The Power of God

MUFHH

“Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?” CHAMBERS

Galatians 2:20  “….and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. “

The things that we do for God are done by the power of God.  We so often try to live our new life in the power of our flesh .. by our wisdom .. determination … abilities … In the midst of the fiery furnace, the three men were not alone … Daniel 3:25   When Peter and John stood before the religious leaders … they stood with a strength that they did not have before Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit …. Act 1:5,8 “ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."  ………  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

And that is what happened on the Day of Pentecost … What they could not do before  .. they could now do … not because they decided to, but because they were empowered to.  David was anointed and killed Goliath, not with his own abilities, although God used them, but by faith in God …

So what is the point … to live our lives as Christians, successfully, we must live by the Spirit and walk by faith … not try to be a Christian through our own effort ….

Act 19:13-16  Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches."   Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.  And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?"  Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

In this case, these men decided to do what Paul did but they did not do it by the same power that Paul did … and they failed miserably … That is what happens to us … we may not get beat up by an evil spirit but we live defeated lives … wondering why faith in God doesn’t seem to make a difference … when all along … we are not depending upon the power of God in our lives but in our own plans and strength …  I would venture to say that the majority of Christians live that way.  But we don’t have to … Proverbs 3:5-6