Connected to Power

Galatians 5:19-25

            In the little town nearby to where I live, a weekly newspaper is published. As I glanced at this past weeks paper I noticed some of the incidence in the police beat section. This section shows the various activities of the police, arrests made, etc. I was certainly saddened as I read some of this “news”. Once story involved two men standing in the driveway of one of them. A third man approached, his mother’s property adjoined, one of these men’s property. He had uprooted trees and a fence that marked the property boundary, insisting a survey his mother had recently had done conflicted with the other man’s understanding of the boundary. He then questioned the man as to whether he thought his mother was a liar. Before even having opportunity to respond or rationally discuss this, he was stuck by the man, receiving a broken jaw. In another story, a young woman was knocking on the apartment door of a friend. A neighboring man stuck his head out his door and asked what she wanted. She had not knocked on his door, and sked him to mind his own business. He came out of his apartment and “headbutted” the woman, injuring her nose to the extent that medical help was summoned.

            These and other stories of recklessness and anger seem to be steadily increasing each day. People are living to their fallen nature in greater depth, and depravity. What causes this kind of behavior? Why are people loosing their decency? In 2 Timothy3:1-9 Paul gives us the answer. In the last days some people will resist God’s truth and its transforming power. Power is important. But there are different kinds of power. A few months ago the battery in my laptop stopped holding a charge. My computer was useless unless I plugged in the power cord. Of course, the power cord had to be plugged in at both ends – to the electric current at an outlet, and to the computer itself. Then it was useful again.

            In some ways we are like that laptop. We are useless to God, the One who would use us to accomplish His goals and fill our hearts with joy, unless we are plugged into His power. That power is Jesus. John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” John 1:12  “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”
But how do we connect to Jesus’ transforming grace? Through the Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18  “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” Romans 12:2 “and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”

            Jesus promised that He would send another Helper to His followers. John 14:16-18“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” Through this Helper or Comforter Jesus would still be with us, His power for overcoming could be accessed. Without Him, the Holy Spirit, we cannot be connected to Jesus.

            We are living in the “last days’ of earths history. More than ever, we need to be plugged into Jesus through the Holy Spirit, then we can truly be children of God. Friend, are you daily asking God for the Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart?

Pastor Michael Wise