A Mighty Engine
By Tom Burns
The Lord showed me a massive, powerful engine. It is hard to describe how large this engine was, but it filled an entire building.
As I looked at the engine, I noticed that it was sputtering and not running at anything like full power. Immediately, I knew that there was water mixed in with the fuel.
Anybody who has had to deal with water in their fuel knows that it only takes a little water to rob the engine of its full power. But that also means we just need to remove a small amount of water to release more of the power available to us.
This same principle applies on the spiritual level. 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9 both state, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”
I realized that the Lord was saying that a watered-down version of His truth was robbing me, and much of the church, of the full power that is available to us.
As I considered what the Lord was saying, I did not feel condemnation. Instead, I felt compassion and hope. It was like God was sending a loving invitation to come into something far better that what I had ever known.
Before we can break free from a watered-down version of the truth, we must understand how we came to this state in the first place. Although there are many ways that the truth can be watered down, I felt like the lord was highlighting three areas to me.
Past Failures and Disappointments
God’s plan is for us to walk in power. John 14:12 states that Jesus expects us to walk in the same power and authority that He had. Not only that, He expects us to do greater things than He did.
Just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus reinforced this expectation by saying, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
In 1 Corinthians 4:20, Paul also confirms this by saying, “For the kingdom of God [is] not in word but in power.”
Living a Holy Spirit-empowered life should be our norm. Unfortunately, many allow past failures and disappointments to cast doubt over the promises and commandments in God’s word. Instead of operating in power, we develop watered-down belief systems that explain, and expect, God’s power to be withheld from our lives.
Paul warned about this in 2 Timothy 3:1-7 when he said that, in the last days there would be men, “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” He went on to say that we should avoid men such as these.
It is imperative that we pursue the power and authority that Jesus died for us to have.
Accepting False Truth
As much as we need to recognize where our disappointments and failures have caused us to accept a watered down version of God’s truth, we also need to realize that we are not the first generation where Satan has attempted to use this type of deception. Just because a teaching of a set of beliefs has been passed down to us from previous generations does not mean that they have not been watered down as well. We cannot continue to blindly accept what we have been taught in the past as truth instead of searching out God’s truth on our own.
One of the best examples of this type of exposing established, but false teaching can be seen in the evolution of the Protestant Churches as they discovered long lost truths that led to the Protestant Reformation. After the initial discoveries in Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses led to the formation of the Protestant Church, new truth has continued to be uncovered that has led to the establishment of an expanding set of new Protestant denominations. For example, the Baptists discovered the importance of water baptism while the Charismatic churches uncovered the reality of walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Acts chapter 17, verses 10 and 11 describe how Paul and Silas fled Thessalonica and went to Berea. In verse 11, it states that the Bereans received what Paul and Silas said, but they also searched out daily to be sure that what they were being taught aligned with God’s word.
We need to develop the same attitude as the Bereans, receiving what is being taught, but also searching it out to prove it in His word!
Stale Bread
The sixteenth chapter of Exodus describes a key concept in walking with God. In verse four, The Lord says, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day”. He said that Israel was to gather a day’s worth of Manna every day except Friday. On Friday’s they were to gather two day’s worth so that they could have enough food for the Sabbath.
In Matthew chapter 6, verses 9-13, also known as the Lord’s prayer, the idea of having fresh food daily is repeated when Jesus said to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Although both of these examples are for physical food, the same principle applies to spiritual food. The Lord frequently gives us what we need for the situation facing us when we really need it, not before. He also gives us what we can handle for now while giving more when we can better handle it. Jesus effectively stated this in John chapter 16, verses 12 and 13 when He said, 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear [them] now. 13 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own [authority], but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
His desire is that we walk with Him and rely on His provision on a daily basis, to pursue fresh revelation from Him on a daily basis. Living on old revelation and failing to seek fresh revelation, fresh encounters with the Lord, can lead to a stagnant walk with God. We need to seek fresh bread on a daily basis.
It is important to note, this doesn’t mean that we are to abandon what the Lord revealed to us in the past. We are to build on it, to grow with it and to seek a deeper, more intimate walk with the Lord on a daily basis.