by Matt Sorger
Is Your Shadow Dangerous?
There is a reason why Jesus’s intimacy with God produced power. He was able to hear God’s voice and follow His leading and direction as a result of His intimate relationship with God.
Jesus walked in supernatural power because He did and spoke only what He saw and heard His Father doing and speaking (John 5:19). His actions reflected His relationship with God. His sole purpose was to do the will of the Father. His life of intimacy with God produced supernatural results.
And the same is true for us. Well, you may say, “Jesus was God! That’s why He had the power He had. I’m just an ordinary person.” True, we are just ordinary people, but Jesus was also a man. He came in the form of a person, just like you and me. But He was endued with supernatural power as He submitted His life to God. The same can happen for you and for me.
I love the story of Peter in the Bible. He was one of the more outspoken, strong-willed disciples. He needed a bit more work than the others, but he reached a point in his life where he died to himself and became filled with God’s power, so much so that his shadow was dangerous (Acts 5:15–16).
Do you want to have a dangerous shadow? You can carry so much of God on your life that when you walk into a room, God walks in with you. Just like Peter, you can see whole cities impacted and every sick person healed and oppressed person set free! You can carry a level of power on your life that transforms people all around you everywhere you go!
How do you get a shadow? It’s very simple. Stand in the light. When you stand in the light of God’s presence through a lifestyle of intimacy with Him, His Spirit will overshadow you, creating a glory zone of His power all around you. When you learn to walk with God in an intimate way, His power within you is a natural overflow.
The religious people of Jesus’s day discovered this secret of intimacy with God when they observed the extraordinary authorityand power displayed through the disciples of Jesus. They were ordinary, uneducated men. Many of them caught fish for a living! No degrees, no college educations, nothing. Just a relationship with God.
Now when they saw the boldness and unfettered eloquence of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools [common men with no educational advantages], they marveled; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
—ACTS 4:13
When you have been with Jesus, remarkable, miraculous things will happen in and through your life.
Surprised by God’s Power
I’ll never forget the time I was in Bible school ministering at a youth retreat up in Maine. I was asked to preach the message that night. The group of young people there were not very into it. I could hear them popping bubbles as they chewed on their gum. They were talking to one another while I was speaking. Even the youth pastor sat on the front row looking at his watch the entire time I spoke. I finally just asked the piano player to come to the keyboard so we could end the meeting. As I stood there with my eyes closed, I knew it would take more than my speaking skills to touch these young people.
I lifted my hands and invited the Holy Spirit to come into the room. Suddenly, without warning, a strong wind blew down from over my head and past my body. It was the tangible power of God! And the most amazing thing happened. Without me even giving an altar call, the young people simultaneously stood up, ran to the altar, and threw their bodies face first onto the ground. They began weeping and shaking and crying out to God. Tough young teenage boys were crying, and the girl’s faces became streaked with makeup. It was quite a scene. I learned that night that one touch of God’s presence and power could accomplish more than the greatest oratory skills.
Walking intimately with God must be our lifestyle. Relationship with God will release an overflow of His supernatural power in your life. Not only will God’s presence within you enable you to live victoriously yourself, but His power will also overflow out of you to help others receive a touch from God. Your breakthrough into God’s presence will become a point of breakthrough for others.
What You Do Today Will Influence Your Tomorrow
As I continued to grow in ministry, God would teach me some very important lessons along the way. After graduating from Bible school, I went on staff at a church as an assistant pastor for five years. Those were very special years. Prayer was very important to me—and still is to this day. I knew if I was ever to be used by God, my relationship with Him must come first. Everything I did for God would flow out of that relationship.
One morning as I came into my office at the church, I walked right into the manifest presence of God. The Holy Spirit was waiting for me in my office! The entire room was engulfed with His presence. As I walked in, God spoke to me and said, “Shut the door. I want to spend this entire day with you.” As I spent time with God that day, His presence came so strong upon me that I couldn’t even speak a word. At one point I was so overwhelmed with gratitude for God drawing so close to me that I wanted to tell Him thank You. As I opened my mouth to speak, I could sense His presence withdrawing. I suddenly realized that in that moment it was not about the words I could say; it was just about being with Him. My communion with God went far beyond anything words could say.
About halfway through the day I began to feel guilty for spending so much time in prayer. I thought of other things I needed to do. Speaking so clearly to me, God taught me a life lesson that would impact my life and ministry from that day forward. He said, “If you don’t have this time with Me now, you will not be able to walk in what I have for you in the future.” I suddenly realized that my future ministry was dependent on my current prayer life. With this new perspective, I spent the entire day and night sitting in my office chair engulfed in God’s presence.
