RSS

Tag Archives: produce change

Do You Know the Enemy’s Power Source?

22 Mar

BatteryIn my last post I talked about power and authority.  Power is the ability to produce change.  Authority is the permission to use power.

Jesus told us that we had authority over all the power of the enemy.  This causes me to question our current church experience.  If what the Lord said is true, then why does the enemy seem to be winning?

To understand this you must realize that just like electricity, there are two forms of spiritual power.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8

These were some of the last words of Jesus before He was taken up into Heaven.  We must realize that our power comes from God Himself through the Holy Spirit in us.  This means that the two sources of spiritual power are the Holy Spirit and sin.

This is a very important fact to know if we’re to grow in our spiritual walk.  Our goal should be to only receive our power from the Holy Spirit.

We must be certain that we’re not powered by the same thing that powers the enemy’s kingdom.  To have this assurance, we need to ask a very important question.  If sin is a power source, then what is the power of sin?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:56-57

That should be an eye opener.  Most Christians have no idea that the power of sin is the law. We seem to have missed this fact even though it’s plainly taught in the Scripture.  This means that without the law, sin would have no power.

As a matter of fact, Satan’s power is derived totally from sin.  So if there were no law, then the enemy would have no power.  Everything that Satan is able to do is powered by the law.  Whether you realize this or not, every accusation and attack that he makes is all based upon the law.  The problem we have is that just knowing this truth isn’t enough to defeat him.

Like AC and DC, both forms are very powerful.  AC is the type of electricity that powers your house.  DC is the type that starts your car in the morning as well as supplying power for the lightning we see in a thunderstorm.  In the same way, the two forms of spiritual power can be very potent.

We, as believers, need to understand the differences so that we’ll not fall into the trap of trying to use the enemy’s power to defeat sin in our lives.

Question: How do we sometimes try to use our sinful nature to defeat sin in our lives?

© Nick Zaccardi 2013

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 22, 2013 in Power of God, Spiritual Warfare

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are You a “High-Voltage” Christian?

16 Nov

In my last two posts I’ve been talking about the power of God at work in us.  We have seen that spiritual power relates very closely to natural power.  Just as power in the physical universe produces change, God expects His power to change us and those around us.

We also saw that the first component of this power is love.  This relates to voltage in the realm of science.  Love is the spiritual pressure placed upon us to produce change.  It was what compelled Christ to minister the way He did.

Actually, I can’t think of any more powerful force in all of life other than love.  For the love of God, or another person, we will do things that we might never have done under ordinary circumstances.  Love is a driving force in many of the things we do.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:5-6

Here is the source of our spiritual power.  The same love that drove Christ forward is now placed within us.  When we had no power, God saved us by the death and resurrection of Christ.  He has plugged us into His power source.  The very love that pressures Him can now drive us forward to bless others.

As I said before, our power can be measured. Let’s use our spiritual volt-meter.  Do you feel a pressure that drives you to reach out to the lost?  Does love compel you to be a blessing to those around you even when you don’t feel like it?  Do you have a compassion for those who are in need?  If not, then you haven’t tapped into the love of Christ.

It’s so easy to say, “I love the lost and I want to see them saved.”  But if there is little or no pressure to do something about it, then that’s a sign that there’s little or no love voltage.  The verdict is simple, no love, no power.

If you want to see this principle in action, just look to the early church in the book of Acts.  Spiritually speaking, they should’ve had a sign over their door which read “Danger High Voltage”!  They felt the pressure of God’s love to the point where they were willing to die, if necessary, to bring salvation to those around them.  We must do what it takes to live in intimacy with the Lord.  Only in this way will His love increase in our hearts.

Question: Do you ever feel the pressure of Christ’s love within you?

© Nick Zaccardi 2012

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 16, 2012 in Power of God

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How Can you Measure Spiritual Power?

