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Goated Volume Three: Power Moves the King's Way
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This year we're walking through a series called Goated, where Jesus—the greatest of all time—teaches us something different about a specific subject each month. This month, in Goated Volume Three, we're exploring how to make real power moves. Not power moves culture's way, not power moves the church's way, but power moves the King's way.
Some of us have areas in our life that aren't moving because we don't have power. We need gas—spiritual empowerment—to move forward.
There's a story in the Bible about David and Goliath that many of us know only halfway. Yes, David knocked Goliath down with a slingshot, but the story doesn't end there. The Bible says David ran up to Goliath, took Goliath's own sword, and used it against him.
Here's what believers can learn: We need to take what the enemy uses to attack us and use it against the enemy. One of the swords the enemy wields is technology. Technology itself is not evil or immoral—the morality of technology is based on who uses it and how they use it. Some use it for destruction; others use it for development.
Certain things in culture we reject. Certain things align with our spiritual principles and we receive. And other things—like technology—we redeem. We say, "We don't care how the enemy is using it. We're going to put our hands on it and use it on the enemy." This is why we developed Goated GPT—we fed it our sermon manuscripts and audio recordings so that when you have questions about what's been taught, you can get answers instantly.
Over two decades of pastoral ministry, I've observed an invisible, undiagnosed epidemic infecting a large segment of the Christian community: hyperindependence.
There are people in our churches who are experts at giving help but amateurs at receiving it. Why? Because they've had to live their whole lives without it. Because of perpetual absence of proper support, they've learned to survive alone. They've adopted attitudes and modes of operation where they carry the weight of ten people because they never had people to help them carry that weight.
This epidemic is made worse in certain religious environments. We use songs, sermons, and spiritual clichés that celebrate self-destructive behavior. We celebrate someone working themselves to the bone and call it commitment. But frankly, we're celebrating someone overcompensating for someone else's unwillingness to carry weight they're supposed to carry.
When God sends people into their life who are able and willing to assist, they don't know how to receive help because they've never had it. They perceive people's offers with suspicion: What do you actually want from me? Because they've never experienced help without a hidden motive or angle.
I believe this is the season God breaks your orientation toward hyperindependence. You've been called to do too much; you've been called to carry too much. God is about to show you your help.
Here's a critical truth: This reality sociologically shows up theologically. We unconsciously carry baggage from our relationships with people into our relationships with God.
Because people made us feel like we were bothering them when we asked for reasonable assistance, now scriptural commands like "Come boldly before the throne of grace" become commands we can quote but cannot live. We quote boldly, but we come timidly because we're bringing sociological baggage into our theological life.
Now we feel like we're bothering God. We feel like God's going to zap us. We've dealt with performance orientation in relationships—transactional love, not covenantal love. When you stop doing for them, they stop doing for you. So when God says, "When you are faithless, I am faithful," we can't wrap our heads around it because we're used to transactions, not covenant.
What happens to you sociologically affects you theologically. When I've had to survive without proper support, even coming into a relationship with my heavenly Father, I don't know how to properly receive support from a Father in heaven because I didn't get it from people on earth. So I end up trying to make moves in my own power, in my own strength. I end up trying to live a spiritual life with human energy and human effort.
I'm trying to drive the car of my life with no gas because I don't believe that the one who called me to the destination also wants to fill my tank. The one who called you to the destination also wants to fill your tank. God's not going to send you anywhere without giving you the gas to get there.
Some of our problem is this: You're getting direction and guidance from God, but you're not getting gas. God says, "The reason you burned out and been out of shape is because you haven't learned how to receive help."
This conversation happens in what scholars call the farewell discourse of Jesus in John 14. John 13:1–17 contains Jesus's farewell—his necessary ending so we can enter a new season.
Jesus spent three years mentoring the disciples. He taught them, coached them, corrected them, comforted them. Peter left his fishing business. James and John left theirs. They gave up everything to follow him. And then Jesus says He's leaving.
