So the needs of people cannot be met without the power of God. The church needs the supernatural. It needs this, why? Because there are people that need healing; there are people that need deliverance; there are people who need a breakthrough, and provision; there are people that need connections - they need favour on them, in their business. There are people facing challenges that need God to give them breakthrough, and I go round the world, and I see God doing these things everywhere; but not so much in the western churches. The western church has drawn back from the power of God - afraid of the unusual, afraid of the unexpected, trying to control it all. It's not going to work! It isn't working - we need the power of God! The Power of God brings breakthroughs!
I just got a text on my phone the other day - a woman who'd been suicidal, depressed, and under counsel for two years. In one meeting, the power of God hit her, and boom, she we set free! No problem - it's all gone! Another person in the meeting, and they were addicted to marijuana, had been on it for years. Addiction... boom, the power of God hit them, and that's it - addiction has gone! Now they're free! Now they can start to grow the journey of connection, and intimacy, and healing, and so on; because that's what caused the problem in the first place. We need the power of God!
Now there's a contending for the power of God. Maybe you've prayed and stepped out and things didn't work out. Don't let that stop you! Learn to find out what are the factors. You've got to ask questions, and Jude says: "we must contend for the supernatural". You have to contend in prayer. Jesus spent 40 days in prayer, fasting, solitude, meditation, warfare, surrendering to the Holy Ghost... then He returned in the power of the Spirit. So these things have to come back into our lifestyle again. There is a contending for miracles! If I want miracles to happen, I have to position myself, and grow in my faith for these things; and if there are setbacks, to not worry about the setbacks. Learn how to start to build the atmosphere in the church, build the atmosphere round my own life, strengthen my prayer life, feed myself om things that will grow my faith; and determine that my ministry will have supernatural in it - that wherever I operate, the supernatural will be there.
If you don't make that decision, there'll be no fight in you. There's a spirit assigned to shut down the supernatural everywhere - to shut you down; and not just shut you down, but take lots of other things off you as well. There is a spirit assigned to do that very thing. You must understand, that when you say: "the church needs to have the supernatural" - you're declaring war straight away! No man who is a soldier of Christ entangles himself, so he can please and honour his master. It's as simple as that! There are entanglements in our life, that sometimes we need to get rid of; but it starts with saying: God, I'm not happy with how it is. I look, and I see what the Bible says. I want the church that I'm part of - I want that to be full of power!
I want my life to be full of power, and I will pay the price to pursue it. I'll pay the price to pursue it! What would that look like? It would look like: prayer; it would look like: fasting; it would look like: time meditating in the miracles, meditating in the word of God; it would look like: making connections with people that can inspire faith; it would look like: getting testimonies constantly, so your faith is being lifted; it would look like: taking risks regularly - to step out, pray for people, try things, push the boundaries out, and not withdraw. It may look like: you go out on a missions trip, and go to a Third World nation where they are hungry for God, and start to stretch out, so you break out your own expectations; then come back, and you're enlarged in your spirit, and you realise: what have I been tolerating? What have I been putting up with? How could I settle for that?