When eventually this power came; they witnessed the following: their tongue changed: there is no one who the Holy Spirit would touch whose language and way of communication would not change. This is because the mind becomes renewed. It was from mother tongue to a spirit-filled tongue. This also showed a change of identity; they became different; they were now bold to witness and became agents of positive change.
Thirsty For God (Psalm 42:1)
Man’s hunger is insatiable. Never satisfied, our quest for physical needs and wants will always grow; man will always want something more and more (Prov. 21:26; Eccl. 5:10, Pro. 27:20). “As goods increase, so, do those who consume them. And what benefits are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?
Man ordinarily was created with desire, hunger and thirst,” (Prov. 27:20).
Let’s Look At These Words:
• Taste: The sensation of flavour perceived in the mouth and throat on contact with a substance.
• Thirst: A feeling of needing or wanting to drink something. Here, we got the word ‘thirsty’ meaning: feeling a need to drink.
Inside man is an emptiness wanting to be filled. This hunger could be physical or spiritual. Most times, our desire to fill this physical hunger makes us blinded to filling the spiritual hunger.
What Is Hunger?
It is a strong desire, craving, displaying the need for food or something. There is physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual hunger. Man is a needy being. Besides food and water, man needs money, knowledge, security, approval, achievements, fulfillment, satisfaction, among others (Eccl. 5:10). No matter how man gets these things, he may not be fully satisfied because satisfaction outside of man’s source of existence brings under-satisfaction. God is our source (Psalm 16:11; Isaiah 58:11; Psalm 17:15; 1 Timothy 6:6; Matthew 6:33, 5:6; Romans14:17). Believers must beware of worldly cares (Mk. 4:19; Luke 12:13).
The Need To Hunger For God
(Matthew 5:6, John 4:14; 6:35; 7:37-38, Isaiah 55:1-2, Psalm 63:1, Rev. 22:17)
Ways To Seek God
• Call upon Him – Jer. 29:12
• Serve Him whole heartedly – 1 Cor. 28:9
• Cast your cares upon Him – Ps. 55:22
• Turn from evil and do good – Ps. 34:12-16
• Forsake evil ways and thoughts – Isaiah 55:6-7
• Have a clean hand in all you do – Ps. 24:4-6
• Be humble and do right – Zeph. 2:3
The Need For Power (John 1:12, Psalm 110:3, Romans 8:19)
Power is essential for survival. The devil, like a hunter, is looking for souls to capture, lives to slay and destinies to destroy.
1 Pet. 5:8 – “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
God Has Made His Power Available For All Believers (LK. 10:19)
You can gain access to this power through faith – John 1:12, Romans 8:14
Benefits Of Power (Isaiah 40:28; 31)• Strength to the weak and in the weakness – 2 Corinth 12:9-10.
• Able to do all things. Phil. 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ.”
• Able to do the humanly impossible – Psalm 18:29-36.
• Run through a troop (a group of soldiers).
• Leaped over a wall (obstacles).
• A defense to those with His power.
• Saves in trouble – Psalm 18:31.
• Girds with strength.
• My feet like hinds’ feet. A hind is a female deer that can place her back feet exactly where her front feet stepped. Not one inch off, she is able to run swiftly. In time of danger, she is able to run securely and not get off track. She can scale unusually difficult terrain and elude predators. God’s power helps us to overcome life circumstances with grace, win the race and overcome predators.
• Jump over obstacles
• Climb without falling
• A hind can place her back feet where her front feet is; that you can only see two foot prints rather than four.
• Able to run with endurance – Heb. 12:1
Remember men like Mordecai — before Haman, Moses; before Pharaoh, Daniel; in Babylon, or David before Saul
How To Gain Power (Acts 2:1-ff)
• Wait
• Believe
• Demonstrate
• Maintain fellowship
With God, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).
Stretch (1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19)
Success is never accidental. Men who fear heights never go higher. Until you step up higher than the height of life, you may never see far. Until your height is abnormally stupid, you will end up seeing the normal distances.
What Is Stretch?
Webster’s New Enclopedic Dictionary defines it to mean:
• To extend (as one’s limbs or body) in a reclining (to bend) position.
• To reach out: Extend
• To extend in length
• To enlarge or distend, especially by force; to strain
• To amplify or enlarge beyond natural or proper limits
• To extend to an extra base
It also means an exercise of something beyond ordinary or normal limits and an extension of the scope.
Life ordinarily, and under normal circumstance, has a boundary and limit that it places on every individual, which you may never cross until – you stretch. Only those who are courageous enough to stretch, even in the face of stiffness, can achieve blessedness.
Saul’s father lost his donkeys and Saul was asked to go in search of it.
Saul in search of the donkeys crossed from the mountains of Ephraim through the land of Shalisha to Shaalim to the land of the Benjamites and finally to Zuph. In Zuph, he felt like this is the much I can go. But a voice said to him: “Do not give up. Stretch more, give more trial; try the seer, go beyond the ordinary and add extra to the ordinary. You need to discover the supernatural within this matter.”
Until you go out of the ordinary to do the extra, your ordinary cannot become extra ordinary. Until you exercise the super in your natural, you cannot become supernatural. Everyman has greatness hidden within him. Some discover it, while some achieve it and are celebrated. Yet, some do not know it is in them and die with it. Also, some are wasted like every other man.
• Venerable Stephen Wolemonwu is the Rector Ibru Ecumenical Centre, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State (08035413812)
In Stretch, Watch This: ‘Elasticity (Flexibility)
Until you stretch, you cannot be elastic. When you become elastic, you will be able to add length to your ‘human assessment.’SWITCH – people who stretch are able to switch from normal position to a greater, better, bigger length.
S – Strong enough to pull
W – Willing and wise enough to adjust
I – Intelligent to understand
T – Technical to handle
C – Courageous to endure
H – Honest in judgment
Rigid – Life is dynamic. Any man who is so rigid may never attain productivity. Rigidity is an enemy of productivity. To gain higher height in life, expect:
• Blockage – what do you do with them?
• Obstacles – How do you handle them?
• Challenges – When do you give attention to them
When you stretch, you discover the king within and gain the kingdom waiting for you. Hear this:
• It is not how many times that you fail that matters, but how many times you are willing to stand again.
• When life obstructs you, add a comma, not a full stop and move on.
• Every story of life is a chapter. It is a page and can never forever, therefore, be stretched further.
• Your pain today could be your praise tomorrow, therefore, don’t retreat never surrender.
• When life gives you a blow refuse to take it; to every life’s blow, gain a bullet for your weapon, because the journey past is less complicated than the journey ahead.
• You can make beauty out of the beast.
• Scares of the story is the sacrum of the glory (sacrum is the last bone of the spine, the bedrock of the vertebra – the Holy bone).
• Success without struggle are samples of attractions without durability.
• The fire brings out the shinning part of the gold.
• Venerable Stephen Wolemonwu is the Rector Ibru Ecumenical Centre, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State (08035413812)
