Real Power

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much and hello again dear radio friends, how are you? Or, I should say ‘How in the world are you?” If I miss that standard greeting someone is certain to write to me and say, “What in the world is the matter with you, are you sick or something?”

(Chuckles) Well, I didn’t forget it.

I trust everything’s going well at your house. If you’ve struck a day when things aren’t going as well as they should; a rough day, look up and trust your blessed Lord Jesus. He will bring you through, not somehow but triumphantly.

“Thanks be unto God, which always,” (I’m glad for that word in there-always, not just ‘sometimes’) “which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest by us the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

You’re God’s perfume under pressure. If you’re under pressure today remember, you’re God’s perfume. He’s making the fragrance of His knowledge…
See, a person who really knows the Lord, when that person is under pressure there’s a fragrance, there’s a beauty, there’s a blessedness that shows up that cannot be faked, it cannot be imitated or counterfeited.

God in your life makes the difference beloved. He’ll show Himself to be real when you are under pressure as you trust Him.

Well, somebody needed that and now you got it. God bless you.

We’re having a few random thoughts as I call them. “Wrap up thoughts” from Colossians. We’ve studied this book for a while, verse by verse and now, before I leave it, like saying goodbye to an old friend or a loved one you hate to, to say a quick ‘Goodbye”, and you sorta linger out the door.
Did you hear of that young couple that went to the airport and as the different planes were being called, they would, uh, go and stand by the various gates and where people were saying goodbye and, and eh, having a goodbye kiss, this young couple would also be kissing and hugging and saying goodbye. And then they would go to the next gate and do the same thing. That’s a good idea, isn’t it? (hearty laugh)
Ah well.

We do linger out the door. And, the reason for it, is that we hate just to rush away from somebody that is dear to us. You can understand that. Well, the same thing is true of this wonderful book of Colossians.
We’ve lived in it for a while and I hate to leave it, so I’m giving a few random wrap-up thoughts. Is that alright with you? Well I hope so ‘cause I’m gonna do it anyway…ha-ha.

Well, we talked about the fact that you can know God’s will. You find out His will from the Word of God and from detailed praying, from the cast of circumstances, from counseling with other Godly people and from taking the step of faith, uh, to do what you know you ought to do this minute. You can know God’s will.

You can bloom and bear fruit where you’re planted. Where you are and what you are and who you are and the circumstances in which you are, are all part of God’s provision for you and you can be fruitful in every good work.
“Increasing in the knowledge of God.” That is to say you can grow spiritually right where you are!

I had a preacher friend years ago, when I was in the Pastorate. He had a church maybe six miles from where I lived and we became very close friends. We would pray together, we had some all-night prayer meetings together, and, and once when I was under very great pressure he came and prayed with me and God wonderfully answered. So, we were very close together.

One day he confided in me. He said, “You know, I’m not as holy as I ought to be and,” he said, “the reason that I’m not is the household duties and tasks and, uh, other things crowd in and I just, I just don’t get to spend the time with God I ought to!” Well, I said, “Tom, that’s, that’s too bad. We ought…we ought to ask God to give you that opportunity.”

Well sure enough, a while later his wife decided that she would go back and visit her folk in New Jersey, and so she took the two little children, who were pre-schoolers, with her and went back for a visit that lasted, I guess two or three weeks. It lasted a while anyway.

So, uh, the days went by and went by and, uh, uh, the second week was well on the way, when I, uh, happened to call my good preacher friend on a matter and we were talking and I said, “Well,” I said, “you’ve been all by yourself now for nearly two weeks!” “Yes,” he said, “I have.”

“Well,” I asked him, “are you any more holy now than you were? You had plenty of time to pray, haven’t you?” He said…he thought a moment and he says, “No…Bob,” he said, “I’m not,” he said. “I’ve just been just as busy with other things.” he said. “The problem is not with my house or my family. The problem is with me.”

(soft chuckle) Well, that was a good discovery to make, wasn’t it? (soft chuckle) You can be as godly as you want to be in your present circumstances!

God doesn’t have to move your family away or change your job situation, or even move you from where you are to a thousand miles away in order to make you holy. He said you can be increasing in the knowledge of God right where you are! Bloom where you’re planted. Bear fruit where you are, and in the process you’ll get to know your blessed heavenly Father a lot better.
Good thought, isn’t it?

Well, that was what we said what we said… (chuckle)…you can be fruitful where you are and you can grow at the same time.

