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Incomparably great power
September 12, 2012
Life has a tendency to overwhelm us. There is an unending list of responsibilities, cares, and concerns that threaten to dry us up and and leave us feeling frustrated and confused. Often we hear sermons and teachings on what it means to go through "trials" in life, and though we've heard it over and over, it doesn't always give us victory just to be told something or to have read something. We have a knowledge of what it means to go through difficulty and how God can use it, but that knowledge doesn't always keep us from having our faith crumble beneath the weight of circumstances that will not relent. Like Proverbs 14:10 states "The heart knows its own bitterness, no stranger can share its joy."
However, it's not hopeless. Far from it! John 7:38 says "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." During the driest of dry times, a fountain of living water lives in us. God wants to help us see that we must be full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would take of the things of His Word and reveal them to us. He would live out in us all of the life of Jesus. The Holy Spirit will bring life to us when no circumstance will. The Holy Spirit will breathe strength into us when nothing else will and nobody else can.
God the Holy Spirit wants us to know the reality of this fullness of the Spirit so that we can withstand the temptation to give up on staying strong during times of extreme discomfort and pain. Jesus said "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" Acts 1:18. Jesus is unfolding to each of us the power of His resurrection through the Holy Spirit. When you are dry and thirsty and nothing you see or hear gives you much encouragement, seek for the supernatural and unexplainable power of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 11:11 Jesus says “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit again! Cry out at the altar, cry out at home, cry out in your car. Don't be satisfied until you know His strength is living inside of you. It will give you clarity in the midst of confusion, power in the midst of weakness, and bravery when you are beat down. The "secret" to having victory over the evil that surrounds you in this life is not your own will power or knowledge, but the strength of the living God who gives us power. When you can't seem to talk yourself out of a depression, and anxiety and anger will not leave you, remember this: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power" (1 Corinthians 4:20). My prayer for myself and all who are in the midst of struggle is the same as the Apostle Paul, when he prayed this for the church at Ephesus:
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe"
-Pastor Frost
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