If my last two frozen blogs didn’t freeze you out, today’s blog may inspire you to inspect your spiritual furnace. Living through any season in Ohio is a trip into the unknown. We have no idea what weather will hit us or what will happen next. After enjoying two days in the 70’s, the wind started whipping us around, and before I knew it, it was raining, freezing, and snowing. To add to the adventure, we lost power to half of our house. We were running around the house searching for extension cords to connect our refrigerator and freezers to working outlets so that we wouldn’t lose everything. We had hot water, but no heat in the house. The furnace was out. No power.
This morning I got up at 5:30, got my coffee brewing, and turned on a small heater near my feet to stay warm. God had a timely message for me about power. He took me to Acts 1:8 where I read, “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere.” I had no idea why we lost half of our power and our heat. God always seems to be working behind the scenes when things go wrong to do something powerful for His glory.
It’s a very good thing that God gave me an incredible wife. When my wife got up, the first thing she did was to call Ohio Edison to inform them of our power outage. Even before I left for work, Luke, the journeyman from Ohio Edison, showed up to inspect the lines and to diagnose the problem. He had the right tools to both diagnose and fix the problem. One of our two hot lines wasn’t hot. He told me that he wouldn’t leave our property until he had solved the problem.
I went off to work to find out that my first client had cancelled the appointment, so I came back home. By the time I got back home, Luke had already fixed the problem and our furnace was working and our power was restored. I got the nudge to talk with Luke about “When our connection with God isn’t working, nothing else works.” We shared life stories about how we’ve seen God at work when nothing was working right and how God is the only One who restores our lives and our power. Oftentimes God uses gifted people and the right tools to provide exactly what we need. Luke was incredible. He was in the right place at the right time.
Although I’ve memorized and quoted King David’s words that Dr. Luke used in Acts 2:25-26 [“I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me. No wonder my heart is filled with joy, and my mouth shouts His praises! My body rests in hope”], I wonder how many times I start worrying, get upset, or problem-focused when things go wrong. I wonder if God shakes His head or just laughs when I run for alternative power sources–like my little heater–instead of turning immediately to Him for the power and help that I am lacking. I don’t know what I’d do without my godly wife and without the Holy Spirit. Praise God I’m sitting in my warm house writing again about the goodness of God and His incredible power that He displays in my weakness.
I also wonder how often we go through life just putting in time or going through the motions. How often do we have the Holy Spirit working above, in, and through us but we turn to worrying or try to solve our own problems without even consulting Him or asking Him for help? What if we got into the habit of living in and fueling off of the power of the Holy Spirit? What if we learn to reflex into His power when life goes wrong? What would it take to become people who live in the power of the Holy Spirit each day? I made this short video on a windy, warm day before we lost our power. Listen carefully to what you hear as God was nudging me to speak into the wind as His Spirit was blowing everything around me.