“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” Ephesians 3:20

I have served as an associate pastor in conservative, Bible-believing churches for over forty years. Much of my ministry has been devoted to counseling individuals and married couples from my congregation and community. In the first twenty years of ministry, I consistently struggled with two issues in the life of my church and my own life: the level of brokenness in the Body of Christ, even among longtime believers, and the powerlessness I felt on too many occasions to truly help. In counseling sessions, I could accurately identify the issues and give people insights into their struggles, but I had no tools or techniques to reachthe deeply wounded places from which all their destructive behaviors continued to spring. Many of the people I worked with were sincere believers who had been in and out of counselors’ offices for years but had never truly gained victory over their “issues.” Even the Word and prayer could not seem to overcome the brokenness in these individuals, which eventually seeped like toxic waste into their relationships…especially marriages.

Deep inside, I sensed a huge disconnect between what I saw on the pages of the New Testament and what I witnessed in my church. What I saw in Scripture were radically changed lives. I saw the Apostle Paul, miraculously transformed himself, writing to once profoundly broken people in Corinth who then seemed to have been truly set free to grow in Christ.

There was no mention of professional counselors or even “trained therapists” in the church or any expectation that people would need to “manage their issues” over decades. There was no suggestion that addictions required residential programs in mental health facilities followed by years of support group involvement. There was no hint that homosexuals were hopelessly locked into an identity shaped by genetics or that a myriad of psychological and emotional struggles could only be managed with drug therapies. What I saw in Scripture was the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit doing life together and people being truly set free and transformed.

Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9–10).

Here Paul lists the same issues that torment us today: sexual immorality, gender confusion, substance abuse, perversions, materialism, criminality, and more. But he declares that through Christ, lives had been changed and identities transformed. Brokenness was relegated to the past, and those believers now walked in newness of life. They were, indeed, new creations. Ragtag fishermen stood before governors as ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven, sleazy tax collectors became radical philanthropists overnight, and the Mary Magdalenes, once demon-possessed, were now fully possessed by God.

For me, there was a great gulf between what I read and what I saw. In my heart, there was always a longing for more. But I had been trained not to expect “more” and if I did see “more,” I was taught to be suspicious. My church’s theology presented a gospel in which God, in an orderly universe, had ceased dispensing miracles and radical-life-change long ago. The pages of the New Testament were full of promises and stories that truly did happen, but only in the days of Jesus and the apostles. I sensed, however, that if you jettison the miracles, you also jettison the power and in doing so, you quench the Holy Spirit and neuter His ministry. I needed that power in my own life just as much as the wounded people I served.

Eventually, God called me out of that fellowship of believers.  These were good people who loved Jesus and loved his word.  But they had essentially been taught to love God, lead a moral life, and do the best they could until Jesus called them home.  But in many cases, they were in bondage to something they couldn’t shake and yearned for “more,” but were not certain what that was.  Numbers of good people left that fellowship as well looking for whatever the “more” was.

I found “the more” when I found the supernatural power of Jesus displayed through his Spirit. I saw people transformed in a few weeks or even in a few hours – truly set free from whatever bondage they had been shackled to…anger, pornography, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and more.  What’s more is that they did not relapse into their old conditions as many do after secular counseling.

Scripture is clear that there is a supernatural realm surrounding us that intersects with our lives every day.  That realm operates on power and authority. Paul declared emphatically that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12).  The gospels illustrate encounters not only with angels but also demons.  These unclean spirits torment people in all kinds of ways.  Scripture names many…a spirit of fear, a spirit of heaviness (depression), a spirit of divination (witchcraft), deaf and dumb spirits, spirits of sexual immorality, a spirit of bondage, and more.

Many churches send their members to secular counselors or counselors who are Christians but who have not been trained to deal with the spiritual realm in their counseling.  If an issue has a spiritual root but they do not deal with the spiritual forces of evil, the best they can do is help people manage or cope with their issues, but they will never get real freedom.  I have counseled several believers who were once members of witch’s covens.  When I asked them what drew them to witchcraft, they said their lives were out of control and the church could not help them…so they were drawn to the power they saw in witchcraft.  If they had seen Christ’s power in the church, they would not have run to Satan.

