Power Trip

Louis Michael is bent on 'creating' a tornado.

Michael, a Canadian mechanical engineer is working on making a 30 foot wide, miles high spinning vortex of hot air. He is not the only researcher committed to making tornadoes 'useful'! He is one of many who are convinced that 'Tornado Power' is the energy wave of the future, created and controlled to generate electricity to thousands of homes.

In Prattville, Alabama this past Sunday, (February 17) and F-3 tornado touched down in the 31,000 population bedroom community of Montgomery, Alabama cutting a quarter mile swath, with winds gaging from 140-150 miles per hour. When this spinning vortex left P'ville, 9,000 homes and businesses lost power. Incredibly, no fatalities have been reported.

A tornado is a well organized, violently rotating column of external air from a thunderstorm to the ground. Damage paths have been recorded wider than a mile wide and in excess of fifty miles long. Winds can reach and F-5 level when climbing to 200 miles per hour. In one Oklahoma tornado, a single straw blade was found lodged in a still standing telephone pole, having been propelled by the force of an F-5!

Tornadoes pack a wallop! The concentrated power of a tornado is simply stunning.

"By what power or by what name do you do this?" (Acts 4:7)

This was the lead question in a prolonged interrogation of Peter and John by the religious 'powers' of that day. They were overcome with fear, dread and anger as the message of the resurrected Christ had been visibly demonstrated in the healed legs of the 40 year old once lamed beggar. To make matters worse, over 5,000 men responded to the Good News message declared by these two simpletons who were known to be 'ordinary', (Acts 4:13) and yet anointed with the mighty presence of God as they spoke. Peter and John attributed this single demonstration of the miraculous to the name of Jesus Christ, the Resurrected One, (Acts 4:10-11).

God's Spirit packs a wallop!

After being commanded to bring to a screeching halt their constant habit of making Christ known...and threatened with punishment should they continue, these two men went to their fellow believers to to report of God's powerful activity and to pray to the Lord to keep the power coming! Not only that, they asked the Lord to give them additional courage and boldness to remain faithful in declaring the Good News constantly and without fear. When they finished their praying, God 'showed up' and re-charged them internally by His Spirit and shook the place they were meeting at to validate His presence, power and pleasure to His faithful ones.

The Bible says that the name of God is 'I AM", (Exodus 3:14-15). In other words, "Who I have always been, I am right now!" Do you think...maybe the better word is 'believe' that the God of the Bible is just as current in dispensing and displaying His power in this century as He has been from the 1st century and before? Is God any less interested in drawing others to Himself by His obvious power at work in 'ordinary' folk like you and me? What could you expect to happen around you if the heart within you was yielded in abandon to His presence and agenda? Think He might 'pack a wallop' in you? How about in your marriage and family? How about in your church and throughout your community? The most profound attraction to the Living Christ is His power unleashed in you.

So, Michael is 'creating' a tornado with the intent of harnessing its power into a vortex funnel to make an energy difference in this world, right?

May the God of Wonder focus His power upon you today so that through you, this world will indeed be made 'different'. Now, that's a life that packs a wallop...for sure!