“And you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit shall come upon you; ” Acts 1:8

This “power” is not, as many suppose, a force within you that makes you become a dynamo, a Super Christian.  If that is what you’ve been waiting for it isn’t going to happen.  Let’s take a look at an Atom Bomb.  There it is lying on the floor.  It is full of potential explosion, a devastating power and force, but you can stand next to it and be perfectly safe.  Take that same bomb, load it onto an airplane and drop it from way up high and, oh my!

Well wasn’t all that power in the bomb while it was lying next to you on the floor?  Potential power was there.  The explosion did not come until the action happened between it and the ground.  The power by the Holy Spirit within you is potential power.  It is activated by you, and only by action you take.

Power is an action word, without action there is no power. Strength comes from repeated action.  Boldness, courage and faith are action words.  There is no boldness or courage without action. Courage is not the absence of fear, rather it is the ability to take action in the face of fear.  You might have heard someone say, “Take courage.”  Can one take courage like one might pick up an orange?  Let’s instead use the word choose.  We can choose courage by choosing to do action in a courageous fashion.  If you are not putting corresponding action to work with faith the waiting power of God to perform is only potential power.

Without an activating action the dunimus power just lies inside you like it does in the bomb on the floor.  God has pored all His power inside of you through the Holy Spirit’s presence but if you don’t move, if you don’t do, you will never have that power activating in your life.  This awaiting power is real and it is powerful.  It does not look powerful but neither does the bomb on the floor.  We have questioned and disbelieved the power because of the way it looks, docile and perhaps non existent.  Do not discount the dormant power within.  Learn how to activate this potential awaiting in you and act on it.

Winona Cole

Winona Cole

“If ye abide in me, and my Words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7.  That’s what Jesus said, but this is not some magic formula, and there’s some catches to it.

1. You have to be in a state of obedience to God’s ways at the time of asking.

2. You must do what it takes to usher in the “miracle”:  If you don’t go out after it you aren’t believing it’s a done deal, or you are deceived by thinking God will do the foot work for you.  He will not! God may provide the means to get food, but you must put it into your mouth with your own hand.  He won’t make you become anything, or do anything, and he won’t just drop his goodies on you like hail stones.  There is always a part you must play.

3. You must believe in your heart that if you ask you SHALL receive:  Now the word shall has nothing to do with the word “maybe”.  A lot of people, however, read it maybe.  But he said shall, and that is a definite “yes you can have it”, a done deal. If you feel it is not a done deal it is not faith.  Faith is not an if, it is positive victory.

When you go out after something you know is of God, it’s a done deal, you just have to walk it out in wisdom, but not in striving, in rest. Hebrews 4:9 & 10 says,  “There remaineth there a rest to the people of God.  For he that is entered into His rest he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.”  Striving is not rest, victory is rest, if you don’t feel a peace and expectancy that it is yours, it is not rest and it is not faith. If you must push, push, push or it won’t happen, getting into worry, fretting fear, etc., it is striving.  If it’s a done deal you simply do the motion it takes to bring you in line to receive what you asked for.

There can be no worry when you know that it is already done, already settled, no question about it, no “well what if?”.  It is believing it is ours no matter what it looks like.  We like to count on what we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands.  Remember this, every thing we see now, once did not exist, it could not be seen.  God made everything we now see and feel out of nothing but the spoken Word, which we also can not see.  We, as well, are told to speak that creative Word of faith with our mouths for what we want to appear that is yet unseen.  Faith, the attitude of  “IT’S A DONE DEAL”,  is the title deed to receiving the, as yet, unseen.

Winona Cole

Winona Cole

QUESTIONS

Without Jesus’ resurrection  our faith would be for nothing, we would die in our sins.  We know the significance this event has on our eternal life and deliverance.  I think that is what we most often think about when we think of the resurrection, but this is not all He died to give us.  He bought us the restoration of the Breath of God that died, departed from man, at the garden of Eden, that the Holy Spirit of God would again dwell in man.

2 Tim. 3:4 says that there are those, “Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof:”  The word deny here is Strong’s 720, meaning: contradict, reject, refuse, disregard.

“I speak in tongues,” we say, “some of us prophecy and pray for the sick, I believe in all of the Pentecostal stuff.  I would never deny the power!!”

