Power

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life… (2 Peter 1:3 NIV)

I’ve had discussions with many people over the years that have challenged their way of thinking about the Christian life.  “I’m just a sinner,” one person told me.  “I’ll always be a sinner and I will always keep sinning.  There’s nothing I can do about that.”  The only problem with thsese statements is that they directly contradict what God says in His Word.

Yes, it is true that we are all sinners.  All have fallen short of the glory of God. When I am judged by Christ in the end, my life will include places where I have sinned.  That doesn’t mean, however, that I need to keep on sinning.  In fact, God gives us His Spirit so we will have the power to stop messing up.  God gives us unlimited power through God’s Spirit.

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation--but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:10-14 NIV)

I’ve taught lessons before using Jesus’s temptation against Satan in the wilderness.  Whenever I teach using that passages, someone always comes up to me and says, “That all well and good, Pete, but I can’t win against Satan like that.  Jesus was God.  I am not.”  While the last part of that statement is true, the start of it is completely wrong.  God gives us all of His Power through the Holy Spirit.  Those of us who are in Christ Jesus now have the Spirit dwelling within us.  We have been given the power to fight off even Satan himself.

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:2-4 NIV)

We do not need to be afraid of temptation, our old habits, the thoughts in our minds, or the feelings in our hearts.  God gives us the power to fight off anything that sets itself against God.  God’s Spirit changes everything.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7 NIV)

So how about you?  Do you have the power of God within you?  Does it change everything?