“Strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy;”

Christians live their lives strengthened by all the power of God. This brings victorious Christian living. We have the full power of God at our disposal, yet we fail and falter and are not over comers. We allow the sinful mindset of the flesh to infiltrate our thinking and the vain philosophies of the day to dictate how we think and process our situation. This makes us weak because we do not rely on the word of God but on the foolishness of human thinking. 

The rise of psychology is also a factor in the way we think and process our daily lives. We take up these issues so easily from the media and our education and forget the promises and statutes of the Lord. The Scripture is sufficient, but we add to it and allow the worldly way of thinking into our psyche. This effects how we process our difficulties and we can forget to bring them to God, who is ever ready to help us.

The might of the glory of God is ours, yet we do not possess it or live in the light of it. We find it hard to take in, how the glory of God can be in our lives and the power of the Holy Spirit to take us and fill our lives with His joy. He can give us the power to endure all things and to persevere in our Christian lives right to the end. This is the mark of the true Christian, the one who truly knows God and belongs to Him only.

This joy of the Holy Spirit in not necessarily an outward expression of emotion, but an inner peace. It is a deep well of inner calm and happiness that cannot be touched by the things of this life. It is from God and is therefore something that He bestows on His people who love Him and are faithful to Him. It is a deep and silent power that enervates the Christian to be holy, for God is holy.

“Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8:10

We do not need to be cast down by our circumstances but we can rely on the Lord to sustain us in the trials and give us peace and contentment, even in the middle of great trauma. The Lord is real and to know Him is real, and we lay hold on His great and precious promises to sustain us and fill us with this joy. As we read His word we can be overcome with a sense of our own weakness and unworthiness and we can feel we are not sufficient. We are not sufficient, that is the point! The Lord is willing and able to sustain us and when we need forgiveness, he is always there, ready to forgive and restore us to close fellowship with Him. His loving kindness is extraordinary and when we experience it, we are filled with the joy of the Lord. 

It is curious that we do not have the steadiness and constancy in our lives when the strength of the living God is available to us. Too many earthly considerations get in the way and we do not know the Word of God sufficiently to apply it in our daily lives. We forget so quickly what we have heard and read and revert to the earthly ways of thinking and processing. 

Beloved, let us grid up the strength of our mind and soul and give ourselves to the Lord today. We rest on that glorious joy that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit within us, not of our own making, but of His eternal purposes. We will endure and persevere under His personal and powerful work in our lives. 

Are you gradually breaking out of the prison of your chrysalis? Does the body of your caterpillar- self, know the changing power – the miracle – of the metamorphosis into the life of a butterfly?

We can watch so many in or society demonstrating the weakness and futility of human projects, that fail and fall and lead many into the emptiness of lives without meaning. So many lives that forget God or throw over the “restrictions” of the moral law, and fall helplessly into the abyss of self-belief and self-confidence.

It is possible for human beings to rise out of failure, and be lifted up to lives of purpose. No matter how far down the moral ladder you go, or how empty our lives appear to us, the metamorphosis of a new life is always possible. It is not necessary to spend our time, grubbing about in our little world, just caught up with the trivialities of life, and never understanding the prospect of vitality, power, courage and faith that are the characteristics of the Christian.

Greatness is not just for the “great” – those who always seem to be at the front of things – but God calls all his children to live large lives for Him. Living in the shallows is not the destiny of any Christian. Swimming in the depths of the love of God, and running the race of life with power and stamina, is the default state of every Christian, where ever they might be and what ever service they may be doing for Christ’s sake.

Just as Christ is not “ordinary” and lived the most spectacular of lives for the glory of God and as a mighty demonstration of what God can do in a human life, so those who follow Him are no less ordinary and have available to them all the power and might of the eternal God to do ever greater works than Jesus himself did.

The pity is we expect so little, and are satisfied with little faith, medium-sized usefulness and lack-luster passion for either Jesus or the people around us. As long as me and mine are safe and sound, that’s all that can be expected of me, as I am sinful, weak and puny. What a cop-out. Christ saved all who came to him, he healed everyone, no matter if they believed in who He is or not. He fed them all, thousands at a sitting. Good food, satisfying food and spiritual food. The people around us are hungry, in every way hungry – but there is no food. They come to church, but there is no food there either. Where are they all to be satisfied and find the way to change?

Will you pray for this kind of power? You need to be careful, because it will change you and change everything you know and touch and challenge your thought patterns and the way you process ideas. Are you brave enough for this or are you going to play it safe?

Power is a dangerous commodity, as we can see from the wielding of it in our human societies. But this is different, this power will bring you down, humble you, strengthen you and give you the power that raised Jesus for the dead. You will be given the ability to use it for the sake of others and for the glory of God. Men, women, boys and girls…. grasp the sword and pull it from the stone. The double edge will bring victory to all who throw themselves into the action.