Spirit 4: The Source of Peace and Power, episode 63

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal.

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And also help and hope for your own life journey.

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Today we continue but wrap up our look at the most important resource in the battle we fight for our prodigals, the Holy Spirit.

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The Spirit of Jesus that He sent to live in us and give us what we need to live this life.

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What wonderful gifts He gives us. And today we will look at two more, peace and power.

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The chaos was almost palpable.

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Josh and his friends barged through the front door. The kitchen was the first stop. And then they scaled the stairs to his room in a few leaps.

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In the early years, it was just boy noise and roughhousing. But as years went on, it escalated.

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We wanted him and his friends to feel welcome in our home. But their boyishness sometimes turned violent.

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There's still a hole in the wall from an outburst. And the roof needed repair because they climbed out the window to sit on the roof to smoke pot.

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They became abusive to our home, to our values, and to our peace.

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I remember peace in our home when children were young and mostly responsive, when I didn't have to hide my purse from our prodigal's friends or from our prodigal,

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when I didn't need a man to stay there when we were traveling just to protect our home.

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I remember peace in my heart before he had a car and I no longer knew where he was.

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Before he had a computer and I didn't know where he was exploring.

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Before his activities became risky, even dangerous and destructive.

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Gratefully, Jesus promised us peace. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.

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I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

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How is that possible? This is how he does it.

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I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.

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But take heart, I have overcome the world.

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And then the Apostle Paul assures us of peace because the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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Those are wonderful promises that we have, that we'll have peace in spite of everything.

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How do we find that peace? How do we access it? Where does it come from?

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In John 14 that I just read, Jesus preceded it with this assurance.

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He says, But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.

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The Spirit teaches us everything we need. And then Jesus went on, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

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So the Spirit of God is the one who comes and gives us the peace that Jesus promised.

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It's not just, let's hope we can grab hold of it. Let's hope we can be at peace.

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No, as the Spirit of God is in us and we let him have control of our lives, then he gives us peace.

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Even in the midst of battles, in the midst of uncertainties, in the midst of fearful, stormy situations, the Spirit provides us with peace.

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Paul adds clarity to help us understand the source of our peace.

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He says, The mind governed by the flesh is death. If we're trying to do it ourselves, it's not living.

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But the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

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And then he tells us in Romans, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

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And then in Galatians, Paul confirms where we get this peace.

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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

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Peace grows out of our dependence on the Spirit of God.

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And of all those things that we all would want, love, joy, forbearance, being patience.

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Patience, yeah. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, those all matter.

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But for most people, what they want more than anything is peace, peace in their hearts, peace in their minds, peace in their body because we get tense and anxious.

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So when your prodigal and his or her choices bring turmoil, anxiety, worry or fear, you can ask the Spirit for the peace that passes all understanding and for the joy that comes with peace.

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For the peace overcomes the world, relieving our fears, giving us rest and peace.

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We love finding peace, but we also need power, which the Holy Spirit also provides.

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The source of power, the Holy Spirit.

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I can't tell you how many times I have said to the Lord, especially in the long years of our prodigal journey, you think I'm stronger than I am Lord.

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I am too weak. I can't do this. Do what?

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Well, keep going. Listen to one more lie.

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Lower my voice. Find an effective consequence.

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Meet with the school principal one more time.

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Get yelled at again. Love unconditionally.

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Maintain hope. It just goes on and on.

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I am not capable of walking this and keeping going.

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I just don't have it in me.

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And God's response always runs something like this.

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Judy, you really don't know how totally weak you are.

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No, you can't do this, whatever the this is.

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In fact, you really can't do anything.

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Dealing with helping, surviving your prodigal is impossible for you.

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But fortunately, he always adds, of course, all things are possible for me, God says.

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I have not left you to do this on your own.

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I've sent my spirit to empower you, to make you strong enough for this and anything else.

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Has God said that to you?

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Listen, he will.

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The next time you say I can't keep doing this, just wait.

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He's going to say, oh, you're right. You can't.

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But my spirit in you will give you all that you need.

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So just listen to these assurances of all the power that we need.

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Power from him, not from ourselves.

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At Zechariah, we read, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

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Power to be witnesses and speak truth for him.

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But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

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And you will be my witnesses.

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We'll be able to stand up and talk for Jesus.

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Power to live in joy, peace, and hope.

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We just mentioned that.

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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,

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so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Is that not an incredibly wonderful promise?

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Do we want joy? Yes.

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Do we want peace? Oh, yes.

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Do we desire to not give up hope, but to keep hoping?

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Desperately, we do.

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And he says all of that is ours by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Power to live out love and courage.

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For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.

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When we live with a prodigal or an adult prodigal,

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they do things and say things that we don't have the courage to stand up to them about,

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or we don't have the courage to speak truth to them,

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and we don't even have the courage to speak love to them a lot of times,

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because we are so worn out in ourselves.

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But the Spirit will give us power and love, and even discipline of ourselves,

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to be able to talk to those who have hurt us.

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He also says that he gives us power that enters into our weaknesses and makes us strong.

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He said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

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Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me.

