This might be why you're stuck
We’re talking about why it feels like you’re stuck and can’t change, because you CAN and I’m going to tell you how! If there is one message I could give to the whole church, it is going to be what we are talking about today - specifically to the Western church. You don’t really believe in the supernatural power of God. Why would that be the message I’d give? Because we have gotten very comfortable in our sin. We have gotten very comfortable with our struggles. We’re so comfortable that we’ve stopped believing God can heal us and God can change us. I think we’ve gotten comfortable with our Christianity so much so that He’s a God you attend church for, but not a God you risk your life for. He’s not a God you give up things for. He’s just an addendum to our safe, Christian lives. Therefore, we don’t depend on him or need him everyday. We just play along with the game of religion. And that is scary. Because that’s not salvation according to the Bible. It means surrender, picking up your cross, and difficulty. But you don’t care what it costs because you’re single-minded while you’re on earth. Like Paul said, “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
WHAT’S STOPPING US FROM EXPERIENCING THE SUPERNATURAL POWER OF GOD?
So why don’t we live this way? Because for us, our Christian rights and freedoms have largely been protected. We depend on that and think that’s what makes us Christian. We think that’s what’s going to make our kids and our grandkids Christian - the protection of our religious rights. But historically, persecution has always grown the Church. I remember being in Church History class in seminary and learning this. Persecution grew the Church in Acts and it grows it today - the fastest growing church in the world is actually in the Middle East where it’s illegal to be a Christian. Persecution grows the Church, not religious freedom.
Because we are not desperate for God, He is not moving in our midst. I am not suggesting that lives haven't been changed and that people don’t fight sin and overcome it or people don’t come to Christ on a daily basis in our country - that’s not what I’m saying. All of that is incredibly powerful and God is on the move in this country. I see it all the time. But my question for you is: do you feel stuck? Why are you not changing? What are you not believing about God? Let me be really clear: I’m not talking about mental illness and things that are a result of the fall. I’m talking about believing in a God that has given us power and dominion over the darkness. I think that’s where we struggle oftentimes in our faith - we espouse Jesus and we look at our sin, but we don’t see true victory in our lives because we are so unsure if God is actually more powerful than the darkness we face.
IT’S SIMPLE: BELIEF
There is one thing we see throughout scripture - belief in faith is what changes everything. Daniel and Luke talked about it last week! That’s what I hope the message is for you today: how have I not believed in the supernatural power of God? How have I not depended on him and the Holy Spirit to give me power, give me words, give me vision, give me need. Have I really asked him? Some of you need to believe in the supernatural power of God more. When you look at Acts, the Holy Spirit was required before they could even go anywhere! In Acts 1:8, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” In another place in scripture it basically says don’t go anywhere until the Spirit comes, because you are very weak without the Spirit. But with the Spirit, you are very powerful - in fact, you are more than conquerors. In 2 Timothy 1:7, “God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and of a sound mind.” That spirit is the Holy Spirit that comes from God! And He is in anyone who has trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior. But why don’t we feel that more? Why don’t we feel the power of God moving around us - in our families, in our friends, in our own lives? Why does it feel boring?
John 16:12-15 says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Jesus said the Spirit we need is going to come and He will tell us everything we need to know. He’s going to reveal the scriptures in a way that we can understand it. He’s going to bring one thing to you that is absolute: clarity. How many of us need clarity? Why is it that we don’t have clarity? Do we believe that God can do that in our lives?
SPIRITUAL BONDAGE VS. OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
The Spirit of God does change lives and He has the power to change your life. Do you believe it? Hear me say something really clearly: I’m not talking about because you don’t have enough faith, you’re in a difficult circumstance or sick with cancer or your child has an incurable disease because of that. In fact, bad things happen every single day and Jesus told us it would. He told us we will have trouble. I’m talking about spiritual bondage - places that we haven’t had victory in a long time. Places we feel like we’re struggling with the same sin pattern, worry, or anxiety. Have you in boldness asked God to heal you of it? Have you believed that He could? I absolutely believe he can heal us physically and I encourage you to pray for him to do that! That’s real! But it’s promised to us that we will have trouble. Our circumstances are actually promised to be difficult, but our spiritual life is promised to be vibrant and full and peaceful. That’s where I feel like the Church has numbed out and is not praying big prayers. My hope is that you would pray big prayers - that you would no longer struggle with doubt, that you would no longer struggle with fear.
When I turned from a position of defense to a position of offense and REALLY started to understand the power of God and what he’s given me to fight against the enemy and my own sin, it changed everything. I began to fight sin and depend on the Spirit and pray all the time for the Spirit to help me - and He did! I experienced freedom. I don’t struggle with those doubts anymore. It wasn’t immediate and it was over a season, but before that I was a really weak, timid prayer. Why would we pray, “God would you” or “God could you,” when we believe he can! We can be confident he WILL do something when it comes to spiritual fronts: anxiety, doubt, fear. He tells us explicitly in scripture we don’t have to struggle with those things - we are more than conquerors. On those fronts, I believe he will help us! It says he will help us. It says that he is going to help us obey every word in this book - he will give us the power to do it. I actually think we have grown very content with our struggles and sin in a way that God is not. He wants more for us. He wants us to stand up and take our position of authority over the enemy and over sin. We can be people that fight back and don’t settle for the sin in our lives or the sin in people we love.
WHAT IS THE COST TO SPIRITUAL BONDAGE?
