And here is where we see the power of God in operation in Stephen's life, as he was being stoned Stephen did two things, first of all he said, receive my spirit, and secondly or maybe firstly he said, Lord lay not this sin to their charge, and when he had said this he fell asleep, now how was it that Stephen was able to have such strength and such power to face that hour, to face that martyrdom, well I believe that Stephen was in a sense already in heaven before he was finally and officially received into heaven, verse 55 of chapter 7 characterized his life, listen to me, you do not, you cannot face persecution, you cannot face gnashing of teeth, you cannot face the stoning that we have to have faced in our own lives unless you have prepared yourself for it, the scripture says at the moment of the stoning Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost looked up steadfastly into heaven and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, but listen to me, this was not a man who was a stranger to looking steadfastly up into heaven, this was his normal everyday posture and position in life, Stephen looked up where he was accustomed to looking, he was already, he was already sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, he was already there, his heart, his focus, his attention, his interest, his mind, his eyes were already wrapped up in Jesus and that is what gave him power, power to face what he faced, now do you want power like Stephen had to face the gnashing of Satan's teeth or the running of attack at you, the only way to be prepared for such an attack is to be given before you go to heaven, then the key to power is this, he steadfastly looked up into heaven into the face of Jesus, the Bible says where your treasure is there will your heart be also and where your heart is focused that's where the power will be, the closer and higher I go the more immense and powerful I see the one that I have to do with, that's the secret, I am looking to him, I'm beholding him, the very first blessing in my life came from him and the very last one will come from him, hallelujah, Stephen had an open heaven, he saw Jesus not because he uttered a deathbed prayer but when he looked up that was a familiar sight hallelujah and all it did was just open a little bit more for him, now you know you say well that all sounds very simple, having power sounds so simple especially when you put it in these terms, Jesus said seek those things that are above but you know in a practical sense it's not easy because there are many distractions, you know before we often get out the door of the church there may be two or three distractions when you get home there are more distractions, you and I live in distraction city and you know isn't it amazing you and I we can be like apostle Paul, sometimes I feel in this service like tonight, like tonight I felt like I was being lifted right out of my seat, sometimes you're like apostle Paul, you know you feel like you've reached the third heaven and you get caught up in the worship, you get caught up in the message, the holy spirit moves at the altar, he moves at the close of the meeting and you just feel you know that that holy ghost joy, that holy ghost high if you please, but how many of you know that you can be you can be walking out the door, you can be walking out the church and somebody will say something to you that's insensitive or somebody will disagree with you and you'll say something in response to that and no sooner do you get out of your mouth then you know that it was a mistake and you wish you could just suck it right back in and you say to yourself my goodness what happened five minutes ago I was lifted into the heavenlies and all of a sudden I'm right back down here on earth, I was looking steadfastly up into heaven, I saw the glory of God but you see what you did is that you reacted to some gnashing of the teeth or somebody tried to stone you but let me tell you, Elisha refused to be distracted.