The Same Power
Day 3 – The Same Power
Read Romans 8:9-17
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).
Take a moment to really let that thought sink in. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is INSIDE you. Unbelievable! The same power that raised Christ now empowers you as a child of God. The same power that brought the physically emaciated body of Jesus back from the dead, is IN you. What an amazing thought!
If we actually tapped into the power that dwells within us, don’t you think we would live differently? Don’t you think it would change the way you and I go about our daily lives? Wouldn’t it affect the way we speak to our spouse? Wouldn’t it affect the way we speak to our kids? Shouldn’t it change the way we see the world?
The presence of the Spirit in our lives is crucial to everything we are and everything we do. His Spirit in us confirms that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:14, 16). His Spirit in us leads us, guides us, controls us and empowers us. Corrie ten Boom said concerning this amazing truth:
“I have a glove here in my hand. The glove cannot do anything by itself, but when my hand is in it, it can do many things. True, it is not the glove, but my hand in the glove that acts. We are gloves. It is the Holy Spirit in us who is the hand, who does the job. We have to make room for the hand so that every finger is filled” (quoted in Max Anders, Holman New Testament Commentary, “Romans,” B&H Publishers, 2000, p. 252).
In the 13th-century, St. Francis of Assisi wrote the following prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
O that we would live our lives with that opening line on our lips and hearts, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” When the Spirit of Christ brings your dead soul to life, there is nothing you would rather do than to live as an instrument of the peace of God. We have the hope of the world living in us.
Challenge Questions:
● As an instrument of His peace, what is God asking you to do? Is He asking you to speak to someone about the hope of the world living inside you?
● How do you think the world would change if every child of God fully realized and fully tapped into the presence of the Spirit of God living inside of them?