Friday, April 8, 2016

Disconnected


"Disconnected"

      I believe that everything in our lives has been handed down from the throne room of the Almighty to teach us and make us see him in a new light. The problem is we do not always see that. Sometimes we get so focused on what is going wrong, or what just happened, that we do not allow that little experience to permeate our mind, and cause a semblance of change, or step closer to God. This happened to me a while ago, when I ventured to the mall to replace my wife's crackediPhone 4s.
     It all started as a random idea to get my wife a new phone. My little boy and I strolled into the Sprint store, while my wife was shopping, and asked if they had the new iPhone 6. After a little bit of talking they told me that she and I both were due for an upgrade. Me being the techy geek that I am, I got hyped up! It took the sprint people a meager 5 minutes to set up her phone. However, it took two and a half hours to get my phone converted over. Needless-to-say, I was done with Sprint and the mall for that matter. After leaving the store we went to the church, due to the fact that it was Wednesday night, and I was to preach that evening. When I got out of the car, people began to come to me and say, "did you get my text?" "Hey man I called you like five times!" It was at the moment I realized, my phone never made a connection. I had been disconnected from the "world."
    I was born in the early 1980's, and I lived through the times that a cell phone went from just an idea, to being just for the rich, to being for everyone. I was a ninth grader in high school when I owned my first cell phone. My parents bought me the awesome, indestructible, epic, Nokia "brick phone!" From that moment on I never ceded to be connected (except outages and dead spots). 
   I was unable to make it to the Sprint store for a complete day. I didn't realize the struggle of life feeling disconnected. The thoughts of something happening at home without being able to be reached blew my mind. The idea of not being there, for one of the people that God has blessed me to be their Pastor, if they needed me, absolutely drove me crazy and stressed me out.  As soon as I was able, I went back to Sprint and got my phone fixed. It took literally just a few minutes to activate the phone and make it work!
   As I left the Sprint store and walked through the mall, my phone dinged and rung as I received messages, voice mails, and emails. I noticed that the anxiety of being disconnected was now gone! Gone were the thoughts plaguing my mind like King Saul on a Judean night. It was at that moment that the Lord hit me with this realization, a life Disconnected from God.
  Many people live life after salvation disconnected from God.  As I owned the phone,  I could carry it around, look at it, use Wifi to get some apps, yet I wasn't able to enjoy the full capacity of its abilities. This is what half-in-Christianity is all about. They have a salvation experience, but they’re not connected! They can access a limited amount of power and presence, but do not have the ability to feel the full potential of Gods power.

Acts 1:8

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”


       Power is an issue with all Christians. Power to overcome situation. Power to fight sin. Power to deal with stress. Often times do you feel it is hard to get out of bed in the morning, because you just don't have the strength to deal with what is facing you? There is good news, the power that you need, you possess, you just need to get connected into it.  According to Acts 1:8, the power comes when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. When you received Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your life. The misconception is that we feel that we need to pray for power, yet power is not our possession, it its the possession of God. The Holy Spirit, in his Godship, possesses the power to help us in every situation. This is when our connectivity comes into play. When a person uses a hair dryer, they must first plug it into a power source to make it work. This is the same idea, we need to be connected to who has the power.

 Ephesians 3:20

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,” 

         The Bible declares that he "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask othink. (Eph. 3:20)" Where is he? He "worketh in us." The power that we need in life is in us! We do not possess it, rather we plug into it. Have you plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit in your life? Have you connected to him, or has your signal been lost because of something that causes interference? You may be sitting there today with an "I need strength attitude," lets not pray for power, lets activate the Holy Spirits presence in your situation.