Veroni's Views

I promised in my previous blog that I would write on the practicalities of ensuring that the resurrection power of God works in me as a born again believer.  As with so many aspects of our lives as Christians, the truth about this is so simple that many find it impossible to accept.

It all starts of course with accepting the Lord Jesus Christ.  “Accept” here means accepting Him for everything He really is;  Saviour, but also Lord of lords and King of kings.  Implicit in this acceptance is the acknowledgement of our own hopelessness without Him, and our inability to save ourselves.  It includes confessing our greatest sin, that of believing we belong to ourselves, and therefore have the right to decide the course of our own lives.     This is what Paul refers to as “being crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2.19 and 20). 

It implies submitting fully to the Lordship of Christ, to be committed to praying in sincerity “Let your Kingdom come, let your will be done.”   

As I said before, we need to seek the Lord with all our hearts.  Jesus refers to this as “being thirsty”.   Matthew 5.6 in the Good News Bible correctly describes those who are thirsty as “those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.”  Jesus continues to say:  “God will satisfy them fully.”

So where will the power be coming from?  I recall singing with great gusto as a young boy “Let the fire fall just now, Father hear us call, let the fire fall just now.”  As we sang, I expected the power to fall from the sky.  But in my experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit, I felt a surge of power coming from within myself.  It was literally the experience Jesus was talking about when He said to those who were thirsty:  “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7.38)

The Holy Spirit is the power of God.  He dwells in the believer.  So it is only logical that the power of God will spring forth from within the believer.

At this point you may ask “But why do I not always experience the fulness of his Power?”  An illustration my father frequently used to explain this may be helpful.

Whether a glass is full of water, or half full, if one would ask “What is in the glass?” the answer would be “water.”

God’s Spirit lives in you, whether you continuously experience the fulness of Him or not. 

There are some practical things we can do to ensure the fulness of God’s work in us.   It is a bit like a garden hose.  There may be an ample supply of water in the faucet.  The hose itself may be in good condition and securely connected to the faucet.  But one little kink in the hose may be obstructing the flow of water.

“Kinks” in our connection to the source of God’s power may be things like unforgiveness, materialism, selfishness, lovelessness, unconfessed temper, lack of self-control…

The more we can get rid of any obstruction in our “hose”, the more freely the power of God will flow through us.

The good news is that the Holy Spirit Himself has one overriding purpose, and that is to make us more like Jesus.  So as we continue to sincerely seek the Lord, He will be working in us, with us,  to ensure all blockages are cleared.