|
It’s Not “Hocus Pocus!”
“Not By Might, Nor by Power but it’s by My Spirit”
Zechariah 4:6
One
early morning, shortly before the break-of-dawn, I had a dream from the Lord. In
it, I was rebuking a demon. I was really doing it too. I had
the mean face on, my voice was raised, and I even had a hint of the “sista’-neck” going; but it was not
working. In my frustration, the demon continued on with its appointed task. Then, in the midst of this fiasco, the Lord clearly
spoke to me, in a beautiful, full, audible voice and said: “Cynthia, it’s not by
might, nor by power, but it’s by My Spirit.” In an instant the Spirit
of the Lord “came” upon me; so much so that in my sleep, I felt the power of the Lord all over me, and then, in
the dream, I spoke; not loudly, but with authority in the name of Jesus Christ, rebuking the demonic spirit and it “literally”
shriveled up to nothing.
Now the Word of the
Lord spoken to me, of course, was the same Word spoken to the Prophet Zechariah in reference to the rebuilding of the Lord’s temple;
a “mighty” undertaking. (Zechariah 4:6) But what I love about the beginning of Zechariah 4 is the vision of the Gold Lamp stand and Two Olive Trees. Clearly the olive trees provided a constant flow of ‘Fresh Oil” in the
lamp stand which provided the “anointing” or “power” needed in order to keep it lit, continuously.
It is this “anointing” or “Power” provided from the constant
flow of the “Fresh Oil” of the Spirit that is necessary keep us “lit” or to carry out His Will. We cannot accomplish the Will of God without His
anointing, or power flowing through us and on us. It
just will not happen.
“Acts 1:8 promises that we will receive power after the Holy Ghost
comes upon us. This promise is essential to understanding the anointing.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we are in God’s presence.
But God’s presence is not the same as His anointing. God’s presence is His
glory and His person; His anointing is His power.
In Hebrew, the word “anoint” is mashach, which means “to rub in.” The
Greek word is chrism and means “to smear.” When we receive the anointing, we
are, in a sense, “smeared ”with His power, which means that He is not only upon
us but within us, as oil would be rubbed into and absorbed by the skin.
Simply put, the anointing is God’s power. It is the manifestation and the
result of his presence. Without God’s glory, we will never have His power.
At the same time, the power without the presence will destroy a person;
it will become an enemy. So we must have the presence with the power.
The glory is given as long as a person is faithful. The power is the gift we
receive as a result of the glory of God. Thus, a person can lose the glory and keep the power, for example,
Sampson and Saul). "
-Benny Hinn - Operating in the Anointing –
Lesson I “You Shall Receive Power”
Amazingly, the dream comes at a time, when lately, I had been literally asking the Lord, according to Mark 16:
17-18, “Where are my signs and wonders?” -
(“And
these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will
take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they
will recover.”)
“I don’t want to just keep reading about them Father- believing- knowing that You are the “Mighty,
All Powerful, God,” I want to be used to perform them!”
Well,
I’ve believed God for physical healings to my body and I am a “living” witness to miracles in my life. I have also been a part of, and witness to, miracles in the lives of others through
prayer and fasting. But I know there’s much MORE to do! There is more for the Lord to accomplish through His people
because we are His hands in the earth. We are the Body of Christ. To have His
mind, be full of His Spirit and to do His Will in the earth is His plan for us. And
it is All for His Glory.
Let's Reminisce...
Remember
Moses…
Remember
Joshua and the walls of Jericho!!
Remember
Samson, a Nazirite to God; sanctified, separated as vowed; who was to never cut his hair as was
told to his mother by an Angel:
“For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall
be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” Judges
13:5
“-and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon
him at Mahaneh Dan (Camp of Dan) between Zorah and
Eshtaol.” Judges 13:25
We all know that Samson did many “awesome”
things in his life, and as we read here, Samson was born to deliver Israel
out of the hand of their enemies, the Philistines- something one would consider to be a “Mighty” task.
