WHAT IS REAL POWER?

LUKE 22:31; "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan, has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

I was taught at a young age that the devil was very powerful. We were taught that the devil had power over us and could make us do stuff. But reading the Bible and really walking with YAHWEH has taught me something different. If the devil was defeated at Calvary and is still defeated, and if Yeshua rose with "all" power, then that can only mean one thing: The devil does not have any power over us!

How could Yeshua have all power and the devil still have some over us?

If Yeshua has all power, then we have it too!

We get power from the Holy Spirit of YAHWEH because of what Yeshua did on Calvary. And the enemy is powerless against it. He can only deceive, manipulate, and use the power that he steals from us!

You see, because of what we say, what we do, or where we go, he finds opportunities to enter into our lives and rob us of the GOD-given power that we have. In this passage in Luke, Yeshua spilled the beans on how things operate in the heavens. Satan desired to sift, or "riddle" Peter. This word is telling us that the devil wanted to set Peter up for a fall, but Yeshua says that he prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail, and that once he turned back to him again, he would help others. Wow!

Okay, let's back up. Yeshua said that Satan had asked permission from YAHWEH to test Peter.

YAHWEH says, go ahead. Yeshua says I have prayed for you so your faith will not fail. And then Yeshua gets prophetic and speaks a word of prophecy by saying, "When it's over and you come back to me, help others that go through testing times!"

You see, if the devil had power over Peter, Peter's test would have been his end!

But YAH only allowed the enemy to test Peter so he could lose his pride and help his brothers with their tests!

The devil had to ask permission, and I'm sure YAHWEH was like, "Well, go ahead 'cause I need to work something out of Peter so he can stop being so hard-nosed and unfeeling."

So, YAHWEH gave him permission to test Peter, but the test was fixed because the outcome of the test was already spoken by the Word himself!

Peter wasn't being tested to see if he would fail or not. He was being tested so that he could know what a test felt like and he would have compassion for YAHWEH's people while he ministered to them. You see, Yeshua had already declared that Peter would pastor the first Body, so Peter wasn't going anywhere. And had Peter not had pride in his heart, he would not have denied Christ and would not have needed to go through this testing period. The devil sought an occasion against Peter because of the pride that Peter had in his heart. But without that, Satan would not have been able to test him.

1. There would have been no occasion or reason for the testing! Proverbs 18:21; “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

Yesterday we established that the devil has no power over us. And we established that the enemy has to get permission to even test us because of his lack of authority. But there is something else to this that we must understand. Sure, there are occasions where we experience testing to work patience and other things in us. You see, the Bible says the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may destroy. This should really read, "The enemy walks about listening to us, seeking the person that is saying the wrong thing!"

Your words can give the enemy power!

If death and life are in the power of your tongue, then you can either give Yeshua’s power over you, who is life, or the enemy power over you, who is death!

I looked up those words in the original Hebrew that it was written in, and it reads, "Ruin and preserve are in the hand of the tongue!"

The hand of the tongue?

You see, your words are like a hand that forms from your tongue and creates what you say!

If you say you are broke all the time, the hand of your tongue comes out and creates it. It manipulates your environment and causes you to have what you said. Just as YAH created the world in the beginning with his words, we are able to create our world with our words!

We are His sons remember?

So that means that our words have power just like his. So, the enemy walks around listening to us. When we claim defeat, then that gives him the power he needs to operate with. The Bible says that as Sons of YAHWEH, we have the power to speak things into existence. Good or bad. Death or life. Ruin or preserve!

It's all in the "Hand" of the tongue. Don't you know that you have power in what you say?

Don't you know that just as YAH commanded that there be light in the beginning, you can command light in your life?

Don't you know that if your confession is strong, then the enemy can't touch that part of you?

If you have the power to speak to a mountain and it obeys you, then if you believe in your heart, you can speak to any situation or circumstance, and it must obey you!

Now, don't get me wrong. Sometimes things happen out of your control and that's YAHWEH.

YAHWEH will sometimes allow the enemy to do things to help get us where we should be, but don't worry, cause the outcome of those times is fixed as we discussed yesterday. When it's YAHWEH, then we know it's not going to last long or be fatal to our walk and we will be better once it's over, but if we are speaking death and talking negative, then we are creating a negative environment around us. And the enemy runs rampant to make sure we have the negative things that we say. In those times, we must realize our power to speak things and change things with our words, so we don't give the enemy opportunity to harm us. The hand of the tongue can create what you say.

THIS IS NOT A MONEY MESSAGE!!

You have to work for money! Sorry! (smile)

So, the power that YAHWEH gave us to speak things into existence must be used wisely.

This is why praise and worship are so powerful, because it causes us to speak the Power of YAHWEH and the hand of the tongue creates an atmosphere for YAHWEH to exist in.

1. The Bible says HE lives in our praise, so when we praise him, we create a home for him in our circumstances and situations with the hand of our tongue! Mark 13:11; “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit.”

I’ve been talking about the power of the tongue. We have the power to speak things into existence and call things into order. Because death and life are in the power of our tongue, there is something we must do. We must depend upon the power of the Holy Spirit to give us what to say!

