Prevailing Strategies: Use Your Divine Power

“But you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8 NKJV).

“But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you… “ (Acts 1:8 AMP).

Did you know that there are true Christ-kinds with supernatural abilities on the face of the earth today? There are people with divine, dynamic, and supernatural abilities. No, they don’t fly around in the sky nor go about in capes, but they sure have super-powers such as are not displayed by ordinary men.

If you’re born again, you’re the Christ-kind I’m talking about. God has conferred on you such powers, abilities, gifts, strength, rights, might and privileges that you can only be described as extraordinary and supernatural. You’re the real “Christ in the flesh.” It’s important you understand this to be your true identity. Sadly, most Christians don’t even know half the truth about who they really are, and that’s because most have never been taught.

Anyone who thinks Christianity is for the low and downtrodden, the poor and weak-minded who always cry to God in helplessness and hopelessness, doesn’t know who the Christian is. The Christian is by all means a supernatural being. He’s one with whom anything is possible, because he has received from the Spirit of God the dynamic ability to change any hopeless situation. He’s one who’s been given authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). That “one” is you!

Jesus also said in Luke 10:19, “…nothing shall by any means hurt you!” Thus, it doesn’t matter how harmful, poisonous or evil that thing is, the truth is, it doesn’t have the power to hurt you. This is akin to what He said again about you in Mark 16:18, that if you drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt you, and when you lay your hands on the sick, they shall recover. Why? Because you’re not ordinary! You’re not of this world! The life of Christ in you makes you supernatural.

Be conscious of your true identity in Christ. Recognize the divine ability, efficiency and might that the Holy Spirit has brought into your life and live with the consciousness of the superman that you are!

God has given us a life of glory and power in Christ Jesus. The Bible gives us important information about this life of power. It lets us know that through the Holy Spirit, we’ve been infused with supernatural power to effect positive changes in our lives and in our circumstances.

The choice of words in Scripture is very important because except you understand God’s exact communication, you can’t apply His words to your personal life. In this instance, for example, the Lord Jesus said “…you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you….” The word “power” derives from the Greek word “Dunamis,” which means power or ability to effect changes. It refers to miracle-working ability; the ability to make supernatural things happen. It also means the power of excellence.

You received this supernatural power and ability when you received the Holy Spirit; a special ability to perform! This supernatural power for excellence and extraordinary might to effect changes is in you now. Do you see why you ought never to be a victim in life? Jesus gave you a life of power.

If you find yourself in a predicament or in a precarious situation, you don’t have to give up or give in. There’s power in you to effect a change. You don’t need to go around looking for help or seeking power from place to place; the power you need is already inside you. The Holy Spirit is the power of God and the power-giver, and He lives in you in His fullness! Therefore, you’re full of power. You can do anything and change anything through the power of the Spirit.

As Christians, we’re not ordinary people; we’re never to be victims in life. If you’ve found yourself in a predicament, a precarious or desperate situation, be comforted; you have what it takes to win, irrespective of the adversity. There’s something in you: the life and dynamic power of the Spirit to effect changes.

That word “power” is actually “Dunamis” (Greek), and it means dynamic power or ability to cause or effect a change. It refers to miracle- working ability; power and ability that’s beyond yourself! It’s a “doing-power,” and it’s sometimes translated “might.” It also means the power of excellence; the extraordinary ability to be efficient and effective in all that you do. This is the life we have in Christ—a life of super-productivity and ever-increasing glory by the Holy Ghost!

No wonder He says in 2 Corinthians 3:5, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” Your ability to do anything; the reason you can be successful at anything; your power for excellence and innovation is the Holy Ghost in you. 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “…we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

Therefore, if you’re struggling in your life; if it seems you’re putting in so much effort and recording incommensurate success, the chances are that you’re neither conscious nor taking advantage of the power of the Spirit within you. Paul said, “I can do all things through the ability of Christ in me”; the prophet Micah affirmed, “…truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord…” (Micah 3:8).

Become conscious and take advantage of the power of the Spirit within you. Through that power, you can do the unthinkable, the unimaginable, and the impossible: “Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20). This is Christianity; it’s a life of dominion. You don’t need to go from place to place looking for help and seeking power; all the power you need is in you through the Holy Ghost. Put it to work.

Some years ago, a man came to me and said he suddenly woke up one day to discover he was urinating blood. He went to the hospital and the doctors told him he had developed a tumor on one of his kidneys and the tumor was cancerous. This man stood in front of the church, and he was weeping like a child. His wife was a member of the church and so were his children, but he never bothered to come into the church whenever he came to drop them off for service. He, however, came to the church when he got this dangerous diagnosis. He was a born-again Christian who had not prayed for some time due to his job and I knew he had to swing into action immediately. So, I asked him to lift up his hands unto the Lord and for an hour nonstop; he should pray in tongues as fast, hard, and as loud as he could. After the prayer, we read the scriptures out loud together. He read a chapter, and I read a chapter. We read from the books of Isaiah, Psalms, Colossians and Revelations, we read the scriptures for about an hour. I told him to do this repeatedly for a few days and monitored him while he was at it. I knew it was serious business, but he didn’t need anybody to lay hands on him. After some days of praying in the Holy Ghost like that and reading the scriptures out loud, all the symptoms disappeared, and he was completely healed.

He travelled to London to get a second opinion, and the doctors checked the medical reports and scans he travelled to the UK with over and over again. They couldn’t find even the slightest indication that he was the same person whose result they were looking at. Glory be to God for his healing. He is still alive today and has no trace of the evil affliction in his life anymore. The power of God which was divinely at work in him was activated by the Spirit and by the Word, he was healed completely

After you’re born again, everything in your body is already touched by the power of the Holy Spirit. There’s life in you. You can’t be a failure or be diseased. You can’t be said to be barren. It doesn’t matter what you go through in life, take advantage of the power in you for the change and miracle you require. That power is activated as you pray in tongues, and it’s dynamic in its working.  We read in our theme verse, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you….” That power is “Dunamis” (Greek)—the dynamic ability to cause changes.

There’s no situation you can’t change by yourself! The inherent power to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask, think or imagine isn’t in heaven; it’s in you. You may have been told that you were born with an incurable disease; it doesn’t make any difference now, because you can change it! Put the Word to work; activate the power in you for a miracle.

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Acts Chapter 3 chronicles the inspiring miracle of the lame man at the gate of the temple, called Beautiful. Peter and John had gone to the temple at the hour of prayer and met the man who begged them for alms. Turning to him, Peter said, “…Look on us…silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee” (Acts 3:4-6). Remarkable! He said, “such as I have, give I thee.”

Peter wasn’t going to be praying to God on behalf of the lame man; he knew he had something to give him. Peter, the fisherman, who, once out of timidity, denied Jesus, stands before another man and says: “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,” and then yanked the man up. The Bible says instantly, the man’s ankle bones received strength, and he is leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God (Acts 3:7-8).

What made the difference for Peter? What resulted in his sudden audacity of faith? He had received the Holy Spirit and had been turned into another man! He had come to understand the revelation of the divine life in him. No wonder he said in his epistle: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

The man had come to understand that he was no ordinary being; he knew he had received “Zoe”, the very life and essence of divinity, and this made him more than human.

Have you come to this understanding? Do you know you’re not ordinary? Sickness, disease, poverty, and failure should have no place in you because you’re God’s headquarters in the earth. He wants to bless the world through you; so, like Peter, be bold to declare who you are and what you have, and you’ll always find yourself walking in the realm of the miraculous!

-GSW-