Though we agree that it is real and valid, do we agree that the POWER is for us personally?  To what extent?  Are we seeking it for ourselves?  Are we actively seeking the Kingdom of God so that all these things can become a part of us, including the power?  If we deny “the power thereof” does that mean we are denying it all?  What if we deny some of it?  If we believe the power part is mostly for others, not for us, is it denying it in our own lives?  Some argue that God gives the gifts to people as and when He chooses.  What about the part that says to “earnestly desire the greater gift’s?” 1 Cor 12:31 NAS.   If we deny any part of the power, are we denying it or Him, the possessor of the power.  The Holy Spirit is in you and He has all power in Him.  Not for someone else’s use, yours.  He is in you.  If we neglect, or even reject, what God has given us – any part – what are the consequences in that non-action?  If God has given it to us, is He expecting us to use it?  And if we don’t, is it rebellion?

The Holy Spirit is in you to equip you.  Are you equipped or are you scraping along?  The bottom line is, are we taking advantage of what, with such a price, has been given to us?  Have we even taken the time to get to know this astonishing Gift we have freely been given?  To seek the potential the majesty, the awesome-ness, the depths?    We don’t have to – but what if we don’t?

Winona Cole

Winona Cole

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I recently saw an article that was titled, “How To Bounce Back”. The article gave several stories of people that had overcome awful circumstances.  I expected them to analyze how these people “bounced” back but it only gave those examples saying, I supposed, “they did it so you can do it too“.
That article was disappointing to me.  It didn’t deliver it’s promise.  Certainly they were great stories of perseverance and grit, but how did these people get that strength to go on?

Many people let circumstances ruin their lives.  They either take the defeat as a flaw in themselves that they can never overcome or get bitter and forever blame someone or something for ruining their lives.  They dwell in the disastrous past or ruin instead of seeing that they have plenty of life left to change things.

As Christians there is never a reason to stay in the “dung heap” of the past disaster.  In Jesus we have access to fresh new starts anytime we need them.  “2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. “ KJV . Jesus said, “If you can believe , all things are possible to him who believes.”  Mark 9:23

It really does come down to what you are believing.  If you are believing that the past disaster has ruined your life it will do just that.  But why do that? It ties God’s hands.  He will not override your will. Hebrews 11:6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Allow me an alternate interpretation.  He that believes in the evil disaster more than God’s new starts, his love and his healing mercy, will forfeit the rewards of new beginnings.  He will not diligently seek God because he is seeking revenge, sympathy or justification  and his doubt in recovery will stop all faith in receiving a new start.

Can I forget, forgive and go on?

You can if you believe you can. If you say in your heart, “I can never go on, never forgive” that’s where you will be stuck for the rest of your life or until you change your mind and believe in God more.

Un-forgiveness is sin.  Sin, not only against the other person but against God and yourself.  To yourself, because un-forgiveness brings on sickness and emotional difficulties To God, because as Christians are to be Godly or to walk in God’s ways. Gods way is that  he never holds a grudge.  He forgives and wipes everything offensive off the books.

True bouncing back entails leaving the past and looking to and leaning on God’s abundant supply of opportunity, love, and newness that is available to us everyday.  Switching the power over your life from the disasters to the power of God

Winona Cole

Winning The Gold

You’re running out ahead now and coming to the last stretch….You hear the pounding of feet behind you….  How close are they?…You want to look back….For a runner, looking back is and expensive motion.   It is a twist of the body that wrecks your form and forward momentum. It can be fatal to your race.  Paul said, “forgetting that which is behind I press on to the prize”.

It’s a real temptation to look back.  Nice memories remembered and mused about is one thing, but letting what happened in the past stop you from going forward, that’s another thing. When a Christian does not let the past go, holding on to those things of the past in the now, he is pulled back into it.

Our enemy dredges up our past failures, and tries to get us back in the guilt and depression.   He reminds us of grudges and past hurts to re-ignite the bitterness. He shows you how incapable and undeserving of victory you are. If he can get you to agree with him, he’s got you in the prison of the past, sitting in the now, and you won’t be going anywhere…let alone running.

