“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.” – Luke 4:14

Having followed the Spirit’s leading out into the desert to undergo intense temptation from the devil, Jesus returned to civilization ready to change the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture makes clear that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, conducted all aspects of His mission and ministry in the limitless power of the Holy Spirit.

As followers of Jesus, we must realize that while we certainly aren’t Jesus, we receive exactly the same Holy Spirit when we trust in Jesus. When we learn to walk, work, live, and love in the power of the Holy Spirit we’re capable of doing far more for God’s glory than we could ever imagine. Too often we think about what we can do only in terms of our abilities, talents, energy, experiences, and resources. In Christ, we have access to the infinite power and resources of the Holy Spirit!

How do we access that power? By cultivating our life in the Spirit. By regular worship, Bible reading and meditation, prayer, giving, and fasting. By serving God and sharing Christ regularly. By obeying those promptings of the Spirit that we’re often quick to dismiss as crazy, inconvenient, or impossible. By stepping out in faith to obey the hard commands of Scripture we don’t want to obey or want to explain away. By rejecting sin in our lives, immediately confessing it whenever we discover it and turning afresh to God after every failure and mis-step.

If you’re a follower of Jesus, the Spirit’s power is available to you. Will you settle for a powerless life or will you use the Spirit’s power to change the world?

“And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.” – 1 Kings 18:21

Many today are stuck in a place very similar to these ancient Israelites. They have a vague notion of God, usually quite limited and false, which they keep in their back pocket in case of emergencies. They don’t love Him, they don’t necessarily believe in Him, and they certainly don’t follow Him. They absolutely don’t want to hear His view on things. However, in an emergency, they want Him to immediately do whatever they ask, affirm whatever they’ve already decided, celebrate what they’ve already done, and pleasantly help out because things are tough. That definitely isn’t following Him!

Instead, they happily chase after modern-day Baals. Baal was a false god in ancient Canaan, worshiped as a source of prosperity, power, and pleasure. Today’s Baals look like the extreme elevation and celebration of self, “you do you”, living “your truth”, along with old familiar idols like wealth, health, power, fame, status, success, pleasure, entertainment, comfort, security, politics, etc. When those things are more central to someone’s life and emotional stability than God, then they’re following Baal.

If you realize that you or someone you care about is in this place, please understand that it’s impossible to “hedge your bets” and follow the Baal of 2022 while also keeping God around as a backup (or someone to blame) if and when things go wrong. If the Lord is God, follow Him! Don’t reimagine Him. Don’t ignore Him. Follow Him as He is. If Baal is your God, at least admit it and recognize that it’s impossible to try and have the best of both worlds. Thankfully though, when anyone is ready to abandon their idols and truly follow God, He’s waiting with open arms!

“The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;
teach me your statutes!”
– Psalm 119:64

The earth is indeed full of the evidence of God’s steadfast love for all creatures made in His image! If we take off the blinders of our present lived experience and digital distraction it gets easier to see. We can see the beauty of God’s creation: mountains, oceans, lakes, trees, flowers, animals, people. We see the intricacy of how all life weaves together in the ecosystems of the world. We see the elegance of God’s laws of nature that make it possible to live, thrive, build, and explore. We see the countless ways everything works together “just right” to sustain life. God brings rain upon believer and unbeliever alike. He gives everyone the ability to learn, study, experiment, and invent. God’s steadfast love is present and active everywhere, praise Him for that!

When you catch a glimpse of that steadfast love in the world around you, does it make you reach for your Bible? It should. The psalmist sees God’s ever-present and unshakable love throughout creation and wants to know the Creator better! Seeing God’s love, he wants to know of God’s word. We too should long to know our Creator better as we wonder at His creation. When our breath is taken away by God’s handiwork, let us commit to not only praise God in the moment, but to dig deeper into His love letter to us, the Bible.

It’s through daily study of the Bible, not merely appreciation of nature, that we learn so much more about God. Yes, creation can reveal some things about our wondrous God, but there’s much it can’t. The Bible is God’s more full revelation of Himself and it points us to His greatest revelation of Himself, which is Jesus Christ. Don’t stop with praising God for His creation. Praise Him, then study Him by reading your Bible every day.

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” – Ephesians 4:1-3

As Christians, we’ll never actually be worthy of the amazing grace God has shown us in forgiving our sins, adopting us as His children, and granting us eternal life. That’s what makes it grace — we’re never able to earn it or deserve it.

However, we’re called to live every moment of every day in a way that reflects that grace and that is, to the best of our Spirit-filled ability, worthy of all God has done for us in Jesus Christ. That doesn’t necessarily look the way you might imagine it. A life worthy of your calling in Christ doesn’t necessarily look like a life of glorious triumphs and visible victories for Jesus. It doesn’t necessarily look like larger-than-life accomplishments, earthly fame, or numerous followers.

Daily life that’s worthy of your suffering, humble, crucified Savior looks like Him. Your habit and pattern of life, love, and interaction with a broken and hurting world needs to look like humility. It should look like deflecting praise and attention to Jesus, not yourself. It should look like gentleness. Not weakness or yielding to falsehood, but gentleness in all things, including important struggles for the Lord. It should look like patience with the failings and weaknesses of others, just as Jesus is patient with your failings and weaknesses. It should look like laboring with and supporting other believers who are hard to work with, support, or love because Jesus does that with you. It should look like a desperate desire to keep the church unified rather than dividing it to accomplish your goals and priorities.

Such a way of life is hard, very hard because of our cultural upbringing. It goes against our nature, but that’s the point. As Christians we should never be operating in our nature. We’re called to operate in the nature of Christ Who lives in us! Commit and re-commit to live every moment of your life in a manner worthy of your glorious calling!

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” – Ephesians 3:20

If you believe in Jesus, if He’s your Lord, then you have access to far greater power than you can begin to imagine! Unfortunately, as humans we tend to think far too little of God. That doesn’t just refer to our tendency to just remember God and His power when faced with a problem we can’t handle. More significantly, this means that when we do think about God, we tend to imagine Him as a more powerful version of us. That is far, far, far too small!

God is infinitely greater, wiser, and more capable than we are. He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. He operates in ways we can’t begin to understand. This makes it all the more extraordinary if we stop to contemplate His Spirit at work within each believer in Jesus! That infinite power resides within us! God is able to do far more and far greater than we think when we come to Him in prayer.

We need to stop asking God for specific solutions and start asking for His solution. We think too little of God when we go to Him in prayer from a self-centered, “I’ve got this all figured out” perspective. It isn’t wrong to ask for things we want, but it often thinks too little of God’s power. The all-good, all-wise, all-powerful, ever-present God of the Universe doesn’t just hear our prayers and fill us with His Spirit to serve as some sort of ATM in the sky or cosmic Santa Claus giving us whatever we want. That is thinking far, far too little of God!

God’s power is available for us to glorify Him. To honor Him. To transform us radically as we make disciples of Jesus. When we learn to pray in His will, for His Kingdom, for His purposes, then our understanding of God and His infinite power at work within us begins to expand. Praying in God’s will rather than merely for our momentary desires opens us up to witness the breathtaking, unlimited power of God in our lives and in our world. Christian, think far more and greater about God!

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