Always check the power supply…

These were the words of the electrician as he left our house last week. Wise words indeed on more than one level.

The problem had started on the Tuesday evening. I went into the kitchen to find my oven’s digital display was blank. Nothing. I turned the controls and nothing came on. Mmmm

I called my husband and showed him. He looked blank too…

We went into the garage and checked the fuse box. Nothing had tripped out but we shut off the power and out it back on. Nothing, still blank… we decided to call in an expert but they couldn’t come until Saturday. We told them the problem over the phone and they gave us the worst possible scenarios. I was starting to think there would be no roast turkey this year.

I was in the middle of preparing my preach for the Sunday service and the text was from the gospel of Mark chapter 6: the Miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. I was thinking Lord this is ironic. My oven isn’t working and I’m preaching about feeding people.

The Lord had already laid the verses “you give them something to eat” as the focus for my teaching. The Lord is speaking those same words to us, His disciples, today. Jesus wants us, his body, to meet the needs around us through Him and the power of the Holy Spirit working through us. That good works have already been prepared in advance by God for each one of us to discover and one day we will give an account to Him.

As I had been preparing, the Lord had been saying to me “more of my Spirit” so my teaching was centring around the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit and being led by the Spirit.

Well, getting back to my oven. As I said we had checked the fuse boxes in the garage and my husband had also checked the cupboard above the oven, as I remembered there was a switch there too. The cupboard has lots of pans etc. but my husband looked and confirmed the switch was on.

On the Saturday morning the electrician arrived. He went in the garage, he looked in the over head cupboard, he flicked on a switch and bam, the oven came to life. He left with the helpful words “always check the power supply “!

You see next to the switch in the cupboard was also another switch which had been hidden from my husband’s view. There were actually two switches and both needed to be on. One was not enough.

The Lord is always teaching us something, especially through the every day bits of life. You see we can all do “work” in our own strength (I’ve been there) but to be fully effective for the work God calls us to do I believe we need the Holy Spirit flowing in and through us. A conduit of His gifts, His fruit, His power. We need to check our power supply and be connected to the One True Source of all love, grace, mercy, power, knowledge, wisdom….the list goes on. If we are, then in faith there is the potential for God’s miraculous provision to be revealed.

May God bless you richly today and may the eyes of your heart be opened to the hope of your calling in Him, Jesus Christ the Lord of all. May you discover that you are God’s workmanship created in Him for good works that He has ready for you to do, being filled with the Holy Spirit and overflowing as He leads you today amen 🙏