Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for today's installment of Power Walk. We're so glad that you've joined us today as Reverend Paul Cannings continues with the series titled God at Work. There seems to be a lot of hate being spread around us these days, not just here in America, but around the world. Yet we see from scripture how very powerful love can be. And it's certainly is one thing that can overcome hate. How does Paul advise Timothy to deal with this kind of hostility and hatred? Let's listen as Dr. Cannings shares the principles we can apply to our lives through his message titled Love at Its Best.

Dr. Paul Cannings: The world we live in right now is just so full of hate, partisanship that's taking place in our country and racial issues that are going through and a lot of hate. And it's sad that sometimes in our church we are no different. In our world that we live in, we should be the light in it. It doesn't matter the color of the person, the educational background, doesn't matter what part of the world they're from. We should exemplify what Christ is talking about. The Bible is so committed to the fact that love is a powerful characteristic that can overcome hate and overcome every reason that a person ought to hate.

That the Bible would give us an example of Hosea and Gomer. I mean, what situation worse do you need to talk about? I mean, this person is told to love his wife. And in chapter three of Hosea, it doesn't mean just make sure you take care of her as a woman and do things. No, he says you love her like a person who just got married. That's how that Hebrew word is structured. God literally looks at that. He uses Hosea and Gomer to describe his relationship with Israel, which is not going to be any different than his relationship with us.

We don't seek him. He seeks us. We don't have a desire for God. God is the one who places that desire in us to seek him. We're all born in sin and shaped in iniquity. We all have foolishness wrapped up in our hearts. That's how the Bible describes a child when he's born. That's who we are, not a depraved state when we were first born. So it is natural for the world to hate, but it is very natural for God to love. It is his nature. God is love. So the more a person develops the characteristics of becoming like Christ is the more they can love anybody, even people they ought to hate.

And that 's why Paul is talking to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7. The reason why he's talking to Timothy in this manner is because Timothy has people attacking him. He's not just writing this verse in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 that says for God had not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind, as we've been going through this week. No, no, no, no, no. He's not just writing this verse. He's telling Timothy the premise upon which he's writing this entire book or this letter.

Timothy has every reason to hate the people that are constantly creating problems for him. Paul has a reason to hate people because he's in chapter 4 talking about all the people that turned against him. So when he's writing this, he's telling this young man who is a timid young man how he needs to approach a time in ministry that is difficult. He's got the people not really accepting Paul's apostleship because Paul keeps getting in jail and he's ashamed to constantly associate with Paul. So Timothy has to be told in verse 6 of 2 Timothy chapter 1 that you have to rekindle this gift that was within you.

In other words, you you you got to stir up the anointing, the call that was in you. And just don't go through teaching and preaching in ministry because you're a pastor and this is what you're doing. No, man, you got to get this fire back. You you you got to work with this anointing. Timothy had in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 12 people looking no one in fact that he's young. He's a young man. He what could he tell us? He's not even married. So he has all these different things happening. And Paul is trying to teach him in this verse how in spite of the lion's dens, in spite of the fiery furnaces, in spite of the shipwrecks Paul has gone through, in spite of the beatings he's gone through, in spite of the walls of Jericho, in spite of the giants behind the wall, this is how you live within the activity of God, the work of God.

This is how you experience God powerfully working despite how the view of life may look. People looking at Christ on the cross could go, yay, we defeated him. But did they? People could have looked at Christ and say, look, he doesn't even have any money. Look at him. He's from Joseph and Mary. What do you think he is? It doesn't matter what the optics look like. Jesus Christ proved he's powerful because he's the very nature of God. He's equal to God. He proved all of that. But yet the optics don't look like that. I mean, the disciples when they are preaching at Pentecost, who's these unlearned men?

The optics say they nothing. But when they start functioning where silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk. Yeah, okay, that's that's different. So Timothy, you can't focus on the optics. You can't focus on what people are saying, what's going on around you, what is the drastic situations that are taking place, because for God he's still in control, he's managing the purposes he has. For God is not giving you what you're feeling because of your emotions and because of your insecurities, because of the lack of ability you feel right now with all this stuff happening around you.

No, no, no, God didn't give you that. So we need to start relying on what allows us to experience the work of God that is functioning every day. Cuz he's working out his purposes every day. He's achieving things powerfully every day. So in spite of everything that the optics may say, God is still accomplishing everything he's going to be doing. He's going to accomplish all of it. Nobody can stop it. God can talk about the Romans coming in the book of Daniel and they came at the at the same time and it did the Persians coming.

He could work it all out 600 years before it ever happened. He could talk about the end times in the book of Daniel and and it's been thousands of years and it's working its way out exactly the way he said. So there's nothing could stop what God is doing. So therefore it doesn't matter who is in front of us on the job, who in front of us in the house, who's in front of us when we live our lives in whatever country we may be in. We can't rely on that because the spirit that God has given us is not the spirit that the world has of hate.

