Be An Advertisement of God’s Immense Power
Ephesians 1:19-22 “I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God's power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!”
I love this verse and the translation. I am really enjoying reading the passion translation. There is so much passion in what is said. I try not to use the same verse more than once as I think there are over 31,000 verses in the Bible, so it will take us a long time to get through them all. However, when I read this translation of this verse, I felt called to use it. This verse might just be my life verse. It is definitely one I will write down on a sticky note and look at often. This verse sums up the goal of this podcast and my life. I want my life to be an advertisement of God’s immense power. I want everyone in the world to know and understand what it means to have the Holy Spirit living inside of them.
Can you even imagine if just 10% of the people in the world knew the power they had living inside them? If just 10% of the world’s population knew the power they had living inside of them, that would be 790 million people. Can you imagine that? Now imagine every Christian in the world knew the power they had living inside them. That would be over 2.4 billion people. Can you imagine how much change could happen if we had 2.4 billion people walking around experiencing the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available through their faith?
But we don’t need to start with 2.4 billion people. Let’s start with you. Do you truly understand the power you have residing within you? Do you comprehend that the Holy Spirit dwells within you? The verse states, this is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm. If you have been baptized in any Christian denomination, then you have the Holy Spirit within you. If you have doubts, you can read all about it in Acts 2:1-13. When Jesus was preparing to ascend to his Father, He promised to send us a guide.
I don’t know if you know this or not because I didn’t know it for the first 40 years or so of my life, but the Holy Spirit that Jesus asked the Father to send to us is the same Holy Spirit that Jesus had inside of Him when He walked the earth. It is the same Holy Spirit that helped Jesus heal all those people. It is the same Holy Spirit that helped Jesus multiply all that food. It is the same Holy Spirit that helped Jesus perform all the miracles He performed. It is also the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. This verse reminds us of that. It says, “This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead.”
Can you believe that? I don’t know about you, but when I first heard that, my brain kept repeating it as I tried to wrap my head around this idea. I found it so hard to believe that I had the same Holy Spirit that Christ had flowing through my body. The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of me and it lives inside of you too! How amazing is that? The next thing that came to mind is a question I want to invite you all to ask yourself. What am I doing with that power? How am I using the Holy Spirit? Or, I should say, how am I allowing the Holy Spirit to use me? It's a personal responsibility we all have, to utilize this incredible power within us.
Have I given the Holy Spirit permission to work in my life? Have I invited the Holy Spirit into my life? Have I asked the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts and my words? Have I asked Him to guide my actions? God believes so strongly in free will that He won’t push His way into our lives. He waits to be invited, and He comes where He is welcomed. Some of the things we may be blaming God for may be things that happened because we didn’t invite God in. Some things may happen because we thought we could do it all on our own. Or, maybe you didn’t know you needed to invite God in. Either way, I want you to know now so you can ask Him from now on.
I said earlier that my goal for my life is to be an advertisement of the immense power of God as it works through me in my life. For me, this means being used by God to heal people, to be His instrument to restore the blind and open deaf ears. To be His instrument to heal cancer, MS, fibromyalgia, and all sorts of diseases, for there is no cure. I pray the Lord uses me for creative miracles such as growing arms and legs. I pray the Holy Spirit works through me to multiply food, resources, and any other way the power of the Holy Spirit wants to work through me. I pray the Holy Spirit tells me what to do, and I do it.
However, this doesn’t have to be everyone’s goal. You can have the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life without a goal of performing all sorts of miracles. We can all aim to be an advertisement of the immeasurable greatness of God’s power without having to go out and pray over people to be healed.
Can we all just start by inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives? Can we just give the Holy Spirit permission to work in our lives? This can be a straightforward statement. Holy Spirit, I invite you to work powerfully in my life. I give you permission to guide all my thoughts and actions. Holy Spirit, lead me. We can be an advertisement for the power of the Holy Spirit whenever we show restraint. When we are in traffic and get angry, we can ask the Holy Spirit to come and give us peace. We can ask the Holy Spirit each morning when we get up to protect us from any plans the enemy has for us that day. We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us to see others through His eyes. We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us love the unloveable. We can ask the Holy Spirit to show us who needs prayers, and we can pray over or with those people.
We don’t have to make grand gestures to be advertisements of the greatness of God. We live in a world right now where kindness and love are not the default. We can simply ask the Holy Spirit to help us show kindness and love to the world right now. Our simple acts of kindness will show the world the power of the Lord living inside us. I invite you all to talk with the Holy Spirit this week. Ask Him to show you where you could use more of His power in your life. Ask Him where in your life you have not invited Him into. Ask Him for any situations or circumstances in your life that you have not invited Him into. Invite the Holy Spirit into all aspects of your life and see how your life changes.
There is one more thing that just popped into my mind that I didn’t mention. The Holy Spirit comes where He is invited, welcomed, and expected. I talked about the first two, but I didn’t talk about the last one. We need to expect that He will show up when we ask the Holy Spirit to show up. I am sure the Holy Spirit will show up each time I pray with someone. Now, that doesn’t mean I always get the outcome that I want; it doesn’t mean everyone I pray over is healed in the way I want them to when I want them to. God has His plan, and I know it is better than mine. However, the Holy Spirit always shows up and leaves things better than they were. For instance, when people weren’t physically healed the way I wanted, they still felt something, whether it was a partial healing, a peace coming over them, the love of God, or many other things.
We need to expect the Holy Spirit to show up. He always comes when invited, so invite Him in and expect changes. Be on the lookout for changes. What is different since you invited Him in? They might be subtle changes at first, but if you are on the lookout, you will see them. Are you more loving towards your family? Are you more patient in traffic or at work? Are you more patient with your kids? Are you more joyful? Do you have more compassion for those in need? Be on the lookout for what changes when you invite the Holy Spirit into your life. Remember, it’s the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, so yes, He can handle whatever you are going through!
Dear Heavenly Father, please bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we want the Holy Spirit in our lives. We want the power of the Holy Spirit to work through us. Lord, we ask you to help us to see this power at work in our lives. Please help each person listening understand the power of the Holy Spirit and help them to invite that power into their lives. Help us to expect that power to work in our lives. Give us a hunger for more of you and the Holy Spirit in our lives. Give us a hunger to be an advertisement of your power, Lord. We love you so much, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! May the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you! Have a blessed weekend!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in February 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Many of you say, I want more of you, Lord. And you long for more. But you do not ask for more. Longing and wanting will get you nowhere. Ask, and you shall receive. But then believe that you have received and move on. Don't stay stuck. Move on and believe that I have given you more when you have asked for it. But you must ask. And I wait and long for you to ask. I call you now. Ask, and it shall be given. But believe that it is given.”
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