True Power
From shortly after birth, we humans are impressed with power. Even tiny babies realize very early on that they are not powerless. Turning on the tears or shrieking at just the right pitch, decibel level, and duration causes much larger folks to react, most often supplying precisely what the little manipulator desires. Words are not even necessary for them to express their power. Thus, gaining and utilizing power to varying degrees becomes a discovered necessity, even an obsession, for people of all ages, sizes, and walks of life.
Power is control. Just when you think you are in control, something more powerful comes along to prove you wrong. The Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994, is one example of the kind of thing that puts human power in perspective. Our house shook violently, and there was nothing we could do until it stopped. Antique cabinets fell, kitchen cupboards emptied onto the floor, and our cinderblock backyard wall came down. Until that event, I was the most powerful thing our little toddlers had known (besides their mother) and themselves when they wanted something from us. Yet every aftershock reminded us that ultimately, we’re not in control. Our power is puny.
Although there are some mighty things in the world, earthquakes, volcanoes, and nuclear blasts don’t hold a candle to the power of the One who created them all. Everyone has limited power—except God. He can’t be manipulated or controlled in any way by anyone or anything at any time. But people still try.
What is it about “All-powerful” that people don’t understand? Some, who even understand the Latin term omnipotent, believe God is the ultimate power in the universe until they desire something. Then, if there’s something they want, God should be putty in their hands. And if God doesn’t bow to their control, they give Him a “time-out” or walk away from Him altogether.
One cannot harness the power of God. Man has harnessed some mighty things, but he will never regulate the Almighty. However, that does not mean that people cannot be conduits of God’s power. God’s tremendous power can operate through us.
God’s power is demonstrated just as credibly through a person changing profoundly because of their submission to Christ as it is by a solar flare or a tsunami. One can see the incredible power of God in a life that embraces hope rather than despair. There is no energy so great as the One that replaces fear with a sense of victory and boldness. We see His power in changed lives, perhaps the best proof that no power trumps the power of God.
Is that power available to us? A great biblical example answers the question. No one could have felt more powerless than the disciples after Jesus’ arrest, trial, mistreatment, and crucifixion. But following His resurrection, He made them a promise: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts. 1:8). Later, it happens. Having received that power, they were new people, not cowering any longer but boldly proclaiming Christ to a hostile world. Now, they were willing to die if necessary! Indeed, most of the Apostles did die as martyrs. But even with the Holy Spirit, the essential component was faith. Without faith, our power remains puny (e.g., Matthew 17:14-20).
If by faith you know Christ and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, no earthquake can compare with that kind of power. No political position, financial status, intellectual prowess, or feat of human strength comes close to the power that turns fearful people into those whose Spirit-empowered actions changed the course of history.
Will you settle for the same kind of power that got you what you wanted as an infant or the power that formed the universe? Where have you placed your faith?
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” —Ephesians 1:18–19a