The Big Idea of Power Season
Here is the big idea, the Power Rhythm we focus on during Power Season:
God is proactively working a strategy to bring the power of heaven to earth so people can live in the new era of freedom and power that Jesus announced. No more, "I wish, but I can't."
The Bible is one long coherent story. Near the beginning, the one and only Real God initiates a master plan to bless and heal the world by bringing heaven’s power to earth through the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 12.3). Jesus takes that plan to a new level. He personally brings heaven’s power to earth. The power is inside him and he is radiating it. It changes people and it does miracles.
But then the story of the Bible has a problem. What happens to the power when Jesus leaves? Does it go with him? Are humans right back where they were before, doing the best they can? How are they supposed to obey Jesus and copy him if he is not around to radiate his power into them like he used to?
Power Season celebrates the answer to that question. On Pentecost Day, Jesus sent or projected his own Spirit, his own life and power, from heaven down into his followers on earth, proving he could do that from a distance. Later examples in the book of Acts show that he could do the same thing again anytime and anywhere he chose. Through his Spirit, Jesus is “still around.” There never needs to be a spiritual power shortage again.
Here is the other half of the big idea of Power Season:
God's strategy for our era is to channel his power to earth through all who have the Spirit of the risen Jesus living in them. They tell everybody else where the power comes from and how to get it.
When reinforcements arrive, there is always a huge sense of relief and joy. They turn the tide, and the battle that was going to be lost is won. Afterward the rescued ones can’t thank the reinforcements enough for arriving when they did.
The arrival of the Holy Spirit of Jesus in his original followers in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day was like that. The Spirit brought the power that the followers needed in order to convince the world that their message was true—Jesus really was alive again, and he was and always will be the power center of history.
Once the Spirit of Jesus gets hold of a person, the power of Jesus comes, too. People can do things they could not do on their own. Life gets exhilarating, almost magical.
We never really get over this, and we never get bored again because we never know what the power of Jesus will do next in us or through us. How will our desires shift? Who will Jesus help through us? Is a miracle coming somewhere? Jesus is full of surprises.
Even before the surprises come, we realize that the first effect of the power of the Spirit is to lift a huge weight off our shoulders. Success doesn’t depend on us anymore, and it is not limited to whatever we might be able to achieve by our own brains and effort.
Never again will we feel hopelessly trapped and powerless. Never again will we feel like losers. We are surfing a super-wave of power that no one can stop.
Our part is simple (though not easy). All we have to do is keep letting the power of Jesus do whatever he wants it to do in us or through us.
The more his power works, the more amazed and grateful we get. And when other people notice the evidence that something unusual is going on in us or through us, we point them straight to the power source, King Jesus.
They can get in on his power just like we did. They simply invite Jesus to send his Spirit into them to go to work on them from the inside out, doing whatever Jesus wants and assigning them their niche in his global campaign for an empowered world.
That is basically what “SYNC” is all about—saying “SYNC me” to Jesus, inviting Jesus to SYNC me right now with the amazing future he will lead. It is like "calling for back-up" in a situation that is getting out of our control, except that in this case, we aren't merely hoping Jesus will send help quickly. We are realizing he already sent it by his Spirit. So we welcome the Spirit.
Bottom line of the big idea of Power Season:
We see ourselves in Christ as walking evidence of God’s power for good, calling the world to embrace this power. We live in SYNC with God's intentions when he sent the Spirit of Jesus down into his original followers on Pentecost Day.
Jesus made his "Power Promise" to his followers, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1.8).
When you SYNC, when you See Yourself iN Christ as walking evidence of God’s power for good, you realize that Jesus’s promise is coming true in you. You are participating in the new era of freedom and power that Jesus launched. You are empowered by his Spirit to play your assigned role as a member of his campaign team.
His power is meant for everybody, but not everybody knows that yet. People are living as best they can without knowing where the power of Jesus comes from, how it works, and how they can get it. If you know that power of Jesus, your “cause” in life is to help everybody discover it. You are caught up in that cause, energized by it, and delighted every time you see even a small sign that the power is spreading.
If you don’t know that power but you do want a better world, please realize that is why God sent the power—for the good of the world. Why not invite his power to work through you instead of contributing only what you can manage by your own power? Why not get on board with his plan instead of trying to work some other plan?
Of course, you have to get over your view (if it is your view) that Jesus is merely a great teacher of the ideal of kindness. If you are stuck there, read the first part of the story of Jesus’s original followers for yourself (Acts 1-10; 30-min read; leave this site). See what the people were empowered to become and to do once the Spirit of Jesus moved into them. It would never have happened if they were just trying to be kind. Something else was going on, something powerful.
Our role as evidence of God's power,
calling people to live with that power
Here is the big picture, the flow of the story of the power of Jesus.
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Jesus brought heaven's power to earth, and he used it for good
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While he was on earth, he temporarily gave his miraculous power to some of his followers so they could carry out special assignments in his name
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He did not use his power to attack anyone, to defend himself from execution, or to take revenge on his enemies after his resurrection
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Before he left the earth, he promised his followers they would receive "power from above," and he ordered them not to leave town until that power arrived
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On Pentecost Day he sent the power down by sending his Spirit to live in and among his followers, proving he still had power and he could still delegate it to his campaign team members so they could connect, heal, and bless the world in his name.
No wonder some people get a little carried away when they speak of the Holy Spirit of Jesus and when they notice or sense the power of God working in them! That Pentecost Day event is a piece of history that sounds more like science fiction.
If that happened as reported (Acts 2), the world is at a whole new place. Heaven's power has come to earth in the followers of Jesus, and it is available to everyone who wants it on Jesus's terms. There is no fine print. All he asks is allegiance to him as King.
Jesus was killed by people who denied he was King and wanted to make sure he never would be. Now resurrected and enthroned as the true King of heaven and earth, he sends his Spirit to empower the people who honor him as a King and welcome his rule in their lives.
People who still want to insist he is not a king have a problem with his messengers. If the messengers were just repeating Jesus's teachings and re-telling his story, that would be one thing. But they are doing a lot more than that.
They are changing people's characters--making stingy people generous, drug addicts free and productive, two-faced people truthful. And if that is not enough, they sometimes do healing miracles or have revelations of things there was no way for them to know. The messengers say that Jesus's power is doing all this, and nobody has come up with a more convincing explanation.
The messengers love to repeat the Power Declaration:
"This is a day to remember the Holy Spirit’s arrival on Pentecost Day, and to live like that changed everything."
The Power Declaration SYNCs us with the intentions Jesus had when he sent his Spirit down on Pentecost Day. Life doesn't get any better than that.