I have spent years of my life navigating deep pain and heart wounds, unspeakable tragedies and seemingly insurmountable hardships. As a toddler, my mother was killed. I later endured years of abuse, poverty, malnourishment, and more. I eventually became a single mom who struggled immensely during that season of life, often convincing myself that the God of my youth had forgotten me. Those teen, single parenting years yielded much pain (and many lessons).
> I remember what it was like to take a hammer to my daughter’s pink piggy bank, so I could scrape enough coins to get gas to get to work.
> I remember working two, sometimes three jobs, just to make it – sometimes not even seeing my kids while they were awake - due to long work hours.
> I remember living in government housing, using food stamps, and welfare, once even asking my eye doctor if I could finance one pair of contacts and pay him $5 a week, because I was so broke.
> I remember huddling on a bathroom floor in the projects, contemplating suicide, because I thought a broken heart would kill me.
> I remember what it was like to be beat up, torn down, broke, broken, overwhelmed, stressed, and at a breaking point….
Today, I am happy to report that the Lord has completely restored and healed my heart from so much pain and trauma. I know Him, not in an average-happenstance-lukewarm type of way, but in a sold- out-for-the-cause-of-Christ way. As I share my testimony, I am often asked what are the keys that changed my life, that got me out of the pit of pain, despair, bleeding heart wounds, and trauma. I want you to know, single mom, there is only one key. There is no ten-step formula on how I got out of poverty or raised my kids (who are now adults) or healed from trauma. There is only one thing that changed my life – the power of the living God changed everything.
The power of God through His Spirit sets the captives free. It’s not Buddha or Muhammad or Mother Earth. It is not crystals, meditation, astrological signs, or any other New Age practice that Satan has masterfully woven into the body of Christ. None of that has power – other than the type of power to further bind you into anxiety, depression, suicide, lust, confusion and more. The power of God looses every chain. If you walk with Jesus, you have power. The problem is most Believers don’t fully know the power and authority they have. But single mom, the power of God in your life changes everything.
Jesus begins to explain the power of the Holy Spirit in John 16:5-11:
But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
The Holy Spirit produces power in our lives:
> The power to withstand and overcome the enemy;
> The power to share the Gospel with others;
> The power for all Kingdom purposes;
> The power to heal;
> The power to save and redeem;
Sadly, my observation is that most Christians aren’t seeing the power of God move in their lives to share the Gospel, heal the sick, eradicate depression, and transform lives. Most Christians sit weak, emaciated, and ill-informed of the power inside of us, because we’ve chased false power a lot of other places. The enemy takes full advantage of our lack of knowledge, as it pertains to the Word of God and principles of His word. The Lord said my people perish for lack of knowledge. Friends, you do not have to limp along in life another second. You are not a victim. You may have been abandoned or abused or broke down for a season, but the Lord your God, living on the inside of you promises victory. You are more than a conqueror through the power of what Christ did on the Cross.
Lots of people are looking for power – power to influence, power through money, power through positions. The problem is all of that power is temporary. What I see today is many Christians not operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians are wrestling flesh and blood, have no prayer life, forsake the gathering, and completely dismiss their identity in Christ. They have forgotten whose they are. They have forgotten the power that lives within them. They are beat up, afraid, and weak.
The power Christ paid for is for Kingdom purpose:
> To raise your children unapologetically up in the way they should go
> To shine light in every dark place, and
> To bring peace & other fruits, when chaos persists.
This is who you are. You are daughters. The power of the Lord breaks every bondage of timidity, insecurity, chaos, rage, addiction, and feels of being undervalued. Every spirit coming against your identity in Christ must bow to the power of the Holy Spirit bought by Jesus.
Ephesians 3:14-20 says this:
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
It is time for Believers in Christ Jesus to do 4 things:
1. Grow deep roots. Stop talking about this Christian walk, and be about it. Stop simply being hearers of the Word and be doers of the Word. Lay down sin. Stop placating compromise. Sin creates chaos and bondage. Live a life of consecration, set apart of the purposes of God. Do not conform to this world. Live as a peculiar people. Thirst after righteousness and Kingdom purpose.
2. Lay down the idols. Admittedly, as a young girl, I remember hearing the Ten Commandments and thinking to myself, “How could someone ever worship an idol?” I envisioned a golden statue with people laying on their faces before it. However, we have surely developed plenty of idols. They may not be golden statues, but they have usurped the position of the Lord in our lives. Worship of our money, marital status, social media, jobs, or even our churches and children have become commonplace. Just because we don’t have a golden calf displayed in our living rooms does not mean we don’t have golden calves in our lives.
3. Lay down religion. Some of us are a bunch of Pharisees married to the law and not the Savior. We got obsessed with man-made denominations, bound by church traditionalism, and never opened the Word for ourselves to seek truth. We yearn to be right and not for the Presence of the Savior. We yearn for rules and not deep relationship with the Spirit of the living God. The worship of religion has only left us bound to man and not to God.
4. Surrender. Surrender your plans, your control, your children, your money, and your life. Surrender isn’t partial. Surrender to the Lord is a complete laying down of all we once desired to seek His Kingdom first, to pray without ceasing, the lay down our lives for the cause of Christ.
The power of God can shift everything in your life. When I began to seek the Kingdom of God first, not holding on to secret sin or my own control, I saw guidance through His Holy Spirit daily. I saw freedom through His power.
There is no demon or stronghold or spirit or addiction or attack or plan of the enemy that can stand against the power of God on the inside of me, and it shouldn’t be able to stand against that same power on the inside of you. It’s time for the body of Christ to stop cowering in fear to every attack and obstacle and get a revelation of who you are and the power of God that lives inside you. It’s time for you to walk in sync with the Holy Spirit through the Word and communion and obedience. It’s time to cast down every high thing that would present itself against the knowledge of God. The time is nigh.