They're anxious. They want Him to stay. But Jesus tells them: "I know you want me to stay, but it's better for me to go. The help you need, this version of me cannot give. Once I go to the cross, rise from the grave, and go to the Father, this version of me has done what it was assigned to do.
"I know you prefer me to stay, but I'm not going to give you what you prefer. I'm going to give you what you need. And sometimes what you need isn't what you prefer. Sometimes what you need makes you feel confused. Sometimes what you need makes you feel abandoned."
Then He makes an extraordinary promise:
"I will not leave you as orphans. I'm going to send you another one—an allos, another of the same kind. I'm sending you somebody that's not me, but is the same essence and nature of me."
The second person of the Trinity is your example, your instructor, and your redeemer. But you need the third person of the Trinity to be your empowerer. My job is to give you guidance. The Holy Ghost's job is to give you gas.
Jesus spent all His time teaching parables, but here's the thing: You can't do any of them without gas. I don't care how many notes you take. You can't do it without gas. You can't love your enemies without gas. You can't forgive without gas. You need the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit to execute what God has instructed you to do.
Jesus is trying to get the disciples to see: "You're trying to do what I do without getting what I got. You're trying to do what I do in public without getting what I got in private."
The only way Jesus is able to do what He's doing is because He has gas.
Here's something we need to address: Some of us were so scarred by hyper-Pentecostalism that we left the gas station.
We saw performative ministry. We felt legalism. We saw hypocrisy. We saw theatrics and weirdness that we all knew was weird but couldn't say anything about. The spiritual scarring from that experience caused many of us to swing all the way to the other extreme. And it felt refreshing at first because it was safer.
But safe ended up turning into settling. Now we're in seasons of life where God says, "You went from one extreme to the other. What I want to do is bring you back into balance."
You had gas with no guidance. Now you have guidance with no gas. What you need is a third way—not this or that, but this and that.
You're in a season where you need principles and power. What you're dealing with at work, you need power for that. The kids you're raising, you need power for that. The diagnosis you're fighting, you need power for that. The warfare you're under, you need power for that.
I'm talking about that grandmama kind of faith—that prays over the baby in the name of Jesus and breaks the fever. I'm talking about that kind of power that gets an attitude with the enemy. We're not on the defensive; we're on the offensive for the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus took His discipleship with the disciples so seriously that after three years of up close and personal mentorship, He still told them: "When I leave, don't do nothing. Don't do anything until you get endowed with power from on high."
You had three years of guidance, but you can't do this without gas.
Look at the scriptures: Every major work of Jesus is attributed to the person of the Holy Spirit.
He was born by the Spirit. In Luke 1, Gabriel tells Mary she will give birth to the Messiah. Mary asks, "How will this be since I'm a virgin?" Gabriel answers:
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you."
Do you understand what that means? She's saying, "How are we going to have a baby when me and Joseph haven't done the thing that produces a baby?" And God says through Gabriel, "I know you think it can only be done with people, but I'm going to do this with just me and you."
When people ask how you got to where you are, you're not going to say a person did it. You're going to say God did it.
He was baptized by the Spirit. When Jesus was baptized, heaven opened, the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice from heaven said:
"You are my son who I love, and I am well pleased."
This happened before any miracle was performed. He hadn't opened one blind eye. He hadn't healed one person from leprosy. He hadn't raised one person from the dead. And the Father says, "I'm pleased."
Jesus went into ministry not looking for affirmation because He already had the affirmation of His Father. What the Holy Spirit does is not just help you with your activity; He helps you with your identity. It takes the Holy Ghost to show you you. Romans says: "It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God."
He was full of and led by the Spirit. The Bible says:
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness."
Here's the principle: You will be led by what you're full of. If you're full of anger, you'll be led by anger. If you're full of fear, you'll be led by fear. If you're full of doubt, you'll be led by doubt. But if you're full of the Holy Ghost, you'll be led by the Holy Ghost.
He was anointed by the Spirit. Jesus said:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor."
