Character & Power
FOUNDATION STATEMENT: If the church is going
to walk in the power and in the anointing of God and rule the Earth, then it
must first of all develop in the character of God-Psalm 110:1-3
I.
The Church is supposed to
be the channel through with God’s power can flow bringing blessing
transformation to the Earth (Psalm 110:1-3 KJ/AMP)
A. In the day of God’s power
His people will be willing
1.
Willing
– (1) Very prompt for military service (2) Free-will offering
2.
We’re
soldiers in the army of God; Stop treating this like a kindergarten baseball
team
3.
In
a successful army (1) there is always a submitting to authority, (2) the
soldiers obey orders, (3) there are no excuses for not obeying orders, (4)
there is discipline, faithfulness, and diligence, (5) soldiers show up for
training, (6) there is a demand for excellence in all that you do
4.
In
the military, the soldiers offer there lives under the freedom of their own
will. They are saying my life is no
longer my own. I’m willing to be
taught, to be corrected, to be diligent, to be discipline, and to be faithful
for the good of the army and for the cause that we’re fighting for
5.
The
idea is to serve God wi/ a Perfect (Shalom) Heart,
Whole heart, complete heart,
B. People who are underdeveloped
in character are too interested in the comfort and security of the flesh
(Matthew 16:25 KJ/AMP, Proverbs 20:4)
1.
2
Timothy 2:3-4-Endure hardness – Join in as a partner with the rest
of us and face this vile, ugly circumstance that is
all around you. And if you must
undergo a little suffering to do this job, then brace yourself and go for it.
a. The suffering we share
with Jesus is in being tempted (Hebrews 2:18)
b. Your flesh might have to
be uncomfortable to get the job done
C. We have no right to
expect great power to show up when we continue to operate in a low level of
character
1.
We
need spiritual
boot camp & be character people in the simple-Lk
16:10
2.
The
standard of our character level can’t be low while the expectation of our power
level is high
II. We must make the connection between the lack of power
we’ve seen and the lack of character we’ve walked in. We’ve failed to make the connection
between character & power and because of it we’ve gone on living low level
character lives and are surprised when great power doesn’t show up.
A. Matthew 5:13 – We
are here to preserve and protect the Earth and that’s going to require power
and power is going to require character
1.
If
we are underdeveloped in character, then we will be unskilled in walking in
power and we’ll be under the authority of the world (their footstool Psalm
110:1-3)
a. It’s not our lack of
power that has kept us under the authority of the world, it’s our lack of
character
2.
If
we have no power it’s b/c we have no character & we’re useless nobodies-1 Cor 13:2
B. 2 Tim 3:1-5-The church
has lost it’s strength/power because it has divorced character
1.
We
left the power of God at the altar when we refused to marry the character of
God
2.
God’s
proposing, “Will you become one with me in character so that I can become one
with you in power?”
3.
We’ve
been doing a
lot of stuff that looks real churchy, but has no power in it
C. Connecting character
& power; Your power level will rise and fall with your character
1.
Hebrews
1:9 (KJ/AMP)- We have to delight in doing what’s right even when it’s hard
a. We have to value the
pressure of the test (1 Peter 1:7)
2.
Psalm
68:6, John 7:37 – The rebellious will dwell in a place with no
anointing/power
3.
2
Chr 16:9-Perfect heart-It’s right to give God all of
you b/c He gave you all of him
D. The same word English
word “virtue” is used to describe two Greek words, one meaning character and
one meaning power
1.
In
the Mark 5:30, Luke 6:19, and Luke 8:46, dunamis,
"power", is rendered "virtue."
2.
The
same word English word “virtue” is used to describe character and power