# The Power of God MUSINGS OF A MISSIONARY Language: en Author: by Barry Grant Titanyen, Haiti Original issue: The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Winter 2021, Number 4 Source pages: 4–7 Read article: Original PDF: Winter\-2021\-Remnant\(3\)\.pdf [The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Winter 2021]() After living in Haiti for several months, I finally had the opportunity to go visit the local witch doctor\. As I walked up his long drive, I passed many statues and satanic symbols\. It was eerie for sure\. As I approached the voodoo temple that was connected to his house, I saw him standing there watching me approach\. My heart began to race; I knew he was a powerful man\. Then he began to laugh\. The closer I got, the louder he laughed\. I was a bit puzzled until I realized that many people from the village were following me up the lane\. They were very interested in what was about to transpire\. I approached the man, not knowing what would happen next\. “Are you a pastor?” he asked\. “Yes, I am,” was my reply\. Again, he began to laugh loudly\. “You pastors are all the same,” he proclaimed\. “You want everyone to come to your churches, but your churches have no power\! When one of your people gets sick, they come to me\. No power, you Christians\!” A heavy burden overtook me, and I explained to him how I agreed with him, but that the real church of Jesus Christ would always have power\. The Bible actually says that the very gates of Hell shall not prevail against it\. This was the beginning of a very interesting relationship, but I will never forget those words—most certainly from the devil himself—“You Christians have no power\!” I have since traveled to hundreds of churches and need to agree with that voodoo priest\. The Christian churches are lacking power\. But why? We know that God is power\. We have many things figured out, we look good and sound good, but do we still have the power of God in our churches? In the Old Testament we have many examples of power and the lack of power\. We can also learn how we receive power, and why we lose it\. In Joshua, chapter 6, we have the familiar account of the children of Israel and the city of Jericho\. God tells Joshua and all the men of war to compass the city, and walk around it once every day, for six days\. Then on the seventh day they were to march around the city not just once, but seven times\. After they had completed the seven trips around the city, the priests were to blow their trumpets\. We know what happened when Joshua obeyed each command—those thick, impenetrable walls came tumbling down\. God also gave Joshua a strict command about what the men should and should not do\. They were to keep themselves from everything that God had pronounced was accursed; all the silver, gold, and vessels were to be consecrated into the treasury of the Lord; no man was to take any of the spoil\. However, Achan saw some nice things that he desired\. He slipped them into his armor, then later hid them under his tent, and no one saw a thing\. After this great victory, Joshua sent spies to the next city, Ai, to discover how well the city was fortified\. The men returned and told Joshua not to send all the men to Ai, for there were only a few defenders protecting the city\. However, the men of Ai smote the children of Israel and chased them away\. Moreover, Joshua rent his clothes and cried out to God\. Then God replied that there was sin in the camp of Israel\. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel are normally representative of the church of Jesus Christ today\. Can we not glean much from this account? When there was no sin in the camp \(or in the church\) God’s people had complete victory; they lost not one\. They did many wonderful things, they destroyed all their enemies around them, and they lived in COMPLETE victory\. However, as soon as sin entered into their midst, even a small sin done by one man, they lost their power\. They no longer had victory over their enemies\. What follows is a graphic description of how the children of Israel dealt with the sin that had entered the camp\. It was totally destroyed\. *And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor … And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire… –Joshua 7:24\-26\.* In this account it is clear why God’s people had lost their power—they had sin in the camp\. It is also clear what it took for them to regain that power which they had lost—get rid of the sin\. In chapter 8 we read of the power being restored to Israel instantly after the sin was dealt with\. Again, they lived in victory\! Another passage in the Old Testament that speaks of this topic is in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14\. Leprosy was a strange disease\. If one were to get leprosy, it was easily spread\. Thus, there needed to be some strict guidelines regarding how to deal with the disease\. The priest was to examine very closely to see if the person in question indeed had leprosy or not\. If the priest was unsure, he would shut the person up in a room for seven days then examine him again\. If it was determined that the person had leprosy, then they were sent outside of the city\. As Paul addresses the church in Corinth, he tells them that he has heard there is sin in the church\. He seems surprised that the church is taking it so casually, *…Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened… –1 Corinthians 5:6\-7\.* Later he tells the church *…Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person –1 Corinthians 5:13\.* Let’s say that you heard the news that leprosy was again a problem in your village\. This flesh\-destroying disease had made a comeback and many from your village were now infected\. Then you’re sitting in church on Sunday morning, when the doors open, and a man enters with skin and flesh hanging from his extremities\. He is badly infected, but he does not seem to know it\. What would you do? What if he wanted to come sit by you? What if he wanted to talk to your children? I think we all know what we would do; we would not allow him into our midst\. We love our people, our families too much for that\. What about sin? Do we allow sin to come and join us? Do we take it seriously? What is worse, being infected with a flesh\-destroying disease, or being infected by a soul\-destroying sin? Remember, the wages of sin is death—spiritual death; eternal death\. If we would treat sin in the same way as we would the disease \(and we should\) then our churches would once again have Holy Spirit power\. *The Bible says …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 –Acts 1:8\.