There are times when I don't know what to say. There are times when my circumstances seem greater than my confession. There are times when I sin and can't say a word in the process!

So, does this mean that the devil has power over me because, for a brief period, my words aren't the right words?

NO!

The Holy Spirit gives us power over sin by giving us what to say when we don't know what to say. You see, there will come a time when your confession will be weakened by your mistakes, your circumstances, or just plain fear. We are not perfect and though we strive for perfection, we still get it wrong at times. These are the times when we must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to quicken our mouths and speak through us in spite of where we are. Jesus was talking to the disciples and telling them not to worry about words when they are delivered up in the enemies’ hands. He was telling them that the right words would come through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can cause you to speak the right words in a bad situation. Something you could not do without the Power of YAHWEH operating in you.

Our flesh power or willpower is not enough. I know mine is not!

My will fails me at times and my confession doesn't change, but sometimes the volume of my confession gets turned down! (Know what I mean?)

Peter was warming himself by the fire and I'm sure he had the words of Yeshua on his mind all the way from the garden to the counsel hall; "You will betray me 3 times!"

I can imagine him telling himself, “No I will not."

I can imagine him thinking that he could overpower his will to deny Christ and fight the feeling like we do so many times. But then, once the testing came, his flesh rose up and his confession got silent. Something rose up in Peter and spoke loudly, "I don't know Yeshua!"

That was the pride of his flesh. And after the third time, he thought about what Yeshua had said again and was sad. But then something happened a few days later. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell on them all and the same POWER that raised Yeshua from the dead came upon them and filled them. Peter was the one that spoke that day after he was filled. No more fear, no more denial, and no more sorrow. The power had come to speak life, and later on in the scriptures, as he was taken into the same counsel halls where he denied Yeshua, the power of the Holy Spirit quickened his flesh and his mouth and gave him what to say. The Holy Spirit spoke his confession boldly even while he faced death. He never had to worry about denying Christ again because Yeshua promised that as long as he was filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit, he would not have to worry about his words. Our words are powerful, and they can speak death and life. That is why it's so important to allow the Power of YAHWEH to speak through us. When we are weak or don't know what to say. Even when we know what to say, but don't want to say it. Even when we lack the power to confess the right thing, the Holy Spirit, through His indwelling, will give us the power to speak the Word of YAHWEH.

1. Stay filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and you will be able to speak life while standing in the midst of death! Acts 2:21; “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

We need YAHWEH's power!

As you grow in Christ, you find that the more you grow, the more dependent you are upon his power rather than your own will. It gets easier but it does get more challenging because the enemy turns up the heat on those that defy him. And because he has no real power over you, he cannot overpower us. I used to trip out sometimes on the older saints in the Body of Christ singing that congregational song that only had two words, "Power, power LORD!"

I remember joking about that particular song because the song didn't say much. But now, I see what the old mothers meant. The song says a lot!

Power, Power LORD!

And when they really started getting into it they would say, "We need more power, power LORD!"

And that is the truth. We need the Power of YAHWEH to sustain us and operate through us.

Did you know that the way YAHWEH can truly get things accomplished here on earth is through us?

Did you know that we are to Earth what YAHWEH is to Heaven?

He is the light to us, and we are the light to the world!

We have dominion and we are sons of the Most-High YAHWEH.

So, we need his power to keep his standard lifted high on the earth. Peter declared something on the Day of Pentecost that is often misunderstood, but after the Power of YAHWEH had fallen on them in Acts 2, Peter spoke the words of the Prophet Joel and declared what the Power of YAHWEH was to do for us. At the end of this great speech, he said that in the last days, it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. Before I really studied this, I was under the impression that whosoever called upon the name of the LORD would have salvation. But that's not the case. Yeshua himself said that everyone that calls upon him will not be saved, so it could not mean that. As I researched it, I found that the word "saved" that is used in this text means to protect or preserve from harm. Wow!

What Peter was saying was that in the last few days, we will need to be protected and preserved. We would need help in these troubled times. So, because of the Power of the Holy Spirit, we can speak protection and preservation just by speaking the Name of Yeshua.

This really means that when you are in trouble or facing a difficult situation, you have the power of the Name of Yeshua at your disposal!

You can call on Him and He will save you. When you are tempted to do the wrong thing, call His name!

When you are faced with a life-changing situation, call His name!

When you don't know what else to say, call His name!

There is power in the Name of Yeshua. That's not just a catchphrase you grew up hearing and learned to repeat. But that is what Peter and Joel were trying to tell us. In these last days, since death and life are in the power of our tongue, we can call on life, and life will protect us and preserve us!

Yeshua said he was the way, the truth, and the life, so allow the power of your tongue to confess the powerful Name of Yeshua and you will be saved!

I WOULD RATHER BE UNCOMFORTABLE IN YESHUA...THEN COMFORTABLE WITH SATAN!!

“IF YOU’RE NOT WINNING SOULS FOR YESHUA…YOU DON’T WORK FOR YAH…YOU’RE SELF-EMPLOYED!!”