We Need Power

Power is one of the basic necessities of life. Without power you wouldn't be reading this because your computer would not work. Without power there would be no automobiles, trucks, trains, planes, refrigerators, central heating or air conditioning, artificial light, television, radio or any of the electronic devices that make our lives more convenient and fun. Fuel is consumed, like coal, oil, or nuclear energy and power is generated to make these things run.

Without power you can't operate either. You would not be able to move, breathe, or think. Your brain supplies electrical energy to your central nervous system, which causes your heart to pump your blood and all your other organs to work. As power flows through you, your body is able to function. This is made possible because of the fuel you consume. You constantly replenish your body with food and water which results in the generation of power within you.

All of these powered things, including your own body, are part of the physical world. I want to take you beyond the physical realm now and direct your attention to your non-physical parts, your soul and your spirit. The Bible makes it clear that human beings are made up of three parts: the body, the soul and the spirit. The Apostle Paul wrote of this in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (NKJV)

You are one person made up of three very different parts. Each one of these parts, the God of peace wants to sanctify, which means to make holy. When something is made holy it is separated, or set apart, from all other things for God's purposes. Many people have a set of good dishes, often made of china, that they use only when they invite guest over for a meal. In a sense, those dishes are holy. They are set apart and used only for dinner guests. God wants that same kind of holiness for your life, too. His desire is that you be set apart for Him.

Not only does He want to make you holy, He wants to preserve you blameless until the day His Son Jesus Christ comes back to this earth to establish the Kingdom of God on planet earth. God wants to preserve you, keep you safe, keep you functioning, and keep you under His watchful care. He wants to preserve you blameless. That means no one can point the finger at you and accuse you of anything.

Do you see the connection with righteousness? If you can't be accused of anything, then your behavior is excellent. You are living right and doing right things. That's what righteousness really is, doing right instead of wrong. It's not being religious or being perfect, it's choosing to act the right way instead of the wrong way.

So God, who has chosen you for His purposes, wants to keep you in His purposes and work in your life a level of holiness and righteousness that affects your whole being, spirit, soul and body. I could write many pages about this verse, but what I want to draw your attention to now is how your whole being, all three parts of you,  can be energized and empowered by God. You can make a life power connection with Him!

You have a basic understanding of your body because you can see it, feel it and touch it. We've even considered briefly how it is fuel and powered. When God's power connects with a human body amazing things can happen. Healings take place, miracles are performed, words of life are spoken by a preacher or teacher that can lead to the conversion of hundreds or thousands of people. Examples of God's power manifested through a human being are recorded throughout the Bible. It just makes sense that when God connects with someone, supernatural things take place. What is not so obvious to many is what happens to your inner being, your spirit and your soul, when you connect with His power. Let's take a closer look at that. 

Your Spirit - Made in the Image of God

Your spirit is that part of you that is made in the image of God.  You, in fact all human beings, were created in His image (Genesis 1:27). God is spirit (John 4:24). You are, too. You are a spiritual being and you will exist forever, just like God. Your body may die, but there will come a resurrection in the future, but your spirit and soul, the essence of who and what you are, never dies.

You can't see your spirit, but it is there. It's that part of you that makes you aware of a dimension that is outside your physical body. In your spirit you sense things that you can't hear or see. It is in your spirit that you connect most intimately with God, because that's the part of your being that is just like Him. God speaks to you in your spirit. He inspires you in your spirit. He gives you His power in your spirit. Check out this verse in 2 Timothy 1:7:

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

So the spirit God gave you, the part of you that is like Him, is not a spirit of fear. It's a spirit of power. It's not a spirit that has power. It is a spirit of power. Your spirit is power, God's power! Your spirit is already saturated with the power of God.

It is also love. In 1 John 4:8 we read that

"...God is love."

Your spirit, made in His image, is also love. It doesn't have love, it is love. Your spirit is already saturated with God's love.

Your spirit is also a sound mind. Your spirit doesn't have a sound mind, it is a sound mind. A  sound mind is strong, secure, sensible, without defect, honest, and upright. Your spirit is already saturated with soundness of mind.

Your Soul - Mind, Will and Emotions

Now let's take a closer look at your soul. Your soul is the third part of what makes you YOU! Remember, you are spirit, soul and body. Your soul includes your mind, your will and your emotions.  Every thought you have, every thing you remember, every thing you determine to do, every thing you feel inside is an expression of your soul. So the soundness of mind that is in your spirit affects your soul: your thinking, your choices and your feelings. 

