Do I "Got the Power"

Every morning for the last three weeks I've been reading a chapter in the book of Acts. Everyday I walk away asking myself the same question, "Where is that power today?"

I talk to more Christians today that seem to be trying too hard to hear God's voice. People that seem to be seeking so hard to know His will for their lives.

Why was it different for Peter? For Paul? Neither really had to struggle to know God's will and direction. I pray and pray about a situation and then end up going with my gut. God would talk to Peter and tell him that,
"...some guy would be coming by his house and knocking on his door precisely at 3 o'clock in the afternoon wearing a blue Colts jersey and mismatched socks. He's going to ask you to change the tire on his 1999 Silver Ford Taurus that has 98,435 miles on it. After you change his tire give him a glass of water and that blue shirt you bought at Old Navy last March."

What is up with that? What was so different about Peter and Paul? Don't feed me the, "Well, that was for 'back then'." God is an unchanging God.

If God is an unchanging God then I have to assume that I am doing something different, or not doing something at all, that the disciples and apostles were doing. I suppose that the first thing that comes to mind is distractions. The followers of Christ ,at the time, had one purpose for being on this planet: to tell people about Jesus. Me? Well, let's see? I work 40 to 55 hours per week. I have two dogs that require a lot of my attention. I have my stepson, Bailey, every other weekend and half the summer. I have a house that needs to be cleaned. Grass that needs to be mowed. I won't take my vehicles into the shop for any reason at all, and sometimes it takes me a lot of time to figure out how to fix them myself. Oh, and I spend a few hours a week working on my church's Recovery Ministry....'a few hours a week'.

My faith and my evangelistic heart (tongue-in-cheek) are so far down the list that I'm not even sure that they count.

We've covered priorities, now let's look at discipline!

I mentioned that I get up each morning and read a chapter of the Bible. Now, I'm almost certain that that puts me into a small percentage of Christians that actually do that. Wow, look at me! I read the Bible everyday. The power of the Spirit must flow out of me like water from a broken levee! Riiiight.

Wait! I do pray..."God, I want to be better at_________please help me to be more like Jesus in that area." "God, thank you for helping me stop drinking." "God, thank you for my wonderful wife and the redemption that you have given with her."

I suppose that these are wonderful prayers and that they are heard, but is it what God has in mind? Acts talks of men praying and fasting....lots of fasting. Fasting? You have got to be kidding me! I am hungry right now!

I do know that a relationship with God is about progress, not perfection. I will be perfect in that relationship, one day, but until then I am looking for progress. I am seeing that progress, as slow as it may seem at times. However, I want that power. I want to quote scripture and see lives changed. I want to lay hands on someone that is sick and watch God heal them. I want to see someone whose life is tormented by evil and cast that spirit of addiction out of them. Why not? Peter did it. Paul did it. John did it. Am I not a child of God? Does the same Spirit live in me that lived in Peter, the Rock?

God has not changed. Jesus is still the Messiah and when He physically left this world He sent his Spirit. He didn't send the "A-Team" Spirit and then later sent the Spirit that sits on the bench. The same Spirit that lives in me is the same Spirit that Paul had.

In Ephesians, Paul talks about believers having the same power that Jesus had. I don't see that in my life.