I want us to continue from where we left off on ‘Taking advantage of God’s power’. Why are we looking at this? We are looking at it because of the things we are told in the Scriptures about the power of God. We are told in them that the kingdom we belong in is a kingdom of power. We are equally told that the gospel we preach is a gospel of power. Then we are told that the power of God is for those of us who believe to enjoy, utilise and experience. In addition to that, we are told that this power is at work in us. His power is resident in us. So, everywhere we go we carry His power there. And since this is the case, it is only wise and responsible of us to begin to utilise His power and to also do those things that will make us experience His power in our lives.
More so, as Paul shows us in his letter to the Ephesians, God Himself wants us to take advantage of this power. He wants us to strengthen ourselves in Him and in His mighty power. In other words, He does not want us to live weak and beggarly lives in this world. God knows that there are forces that are against us in this world. He knows that we have enemies. And this are not human enemies. They are spirit enemies, powerful and wicked spirit beings. And these beings are ready to do anything to make life miserable for us. They are ready to do anything to hinder us in life and prevent us from being the persons God wants us to be and doing the these He wants us to do. If we, then, will not take advantage of the power of God, we will have no answer for the things they are doing against us. We will not be able to fix them or handle them. It’s only God’s power that is capable of dealing with these beings and preventing them from ruining our lives. (Cf. Ephesians 6:10NIV)
So, we have a duty, which is to learn how to use the power of God and to also begin to utilise it. It is on us to choose not to be victims in this life but to be victors. It is on us to choose not to allow the devil to have a free day in our lives. So, as I said, we need to learn how to take advantage of God’s power and then begin to take advantage of it.
How, then, do we do this? First, we need to know His power. We cannot take adequate and appropriate advantage of His power, if we do not know it. If we do not know the quality of this power and what it is able to accomplish for us, we may not be able to take advantage of it adequately or see the need for us to be serious in taking advantage of it. So, it begins with knowing His power.
Now how do we know His power? One of the ways to know it is by revelation from God Himself. In other words, God Himself will have to reveal His power to us or educate our mind about the quality and greatness of His power. For example, when God first appeared to Moses in the wilderness, He began to reveal His power to Him. Look at what we are told about this from verse 1 of Exodus, chapter 4:
“Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, “The Lord did not appear to you”?’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A staff,’ he replied. The Lord said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’ Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. ‘This,’ said the Lord, ‘is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their forefathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has appeared to you.’ Then the Lord said, ‘Put your hand inside your cloak.’ So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous – it had become as white as snow. ‘Now put it back into your cloak,’ he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. Then the Lord said, ‘If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.’ (Exodus 4:1-9NIV)
You can see that God is revealing something to Moses here about His power. He is showing him that His power can recreate. His power is His creative ability. And with His power things can be recreated. With His power the course of nature can be changed. As I have already pointed out, we need to know what His power can do or accomplish. We need to know that His power can change our situations. His power can change our life’s circumstances. Until this is revealed to us, we won’t know. And if we don’t know, we will not be able to take adequate advantage of it. If we do not know what His power can accomplish for us, we cannot have faith to experience or utilise it.
The point I am making is that until we have revelations of God’s power, we will not be able to take advantage of His power adequately and appropriately. So, we need God to reveal His power to us. We need Him to reveal the greatness of His power to us. We need Him to reveal the quality of His power to us. He did this with Moses. He also did it with Gideon, as we also see in the bible. When God was going to send him to deliver His people from the Midianites, He had to reveal His power to him in order to strengthen his faith to carry out the assignment. There are also people who will not move an inch in doing the will of God, if He does not reveal His power to them or show them what His power is able to accomplish for them or make them succeed in what He is sending them to do.
Moses and Gideon were not immediately willing to do what God wanted them to do. They kept on arguing back and forth with Him and giving Him reasons they would not succeed. And He had to strengthen their faith by revealing something of His power to them. Maybe you too need to have Him reveal things about His power to you in order for you to do certain things He wants you to do. That step you are supposed to take that you have not taken – what you need to take it may just be a revelation of God’s power. Once you see that His power is able to make you succeed in it, you will take it.
