His Power
If we continually choose to obey God, we can in His Strength overcome whatever the “flesh” is urging us to do.
“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit…and if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Romans 8:9-10
THE THUNDER OF HIS POWER
“Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26:14).
*I love the way Job describes the power of God. It is amazing that he is so distressed and still able to glorify God and his power.
*God is amazing – and so often I find that we try our hardest to contain him to earthly concepts.
God is those concepts, he made them, how can we make Him fit into anything?
****Man needs power to:
*To help those without it,
*To strengthen those without strength,
*To counsel him that hath no wisdom,
*To declare things as they really are,
*To renew dead spirits,
*To cover the naked destruction of hell.
****God has all power:
*To stretch out the universe. Over empty places, Hanging the earth upon nothing.
*God binds up humidity in thick clouds,
Placing boundaries on the waters.
*God divides the sea with his power
And He smites the proud.
*By His spirit He garnishes the heavens.
*God even created the crooked serpent,
*The power of God is the only reason we are alive.
**But these are on glimpses of His power— Only a little portion of Him that is heard.
God has promised power to all men.
*After that the Holy Ghost Has come upon them And there will be “Thunder in that Power—”
*Thunder against injustice, Immorality and crime,
*Thunder against hypocrisy And the tyranny of small things,
*Thunder against materialism And hate.
****But deeper still, LOVE Is the “Thunder of Power”. Jesus says “LOVE one another”.
Relationships/ Love take Time!
*Today people are into quick fixes. But you can’t”microwave” a relationship.
Jesus says in John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
*Eternal life is described by relationship not rules.
*So often Christians focus on a legalistic approach and say the key to “getting to heaven” or “eternal life” is getting your sins forgiven.
**** What Christ says in this verse is different to that and shows us that eternal life begins right now and eternal life is Knowing God— a Personal Relationship!!!!.
There is Victory in the Cross:
* When we yield to the Lordship of Christ,
* When we make Christ, the throne of our hearts, we are on the cross,
*BUT if WE ARE ON the throne of our hearts, then we in effect is leaving Jesus, on the cross.
That’s the hard message of the cross.
* If you are going through suffering don’t focus on the pain— up lift the cross and Christ, his love, his grace in your life. Let Jesus Loving and Healing Power work in and through you!
*Maybe instead of apologizing FOR God (in explaining pain or suffering) perhaps we need to apologize TO God…for our stubbornness, divisiveness, or ignoring tendencies.(I do).
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
How amazing is Job’s description, not only of God’s greatness, but of our standing in relation to that greatness. He describes us as being on the outskirts! We only experience a small measure of the totality of God ~ His glory, His grandeur, His power, His majesty. Yet even that it too awesome for us to comprehend. We only hear a whisper, and it is more than our capacity to contain. How great is our God!!
2 Corinthians 13:4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. 5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
* Even when we feel we have no strength left in struggles of life, God’s strength/power trumps all. His stronghold on everything is all that matters.
* I will continue to realize that the strength that I acquire on my own is not of my own but Christ’s strength/power within me.
1 Corinthians 2: 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
* True life is by the power of God, by the life of God inside of us. We are crucified, identified with the cross of Christ in weakness, but that is Precisely the Entrance into living by the power of God. We are so not alone, so not forsaken. The very life of God is in us.
Let US live by that!!
Lord God, you have renewed a fire within me to fight the mighty fight in the battle’s of life. That awesome fire comes from you Holy Spirit and I am so thankful for that. Continue to groom me to accept that the strength/power that I might acquire may even seem unreal, but is from you Lord God.
2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Amen