Recently I spent 4 months preaching/teaching through the Book of Ephesians and finally got to the end of chapter three when I felt a reprieve and shifted my focus to the study of The Anointing the last couple months. I’ve learned get ready for God to do something great when you preach on the anointing! There has been such a powerful presence of God for emotional and spiritual healing. I have witnessed people filled with the Holy Spirit and set free of guilt, shame and depression; as God flowed over them the tears flowed down. I carried that same anointing and presence of God with me to Houston, Texas when Pastor Joyce James, pastor of Total Man Christian Center, asked me to minister on a Sunday morning. Before my message was over I knew God wanted to do some deep healing in the hearts and souls of his people. One particular woman was so overcome with the healing presence of the Holy Spirit that her cries and sobs of relief resonated from the center of her core, deep within her soul. You could see the guilt and shame being lifted up and out of her heart. This was a work no counselor, no support group, no 12-step program could produce. It was God's 1-Step Program. It was the result of a loving Savior who cared enough and was big enough to take it upon Himself. What is the use of preaching without the power? Why are so many pulpits today filled with powerless preachers? Why are so many church goers today content with powerless preaching?
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
(2 Timothy 3:1-5 NASB)
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