If you are not experiencing the power of God in your life, these are common blockages:

1. You have not claimed your victory.  The spiritual battle is God’s and he has already defeated satan but you must claim the victory in your life by binding the spiritual forces that are impacting on you, whether it be porn, sickness, depression or whatever the stronghold is.  You must make a demand of the promises that are due you and then take hold of it.
2. You have not humbled yourself before God.  Typically, you are still asking questions such as: “If God is so powerful, why is there sin in the world?” or “If God loves us, why did he invent eternal punishment in hell?” or “God is unfair.”  If you are in this category, God will resist you all day everyday and he will continue to let you fester in your pride until you are crushed spiritually, financially, mentally and physically.  That’s his way of loving his children.  He chastens those whom he loves.
3. You do not have enough faith in God.  Jesus could not heal people in his hometown even though he is the Son of God.  To increase your faith, understand that when prayer is spoken via commanding the spirits (in accordance with the Bible), spiritual events have already happened.  The manifestation of the spiritual realm in the physical realm occurs via repeated prayer.  Secondly, watch deliverance and healing videos and know in your heart that God is real.  Thirdly, understand that God loves you as much as he loves his apostles and he wants to deliver breakthrough to you.  Lastly, be a doer: Learn how to fast (drink water only) and also pray ceaselessly.  Submit to God.
4. Your life is lawless, in that you have not submitted yourself to the authority of God.  It’s okay if you are still battling sin but your heart must acknowledge that Jesus Christ is your Lord and saviour and you are confessing your sins to God daily (never to men).
5. If you are living in sin and have done nothing about it, God may not work in your life.  For example, if you are having sex with someone who you are not married to, you really should remedy the situation first.  However, God is mighty and does whatever he wants: I’ve seen and heard testimonies of people who said that God instantly healed them of cigarette, drug and alcohol addictions.  I’ve also seen a testimony from a lady who was converted by Jesus himself, whilst supporting herself in the sex industry.  She ended up quitting because her new heart and mind could not cope with sex work.  Does this mean you should continue living in sin?  I don’t think that’s likely to work because you still love your sin.  It’s more likely that God will send you an STD or if you are a smoker, lung cancer, as a wakeup call.
6. In some cases you may have done the above things and still not feel God’s transformative power.  In these cases, get in touch with a man of God and get prayer because more likely than not there is a very powerful demonic stronghold in you that is blocking you from receiving God’s promises.  Who can you contact?  Get in touch with Chris Lasala, John Zavlaris, myself or if you can afford to fly to Nigeria, TB Joshua (try one of these online prayers).  Definitely try prayer and fasting.  Fast only with water.  Start with one day then two days then three days, and read the Bible during your fast days.

True power

What constitutes a true demonstration of the power and of the Spirit of God?

• Deliverance from demons resulting in repentance.
• We should be able to see the demon depart via yawns, burps, screaming, coughing etc.
• The person praises Jesus and reports feeling perfect, light, happy or fulfilled.
• Healing from severe ailments resulting in God being glorified, ideally with medical documents backing up those claims.
• Near Death Experience testimonies from people who were in cardiac arrest for an extended duration (more than 30 minutes) or were medically brain dead.  They then return to their bodies and are miraculously healed physically and their brains are not impaired.

False power

What is not a demonstration of the power and of the Spirit of God?

• Spirituality for spirituality’s sake – shaking, laughing uncontrollably, so called being “drunk” in the spirit.
• Getting “slain in the spirit” by a force, which may or may not be the Holy Spirit.  After such an event, you should never be feeling negative or fall away from the things of God.  Your life should not take a turn for the worse.  You should be loving God more.
• Someone lays hands on you and you get a feeling that is like an electric shock and then you may or may not end up on the floor in spasms.  The Holy Spirit is gentle like a dove.  God has no need to electrocute you.  He cleanses with purifying fire.
• Prophecy that does not come true.  There are so many prophets out there and you must test everyone in accordance with scripture.  If the prophecy is fuzzy, avoid it.  Fuzzy prophecy sounds like this, “I see a tremendous up swelling in the people of many nations.  God is doing a mighty work and he will transform.”  This is not prophecy.  We already know God is working.  Also avoid prophecies such as these “I see a black <insert mythical animal> (dragon, phoenix, rabbit, donkey) and it is moving fast over the land.”  You will never be able to verify the truth of that kind of prophecy and there is no need for God to send you messages that you cannot verify.  All things work for the glory of God.