Experiencing God's Presence #165 - The One Year Experiencing God's Presence Devotional
Experiencing God's Presence #165
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.
Ephesians 3:20, NIV
We wait for God to open doors, to move mountains, to part waters. We pray for deliverance and healing and provision. We look upward and outward for His intervention. He hears our prayers and often moves on our behalf. Yet more often, as alarming as it seems, God points us back to the power that works “within us.”
It’s true that God works for His people, but His preferred modus operandi is to work through us. That’s why He didn’t tell His disciples just to pray for people to be healed, raised, cured, and delivered. He told them to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8)—to do these things themselves. Sure, they would need faith and supernatural power to do that, but He still put the action on them. Why? Because God was setting a pattern and a mind-set for the new creation. We are more than poor creatures of dust appealing to an awesome deity to intervene. We are inhabited by that deity Himself. We have become one with Him.
That seems too remarkable to be true, as well as a little arrogant. But it’s thoroughly biblical. In our natural selves, we have no power to do anything lasting or ultimately worthwhile. But inhabited by the Spirit of Jesus, we have the power of the Resurrection within us—the same power that healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, and cast out demons. Any mind-set that convinces us otherwise will keep us living within natural limits, but when we become deeply, thoroughly convinced of the Presence and power at work within us, we begin to experience more of that Presence and power. He does immeasurably more than asked or imagined—in and through us.
Holy Spirit, this truth is beyond my experience. Please bring my experience up to the level of Your truth. Teach me to operate in the power of the Resurrection that works within me.
