An Encounter with the resurrection power of God

• Saul's persecution of Christians was stopped by a direct encounter with the risen Lord Jesus
• The same resurrection power that transformed Paul is available today to every believer
• Spectating Christianity without participation leads to spiritual stagnation 
• Passion in the wrong direction (like Saul's) can be redirected as hunger towards God
• Encounters with Jesus happen when we come with hunger and thirst for more
• Romans 8:11 promises the same power that raised Jesus will give life to our mortal bodies
• Your physical body can experience resurrection life and renewal
• One touch from Jesus can transform anything happening in your life
• Being caught up into heavenly realms (like Paul) changes your entire perspective
• God isn't looking for perfect people but for open and hungry hearts
• The Holy Spirit comes when He is welcomed and wanted

The blood of Jesus is powerful enough to completely cleanse you, set you free, and make you new. It's time for a change of direction in your life by the resurrection power of the Lord.

Transcript

Saul's Encounter on Damascus Road

Speaker 1 0:00

Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9. I was jumping into the book of Romans already, but meanwhile Saul was uttering threats with every breath and eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressing to the synagogues in Damascus asking for the cooperation and the arrest of any followers of the way he found there. He wanted to bring them back, both men and women, to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him Saul, saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, lord? Saul asked, and the voice replied I am Jesus the one you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone's voice but saw no one. Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there, blind for three days and did not eat or drink.

Speaker 1 1:19

Say with me an encounter with the resurrection power of God. This morning you have a choice you can be a student, you can be a spectator, you can be a looker and you can say let me look, let me study, let me see a little bit what this time of the year is all about for the Christians, or even as a believer. You may have come into this place and then you have this sense or feeling that you already know everything. Maybe you were part of similar service last year and you think well, I already know everything there is to know about the resurrection power. I'm just here to come together with my brothers and sisters, but I don't really need anything because I already have everything. But do you know that whatever it takes to get, it takes to keep? If you need hunger to get it, if you need thirst for God to get it, you're going to need to stay thirsty and you're going to need to stay hungry. You know that there's more that God has for us this morning. But if we get into that stagnant place where we're just looking, then the windows of heaven will be closed over us. But when we come like a little child, when we come hungry and thirsty for what God has for us, then God can come and touch us. There's big plans that Lord has for us and God actually loves and cares for you. Amen, and he has not forgotten you. Today, faith can rise in your heart. You can get excited about the things of God. Let me read from 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Go there with me. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15.

Hunger for More Than Knowledge

Speaker 1 3:09

I'm talking about the encounter that Saul had with Jesus in the book of Acts. But in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15 it says Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the good news I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and you still stand firm in it. It is the good news that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you, unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. You know there's some people who believe something that's not even true. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand if you believe something.

Speaker 1 3:50

Sometimes our mothers, fathers. They do the best they can, but sometimes they tell us things that are not true. Sometimes you have to go into the Word of God and find out if what your grandmother said is actually in the Bible. It's important, otherwise you end up quoting what your grandfather said for the rest of your life, and it may not even be true. But let me leave that alone.

Speaker 1 4:15

I passed on to you what was the most important and what had also been passed on to me Christ died for our sins, just as the scripture said. He was buried and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as scripture said. He was seen by Peter, and then by the twelve, and after that he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James, and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born of a wrong time, I also saw him, for I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church. So Saul, who later became known as Paul, was persecuting, but one persecuting the church.

Speaker 1 5:09

But one thing you can't blame Paul for is a lack of passion. You could say that his passion was very badly and poorly directed, but he was not an indifferent man, he was not a complacent man. He was a passionate man and he was very zealous in some of the things that he was doing. Hallelujah In his time that you, in your life in your heart. You get zealous about the things of God, that you get excited about some things that God has for you. You get excited about some things that heaven has, that you don't just look and see everything that's happening and then say, okay, I guess that's how things have always been. But verse 10 says but whatever I am now, it is because God poured out his special favor on me, and not without results. How many can see that in the life of Apostle Paul there were some results, and he's explaining here that it's because of the special favor that God gave him, for I have worked harder than any of the other apostles. You know, it's very important that you're not allergic to work. Amen. I worked harder than any of the other apostles. Yet it was not I but God who was working through me by His grace. So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach, for we all preach the same message you have already believed. Say hallelujah.