You are not weak inside. Your spirit is power, God's power, capable of incredible tasks. You are not unloving. Your spirit is love, God's love, capable of incredible passion. You are not mentally unbalanced, defective or insecure. Your spirit is a sound mind, a mind like God's, capable of incredible thoughts, determination and feelings. That is what the word of God says we already have inside us. That is what we are. And what we are can be summed up in one word, amazing!

Unfortunately, we don't always live like we are amazing. We often live just the opposite. There are influences exerted upon us by the world, our own human nature and even the devil himself, that constantly try to pull us away from God. If you give in to that pull you become a soul centered person. Your life revolves around your mind, will and emotions. You basically ignore your spirit, that one third of you that is like your Creator. When you ignore your spirit, the power of God doesn't flow, the love doesn't flow and the mind is not sound. You suffer a spiritual power loss that affects you just as surely as pulling the plug on your computer causes it to shut down. You become disconnected from God and all power is lost.

A Permanent Life Power Connection

A powerless life is an unhappy life, but I have good news for you! When you find yourself in that condition, there is a way to get reconnected and get real life power flowing though you. In fact, you can actually learn to live in life power so you don't ever have to be disconnected. You can have a permanent life power connection! How does that work? Let's read Ephesians 3:14-21.

"(14) For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, {15} from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, {16} that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, {17} so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, {18} may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, {19} and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. {20} Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, {21} to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." (NASB)

Did you notice the highlighted words strengthened and power? These verses teach you how to get that in your life. Let's look at them closely.

Here we find the Apostle Paul praying for the people in the Church of Ephesus. Notice how he calls God the Father? That's a real key to having a power filled life. You need to develop a father-child relationship with God. He is your heavenly Father and He wants you to know Him better.

Now you may have had a horrible relationship with your earthly father. If that's true, then it may be hard for you to believe that God would be a good father to you. I can't get into all the issues you might be facing about fathers in this writing, but let me just say this, don't compare apples to oranges. God is a true father. You can find many verses in the Bible that prove it. Human fathers can be messed up, evil, abusive, and miserable to be with. God is exactly the opposite. You will never find a better Father than Him. He can teach you what real fatherhood is all about if you give Him a chance.

If you had a wonderful relationship with your earthly father, then you are probably excited about the concept of God being a father to you. What's important here is not your relationship with any human, but your relationship with God. He wants a deeper level of intimacy with you. Come to Him like a father. Call Him, "Father" not "God".  Respond to Him like a father. Desire to be with Him. Be excited about having Him in your life.

Your Father's Gift

Now according to verse 16, your heavenly Father wants to give you something. He wants to strengthen you with power. How does He do that? Through His Holy Spirit inside your inner being! He sends His power into your spirit. From there it empowers your soul and body.

How much power will God give you? Look at verse 16 again. You will be strengthened with power though His Spirit in your inner being according to the riches of His glory! You and I can't even understand how incredible God's glory is. What is His glory? It's the manifestation of His presence, His power, His righteousness, His love, and all the other things that make God who He is! Here's the awesome truth. All that He is can be released into your spirit.

When you look again at verse 17, you see that this power transfer from God to you makes something else wonderful happen. It creates a level of faith inside you that causes Jesus Christ, God's Son, to dwell in your heart, your inner being. When Jesus lives in you things really start to happen.  The first thing is that you become rooted and grounded in love. Now Jesus is the human manifestation of God. Remember, God is a spirit and God is love. So when He who is love dwells in you, love begins to take deep root in your spirit. You become grounded in love, which means that love becomes the foundation upon which the rest of your life is built. A power-filled life that is rooted and built on love is an incredible life. Love flows in you and oozes out of you. You are affected by His love and His love in you affects others.

Ah, but there's more. Verse 18 reveals the next insight about the person filled with God's life power. You will start to comprehend, together with all those who walk with God, the breadth, length, height and depth of God's love. Do you realize how wonderful it can be to know the fullness of God's love for you? When you know someone loves you, you will do anything for them. When you know you're loved, there is a confidence, security and feeling of worth that excites you and makes you feel good all over. When you know you're loved you want to be with the one who loves you all the time. That's the idea! God wants you to be with Him! All the time! He wants you to live in His presence. He also wants you to realize how valuable you are to Him and to feel good about yourself because of it!