14 Nov

We have been talking about the nature of God’s power in your life – how His Spirit produces change in us and in those around us.  We also saw that in nature, power is composed of two components, voltage and current.  How about spiritual power?  Scripture gives us some insight into this.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7

It’s obvious from this passage that the Lord doesn’t want us operating in fear.  What He desires for His people is a spirit of power.  It seems that the more I meditate on this verse, the clearer I see it.  I believe that this verse is telling us that the spirit of power is evidenced by two component parts – love and self-discipline.

The natural power law says that power is voltage times current.  It’s a known fact that in the natural, power is always measurable.  I believe that if you know the Word of God, you should be able to gauge your level of power.

The first component of power we’ll look at is voltage.  In the natural realm voltage is electrical pressure.  It’s the force that’s pushing the electrons through the wires in your home.  How does this translate into the spiritual?

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
2 Corinthians 5:14

It’s Christ’s love in us that compels us to work for the Lord.  By using the word compel, Paul means that it’s the love of Christ that puts pressure on us to minister for the Lord.  This verse makes it obvious that love is the spiritual equivalent of voltage.  It’s love that puts pressure on us to serve God, to reach out, and to help others.

Jesus Christ walked in more power than anyone who ever walked the earth.  Do we see the evidence of this love putting pressure on His life?

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Matthew 14:14

This incident in the life of Christ happened just after the death of John the Baptist.  Jesus had recently been told that Herod had beheaded John.  Not only was John a colleague in ministry, he was also a family member.  If you read through Matthew chapter 14, you’ll find that Jesus went to a remote place to get away from the crowds so that He could mourn the death of John in private.

When He arrived at what He thought would be a secluded spot, Jesus found that the crowds were waiting for Him.  What would we do in that situation?  We know what Christ did.  Scripture says that He was moved, pressured by compassion to minister to the people in spite of His grief.

Question: Have you ever been pressured by the compassion of Christ to go beyond your normal boundaries?

© Nick Zaccardi 2012

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 14, 2012 in Power of God

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are You Dimming the Power of God?

12 Nov

True power is defined as the ability to produce change.  Do you know how this relates to spiritual power?  Do you understand the nature of the power of God working in you?  For a few posts, I want to explore these issues.

To see this, I relate spiritual truth to the physical world.  In the natural realm there are laws of power.  One of these basic natural laws can aid in our understanding of how power works in the spiritual.

As an Electrical Engineer I had to calculate power usage in a number of applications.  I had to learn all the formulas associated with those calculations.  Is there a way to determine how much power we have in the spirit?  It’s remarkably similar.

The electrical power law is as follows: Power is calculated as the Current multiplied by the Voltage.  This law tells me that there are two components of power.  There must be two aspects, voltage and current, that are both operating together.  These are two things, without which there’s no power.  No voltage, no power.  No current, no power.

Let’s translate that to our walk with God.  Paul wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, about what religious church people would be like in the last days.

…having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with them.
2 Timothy 3:5

This verse tells us a few important things about what some church people will be like in the last days.  They appear to be godly, religious people.  Their problem is that they deny the power.

Deny, now there’s an interesting word, especially for an Electrical Engineer.  The Greek word translated as deny is a-rheo.  It literally means not pouring out.  It so happens that this Greek word is also the root word for a common electrical device.  It’s called a rheostat.  Of course, you would know it better as a dimmer switch for your dining room lights.  It’s basically a faucet for electricity.

This gives me an excellent picture of what’s going on in the spirit.  These people appear to be godly, but no power pours from them.  They have shut off the faucet to the power of God in their lives.

If you say that you’re a godly person, and yet no change is being produced, something is wrong.  Somewhere you’re shutting down the power before it can affect anything.  You can’t be a light to the world if your dimmer switch is set to the off position.

This is why it’s so vitally important to understand the components of power.  If I can understand how the power of God works in me, I can keep the lines open and clear for the Holy Spirit to operate through me.

Question: Do you desire to see God’s power producing change in your life?

© Nick Zaccardi 2012

 
1 Comment

Posted by on November 12, 2012 in Power of God

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,