Many are finding it difficult today to live the Christian life because they have no revelation of what God’s power is able to do for them in making it possible for them to live this life. They need a revelation of His power. We all need revelations of His power. And the more revelations of His power we have the better it gets for us. That is because the revelation of His power strengthens and builds our faith.
Another way to know His power is to pray to Him about it. In Moses and Gideon’s case, they did not offer any prayer to God in order for Him to reveal His power to them. Moses did not wake up that morning that God came to him expecting himself to find God. Gideon also did not wake up that day expecting to find God the day God came to him. Yet both of them saw Him, and He revealed His power to them. So, it is not every time that God shows up and reveals His power to people because they have prayed. But we can pray to Him to give us revelations of His power. And we see this in Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church, which we have from verse 18 of Ephesians 1 and which says:
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, for above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:13-21NIV)
There are three things Paul asks of God for these brethren here. First, he prays that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened in order that they may know the hope to which God has called them. Second, he prays that they will be made to know the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in His holy people. Third, he prays that they will be made to know God’s incomparably great power for us who believe. So, we can pray to God for revelations of His power. We can pray to Him to reveal the greatness and quality of His power to us in order to know how to take advantage of it.
Now Paul, who is offering this prayer for the brethren, already knows something of His power, for he describes it as Christ’s power of resurrection and ascension. According to him, it was God’s power that raised Jesus from the dead. Also, according to him, it was His power that caused Him to ascend on high, far above all principalities and power. And he would later write to the Philippians that he wants to know Christ and the power of His resurrection (Philippians 3:10). So, his own way of describing God’s power is to call it the power of resurrection, that is, the power that raises the dead. He also describes it as the power of ascension, the power that causes people to rise above any life’s challenge or trial.
The point I am making, in any case, is that we can pray to know God’s power; we can pray to have revelations of His power. Then we too will be able to describe His power. There are many descriptions of His power in the Scriptures from people who had revelations of it. We too can describe it to others, when we have it. I told you already how important it is for us to have revelations of His power. We cannot function beyond the revelation of His power that we have. So, we need to increase in our revelations of the power of God in order that we can take advantage of it in our situations.
We read in the bible accounts of people who took advantage of God’s power. Why were they able to do so the way they did? It was because they had revelations of it. For instance, we are told of a woman with an issue of blood. For twelve long years this woman suffered from this thing. Then, one day, she heard that Jesus was passing by and she told herself, “If I could only touch the hem of His garment, I would be well.” Then she pushed herself through the crowd to touch Jesus and, instantly, she became well. That means when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, the power of God was released for her healing. And she knew that she was well. Jesus also knew that power had gone out from Him to someone. Interestingly, He could not keep the power from coming out from Him to that woman.
But why was the woman able to do that? It was because she already had a revelation in her heart that God’s power could heal her and that by just touching the hem of Jesus’ garment that power would be released for her healing. She had a revelation that she did not have to meet Jesus personally in order for the power of God to be released for her healing. She also knew that Jesus did not have to lay hands on her in order for her to receive her healing. So, she did not need Him praying for her or saying anything to her. The revelation she had was that even the cloths of Jesus would have residues of God’s power in them and that if she could just touch the hem of any of His cloths, God’s power would be released for her healing. And when she did, she was healed instantly. (Cf. Mark 5:25-34)
Also, we are told in the bible of a centurion whose servant was unwell and who had come to Jesus so that He could come and lay hands on the man and make Him well. But while talking to Jesus, he just suddenly had a revelation that He did not even need to come to his house in order to heal his servant – all he needed to do was to speak a word, and the man would be well. And the Lord described that as great faith. But faith is based on revelations. That man had a revelation of the quality of God’s power. He had a revelation that the very words of Jesus carry God’s power. So, if He would speak, the power of God would be released and what he wanted done would be done. And when Jesus spoke, the power of God was released, what the man wanted was done and God was praised.
Well, we are talking about receiving revelations of God’s power, so that we can take advantage of it and change our experience in life. And I am saying that we can pray for that to happen. Paul prays for the Ephesians to know this power. We too can pray to know it. And we really need to know it, if we would be taking adequate advantage of it.
