[1] We need to understand the source
Years ago when I lived in Hawaii Monday night football would be shown after the game was done. The sports stations would warn you before they gave the scores. I would always turn away…Except when it was the Redskins. If they lost I did not want to waste 4 hours watching that! But if they won I would watch with my dad with supreme confidence! He always wondered why sometimes I would come and other times not.
Our Power as believers is much like that…we already know the outcome and should live that way!
* Our Source is the Father!
Eph 1:3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will— to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.
Notice – every “spiritual blessing” – not material! This is where the health, wealth, and prosperity teachers Blow it! God is not about houses, bank accounts, and cars! His blessings are eternal! Jesus tried to get the spiritual leaders of His day to understand this:
John 3:12 But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
When you know there is victory, you have power! The Father planned the Victory and then Adopted us! As sons we possess the victory! We need to live that way!
* Our Source is the Son!
Eph 1:6-12… to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. He did this when he revealed to us the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ—the things in heaven and the things on earth. In Christ, we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.
"Dearly loved” This comes from the word - ἀγαπάω agapáō; - To esteem, love, indicating a direction of the will and finding one’s joy in something or someone.
God made His grace abound toward us - He purchased our victory by allowing His Son to pay the price!
God “lavished” His grace upon us!
We are God’s possession because He saw how we would respond to His grace…in His foreknowledge he predetermined (predestined) that we would stay alive until we could trust in His Son!
We inherited Christ and He inherited us:
1 Corinthians 3:21–23 So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
* Our Source is the Holy Spirit!
Eph 1:13-14 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
We were sealed with the Spirit! This is an eternal mark!
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
This assures us of the final victory over death and Satan!
Our Source is the Triune God. That's a lot of power
The So What: Do you live in the past and your sin, or in the present where Christ has assured you of victory? When the enemy accuses you, do you answer in your own strength or in the fact that you belong to Christ? Do you see yourself fallen into sin, or sealed by the Holy Spirit of God?
