Transcription
Brethren, I was traveling by train across England one morning, and I want you to know I had spent the early hours of that day in prayer before I ever boarded that train, just waiting on God, just letting his presence settle deep into every part of me. I found a seat in a compartment with several other passengers, and I said not a single word. I opened no Bible. I preached no sermon. I did not introduce myself. I simply sat there.
But something began to happen in that compartment that I could not have planned and could not have manufactured in my own strength. The man sitting directly across from me went completely still. His chin began to tremble. Tears started streaming down his face. Something was moving in that carriage and every person in it could feel it. I want to tell you what that man said to me. And more than that, I want to show you the secret behind it. Because what happened on that train is available to every one of you. Here's the incredible story.
The man across from me gripped the edge of his seat with both hands. Every other passenger in that compartment went completely still. You could have heard a breath. He looked at me, this complete stranger, and he said, "Sir, I do not know who you are, but your very presence convicts me of my sin." He broke down in front of every person in that compartment. He said, "I have lived a wicked life. Something about sitting near you makes me feel the full crushing weight of it." And before that train reached its destination, that man had fallen to his knees and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. Glory to God right there on a train.
Now hear me carefully, brethren. I had said nothing. I had done nothing visible. I had not laid hands on him. I had not spoken a single word aloud. What moved in that compartment was not coming from me. It was coming through me. It was the power of the Holy Spirit moving through a vessel that had chosen to abide to abide in the presence of the power of God where victory is assured. There is a place with God where victory is not just possible, it is assured. When we remain in the right place with God, he can do anything with our lives. He can work through us in ways that go far beyond anything we could produce on our own. And the greatest proof of this truth is not any story from my life. It is the story of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Matthew 3:16 and 17 tells us that when Jesus received the spirit at his baptism, a power and majesty fell upon him that transformed everything. He was no longer the same. He had received the mighty anointing power of God. He attained submission and as he submitted he was more and more covered with power and led by the spirit. He went into the wilderness not to escape the spirit but to be carried deeper by the spirit. And Matthew 4:1-11 tells us he came out of that wilderness more full of God, more clothed with the spirit and more ready for the fight than when he went in. The empowerment had such an effect on him that people saw it and they flocked to hear him. Great blessing came to the land. That is what abiding produces.
Church, the Holy Spirit coming upon an individual changes him and fertilizes his spiritual life. Think about that word fertilizes. A field that is never fertilized will never produce its full harvest. A life that is never saturated with the spirit cannot produce the fruit that God intends. But what things become possible when we reach this place and remain in it?
Now let me tell you how I learned to remain in it because it did not happen by accident. Years ago, I made a personal commitment, not out of religious duty, but out of genuine hunger, that I would never allow more than 15 minutes to pass without turning my heart back to God through his word or through prayer. When I was at home, I read. When I was traveling, I prayed. When I boarded trains, when I crossed oceans, when I walked into hospitals and homes and churches, I had already spent hours in his presence. This was not an external rule imposed upon me. This was an internal thirst driving me forward.
Jesus declares in John 7:38, "He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Rivers, brethren, not a trickle that comes and goes. Rivers, constant, powerful, lifegiving. But rivers only flow from a life continuously connected to the source. A dry well cannot produce rivers, no matter how urgently you need them. This relentless daily returning to his presence is what made the train compartment possible. And it is what made other moments possible, too. Moments far more dramatic, far more impossible in the natural.
I want to tell you about something that happened that I will carry with me for eternity. I was called to a home where a young woman had just died. I walked into that house and weeping was in every room. The family was gathered around her body completely broken. I stood before her in that room and in the stillness, the stillness that only a life of abiding produces, I heard the voice of God. The psalmist says in Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." That stillness is not passivity, beloved. That stillness is a posture of complete focused attention on the father, the place of tranquility where we know that he is controlling us and that he moves us by the mighty power of his spirit. And that stillness is only possible for a person who has been abiding. A person who is spiritually scattered and disconnected cannot suddenly hear God's voice clearly in a moment of crisis. But a person who has trained themselves to abide, that person hears clearly immediately.
God told me to pull her from the bed and stand her against the wall. The family was watching. Every natural thought said, "Do not do this. She is gone." But I had learned through years of abiding that when God speaks, you do not deliberate. You do not negotiate. You obey promptly and fully. I pulled her from that bed. I stood her against the wall. I commanded her to walk in the name of Jesus. And she walked instantly restored to life. The weeping in that home turned from grief into absolute uncontrollable joy.
But if you think that was incredible, wait until you hear this. There was another time I was called to a home where a young boy laid dead in his mother's arms. She was inconsolable, holding him with the desperation that only a grieving mother knows. I took that child from her arms. I stood him against the wall just as I had done with the young woman. I prayed. I commanded life to return to him in the name of Jesus. And life returned. That boy opened his eyes and walked. His mother's cry of grief became a cry of praise. That is the power of God flowing through a vessel that has not left the place of abiding.
This is exactly what Ezekiel declares in Ezekiel 37:7. He says, "I prophesied as I was commanded. He did what he was told. Nothing added, nothing modified. He simply obeyed and life poured into dry bones." Ezekiel 37 shows us a man who heard God and moved without hesitation. It takes more to live in that place than in any other place I know of. To live in the place where you hear God's voice and obey instantly. Only by the power of the spirit can you move quickly when you are told.
