The power of God

God is Omnipotent.  There is no higher or greater power than Jehovah God.

When we are born again, He comes to live in our hearts via the Holy Spirit.

We now possess all that He is!  We are not God - nowhere near.  That is for the New Ager's way of thinking.

No.  Where once our spirits were dead, darkened, and lost, they are now made alive!  We now worship, love, and obey God only because His Spirit lives inside us.  Up until then, we may choose to be "good" people, and do the right things in life.  But there is a vast difference between a person living a "good" life in the flesh, and the born again Christian who allows the life of Christ in her to rule and live His life through her.

There is a power to God's goodness.  His Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  All of these attributes live within us as born again believers in Christ.

Our job now is to allow the Holy Spirit full reign in our hearts, minds, and lives.  Sadly, our flesh is still alive, too!  And the war is waged between the Spirit and the flesh.  Our enemy, the devil, attacks our flesh for his purposes, to try to draw us away from Christ because he knows that Christ's power in us is all-powerful.

Just because His Spirit lives in us now does not mean we will perfectly obey Him and live according to His will and power.  Why not?  Because our flesh still wants to rule in us!  

When we become sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we feel more clearly when our flesh is being attacked.  His peace in us is disturbed when we get upset or angry over an offense.  The temptation to the flesh is to retaliate.  This is the normal way of the world, of all flesh.  And as Christians, the only way we rise above it is to tap into and submit to the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

The Holy Spirit is all of the wisdom in God inside of us.  He is never once at a loss as to what to do in any given situation.  The question is, are we paying attention and listening to Him?

Make no mistake, the battles can be super fierce!  The devil does not want us to walk in the power of the Spirit because he knows that it brings glory and honor to Jesus.  We become a witness to the power of Christ in the world.  

We have nothing to do with the goodness, power, love, joy, and all the rest - none of these lie within us naturally.  Oh they can be manufactured, like wax fruit is made.  But only the Holy Spirit can produce the real fruit of Christ in us.

When we let Christ have full sway in us, allow His Spirit to rule us (which, by the way is freeing, not confining), the devil trembles and all hell can break loose where we go!  The last thing the enemy wants is for more to come to Christ because he loses ground when another soul is won to heaven.

Does our witness really lead others to Christ?  Not always.  The Word is clear on this that His Spirit in us will be as a stench to those who are dying (rejecting God).  But His Spirit is a sweet aroma to those who are heading toward eternal life with Christ (see 2 Corinthians 2:16).

The saddest thing I have ever experienced is when those who are supposed to be filled with His life (fellow Christians) mock and undermine the power of Christ in us.  I suppose it is because they have not fully submitted to Him and resent those who have.  See, it's easy to be as wax fruit and pretend the good qualities of Christ.  But when the real fruit shows up, the wax fruit are beside themselves.  

Bottom line, Jesus knows which fruit is which!  People can't always tell, or they don't want to know.

So the paradox of the Christian life is when we choose to yield ourselves (which may sound like weakness) to the Spirit of Christ, His unlimited power reigns in us.

The more we yield to Christ, the more we will need to withstand the hatred toward us from those who are perishing.  

But there is no other real way to live the Christian life other than yielding to Christ!  All the rest is wood, hay, and stubble.  

It is a narrow road for sure, because it is a hard road.  It is the road to the Cross because our flesh must go!  Our flesh must die!  One or the other will win out in us at any given moment  - our flesh (impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, and so on), or the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, and so on).

So let us press on in His strength, His power, His love, His might!  For that is the only way to victory!

Dear Lord.  The battle wears me out much of the time.  The more I surrender to You, the more of Your peace fills my heart.  But also, the more fiery arrows from the enemy fly at me!  But You promise me that no weapon formed against me will prosper.  So the arrows will continue to fly, but as long as I stay in Your Spirit, not a one will affect me!  Alleluia!  Please help me more consistently choose to submit to Your beautiful Holy Spirit inside me, not only for my own peace, but for Your witness in me to others that some may come to know You.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.