What we’ve got to remember is this: If we asked for forgiveness of our past, we are completely forgiven.  Turn it 100% over to God and you are in total victory.  It has nothing to do with feelings it is FACT. It doesn’t depend on the circumstance around you, they are neutral.  It is how you think  about it that makes it a positive or a negative.  To God everything is a positive and he can work any situation for your good. Negative is always defeat and positive is always victory.  When you turn any situation over to God, He is then free to make it into victory.   If you don’t turn it over, and choose to agonize and worry about it, God’s hands are tied in the whole matter, but Satan is unobstructed.

Looking back at victories can hold you back as well.  Many people live in: if onlys; we’ve always done it this way; and the good old days.  One can not go forward and still live back there.  The past may have been good but the winner’s line is out in front not behind.  Every day has new possibilities and looking ahead expectantly is what motivates us to run this marathon with exuberance, commitment and determination.

As Christians we are all enrolled in this Marathon.  I wish I could tell you that everyone is going to win the Gold Medal but I can’t.  I can tell you, however, the good news, that winning is entirely up to you and you have the ability to do it.

Picture it:  Now you’re straining for that last stride, the ribbon breaks against your chest!  Victory! Victory! VICTORY! The great cloud of witnesses cheer wildly!! And then you see him… It’s really HIM!  It’s Jesus!  His hair is white as snow, His robe shines so bright it’s almost blinding!  His eyes are like flames of fire!  You fall at His feet in total awe! He raises you to your feet and embraces you.  He slides the golden medal, hanging on a golden cord, around your neck.  It’s engraved,

“WELL  DONE  MY  GOOD  AND  FAITHFUL  SERVANT”

Winona Cole

Commitment

How’s your New Year’s Resolutions coming?  Did that question give you pride or guilt?  Well if you dropped them before the end of January you’re in real good company.  The majority of people, by then, have forgotten them and their life goes on as before.

Somehow, in our time, the word commitment has come to mean; when I get around to it; if I have nothing better to do; if it doesn’t rain, if I remember; if the fish aren’t biting.  Commitment in marriage is just as allusive and barley existent.

What is commitment?  It is a maturity.  It is doing what you say you will, being someone who can be counted on and relied upon.  It is standing for something, perhaps a principal, without wavering. Giving it all you’ve got, even perhaps putting your life on the line.

The commitment and dedication of a Marathon Gold Medalist is not that of neglected resolutions.  It is a purposeful life change.  It is turning from the haphazard, “Whatever will be, will be.” life, the life that goes around in circles and never ends up quite anywhere, to the disciplined life of a winner.

Many look at people who are successes and winners as lucky people. Luck is when you win the lottery.  Success is something you have produced your self, not something you get by accident.  Success comes by commitment and working on that commitment to bring the thing desired into reality.  No Gold Medallist just decided to enter and won on luck.  It was total commitment, years of depriving himself and grueling workouts, that got him his medal.  He probably didn’t win it the first time he tried either, maybe not even the second or the eighth.  It was dogged perseverance that won it.

God has set before you and open door.  Beyond this door is the place God has prepared for you, your “Promised Land”, His plans for your life.  Many stand at this threshold and never enter for they greatly fear the price of admission, commitment.  To pass through they must leave their own will on the other side and do things God’s way.  The enemy of our soul whispers, “Look at what you’d have to give up and all you’d have to endure.”  It’s a lie.  The promise is so worth the cost that on the other side it will seem as dust in your hand.

A true Marathon runner first makes the decision to give it all he’s got.  Until then his only exercising.

- Go for the Gold -

Winona Cole

Years ago it was believed that the human could only run a mile in no more than 4 minutes. No one broke this boundary until one person believed that he could and after exhaustive training he succeeded.  Now athletes all over the word run a mile at over that four minutes.

This was a boundary that was never real but for many years that perceived boundary stopped people from going any faster. That boundary was only in the minds of the runners.

We all have them, boundaries that are only in our mind. We have all heard someone say, “Oh, I could never do that.”  “ I could never live in a house like that.” “I will never be that good at that.”  Well why not? What holds these people back from achieving these things for themselves? Preconceived boundaries of the mind.

Consider this: In Genesis 11: 6, the passage is talking about the people several years after the flood.  They were planning to build a tower, the tower of Babel,  and God said, “and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

That is a very interesting passage.

Now also consider that:
God made us like him in the fact  that we create with our minds and words.

Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place: and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Matthew 17:20

In Eph. 4:17 we are told to “no longer walk (live) as the Gentiles walk, in the futility (ineffectiveness) of their mind.” but rather to walk in the spirit as vs. 24 tells us that we have, by the re-birth, “put off the old man” who relies on the mind alone and “put on the new man” which is to walk in the spiritual and the ways of  God.

