You Need God’s Power

You Need God’s Power

Levi LuskoBy Levi Lusko5 Minutes

We are not to wage war according to our own resources. The power that leads to victory is not in us or from us; it is with God and comes to us from his hand. But that same power has to be wield-ed. Having it and using it are two completely different things.

My brother bought me a movie pass card that allows me to see a movie in the theater every twenty- four hours. It sits there in my wallet whether I see any movies or not. The same is true of gym memberships; just because you have the right to go to the gym and freely utilize the equipment doesn’t automatically mean you get a six-pack. You have to walk in and take advantage of what your membership gives you access to.

So it is when it comes to the arsenal of power at your beck and call as a child of God. Peter wrote, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3). Do you have all things that pertain to life and godliness? Potentially you do, but practically you have to tap into what belongs to you one moment at a time.

Paul made a similar statement: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Are you thinking, wait a minute, I have “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”? Where are all these blessings? They are at the same place the biceps and abs you wish you had are – waiting for you to take advantage of. They won’t work if you won’t work them.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to try to do God’s work without God’s power. There’s a great scene in Iron Man 3 where Tony Stark’s auto-pilot malfunctions, and he flies hundreds of miles out of the way, crash landing in snow-covered Rose Hill, Tennessee. Feeling claustrophobic, he ejects. But then once he realizes how brisk it is in the snow, he wishes he had stayed in the coziness of the suit.

He trudges through the snow, carrying the Iron Man suit behind him like a kid pulling a sled. He is totally huffing and puffing as he slowly pulls it one foot at a time. It’s a perfect visual because the suit wasn’t designed to be carried by him; it was designed to carry him as he executed his calling as a superhero.

The Bible says that we are in Christ. “In Christ” is a theological term to describe the way God sees us as being completely covered in Jesus. But when it comes to fighting battles, you can also think of being in Christ the way Tony is in the Iron Man suit. Through our continued reliance on Jesus, we tap into an arsenal of protection, ammunition, and navigation.

So many Christians are struggling to pull what should propel them, trying to fight the battles of this life with their own strength, waging war according to the flesh. Don’t make that error! Stay in the suit. Jesus is not something to carry like a religious trinket or good-luck charm; He is the risen Lord who will carry you. Call for firepower, and when God makes the ground shake with energy, be ready to occupy the territory He has cleared. You have to maintain what he gives you the power to obtain.

Excerpted from I Declare War by Levi Lusko, © 2018. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson.