Why Is It That The Promise Of God To The Church Does Not Match What We Are Experiencing Today?
I believe that one of the things that all believers should have in common today is the desire to experience the FULL Power of GOD in our lives, in our homes, and in our churches. God’s Word teaches us that we can have victorious lives, that we can have peace in our lives, that we can have joy in our lives, that we can live lives that are a testimony to the power of God.
But wow, what do we see, we see believers that if they were to crack a smile on their face it would fall off. We see people who come to church, that if someone was to shout Hallelujah or Glory in worship service would be called a fanatic or crazy or weird. I’ve seen believers that live lives of defeat from the very time that they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night.
I know of believers that never give God the time of Day, never even open His word, never stop and go to Him in prayer, yet they want to know why their lives are like the way they are. They want to know why there is no victory in their life, why there is no joy, why is there no peace, why do I feel defeated all the time? Why don’t they have the power of God in their life?
Well it can be one of two reasons: The first is that they may be lost. The second is that their lives are not what they ought to be. This is the reason that the promises that God has made for the church don’t match what we are seeing in the church today. God promises that He is our strength and underneath are the everlasting arms. God also promises in Isaiah 40:31; “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Jesus promises in Matthew 28:18-20; 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[a] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
With all the great promises from God, why is the church not experiencing all of God’s promises?
The answer: Before God can do what He promises, we have to do what He expects of us.
One of the biggest things that people have done is found in 1 Thes. 5:19: “Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.” Jesus teaches us in John 4 that true worshippers will worship God in Spirit and Truth. Because God is Spirit and we must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. People, just because you go to church dose not mean you are worshiping in the Spirit.
A big problem is we worship Him in Truth. We have His word, we believe its true, But we don’t worship God in Spirit. We quench the Spirit of God to the point that worship turn into a worship service where the most important thing on people mind is not worshipping our Lord and ministering to each other, but “how long will he preach today?” I wonder will that lady on the front row going to disturb me today. How long is this going to last? This is a good time to catch a nap? Look at what she has on in church today? And we expect God to bless our efforts when we are giving Him nothing in return for what He has given us. We cry out for the Spirit to move in the dead churches, but the fact is that we have never experienced revival in our own lives.
PEOPLE GOD WILL GET SERIOUS WITH US WHEN WE GET SERIOUS WITH HIM.
2 Chronicles 7:14; “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”
In 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul gives us instruction for Holy Living. If we want to experience the power of God in our lives, homes, and churches, we are going to have to practice the principles that God has laid out for us in His word.
If one will look up in the Vines Expository Dictionary of the New Testament words here in Chapter 5 it says “To hinder such as hindering His (The Holy Spirit) operations in oral testimony in church gatherings of believers.”
In other words if the spirit move you to give testimony or praise God though an Amen, or Glory or Hallelujah, if you don’t do it you are hindering the Spirit of God.
We talk all the time about what is happing in America, how some many people are saying yes to the devil, the abortionist, etc. But the whole time we have Christians in our churches that are not say yes to the devil, but saying no to the Holy Spirit and the fact is that both of these people are dangerous.
When we continue to quench the Spirit we start to forget things. Who we are? Where we have come from? We start think more of our selves than we should. We start to look inward to our own needs and desires and we forget about God’s promises and His principles. Then we get content!
Now you might ask what contentment is. It is being happy right where you are now. Never wanting anything to change, never wanting to get involved with anything, and never wanting to see anything new started.
Happy as long as you are sitting in your favorite place Sunday after Sunday never hearing from God and never being moved by the Holy Spirit and you ask yourself WHY?
Then you start to look for ways to justify the way you feel. You like: well it his preaching, well it’s the singing, well it’s the greeter, well it’s the way people hug me when I come in, well its my Bible teacher, well it’s the weather. What you need to do is blame it on the yourself, because you are content. If you come to the house of God desiring to hear from God, you will hear from Him. People can be content in Christ, but we should never get so content that we do not look at our self and see if we have stop going toward the cross.
When we quench the Spirit is being conceit. Romans 12:3; “As God’s messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.” When we quench the Spirit and get content we begin to think more of ourselves than we ought to. While Holy Spirit is constantly at work in our live leading, guiding, convicting if we are quenching or suppressing or hindering Him we will not be as sensitive to Him and His work, and we begin to think, Hmm, I am pretty good, maybe it’s because of who I am that I enjoy the blessing I do.
Have you ever noticed that some of the most conceited people you will ever meet are also some of the most religious. (I’m not talking about confident) not the most Spiritual but the most religious. Conceited and religious goes hand in hand. It has ever since the days of the Pharisees. Some of them where the most religious and the most conceited people that ever lived. Jesus called them snakes and hypocrites.
We need to remember that whenever you take your eyes off God and put them on yourself, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. When God is not number one in your life, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. When you are quenching the Spirit you get content and conceited, you can worship God in the Spirit.
When this happen it will lead to conflict in your life. When you quench the Holy Spirit, the whole time you think everything is alright, but it’s not, that when the devil has a plan for you. Because of this there will be conflict, when you belong to God and you are saying no to the Holy Spirit, that when the devil will move in and cause conflict in your life. It will start off with conflict in your personal life.
When there is no fellowship, no communion, no melody, and no agreement. When there is none of this the only thing left is conflict. First with yourself, then within the body of Christ (the church body). Quenching the Spirit will cause you to bring discord within the body. The devil will begin to use you, you will start plotting in your heart and start looking for things.
If you won’t let the Holy Spirit lead and listen to Him, maybe you will listen to the devil. Ananias and Sapphira did in Acts 5:1-12, they allowed the devil to get into their head and it cost them their lives. Do not let it go this far! God wants us to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection. We can know that power, we can experience God’s promise, if we will first of all, not hinder the Spirit but BE LEAD BY THE SPIRIT.
If we want the power of God to be evident our lives have to be what God wants them to be. If we want God’s promises to be what we are expiring it has to start with us!