Knowing Love that Surpasses Knowledge

Then in verse 19 we read a powerful statement that, on the surface, doesn't make any sense. The person filled with God's life power is able to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. You can know what you can't know. The love of Jesus Christ for you is so overwhelming that you can't possibly understand it. You just can't wrap your brain around it. It doesn't make sense that God's Son would love you that much.

Well, when Jesus dwells in your heart through faith (verse 17) He gives you knowledge of His mind stumping love. You can't truly know that love with your brain, but you can know it in your spirit. That's why it is so important to get this whole process working in your life so that you can truly experience the fullness of God. That's exactly what is written in the next part of verse 17. When you know His love, you will be filled up to all the fullness of God. Not partially filled, but filled up! The life filled with God's power gets filled up until it is completely full of God!

After revealing this amazing process, Paul ends his prayer with a statement of praise that also contains a promise. Here's the promise: "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us..." The Him is God the Father. Paul boldly declares that your Father, who gives you power by the Holy Spirit, is able to do far more, way more, abundantly more than all, yes, that's all, that you ask or think.

God's power goes beyond your requests. His power goes beyond what you think. When you ask your Heavenly Father for something, or when you think about something so big that you don't even ask Him, He wants you to you know that He is able to do what you ask or think and then far more abundantly beyond that. So actually, God is letting you know He's got it covered. You have a need, you ask, He is able to do way more than what you asked for or thought about. So just relax in His love and wait to see what awesome response He has to your request. It will probably be even more than what you asked for.

The Power that Works in You

Now what causes God to respond to us with such potential for abundance? According to verse 21 it is "according to the power that works within us." What power is that? The power Paul speaks of in verse 16, that God the Father grants to you, according to His riches in glory. The power that strengthens you in your inner man through God's Holy Spirit. So this whole process, from the release of power, to the work of faith, to the revelation and understanding of His love, to the abundant response to your prayer requests, is all accomplished by the power that works within you. It's the same power that God puts there when we enter into a Father-child relationship with Him.

Paul's response of praise recorded in verse 21, "to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Did you know that God is glorified in the church and in His Son Jesus Christ when you activate your faith and receive His power into your life? Why is that? Well, it's really quite simple. When Christians have a life power connection with God, have faith to receive Christ into their hearts and a foundation of love, they become more like their heavenly Father. They become more like Jesus.

As more of God's people experience this, then the earth becomes gradually populated, one by one,  with people who walk with God in truth and manifest His character. By their example they prove that life in the Kingdom of God far surpasses anything else anywhere. They prove that the best life is a life lived free from the pull of the negative influences of the world, the human nature and the devil. 

The Word makes it clear that God is the source of the power that transforms a human life, so He receives all the glory! It becomes obvious to all that God is the one who has done such an awesome work in a willing person's life. So God is glorified, not just in the generation of those who receive His power, but in all generations, forever. What this is really saying is that if you choose to receive a life power connection with God, your life will honor Him for all future generations.

Imagine your descendents speaking of you 40, 80 or 120 years from now and saying that your life story had an impact on them and caused them to want to know God. Just as bad genetics and bad behaviors can be passed on to descendents in future generations, so can good things! Give them an inheritance they will never forget and will always treasure, the knowledge that God is real, that His power is available and that any believer can have an awesome, intimate relationship with the Father.

Get Your Life Power Connection Now

If you are ready to make a life power connection with God, here is a summary of what you can do to make it happen:

• Acknowledge God as your heavenly Father.

• Receive His power in your inner being. Tell Him, "I open up my spirit and soul to you, Father, to receive Your power."

• Put your faith in Jesus Christ and invite Him to come and live in your heart.

• Receive His love. Realize that His love is broad, long, high and deep. Enjoy that love.

• Believe that you have the fullness of God in you, because the Word of God says you do!

• Understand that God is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that you ask or think.

• Tell God you want to bring glory to His Name by the quality of the life you live as a power-filled believer.

Once you have done this, you are well on your way to an incredible life! Don't look back. Don't give in to the old worldly influences or passions. Connect with God and go forward in the power of His Holy Spirit.

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© 2009 Randy Hartwig Ministries, All Rights Reserved

Randy Hartwig Ministries