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Tuesday, July 20

 

More than fifteen years ago I was presented with the challenge of becoming the lead pastor of Casa de Alabanza, a challenge that I was ill-equipped and

ill-prepared for. My first reaction was to shy away from the challenge because I was completely certain that this was an insurmountable challenge for me. As I look back it’s hard to believe that I’m still standing after more than fifteen years and the funny thing is that I still consider myself ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the challenge. But I often think about what my life would look like today if I had chosen to walk away because it’s been an amazing ride.

I bet that you also have insurmountable challenges in your life; maybe the challenge of being the husband or the wife you know you should be, the challenge of being a father or a mother in such a difficult generation, the challenge of an addiction, the challenge of being a follower of Jesus in today’s anti-Jesus environment, or maybe just like me God is asking you to move into an area of ministry. Whatever your challenge is you’re going to have to choose either to take it on or shy away. But, if you choose to accept the challenge, how do you overcome what you know to be an insurmountable task? How do ordinary people muster up the power to accomplish extraordinary things?

When we look at Jesus’ disciples we tend to see them as extraordinary men, but that is not how they started out. They were as ordinary as you and me; they were ordinary people that accomplished extraordinary things. But if you remember when Jesus was arrested his disciples abandoned him and Peter, the vocal one of the group, even denied Him three times because this was an insurmountable challenge for them.

Acts 4: 8, 13 NIV

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them…….

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Let me explain to you what’s going on in these verses. Jesus had left earth to return to God, but he left his followers with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And now the same people that arrested and sentenced Jesus to death also arrested Peter and John and threatened them. But Peter and John filled with the Holy Spirit did not back down, this time Peter did not deny Jesus, on the contrary he told them that everything they were doing they were doing in the name of Jesus. The once insurmountable challenge was conquered and the difference was not their preparedness, the difference was the Holy Spirit of God in them. The same Holy Spirit that has allowed me to lead Casa De Alabanza for more than 15 years is the same Holy Spirit which God has given you so that you may conquer whatever challenges life throws at you.

Power, ordinary people filled with the Holy Spirit doing extraordinary things.

Heavenly Father, there are areas in my life that represent great challenges that I must face. Even though some of these challenges might seem impossible to me, I know that through the power of your Holy Spirit I can truly do all things. Lord, show me how to use that power to do extraordinary things for your glory. Amen.

 

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