In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5,  tells us that we are not to walk or war in the flesh, because our weapons are not carnal (physical) but powerful through our union with God to the pulling down, overthrow and destruction of strongholds.  (see Amp.) Verse 5 lets us know that we are talking about thoughts of the mind, and everything that would set itself up to be overthrow God’s ways.

The boundaries of our mind are STRONGHOLDS. A stronghold is a fortresses or   something impossible to get into or out of,  something that is impenetrable, a boundary, or set of concentrated opinions.

In verse 5 we are told to cast down this thinking and to bring captive every thought (giving no other option) into the unity (the state or condition of being one) with the ways of God.

God means for the only boundaries for us to be the confines of the immensity of Gods provision. God has told us that his supply is more vast than we can imagine or think.

God wants us successful and he wants our needs met.  Jesus said that he came so that we might have life and that more abundantly and he didn’t just mean when we get to heaven.

When we see an obstacle in our way of  achievement of anything is that boundary real or is it some stronghold that isn’t real at all like that 4 minute mile.

Christians have been overcome with fictitious boundaries long enough.  We have let them hold back the very advance of the Kingdom of God and our achieving all God has purposed for our own lives. How many impotent, powerless Christians say in their heart, “I could never —”when God has said they can.  When we say we can’t, when God says we can, what is that?

The boundaries we allow in our mind dead ends us and does not allow us to go on.  On the other hand, believing and acting upon the fact of God’s abundance, His love for you, and the absolute truth of His Word, we cast down these strongholds and live set free to be who we’ve always dreamed.

If something seems to stand in our way of any success we should say to ourselves, “Is this really an impenetrable boundary or is it only perceived? Is it impossible for God or only for me?  What can we achieve when we really believe that God meant ”nothing shall be impossible unto you.”?

Winona Cole

Laying Aside Every Encumbrance

As a runner, what we put on has impact upon the speed we can go. If you are going to run a race you don’t show up in a heavy leather over coat, loose fitting jeans, a shirt, sweater and hiking boots. You would dress light with shorts and shirt that would not catch the wind and shoes made especially for running.

The Word of God has a lot to say about what we wear and we are told that it is we ourselves who put it on.  Some of the best known garments are the armor.  We think of armor as heavy gear, but the spiritual armor is ultra light and fits like a second skin. (By the way it’s truly flattering on everyone.)  Jesus says that His yolk is light and his burdens are easy.  It is the “sin that so easily besets” and the baggage we drag down the track behind us that gets so heavy and slows us down.

In Eph. 4:21-14 we are told to take off the old man, the sin nature, and put on the new man, the godly nature.  We do this by constantly renewing our minds, dwelling on the deliverance and victory Jesus purchased for us.  Paul was not giving a salvation message here.  He was talking to Christians.  Why did He have to tell Christians to put off this old man?  Didn’t it come off when they were saved?  Certainly it did!!  However, often, as the new wears off of our “Born Again” experience we slide back into our own ways.  This is caused in part by letting our devotions slide, getting back with old friends or that line the devil feeds us, “It won’t hurt just this once.”  It won’t hurt to miss church this once, skip prayer this once, read the romance novel, watch the soaps once.  It’s not sin, I can handle it.

At first you’re fine, but it’s easier next time, and that old nature starts to creep back in almost unnoticed.  If you put one grain of sand in a bag you don’t notice it at all.  But, if you keep letting them in the bag what you hardly notice for awhile, gets so heavy you can barely carry it!  When you’ve got a couple of these bags to cart around it gets to be a real problem and can really slow up your marathon.  It can get so heavy it stops you altogether.

The only way we keep the new man on is to continually work at it. It’s an all the time thing, a constant diligence to take captive every thought and bring it into the obedience of Christ.  In other words, continually forcing our thoughts to come into line with the ways of God.  That is the “connection” that generates the power of God in us, dissolving the old nature, and ushering in God’s nature.  This lightens us to make us quick and agile, equipping us to run a good race.

You’ve heard the old adage, “Clothes make the man.”  In the Christian life what you choose to put on your spirit man is what you will become.

