DAILY DEVOTIONAL
June 14th, 2018
Luke 9:1-2, 6
1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere.Acts 1:8
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.
These verses came into my spirit and got me thinking, “When Jesus gave His disciples power and authority over all devils, they went about everywhere healing the sick but why don’t we see the same today in the Church even though many speak with tongues?” And the Holy Spirit said to me, “Activate the [Holy Ghost] power.”
To activate the power means to make the Spirit’s power operative. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work in your life because you are baptized with the Spirit. He works when you activate Him.
You can speak with tongues and still not be full of the Spirit [walk not in the fullness of God’s power] but you can’t be filled with the Spirit without speaking with other tongues.
Just because you drank a glass of water doesn’t mean you’re full of water.
Paul says, “Do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess but be drunk with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
Drunk people act like they do because they’re under the influence of alcohol. The Holy Spirit through Paul is saying we should be under the influence of the Spirit.
So, what I am saying is that you must pray in the Spirit until you get full of the Spirit. That’s how you activate the power of the Spirit.
The day you got baptized with the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues, you received an initial infilling with the Holy Spirit.
Notice I said initial infilling meaning there are subsequent infillings with the Spirit.
In Acts 2:4 the Bible says, “And they all began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
And then in Acts 4:23-31 and zeroing on verse number thirty-one the Bible says, “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”
Luke the writer of the Book of Acts says in chapter 2:4 that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and in then in chapter 4:31 they got filled again with the Spirit.
So, we see from these verses that there’s an initial infilling and there are subsequent infillings.
Now the problem with most folks is that since they received the initial infilling, they have not had another infilling.
After the apostles got another dose of the Holy Ghost, the Bible says, “And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).
Notice Luke says, “…with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus…”
The word power here means anointing. But Luke says it was great power meaning after the apostles had received a fresh anointing, the power upon their lives increased. The anointing upon one’s life can be more or less.
There’s power and there’s great power. Power is in dimensions and degrees. Great power will take you where power alone will not. In other words, power will take you to a certain distance, but great power will take you farther.
There’s grace and there’s great grace too. Great grace will take you were grace alone wouldn’t take you to. You can increase in grace. The Bible says, “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
It is recorded in Acts 19:6 that “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.”
This is in reference to the twelve disciples who received the baptism with the Spirit at Ephesus under Paul’s ministry.
And while Paul was in prison in Rome, he wrote to these men who had received the baptism of the Spirit saying,
Ephesians 5:18-20
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Paul is saying to these men to keep be being filled with the Spirit. If the initial infilling was enough, Paul wouldn’t have written to them to maintain the flow.
Speaking with other tongues is a continuous river that should never run dry.
Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).
There’s no limit as to how far one can pray [speak] in other tongues. In other words, as long as you keep praying in tongues, the Spirit of God wouldn’t stop to give to you utterances.
The psalmist says, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”(Psalm 81:10; Acts 2:4)