Dunamis! What a word! Our word dynamite is from dunamis. But one stick of dynamite does not begin to show the meaning of this word. To my limited understanding, it’s more like a stick of dynamite that explodes to ignite a million more.
In defining dunamis, The Companion Bible says: (See Acts 1:8.) “…ye shall receive power (dunamis), after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me….” (Acts 1:8). The resurrected Savior made this declaration on the day of His ascension. The Book of Acts is filled with manifestations of dunamis to and through His followers, witnessing to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need, and must contend for a manifestation of dunamis now.
In re-reading John G. Lake’s book describing the amazing operation of dunamis in his life, I read the “Portland Vision.” He’d moved to Portland and was praying about starting a new work. He walked across the street from his house to Mount Tabor Park. An angel who met him there said, “I have come to answer your prayers….” Much ensued. At the end Lake asked, “What constitutes real Pentecost? What ideal should be held before the minds of men as the will of God exhibited through a movement like this?” Lake reports:
During all this time I had carried my Bible in my hand. Reaching for the Bible he (the angel) opened to the Book of Acts, ran his finger down over the second page, that portion where the Spirit of God came down from heaven. Proceeding through the Book of Acts to its great outstanding revelations and phenomena, he said, “This is Pentecost as God gave it through the heart of Jesus. STRIVE FOR THIS. CONTEND FOR THIS. TEACH THE PEOPLE TO PRAY FOR THIS. For this, and this alone, will meet the necessity of the human heart, and this alone will have the power to overcome the forces of darkness.”
When the angel was departing he said, “Pray. Pray. Pray. Teach the people to pray. Prayer and prayer alone, much prayer, persistent prayer, is the door of entrance into the heart of God.”
Prayer and Dunamis
The prayers in Ephesians which I’ve been praying since I first heard Brother Hagin say that we should, include dunamis. The prayer beginning at Ephesians 1:17 asks that the Father give us “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” concerning three specific things. The third, and the most expounded upon is for a revelation of dunamis:
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power (dunamis) to usward who believe, according to the working (energia) of His mighty power, [Companion: the strength (kratos) of His might (ischus)], Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies….
(Eph. 1:19-21)
Compare that with Philippians 3:10:
that I may know Him, and the power (dunamis) of His resurrection….
(Phil. 3:10)
And then from the prayer in Ephesians 3, we pray:
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might (dunamis) by His Spirit in the inner man;…Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power (dunamis) that worketh in us, Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end. Amen.
(Eph. 3:16, 20-21)
The following from the end of the wonderful Book of Ephesians especially blesses me. For in it I see that dunamis is for all of us:
Finally, my brethren, be strong (be empowered, endunamoo) and in the power (kratos) of His might (ischus)…
(Eph. 6:10)
I made up my own word from this: be endunamoo-ed! Be empowered with the dunamis of God! We are commanded to do so!
In Colossians is a wonderful prayer we can personalize and pray, and it includes “that we might be…”
Strengthened (dunamoo) with all might (dunamis) according to His glorious power [the might (kratos) of His glory]
(Col. 1:11)
Dunamis and the Awakening
A manifestation of the dunamis power of God in signs and wonders can shake and awake a sleeping church and a dead world to the reality of God. In the earliest days of the church this is what awoke 3000 in one day and eventually turned the world “upside down” or really right side up. They demonstrated it. And they prayed to do so.
In Acts 4, the believers prayed God would reveal Himself:
By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness…And with great power (dunamis) gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all.
(Acts 4:30-31, 33)
Thought-Provoking Scriptures
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power (dunamis), and of love, and of a sound mind.
(2 Tim. 1:7)This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be…Having a form of godliness, but denying the power (dunamis) thereof….
(2 Tim. 3:1, 2, 5)
In Closing
In 2004 the Lord gave Oral Roberts a vision He called, “The Wake-Up Call.” During that time, the Lord said:
This is one of the signs of the end time because the world is not ready for the Second Coming of My Son. My Church is not ready…There is a wasting of My power, there is a failure to grasp the end time…There’s an emptiness in My Church. There is a weakness, a wimpiness, like being a wimp. There’s a spirit of weakness in the people who are trying to proclaim My gospel…. This has to change.
May His dunamis be revealed to us and through us to His Glory.
Billye Brim Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Billye Brim's Christian heritage is rich. She sensed the call of God in early childhood. However, it was only after an encounter with the Holy Spirit in 1967, that she as a young wife and mother of four began to follow Him to walk out her call. For almost ten years she served as Editor of Publications for Kenneth E. Hagin Ministries where she also taught at Rhema Bible Training Center.
Immediately after ordination in 1980, she traveled to Soviet Russia in what proved to be ongoing ministry there. Since then she has literally ministered around the world several times over.
Kent and Billye Brim with Lee and Jan Morgans founded a local church in Collinsville, Oklahoma. A Glorious Church Fellowship is the foundation of Billye Brim Ministries and Prayer Mountain in the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri, and the soon-to-be-built Migdal Arbel Prayer and Study Center in Israel.
When Kent passed away in 1986, Billye was led to "study Hebrew in the Land." Studying at Ulpan Akiva in Israel led to the unique Seminar Tours she has guided in the Land from 1986 to now. It also provided a pattern for the Prayer and Study Center in Israel.
"Helping Pray-ers" is a God-given directive in her life. One place this happens is at Prayer Mountain in the Ozarks near Branson, Missouri. On 200 plus acres log cabins provide places for individual prayer or small prayer groups. Corporate prayer meetings are held twice a week in the chapel.
On Wednesdays at 12 Noon Central Time, the meeting is streamed live. Pray-ers (who have named themselves World-Wide Pray-ers) join in united prayer via thousands of computers in more than 60 nations. This prayer is focused primarily on an Awakening to God. For in a corporate prayer meeting in June 2008, Billye Brim and the pray-ers were impressed with these words: One thing will save America…an Awakening to God. One thing will avail for Israel and the nations, An Awakening to God. Several thousand pray-ers from around the world gather in Branson for an Autumn Assembly of Prayer she hosts.
Billye Brim is blessed to work with others across the Body of Christ. She strongly believes in walking out what Scripture teaches that we are one Body, with one Head, one Spirit, one Lord.
First Corinthians 10:32 is foundational in Billye Brim's ministry. The "good works that He has ordained that she should walk in" involve activity among the Jews, the Nations, and the Church-all to the Glory of God.