Power Outage: The Importance of Staying Connected

This past Sunday my husband preached a sermon entitled "Power Outage." This sermon dealt with the issue of staying connected to the "Power Source" which is God and God alone. As he was preaching I was frantically writing down things that stuck out to me, as well as a few thoughts I had resulting from the sermon. Here are a few of those notes:

- It is essential, vital, of utmost importance, top priority, A #1, to stay connected to your Power Source. If we went without food for as often as we went without reading our Bibles or seeking God, how weak would our flesh get? In the same manner, we HAVE to stay connected daily to God. Salvation is not the only experience we should have with the Father. He wants to continually pour into us. He desires to be in a covenant relationship with you and me. I don't know about you, but that excites me!

- Not only are we to stay connected to the Father, but we need to stay connected to fellow Christians. God never ever meant for us to be alone. As Pastor Nick states in many of his sermons and classes, Jesus always sent out his disciples in groups, typically pairs. Why do we need each other? As the old saying goes "there is strength in numbers." In Deuteronomy 32 it says that with God's help one can put 1,000 to flight, but two can put 10,000 to flight. Every service at Courts of Praise Church is like a surge to my spiritual battery. My brothers and sisters not only encourage me, but together we overtake the enemy's territory. My husband has preached a sermon before called "Beware of Loneliness." When you isolate yourself, you are asking for major trouble! The devil preys even more on us when we are lonely.

- My hair dryer has a reset button on it. Sometimes my hair dryer will be plugged in, but will not work because it needs to be reset. Just like a hair dryer, we may be connected but we aren't exuding any power because we need some time to "reset." Whether you've been saved for 4 days or 40 years, we need time to reset ourselves by renewing our covenant with God. Like couples renew their vows to strengthen and refresh their marriage, we must refresh ourselves often with the Lord to make sure our flame for him isn't dying out.

- When there's a problem that needs solving, the best place to start is at the source. I hate losing things! It's one of my biggest pet peeves. When attempting to find the item I have lost, I always try to start back at the place I last remember having it. The same is true for our walk with God. When we find ourselves lost or venturing off the path, we need to go back to the source. We need to remember our soul's first love (Revelation 2: 1-7). When a breaker blows, you go straight to the breaker box - the source - to fix the problem. When we have a problem, we must go to our source - the Father.

My prayer is that we stay connected to the Father this week more than we ever have. Also, get connected somewhere. If you don't attend a church - find one and get connected!! Get involved! We are all responsible for connecting ourselves to the Father and to each other. No one can do it for you. Thanks for reading...