I have felt the Gentle Presence of the Lord in my own life and He gives power where power is needed to carry on the Wonderful Works of the Lord. There is some scripture that comes to me at the moment and says: Be Still and know that I AM GOD. The Lord also says: not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit. In daily communion my mind and heart stays centered on Jesus. All throughout each day His Holy Spirit leads me to praise and pray and thank Jesus for everything. The Lord is my rest and my peace all day; then in the evenings, after work, I get quiet with the Lord. I lift my eyes and heart up to where Jesus is at the Right Hand of God. His Gentle Holy Spirit Power comes upon me and I know His still small voice is speaking to my heart. He crushes my own will and rends the mountain of sin to small pieces as I yield to His still small voice speaking of the Glory Jesus has with the Father and the Father has with Him. Jesus gives this Glory, His Holy Love or Grace, to all who love Him and seek Him more.All my life I’ve heard loud and fiery voices expounding out of the pulpit. These fiery voices arouse people into thinking this is the fire of the Lord. Most think this is power the Lord gives these people to have a powerful fiery voice to speak against sin so they can show people’s hearts and minds the error of their ways. While I am not for the sin that is so readily out there I am not for the way it is expounded either. A great many people in this world have a zeal to preach about these things and then there are those who preach and cannot live what they preach. I know it is a hard thing for those who know very little about the true things of God to distinguish the difference between those who do it with their own zealousness and those who are doing it for another purpose such as power, prestige and what ever else goes with some religious fanaticism.Everything I have ever received from the Lord’s true anointed vessels did not ever come out of a fiery booming voice that preached about sin. Instead for years, I listened to a voice that reverenced God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Jesus gave to His own. The preacher spoke in soft tones, just above a whisper, but with great Power. For with the filling of the Holy Spirit there was an authority of Holy Spirit Power that lovingly lifted up the Word of God, Jesus, to the heights that Jesus has been exalted to at the Right Hand of God the Father on His Throne. If Jesus is received in the proper way and by His Holy Spirit of Truth, people who want Jesus will receive Him in the proper way and the Word of God will show their hearts what sin is and that they are to stay away from these things.In a lot of things that I see today there is so much effort spent on demonstrations and huge man made powerful organizations demonstrating against the world, and its laws. They say they pray and then with their own zeal, and their own might and power they go out and cause trouble and bring reproach upon the Lord’s name. Where is the Power of the Holy Spirit in all of it? The Lord’s word says wait upon the Lord. He says be still and know that I AM GOD. He says pray and He will bring everything about in His time and in His way. This is a great truth all who go by the name of the Lord should let be put into their hearts for His Power to perform that which He desires of us and not what we think the Lord desires of us in our own zeal and our own insignificant power and strength.In the joy of Jesus’ Holy Love and Grace, the Holy Spirit teaches my mind and heart to progressively love and become an adult and accept all that He has for me. With the Love of my Savior in my heart, I know I am accepted of the Father, for I feel the Presence and Power of the Gentle Holy One’s Spirit dwelling within and showing me the Right way to continue to Love Him. Some may call this faith and in a way it is, but it really is remaining yielded to the Holy Spirit to let His Gentle Power come upon my life to do all works: worship, praise, prayer and have Power for Service as the anointing comes to receive a gift or gifts of the Spirit.The only definition of faith that is found in the Word of God is: We should believe and know in our heart that the unseen hope is there, and feel the unseen Presence and Power of God within. We are not to look upon something such as a religious object or picture or certain persons that would seem to be connected with religious works by their titles and by the types of clothing and symbols they wear. These things were religiously made up as some would say so they may receive faith or as others would say so they may release their faith. (What ever that is.) Staying always yielded to the Sprit of the Lord, with keeping the Love of Jesus and with no compromises when it comes to the Word of the Lord, is the best way to stay in the will of God and keep the Power of God Working His Works of faith in each life.Something happened several years go. It was December 23, 1990. I awoke at 4:20 a.m., and as I do every time I wake up, I pray a little and praise the Lord a little before going back to sleep. That morning it was different. A Still Small voice kept urging me to keep praising the Lord. This had never happened in the middle of the night before. I could not stop praising the Lord and thanking Jesus for all of His wonderful blessings of His Holy Love, and His Mercies beyond compare as He brought His healing and His help in all my life. This went on for about an hour. I had not heard a weather report the night before and so if the weather report people knew about it, I did not. I was not prepared for the violent storm that was approaching in the wee hours of the morning. At 5:20 a.m. a very strong wind suddenly started blowing. The rest of the house is solid masonry and was not affected too greatly by the wind, but from my bedroom I could hear my studio, that is made of all wood, shaking and shuddering under a tremendous and powerful wind. As soon as the wind started, I stopped praying and praising. At that time a peace came over me that is a little hard to describe. It was as if I had done what was instructed of me and there was Divine Protection. There were no lightening flashes that I could see, just tremendous wind and rain. Suddenly there was a loud crack, very piercing, such as lightening when it strikes something close; then there was a loud crashing sound. My wife Barbara woke up with a start and asked what the noise was. I said, “I don’t know, but we are in a bad storm.” I turned the lights on and we sat there listening to the wind some more. In a very short time there was another piercing crack and another crash. Then the lights went out. Within a few more minutes the tremendous wind storm was past. After a little while, lying in the darkness, we both went back to sleep.As daylight came we both awoke again and got up and looked outside. There were a lot of debris and pine branches outside the window. We went outside to survey the damages further and found two huge pine trees had gone down. Both were approximately 40 to 50 feet high or more, and very big around. The one had been growing about 12 feet from the house on the bank above the back of the house. It was lying down parallel to the house. Lightening had not struck it, the wind just twisted it off about 10 feet up from the ground. The other tree was also twisted off several feet off the ground and had almost reached the house, but had not touched the house. The amazing thing about it was: The tree that was closest to the house, and on the bank, could have come down upon my mother’s room, but was lying beside the house. Another amazing thing: My mother slept all through the whole thing and did not know what had gone on so violently outside until the next morning when she looked out the window and saw all the destruction all around. The most wonderful and amazing thing was the fact that the still small voice spoke to my heart and I had to pray and praise the Lord without knowing why or what was coming. After the wind started to blow, there was a peace and presence and an assurance that we were all right.