The Holy Spirit does the anointing. The anointing is the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit that makes you uniquely effective at what God's called you to do. It's not your talent, but it'll sit on your talent. It's not your gifts, but it'll sit on your gifts. It's not your ability, but it'll sit on your ability.
When I work my gift, I work. But when the anointing works on my gift, God's working.
Now, here's the thing: The anointing is not just for preachers, teachers, and singers. The anointing is for anyone that has an assignment from God. You're anointed to build. You're anointed to write. You're anointed to start a business. You're anointed to raise children. You're anointed to act. You're anointed to draw. You're anointed to paint.
David said: "You anoint my head with oil." David is using a shepherd analogy to describe our relationship with God. When shepherds anoint the head and face of sheep with oil, it's so that if a snake tries to bite the sheep while it's grazing, the snake can't get a grip because the sheep is oily and greasy.
Here's the truth: There are snakes that have tried to destroy your life, but because of the anointing, you got bitten, but it couldn't get a grip long enough to inject poison. You survived the snake bite.
He was resurrected by the Spirit. Jesus is telling the disciples: "If it took the third person of the Trinity for me to be me, you can't be like me without Him."
First, gas gives you virtue—spiritual energy for moral excellence. It's not just moral excellence, but the enabling power of the Spirit that equips you to manifest the fruit of the Spirit. When the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus, His testimony was: "I felt virtue go out of me." It's that which empowers moral excellence.
When the enemy can't take you out, he tries to wear you down. You need gas for the fruit of the Spirit. You can't do that by yourself. Many people are trying to reform the flesh, but you can't reform the flesh. You can renew your mind, but you must crucify the flesh daily. It can't be good. You need gas for moral excellence.
Second, gas gives you vitality—spiritual stamina for supernatural endurance. The Holy Spirit doesn't just give you starting power; He gives you finishing power.
Some of you have not lost your dream; you've lost gas. God didn't run out on the dream. You ran out of gas because you didn't believe God when He said through Habakkuk:
"The vision will tarry. Though the visionary waits, it will take longer than you think sometimes."
Say, "I still believe." No matter how many mistakes I made, no matter how many times I've been surprised by my own failures, He's not surprised. He factored my mistakes into the equation when He set my destiny in motion. I still believe.
Third, gas gives you vision—spiritual insight to see spiritual potential. The Holy Spirit becomes your sixth sense. It lets you hear what people aren't saying. The enemy wants those of us with hyper-Pentecostal trauma to cut that part of us off, but it can save you heartbreak. It can save you from opportunity loss. It can save you from being exploited.
Fourth, gas gives you velocity—spiritual speed to go further faster.** Third way culture doesn't require you to destroy your soul to reach a goal. We push back against unhealthy hustle culture. Jesus took naps, and He's the goat. If the goat could take a nap, you don't have time to skip naps. You're doing it the wrong way. Gas helps you get further faster.
This month, I want to walk you through some of the things getting in the way of you underutilizing what you already have. I want to expose to you gas leaks—because you can never go into overflow if you never get full, and you can never get full if you don't identify what's leaking.
We're going to identify what you keep letting steal your virtue. I know you're tired. Your natural strength would have folded by now, but your miracle is so normal you don't even know how much of a miracle it is. I can see the weight on your shoulders. Your knees are buckling. But you have too many people depending on you for you to even think about yourself.
Your car is sputtering. You're not looking at your gas gauge, and you're running on empty.
You have the Holy Spirit, but you've got to learn how to host Him. Live like the dove is on your shoulder. You're not going to get through this breakup you're going through. You're not going to survive this season without gas. I need God to gas me up.
Thank you for intellect. Thank you for ability. Thank you for expertise. It's not enough. I need gas.
Lift your hands. Holy Spirit, these hands are tired. And I pray the prayer of Nehemiah as he prayed over those rebuilding the wall: "Lord, strengthen their hands. Renew, revive, restore in Jesus' name." You receive it. Amen.