But Samson had supernatural strength through the Lord’s Spirit, and even after Samson sinned in the eyesight of God,
lost His Glory; and His hair was cut deceitfully; the Lord’s anointing, His “power” manifests in Samson’s
life through his one last feat when he, as a blind captive, “with one blow,” took vengeance on the Philistines:
“Then Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ And he pushed with all
his might and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were
more than he had killed in his life.” Judges 16:30
Remember David, when he defeated Goliath.
Though Goliath was massive in size, David trusted in the Power and Might of
the “Almighty God.”
“Then
David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and
with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of
the armies of Israel,’” “Then all this assembly shall know
that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
I Samuel 17: 45 & 47
Yes, the stone provided the blow but it was the Lord’s
Spirit that gave David the “mind” to use the stone, where to aim, and to trust
in Him only to prevail! Incidentally, in I Samuel 16, the chapter
just prior to this victory for David and God’s people over the Goliath and the Philistine
army; God had used Samuel to anoint David as King, and the Bible
states “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” Is there any question as to why or how he prevailed? I think
not!
Remember the Prophet Elijah, as he out
ran Ahab and the chariot on foot!
“Then the power of the Lord came
upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” I Kings 18:46
This would be impossible for a man to accomplish in his
own strength, but with the Lord’s Spirit, with His power; it became
a reality in the earth.
Remember Jesus, Our Lord and Savior. Yes, who is Immanuel, God with us, but who also took on the form of a man. Because of this, He did
everything with, by, and through the Spirit of God, even unto His death and then His resurrection!
“Then Jesus, when He had been baptized, came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened
to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.”
We all know of the “mighty,” numerous miracles
Jesus performed back then; and still perform today. He is God and it is by that same Spirit
in which He operates in the earth realm that He has given to us to go on to do even “greater works!”
"Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, the one who believes in me will also do what
I am doing. He will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” –Jesus John 14:12
Remember
the Apostles.
“And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the
end of the earth.”
–Jesus
Acts 1:8
The Apostles went on to do “mighty”
deeds and miracles in the Lord.
Remember in Acts 3:6-8 when Peter
healed the lame man at the “Beautiful” Gate, and in Acts 5 when many were healed:
“And
through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. – And believers were increasingly
added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets, and laid them on
beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. -Also a multitude gathered from the
surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.” Acts 5: 12, 14-16
Remember Paul.
The Bible says that God worked “unusual” miracles by the hand of Paul, so that
even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went
out of them. Acts 19: 11-12
Do you know any modern-day Dorcus’s? That’s
the woman raised from the dead in Acts 9:37-42. Well, I do.
We could go on and on and on!
By the Spirit of God all things, absolutely ALL things are possible. The
Spirit of the Lord is Here and
moving in the earth today doing powerful acts through His people. With miracles, signs and wonders performed many
will see and believe in Him as a result; just as it was in the early church.
But…
I
would be remiss if I did not offer an example of those operating in their own flesh in seeking to do “Mighty,”
supernatural acts without the “power” and “anointing” of the Lord. (in addition to referred to my dream in the opening paragraph, of course.) Check out Acts 19:13-16:
“Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘We adjure (command) you by
the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ Also there
were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit
answered and said ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’ Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed
against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”
See, even evil spirits recognize and fall
under the Power and Authority of and only the Spirit of God. This
is why the evil spirit stated “Jesus I know and Paul I
know,” because it was the same Spirit by which Jesus and Paul
operated. Likewise, in my dream, the Lord was illustrating the same message to
me; that if not through His Spirit, His anointing, I have no power.
Finally...
In the words of a dear sister in the Lord, "It's not Hocus Pocus!"
We
can not say a few words and wave some type of wand; blink our eyes, twist our necks, point our fingers, raise our voices;
be wishin' and hopin,' etc., and expect the power of the Lord to show up. No. It is only by His anointing; His Spirit in,
on, and through us. And with His Spirit we can go on, just like the Apostles and many other
anointed vessels today, and do "mighty" deeds in the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
|