* We have already seen how sin separates us from the power of God, and we have also seen how God wants to give us power\. He wants us to have victory over the enemy—the devil, the world, and flesh\. However, something seems to be happening in our churches—we are allowing sin to enter\. It is common to hear a preacher say, “No one is perfect\.” Or, “We all sin\.” Oh, that we would realize the damage these statements can make\. Jesus came to save us from ALL sin; ALL unrighteousness\. If we are left to continue in our sin, what has Jesus done for us? I hear about churches drifting into the world\. They gradually let go of convictions and allow some new fashion and pomp of the world to enter\. Something that I hear little of is churches falling apart because of gross sin, such as fornication or drunkenness\. The enemy of our souls, desires for us to become lukewarm\. He wants the church to lose its power, to start living like everyone else\. Here in Haiti, there are churches everywhere\. On Sunday mornings starting at five o’clock in the morning, I start hearing the churches singing and worshipping\. However, where are all those people on Monday morning? They are mixing right back into the world from whence they have come\. I was recently talking to a very wealthy Haitian man who owned resorts and properties all over Haiti\. I asked him if he was a Christian\. \(I wanted to start a conversation\.\) I could tell that he wanted to say yes; instead, he became frustrated and said no\. I asked him why not\. He said exactly what I thought he would say\. “I have desired to become a Christian, I’ve gone to all the churches around here, but I don’t feel they have anything to offer me\. I have money; I have physical blessings; but that seems to be all that they are seeking for\.” If our churches today would refuse to settle for anything less than the infilling, empowering, and leading of the Holy Spirit, a full dose of heavenly power, then we would be able to offer something that would appeal to the lost around us\. I believe this is exactly what the world is looking for; they are seeking for something better, something supernatural\. What if we would settle for nothing less? What if we would stay on our knees until the power of God came back? What if we would again weep for our souls, and the souls of others? I was working closely with a vicious gang leader who lived in the neighboring village\. He was hard, but God had led him to me\. For seven long months we met and communicated, I wanted him to catch a glimpse of the power of God; I wanted God to save him\. He would often get drunk and threaten to kill me; I would continue to point him to the Savior\. He and his gang came over one day to stop a work project, saying that they now owned the land\. They brandished their guns and threatened all that were there\. I explained to him that God owned the land\. He said, “That is fine; tell God to come down here, and I’ll cut off His head\.” I was troubled by this remark and asked him if he understood the power of the God he just threatened\. One afternoon I drove to his house, and we sat outside and talked\. God led me to preach a bold message to him that day\. “You need to give up this gang life\. God wants to save you, and change your heart\!” He seemed very sober as I continued, “You never know when someone will come here and kill you\! You can’t control that, but my friend you can control where you go after you are dead\!” I then reminded him of the terrible thing he had said days before\. While we were still talking, two men from a neighboring gang approached on motorbikes\. They were heavily armed; they had come at that very moment to kill him, but they saw me talking to him and waited for me to leave\. “You have a wife and children, are you not tired of this life? God has something so much better for you\!” I was pleading, pleading for his soul\. It was his very last opportunity, death waited at the door\. As I left I told him that I would be back\. After the shooting I rushed back, but it was over… all over\. When we live in the power of the resurrection, the power of the Almighty God, it is then that He works\! I feel there is so much work to be done before the Lord returns, but God’s people are too busy, we do not have time\. ![Mountain ridges and a valley beneath a cloudy sky]() Do we fear talking about the power of God and the Holy Ghost simply because the Pentecostal movement has twisted what the Bible teaches? God help us\. When we call out to God for salvation, we are doing so because we know we need to be saved; converted\. We also know that we cannot save ourselves, so we ask God to help us\. Then when God helps us, we are able to do things that we could not do before\! Angry people are angry no more\. People that could not control their lust now have control\. Selfish people begin to put others first\. Shy people begin to preach with boldness\. Greedy people begin to give to others\. God does a work that counselors and doctors cannot do, He changes the very core of a person, and then all things become new\. We now live for something far better than what this world has to give; we rise above by the power of God and show this sin\-sick world there is a better way\! ![A cross on a rocky mountain overlooking a valley]() All through the Bible, God’s people did supernatural things; they did not settle for just a nice life\. They sought something bigger, something better\. There is power in the blood of Jesus, but it took the cross to make that a possibility\. It also takes a cross for us to find that power\. *And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me\. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it –Luke 9:23\-24\.* Yes, it seems foolish to those that perish, but to those that believe, it is the Power of God\. ## Magazine citation - [Mountain ridges and a valley beneath a cloudy sky](): Unsplash\.com - [A cross on a rocky mountain overlooking a valley](): Unsplash\.com