Category: Power of God

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name’ ” (Revelation 3:7-8).

To the church at Philadelphia, Jesus introduces Himself as the one who holds the keys.  And the one who holds the keys is the one who has the power to open doors and the power to close doors.  Jesus is and has the power.

In contrast, the church at Philadelphia has “little power”.  This probably refers to little power as the world measures power.  But what power they do have has been used to “keep His word”.  They have stood firm in times of persecution.

We are familiar with the power promised us by Jesus even when our faith is as small as a mustard seed.  This is a similar picture.  It is as if Jesus is saying, “Your power is small.  But I am stepping in.  There is a door in front of you that you do not have the power to open.  But I have the keys and the power.  And I am giving my power to you by opening a door for you that no one can shut.  My power will become your power.”

This passage is so encouraging.  How many of us feel like we have little power in the world’s eyes?  How many of us feel unqualified in the world’s eyes?  The world’s opinion means NOTHING when we are infused with the power of God in us.

Let me take this right down to a personal level.  What door is in front of you?  What door is God asking you to go through?  Are you stymied … sidelined … stopped by worry that you do not possess the power to march through the door?  God is marching ahead of you.  The door will open and shut based on God’s power and God’s timing, not on our power and self-effort to force it open.  Jesus, possessor of the keys, is in charge of it’s opening and closing.

Pray for God’s guidance about the door ahead of you.  Follow His leading.  He goes before you.  He will open a door that no man can shut.  The keys and the power are in His hand.

“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you” (II Corinthians 13:4).

Christ was crucified in weakness, humiliation, and shame.  But Jesus despised the shame for the joy, power, and life that was coming after.  To the world, Jesus died a broken and weak man.  But he rose from the dead, not as a weak and broken man, but as the powerful Divine Creator Savior of the world!  He died in weakness, but lives, rose again, because of the power of God.

This verse is a picture of our joining Jesus in that journey.  “For we also are weak in Him.”  How can we be weak when we are “in Christ”?  How can we be “weak in Him”?  Our weakness is in how we joined Christ in His death.  We were lost sinners with nothing to offer when we accepted His offer.  When we believed, we joined Christ in the weakness of His death.  But that is just the start of our story.

Because we also joined Him in the power of His resurrection.  The same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in us.  We live with Him in the same power that made Christ alive.  We live with Him by the power of God.

In the broader context of this chapter, Paul is reminding his Corinthian brothers that his strength is in the Lord.  He is expecting a need to confront an issue in the church on his next visit.  And he makes clear that his efforts in this area will be directed by the Lord and carried out in the power of the Lord.  Any weakness was buried with Jesus when we joined Him in His death, burial, and resurrection.  We now operate in the body of Christ from a stance of power.  Power that is informed and exercised by a deep deep love toward our brothers and sisters in the body.

We were weak just as Christ appeared weak in His death.  But we are now united with Him in the power of His resurrection.  Not just WITH Christ, but actually indwelt BY Christ.  He and His resurrection power live in you!

“For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit” (I Thessalonians 1:5).

I love words.  I think most writers do.  Words can illuminate, explain, and deliver our ideas, our thoughts, and our feelings.  Words can convey facts AND emotion.  Words have the power to heal and the power to harm.

But our gospel message is more than just words.  As we understand more and more of the words of God in Scripture, we can fall into the trap of thinking that knowledge equals maturity.  We can lord over others with our Bible knowledge.  But knowledge for knowledge’s sake completely leaves out the power supplied to us by the Spirit.

The apostle Paul gives us this warning, “Knowledge puffs us, but love builds up” or “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” (I Corinthians 8:1).  Knowledge without love can send us headlong into a prideful destruction.

How do we measure “growing in Christ”?  How do we measure maturity.  I believe the greatest commandment in the new covenant is to love as Jesus loves (John 13:34, 15:12).  In our new life in Jesus, we see our maturity develop as we learn to love, learn to serve, learn to obey, and learn to worship.

And all of these efforts to love, serve, obey, and worship require the power of God brought to us by His Spirit.  We are not robots.  God is not asking us to just read the words and automatically do what they say without any thought, feeling, or effort.  We need the power of the Spirit.

Grace does not teach that God’s requirements are soft.  No, God is asking us to live in ways that are contrary to the world we grew up in; ways that are not natural to our flesh.  But in one of the most beautiful joys of the new covenant, GOD SUPPLIES WHAT GOD REQUIRES!

It is really quite supernatural if you think about it.  How is God asking you to love, to serve, to obey, and to worship?  Who is God asking you to love in this moment?  His words inform our love, our service, our obedience, and our worship.  But the power to do it?  It comes straight from the Holy Spirit.  Don’t rely on your knowledge to get everything right.  Rest and move in the power of the Spirit in you.  He has given you more than enough.  He has given you Himself.

“And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district” (Luke 4:14).

Following Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, Luke describes His return to Galilee as being “in the power of the Spirit.”  Jesus’ ministry began and continued throughout His time on earth “in the power of the Spirit.”  Now why would Jesus, God in the flesh, need the power of the Spirit?

Jesus operated in the power of the Spirit.  As the triune God, the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.  The Spirit is the Spirit of the Father.  The Spirit that empowered Jesus in His time on earth is the power of His divinity.  Jesus ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Where else do we see the specific reference to the power of the Spirit in the New Testament?

Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.  “The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

Christ went around doing good by the power of the Spirit.  “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).

Paul preached in the power of the Spirit.  “In the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:19).

We abound in hope by the power of the Spirit.  “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

And finally, we carry within us and are strengthened by the same same same same same power of the Holy Spirit.  “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16).

“Jesus, who has become a perpetual priest not on the basis of a physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life” (Hebrews 7:16).

The priests of the Old Testament were chosen to serve based on a specific physical requirement; they must be born of the tribe of Levi.  Their service as a priest was temporary since they eventually died.  You could say they were destructible.  Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah so He did not qualify to be a priest under the old covenant.  So how did Jesus become a priest to us?

Jesus became a priest, not by meeting a physical requirement, but by the “power of an indestructible life.”  As the Son of God, Jesus’ life is indestructible.  He lives forever.  He is a perpetual everlasting priest who intercedes for us.

“The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.  Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:23-25).

The contrast of Jesus as a permanent priest versus the temporary priests of the old covenant extends to the covenant they represent.  Not only is Jesus, on the basis of an indestructible life, a better priest; He is the mediator of a better covenant.

“So much more also, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22).  “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).

Jesus ushered in a better covenant.  Jesus initiated a better arrangement.  And in this new arrangement, the power of His indestructible life lives in us.  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; 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 up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Carry on in the power of His indestructible life in you!