Wisdom20 Getting a Hold of Power

[HKHaugan]

Wisdom 20 Getting a Hold of Power 

That is kind of a misleading title. You can’t get a hold of power. You have to let power get a hold of you. Here again there are three kinds, spiritual, personal and relational. We’ll start with spiritual power because ultimate power is the power of God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen.1:1).” Now that’s power, spiritual power. By the will of God everything came into being; the visible and the invisible. By His power we were created to be spiritual beings in physical bodies. Obviously, if we prioritize the topic of power it starts with the will of God to exert His power first in Creation and then in us.

 We are created in God’s image and likeness (Gen.1:26) therefore, we are individually endowed with a mind that can will, like Him, to think and act. As His images we are conscious of being individuals with a will. That is the first part of our being, the personal power to will. Will power.

 Because we are spiritual beings our personal will is unique as well as spiritual. For the personal will to function properly it needs the Holy Spirit to make choices. Without God the Holy Spirit, self-centered sin will be the only alternative and the result leads to a spiritual dead end. It is the spiritual power of will that initiates our personal thinking and behavior. If sin reigns, then the result of any choice will be made apart from God. This will put a crimp in all our relational experience. Thus, both our personal and relational power will serve sin as opposed to God. This happens when we rationalize and justify our thinking and behavior apart from God. Then it is a negative power isolating us and causing distrust around us.

 Our will was meant to work spiritually. When the Father sent Jesus to live in our human neighborhood He chose the limitation of a human body like ours. He had a spiritual will which He submitted to His Father’s will in every single detail, “For I have come down from Heaven not to do my will but the will of Him who sent me (Jn.6:38).” This means we were made to will to do the Father’s will. But He gave us the choice to make our will like His will, to exert a positive force to love and serve where we are.

 The relational experiences we have depend upon the spiritual will we have been given. This is the source of power. The location of our will determines the power we allow to work through us. If it is Jesus, then the way is clear. And then too, the truth and the life He offers will adorn our permanent spiritual path. This is the path of real power. The Lord of all power and might is the One who created the Heavens and the earth. His power dispels the illusion of godless power, temporary power, fake power.

 So, let’s elaborate a bit more about power. There is the power of the will, the power of obedience and the power of action, God the Trinity in motion.

 Jesus is the primary example of these three powers at work. His will was to do His Father’s will (Jn.4:34, 6:38). That will is spread to all those who will to believe in Him. He calls them His mother, sister and brother (Mt.12:50). We have been given a will, a free will, to make choices. Jesus exercised His will to do His Father’s will. The question for us is, “Whose will are we willing to will ourselves to follow?” There are daily choices to submit our will to the wills of many authorities; economic, civil, medical, political, social and church. Without God those other wills can be divisive and take unneeded time and energy to sort out. However, if God’s will is the supervisory will, all the others will be put in their proper place beneath Him. Historically, God’s will has the power to create, sustain and raise us from fear to faith, from the world’s pressuring imbalance to balance within and from death to eternal life. That’s real power.

 This brings us to the power of obedience. There are two forces at work within us, our reborn spiritual nature and the sinful nature. Like Paul says, the good we want to do, we don’t and the evil we don’t want to do, we do (Rom.7). There are two powers jockeying for position at the crossroads of choice. One is to follow the easy and wide way to safety, the absence of conflict and momentary calm. The other is to follow Jesus’ narrow way---Him and His teaching (Mt.7:14). To obey Him is to first follow Him in our mind. Then to obey Him is to trust what He teaches. After this it’s to obey by doing what He teaches.

 There are all kinds of sand traps, potholes and fissures in the unseen environment of spirituality. It is easy to be sinful. Just go by your first impression or your inclination to escape the unpleasant possibilities that fear induces. The unpleasant stuff carries the lesser powers. If we love Jesus and obey Him as He asks, the Father will love us and the Holy Spirit will be with us guaranteeing the power of God working in us (Jn.14:23-24). This has real effect on those around us. There’s power in obedience.

 There’s power in action; to act, to achieve the work of God’s will, to become a mature disciple and witness. God’s ideas, God’s attitude, God’s action make up the light coming through Jesus. His actions are what justifies Him. As God the Son, believing who He was, He believed perfectly, He trusted perfectly, and He acted perfectly. These three are why He is deemed the revealed Messiah, God the Son in the flesh. That deeming came from His Father (Mt.3:17). It was seen on the Cross and fulfilled at His Resurrection. The power of His Cross is why He tells us to take up ours. Our re-deeming came through His Cross. We were deemed to be like Him at our birth. Action is taking up our cross, the cross of faith, in every next moment when a choice has to be made and doing what the Holy Spirit leads us to do at that moment.

 The will to believe God’s ideas (the mind of Jesus), the will to trust and obey His will (the heart of Jesus) and the will to act on what you believe (faith for Jesus), is the witness we give. This is the submission of our will to His will. It doesn’t take place only in major issues or problems. It always starts in the little choices we are called to make each day. The temptation to take it easy when we are alone or facing minor tasks is the exact moment we have to be alert. It’s right there that the devil throws little minor temptations our way.

 Our integrity starts the moment we wake and into the moment we drift into sleep. This is where the power of God matures us and changes the local world where we live. It’s not something you may see. Integrity is something you are. Jesus was totally sold out to His Father. He was what it means to have personal integrity. Nothing gave Him more pleasure than to do the will of His Father. It is that kind of will we are being called to develop. The will to love the Lord God with all our mind, heart and strength is what enables us to have the strength to love everyone with whom we come in contact. This was what sent Jesus to the Cross and what is the power of the Cross.

 When we make the transition from the power of self (sin) to the power of God (Holy Spirit), the experience we log is our personal spiritual history, our testimony. It may not be dramatic, but it is real and the more we log, the deeper is our knowledge of the Lord. Everything Jesus did was based on His experience of the love of His Father. Obedience to the Father was His love lived, which is why He taught His disciples that to obey Him was the way to love Him since He and the Father were One (Jn.10:30). It was obedience with a promise. That promise was that He would send the Holy Spirit to be our constant companion to live in our hearts and counsel us through the Word (Jn.14:15-17, 23-24). Our testimony is our power which is the power of the Holy Spirit coming through us. Wisdom for us is the choice to let His will be the power that drives us in every next encounter. In that moment we reveal the Resurrection of the Lord because our every next moment submitted to His will is a Resurrection moment, a testimony to the ultimate power of the Lordship of Jesus.