6 Keys to Demonstrating Holy Spirit Power

To live victoriously during difficult times and spread the kingdom of God, bringing transformation to society, we need real power. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us and fills us, we are enabled to “explode” the dynamite power of God through manifestations that come from the invisible world to the visible world to meet the many needs of the people around us

Here are six keys to demonstrating kingdom power:

1. Understand the purpose of the power. Jesus knew He needed to prepare His followers to receive the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. If the Holy Spirit had descended before Jesus had given His disciples the revelation of the kingdom, they would have lacked the spiritual context for the power they received. The power of God always comes with these purposes: to build and expand the kingdom. Likewise, we must understand—and teach—the context for the power that God wants to pour out in our lives.

Another purpose of demonstrating the kingdom is to restore the “territory” of a person or place to God’s original design. Suppose someone suffers from scoliosis, and the power of God heals that person, straightening his back. With this act, God has restored the person’s back to the way He originally intended it to be. He has reestablished the order of creation.

2. Be open to experiencing the supernatural. “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2:4, NKJV).

The apostle Paul produced great results for the kingdom through the visible demonstrations of the work of the Holy Spirit in his ministry. Experiencing God and seeing His manifestations changes our mind-set, attitude and behavior. It is hard to live in victory unless we walk in the power of God. This is not a luxury for us—it is an absolute necessity.

If Pentecost has come upon us, it should be the norm for us to manifest the power of the resurrection daily! Everyone can have a permanent Pentecost experience. I urge you to make the decision today to experience the supernatural in your life. I pray that the power of the kingdom be released over you and that it manifest to your physical senses. Receive it, right now!

3. Build kingdom relationships. The members of the body of Christ are meant to be interdependent as they exercise their stewardship of the power and presence of God’s kingdom on earth. When Jesus ministered on earth, He taught and established a flexible structure for the kingdom based on relationships.

He said that the Father was in Him, and He was in the Father. (See John 17:21.) He told His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5a), and “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). And Paul wrote, “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12).

The kingdom of God is about relationships.

If we don’t establish a relational structure through the Holy Spirit, we will reject our fellow be­lievers instead of working in unity with them. When we have a kingdom mindset, we recognize the worth of each person and their contribution to the body of Christ. We welcome the diverse people whom God has sent into our lives.

4. Recognize that you can bind Satan and his demons. The subjugation of Satan always occurs in conjunction with the arrival of God’s kingdom. Each time we cast out a demon, we bind the enemy. Satan is defeated when the power of the kingdom comes into a place and seizes the territory he has been occupying illegally.

Some Christians have the impression that if they rebuke a demon, it will jump on them and hurt them, similar to what happened to the itinerant Jewish exorcists in Acts 19:13–16. This fear causes many people to reject the practice of casting out demons. In essence, they have taken one incident from the book of Acts that depicts demons having the upper hand and have established it as a norm for believers. Yet those itinerant exorcists were not believers. They were operating according to their own initiative—not according to the power of Christ.

When we don’t understand the purpose of the kingdom, we overlook our ability to defeat the enemy, and we fail to cast out demons. The church is in a position to cast out demons because Jesus has already won the victory! (See, for example, Luke 10:19.) We don’t have to host an annual “miracle crusade” and bring in special preachers to cast out demons from people. We have the power of God within us. While the demons may first try to resist us, they have to flee when we expel them in the name of Jesus and the power of His Spirit.

5. Let your motivations be pure. Demonstrations of God’s kingdom can bring either judgment or mercy, as people variously reject them or accept them. When Moses delivered the Israelites from slavery, the power of God brought judgment on Egypt and mercy to Israel—destruction for one and freedom for the other. It is important that the motivations of our hearts be pure and that we be open to God when He moves in our midst, because we want His mercy rather than His judgment. And yet, when we are in Christ, there is mercy even in His chastisement of us. His mercies are new every morning. (See Lam. 3:22–23.)
6. Release the same power through which you have been delivered or healed. We believers are credible if we can produce the same spiritual fruit that the early church produced. God confirmed their testimony of the risen Christ with mighty demonstrations of His power. We can bring salvation to people when we ourselves have been saved. Similarly, I believe we will be able to deliver people when we ourselves have been delivered. We will be able to heal others when we ourselves have been healed. Our fruit will validate our testimony, wherever we are—at the office, at school, at the grocery store, anywhere. When we release the same power through which we have been delivered or healed, we can create a spiritual revolution.

Let me encourage you to begin at the beginning: Tell people what happened to you the day you were born again. Next, tell people how you have changed since that day. No one else can communicate your testimony like you can. Only you can speak with absolute certainty about how you have been transformed. When you do, the power of God will manifest because you will be a legitimate witness. Decide to share your testimony today!

The more you respond in faith to the revelation God gives you, thereby experiencing His presence and power, the more you will grow in your ability to testify with manifestations of the kingdom to support your words. Show people a demonstration of the power of God that dwells within you so that they, too, can be transformed, healed and delivered! {eoa}

Active in ministry for over 20 years, bestselling author Apostle Guillermo Maldonado is the founder of King Jesus International Ministry—one of the fastest-growing multicultural churches in the United States—which has been recognized for its visible manifestations of God´s supernatural power. He is a spiritual father to 400 churches in 70 countries, which form the Supernatural Global Network. He is also the founder of the University of the Supernatural Ministry (USM). Apostle Maldonado has a doctorate in Christian counseling and a master’s degree in practical theology. He resides in Miami, Florida, with his wife and partner in ministry, Ana, and their two sons, Bryan and Ronald. Visit whitakerhouse.com/book-authors/guillermo-maldonado/.

This article is an edited excerpt from The Kingdom of Power, © 2013 by Guillermo Maldonado, published by Whitaker House. Used with permission.