You SURE?
You think you are under God's GRACE? Safe and secure for all eternity?
Well, listen! "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he FALL!" So warns God's Word (I Cor. 10:12). It's time to realize you are going to be finally judged by the very WORD OF GOD. You need to see to what standard you must measure up.
Jesus told His disciples, just before He ascended to heaven, that they should receive POWER when they were converted. "Ye shall receive POWER, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you," He said (Acts 1:8).
Do you have that same POWER today? Did you ever study closely to see what that power IS? Have you ever been concerned about HOW you may receive it?
Have you ever checked to see WHETHER you need it? It's time you did, for without it YOU ARE NOT TRULY CHRIST'S!
What We DO See
Of course many of you professing Christians see that you must accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior, to be saved.
You may even see that you must repent of transgressing God's Law — His spiritual Law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments — because sin is the transgression of the Law.
Perhaps you've gone far enough to realize WHY you were born — you've learned God's great PURPOSE being worked out here below.
You may see that today ALL NATIONS are spiritually drunk on the false pagan doctrines of the modern spiritual "Babylon" — that all nations are deceived — that the TRUTH has been turned upside down.
You may see that even the churches are deceived, and have turned away from the truth and embraced fables.
You may realize that grace has been turned into license!
You may even have progressed so far as to comprehend that God is molding our lives until we shall be literally BORN of Him — His character created within us — this mortal becoming immortal — this human becoming divine in the very Kingdom of God.
But haven't you overlooked, or failed to "see," the POWER of the Holy Spirit of God within you?
You may have come to see how evil and paganized this world has become, and to be disgusted with its ways.
You may recognize that you must forsake YOUR WAY, and turn to and live GOD'S WAY! Yes, you may fully understand that Isaiah said: "Seek ye the ETERNAL while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake HIS WAY, and the unrighteous man HIS THOUGHTS" (Isa. 55:6-7).
But have you overlooked, or neglected, verse 1: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the WATERS . . ." Thirsty for what? WHAT "waters"? Why, the very "waters" Jesus spoke of:
"If any man thirst," He said, "let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly [innermost being] shall flow RIVERS of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified)" (John 7:37-39).
Have you ever fully realized that the Holy Spirit is something that was not born in you? We hear a lot today about tapping your own inner hidden resources — the dormant powers within your mind. Modern religions are springing up calling that sleeping, dormant, latent part of your mind "God"! But the Holy Spirit is something you have not had — something you must RECEIVE from God! Something infinitely greater and more POWERFUL than any powers within you — something from the great God who created YOU — who created the entire vast universe and all that exists!
It is the essence — the very life — the NATURE of God. But it also is something from God, which He gives you from Himself, which is actually a part of Himself — and which IMPARTS POWER!
Do you know what that power is? Has that POWER come into you, so that you can wield it?
You, as a professing Christian, may have come to realize, to see, to comprehend, many of these things — to have accepted them — but is this POWER actually being manifested in your life? Are you sure you know WHAT that power is?
What IS This Strange POWER? First, let me tell you what this power IS NOT.
It is not an emotion physically worked up through the senses. It is not something that you can generate, or work up, yourself.
It is not a "loosened tongue" which suddenly becomes glib and loud and forward in "spiritual" sounding phrases. It is not a bragging tongue.
It is not falling over backward "under the power." It is not being robbed of all power, as some people who have accepted the counterfeit emotional religion are, while "under the power."
It is not something that makes people shout, shriek, jerk, laugh insanely and uncontrollably, or go through ridiculous and childish antics in a meeting where the preacher generates a fake, false "power" and a counterfeit spirit by constantly calling for loud emotional responses of "Hallelujah!" "Praise the Lord!" "Amen!" etc., in response to his oft-repeated: "All who believe it say `AMEN!' " etc., etc.
To know what it truly is, look into your Bible!
Jesus is our example, and we find this POWER first of all in His life. It was nothing physically inherent within Him. He said: "I can of mine own self do NOTHING" (John 5:30). But, He said, "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (John 14:10).
The Father dwelt IN Jesus by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit imparted POWER. What WAS that power?
The inspired Peter, bringing salvation to the first Gentiles, explained: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit 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).
Notice, that POWER in Jesus did none of those things that are done today by the very ones who most loudly profess to have the power of the Holy Spirit. He used that power, going about quietly, unobtrusively, not shouting, bragging, falling helpless "under the power," or any of those "wild-fire" things — but DOING! Yes, His was a life of DOING — but doing what? Doing GOOD! Serving, helping, OTHER PEOPLE! There was divine power — with it He performed MIRACLES — He HEALED all that were sick — He cast out demons, and had discernment to know when a person was demon-possessed.
His was the POWER of the Creator God! The very same POWER that produced all creation — when "He spake"! GOD is a miracle-working God! With that POWER, which came from the Father, and was in Jesus, He stilled the storm, He turned water into wine, He fed five thousand with only five loaves and two fishes!
The POWER of the TRUE Church!
Now notice that POWER in the original Church, before the apostasy set in, and the degeneracy of our day.
Soon after being filled with that power from God, Peter and John went up together into the temple at Jerusalem, at the 3:00 p.m. hour of prayer. They entered through the gate called "Beautiful." At the gate a beggar, crippled from birth, asked for money.
"Look on us," said Peter. "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!"
Grasping the beggar's right hand in perfect faith, Peter lifted him sharply to his feet. The beggar was healed instantly. He leaped up, and then walked with Peter and John into the temple, leaping as he went, shouting out praises to God (Acts 3:1-8).
Jesus, powerless of His own human self, was filled with the divine POWER of the Creator. The very supernatural power of God did the WORK OF GOD through His human BODY. Jesus said, "the works that I do in the Father's name, they bear witness of me" (John 10:25). And again, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do . . . believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him" (John 10:37-38).
Today that same Spirit — that SAME SUPERNATURAL POWER — utilizes the collective body of the true Church of God as God's human instrumentality, through which God accomplishes His WORK here on earth. In that way the true CHURCH IS also the BODY OF CHRIST (I Cor. 12:27).
And Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do" (John 14:12).
That same POWER of God was in Peter and John. It did the WORK OF God in proclaiming Christ's Gospel.