Being a healing presence in the midst of others

I am a Christian. That means that I believe that Jesus gave his life on the cross for my mistakes and failures, that I might have a restored relationship with God. Once I decide to start a relationship with God through Jesus, God's Holy Spirit comes and lives in me.

It's an incredible, almost surreal thought. That the Spirit of God comes and lives in me!

Yet, we in the kingdom can become extremely self-serving and selfish if we are not careful with what God has given us.

We speak of God's spirit as being the "power of God". God's power. And God is mighty.

In the world power is used to win, to enforce to dictate. The world speaks of power lunches, power ties, power forwards in basketball, power tennis, power, power, power!

Yet in the spiritual kingdom that we walk in as Christians, God's power is used to heal, reconcile and unite. It is the power of The Spirit. It's given not that we might be served but that we might be servants, not that we might take control but that we might relinquish control.

Some become "altar junkies" in that they look forward to experiencing God's spirit so they might leave with a "spiritual high", only to live as they lived the week before, and the week before that.

God gives me the power of His spirit that I might grow, and grow in my service to others!

It's in giving that I receive.

It's in dying that I live.

When Jesus walked on this planet as man, people wanted to be close to him and touch him because, "power came out of him" (Luke 6:19)

It is this power that Jesus wants to give us.

But here is the reason that he gives us His power: To be a healing presence in the midst of others. We can get so caught up in experiencing God's power in the big building where we have celebration services on Sunday morning that we forget that when we are filled with God's Spirit, we cannot help but be healers to the world around us.

May God's power be shown through you and I today in a way that brings peace, love and joy to those around us!