(This article is also available as a podcast episode. Please visit the podcast page on my website at https://franceestrain.com or visit “Eternal Purpose Podcast” on Spotify or Anchor to listen.)
A life lived for God is a life full of power, but sometimes that power goes untapped. There is power in His name and power when He acts, but sometimes we ignore His name, and we ignore His acts, so we miss His power. I want to spell the word powerful with two L’s because that is what He is. There is more impact. He is full of power and operates with full power.
How do we get access to this power? God Himself is powerful, and for those who have placed their faith in Jesus’ atonement for salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them. And the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in them. There is resurrection power available to our dead souls and our “dead” lives. And we have 24-hour access to this power. We’re not limited to one hour a week while we attend church or perhaps another hour when we’re at a prayer meeting or a Bible study class. No, the power does not come from our schedules, our words, our location, our making a formula for it, our having good behavior, or anything else for that matter. The power comes from God Himself, from Him and His authority, from His omnipotent character. He is the King of the universe, and He’s at our right hands when our lives belong to Him. His presence will be with us. He will hold our hands and lead us and guide us. He will also hold us in His capable and mighty hands and shelter us with them. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High dwells under the shadow of the Almighty.1
So, when we approach God in prayer, we are inviting Him to act. When we pray and ask, we invoke His power. We access His strength. We receive His help. We are no longer alone, and our strength is no longer human strength; it is now supernatural. He has all wisdom, power, and authority. He is mighty to save. We fight the right way when we fight on our knees, asking for Him to be involved in our lives.
But sometimes, we forget this truth. How many times have we realized that He could have intervened long ago before things got to be such a mess, if only we had talked to Him about it?
Sometimes, it feels like I’m standing in the middle of a field with gusts of wind trying to blow me down. There’s no shelter, no cover, no stoppage of the relenting and howling force. Other times, I feel like a tree in the rainforest being perpetually drowned with overwhelming and regular downpours. Sometimes, I feel like a beach with wave after wave crashing upon me, and breaking over me, and grinding me into sand. But then, I remember. I remember, and the power comes. I set my mind on Him: the One who commands the storms and calms them, the One who commands life to return and death to flee, the One who commands the supernatural and brings miracles out of the impossible, the One who commands creation to exist and keeps it in perfect order. I remember my feet are planted on the rock, the solid rock, the sure foundation. I am not on shifting sand. I remember who hears my prayers. I remember who gives me the breath of life. Yes, I remember the One who holds my very life in His hands.
Yes, the situations may be beyond our control, but they are not beyond His. God is still in control. We may be a diligent worker whose work unravels before our eyes through no fault of our own. We may experience the death of a loved one that seems to steal our very life and reason for living. We may experience damage in our physical lives that cannot be undone. We may have health issues that can’t be resolved. We may be financially savvy yet take one financial hit after another. But remember, we are not helpless; we are not hopeless; we are not abandoned; and we are not alone. God never leaves us. And because of that fact, that means the power never leaves us either. Grief doesn’t have to shroud us. Despair doesn’t have to imprison us. Unchangeable circumstances don’t have to define us. We are His. We are heard, seen, known, loved, and helped. Peace, be still. God has an eternal purpose for us. We can keep moving forward through the storms, through the fires, through the floods, through the pain. Nothing can thwart His plan.
We can move from hopeless to hopeful, from wandering aimlessly to having each step guided, from having a mind filled with worry to one filled with wonder. Yes, when we look upon His power, we will be in awe—in awe of who He is, of what He does, and how He loves us. His grace is sufficient for us, and His power shines in the midst of our weaknesses. Apart from Him, we can do nothing, but when we abide in Him, we live attached to the ultimate power source.
King David could leap over walls; Joshua shouted and walls fell; Moses walked between two walls of a sea, parted for his safe passage. We, too, can face the impenetrable walls in front of us because no one can close the doors God opens. He will make a way for us to press on. We can have the courage to go, to do, to say, and to be. We can be bold, unafraid, fearless. He is our Helper. We can enter the promised land when we follow His leading. We can enter into the things He has for us. Nothing is impossible with Him. Tragedies can be turned into triumphs. One stone made the giant fall. One week of obedience and one shout made the walls of Jericho fall. One death on the cross made death fall. Jesus overcame victoriously, and He lives to intercede for us. He has resurrection power. Believe. Pray. Ask.
We can press on with hope and purpose. We can press on with power, the power of the King of kings and Lord of lords, the faithful God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. We get to choose this day whom we will serve.2 And this is whom I have chosen.
His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from 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 through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.3
NOTES
1 See Psalm 91:10.
2 See Joshua 24:15.
3 Ephesians 3:14–21 is taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, ©1982 by Thomas Nelson.
There are many Bible passages that discuss God’s power. Here are a few others I accessed for this article: Joshua 1:9, 2 Samuel 22, and Psalm 89:13.
©Text and photo Francee Strain, April 22, 2022
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