I started preaching as a boy aged 13, nothing happened, nobody repented – and my father said, “You NEED the Holy Spirit.” When I received the Holy Spirit, it transformed me! I became a preacher and an evangelist in the school where I was. I told the boys the truth, that without Christ you go to hell. That there’s only one way into Heaven – through Jesus. Jesus said you must be born again. There’s no other way! Saved by the Power of the Blood! That’s the truth. Good works don’t save you, being ‘good’ doesn’t save you. We’re not born ‘good’. The Bible says ALL have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. Repent and be baptised in the Name of Jesus – that’s the Gospel I preach, that’s the way into the Kingdom. Two of the boys in my class went on to become preachers. I hadn’t been to Bible College – but I had received the Power of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel!

In the synagogue in Capernaum, v33, there was a man with an unclean spirit, a devil, which cried out, “You are Jesus of Nazareth! Have You come to destroy us? I know You are the Holy One of God!” (Even devils know who Jesus is – even though the people in Nazareth didn’t know or recognise Him for who He really is.) Jesus commands the evil spirit to come out of the man, and the devil came out of him and hurt him not. The people in Capernaum were amazed, “What Word is this, for with Authority and Power He commands unclean spirits and they come out!”

Jesus left the synagogue and went to Peter’s house where He healed Peter’s mother-in-law. By the end of the day the people who’d been in the synagogue brought all their sick family and friends to Him and He laid hands on every one of them and ALL were healed.

I want you to understand that when we have the Anointing and Power of the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit of the Lord is on us, we have Authority. The reason I was able to do all those crazy things in the former Soviet Union under communism is because I have Authority – from the Holy Spirit! Even the hardened communists, my biggest opponents recognised the Authority that I had. We are Christ’s Ambassadors; in His Name we have ALL the Authority of HIS Kingdom through the Power of the Holy Spirit. Use it!

God takes the reluctant hero and commands HIM to do the impossible! This experience Moses had with God was so powerful, he could not refuse to obey! If only our encounters with God were as powerful and life-changing as this man’s was! BUT after God commanded Moses, He warned him that Pharaoh would NOT listen to him and would NOT release Israel! What a shock! The only preparation for Moses was that he had met with God in the fire. Now he has a job he doesn’t want – and God says, Pharaoh will NOT do what you ask! God actually says, I will MAKE him refuse you! This is an amazing story – it changed my life! And it can change YOUR life!

The only qualifications Moses had were the fire and the command of God! And with those two things the whole life of Moses – and the nation – were transformed!

In Nazareth, v22, the people were intrigued by Jesus, but they knew Him, he grew up in there, with them. Isn’t this Joseph’s son? And they became so indignant, they tried to throw Him off the cliff on which the town was built! But of course, He passed through the midst of them and carried on His way down to Capernaum, v32, where again, they were intrigued and astonished at His doctrine – BECAUSE HIS WORD WAS WITH POWER!

There was an evidence of Power in His ministry! In Nazareth they rejected Him, yes, but He came into Galilee ‘in the Power of the Spirit’. He read from Isaiah, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me!” Thank God for the Anointing and thank God for the Power of the Holy Spirit! If you want to be effective in ministry – I want to encourage you – you NEED the Anointing and Power of the Spirit!

I started preaching as a boy aged 13, nothing happened, nobody repented – and my father said, “You NEED the Holy Spirit.” When I received the Holy Spirit, it transformed me! I became a preacher and an evangelist in the school where I was. I told the boys the truth, that without Christ you go to hell. That there’s only one way into Heaven – through Jesus. Jesus said you must be born again. There’s no other way! Saved by the Power of the Blood! That’s the truth. Good works don’t save you, being ‘good’ doesn’t save you. We’re not born ‘good’. The Bible says ALL have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. Repent and be baptised in the Name of Jesus – that’s the Gospel I preach, that’s the way into the Kingdom. Two of the boys in my class went on to become preachers. I hadn’t been to Bible College – but I had received the Power of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel!

God chose an 80-year old man, born into a slave family, yet brought up in the king’s palace, who became a murderer, fled from the nation and spent his life as a shepherd looking after sheep in the desert! God told him, I have chosen YOU to go to Pharaoh and tell him to release all his slaves, empty the prison camps, set more than two million people free! Moses protested – I can’t do it, I’m not an ambassador, I’m not a statesman, I’m an outcast, I ran away from this nation because they were going to kill me for murder. All I have done for the past forty years is keep sheep!

Yet this man Moses had an experience with God – he had met God in the fire – and that fire came into HIM, transforming HIM, and now God takes the reluctant hero and commands HIM to do the impossible!

Challenge the greatest leader in the world, the most powerful nation on earth, demand that they release your persecuted, suffering people, command Pharaoh to let them go!’

Because Moses gave every possible reason why he could not do it, God had to use a lot of persuasion before Moses would agree – but then God said, ‘When you go, I will cause Pharaoh to rebel, he will not listen to you or do what you say, he will fight against you with all his strength! I am calling you to do something, which I Myself am going to make absolutely impossible! I will cause him to refuse you, and make him stronger than ever in his anger against you – why? So that I can then demonstrate that I am God by destroying the power of Pharaoh and delivering My people – and this will not be with human power. Instead I will demonstrate on the face of the earth the power of an Almighty God, such as has never been seen before – the greatest miracles ever seen!’

Everyone wants the anointing, we all sit in prayer meetings, but few will make the sacrifice of a life devoted to God. There is a price to pay in service to God. The Apostle Paul describes this sacrifice as 'reasonable' (Romans 12:1). Once God fills you with fire, it's your responsibility to keep the fire burning! The older I get, the more power I have, the more fire I have! I'm more on fire now than when I was first baptised in the Holy Spirit. That's how it should be! The fire shouldn't go out, it should burn brighter! How do we keep the fire burning? Sacrifice. The more sacrifice you put on God's altar the greater the fire of God in your life.

'Peace like a river' used by kind permission of Vinesong.

Original Air Date 27 April 2015

From one side of the world to the other, from America to Russia, from the north to the south – in the whole world – has ever any man seen a greater miracle than this happen, visibly, on earth? The answer is no! It is the greatest miracle ever. And it happened just forty years ago. What was it?

This is the background: God chose a baby, born to a slave woman, who became the son of the king’s daughter by the plan of God. Later, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Israelites and killed him. As a result, he fled Egypt to escape justice; married, had a family, looked after sheep and worked for his father-in-law until he was 80 years old; now suddenly God called this man, saying, ‘Go back to the place that you came from, challenge the greatest leader in the world, the most powerful nation on earth, demand that they release your persecuted, suffering people, command Pharaoh to let them go!’

Moses is 120 years old, but forty years before this something had happened which brought a bigger change to the nation of Israel than anything ever experienced in any nation before or since – the moment when God, for the first time, began to demonstrate the greatness of His power by working the most outstanding, visible miracles in front of the most powerful nation in the whole earth. Moses asks the people a question in two dimensions – time and space. First Moses says, from the very beginning of time until now, has anyone ever witnessed a miracle as big as this, the biggest, most earth-shaking demonstration of God’s power ever seen? Secondly Moses says, ask the question in space, from one side of the world to the other, from America to Russia, from the north to the south – in the whole world – has ever any man seen a greater miracle than this happen, visibly, on earth? The answer is no! It is the greatest miracle ever.