Speaker 1 6:57

And then I want to read still another passage of scripture from 2 Corinthians, chapter 12. 2 Corinthians, chapter 12. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, where Paul's reflecting back, looking back into the time when he was caught up into the realms of God. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12. This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about the visions of revelations from the Lord. I was caught up to the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don't know. Only God knows, yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know that I was caught up to paradise and I heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. In other words, saul was caught up into the realms of God when he met Jesus and you can see the hand of God, the favor of God, as he tells in 1 Corinthians, the grace of God that was on his life for the remainder of his days, and he calls himself the least of all the apostles because he felt like he was born outside of his time. Why? Because he was persecuting the church when the church was moving forward. But then later he met Jesus. There's no situation in your life this morning, in your life, wherever you may be in the cities, watching from home, that one encounter with Jesus will not turn around.

Paul's Testimony of Seeing Jesus

Speaker 1 8:49

Let me finish reading from first, uh, where we started off from uh, acts 9, and from verse 10, and on acts 9 and verse 10 and on now, there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. Lord spoke to him in Damascus named Ananias. Lord spoke to him in a vision calling Ananias yes, lord. He replied. The Lord said go over the straight street to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarshish named Saul. He's praying to me right now. I have shown him in a vision and a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again. But Lord exclaimed Ananias, I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem and he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name. But the Lord said Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to the kings, as well as to the people of Israel, and I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road. He laid his hands on him and said and was baptized. Afterwards he ate some food and regained his strength.

Speaker 1 10:24

Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days, say hallelujah. I know there was multiple places from the word of God, but I felt like on this special day it was very important for you to comprehend that the word would be very clear to you, that on that day, on the road to Damascus, saul was going. He was on a completely different assignment. He was persecuting the church, but then he met Jesus. How do we know he met Jesus? Because Ananias came and said that the Jesus that you met on the road. He was caught up into the realms of God and he met Jesus on that road, so much so he stopped eating, he stopped drinking, his life was completely turned around. This is already the time when Jesus is already in heaven, at the right hand of the Father. The church is born, the church is moving, the church is active, the gospel is moving forward. But here is Saul. He's persecuting and attacking the church. But then he had an encounter with Jesus. I want you to know that resurrection power this morning is as mighty as it was on that day when Jesus met Saul on that road.

Speaker 1 11:58

Saul had an encounter that transformed his life and he later was writing the Corinthians and he says that it's the grace, it's the favor that has caused me to do what I've done. What does God have for you and for your life? In order for us to step into what God has for us, we need an encounter with that resurrection life. And I go as far as to say there's no better way to honor the death and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Than to step into the fullness of what he paid for, so that that life, that resurrection life, comes real to you, that you have an encounter with him, that he opens your eyes. Maybe you're not physically blind like Saul was, but many people, even believers, they've never experienced the reality of the power of God in their life so that they could step into the life and reality that God has for them. You may carry some visions and dreams on the inside of you, but there's no way to do it without the power of God.

Caught Up to Paradise

Speaker 1 13:20

You say, pastor, god's called me to be an evangelist. You need the power of God. If you're an evangelist, well, I feel like I'm going to teach and I'm going to be a pastor. You need the power of God to be a pastor. Some of you are thinking this doesn't apply to me because I don't fit into those groups. I'm not going to be a minister, I'm just going to I feel like I'm being called to the marketplace. I'm just going to work my job and I'm going to be the light and I'm going to be the salt wherever I'm at. Whatever God's called you to do, you need his resurrection power. I said you need his resurrection power, but that means you're going to have to have an encounter with him.

Speaker 1 14:01

You have to step out from just sitting in the back row. You know, when I was growing up in church, I was a professional in sitting in the back row. No offense to anybody who's in the back row today Glad you're with us. But I remember, you know, as a child I would sit with my mom because she wouldn't let me out of her sight. But then when I grew up a little bit you know pre-teen, teen age I would always sit in the back, you know, with the cool kids so, and through the years I would learn the art of spectating and criticizing from the back.

