"You shall receive power..."

Experience is a powerful element in our lives. It can be good and we can build on it, or it can be bad and we can be limited by it, or it can be negligible so that we develop a fearful attitude toward anything that is more vibrant. Anyone who has not experienced adventurous events in their lives become hesitant when faced with challenges. God is continually challenging us to change upward toward Him and these challenges (or testings!) are met with what we know from our experience. If we do not intentionally focus on God and His Word, we rely on our human reaction to our own experience. Fear and negative thinking derive from our experience, not from God. Only feeding on His Word and seeking to follow Jesus in all facets of our life do we find a new path to follow. But fear, if not overcome, will keep us in "safe" paths that lead away from the vibrant, powerful, and overflowing life led and guided by the Holy Spirit.

When we take God's Word and break it down into doctrines and ritual, we can memorize it and study it and never come into a life of power. Covenant is all about exchange. God is seeking to put His Life into you but you must yield your life to Him in order to receive His. I have learned the Holy Spirit, the powerful energy of God sent into this realm to enter individual lives, does not have to make compromises with that individual just because that person has opened up to receive Him. There is more to a life of power than just receiving the Holy Spirit. There must be that continual yielding and listening and obeying what He speaks to you. The humble heart that is willing to obey the Spirit's leading no matter what others will think of you or do to you, is able to see what God can do. I remember my father quoting so often, "it remains to be seen what God can do through a man who fears nothing but God." I have often thought of it and wondered what I might fear. Fear is the most debilitating emotion we can have and hinders so many from full victory.

Humility is one response we give but another battle we have is ambition. When we have ambitions and we view someone who has no seeming ambition in this realm, we view it critically. Being free of ambition does not mean we are passive. It simply means we want nothing of ourselves but only to do what God wants accomplished. If we seem to be nothing or unsuccessful or doing too much or seeking the "impossible", it is not received well with those who have their own ambition. The religious rulers did not have favorable judgments of Jesus. Nothing He did pleased them for anything He did showed them in their true colors. Their only choice was to be rid of Him.

The Holy Spirit comes to you with no ambition for Himself. In the sixteenth chapter of John, Jesus describes the nature of the Holy Spirit. " He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak.....He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose (or manifest) it to you." He will guide you into all truth, he will be a comforter and a strength to you. He will become your constant advisor and produce in you praise and worship for He will reveal the Lord to you. Your reliance on and submission to the Holy Spirit will allow Him to be in you what He was in Jesus. The more you yield, the more He will reveal to you. The more constant your reliance, the more power He will reveal through you. It is the promise and fulfillment of God's covenant to you.