Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): We welcome you to today's PowerWalk Ministries broadcast. And thanks for tuning into join us. God at work is the series which Reverend Paul Cannings is teaching on for these next two weeks. It's easy to gain a lot of knowledge about God, but not really experience him in practical ways in our lives. It would be similar to reading the directions for an appliance, but not really plugging it in and utilizing its benefits. Through this very practical teaching, Dr. Cannings challenges us to take God at his word and experience his power in and through our lives. Let's listen now as he brings us this message titled You God the Power.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Let us continue this discussion that we've been having for the last two days about living powerful in this world in spite of all that is taking place, all the difficulties, all the painful situations that are happening. So many of those things can make us be perplexed. Is God really in control? How do we deal with fear? Because there's so many insecurities that come up in these times. Why can you not be fearful? In the Bible, we talked about that there's a godly fear that the Bible does encourage, and that's a reverence of God. The Bible said that leads to the next level that allows us to have this strength on the inside to become powerful on the outside.

Because this situations are so overwhelming in my life, I need to seek God. I need to pray like David would pray, and he showed his dependency in God, his his commitment to cry out to God and trust God in the worst scenarios of his life. He demonstrated that God, you are my refuge and my strength, my present help in the time of need. He was totally sold out to all that God is going to do and what God is going to take care of. And so because of that, it led to David searching after God like a deer panteth after water, come the knowledge and the wisdom that drove him and caused him to be great.

but yet I we saw his failure, but in his failure, we saw his heart to surrender to God when confronted, to accept whatever adjustments God wants him to accept as king. He humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, and God lifted him back up and reestablished him and blessed his life towards the end of his life. Fear did not dominate his life because he reverenced God. He was more fearful of God in reverence of God in having a definite awe of God and the power of God, as Psalm 8 would show us, that led him to bring his life, no matter how powerful he became, he came under the authority and power of God that led him to become a man of the God's own heart.

So there's a fear that we walk away from, and there's a fear that we run to, and that's what transitions us into the next thing that God is talking about, and that's power. How do I face this world in the power of God? Many times when we face this world and all the difficulties, that's the stress can bring on marriage, can't imagine the pain that people go through that that is difficult. I mean, let's be realistic about it. How do you talk about power when you saw your home burned in California where it's gone? Everything you worked so hard for is just gone, and now you have to start over and replace all of this.

Where do you go? Where do you start? How do you even function in the midst of all of that? Now how do you feel power in that? This is what Paul is talking to Timothy about, and we can't lose the context in this because Paul isn't talking about just encouraging. He's saying, no, this is real. What Paul is saying, he means. And what do I mean by that? You see, Paul is they're talking about cutting his head off right now. He's between two soldiers, maybe more than two. The shifts coming in and out watching him because miraculous things happen around this man.

So he's being watched, and they're talking about cutting his head off. Paul has been through one prison in situation after the next. He's been beaten five times, 39 lashes. We're talking about this person that's been shipwrecked, that has gone through people rejecting him. He says this in 2 Timothy that we're in right now, chapter 1 verse 7, but by the time you get to chapter 4, he talks about all the people that are deserting him and talking bad about him. That's why he's telling Timothy, I don't need to be ashamed of the gospel because Timothy could have been implicitly implied in the verse, could have been ashamed of Paul because he's constantly defending this man and is constantly in situations.

So Paul could say, I'm powerless. I'm powerless. Man, I got folks talking bad about me, turning their backs on me. Apparently, he seems cold because he tells Timothy to bring a cloak to him that he had left. So he's there freezing, and he has no power and there's no district attorney office, nothing. The emperor says you there, you there. You come out when God choose to rescue you. God rescued him the first time, but Paul thinks this is it. He says in chapter 4, I've been poured out like a drink offering. I've fought a good fight.

I've finished my course. He's seeing this as the end. Powerless in terms of human eyes. He's powerless when he's sitting there like he's going to die. When we look at the situations that people are going through today, we look at this verse and talk about power, but God did not give us a spirit of fear. He gave us a spirit of power and of love and of sound mind. Yeah, we look at that and we go, yeah, nice, wonderful. But when you look at the contrast here of people saying, where is the power? And on the other side, you're seeing a man could also say, where is the power?

He's saying there is power. How could that be? How could that paradox arrive at making sense for us when we feel this way? Well folks, there's there's several different things. Obviously, number one, when we go to reverent fear, we have to hug on to the word of God and drives knowledge that leads to wisdom. Yes, that takes place. The word of God is powerful and sharpening double-edged sword. So power is resident in the word of God. It's does not return void. It's never empty. It's a sword. Christ walking on earth manifested for us that power is in the word.