Speaker 1 14:43

But there has to come a time in your life when you stop just spectating and especially, that you stop criticizing and you're willing to step in and you're willing to say Lord, I want you to do the work in me. Lord, I'm thirsty and hungry for what you have for me, for I know Jesus. You said in John 7, 37, that if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink Hallelujah. But it takes something to press through to the natural press, through to the emotions and things, and from your heart you cry out to him, you get hungry for him and you get thirsty for him. John 7, 37 in the New Living Translation says On the last day, the climax of the festival, jesus stood and shouted to the crowds Anyone who is thirsty may come to me. Anyone who believes in me may come and drink. For the scriptures declare Rivers of living water will flow from his heart. And verse 39 says when he said living water, he was speaking of the spirit who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the spirit had not yet been given Because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory. I'm here to tell you that Jesus has entered into glory and today we're living in a time when we can come and we can get thirsty and we can receive and we can have an encounter with the resurrection power of God. Just like Saul had as dramatic of a change as Saul had Such a dramatic change, you can have that. Even your friends will begin to scratch their heads and say what has happened to you? You look like the same person on the outside, but clearly something very impressive has happened to you. Hallelujah.

From Persecution to Purpose

Speaker 1 16:39

When we went to Bible school many years ago I stopped saying how many years ago Because it makes me feel old, but when we went to Bible school when we were young, okay, we went to Bible school. We went first year, second year, third year we were in Bible school and in the summer we would come and visit Finland and we would come also for a special meeting here in Finland. And our friends back then and many of you know Evangelist Yussi. I've known him for many, many years. I'm not going to say how many years, but I've known him for many years. We actually we were roommates back together In the last millennium and so forth, so he's known me for many years. But when they saw us come back to Finland and then after time in the Bible school, and then they saw what the Lord had done in our life, they decided, oh, we got to get to the same place where these guys have been, because the change was so dramatic.

Speaker 1 17:49

I'm not going to go into the details of the significance of that testimony, but when you have someone who's known you from young age and then they see the change so much so they decide to go to the other side of the world To get the same thing that these guys have got, it must have been something real. I want you to know that power is real, even if you feel like you failed, even if you feel like you missed it, even if you feel like you're not good enough. I'm telling you, one touch from the hand of the master Changes everything. That resurrection power is available. You just gotta come in faith, you gotta come to Jesus and you gotta come thirsty. You know that I would rather have a person who's a total mess but hungry for God than a professional believer who on the outside, has everything together but they lost their passion for God.

Speaker 1 18:42

I'm telling you this is not the time to be lukewarm. This is not time to to just just to have an indifferent and a passive attitude. This is the time to see the, the best things that God, for what he has for us, say hey, hey. And I don't like that attitude that we have sometimes here in Finland, that people just look oh, I wonder how my life is going to unfold. Oh, I wonder what this year is going to be like. There has to be something real on the inside of you when you get that passion. See, saul was not indifferent, he was passionate. I know he was doing the wrong thing, but at least he was doing something.

Speaker 1 19:35

Some of you are doing nothing. Lord, have mercy. Many of you were praising, but I was looking at some of you during worship. There was no sound coming out of you. That's not okay.

Speaker 1 19:53

Now, if you're here for the first time, visiting you, come from outside. Let me see what the Christians are doing relax. I'm not talking about you. I'll come back to you a little bit later. I'm talking to the Christians are doing Relax. I'm not talking about you. I'll come back to you a little bit later. I'm talking to the Christians now. I'm telling you when the Lord's changed your life, when he's given you new life, when he's healed your body, when he's restored your mind, you don't just sit there on a Sunday morning. There has to be a sound that comes. Your feet start to move. Hey, I don't care if you're even a fin and you've never danced in your life, you don't have to learn. You can't learn to dance in the Spirit. Spirit comes on you and you dance, say Hallelujah, hallelujah, you'll be a sign. And you dance, say hallelujah, hallelujah, you'll be a sign and a wonder. And even the internationals will look and say, wow, we have seen great things today, hallelujah. But what's that about? It's whatever. You know.

Speaker 1 21:00

Enemy tries to come with disappointments, discouragement. Try to come with attacks and so forth, try to to put us into the wrong path, try to lure us, entice us to, and then, if we take a wrong path, he comes with guilt and shame and condemnation. See what you've done. You'll never amount to anything. You're a loser. You're no good. Even god doesn't want you anymore.

