Some years ago, before the Charismatic Renewal, some Christians were severely chastised because they felt in their hearts that more is available from Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, and they sought to receive it. Because of their seeking, they experienced God’s glory in a very dynamic way. They couldn’t keep it to themselves, and as they shared the revelation of what they had received, they were dropped in the New Age bucket or labeled as workers of evil. They were ostracized and chastised by the Christian community. This is what we do when we don’t understand something. Instead of going to God directly to inquire whether something has been anointed and appointed by Him, we rally together and seek to either tear it down or persuade others to do it. Some of us want spirituality in Christ to be contained in our little boxes, so that it’s small enough for us to digest. We’ve done this far too long, and we’re now at a point that if we don’t burst out of our boxes, we’re going to miss the revelation that God is delivering to those that are super hungry to experience His power, and do so in a way that defies business as usual.
There’s more! There’s so much more available to receive from Heavenly Father. We often hear about the younger generation and how hungry they are for power, so much so that they are acting out of desperation and harming themselves with addictive substances at an epidemic rate. The truth that more is available to receive from God is coded in our DNA, but instead of looking to Him, many are seeking a false high that takes them out of themselves and makes them feel invincible and able to handle anything. They are looking for a way to escape and want a power greater than themselves. Just as he did with Adam and Eve, the enemy is trying to trick them out of their destinies by convincing them to look to him for what can only be received from God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
For me personally, I can attest that there isn’t a lower feeling than that of hopelessness, where you feel powerless to move your life out of a dreary place and transport it to greater possibilities and opportunities. The reality is that there is great hope through Jesus Christ, and without him, there is no hope. When we unpack this truism a little further, we must come to grips with the amazing ability we have through Christ to change and eclipse any goals that we’ve set for ourselves. Power is not a bad word. It is what God extends to us through Christ, and it is manifested through the Holy Spirit that indwells us. It is through the Spirit’s power that we experience God’s glory!
We have to be activated in the power of the Holy Spirit, and many of us are stunted and unfulfilled because we’ve refused to manifest more of God through the power He’s provided. Understand something with crystal clarity, we’ve convinced ourselves that we can’t measure up to the standard of Christ, and we can’t without the Holy Spirit abiding in us; but through Christ, God KNOWS that we can measure up to the standard. The more that we seek God, the more we grow stronger in Him, and the closer we become to the example of His Son.
Oh how He wants us to do this! He wants us to hunger after Him because He hungers for us. We serve a God that sits high and looks low. He is concerned with every detail of our lives, and He knows us through and through. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is the Creator of all that we survey, and He calls us His children. He has made us a part of His most holy family. 1John 3:1 (NLT) says, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.”
It’s really too grand for words, the privilege we’ve been given. For the unbelieving who desire to live dynamically, God wants to introduce them to Christ through us! For those of us desiring to offer them a true picture of the action, God wants to do a mighty work through us, so that the portrait of our lives matches the reality of our Christ identity.
In Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul declared that God had given him the honor of telling others about God’s endless treasure made available to all of us. An endless treasure is just that; it never ends. This is what God has given us through the Lord Jesus! 2Corinthian 4:7 (KJV) says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” WHOAAAA! That’s huge! The treasure is inside of us! It is the power of the Spirit. That’s the treasure! It’s not our power; it’s God’s! It gets expressed through us, but this can’t happen if we’re not looking to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith.
Knowing the Word doesn’t mean that we’ve established intimacy with God through Christ. Some of us can quote the bible with amazing accuracy, and we do all the things that most folks think good Christians ought to do, but our experience of God is limited to what we routinely practice one day a week. Think of how our marriages and relationships with others would be if this pattern translated to how we fellowship with the people we claim to love and value. If we interacted with them that way that some of us interact with Heavenly Father, the result would be relationships that lack intimacy.
James 4:8 tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to us. We have to put this truth in the context of who God is. He’s our all-powerful Father. We’re His children, so when we get next to Him, it is logical for us to presume that something in the bigness of all that He is will rub off on us. Our bodies are like clay jars, but our inner reality is transforming daily into His image. So we are not meant to be spiritual weaklings, or broken cisterns that can hold no water. We’re destined to be spiritual powerhouses, because that is who our God has made us through His loving, powerful Son.
God tells us in Hebrews 11:6 that He is a Rewarder of diligent effort. Where there is no effort, there is no reward. Where there is little effort, there is little reward. Where there is diligent, consistent and persistent effort, there is a huge reward. The latter is what we ought to be aiming for, because God has equipped us with the spiritual capacity to receive it. Seek more!■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.