So the first thing to recognize and experiencing God's power is that I don't have any. If I abide in him and he abides in me, I will bear much fruit apart from me. I accomplish nothing. In other words, it doesn't produce in the long run productive results that lasts into eternity. So eventually, it is corrupted away and it becomes nothing. Power is not in my abilities. That why Paul will say, in my weakness I became strong. The more I realize that I need to trust God, that he will find a way to take care of me.

So the Philippian people sent money to me because he put them on their heart to send money to me. But I've learned to be content. I've learned to go without and learned to go with much. So yes, I learned that I can do all things through Christ, but I can't do them through me. The more I accept my weakness is the more I pray. It's the more I seek out God's word. It's the more I trust God's word because I'm not going to live in fear. Fear is in this particular section of scriptures is what would be described in the Old Testament as dreadful fear, meaning it makes logical sense to be afraid if somebody got the M16 pointed at me, I should be afraid.

But he's saying, no, no, no. What when I grab the word of God, I accept that I have no capacity within myself to accomplish anything, and the ability that I have is only in the ability of God to do what he said he's going to do, and I choose to trust him, then I choose to reverence him that God, if I turn from you, I have no help because the Lord is my shepherd. And when he's my shepherd, that's when I don't come out lacking. So since he leads me into pastures and he take care of my soul and give me things to to guard me every day, I trust him.

I release myself from thinking I have the ability to do anything. That's why in Philippians he would say in chapter 3, all things I've counted loss so that I can learn to experience the power of the resurrection. So I'm not going to bring the fact that I'm a Pharisee of Pharisees to the table. I'm not going to bring the fact that I know nine languages and I could go from Greek to Hebrew and Aramaic and all this stuff. I'm not bringing that to the table. I will count anything. I will reckon with anything that ever makes me feel independent of you, God.

I will count that loss and shove it to the side and focus on what you want me to do. That's why later on in that passage says, I will identify with his sufferings, so I learned to walk in the power of the resurrection. The same writer in Ephesians chapter 3 would tell us the power of God is in the inner man. That why John would say, he who is in me is greater than he was in the world. So the activation of this power comes these ways. Number one, I will reverence God. I I'd rather be more afraid of disappointing God than being afraid of the circumstances that I face, whether it's a lion's den or a fiery furnace.

I'd rather just be committed to do his word. Second thing, what is he teaching me to do? Please please hear me. It has to be truth. It has to be truth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The only way we come to the truth, the Bible says, is to let the spirit of God illuminate God's word as we seek to apply it. When we practice the word of God, our senses become trained to know good and evil. The spirit becomes more engaged in guiding us and directing us when we are committed to practice God's word.

If we abide in him and he abide in us, these things come to fruition. So when we are committed to the spirit of God, he illuminates the word of God, so we now walk in the truth. When we walk in the truth, it produces life. Paul is saying and John is saying that inner power now starts to convict us when we sin, brings the word back to our mind. John chapter 14 verse 26, that word brings peace when situations are traumatic. That experience of the Holy Spirit brings the fruit of the Spirit. So now we walk more in the Spirit than in the flesh, and as a result of that, in the midst of chaos, there's peace.

In the midst of hate, there's love. In the midst of crazy situations, there is long suffering. In the midst of people going crazy, we could still be gentle and kind because we're finding the inner power. We allowed ourselves to experience the strength to do all things through Christ. Even when to everyone, I am powerless. When I take these different steps, it leads me to prayer and a dependency on God, which is the fourth one, which shows God that I am not relying on what is not power, my flesh that is weak. It has no strength in itself, so I learn that in all things to trust him, to lean on him, to walk with him, to be surrendered to him.

So I'm committed to pray, to seek godly advice, to practice the truth, to hold to his word. That's when you got the power. So it doesn't matter what you face in this life. The issue is, how do I activate what is already in me? Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings. Paul's life, what an incredible example of total surrender to God. And our circumstances may or may not always change through prayer, but we can be confident of God's presence with us. Now for any of our ministry resources, please visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. If you'd like to place an order by phone, our phone number is 281 260 7402. Again, that's area 281 260 7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: You know, PowerWalk Ministries seek to support itself by the books and the materials that God has blessed us to be able to minister to your life and to strengthen to equip you spiritually to be productive. And that's the way we develop support for this ministry. So we feel that if we touch your life, then that will lead to us touching other lives. So go to our website at www.powerwalkministries.org and participate in our ministry because when you do so, it goes to serving other people, not just on radio, but around the world in conferences in terms of equipping pastors and their wives, etc.

So join us, partnership with us and be blessed at the same time by going to our website and becoming a part of our ministry.

Guest (Male): Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is PO Box 920517 Houston, Texas 77092. And now Reverend Cannings and Living Word Fellowship Church invite you to join them this weekend. If you live in the Houston area, and the church is located at 7350 TC Jester Boulevard in Houston. And now remember, God's power is resident in God's word. Let's apply his promises to our lives.