The Holy Spirit: Power for Your Life

March 12, 2024

I wonder if you realize that there is tremendous power available to you for your life.  God has made His power available to us to overcome sin in our lives, to bear up under difficult situations, to serve and not grow weary, to comprehend the deep things of God, and to grow in wisdom and in love. 

The apostle Paul prays for the church in Ephesus that they would know “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.  These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might…” (Ephesians 1:19 NASB95) God has directed his immeasurable, boundless power toward us who believe in Him.  If only we could more fully realize the power that is available!

Paul continues in chapter 3, “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…” (Ephesians 3:20 NASB95) There is power that works within us! Through that power, God is able to do far more within us than we could ever ask or even comprehend. 

From where does this tremendous power come?  How does God deliver it into our lives?  It comes through the Spirit of God who dwells in our hearts.  Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian brethren is “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 NASB95) You see, power flows from God into our inner being through the Holy Spirit.  As you continue reading in Ephesians 3:17 and following, you can see God’s intended purpose for this flow of power:  that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith (verse 17); that we would be rooted and grounded in love (verse 17); that we would be able to comprehend the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge (verse 19); and that we would be filled with all the fullness of God (verse 19)!

All of this power is only available to us through the Holy Spirit.  A “natural man” (one who does not have the Spirit) can read and understand some things about the word of God, such as what Christ did for them, and how to be saved, but it is only when the Spirit comes into the heart at the moment of salvation that the power of God in the inner being is made available.  Thank God for His power that He has directed toward us, and which works within us!

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Scott Colvin

The Glance of the Lord

April 19, 2013

Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, recorded his invasion of Judah on a prism. It reads: “As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke…. Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.”* The Bible’s account of this incident is found in 2 Kings 18:13-19:37, 2 Chronicles 32:1-22, and Isaiah 36:1-37:36.

The mighty Sennacherib claimed to have laid siege to 46 of Judah’s strong cities and countless villages according to his own account. But in laying siege to Jerusalem, Sennacherib’s officer boasted of being stronger than Jehovah. Lord Byron’s poem recounts the outcome of this boast.

The Destruction of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass’d;
And the eyes of the sleepers wax’d deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there roll’d not the breath of his pride:
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentiles, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

God’s decisive battle was fought at Calvary. In the remaining time are the mopping up skirmishes between good and evil. We have been left to pray and to work: “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But make no mistake: God is in control. At times, I need to be reminded that the mere glance of the Lord is stronger than all of God’s enemies.

____________________

*Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 288.

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Posted by Russell Holden