Enough Power to Fail!

Understanding power and it’s source is important! When I was a young man, I did not understand how engines worked. When I came into shop class, my friends called me over and asked me to hold a wire while they pulled a rope. Dummy that I was, I did it. When they pulled that rope, it sent a rather awaking charge through that wire…the one that was normally attached to the spark plug of the engine! I learned that moment where power came from for the engine and what it could do! Sadly, I called over another friend of mine and asked him to do the same thing. He looked at me and said…”do you think I am stupid? I will hold the wire, but I will pull the rope!” Needless to say he was my hero that day…because I was the dummy of the day…until he replaced me!

We are considering some truths that are important for us to know when we are struggling with our disobedience. 

The first Truth, as we have seen, we need to engraft into our senses is, if we are in a relationship with Christ, we are unconditionally accepted, despite our failures. There is No Condemnation, because Christ paid the price in full!

Romans 8:5–8 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.⁶ So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.⁷ For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.⁸ That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

The second Truth we must face is – There is no Power in me alone to obey!

You cannot obey God in of yourself. This removes the burden of all that weight the enemy wants us to carry to make sure every little thing is right or wrong. The Pharisees did that and became perverted – emphasizing the “outside” over the “inside”! we will go nuts trying to carry that weight – we have only one responsibility - to have the mind of the Spirit.

How?

Asking some key questions is important!

1. What am I doing to impact the kingdom of God?

This includes: With my family; with my job; with my time; with my possessions?

The interesting part is that the actual questions do not change. What changes is the perspective of those questions!  For many all their thoughts pertain to this life and this world only. We, however must see beyond and ask ourselves, will what I am doing matter in 1 billion years? That not only impacts “what” you do, but “how” you do it! When you focus on only “here and now” you should not wonder why you wrestle so much with obeying. The flesh lives for “here and now!” When we live “eternal” we evaluate everything we do on the spiritual level! 

2. What am I doing to get to know how the Spirit thinks?

Reader's Digest calls the Bible, "the most unread best-seller". 

We have a Book that helps us know our God intimately! If you learn how He thinks and meditate on Him, then obedience with be the natural out growth. It’s the same with the person you love, you learn how he or she think and before you know it you naturally do things that please them!

Spurgeon: There are two sins of man that are bred in the bone, and that continually come out in the flesh. One is self-dependence and the other is self-exaltation. It is very hard, even for the best of men, to keep themselves from the first error. The holiest of Christians, and those who understand best the gospel of Christ, find in themselves a constant inclination to look to the power of the creature, instead of looking to the power of God and the power of God alone."

All the power we need to live in victory is at our hands! If we would apply the Truth that we have NO POWER in ourselves to obey, BUT in Him we have that Power and as we live in that Truth we! We need to engraft this Truth into our life! This reality enables us yield to the Spirit’s power and not rely on our own!

Meditation Questions: Do you think you can beat sin? How? When you feel the drive to sin, what do you do? Describe that. Do you see your life as a time to impact the Kingdom in God? What are you doing to learn Who God is? Describe what that looks like. If you realize that God’s Power can enable you to obey, do you want that? Why? Why Not?