GOD'S POWER TO THE BELIEVING

Eph. 1:19

Morning Meditation 5/10/16

"And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power."

Psalm 62:11 says, "Power belongeth unto God." I don't think anyone has learned anything from my saying this! All of us already knew that. But you have to have a starting place. So this is where we start today. Power does not belong to man. Let me say that in another way. Power does not belong to a saved man. God has not bestowed power upon his children to use at their own personal wish.

Evan H. Hopkins explains it like this: "For example, you can communicate the power of a flame to any combustible material, as, for instance, when you light one candle by another. But in that case, the newly lighted candle, whatever the source from which it was lighted, has an independent flame of its own, and burns of itself. Spiritual power is not communicated to the soul after this fashion. It is power by virtue of union" (The Law of Liberty, p. 123-124 published by CLC).

Jesus did not bestow his power upon us to use as we wish. First Corinthians 1:24 says, "Christ the power of God." The power of God is in Jesus Christ. We all recognize the major problem with the church today is a lack of power. It is doubtful that anyone would want to debate that. But if Jesus is in the Church, and God has incarnated his power in Christ, then we must conclude that we are not without power, we are just not being the mediums of the manifestation of that power.

Now lets look at what Paul said in Eph. 1:19: "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power." The words "exceeding greatness" describe the kind of power that would cause one to exclaim "awesome!" Do you know anyone who is saying "awesome!" when he comes to Church today? There are some "awesome" buildings and crowds today, but we are not talking about "awesome" power we are talking about "awesome" size. You say it the same way you say "awesome" as you stand and look at Niagra Falls or The Grand Canyon.

When the people of Gadara came out and saw the maniac who had been healed by Jesus "sitting clothed and in his right mind" I imagine they said "awesome!" In fact, they were so amazed at what had happened, they did not want this kind of power coming into their city. I wonder if any of them had second thoughts later? I wonder what they were afraid of? There is something about the manifestation of God's power that will put fear into the heart.

The word "believe" is a verb. It is "pisteuo"in the Greek and is a present active participle.. It means "to be persuaded of the truth of anything, to have confidence in." The present tense means that the "exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward" is limited to those who believe in the present tense. It is not to those who used to believe. Every one of us who are saved has Christ in us, and having Christ in us, we have the power of God. But every one of us are not vehicles of divine manifestation. I can probably go far enough to say that the manifestation of that power is the exception to the rule. Are you still with me?

I believe verse 19 has the key to that lack of manifestation of the "exceeding greatness of his power." It is unbelief. God's power is limited by our unbelief. His power is to "us-ward who believe" in the present tense. How are we to grow in faith? How can faith be developed so that we become vehicles of divine manifestation? I want to mention three things that are not original with me.

First, faith needs freedom. It is when we give ourselves completely to the Lord that our faith is effective. It is not trying to believe that faith is strengthened. If our eye is not single, our faith will be crippled. Question: can God be trusted? Then why not just simply turn loose and relax completely in his care. He surrounds us with circumstances that are opportunities to trust him. These circumstances become objects of confrontation to those who have not been set free by absolute surrender in the sea of his providence. Many in that sea are fighting to stay afloat and in that struggle go down. Others learn to relax and discover they float! He will keep you afloat through all the circumstances. He can be trusted. But remember, if you fight you are not trusting. Let me illustrate another way. One of the greatest freedoms I experienced in pastoring was when I discovered that Jesus is building his church. What a relief that brought to this struggling soul. I had done everything I knew to do to keep the church afloat. I had used stop leak to keep that boat afloat until the factory couldn't make it fast enough. I won't go into the story any further. But I came to the place where I said, "Lord, this is your church. I see it now. If it splits, it will be because you let it split. If it dies, that is no longer my problem. I am available to you. I surrender to you completely. I will do what you say. But I will no longer stay awake at night worrying about the church. It is yours. If you want it to fail, I am willing to fail with it. You put me here and I am willing to do anything you say. But I have just discovered that the church is yours. It is not mine. I'm going to spend my time worshiping you and preaching your word and having a good time serving you. If the church goes down and me with it, I am determined that the last thing any observer is going to see on my face is a smile. I'm going to tell the people what you say in your word. And Lord, you will have to keep them coming. I'm not going to preach to keep them. I going to preach to feed them." You cannot imagine the freedom I experience after that. Faith needs the freedom that absolute surrender brings.

Faith needs food. The word of God is the food of faith. Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Hopkins said, "If faith is not always occupied with this infallible warrant, it will grow weak and feeble. Faith may be suffering from starvation." D. L. Moody said, "I prayed for an increase of my faith and it did not come. I picked up the Bible and began to read and faith came." When we feed upon the Scriptures, we are exposed to the promises and to the lives of those who exercised their faith in the living God. Who among us has not been challenged and encouraged by the story of the Three Hebrew Children or Daniel in the Lion's Den. It is impossible to read Hebrews 11 without being challenged and encouraged. Faith needs food.

Faith also needs exercise. Hebrews 5:14: "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Those to whom the book of Hebrews is addressed had problems with unbelief. Faith as a noun is theology. Faith as a verb is action. Theology is what you believe. The exercise of faith is doing something with what you believe. Let me give you something to study and rejoice in. John, in the gospel of John, uses the verb "believe" 100 times. It is translated "believe" 99 times and "commit unto" one time (John 2:24). It is not found a single time as a noun (John is not teaching theology he is asking us to believe; John 20:31). It is found as an adjective one time in John 20:27 translated "believing." (Research based on Smith's Greek English Concordance, Herald Press) Faith needs exercise to grow. God confronts us with circumstances every day in which we have the opportunity to make the choice of exercising faith.

May God bless you.

In Christ

Bro. White