Unlocking the Heavens: Release the Supernatural Power of Your Worship (10 page)

Therefore, you could say that he was merchandising his anointing—giving up the thing he was created to do (praising God) and instead treasuring money, even stealing some of it for his personal use. When we read about Satan’s rebellion and fall in the book of Ezekiel (quoted in full in the previous chapter), we see how Satan, too, pridefully merchandised his anointing: “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire” (Ezekiel 28:16 KJV). This anointed cherub whom God created to rule by worship betrayed the Lord by using his gift for his own personal gain.

I am very concerned about the merchandising of preaching and worship in the Body of Christ by those in full-time Christian service. I understand the necessity of budgets and finances for the operating expenses of the ministries of preachers and worship leaders, and I realize that sometimes products should be made available for purchase that strengthen believers’ walks with Christ. On the other hand, I believe that it dishonors God for preachers and worshippers to take what they have been created to do and to merchandise it or promote it for sale. Our gifts and talents are not for sale! Yes, the Lord provides for those of us in full-time ministry through our gifts and talents, but if we allow pride and the lust for money to move us to a place of commercializing our anointing we commit the great sin of betrayal!

I am amazed at the groups and preachers who have set prices on their ministries. Recently, our church hosted two internationally known guests. One had a set price, and the other required nothing more than expenses and a love offering by faith. The one who set a price received his required 3,500 dollars; however, the one who came by faith left with over 15,000 dollars. What was the difference? The difference was the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon the second man’s ministry! It strikes me as strange that those ministries who require thousands of dollars up front before they will agree to minister will come and preach about a level of faith that they themselves do not have. Sometimes I wonder if some preachers and singers have ever read what the Bible states:

He called his twelve followers together and got ready to send them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. This is what Jesus commanded them: “Take nothing for your trip except a walking stick. Take no bread, no bag, and no money in your pockets. Wear sandals, but take only the clothes you are wearing. When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. If the people in a certain place refuse to welcome you or listen to you, leave that place. Shake its dust off your feet as a warning to them. …I tell you the truth, on the Judgment Day it will be better for the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah than for the people of that town
(Mark 6:7-11; Matthew 10:15 NCV).

If they were not supposed to take money, then it means that they had to trust God to provide for their ministry. It worked; their ministry was highly successful, and they received adequate provision every step of the way.

KISS THE SON

Judas, the musician and praiser, betrayed Jesus with the kiss of worship by honoring Him with his lips and dishonoring Him with his heart. How many times have you and I come to worship services only to go through the motions of worship without really entering in with our hearts? Are we not, on some level, guilty of Judas’ sin? Are we honoring God with our words of worship but failing to engage our hearts? Are we expressing heartfelt love for the Lord in our worship? If you have failed in this area, it is not too late to repent and ask the Lord to forgive you for betraying Him with the kisses of worship. Here’s a final word on the subject:

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him
(Psalm 2:12).

Chapter 10

THE THRONE ZONE

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father
(J
OHN
14:12 RSV)
.

T
he four books of the Bible that we call the Gospels represent only eighty days of Jesus’ three-and-a-half-year ministry. Eighty days. None of the Gospel writers could include all of His miracles, because there were too many of them.

Then, at the end of the Gospel of John, we read, “There are many other things Jesus did. If every one of them were written down, I suppose the whole world would not be big enough for all the books that would be written” (John 21:25 NCV). If all of the miracles of Jesus could have been written down, all the libraries in the world could not contain the collections of accounts!

Yet we see so many of His mighty works in the pages of the Gospels—everything from changing water into wine to raising the dead—that we are awed by Him. Jesus is so supernatural.

“Of course,” you may say, “He was God’s Son. What do you expect?” But you need to know that when He humbled Himself and became a man, He chose to operate out of His humanity, empowered by the Holy Spirit just as He expected His followers to do. After all, isn’t that what He said? “Whoever believes in me will do the same things that I do. Those who believe will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12 NCV).

The same Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in us (see Romans 8:11). So if the Holy Spirit is the source of miracle-working power in the ministry and life of Jesus and I’ve got the same Spirit in me, then why am I not doing the same works that Jesus did and more?

I would love to see a man with a withered hand come into church and be able to tell him, “Stretch forth your hand!” and by the time he took it out of his jacket pocket, it would be totally restored by the power of God. I would love to see miracles—AIDS and cancer eradicated, quadriplegics walking. I know I have the God who does the impossible, and I have a burden to see what He can do.

ORDINARY FOLKS

When you read through the book of Acts, you find out that the apostles were doing such mighty works that people would come and worship them as if they were gods. That’s what happened to Peter when he arrived at Cornelius’s house (see Acts 10:25). These were ordinary men who were living such extraordinary lives that this sort of thing happened more than once, and each time they would have to say, “No, no, no! I am not God. I did not do this miracle!” and they would point the people to Jesus.