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So what keeps us from experiencing God's power of his Spirit?

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The fact that we think we're strong enough that we can do it ourselves.

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It's when we humble ourselves and recognize that this is beyond us.

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We don't have innately what it takes to walk this valley well.

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He says, No, just depend on my Spirit.

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I will take your weakness and make my strength shine through it.

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He'll give us what we need.

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He gives us power to strengthen us from the inside.

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In Ephesians 3 we read, I pray that out of his glorious riches,

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he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

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So it's not just, you know, we've exercised and our arms are stronger.

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It's inside us.

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The Spirit's living in us and he's transforming us into the likeness of Christ.

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He's making us want to make different decisions, want to have the strength, the courage, the wisdom

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to help our prodigals, to keep loving our prodigals, to know what they need to come to a turning place.

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Oh, here's one, power for endurance and patience.

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Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might

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so that you may have great endurance and patience.

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Now, some of you have made the mistake of saying, my word this year is patience

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or I really, Lord, want you to give me patience

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because you know what it takes to grow patience.

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But we do have this wonderful promise that the Spirit in us will strengthen us

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with great endurance and patience.

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And so there's a supernatural element to what we need to continue on this hard journey.

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He also gives us power to receive answers to our prayers.

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We learn in James that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

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Now, I know you've been praying.

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We do that a lot and we're about to do it more starting next week.

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But we pray and we pray and we don't see the change that we're praying for.

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And he says it is happening.

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It is working.

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Your prayers are powerful and effective.

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But God doesn't work according to our time and means.

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So just know that as you pray in the power of the Spirit,

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it is a powerful prayer and an effective prayer.

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Power for everything we need.

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We learn in 2 Peter that his divine power has given us everything we need

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for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

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And again, that power comes because the Spirit of God is living in us.

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And if you think there's no way you can do what's necessary to make it through this wilderness journey,

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to help your prodigal, to help your family, God says no.

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I, by the Spirit's power in you, have given you everything you need for a godly life.

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You get the knowledge of what you need to do and how to do it.

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And you get the power and the willingness to do it.

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And then this wonderful promise.

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He gives us power beyond what we can ask or imagine.

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This is my husband's very favorite verse, I think, in all of scripture.

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He says, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine

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according to his power that is at work within us.

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Does that just kind of get you up out of your chair with a little excitement?

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He is able to do immeasurably.

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This has a very powerful meaning in the Greek, my husband tells me.

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He says it's over and above, over and above, over and above even more what he is able to do

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and willing to do in us and through us and for us.

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And so it's not just God will do a little for us.

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We can't even measure.

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We can't measure how vast, how much, how powerful what he's offering us,

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what he will do in us, for us, and through us.

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Hold on to that promise.

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Grab hold of it.

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Claim it whenever you really need to see that God's working on your side.

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So if we need power to speak truth or make hard decisions, to forgive again,

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to love unconditionally, that's how he loves us, to not bail them out one more time,

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or just to keep going, God's Spirit living in us is able and available to give us all the power we need

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even more than we know we need.

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So today we've talked about having peace, which we all desperately want,

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and to have power, which we all desperately need.

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Both are abundantly available as we walk in the Spirit and allow him to fill us

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and be in control, to give us wisdom, to give us everything that we need.

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So have you found peace as you've let the Holy Spirit be in control?

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Is there something hard going on right now?

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Probably that you really desire peace.

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Ask God for it.

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Say, Spirit of God, in me, I need your peace.

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And when have you experienced power in your wilderness journey?

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What scriptures, I read a whole lot to you, I know,

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what scriptures can you claim today for the power that you need?

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I'll name some of them real quick just so you'll know where to look.

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And we'll start with Acts 1-8, Romans 15, 2 Timothy 1, 2 Corinthians 12,

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Colossians 1, James 5, 2 Peter 1, Ephesians 3.

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I know you don't get them all, but if you could grab hold of one or two of them

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and let God speak to your heart there.

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So I wanted to tell you what we're going to do next week.

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We've talked about the Spirit and how he is everything we need,

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the way we live the Christian life.

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And next three weeks we're going to talk a lot about prayer.

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I know we did a series on prayer several months ago.

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But June 2 is the Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day.

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It's been going on for 25 years.

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It started because of our son.

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So it's actually the day he came to Christ was June 2, 25 years ago.

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So this is his 25th spiritual birthday.

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I'm very excited about celebrating with him.

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His spiritual journey was very inconsistent up and down like a rollercoaster for the next 15 years.

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But we have this wonderful day of prayer that we get the names of anybody,

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you, can go to the show notes and give me names of people,

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prodigals you'd like us to pray for and they will be prayed for.

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And people all over the world join in and pray.

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And I'm going to tell you how it all works and how it started, how it works, how you can be a part of it.

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And then after the day of prayer on June 2, the next episode, we're going to talk about,

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so we prayed, now what do we do?

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So I hope you'll keep listening because these are very important.

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I've told you before, the Spirit is the means and the prayer is where we do the work and access all of this.

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So I would love it if you could subscribe or rate or review.

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And God bless you.

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Live in the power of the Spirit of God.