John Wesley once said, “I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.”5 He must have realized as well that without the power of intimacy with God, he could never do all God had called him to do.
At that time I had no idea what God had planned for me in just a few years to come. I had no idea I would be sent out in His power to see thousands of sick people healed and thousands brought to faith in Christ around the United States and the world! It all started back in my little bedroom in Long Island, New York, when I would shut the door and worship God for an hour a day. My motive was never to get a big ministry or to even have power. My motive was just to know God and be as close to Him as possible. Everything else was just a natural by-product. Every morning when I am home, I wake up to a little plaque resting on my dresser. It reads, “The man who walks with God will always get to his destination.” This is a constant reminder to me that as long as I intimately walk with God and keep my relationship with Him first, He’ll take care of everything else.
CHAPTER 3
The Power of Grace
Go With the Flow
ONE OF MY favorite things to do is to go hiking high into the mountains. I love to breathe in the fresh mountain air and feel the brisk wind blowing across my face. I have had many adventures in the great outdoors. I remember one such journey I was on. It was a long and challenging hike. After hours of physical exertion, it was exhilarating to break out of the woods onto a high cliff overlooking the surrounding mountainous terrain. The drop down to the valley below was steep, but I loved getting as close to the edge as possible. I could see the tops of the trees far beneath my feet.
As I looked up into the sunlit sky, I could see a majestic eagle flying high over my head, so free and strong. It was such a sharp contrast to the laborious hike I had just undertaken. I marveled at how it soared with its wings expanded in effortless grace as it glided upon the mountain air currents. Oh, to be like that eagle, soaring high above the earth beneath, free from the labor of having to climb a steep mountainous terrain just to catch a glimpse of the expansive beauty of the world beneath. Would it ever be possible to soar like that eagle, in effortless grace?
Power for life is not about how much self-effort you can put out to make you
r life better. It’s really about spreading your wings and flying, flying on the winds of God’s presence and grace.
You plug into God’s supernatural power by plugging into His grace. Living a powerful overcoming life cannot be achieved by one’s self-efforts alone. You can only go so far in your own ability. Sure, there will be certain things you can change about yourself, but there will be other things that will require the power of God within you to change and transform. That is where grace comes into action.
For years in church I heard teachings about grace. I heard it taught as “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” That sounds good. But what does it mean? What are God’s riches? What expense did Christ pay? I’ve also heard grace taught as God’s unmerited favor and His undeserved mercy. While there is truth in these statements, they still do not get to the true heart of what grace is all about.
God’s grace is not there for you just when you make a mistake and need forgiveness for sin. God’s grace should not be an afterthought. For years I only sought God’s grace after I thought I missed it. I sought His grace when I felt I needed forgiveness, and when you are first learning to walk with God, there will be plenty of times you slip. God’s conviction comes, and you humble your heart before Him and ask Him for forgiveness. With that prayer of repentance, you can receive God’s forgiveness, have a clean heart again, and keep moving forward. But grace is so much more than that. It is so much more than just receiving forgiveness after we sin.
Grace is there for us before we sin. Yes, that’s right. Read it again. Grace is there for us before we slip and fall. So what does that mean? It means that grace is more than just God’s mercy and forgiveness when we miss it.
A man was sharing with me this powerful moment where God’s grace intervened in his life. It was late one night, and he was very tired. It had been a long week at work, and he was lying on his couch watching TV. Suddenly the thought came to his mind to go on the Internet and look at pornography. A strong desire came over him to do something he knew was wrong. As he lay there, he could feel a strange sensation going over his head. It was the presence of God. Right in the midst of a temptation God’s presence washed over him. Moments later the temptation was completely gone! He was able to fall asleep peacefully and woke up refreshed in the morning. This is God’s grace in action. Before he fell, God gave him the power to overcome. God knew his heart, and in his weakness God gave him divine strength. God will do the same for you if you set your heart on pursuing and pleasing God.
One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is Hebrews 4:16: “Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].”
This gives us real insight into what true grace is all about. It’s more than receiving mercy when we fail. God’s grace is there to help us in our time of need. God’s grace is His “well-timed help” just when we need it. When do we need God’s grace? Before we miss it. What does this mean for your life? It means that when you are being tempted to do something wrong, something your spirit knows you shouldn’t do, you can come boldly to God and ask Him to help you not to fall. You can be confident in His grace. You can be confident that God will hear your prayers for help and give you the ability to say no to ungodliness and yes to His will, plan, and purpose for your life.
This is where true power begins. It does not begin with us; it comes from God in us. Our true source of power to overcome everything negative in life doesn’t come from our striving. The ability to make good choices, to be joyful even when there is a whirlwind around us, to be positive even when life wants to pull us into negativity, to be peaceful even when circumstances are chaotic, comes from God’s power within us.
