LIT: The Gifts of Power by James Hooper

Sep 20, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Faith That Sees Mountains Moving

When human logic says "impossible," the Holy Spirit ignites a supernatural confidence that defies circumstances. This gift of faith isn’t wishful thinking—it’s an unshakable knowing planted deep within, like a father trusting God for provision despite empty bank accounts. It’s the assurance that what God promises, He will perform, even when doubt shouts louder than reason. This faith isn’t earned; it’s given freely to ordinary people for extraordinary moments. [09:00]

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
(Hebrews 11:1, NKJV)

Reflection: Where has God planted a specific, unshakable confidence in your life that defies natural explanation? How can you lean into that gift today?

Day 2: Healing Hands in a Broken Back Alley

God’s healing power often shows up in unlikely places—a storefront church, a trembling prayer, a hand placed on a stranger’s pain. Healing isn’t about showmanship but revealing God’s tender heart to the hurting. Like a man running free from a cane after years of agony, healing declares God still steps into our mess. It’s not our power but obedience that releases heaven’s remedy. [16:36]

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”
(James 5:14-15, NKJV)

Reflection: What brokenness in your world—physical, emotional, or relational—is God inviting you to pray over with radical obedience today?

Day 3: Miracles Where Paychecks Can’t Reach

Miracles begin where our spreadsheets end. When bills outweigh income and human solutions fail, God writes checks with invisible ink. Like $78,000 in medical debt vanishing without a fundraiser, miracles expose our limits to highlight His limitless supply. These aren’t coincidences but divine signatures proving God partners with His people in impossible spaces. [56:07]

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 4:19, NKJV)

Reflection: What impossible situation in your life needs God’s “invisible ink” provision? How might He be inviting you to trust beyond your resources?

Day 4: Shadows That Heal and Keys That Burn

God uses ordinary things—a shadow, a frog, a copied truck key—to do extraordinary work. Miracles aren’t about our qualifications but our availability. Like Peter’s shadow healing the sick or a reckless uncle’s repentance, God invades our mundane moments with holy fire. The miracle isn’t in the method but the Master who works through surrendered tools. [04:50]

“Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.”
(Acts 19:11-12, NKJV)

Reflection: What everyday “ordinary” in your life could God use miraculously if you surrendered it fully to Him?

Day 5: Making Room for the Holy Spirit’s Disruption

Miracles require making space for holy interruptions—canceling plans for prayer, risking embarrassment for obedience, silencing schedules to listen. Like a pastor reluctantly announcing healing night or a family throwing hospital parties, God moves where we create margin. Our job isn’t to control the Spirit but to clear the clutter so He can work. [59:00]

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
(Revelation 3:20, NKJV)

Reflection: What practical step can you take this week to create intentional space for the Holy Spirit’s unexpected work in your routine?

Sermon Summary

Paul tells the Corinthians that spiritual gifts come from one Spirit, one Lord, and one God who works all in all. The gifts are not personal trophies or religious showboating. The Holy Spirit gives manifestations “for the profit of all,” distributing them as He wills and using ordinary people to make God’s goodness known.

The gifts of power are faith, healing, and miracles, and they all start where human ability stops. God does what people cannot do. Human limitations are not God’s limitations. When a person reaches the end of fixing, strategizing, organizing, and figuring things out, God has not reached the end of anything.

Faith believes what seems impossible. The gift of faith is not saving faith or everyday trust, but a supernatural confidence for a specific situation. The Holy Spirit can put something down inside a person that says, “God’s going to do this,” even when the circumstances look like a mountain. Faith sees mountains moving because God has given a knowing that doubt cannot get hold of.

Healing touches what is broken because Jesus did not only preach to hurting people. Jesus touched them, healed them, and restored them. Healing reveals God’s heart for hurting people, not somebody’s ability to get attention. The Holy Spirit calls believers to pray, obey, step out, and risk looking foolish, because God still hears and God still heals.

Miracles invade the impossible. A miracle goes beyond the ordinary course of natural law, and it begins where personal ability ends. God sometimes lets people arrive at the edge of what they can accomplish so they can discover what He can accomplish. Provision for heart surgery, unexpected help with medical bills, and strength through cancer all testify that God may remove the problem or carry somebody through the middle of it.

