The Bible says that when we tackle the difficult problems of life in faithful obedience to God and His word, we move into the fullness of what God has for us. When we get up and start walking in the direction God is calling us to walk toward with our spiritual gift, our marriage, our ministry, our skills, whatever it is, we can be confident that God’s power will go to work. We trust that with every step of the way God will honour His historic pattern of providing power along the way, and all the power we need. This is a central biblical truth.
Jesus often told seekers that even faith as small as the size of a mustard seed will be honoured by God. If we will but act on just that amount of faith, God will move mountains for us. Faith the size of a mustard seed, when acted upon, is enough to set in motion momentous events that could lead to eternal life for someone.
Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
Jesus replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Start walking and watch what God does along the way. The same applies to those of us with emotional difficulties or marriage difficulties, or other life challenges that weigh us down – start walking in the direction of God’s commands and precepts, and His purpose for you, and see what God will do along the way. Faith step by faith step, little by little, in obedience to what God requires unleashes power along the way – all the power you’ll ever need.
Jesus, Himself, followed this same pattern. He used this same spiritual principle.
John 5:19 (NIV)
Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
Picture Him now in the Garden of Gethsemane, He knows what the next 36 hours holds for Him. See Him agonising in prayer. The grief and anguish have horrific impact on His soul and body. There’s that human part of Him that screams, “Father, I don’t think I can do this, I’m scared, my heart is breaking with the sorrow, I don’t think I can go through with this redemptive act, I don’t think I can let them nail me up on a cross, naked and exposed and hack my body about. What if I cannot endure it?” “Father!”, He says, “please take this cup from Me if you can, but nevertheless despite what I am saying now, I want what You want, Father. Please help Me!”
After a time of prayer and surrender to God, we read that Jesus gets up, shakes the disciples awake and says, “Arise, we must be going!” We must be going – moving forward! He walks right into the hands of His betrayer, Judas. Do you know what we find between the garden and the cross where He was crucified? Each stage along the way, as Jesus was going forward in obedience to the Father, the Father supernaturally empowered Him. With God’s sustaining power, Jesus endured the arrest, the mock trial, the imprisonment, the beatings, the scourging; and with God’s sustaining power Jesus was able to endure the lonely trek to the cross. He endured the brutal pain of nails driven through flesh and bone, and the ridicule of the crowd. With the sustaining power of God He endured the crushing weight of the sins of the world – yours and mine – transferred to His shoulders from ours. With God’s sustaining power He endured to the very end and when He had finished His work, He lifted His eyes towards heaven and said by way of victorious proclamation,
“IT IS FINISHED!”
Jesus did not hang around in the Garden of Gethsemane waiting for a mystical wave of divine power that promised to make His mission easy. He prayed and then He got up and walked in the direction He knew His Father wanted Him to go – and God was faithful and supplied power along the way. Power to accomplish the mission, power to overcome, power to endure, power to know victory as He bowed His head and died. And many of us will be in heaven because of what He did! Praise Him! And more of us could be if we would bow our hearts and knees to Christ.
Almost all of us have problems of some kind below the surface of our lives. They’re hard, maybe painful … maybe they’ve been there for years. They’re not going to go away in a hurry. Many of us know this Bible verse well:
Philippians 4:13 (NRSV)
“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
But do we act on it in faith? To say, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” – is that a faithless cliché, or is that how we really live? What makes it more than a fact? What causes this to be true in personal experience? One thing: obedience! Obedience to whatever God commands us in His word, and personally as Holy Spirit speaks to us. Faith is demonstrated by only one thing – obedience. Faith is not a concept, but a demonstration of who God is for us and His power working in us, when we obey Him. This is how discipleship works. It is how it has always worked.
And this is the point where God’s power is manifested in us ordinary people. It is only when we demonstrate obedience in faith that we experience the power of God in dozens of different ways every day. So start walking towards what God is inviting you into, commanding you, purposing for you … and I believe that God will supply power along the way – all the power you need. Somewhere between the command or invitation and when we are on the way, kingdom power is made available. It waits for us, somewhere between here and there if we are obedient to Him.
This is a key part of our personal witness to God, as well!
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
We are ordinary people – jars of clay. And God’s extraordinary power is clearly seen by the world.
It’s your move!
Ps Milton