HIS ABILITY.
For God has given us our Ability. He is our
Ability. That Ability reveals itself in unveiling the treasures of the grace of God that belong to us.
Our thinking has been so shallow in some areas we have been robbed of God's blessings. For instance, we have quoted Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth," and without studying it any we've put
emphasis on the word "power" not realizing what the word "power" means here.
I was pastor of a community church when I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues. To hear Full Gospel people talk about this "power" I thought it would be some kind of a great overwhelming physical and emotional experience. But all I did was talk in tongues. (Yet when I read down
through the Acts of the Apostles that was all I could find they did. So if the other would have been important, the Bible would have said something about it.) And though I talked in tongues for an hour and a half and sang three songs in tongues—as I talked in tongues I said in my mind, "My, my, my, I've had a greater blessing than this many times just out praying
by myself."
But, you see, receiving the Holy Ghost isn't getting a blessing. You can get blessings beforehand and you can get blessings afterwards. It is receiving a Divine Personality to come into you and dwell in your spirit!
I didn't know that. I'd shake myself, and feel myself, and think, "My, my, my, I don't have any more power now than I ever had."
So I went back to my church and never said a word about it. I didn't seem to have any more power to preach, but the congregation began to tell it.
They said, "You have something you didn't have."
I said, "What is it?"
"Well, it's a greater ability than you had. It's a
greater punch."
I looked up this word "power" from Acts 1:8 in
Young's Concordance. And I found out that this Greek word translated "power" here also means "ability."
My congregation could see I had more ability to preach than I did have. I had my mind hung up on the "power." God said that we would receive an ability.
An ability to witness. We've overlooked the ability trying to find the power.
John called it an unction, he called it an anointing, he said it is in you. When you know the Ability of God is in there then you know what he meant when he said, "Greater is he that is in you."
When you know this, then when you hit that hard place, you can just lean back on Him instead of fighting and trying to pray the power down or work it up. You can just lean back and laugh. You can shout all the way through because you know the Greater One is in there. He'll put you over. He'll make you a
success. He'll bring you out.
The spiritual man is going to come to know this, but the baby doesn't know this. The baby knows he has had an experience.
God has made us meet, He has given us the Ability.
That ability comes with the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Yes, the ability to witness. But it doesn't stop there. He has given us the ability to enjoy our inheritance.
Deliverance, redemption, is our inheritance
(Colossians 1:13-14). We have been delivered out of Satan's authority. Satan has no authority over you, or over me, or over the Church. Let's don't let him take any. We have been delivered out of his power or authority and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son (verse 13).
-Kenneth E Hagin ( GROWING UP, SPIRITUALLY)
- JESUS SAVES TV