Many believers are looking for “more” in their walk with Jesus.  They don’t know what it is, but they sense something critical is missing.  That missing component is the power and authority of Jesus displayed through his people! Paul said, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power (1 Cor. 4:20).  In these end times, Satan is and will be ramping up his activities in ways we have never seen before.  Believers who try to withstand the enemy without the power of the Holy Spirit and divine weapons for spiritual warfare, may well be overwhelmed.  If you are looking for “more,” let me encourage you to find a church that believes in and walks in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Be sure there is a good balance of Word and Spirit.  Word without the Spirit is powerless and Spirit without the Word tends to get weird.  But pray and ask God to lead you to that church.  You are going to need it.

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils. Luke 11:20-22.

Jesus spoke the words above in one of many confrontations with the Pharisees. Seeing Jesus cast out demons, the religious leaders declared that he was casting them out by the power of Satan rather than the power of God. Religious people have always had a problem with those who operate in the power of God. They have the problem, because they don’t operate in the same power. God does not work miracles through those who trust in rules and rituals for their salvation, but through those who trust in Him. Though healing and deliverance, Jesus demonstrated that the power of the kingdom of God is much greater than the kingdom of darkness. That same demonstration needs take place today.

Religion, in the sense of being a system of rules and rituals through which one tries to find favor with God, can be a hindrance to actually discovering God himself. The rules can become the thing rather than the relationship. it is interesting to note that many of the men through whom God did his greatest miracles, such as Elijah and Elisha, did not spend much time at the temple in Jerusalem, but spent much of their time in the wilderness pursuing a relationship with God. Jesus did spend time at the Temple but did so trying to redeem those at the Temple from religion rather than participating in all the temple rituals himself. It is those who have a relationship with God that God will entrust with his power.

This is not an invitation to spurn churches and go to the lake every weekend. We are commanded to meet with fellow believers, but the emphasis is love God and love one another. The Old Testament was full of detailed rituals regarding sacrifices, temple worship, being clean or unclean, etc. But the New Testament has very little instruction on what we do when we come together or how we do it. It is relational. Our commands are to love God with all of our heart , soul, mind and strength and to love one another, encourage one another, serve one another, pray for one another, and so forth. It is in that environment that God will impart his power to be used to build up the body of Christ and to bless each other.

There are still many voices today who accuse those who prophesy, speak in tongues, heal, and cast out demons of being false prophets and pawns of the devil. Even though Paul was clear that the church must not despise prophecies nor forbid tongues, many church leaders still do so. I’m not saying that “prophetic words” or tongues or even healings are always from the Lord. There were plenty who abused spiritual gifts in the days of the apostles and some tried to lead the young churches in the first century away from the truth. Most of those were in it for personal gain or were in it to lead these new believers back to religion and away from relationship. It is important to note that in the face of these abuses, Paul didn’t forbid the exercise of these gifts, but simply instructed the church in their proper use.

The reason he did not forbid the exercise of these gifts was they were one way in which the reality of the kingdom of heaven and the Kingship of Jesus was demonstrated. Again, Jesus said, “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” The pattern of gospel preaching in the New Testament was always with power. Preach it, then demonstrate it. A gospel without a demonstration of power is a different gospel from the one the apostles preached. In Acts 17, Paul made his way to Athens where philosophers and pagan priests stood on every corner. Paul was invited to speak at the Areopagus, a public forum where philosophers and religionists gathered to share their ideas. There Paul stood and expounded the gospel with great elocution and with his most persuasive words. At the end of the day, only a few believed.

His next stop was Corinth. There he declared to the church, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5). He had different results in Corinth. After Athens, he determkned that a simple gospel with a demonstation of God’s power, was much more effective that eloqurnce and education.

It appears that we are on the brink of a great move of God in the world once more and in our nation. Churches are beginning to fill again. Revivals are breaking out on college campuses. God is bringing in a great harvest around the world. Where true revival breaks out, there have always been manifestations of the power of the Spirit. That was true on the Day of Pentecost, during the Great Awakening, during the Restoration Movement of the 1800’s, and even during the Jesus Revolution of the 70’s. Those who embrace the power of the Spirit along with faithful preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be those who God uses to bring in the Lion’s share of the harvest. If you are not in a church that embraces a gospel of power, I hope you will pray for that chuch to open up to the Spirit of God. If you sense they will not open up, I encourage you to find a healthy, holy church that points you to Jesus and to his Holy Spirit.

Worship without the Spirit becomes entertainment. Eloquent preaching without the Spirit draws men to the preacher rather than to Jesus. Prayers without the Spirit, are bereft of power. Without power we are left to turn to men for the best man can do rather than turning to God who can do all things.