Its About The Power!

I heard something tonight that made me think. Our associate Pastor mentioned that while on a recent ministerial trip another Pastor asked him if he felt that it was getting harder to minister. I thought to myself, if its getting harder to minister its not do to the times we live in, I believe it has more to do with attempting to minister within the atmosphere of flesh that we've created by catering to people rather than being His voice to His bride. If the early church could risk death, not just being put in jail, but death at the hands of the Romans, that would make it hard to minister, but it wasn't. The reason it wasn't was because the ministers understood and practiced what Paul meant when he wrote in 1 Cor 4:19-20 "But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." When we place our ability to minister in our training, our experience, or in anything other than Him we've missed it. The problem has been that for too long the church in America has done just that, we've either copied others style or we've pumped and primed people into a frenzy with our catch phrases and cliches. For the most part we've learned to have church without the help and direction of the Holy Spirit. Thereby it is difficult when we try in our own power to minister His Word during a time of shifting. When in this season God is preparing His bride we can't expect to continue to minister in the same way as before. If the church is going to be relevant and touch the world, we must learn what the early church did, that the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. Its the anointing that breaks the yoke, so while some may find it difficult to minister in these last days, I'd boldly preach in Hell knowing that if God be for me, who can be against me? The times will get difficult, that we're promised, but lets not forget, God isn't weakened by evil, He empowers us to operate within it! And that my friends is the reality of it!