Diluting the Power of God in the Church

Let me be very transparent with you. I am bored with the church and have been bored with it for many years. I was and continue to be a Pastor on a much smaller scale. The church should be the most exciting experience on this earth; however, I have seen firsthand how we have diluted the church from the fun stuff. What is the fun stuff: 1) the power of God to transform lives, 2) the supernatural, and 3) the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit amongst God’s people, especially miracles and prophecy.

We do the same thing on Sunday after Sunday: black churches have their style of music and preaching, and Latinos and whites have their own. We are divided into denominations, but at the end of the day, we all have the same structure: 1) music, 2) offering, 3) the sermon, and maybe 4) prayer for the people. 

Am I wrong for feeling bored with this structure? Am I wrong for questioning this structure? We have become lazy and hold on to the things we have total control over. So, we become experts in how to deliver a message. We preach and teach the Word; we get into the Hebrew and Greek, but are we speaking what God wants us to speak when He wants us to say it? In Second Corinthians 3:5-6 the Bible tells us,

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, ⁶ who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (NASB1995)

Let me make a few points on this portion of Scripture:

1. Another word for adequacy is Competence. In other words, our competence comes from God.
2. Paul also reminds us that this covenant is not of the letter but of the Spirit. This does not mean we do away from God’s Word, but we submit to the Spirit fully in terms of what to communicate. In other words, it is not our message, our fancy sermon and exegesis that count here, but what the Spirit tells us to share.
3. The scary warning is that when we preach and teach on our own, the letter kills; it does not edify or produce the power to transform; it is just a show of how much we know. 

Maybe this is the reason why Paul tells us in First Corinthians 2:1-5, 

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³ I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, ⁴ and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (NASB1995)

We have become a people who preach the Logos but ignore the Rhema, a people who do away from all things supernatural. Some go as far as teaching that the gifts of the Spirit are no longer for our day as if the Holy Spirit has changed. Beloved, these are His gifts not ours. “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” First Corinthians 12:11 ((NASB1995)

So, we don’t pray and seek the Lord for new music; we would rather be an echo of the styles of the world or Bethel, Elevation, Kirk Franklin, and so on. Did Heaven run out of music? So, we do not grind and pray for the “Now Word,” no, we insist on dragging long teaching series, or some get their sermons online or decide to teach the Word line by line. In the process, the letter is used to kill, and the Spirit is not relied on to release the message He wants for His people. Jesus told us in Matthew 4:4

“…It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”(NASB1995)

Our lives depend not on the fancy, eloquent, and prepackaged sermon but on the rhḗma; “That which is spoken, a statement, word. Particularly a word as uttered by a living voice.”^[1] Who is that living voice? The Spirit of God. Again, this is not to do away with the Logos Word, for everything is based on the Logos, but is about being humble enough to submit ourselves to God as preachers and teachers and speak HIS WORDS, not ours. To tell HIS MESSAGE and not force ours. We are not motivational speakers; we are echoes of the Almighty. 

But we have gotten used to powerless services; we have gotten used to a form of godliness while denying the power of God. Paul tells us to turn away from people who deny God’s power.^[2]

I am convinced that the church will be powerful, that we will learn to trust God, that the Spirit will take over our gatherings, that it will no longer be a one-person show, and that this Constantine order of service will be no more. It is my prayer that my eyes witness such amazing glory. 

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^[1] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

^[2] 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. “(NASB1995)