Now, we come to verse eleven in Colossians one; “random wrap-up thoughts” this is, in the book of Colossians, okay?

You can know the inexhaustible power of God. “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.” Let me read that for you from my Greek new testament. I’ll just transliterate it the way it appears: “In all power,” and that’s our word dynamite- ‘dynamei’- strengthened with that same kind of dynamite! They use the noun and put it into a verb. It’s a…it’s a long one- ‘dynamoumenoi’- (chuckles)…so, in…in all of God’s wonderful dynamite, have it poured into you! According to the, the uh, bulldozer power. ‘Kratos’ is, is force and strength that moves mountains: bulldozer power.
“…of His glory,” that belongs to Him, “unto all patience,” which is a word that means ‘stay down’, don’t blow up or give up, “and large-heartedness with thanksgiving and joy.”

How about that? (spoken with reverential wonder)

You can know the inexhaustible power of Almighty God. You can know that! You can have God’s power in your life. The concept of power is native in certain, uh, nationalities. On my first visit to Germany I remember being in prayer meetings with the German brethren, and how often they would use the German word for power in their praying. “Lord, give us power.”

Well, I think all of us- be we Germans, or Italians, or Swedes or Norwegians or whoever we may be in our ethnic background; all of us need to know that the power of God is yours for the taking by faith.

All of your dealings with God are by faith. Isn’t that true?
“…he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Without faith it is impossible to please God,” says the writer to the Hebrews. Very well.

If you agree with me that all your dealings with God are, are by faith then this matter of divine power in your life is also by faith. And you don’t have to plead with God to give you His power, you already have it as part of your birthright in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus said, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” Now, the Spirit of God was given to the baby church there on Pentecost and the presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life is the index of divine power in that believer’s service.

With great power, with great boldness the apostles gave witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and great grace was upon them all.
The power of God.

Now, that’s what I’m trying to establish here in this little review section about God’s power. You’ll receive God’s power in your life by faith. Not by trying but by receiving through the Lord Jesus Christ by faith what you need. “Christ is made unto us,” Paul says in first Corinthians one, “Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”
Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know. Righteousness is the quality of being spontaneously good. Sanctification is the quality of being holy without being sanctimonious. Redemption is the quality of wrapping up all of the business of life and making it a continuing miracle that glorifies God, and Jesus, our blessed Lord, does all of that for you, by faith, when you receive what He has for you as a believer.
Can you get hold of that concept?

Now come, with that concept, to Colossians one-eleven. “Strengthened with all might.” Take the dynamite of God; this word ‘dyn-omous’ is…or ‘dyn-omous’, is related to our word dynamite or dynamics. You know that. So take the dynamic, dynamite power of God, let that be poured into your life, and the index of how much of that you can have, it says “according to” is how much, how much, sheer power does God have according to His glorious ‘kratos’…power; sheer, brute, bulldozer strength.

What is the index of how much you can have? How much does God have? See?
“God is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the ‘power’ that worketh in us.” Same word. God can go beyond anything you can imagine! Yes, He can! Oh, hallelujah for a, for a truth like that.

You can have the power of God in your life. You do receive it by faith, and the index of how much you can have is: how much does God have? There isn’t any limit. And, like the aviator who’s flying an aircraft, and he enquires about the weather, and the report comes back, “Ceiling and visibility unlimited.”

C-A-V-U: Ceiling and visibility unlimited.

Go as high as you wish, go as far as you wish. Everything is A-O-K. That’s when you deal with God beloved. Have you realized that you’re dealing with Almighty God?

The fellows that followed our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles, were so amazed when they saw what He did concerning one fig tree. He looked at them in mild amazement and He said, “Have faith in God!” Men, you’re not dealing with your own ideas, you’re dealing with Almighty God! “For, if you’ll say to this mountain ‘Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea’ and shall not doubt in his heart- and so on- it will, it will happen unto you.” And He said, “What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.” Mark eleven is the passage.

Our Lord Jesus taught this same process. When you ask God for something receive it by faith and trust him for the answer and you will be rewarded with a display of God’s power in your life. Halleluiah! That’s great, isn’t it?

Oh, I love God’s Word. Don’t you?
You can be strong today in the situation where you are. You don’t have to run away from it. You can be strong.

Now, we get back to that the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today, may we be experiencing gloriously Thy power in our lives. Through Jesus I pray, amen.

Till I meet you once again, by way of radio, Walk With The King Today, and be a blessing!