“You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:48-49, NIV2)
This promise was given to all believers, as confirmed in Acts 2:1-4, and this same promise is given to anyone who welcome’s God’s Holy Spirit into their lives. After all, we are His witnesses, as He has vividly shown His abundant love towards each one of us.
Sadly, many have no clue about God’s Holy Spirit. This fulfills what Jesus said: “The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17, NIV2)
Only through the Holy Spirit do we have power, “power from on high”, and this power is activated through faith. Now, what kind of power can we expect? “By the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God.” (Rom 15:19a, NIV2)
By ourselves, we have no power at all. It is all provided solely by God’s Holy Spirit to anyone who welcomes Him into their lives. Living in the supernatural with our focus on our Heavenly Father will create miracles from the impossible.
Let me illustrate this with what happened to my cousin. For a long time, she rejected God. She didn’t believe in Him and was amused by believers when they told her about God. For years I prayed that she would be led to believe in God, and for years, she remained aloof.
Then one day, she came face to face with death. She was walking her friend’s dog in a park nearby, and out of nowhere someone hit her hard on the face. She fell and almost lost consciousness. When she fell she broke one rib and bruised several others. She tried to cling to her purse, but her aggressor was ruthless, and she had no choice but to let him take it away. She limped back to her apartment, beaten up and confused.
As a result of her assault, she had a persistent headache that kept her awake at nights, even though she took sleeping pills. This was my opportunity for her to experience our Heavenly Father fully. With her permission, I prayed that this incessant headache would disappear that same day.
The next day she told me that her headache was completely gone. This was her first experience that our Father loved her.
I kept praying for her. The next week she told me her broken and bruised ribs were hurting very badly.
There again we prayed, and God intervened. Her ribs began to heal at an excellerated pace. Generally, it takes 6 months or more for rib injuries to heal; but within 10 days, most of her pain was gone. In her own words she confessed that Heaven must have intervened. She could finally breathe normally.
She was also having heart pallipations, and her doctor told her she had heart anomalies. He was certain she would have to wear a pacemaker. She had to undergo numerous tests. There again our Father came through: All tests concluded her heart was fine. It was just anxiety from her attack.
As of now, she still has some hyperventilation, especially when it is dark, a reminder of the assault; but even that, our Father will heal. She has started to pray to our heavenly Father and has become quite fond of Him. After all, she has seen with her own eyes His loving power, and she is assured that He is crazy about her.
Healing is a tool used by God to lead people to accept Him fully: “Yet the news about him (Jesus) spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.” (Luke 5:15, NIV2)
We can preach all we want, but experiencing our Father fully has a bigger impact on people than our words. All we have to do is follow His lead: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19b, NIV2)
What would we do if someone tells us, “I have terrible back pain!” Would we commiserate with him? Or pray with confidence that our Father will come through?
It’s our choice to be a witness or not.
Rob Chaffart
(To access the entire “The Forgotten Message” devotional series, please click here.)