48. Power - II
Many men in the Bible received this gift:
Gideon, Judg. 6: 34 - …..the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon…..
Samson, Judg.14: 6 - …..the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily….. Samson was a man with great strength and power.
Saul, 1Sam.10:10 - …..and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them….. He was a great inspiration.
David, 1Sam.16:13 - Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward….. David was specially chosen before his anointing.
There were also the believers on the day of Pentecost, who received this gift, as we read in Acts 2: 1-4; also the Samaritan Christians, as well as Cornelius and his company (Acts 10: 44 - While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message ).
This certainly is a real power to come up against, for this is a power to destroy, and not to bless.
This power is permitted to afflict God’s people. We have a true picture of this as we look at the story of Job.
Satan claimed authority over the world, when he tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness (Luke 4: 5, 6) - And he (the devil)…..showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him: “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish…..” He has power to keep sinners under his dominion.
He is cunning enough to bring people into bondage and he blinds the minds of unbelievers: Satan comes to steal things from us; he enjoys destroying lives.
This power gives us the courage to rebuke sin. Also it is mightier than physical forces, as in Zech. 4: 6 - ….. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”
Jesus Himself is the supreme Example of this in Luke 4:14, where is says: And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit…..
This spiritual power accompanies the baptism of the Holy Spirit - Acts 1: 8 …..but you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses…..
It enables men to speak with authority. Acts 4: 33 - And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
Here we also see spiritual power filling a life with healing influence - Acts 19:11,12: And God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
David knew the power and the hand of God upon him when he faced Goliath.
In Is. 41:10 there is the promise, that the Lord is with us: …..for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you…..
Also in Dan.11: 32 we are told that …..the people who know their God will display strength and take action.
The strength, that we need surely is in the Name of Jesus. It is essential we have the power of Jesus in our lives; then we can know a real working and leading in our war against Satan.
1Cor.1: 27 says, that …..God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.
As the enemy tries to bring us down at our weakest moments, we can say as in Heb.11: 34 …..(who) from weakness were made strong….. We need to experience this in reality, especially when there seems no way out of the situation. There is One to Whom we can turn to; He lifts us up when we are down. He is our Strength and Stay in times of trouble.
Can we really believe these words in Ps. 28: 8 - The Lord is their (and also our) strength…..? Looking at Ps. 28: 7 we see He is also our Shield; He is our Protector.
Psalms give us a lot about this subject, e.g. Ps. 46:1 - God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help in trouble.
Ps. 73: 26 says that, even though we fail in the natural, He is our Portion forever. We are reminded, that we are blessed when our strength is in God.
We can do nothing in our own strength and we need to put our full confidence in God and take hold of this wonderful gift. He pledges in His Word never to leave you or forsake you (e.g. Heb.13: 5). He is our Anchor.