Choose well and – Go for the Gold

Winona Cole

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OBEDIENCE

Discipline and obedience do these words make you cringe?  These words make us think of our growing up years and the disciplining of our parents.  These words are a necessary part of the Christian life.   It’s Parent Father God bringing us up into Christian maturity. The motive of parental discipline is training that is geared to produce in us all we were meant to be, and to keep us safe.  Most often it is not the parental spanking we get from God that we are confronted with for our disobedience,  it’s the trouble we get ourselves into because of it.

Father God is trying to teach us the principals of His Kingdom, the way things work in light of His Word and His ways.  Really it’s quite simple.  If we want what God says He has for us, we will have to do things God’s way, by His rules.  Gravity is a law.  We know this law, but if we disregard it and jump out of a five story building we are bound to get hurt.  It’s the way gravity works. God’s laws are the same way.  If we break the law, or His principals, we are bound to get into trouble.  If we stay in line with God’s ways it works.

One can push a motorcycle down the road – he might get there and he might not.  If the destination is very far, he won’t…Then, he could instead get on it and turn the thing on.  Will it make a difference?  Why would anyone push the motorcycle instead of ride it if he knew it worked?  Why do we know God’s ways and insist on doing the opposite?

A winner of a Marathon did not wake up one morning, and say to himself, “Today I’m going to do something entirely different.  I’m going to win a marathon.”  No.  He disciplined himself and practiced and trained and trained and practiced.  It wasn’t easy.  His muscles hurt, sweat would drip to his toes.  It was exhausting and rigorous but he knew what he had to do, was obedient to it and put himself into self imposed discipline.  Then he won.

Another runner was told by a coach that he had the makings of a good marathon runner. A marathon was coming up and he entered.  He went out for a couple of runs and did fine.  The day of the race he started off well and was up  in front with the best, but he started loosing ground and found he had to quit before he had done half the course.  He hadn’t trained,  hadn’t built his muscles or endurance, he hadn’t overcome his handicaps.  He had used no discipline.

If we want to win our marathon of life we are going to have to find out the right way to run it, be obedient to those principals and, be disciplined to practice and train and train an practice. Who’s going to win this race?  The one who is coming in line with the ways and thinking of God, his principals, and doing them doing them doing them.  To hard?

What’s the alternative?

Winona Cole

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The Map of the Course

If the Christian life is a Marathon, we are not competing with other runners and we can even win if we sometimes fall flat on our faces, how can we know what a winning runner is like?  Well lets look at one of our “Gold Medallists” and see.

King David was a Marathon runner.  How good a runner was he?  God said he was a man after His own heart.  Now this man did not run a perfect race.  He tripped hard over some big rocks.  If one of us were to judge his race we wouldn’t give him top score.  He committed adultery with another man’s wife and when he found she was with child David had her husband killed!  Ouch! that was a pretty bad spill.  How then did David qualify for a gold medal that reads “Man After God’s Own Heart”?

1) Upon God’s confronting his wrong doing, David immediately acknowledged it and repented.

2) He loved God with all his heart, soul and mind.

3) He was obedient to God’s desires.

4) He had complete belief in God and always expected God to do what He said.

5) He saw God’s ways in everything.

6) He desired God’s ways above his own.

David said, “I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.” (Psalms 26:1)  This was a man of great faith.  James 1:6-8 tells us that without our having this same trust we will lack stability in everything we try to do, we will lose our direction.  But, Proverbs 5:-8 says that when we trust completely in God, He will direct our paths.  It looks like King David had a map, a set of directions, and he followed them to the letter.

A runner must know where he is going.  Our Marathon leads through the woods, over hills and valleys, over ruff ground and smooth, with many unexpected turns.  Only the runner who knows where he is going will find his way.  He needs a map.

Our map is the Word of God, Logos:  the written Word, and Rhema: the spoken Word.  (Rhema is revelation from God directly from God to you, originating from the Holy Spirit through either the written Word, your own spirit or another person.  These always line up with the Word).  King David needed this “map”.  He was just as human as any of us, and just as prone to getting lost.  However, he knew the Map Maker intimately, and followed His directions faithfully.

If a person has the map, reads it, and puts it in his pocket, but never follows the directions the map shows, he will never reach his destination.  Likewise, if we have the very words of God Himself, the one who laid out the race’s course in the first place, and do not follow His directions, how then shall we run the race at all?

Winona Cole

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