Passion That Transforms Everything

Speaker 1 21:23

But I've come to give you some good news this morning. God's not mad at you, he's ready to receive you. Only thing you have to do is just take a step and say Lord, please come, touch my life. I don't want to be just a statue. God calls no one just to warm seats in a church. But there's a plan and a purpose that God has for you.

Speaker 1 21:53

You can have an encounter with the resurrection power of God. When that power comes, it changes everything. It'll change your direction. That power will bring you new life. Say amen, amen. That power will bring life to your physical body.

Speaker 1 22:11

For Romans 8, 11 says the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you, and just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you. Hey, hallelujah, it's time to get unsleepy Making up new words. I think it's not time to be sleepy. It's time to get filled with the power of God. Say hallelujah, new life, restoration, Renewal in every area, fresh ideas. You'll even get a fresh. Your face will look fresh. Hallelujah, it's time to be excited about the things of God. Some of you need new direction in life.

Speaker 1 23:07

You could say that Paul had a new direction after he got off from the ground. Ananias came, laid his hands on Saul and he got filled with the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah, that same power that raised Christ from the dead, that same power dwells in us. Hallelujah, it's time for life. It's time for resurrection life. Hey, hey.

Speaker 1 23:52

You realize that in a service like this, we should have ushers just to restrain people. You say, pastor, why? Because people are so excited that we have to set some boundaries so they don't run all over the place and knock over the camera operators and the instruments and everything. It's like, pastor, what are you talking about? That could not happen. See, when this resurrection life comes, it's real on the inside of you, your whole outlook, your direction, everything you see. You say how could Apostle Paul do everything that he did?

Speaker 1 24:25

When you read about the challenges that he faced and if you try to put yourself in that situation, you see he was taken into the realms of God. And when you experience the glory of God, you will never look at life the same. You'll go to a nation like Finland, you'll travel in Lapland, you'll go to distant regions. Because one touch from his hand your changes, I guess. Just look at people and they're precious people, very much Great potential, but I can tell they've never experienced the glory of God. They've been in the theological seminary for five years and all they've experienced is logic and reason that saves nobody, but one touch from his hand.

Speaker 1 25:25

Paul had an encounter with Jesus personally. He was taken into the realms of God. He was exposed to things that he wasn't even allowed to talk about on the earth. I'm telling you, god wants to take his church into the realms of his spirit that Finland has never seen before. And I'm not talking about something weird, I'm talking about things that are found in the scriptures, but I'm talking about the realms of God, that even the things of the natural lose their meaning. You move with the supernatural unction, you move with the supernatural wisdom, you move with the supernatural strength that your strength never runs out, because you're tapped into the power grid of heaven and you just keep moving forward.

Speaker 1 26:18

Sometimes we try to live just intellectually and with our thinking and with leaning on our own understanding, but that's not the way that God has for us to live. He has that power has been released by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And now every one of us, we can live with that power, hallelujah. I said, every one of us, we can live with that power. Oh hall, hallelujah. This rest of the year is going to be miraculous.

When Resurrection Power Changes Direction

Speaker 1 26:52

For somebody, this morning is a morning of new beginning, it's a morning of new hope, it's a morning of new start for the things that God has for you. Can you say amen? The same Jesus, that same Jesus who first appeared to the apostles after his resurrection, that same Jesus showed up in Acts 9 to Apostle Paul. I'm telling you, one encounter with Jesus changes everything. You don't have to figure things out. You don't have to figure things out. You don't have to plan your own life in your head. That sounds like a very stressful task. Thank God for your ability to think. But there is a heavenly plan that comes with an encounter with Jesus. Can you say hallelujah?

Speaker 1 27:51

And I believe, even as I'm speaking, the very power of God is touching people. Somebody's eyes are going to be open. Somebody's going to be set free today in the name of Jesus. Somebody is being delivered right now In the name of Jesus. Somebody's been filled with the Holy Ghost. Thank you, jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Speaker 1 28:15

You say well, pastor, what if I don't want it? God's not going to do something that you don't want. He comes when he's welcome, when your heart's open. He will come, and he will come and make his residence in your heart. In the book of Revelation, bible says that he stands at the door of your heart and he knocks. If you let him in, he will come. Can you say hallelujah? He comes when he's welcome. Holy Spirit comes when he's welcome. Holy Spirit comes when he's welcome when you are open, when your heart's open for Him to fill you up.