And that same instant obedience carried me across the Atlantic Ocean. I was on a ship crossing the Atlantic when the spirit of God pressed upon me midcrossing with sudden unmistakable urgency. Go below deck immediately. I did not know why. There was no visible reason. No one had reported a sick passenger. No one had asked for prayer. But I had lived long enough with the Holy Spirit to know when he moves, you move without question, without delay. I went below deck and found a man lying gravely ill in his bunk. A man I had never met, whose name I did not know, whose condition no one had brought to my attention. But the spirit of God knew exactly where he was and exactly what he needed. I laid hands on him and prayed over him in the name of Jesus Christ. The power of God swept through that man from his head to his feet. He was fully healed on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Glory to God, beloved.
How does a man know to go below deck on a ship? How does a man know to raise a dead woman and a dead boy from their beds? How does a man bring an entire train compartment to tears of repentance without speaking a single word? There is only one answer. It is not the man. It is the Holy Spirit moving through a man who has refused to leave the place of abiding.
Paul writes in Romans 8:14, "For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God." Sons, not strangers trying to get God's attention on special occasions. Sons who know their father's voice because they never stop spending time with him. That is the life God has called every one of you to live.
I want to speak plainly to you now, brethren. The majority of believers today are not living in this place. Most Christians will never experience what happened in that train compartment. Not because God is unwilling and not because the power is locked away and unavailable, but because they are not abiding, they are visiting. And there is a vast difference between visiting God and abiding with God. Most Christians will check in with God on Sunday and check out on Monday morning. They say a brief prayer before meals. They open their Bible when a crisis forces them to. And then they wonder why nothing moves when they pray. They wonder why their presence changes nothing when they walk into a room. They wonder why the world around them is not touched.
Jesus declares in John 15:4, "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." A branch disconnected from the vine is not just unfruitful, it is withering. Every day spent at a distance from deep sustained communion with God is a day of slow spiritual drought.
I challenge you today, not tomorrow. Today, make a decision to commit to abiding. Give God the first portion of every morning before anything else. Open his word. Wait in his presence. Return to him throughout your day. Let the Holy Spirit saturate you, every part of you, so that at any moment God's will can flow through you freely. When he speaks to you, obey promptly. When he directs you to pray for someone, pray right there and then. When he sends you to someone in need, go immediately. Do not wait until you feel ready. The flesh will never feel ready. But when you are saturated with God, readiness is not about feelings. It is about his power already flowing through a yielded vessel.
We need a great hunger and thirst for God. Thousands must be brought to a knowledge of the truth. And this will only happen through human instrumentality. Through men and women who will say everything the Holy Spirit directs them to say, "Go everywhere he directs them to go and stop at nothing when he sends them." We must stay in the place where we see God, where we always hear his voice and from where he sends us with messages that bring life and power and victory. Will you be that instrument?
The train, the ship, the dead woman, the dead boy. None of it began in the moment of crisis. All of it began in the quiet, unseen daily place of abiding. It began in hunger. It began in submission. It began in a decision to yield day after day until every part was saturated with God so that at any moment his will could be revealed. This is not reserved for a special few. This is what God intends for every believer who carries the Holy Spirit within them. As Paul declares in Romans 8:11, "The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you." The power is not the question. The abiding is the question. Will you stay in this place of power, yield until you are saturated, obey the moment he speaks, and watch what God will do through your life.
Let us pray. Father, we come before you right now with hungry, surrendered hearts. Fill us afresh with the power of your Holy Spirit. Saturate us, every part of us, so that at any moment your will can flow through us freely. Forgive us for the times we have lived at a distance from your presence. We refuse that life today. We commit to abiding, to remaining in the right place with you where victory is assured. Make us instruments of life and power and victory to every person you place in our path. Let your presence go before us on every train, every ship, every road, every room you send us into so that lives are transformed by your power alone. We yield to you completely in Jesus' name. Amen.
I believe with all my heart that as you have learned about abiding in power today, you have been activated into a deeper sustained walk with the Holy Spirit. The hunger that has been stirred in you is already drawing you into the place where God can move through your life at any moment. Comment below with "I am a saturated vessel" and share one area of your life where you are committing to abide more deeply. Your declaration might be exactly what someone else needs to read today. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell for rare, timeless, and anointed teachings that will help you grow spiritually and walk in the authority Christ intended for you.
Starting tomorrow morning, set aside time before anything else, before your phone, before your schedule, and give that first portion entirely to God. Open his word. Wait in his presence. Return to him throughout the day. Let him saturate you completely. You have learned what it means to abide in power. But what happens when that power flows out of you and into a dying world? What if the very moment you stop trying to fix people and simply let God move through you, everything changed? What if a single touch on a train in Sweden, on a street car in San Francisco, could reverse death, disease, and despair in seconds? And what does that mean for the impossible situation you are facing right now? Check out this next video to discover how a life charged by the Holy Spirit becomes an unstoppable force that changes everyone it touches.