Power is always about people. Healing is not theater, miracles are not entertainment, and the gifts are not for building somebody’s reputation. God wants His kingdom advanced because He is the answer to every problem people face. The Holy Spirit adds His super to human natural ability so that heaven can show up on earth.

The church is called to make room for God to move without manufacturing, manipulating, or hyping anything up. The Holy Spirit wants believers to become distributors of God’s goodness, ambassadors who speak life, hope, healing, and freedom into people’s lives. God gives gifts so that hurting people can know He is good, and so that every believer can become effective for His kingdom.

Key Takeaways

1. God’s limits exceed human limitations. God does not stop when human strength, resources, or understanding run out. Human inability is often the very place where dependence becomes real instead of theoretical. The gifts of power keep the glory where it belongs, because nobody can take credit for what only God could do. [32:13]
2. Faith sees mountains already moving. The gift of faith is not merely trying harder to believe when doubt is loud. The Holy Spirit can give a settled confidence about a specific need, a confidence that knows God will come through. Faith does not deny the mountain; faith trusts God’s power over it. [36:32]
3. Healing reveals God’s heart for people. Healing is never meant to turn suffering into a stage or ministry into a performance. Jesus healed because hurting people mattered to Him, and His compassion remains the point of every genuine gift of healing. Obedience may feel risky, but God can use a willing person to show someone that they have not been forgotten. [38:00]
4. Miracles begin beyond personal ability. Miracles do not exist to celebrate human resourcefulness, even though God gives people intelligence and strategy. God sometimes permits every human solution to come up short so that His provision becomes unmistakable. Provision in the middle of an impossible situation can be just as miraculous as instant deliverance from it. [45:26]
5. Power belongs to God’s people. The Holy Spirit does not give gifts so believers can hoard spiritual experiences for themselves. God makes His people ambassadors and distributors of His goodness in a world full of pain, bondage, and hopelessness. The call is simple and weighty: “Holy Spirit, do through me what I could never do without You.”

## [78:22]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:00] - One Spirit, Many Gifts
[04:16] - What Are the Gifts of Power?
[05:41] - Faith Believes the Impossible
[10:30] - Healing Touches What Is Broken
[13:19] - A Word of Healing in Bonham
[17:53] - Miracles Invade the Impossible
[19:24] - A Heart Surgery and God’s Provision
[57:33] - Power Is Always About People
[58:29] - Make Room for God to Move
[60:29] - Bringing Heaven to Earth
[63:48] - Facilitating Healing Through Faith
[68:42] - Ambassadors of God’s Goodness
[70:52] - Holding the Door Open
[75:10] - Empowered to Do the Work
[78:22] - Holy Spirit, Do Through Me

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 12:4-11
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” [29:31]

Mark 11:22-23
“So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.’” [33:39]

Acts 5:15
“so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.” [31:52]

Matthew 6:10
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” [01:01:03]

Observation questions

According to 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, what words are repeated to show both the variety and the unity of spiritual gifts?
Which three gifts are identified as gifts of power, and what do they have in common? [31:21]
In Acts 5:15, what did people do with the sick, and what does that show about their expectation of God’s power at work through Peter?
What contrasts are made between a genuine work of healing and using spiritual gifts for attention, entertainment, or personal reputation? [38:00]

Interpretation questions

Paul says that manifestations of the Spirit are given “for the profit of all.” How should that shape the way a believer thinks about faith, healing, and miracles in the church? [30:01]
Jesus speaks of faith that addresses a mountain. How does the gift of faith differ from everyday trust in God, especially when someone faces a specific impossible situation? [33:13]
If healing reveals that God cares for hurting people, how can believers pray boldly for healing while still refusing to manipulate, promise outcomes, or make the moment about themselves? [38:28]
Matthew 6:10 connects God’s kingdom with His will being done on earth. In what ways can provision, endurance, medical care, healing, and unexpected help all point to God’s kingdom at work? [01:08:32]