Speaker 1 28:59

I see a church in Finland that is a glorious church. I see a church that every member is filled with the Holy Spirit. Everyone has had an encounter with Jesus. Everyone has had an encounter with the resurrection power of our Lord. Can you say hallelujah? See, god is in heaven, jesus is now at God's right hand, but the Holy Spirit is here. I said Holy Spirit is here, hallelujah.

Speaker 1 29:35

Everything changed in Saul's life when he met Jesus and when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. There's nothing. There's nothing that has happened or is going on in your life that Jesus couldn't do something about right now, that the power of the Holy Spirit couldn't do something about right now. That was the ministry of Jesus. People that touched him, or people that Jesus touched, were forever changed by the power of God. And the same way as Apostle Paul was caught up into the realms of God that he was even hesitant years and years later to talk about, because he realized I've been taken into the realms that I'm not even allowed to talk about.

Moving Beyond Spectating to Experiencing

Speaker 1 30:28

Every individual, every person In the sound of my voice, god loves you, he cares for you. He sent his son to die for you so you could have life and you could experience his resurrection power. You may feel like worthless even in your own eyes, but you meant something to Jesus when he paid the price for you on the cross and he wants to touch you, transform your life and bring about that out of your life. There's going to be a flow of living water and resurrection life. That's what makes the church so amazing. It's not about one really, really, really, really spiritual guy and then everybody else is like look at them, they are very spiritual, they are really, really, really, really spiritual. I'm glad we get to hear them once a week. No, but that same spirit, that same life has come on to live on the inside of you and you become the conduit for that life so that when you, you talk to people that have never been in church this coming week, that life will flow out of you and will touch them. Hallelujah, hallelujah, oh hallelujah. One touch from his hand, one touch from his hand. We sang about the blood of jesus. That blood is powerful to completely cleanse you. That blood is powerful to completely cleanse you. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse you, set you free and make you new Hallelujah.

Speaker 1 32:26

Apostle Paul, the great Apostle Paul, who wrote so many books of the New testament, wrote the epistles, built the church, saw the kingdom of god move, the one that we're even talking about here in the north this morning. That man was persecuting the church, but one encounter with jesus changed his life. I'm here to tell you and I know I'm repeating myself, but some things are worth repeating there's nothing going on in your life that one touch from the hand of the master would not change this morning. And there's some people you need an encounter with the resurrection power of the Lord so that life can come back. Some of you need a touch in your physical body. There's something going on that you need a miracle. Our God is a miracle, working God.

Speaker 1 33:27

Some of you need need a need, a change in the even, in the direction of your life. You've been going to the wrong direction, but the Lord is touching your heart. He's calling you. It's time for a change. It's time for a change of direction in your life by the resurrection power of the Lord. That one moment, those three days In the realms of God, and then he was filled with God's Holy Spirit. It was those moments that changed the life of Apostle Paul and he was never the same.

Speaker 1 34:05

I'm telling you, you are not too far gone. God has not forgotten you. It's time to stir things up. Maybe things didn't go the way that you expected and that really discouraged you. I'm telling you there's new joy, new life. There's new beginning, there's a new start, there's a there's a new, something new is happening right now, and that, that resurrection power. It's even making some dreams and visions that God gave you years ago.

Speaker 1 34:34

Come back alive in your life and you will fulfill what God has for you. Maybe you took a detour for a couple of years, but I'm telling you you will not miss one more day. Now is the time to live fully for Jesus. The price is already paid. The blood was shed. Jesus does not have to come back again, and by our own works we cannot add anything to what he's already done. But what we must do is come humbly and say Lord, I give you my life. I believe your word that you sent your son to die for me. He died for me on that cross. That, lord, you said in John 3, 16,. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him Will not perish but will have everlasting life, for God did not send his son into the world To condemn the world, but that the world through him Would be saved.