That's what he 's teaching here. And folks, we need to learn this because we need to be examples in this time that we live in. We need to be examples. I know love can make us so vulnerable. That's why he's saying we need to experience his power because we may feel weak, but in our weakness when we rely on his power that's when we become strong. So that's why he comes to this mentioning power first before he talks about love because love it's a willful decision to do whatever God tell me to do in whatever circumstances that I face.

It's a willful act. That's why he says in 1 John chapter 2, hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that said I know him and keep it not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keep at his word in him verily is the love of God perfected, is the love of God perfected. It's complete. So the more a person keep meaning when my motions are going this way and my mind is going this way, my thoughts are going left because of all the situations that I'm going through, all the difficulties I'm experiencing, I still commit myself to hold to God's word and to seek to do it the way he's explaining it.

When I do that, the Bible says God becomes more dominant in my life. This is what the scriptures teach in passages like Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 through 21. He said this is when God becomes dominant. This is when I grew up into the fullness of God. I no longer live in the old man. I now function in this new man. I start to experience this new creation that I am. When I keep obeying God, the spirit of God that came to guide me into truth, spirit of God that is the truth, John chapter 14 verse 16 and 17, the spirit of God begins to dominate our lives because now he convicts us when we doing wrong.

He illuminates the word of God. So as we living out the spirit of God and he's growing in us because no matter what is going on, I'm going to seek to do what God is telling me to do as a fellow employee. I'm going to do this even though this boss is this way. I'm going to go ahead and function in this way even though it feels like this is what is happening. I'm still going to be what God called me to be no matter what. The Bible is saying when those things are taking place in my life, the spirit of God says okay, you made a decision to abide in me.

When you make a decision to abide in me, chapter 15 of John verse 7 through verse 10 says I will love you and I will develop you so you bear much fruit. That means the spirit of God becomes dominant. So the fruit that comes out of my life is the peace, is joy, is love, is patience, is kindness, is gentleness that comes out. That's why it's complete. As a matter of fact, chapter 4 of 1 John even brings this home more vividly. This is what he said, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.

And everyone that loveth is born of God and know what God. So the person who know it keeps. Chapter 3 says that person doesn't practice sin from verse 4 through verse 11. You know a person who's born of God when they don't make sin a habit. This is the spirit of God that when he brings the word of God to their minds, he illuminates it so he guides them into truth. This spirit of God is the one who when he's functioning inside of them, they find this power that Paul is talking about. So when they're weak, they somehow find the ability, the capacity to press forward.

So God is not just a verse, he's not just a sermon, he's not just a song, he's an experience. That's why the Bible says that Jesus Christ came to give us life and life abundantly. We're now living in the abundance of the life that he came to give us because the spirit of God is dominating how we operate, how we function, how we move around each and every day. He said that person when they are moved from the inside out can love anybody. For God did not give us a spirit of fear. I don't have to be afraid when somebody's being racist, when somebody's being the difficult, when somebody's functioning in a way that is hateful, because he gave us power.

And because that power is resident, I can now love. I could live within the activity of God and not the activity of my flesh, not the activity of my insecurities, not the activity of how crazy things look in the optics of life. I could function in the power of the word of God in a kind spirit, a loving spirit. I could function in the fruit of the spirit because the word of God he would tell Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 17 has prepared the man of God for every good work. Folks, it is not what's in front of us, it's what's inside of us that matters most.

Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Stir up the call, the anointing in you. Some inspiring words from Dr. Paul Cannings. The Holy Spirit lives in us and God wants us to rely on him to handle the hostilities and hatred directed toward us. Now if you're joining us today and you'd like to obtain this entire series called God at Work, then please visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. And if a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is something that's foreign to you, why don't you give us a call and let's talk about it. Our phone number is 281 260 7402. Again, that's area 281 260 7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the hardest things in ministry is not actually doing ministry, but it's to get the resources to get it done. Oh, folks, that's the hardest because it costs to do what we are doing. We stepped out in faith because we believe that. In other words, it must be a step of faith from us first, not from you first. And that's what we've done in developing this ministry. But we pray that God will touch your heart to partnership with us. And you could do that simply by going to our website, a secure website, and pressing the donate button.

And on that button you will be able to become a partner with us and we will seek to bless you for being a blessing to us. I pray that God would move on your heart to be our partner. God bless you.

Guest (Male): As always, we value your prayers for our ministry. To become a Power Walk partner, please visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is PO Box 920 517 Houston, Texas 77092. We'd love to hear from you. And if you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org. Remember, you will not have to fear when you focus on Christ and you.