Wind in the Sails?

Yesterday, I was listening to Bill Johnson and a sermon he was giving at a conference in Fort Worth, Texas.  He made a pretty earth shattering statement that "Beware of any doctrine of the sovereignty of God that leaves you being merely a spectator." 

Now, I subscribe (at least intellectually) to the belief that Dutch Sheets has laid out that "God does little in the earth except by or through the prayers of His people."  In other words, God very often holds his hand until someone prays.  He chooses to limit much of His conduct upon the earth to working through His people, the Church. 

Bill Johnson went on to say that authority and power are evidenced in a picture of wind and sails.  Essentially, power is what is being manifested when we raise our sails to the wind.  God sends the wind, and we merely raise our sails to join Him in what He is doing.  But authority, according to Bill, is when we release the wind. 

It is easy to be passive as a believer.  It seems so much safer to be passive than to take risks and to stick my neck out and risk looking stupid or worse.  Yet, when Jesus gave His disciples "authority over unclean spirits, to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and preach the Kingdom of God" He was delegating authority to them (read "us") to take steps of faith in Him. So we not only look to see what God is doing and join Him in that process (which I believe is obedience) but we also can step out boldly in faith and move into the unseen realms, trusting God is there because we have the mind of Christ.