Power!

Power!

Acts 1:8 KJV

[8] But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Jesus had resurrected from the dead, and in the event that the authorities of His day wanted to lie about this, He had appeared to several people as proof that death had np hold on Him, and the power of sin and death was not permanently broken. The disciples had seen Him several times over the next 40 days after His resurrection and now, it was time for Him to return to the Father, and send the gift of the Holy Spirit, as He had promised. You can trust God to keep His Word. All He had told the disciples were now coming to pass. My fears and doubts only limit the scope of the operation of God's grace in my life; it does not, in any way, limit who God is or what He can do. One of His promises, before He left the earth at the time, was the promise of His presence that would not depart from His followers. The gift is the Holy Spirit, and one of His features is power. 

One definition of 'power' is: 'the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events'. Reflect on this and see what is at stake here: God is saying that men will receive power, which is the ability to direct or influence the behaviour of men around them. Reflect on the awesome responsibility this is: God is able to entrust the lives of men into my hands, sure that they can then in turn change the course of history. This is what the early disciples did. As Jesus had promised, He sent the Holy Spirit, and men who forsook Jesus and ran away just a few days before, could stand in front of a crowd and declare the mind of God. These men, through the help of the same Holy Spirit, began a movement that, till today, continues to impact all of life. That is what power, from God's perspective, means: the ordinary, in the hands of the extraordinary God, can lead to extraordinary things. 

Of course, it is men who have already been impacted by power that can show it off. How do you expect a man who has not personally experienced it be able to bear witness to it? How can a man who does not know what power looks like be able to describe it when he is asked about it? That is the power of personal experience: nobody else can explain it on your behalf; nobody can experience it on your behalf. I start from where I am, and I am careful to be a blessing beyond where I am at the moment. The world must be impacted one life at a time, starting at my Jerusalem, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. It is divine empowerment that drives earthly impact and accomplishment. The earth is ripe for harvest and only those with the right tools are able to reap and bring in the harvest. That which the earth supplies cannot change the earth; only that which is of God, and His Spirit, can change men, who will then change the earth. Do you have Him? God's time of favour is here.