How Do We Harness God’s Power In Our Lives?

Dste: April 13, 1997-A.M
Speaker: John Phillis
Main Scripture Reference: Romans 1:16

Well, sit back, hold on, and strap yourself in. We’ve got a powerful lesson today. Actually, I’ll let you decide whether it was powerful or not, but we are going to talk about power.

Ours is tagged as a power-conscious age. Think about it for a moment. There is political power, there is financial power, there is military power. There are people who are referred to as power brokers. And I suppose those are the people who have power lunches. I’m not exactly sure what a power lunch is. I’m not sure that I’ve ever had one. I once worked for a boss who had working luncheons, and that meant that he ate, and we worked! But maybe that is a form of a power lunch.

There are people who power dress. Again, I’m not really sure what that is. I attended a function one time a while back, and someone came up to me and said, “I see you have your power tie on.” And I looked at my tie, checked the back to see what it said. It didn’t say anything about “power,” but I guess it was the color, or something, that indicated that it was a power tie.

In football, there are powerhouses. In basketball, there are power forwards. In the automotive industry, there is horse power, and even as we seek for our laundry detergent, we look for something that is powerful.

In this power-hungry world that we live in, the church ought to be a powerful force, but in order to be a powerful force, the church must be filled with powerful members. Therefore, we as Christians need to seek power, but we need to seek a very special kind of power—a power that enables us to live Christ-centered, spirit-filled lives—a power over ourselves.

Temptation is real, and despite pangs of guilt, good intentions and high ideals, we sin, and often times, we repeat the same sin over and over again. We feel defeated. We want to be like Jesus, but we don’t know how to manage ourselves. We join Paul as he says in Romans, the first chapter, verse 16, “I believe that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.” But then we may say, “But how do I apply that to myself? How can I find the power over my restless self? How can I live under the force of this power?” These are painfully legitimate questions—questions to which we search for a solution.

As we search for a solution, though, we don’t always find the right answer, primarily because we don’t look in the right place. Some may suggest that the power we are seeking comes with mind power. This idea goes something like this: If you can quote enough Scripture, if you can recite Bible stories, if you can state your faith in a succinct and precise way, then you will be righteous.

It doesn’t happen that way. NOT because we don’t need to know. After all, Jesus said, “Ye shall know the Truth…,” John 8, verse 32. And as Paul said in Ephesians 5:17, we must not be unwise, but understanding what the Will of the Lord is. [Ephesians 5:17: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s Will is.”]

But knowledge does not necessarily generate spiritual power, partly because it is so easy for the quest of knowledge to become an end unto itself. The mind power route is destined to fail. Also, the mind power route will fail simply because to know what is right is not always to DO what is right. Mark Twain is quoted as saying, “What I understand about the Bible gives me a lot more trouble than what I don’t understand about the Bible.” Someone prayed, “Lord, give us help when we don’t know what to do, but give us a lot more help when we know what to do and just don’t want to do it.”

I heard a story about an elderly gentleman travelling in the city one day by bus. And he was wearing his best white suit. When the man got on the bus, the driver hurriedly closed the door, and it closed on the old gentleman’s arm. The old gentleman said, “That’s all right, son. God bless you. God rest your soul.” The driver hurriedly drove on. The old man wasn’t quite down the aisle and in his seat, and the jerk of the bus starting off caused him to stumble into his seat. And the old man just smiled and said, “That’s all right, son. God bless you. God rest your soul.” When he came to his destination and got off the bus, once again, the driver sped away quickly, and the old man was splashed with water and mud from a puddle near the curb. And the old gentleman was heard to say, “That’s all right, son. God bless you. God rest your soul. And the sooner, the better!”

We can identify with that old gentleman, can’t we? We say, “knowing what to do is one thing, but doing it is quite another.” Paul had the same problem. He lamented, in Romans 7, verse 18, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”So mind power is NOT the power that we seek.

Well, what about emotional power? Some have arrived upon the idea that emotional power is the kind of power that we need, which is the key to spiritual life. The theory is that if one can just be inspired, can agonize or pray through a difficult situation and come to some “mountain peak experience,” THEN you will find God power. That’s the theory, but it doesn’t work in life.

Oh, yes, we need to feel things emotionally. One cannot comprehend Christ, and the majesty of His love without being emotionally stirred. Yet emotion is NOT God power. When we place too great a value on emotional experiences, the net result can be destructive to our spirituality. When one feels that he has a new relationship with God because of some so-called “mountain peak experience,” he may tend to consider himself on a different spiritual plain than others. He may become critical of the lack of “spirituality” of others, and may even lose his taste for worship in what he may feel to be “dead services.”

Lest you think that this is hypothetical, let me illustrate the point. Without being judgmental, without being cruel or unkind, I want to tell you about my wife, Betsy, who had a discussion—a conversation—a while back with someone where we used to worship. This conversation was regarding some of the things, particularly in the worship services, that some of us, as members, found to be objectionable. This person said that our objecting to these things in the worship service was an indication of our lack of spirituality, that those who were on a “higher plain” spiritually understood what “those things” were about, and appreciated them, and knew why they were necessary.

Emotional power is deceiving as well. Think about the fact that tears are shed by some when they are happy, and tears are shed by others when they are sad. No, emotion is too fickle, too shallow to be the power over ourselves which we seek.