Another way to know God’s power is by studying the Scriptures and meditating on them. We have all kinds of accounts in the Scriptures of manifestations of God’s power. And by studying these accounts we too can strengthen our faith to take advantage of His power. In the book of Exodus, for example, we have a number of accounts of the manifestations of God’s power. And by studying these accounts, we too can have faith to take advantage of God’s power, especially if we find ourselves in situations that are similar to the ones the children of Israel found themselves in.
At least, we know from this book of Exodus, that God’s power can alter the course of nature or accelerate the changes of physical state of things. God told Moses to take water from the Nile river and pour it on the ground and that it would become blood. And he did, and the water did. In other words, Moses did what God told him to do. And when he did, the water that he poured on the ground became blood. We have something similar in John 2. There Jesus turned water into wine. That was a manifestation of the power of God. It can change an unpleasant situation into something pleasant. And it can alter the course of nature.
Of course, it was not everyday that Jesus turned water into wine. And it was not everyday that Moses turned water into blood. But if you find yourself in a situation in which the course of nature needs to be altered in order for a need to be met in your life or in order for you to be saved from a situation, you can have faith to utilise God’s power on your behalf. This may be a little difficult to explain. But the point of it all is that by studying and meditating on scripture accounts of the manifestations of God’s power, we too can develop our faith to experience His power in tremendous ways.
Also, in the book of Exodus, we see that by God’s power He parted the Red Sea. God’s power can do that. His power is so great that it can divide the waters of the sea. Later on, both Elijah and Elisha would demonstrate their faith along this line in parting the waters of River Jordan (2Kings 2). You may not need to divide any physical sea. But you may find yourself in a situation in which you need a way to be made for you. You may just be sandwiched in a place where you need a way out. And you can trust Him to release His power to make a way for you. Paul tells us that there is no situation that has come to us that uncommon to man and that God is faithful and will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear but will make a way out for us, when we are tempted, so that we can stand up under it (1Corinthians 10:13).
So, God is able to make a way out for us in any situation, however dangerous the situation may be. But we need to know that His power can do this for us. Otherwise, we may not take any step to take advantage of His power to make a way for us where there is no way.
Well, what I am saying is that by studying the Scriptures to see the various ways in which God’s power was manifested in the past, we too can strengthen our faith to utilise His power for our advantage. Look at what a psalmist says about this from verse 10 of Psalm 77: “Then I thought, ‘To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand. I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.’” (Psalm 77:10-12NIV) This man says I will remember the deeds of the Lord, I will remember your miracles of long ago and I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds. Why did he say this? It was so that he could strengthen his faith in God. He would go through the Scriptures, consider the things said in them about the power of God and meditate on them so that he could take advantage of this power.
So, learn to study Scriptures that talk about manifestations of Gods power and to meditate on them. That way, you can take advantage of His power for your preservation, exaltation, salvation, healing and so forth. Look at what Gideon said about his knowledge of God’s power when the angel of the Lord appeared to him: “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Pardon me, my Lord, ‘Gideon replied, ‘but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, “Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?” But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.’” (Judges 6:12-13NIV)
When the angel of the Lord appeared to this man, he asked, “Where is God? Where is His power that we have heard great things about? It seems that He has already abandoned us. Otherwise we would be experiencing His power.” So, Gideon was familiar with what God’s power could accomplish. He had heard about it. He had read in the Scriptures about it and had been thinking about what became of this power. Yes, he had been wondering if God’s power was no more or if it was just that God had left them. If He had not left them, why then were they not experiencing His power for their deliverance? And the angel of the Lord did answer all his questions for him.
Now thanks to God, for we have no doubt about His presence with us or the availability of His power for us and in us. We just need to know what His power could accomplish for us and then begin to take advantage of it. Therefore, you need to increase in your knowledge of the power of God, which is the point I have been making all along. You need to increase in your revelations of His power. Yes, you need sound and abiding revelations of His power in your heart, so that you can begin to adequately take advantage of it to frustrate the devil and walk in victory in every area of your life. And I pray that your heart will be filled with greater revelations of this power, so that you can take advantage of it to be the person God wants you to be and do the things He wants you to do, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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