When was the last time you had the power of God operating through your life to such a degree that people wanted to worship you? I have not had that happen, and most likely you have not either. Most church people would object, “But, Pastor, of course we don’t have that happen to us today. That happened only with the first apostles.” To that, I suggest we look beyond the apostles for more examples. How about the man named Stephen and another man known as Philip? Both of these men were laymen, ordinary members of the church who had been elected as deacons. They were not apostles; in fact, they were servants in the Body of Christ—table-waiters.

Wherever Stephen went, miracles happened: “And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8 RSV). Eventually, he was arrested and persecuted because of this. In the end, when he was being stoned to death, he looked up and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56 KJV).

Philip was a good church member. He sat and listened to the apostles teach. His only official position in the church was to be a deacon, and he was always ready to serve in practical ways. Yet when he obeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit and went to a certain road where he encountered an Ethiopian man riding in a chariot and reading aloud from the book of Isaiah, and after he explained how Jesus Christ fulfilled those prophetic words, look what happened through him—and to him:

He
[a eunuch who served the queen of Ethiopia]
commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea
(Acts 8:38-40 NRSV).

The eunuch’s conversion and subsequent baptism in a small body of water alongside the road was just the beginning of amazing events. After that, the Spirit supernaturally whisked Philip to Azotus so that he could share the Good News in that region. Azotus was over thirty miles away!

Beside Stephen and Philip, we read about the exciting life of Paul, who had never met Jesus before His crucifixion and who had probably never met an apostle until after he was converted. He persecuted the new Church and by his own admission, he was “one born out of due season” (see 1 Corinthians 15:8). In other words, “I don’t even deserve to be a servant of Jesus Christ. I don’t have to come to you with a great message, but I can come to you with a demonstration of the Spirit and His power.” That’s just what he did, working miracle after miracle, year after year.

All through the Word of God we see ordinary people operating in the extraordinary power of God. Why are we not seeing these things today? Is it still true? Or is Jesus a liar along with everyone in the Bible? Is this book the biggest farce that humanity has ever fallen for? Or is it all true and we just haven’t experienced it for ourselves yet?

THE SECRET OF THE THRONE ROOM

I believe the reason we don’t have power is not because He is not still working but because we are out of line. Something is wrong with us. If we could discover what that might be, then we could unleash the power of God in our lives.

I believe we need to find a key to unlock the Kingdom. It has been right in front of us all along. Until Bible teacher and author Bob Sorge came to speak at my church, I did not fully understand what God has made available to us, how He has invited us into the sacred precincts of His very throne room. Bob preached about the secret place, God’s throne room, and his message created a hunger in me to know all about it.

Look at what I found in the book of Hebrews:

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need
(Hebrews 4:14-16 KJV).

It’s called the “throne of grace.” We have an invitation to come to God’s throne, which is where powerful mercy and grace come from. We are being invited to come. That’s everybody—apostles, pastors, ordinary men and women. You and I have a personal invitation to visit the throne room of Heaven, the very throne room of God.

In Heaven there is a temple, a heavenly temple. We know this from the book of Revelation (chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 17, and 19). The heavenly temple has an Outer Court, an Inner Court, and a Holy of Holies just like the temple of Solomon had here upon the earth, only the heavenly temple is much more extravagant.

God is saying, “I don’t want you just to come to the Outer Court and stop there. I don’t want you to come just to the Inner Court. I am inviting you to come to My very throne room, the holiest place of all.” We have a personal invitation to enter the very throne room of God Almighty.

And as if that wasn’t enough, He adds, “I don’t want you to come based on the invitation alone, because I want you to come in a certain way. I want you to come boldly.”

This would have been especially meaningful to the Jews who first received the book of Hebrews, because they knew that once a year on Yom Kippur their priests would take turns going into the Holy of Holies on behalf of the people. It was such a fearsome thing that the priest would walk backward into the Holy of Holies. There he would sprinkle blood upon the mercy seat. They knew that no man could see God and live, so they backed into the place.

Now here is God, inviting the people to whom He has extended mercy by the blood of the Savior Jesus to come right into the holiest place. He doesn’t want people to back in—He wants them to barge in! He wants us to enter boldly, as if we belong there. We have special access that other people and other beings don’t have.

It’s something like this. If I were to visit my pastor and I needed a drink, I would say, “May I have a glass of water, please?” I wouldn’t just barge in and grab a drink. However if I went into my family home as a son, I would never ask permission to have a glass of water. I would just go and get water or whatever I needed. My family would find it very strange if I were to ask permission.

According to the Word of God, you and I are heirs and joint heirs of Jesus Christ (see Romans 8:17). That means that whatever God would do for Jesus, God would do for me. God wants us to come boldly into the throne room of the throne of grace as if we own the place.

We come boldly to what kind of throne? This is a throne of
grace
. Now I know that everybody defines grace as “God’s riches at Christ’s expense,” and there is truth to that. But in Strong’s Concordance, the Greek word for
grace
carries a different definition: “Grace is divine influence that can be demonstrated in life.”

That’s why Paul can say, “I can demonstrate this Gospel.” He wrote, “This extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NRSV). Where did Paul get his miracle-working power? He got his extraordinary power to demonstrate the Gospel in action from the throne room—and he got it all the time.

ESCORTED TO THE THRONE ROOM