UNLEASH THE POWER!

Imagine that you were Satan and you could see the potential in people's lives.  What would you do to stop them from becoming all God meant for them to be?  Would you...

A.  Prey on their weaknesses
B.  Lie to them
C.  Inflate their ego until they depended on their own strength
D.  Throw obstacles in their way
E.  Debilitate them
F.  Intimidate them until they were fearful
G.  Bring disunity among them
H.  All of the above

And when would you try to stop their understanding of the power of God in them?
A.  At birth
B.  During the innocence of childhood
C.  When God came to live in them
D.  During the troubled teenage years
E.  Throughout their lives
F.  When they became more powerful
G.  When they developed strong, godly relationships
H.  All of the above

Satan certainly knows God's power--better than we do, actually!  And he understands what is available to us when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives.  He doesn't want us affecting the world around us.  If we were Superman, Satan would place kryptonite everywhere we went to make us powerless...and Superman's power is nothing compared to God's power in us.  I want to share my recent situation to help you understand how I discerned Satan's strategy.

I was very discouraged.  I'd become introspective, as I am prone to do, and was asking questions like, "Is my ministry effective?  Are people being significantly changed because of my ministry?  Does what I do really matter?"  I was even asking the wrong questions.  I was so tired and vulnerable, my guard wasn't up to keep the enemy from taking me to the pit of despair.  I was convinced there was no fruit in what I was doing.

At the same time, a good friend was walking through something so BIG and so traumatic that I stepped in to encourage her--even in my sorry state. In that moment, it was so easy to see what Satan was doing to her.  You see--she's a very powerful woman and she was asked not to attend a meeting--a meeting which she should have attended and had every right to attend.  I told her, "It's actually a compliment from the Enemy.  You're too powerful!!  You change the atmosphere when you walk in a room and you command the situation.  Now take that info and use it wisely--change the atmosphere with the authority of the kingdom of God!"  And she did.  Later, she told me that she'd been intimidated until she saw the truth--and the truth set her free.  She walked into that meeting with peace, confidence, and the power of God.  And God did amazing things in her situation!!

What I told my friend became a two-edged sword God used to pierce my heart about my own situation.  And I saw this truth:  SATAN FEARS OUR POTENTIAL.  He fears us understanding and unleashing the power of God which is in us.  So he's constantly on the offense trying to destroy us, our faith, and the promise of God in us.  I GOT IT!   Satan was using a different strategy on me (discouragement) than he'd used on my friend (intimidation).  He was trying to stop what I was doing for the very same reason--I WAS changing the atmosphere.  I was unleashing the power of God in me by doing the very things He'd created me to do--by fulfilling the purpose He'd given me.  It wasn't through big things--it was through every-day-things.  I'd been waking up every morning and asking, "What's right in front of me that I can do today to bring the kingdom of God to earth--to love, encourage, bring life, and share Jesus?"  THAT'S what Satan wants to stop--he wants to stop us from bringing the kingdom of God to earth.  ("Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...")

Examine your life.  What is Satan doing to stop you from changing the atmosphere around you?  Maybe what you're walking through is nothing but the enemy's "kryptonite" to stop you from bringing the kingdom of God to earth.  Say NO to the enemy!  And press in to TRUTH!!  DO kingdom work--love, encourage, bring life, and share Jesus-in the way God created YOU to do it!

Unleash the power of God in you--
change the atmosphere around you!  
God wants to 
BLOW.YOUR.MIND. 
with what He does!