My definition of grace is “God’s supernatural power within you to help you be all He desires you to be and do all He calls you to do.”
His grace truly is amazing. It lifts you above your own earthly limitations and allows you to live and experience God’s life in you. In one of my favorite messages by my mom, Veronica Sorger, she defines God’s grace as His “divine assistance.” He is right there for you when you need Him the most to help you do the right thing. You don’t have to wait until you fall to call out to God. Call out to Him before you fall. That’s when His grace will begin not only to bring forgiveness but also to transform your life. By His grace, His divine ability within you, you will begin to think differently, talk differently, and act differently. His grace will truly transform every area of your life if you let it.
Overcoming Self-Striving
But if it is by grace (His unmerited favor and graciousness), it is no longer conditioned on works or anything men have done. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace [it would be meaningless].
—ROMANS 11:6
This is what Saint Augustine had to say about God’s grace. “Grace is given, not because we have done good works, but in order that we may have power to do them.”1
The awesome thing about God’s grace is that it is not dependent on our works. Popular self-help books may reach people on a natural level and help in some areas, but the reality is we cannot change ourselves. We don’t have to be Christians too long to realize that there are many areas of our lives that we know are wrong, but in our own strength we are powerless to do anything about them. Sometimes we get frustrated with ourselves because we do things we know we are not supposed to do. Then we feel guilty and condemned. This is exactly what the enemy wants. He wants to ensnare us in sin and then make us feel guilty for our failures.
But God’s grace is there to help us get over ourselves. I know there is a constant battle between our flesh and spirit. That will always be there. But it is possible by God’s grace to see our flesh weakened and our spirit strengthened so that it is much easier to live in a way that pleases God. By God’s grace we can overcome every sin and weakness in our lives.
Self-striving only makes you frustrated and discouraged. You try to do what’s right, but you fail miserably. Paul experienced this in his own life. In Romans 7:15–24 he wrote about the struggle he had with doing the things he knew were wrong and not doing the things he knew were right. But then he discovered God’s grace that comes through Jesus Christ. He joyfully declares in Romans 7:25: “O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
God’s grace is a free gift to us. Our salvation in Christ is not a result of our own self-efforts, nor is the transformation that happens in us after we come into relationship with God. The reality is our salvation is instant. The moment we put our faith in Christ were ceive eternal life inside of us. However, our transformation is not instant. It happens over time. There are many areas of our minds and souls that need help. There are ingrained attitudes in us. We have patterns of unhealthy emotional responses, and areas of our flesh are addicted to sin. All of these things need to be overcome on a daily basis. And our overcoming won’t happen by our striving. Paul experienced this. Even with a new nature from God in his spirit, he still wrestled with the sin principle in his soul and body. But eventually, just as with Paul, personality weaknesses and struggles with our sin nature can be overcome and changed by God’s power working in us.
[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
—PHILIPPIANS 2:13
Personality Makeover
God can even help our personalities. That’s right. I have found that often our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. When our personalities can come under the influence of the Holy Spirit, He can help us accentuate our strengths and decrease our weaknesses. For example, people who
are strong-willed are great at getting things done. They are movers and shakers. But they also may be prone to anger when they don’t get their way. God’s grace can help them overcome their anger weakness while still being a productive person. Changing deep-seated personality traits can only happen by God’s grace, divine assistance, and supernatural power within.
I want to encourage you that you are not alone in this process. We are all going through it. You can’t get discouraged if you haven’t been completely perfected yet. You might not have fully arrived, but thank God you are not where you used to be. You are changing, and it is by you cooperating with God’s grace within you.
There are a lot of angry Christians in church. Paul teaches us to not sin in our anger. There are times we cannot control an emotion we feel, but we can control the behavior that accompanies it.
One man shared with me his struggle with anger and how God’s grace is helping him to overcome it. When he was a teenager, the smallest thing would set him off into a rampage. When asked to do something he didn’t want to do, he would get angry. Once when he was asked to do the dishes, he kicked the kitchen door and made a hole in it. Soon every door in his house had a hole in it.
Later in his adult life, he confided in someone that he really struggled with anger. His dad had a bad temper, and he seemed to have inherited this weakness or personality trait from him. After receiving some personal prayer, he obtained a great breakthrough, but he still had his sinful nature to deal with.
A few years later when he read a letter his daughter wrote, saying, “Dad can sometimes get angry,” he realized he still needed to work on this area. He realized that in order to receive God’s grace not to act out or discipline his kids in anger, he needed to stay close to Jesus. As he spent time with God each day, the Holy Spirit helped to control this weakness in his life.