We Live in the Environment We Choose!

A church is barren and lifeless where there is no Holy Spirit leadership, although it may be extravagant and a huge production designed to engage the flesh.

The lack of the Spirit's leadership = a lack of authority.  A lack of authority = a lack of power.

You could attend every day of your life and nothing would actually change in your submission to God and enjoyment of His peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. We are born again by grace/power, not information.

If you are in a barren church, don't just leave!  Ask God what to do. He might have you there to bring life!  Walking in power is simply learning to walk in authority.  Walking in authority is simply seeing God and what He is doing and submitting to His will in faith.

Any Spirit-filled believer can bring life to a body of believers if they make their lives about God and not themselves, or even others.  Mostly we go to church hoping things will be the way we like them or think they should be.  This brings death.  Seeing what God sees and believing it, even if our eyes see differently, brings life. Always. 100% of the time.

I never enjoy a meeting if I just stew in what I wish it were like.  Believe me, I've unfortunately done that plenty!

I can always change the atmosphere of a meeting I'm in by simply asking God how He sees, believing it, and doing what He says to do to cooperate with it.  I've experienced this thousands of times.

That's the message Jesus delivers to Sardis paraphrased for the purpose of our study:

Revelation 3:1-6 NLT — “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis. This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief. “Yet there are some in the church in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes with evil. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine. “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.