So how do we fight sin better? James 4:6-8 says, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” He’s telling us we have access to him! Draw near to him, and he will help us. He will give us what we need. He said resist the devil, run from the enemy, and run from his schemes. Run from his temptations! We have a choice and we can choose to follow God and walk with him and depend on him. We’ve got to be people that are not afraid to name our sin and struggles and who are not afraid to fight our sin and struggles. I’m not talking about circumstances - sickness will find us all. 100% of us will die! But we are promised an eternity to make that right. But right now on earth, the bigger issue is our spiritual bondage. If we are in spiritual bondage, then we can’t lead other people to spiritual freedom. We’ve got to fight this. This matters more than anything on earth, because we need to be the people that are issuing hope and showing people the way forward. We can show people the way to Heaven, Jesus, and a relationship with God! That bondage that you’ve lived with and let be in your life, it bleeds into other people’s lives.
I want you to understand how necessary the power of God, the Holy Spirit, and depending on that God regularly is to your spiritual life. That kind of relationship must be in place to even be able to quit dabbling with your sin! We don’t even have power in ourselves to do this - our power comes from God. Do we really believe that we have been filled with the Holy Spirit and that we are able to pray and that God hears us? Do we believe we’re no longer slaves to sin anymore?
THE WEAPONS GOD HAS GIVEN US
We can change. We can have hope. We can believe in the supernatural power of God. All of you have felt this power of God before or you’ve seen it in someone else’s life. You’ve seen someone go from complete darkness to completely full of hope. I have seen that enough times to believe that God can change. But until we really believe this, we will stay stuck and the enemy doesn’t even have to do anything with us! Until you believe this, you’re basically stuck in your room with the door locked in your own mess. I want the Church to open the door and walk out. But I know it’s not that simple and that’s why God gave us a lot of weapons to fight with.
He gave us people in our lives to help us fight our sin. That’s why you have to begin with confession. You can’t stay in the dark. You have to walk out the door and go grab an army of fellow people to fight with you. You’re not meant to do this alone. You’re going to need the word of God that protects you from the enemy. You’re going to need the local Church. You might even need counseling! But freedom is absolutely available to you.
Q&A
How do I know if it's my own thoughts or the Holy Spirit leading me and speaking to me?
Whenever I talk about the Holy Spirit this is one of the main questions I get. This is easy! Scripture, scripture, scripture. The Holy Spirit has never spoken to me in such a way that it’s not backed up by scripture. In fact, there have been times when I’ve wondered if something is the Holy Spirit, but scripture is clearly against it and I know it isn’t! That’s your own feelings or ideas. But the Holy Spirit will never contradict scripture. He will lead you in the way of scripture! Also, community. I depend on my community to speak truth into my life and who I can run those thoughts, feelings, and desires past. When I get pretty unanimous yeses from people who really love Jesus and want to see his kingdom built - I can know that’s probably from the Holy Spirit.
What happens if I don’t listen to what I believe is the Holy Spirit
I would say this: I worry about this with the American church. We grieve the Holy Spirit and scripture is really clearly about that. Ephesians talks about grieving the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5 talks about quenching the Holy Spirit. That in a way we’re stopping the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in others lives, and at some point the Holy Spirit is not going to continue to pierce your heart. Because you just have literally shut him out and chosen sin over him. As far as salvation and what that means, if I were you, I would be questioning whether I really have true salvation if I’m comfortable quenching the Holy Spirit and grieving the Holy Spirit constantly. That’s a fair question! Nobody else can judge that - it’s between you and God. But I would say that continually doing that is dangerous in a Christian’s life! We can not lose our salvation, but I wonder if we’re even saved if we continue to quench the Spirit in our lives. That’s where I want to call the Church up and say, “hey, it’s possible you’ve numbed out and everything has been dumbed down in your life because you’ve been messing around with sin and idolatry. If that’s true, repent! Come back to following him and loving him and tell him that!” That’s my word for you today. Whatever you feel convicted by today in this, would you just tell him? Tell God and tell somebody else. You can pray right now and say, “God, I want to be right with you. If there is anything in my life that has grieved you or quenched the Spirit would you show it to me? I want to experience your power and I don’t want to limit you because of my sin. Show me what I need to see.” I’m not trying to get you in a place of guilt or shame - I’m trying to set you free! I’m trying to fight for you. I don’t want you to live stuck in things that you don’t have to be stuck in for one more minute!
How can I hear the Holy Spirit more clearly and know what he’s telling me?
Again - scripture, scripture, scripture. You don’t have to say, “I think God might want this.” Now, applying that scripture is where I depend on the Holy Spirit. When I am sensing a bitterness in my life and I notice it, then I’ll ask the Spirit to show me what it is I need to work through in my life. If it’s unforgiveness, I’ll pray and ask God to help me forgive that person! I’ll obey the Spirit and go to that person, because he tells me in scripture that where I can live in peace with all men, I should leave in peace with all men. So I will go to that person and ask for forgiveness! I’ll try to reconcile as best I can. This is how it works to depend on the Spirit. But first I have to know the scripture that says, “do not let bitterness grow in your heart toward each other.” I have to know that scripture to even be convicted. We have to know the word. It begins with the word! The Holy Spirit will help me obey God. This is the power of following God - believing his word. It shows us who the Spirit is and how to follow him.
What if I don’t hear God or feel him helping me?
Ask him! Tell him that. Just talk to him about it. The more I talk to God, the more I experience God. The more I talk to God, the more I’m looking for God in conversations, wanting to go to the word for understanding, and being still with him in the quiet. There’s not a voice in the sky that anybody is hearing, at least not that I know of. I just sense the Spirit - I know what to do in situations that I shouldn’t know what to do. I’ve prayed and sought scripture and talked to people I love, and through that process God leads me to what I need to do or say. Everything gets so much clearer the more I communicate with him. We follow God, we seek after him, we make him the main thing, and as we’re going, God is giving us the power and ability to choose his kingdom day by day.
