(Clip) Many Have Authority but No Power

The main key to evangelizing, to witnessing, to sharing your faith. Okay, here's the main key. This is probably the most important of the whole sermon.

Right here. This is the main key. It's being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay? Now, here's the funny thing that happens. We say, oh yes, I know that, I am.

The problem in most churches. Here's why I believe we're not seeing healing to the degree we could. We're not seeing the demonic realm beaten.

It's okay to pray. You know, people have demons, right? There are people that there's a demonic stronghold in their life. The reason we're not seeing people released.

The people we're not seeing come to Christ a greater number. The reason we're not seeing a lot of things. The reason we're not witnessing is because we have authority, but we don't have power.

See, authority is given. Every believer, when you say, I am, I believe, I repent of my sin. I believe in Jesus.

You have the authority. But power is conditional. Power, the closer you draw to God, the more power you have.

When you disconnect from the things of the world. I'm going to get into that in a minute. The more power you have.

So people have authority, but they have no power. I'm going to tell a Los Angeles County Sheriff. I know quite a few.

Some of them usher for our church. One's on the worship team right now today. Just heads up.

If you take, see if you can spot him, right? It's not Jim on the drums. Jim, you'd make a good Sheriff. I think of the old Wild West.

The rabbit trail. So you take your badge to Florida. Hey, look.

I'm a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff. They'd say, you have authority there, but you have no power here. You have no jurisdiction.

You have the authority back where you're at, but you have no power here. See, here's the big thing many people miss. We're living a lukewarm, carnal Christianity often.

We have authority, but we have no power. I mean, if you don't read the book of Acts and go, where's this? Where's this power? So we have authority, but not the power. We have the power.

Here's when. When you separate yourself from the world, from the filth of the world. That's why holiness is not a weird word.

It's a very important word. Because power and holiness go together. If you want to be holy and powerful and set apart for God, you cut your ties with the world.

You don't look like the world. There's a difference there. You're following hard after God.

I have the power because I've been fasting and pleading and praying. You have the power because you've been fasting, pleading, and praying. We have the power because we've been meditating, memorizing, and proclaiming the word of God.

Jesus said, you will receive power and become my witnesses. See, it's this aspect of power that we forget. That's why many people are bored in their faith.

Let's not take a survey, but when was the last time you led somebody to the Lord? Have you seen a miracle? Have you seen somebody being healed or set free? Have you prayed against the demonic element in their house or in their life? And have you seen that demon be removed from their life? Where's this power? Well, that was back then. I don't believe that. I believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.

And He Himself said, those who believe, those who believe, you will cast out spirits. Oh, here's one. Are you ready for it? You will raise them from the dead.

People say, do you believe in that? I say, if my little four year old dies and dies, you don't think I'm going to be praying that? Of course I believe that. Of course, that the same power, the same power that rose Christ from the dead, is in you if you engage it. But if not, you just have authority and no power.

Here's what happens. If I said right now, listen guys, in the Bible study room, there is somebody deeply possessed and demonic, and you do not want to go in there unless you're ready. Most people would go, what's for lunch? I'm not going in there.

Right? But as a believer, when you have the power, the authority, you've been prayed up, you've been fasting, you've been in the Word of God, I'll say, I'll go in there. I'll handle that. Because you have the power.

I remember, first we started visiting hospital homes. Paula, you remember this. I won't say details and things, but I think she asked me if I could go visit this person.

And I went in there, and the nurses, the door was closed, and even the nurses said, you don't want to go in there. She is highly suicidal, depressed, and just, you do not, you know, we had the door closed for a reason. She wants it closed all day.

So do I go, oh, gosh, that's true. Or do you have the authority and the power? Oh, that's wonderful. Satan's got her bound, but we're going to walk in there with the authority and with the power.

And opened that door, eventually she started coming to church, got baptized at some other church, and God changed her whole heart. Now, I was not prepared for what I saw, because it was a failed suicide attempt, with the, I think it was a 357, blew out at the front of her skull, and she was blind forever, for then. And she, it was just, I started crying, and my tears, I remember my tears hitting the floor.

She didn't know I was, and God's just breaking me. He's breaking her, he's breaking me, right? That's why this whole process of going, that's why I encourage the hospital homes, because you will be a broken person. You will have the heart that Christ has.

That's why it's so difficult. That's why most of you are not going. When a church decides it doesn't have enough helpers, something's wrong.

That's ministry 101. If you don't know what you need to do, that's what you need to do. You need to get plugged into that.

But I went in there, and I'm not trying, again, not trying to elevate, because I fall in these areas many times, but I understood I had the authority, and I had been praying and fasting before I go to these homes, and I was walking in the power of the Spirit. So that demonic realm has no authority and power. See, you don't go into it, and the devil says, the devil says, some people says, I don't know you, but I know Paul and Jesus.

And they'll attack you, but when you come in with spiritual authority, they don't tell you what to do. You realize that, right? They don't tell you, oh, there's this, and you, oh, oh, camps. You have the authority and the power.

You command the demonic realm. You tell that demon to leave. You tell that sickness to leave.

I'm not getting hyper, weird, charismatic. I'm just preaching the Bible. I mean, I came to this realization, because people, I get emails all the time, and this message goes out to thousands of people all the time, and sometimes it's a blessing and a curse.

But they put you in that weird, hyper-Pentecostal, charismatic camp where you're holding rattler snakes and can get bit by them, and, oh, look it, I didn't die. No, I'm just saying, Jesus said, those who believe in Me will cast out demons. They will raise people from the dead.

And if you're ready, they might speak in other tongues. Whoa! See, either you gotta chop that out, or you gotta embrace it. And because I believe He's the same yesterday and today, forevermore, I believe in the miraculous power of God.

And people say, well, I don't believe that anymore. I just say, well, too bad. I feel sorry for you.

I could not go to church that believes that the gifting, the power of the Spirit, all these things are God, because we don't need it anymore.