Application questions

Where have you reached the end of your own ability to fix, organize, plan, or provide? What would it look like to honestly place that situation in God’s hands this week? [45:46]
Is there a “mountain” in your life—a need, relationship, health concern, financial pressure, or fear—that feels immovable? How can you bring that need before God without pretending the mountain is not real? [33:36]
Who around you is hurting physically, emotionally, or spiritually? What is one simple and caring way you could make room to pray for them rather than only saying, “I’ll be praying for you”? [01:04:03]
Have you ever held back from praying for someone because you were afraid of looking foolish, saying the wrong thing, or not seeing an immediate answer? What small step of obedience might God be inviting you to take? [42:26]
Where might you be tempted to treat God’s power as something private, impressive, or only for certain people? How can you become a more faithful distributor of God’s goodness in everyday places this week? [01:14:35]
God may remove a problem, or He may provide strength and help in the middle of it. When have you seen God sustain you or someone else through a hard season, even if the situation was not immediately removed? [01:08:31]

Sermon Clips

68s

#HealingHands

“Healing touches what is broken. Jesus didn't just preach to hurting people. Okay? He didn't just preach to them. He touched them. He made sure that He had the answer. He healed them. He restored them. And healing reveals something about the heart of God. That God cares for hurting people. And when he uses the gift of healing through us, it is for them to know that God cares for them. It's not so that we can showboat. It's not so we can get a fancy suit and get us a big tent and all this kind of stuff and go on TV. That's not what it's for. And I'm not against that. I'm just saying that's not what it's for. But I'm here to tell you God cares about hurting people. We don't control the healing. We don't manufacture healing. But we pray because we believe God still hears.”

53s

#HolySpiritThroughMe

“It is really good that people know God. And it's our job to help them find him. So our prayer should be, Holy Spirit, do through me what I could never do without you. I mean, if you have to put a Post it note or something. Holy Spirit, do through me what I could never do without you. And it's not because you want recognition. It's because people People need The gifts of God. The gifts of power are for us to demonstrate the goodness of God in the land of the living.”

46s

#PowerForPeople

“Power, the gifts of power, is always about people. Did he do it just for me? Oh, no. Was I blessed? Oh, yeah. I was truly blessed. But power isn't about a spectacle. It's healing isn't theater. Okay? Miracles aren't for our entertainment. Behind every miracle in scripture is usually somebody who needed God. We needed him to come through for us. We had no way to pay all this stuff out, but he came through us.”

37s

#MountainMovingFaith

“Now, this isn't the saving faith we're talking about. It's not everyday trust we're talking about. It's a supernatural faith that goes beyond natural and saving faith. It's a confidence concerning a specific situation. Okay? It's a gift for a specific situation. And there are moments when the Holy Spirit puts something inside you that says, God's going to do this. And you can't even hardly doubt it. Okay? Everybody else sees a mountain. Faith sees mountains moving.”

33s

#SupernaturalThroughYou

“So when we can't accomplish things in our life See, he gives us intelligence. He gives us ideas. He gives us strategies. He gives us all these things. We get I mean, he does this for us. But when we get to the point where we reach the limits of that, that's when he comes in and he adds his super to our natural, and he takes it beyond what we could ever think or imagine. And he wants to do that through you.”

51s

#EmpoweredForPurpose

“If not, watch the deal. Holy Spirit, do through me what I could never do without you. Do through me. Come on, close your eyes and say, Holy Spirit, do through me what I could never do without you. We thank you, Holy Spirit, because you are empowering us today. We thank you because you have given us revelation that you are showing us who we are in the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God. Not so that we can beat our own chest, but so that we can be effective for the kingdom of God. So that we can share your goodness in this earth.”

56s

#TrustGodCompletely

“Through the gifts of faith. He wants to give you the gift of faith where you cannot doubt him. I I firmly believe that when my dad and when I have encountered that, it was at a point where I put it exclusively on him. Because otherwise, there was no way I could accomplish it. Listen. I'm a fixer. I wanna fix it. I I can if I can't do it, it probably can't be done apparently. That's what I think. But I have there have been a few, very few instances in my life, and hopefully I can become better at this, where I fully trust in God saying, God, this is yours. This is yours. And trust him to do it. And you know what? He does it. He does it.”

46s

#MakeRoomForGod

“Make room for God to move in your life, in your area. We don't manufacture miracles. We don't manipulate people. Oh, it's done, but that's not what it's for. We don't have to hype anything up. We simply make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit. Listen. He wants to do things for us. He wants to God God is all about self promotion. Promoting himself. Why is God about self promotion? Because he is the answer.”

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