You and I can WANT to obey God and please Him in our passionate pursuit of holiness, but without POWER to do so...join the long line of "tried that but it didn't work" folks who line the highways and byways of short-lived, embittered religionists.
God wants us to know Him. The Apostle Paul prays for God to give us His revealing, illuminating Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts to who our God is. God wants us to know that HE does not command and then withhold what is needed to obey. God wants us to know that HE is the God who does NOT keep His power to Himself, but shares it with His family. And He does not just share trickles of His power with His blood-bought sons and daughters, He POURS IT OUT abundantly. It is not only a GREAT power, but it is an IMMEASURABLY GREAT power with which our Father works in us and around us.
We have human measurements for power. For example, we measure ELECTRIC power by watts, kilowatts, megawatts, gigawatts, and terawatts (1 trillion watts). The single reactor nulear plant in Monticello, MN can produce enough electric power each year to power approximately 471,000 homes. But this is a PHYSICAL measurement of power. A gigawatt of power will not give me the slightest ability to resist temptation or to be kind to an arrogant person. Electric, nuclear, solar or any other physical measurement of power is the WRONG CATEGORY for this discussion.
This immeasurably great power of God toward us is SPIRITUAL POWER. And since human power categories and measurements are useless here, Paul mentions 3 ways that God's spiritual power has been demonstrated in history and in Christ.
- RESURRECTION POWER: "...according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead..." vv.19-20. God gives life to the dead...He raises the dead to life. This is ULTIMATE POWER. The power that raised Christ to life over death and hell and sin is the SAME POWER that is available to you and me when we face temptation or wake up with a bad taste for personal disicpline in our mouth or experience unexpected suffering. In other words, the power that God makes constantly available to us to live life is FAR BEYOND WHAT COULD EVER BE NEEDED. So much for "I can't."
- ASCENSION POWER and RULING POWER: "...and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named..." vv.20,21. Christ was not only raised from the dead, He was raised from EARTH to HEAVEN. And He was raised to a place at the Father's right hand where ALL AUTHORITY is exercised. All the hellish powers that are exercised in the unseen realms and through evil, wicked, elitist rulers on earth are UNDER THE FEET OF CHRIST. This is where the Father seated Him and this same power over powers and this power over the gravity of this present world is the power that our Father offers to us for the using every moment of every day of this life.
Do you know God as the God of IMMEASURABLY GREAT POWER TOWARDS YOU? May the Spirit open our eyes increasingly to know Him in this way.
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