Power
“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.”
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to define the word: Power. It means, to be able, it means the ability to do something. Now if you remember, the disciples were all crouched together in the Upper Room... I have been there many times, in the Old City of Jerusalem, and they were absolutely petrified - Their Hero, their Saviour, our Saviour had been crucified. Their dreams had been dashed and broken. Maybe you are feeling like that today with this COVID-19. Maybe your aspirations, your dream has been broken. I want to tell you today: look to the Lord. Don’t ever doubt what Christ can do in and through us. He can, and is willing to do more than our greatest request, through His miraculous power. It is available to you and me today.
Remember, Peter, after he had been filled with the Holy Spirit, went out into the streets and the very first sermon that he preached, 3000 converts came to Christ. And that was just after he had denied the Lord three times a short while before. The power of God gives us the strength to keep going. Remember, it is not us but it is Christ in us.
"Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27
The more you allow Jesus into your life, the more authority you will have.
In the early 1990s, we had probably the most devastating drought in this district that I have ever seen, we were really on our knees. My partner and I were in the chapel on the farm. We didn’t know which way to turn, just like the disciples in the Upper Room and maybe just like you today. Our production loan was full, there was no more money available. Our overdraft was at its maximum at the bank and there was no crop to reap.
We had between 80 and 100 ladies who had arrived for work and we had nothing to give them to do. Then something happened that I will never forget... I saw something I had never seen then and I have never seen since - We had a massive snowstorm in this district! It destroyed plantations for miles and miles, these were Eucalyptus trees, the gum trees that come from the Southern Hemisphere. They can’t handle large massive snowstorms and wattle trees. And we had these ladies available. I went to the General Manager of one of the big international timber companies and I said: "Can we do some work for you? Can we clean these plantations out?"
And he gave us the job, and you know something, that kept us going. Slowly but surely we paid all our debt - we came back to square one and then we carried on farming.
Don’t despair, the power is available. Just ask the Lord to help you.
God bless you.