Powerful Living

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Drive North

Tom Jones’s cabin was his ultimate expression of independence. He was tired of living at the mercy of the electric and oil companies. Tom would show the world that he was a real man! He pried boulders from the soil of Bald Mountain with levers and sweat, and built the foundation. He felled fifty trees with an axe and saw, and had the blisters to prove it. Tom dug a hole twenty feet deep, hoping to hit a water spring. He didn’t want to answer to anyone but himself, but his back was not as strong as his imagination; he needed to find a source of power.

Tom leaned against the handle of his shovel and wiped his brow. The wind rustled the leaves above him and gave him relief from the burning sun. He could hear the gurgle of a mountain stream nearby. That’s it! He could build a waterwheel. Perhaps he could even harness the power of the sun and the wind. Who needed electricity? He could control the power of nature.

The project took weeks instead of days. Tom hiked to town for more nails. He returned to town for more lumber and more tools. Nothing seemed to be working. When he finally resorted to the library for instructions on homesteading, he found he had built his cabin in the wrong place. The mountain blocked the wind and the sun. The stream was too shallow and slow. His efforts had all been worthless.

Pride is a deceiving thing. It makes us feel great when things are going well. We feel invincible. We don’t need anyone else. We like to feel independent and powerful. Like a young child, we say, “I can do it all by myself!”

Man has always sought power. He has dreamed of being able to throw lightning darts or balls of fire. He has built machines that fly and devices that explode. He has soared into space and explored the depths of the ocean.

There is even is different kind of power—power over another man’s actions and emotions. A leader speaks and sways hundreds to obey him. A billionaire buys and sells oil to control the economy of the world. A woman winks and melts a man’s heart. All of these are selfish, sinful forms of power. They stem from Satan himself, the father of pride and greed. (Isaiah 14:13, 14) “For thou(Lucifer) hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
God is the ultimate power. His power is just and holy. It performs His perfect will. God’s power can shake the earth and turn the king’s heart. It can convict the hardest criminal of his sin. It can heal a broken body. It can conquer death itself. That is true power!

If you have acknowledged your sin and accepted Christ’s forgiveness and salvation, He has given you a wonderful gift—the life of His Spirit within in you. Just think about that…God, the Creator of the universe, the Almighty God, lives within you. God can do anything He pleases, yet He chooses to work through His children. His power can work through us. (John 14:20) “… ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. "
Even as Tom Jones’s waterwheel needed to be in the right place to work effectively, our lives need to be in the right place. When we stand in the middle of God’s will, His power rushes over us and around us and through us. We will be “strong in the power of His might.” It is not our own strength or determination—only our willingness to be a tool, a wheel, a channel for His work. (II Cor. 4:6,7) “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”
Have you felt God’s power in your life? Have you surrendered yourself to Him to use you as He chooses? Has He touched others through your words or actions? (Ephesians 3:14-21) “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”