Christian's desire for God's power to solve their problems.
Ephesians 1:18 - 19 - I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is...the surpassing greatness of His power...
All Christians recognize and believe that God is Almighty in His very nature and well able to use His immense power to accomplish anything that He might wish to accomplish.
Psalm 62:11b - ...(for all) power belongs to God.
So, besides Christians' basic faith in Jesus to use His surpassingly great power to save them from the power of death and give them eternal life, all Christians also desire to appropriate His power to work for them to better their lives here, just as did Gideon when he wanted to see God's power manifest itself in his life.
Judges 5:13b - ...Where are all His (God's) wonders that our fathers told us about...?
Christians all believe that at any time the Lord can send focused power to solve their problems, which they themselves just don't have the ability to solve.
Zechariah 4:6 - Not by (man's) might nor by (man's) power, but by (power from) My Spirit.
So Christians universally trust in God to eventually do the things that they can't do for themselves but which they feel need to be done in order to solve their problems and / or to deliver them from their adversities.
Isaiah 59: 1 - Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short that it cannot save...
Prerequisites for appropriating God's power.
Many Christians believe as I do, that our heavenly Father wants for us, His beloved children, to merely ask Him for the things that we need so that He can give them to us.
James 4:2b - ...you don’t have what you want because you don’t ASK God for it.
Amazingly, God promises to give His children anything at all for which they pray and ask and then believe that He has already granted to them, anything!
Mark 11: 24 - ...ALL THINGS for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you!
In these promise verses God seems to box Himself in to us. These verses seem to advise us that any Christian who prays and asks and believes for something from God will bring forth His mighty power to make that something happen!
Then why doesn't His promised power always manifest?
To find this out, more pertinent prerequisite Scriptures on the subject need to be brought into play....
James 4:3 - [Or] you do ask [God] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with WRONG PURPOSE and EVIL, SELFISH MOTIVES.
Though God is boxing Himself in to giving us our requests, He won't grant us the powerful movements we are looking for from Him when He perceives that our asking is coming from a heart harboring selfish motives or because we're asking with wrong purposes.
So we need to be searching our hearts deeply for unrecognized selfishness which may underlie our requests and we also need to be checking for deep seated evil motives in our requests. As we become more mature in our Christian faith, we will learn to do this before we pray and ask God for any powerful movements on our behalf.
Another hindrance to receiving the power that we request from God may be that our request is just plain not within His will for us or for the circumstance.
I John 5:14 - 15 - This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
More than likely the powerful movement which we have requested from the Almighty doesn't come because it just isn't something that is within His will to do for us. So we Christians are exhorted by God to cherish ALL OF HIS WORD within our minds so that thru His Word we can become better able to deduce His will for ourselves regarding the various problems in our lives. Then we can pray more properly for His power to solve them.
Deuteronomy 8:3b - ...man lives by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
Just knowing ALL THAT HIS WORD SAYS about the various matters in our lives will lead us to improving our prayer requests for power, because then we won't ask for things that we might have asked for had we been ignorant of what His Word says about that particular matter.
John 15: 7 - "If you abide in Me, and MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Once we remove selfish, evil motives and wrong purposes from our requests and once we find His will thru the correct interpretation of His Word for a particular situation, then we are sure to receive His powerful movement which we are believing for.
This is the way in which God has led me over the years to receive so many powerful movements from Him (some of which I testify about within this blog) to solve my own problems.
God receives glory whenever we meet His criteria for receiving His power and then get it.
What many Christians don't realize is that it actually brings glory to God the Father for His son Jesus to make powerful movements on our behalf, after we have met all of His criteria to do so.
John 14:13 - 14 - Whatever you ask in My (Jesus) name, that will I do, so that THE FATHER MIGHT BE GLORIFIED in the Son.
If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
God the Father is glorified whenever Jesus makes powerful movements on our behalf whenever we ask Him to do so in His name! So, if for no other reason than to glorify the Father, the Lord Jesus certainly wants to do the powerful things for us that we request of Him.So then, why is it that Jesus does not always do the powerful things for us that we request of Him. when we meet His criteria to do so?
Even though we may feel that we have met all of His criteria to bring forth His hand to move in some way on our behalf, why does He still not give us our requests?
Matthew 22:27 - ...You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
In my experience I have learned to view the failure to receive anything for which I have fervently prayed, asked and believed for as actually being a powerful preliminary movement of God on my behalf! How so? Well, I have come to realize that whenever there is no apparent powerful movement on God's part to do that which He has promised and I have requested, that this failure to move is actually a powerful signal to me from God that I have not yet searched my heart enough and /or rightly interpreted the Word of God and / or truly discovered His will for that matter!
Since He is boxed in by His promises to give me whatever I ask, I have learned to see His apparent failure to honor them as a strong signal to me that I need to further fix all of the above in order to determine His true will for me for that particular matter.
Whenever I have not received the big powerful movement from God which I have requested for a particular matter, my faith that God's failure to act is a powerful signal to me, is actually internal power from Him that informs me that He has established an open door for me to search further within my heart and the Scriptures to find the hidden wisdom by which to eventually bring forth His problem solving power for that matter.
Let me say it another way - the wisdom of interpreting the fact that I have not been given that power which I'm looking for from God - is actually a powerful signal to me to see if I can find more Scriptures that might apply to that particular situation, so that my faith in these new verses might then bring forth His power. Failure to receive therefore, is an automatic call from God for me to search for the power Scripture(s) that fit that particular situation.
Luke 1:37 - ...for no word from God shall be without power...
Let me give you an example - one time I was ministering the Word to a wonderful, devout older lady of the Catholic faith in her home. She was telling me that there were a number of issues about which she had been praying for years and years but they still remained unresolved and they were bothersome enough to her to make her doubt God at times.
So the first thing that I felt led to ask her was if she was submissive to her husband. Over the years I have come to believe that female submission is one of a woman's prerequisites for receiving power from God and I wondered if failure on her part to be submissive was hindering her prayers, especially because I knew that her husband was a rather difficult man.She answered by telling me that she was from the old school, therefore she believed that God wanted women to be very submissive to their husbands, pretty much no matter what. This was a good answer that led me to ask her if she symbolized her submissive attitude by praying in church with her head covered as old school Catholics did? She said that she did not because no one in her church did that anymore therefore she didn't think that it mattered.
So I read to her the part of I Corinthians 11 wherein the head covering is described as a symbol of female submission to God, His holy angels and man and therefore it is described as a source of supernatural power from God thru His angels for her (this is a controversial interpretation of this section of Scripture).
II Peter 2:11 - ...angels who are greater (than humans) in might and power...
Then I suggested that in the future she might try praying about her issues with her head covered to symbolize her submissiveness to her husband and to her guardian angels.
Numbers 11:23 - ..."Is the LORD'S power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not...
So she put on a head covering the very next time she was in church and immediately a series of rapid fire events occurred within her life to resolve for the better all of the issues about which she had been praying!
The next time I saw her she was rejoicing about all of her new-found good fortune and claiming that she'd never pray again without her shawl on her head, in or out of church. She also declared that she was going to read the Bible now for herself (something most Catholics don't do and are not encouraged to do) and that she was also telling all of her friends about the head covering and some of them had already tried it and had reported similar powerful results!
I Corinthians 2:5 - ...so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Here, this woman was given the particular power Scripture that God wanted her and her friends to learn and believe for these particular life situations of theirs. This was a Scripture that they did not know, but it was the one that this ancient tradition of their church had been predicated upon and that they were now willing to retry.
When they did this God moved rapidly and powerfully on their behalf to substantiate their timid, initial faith in following it.
II Timothy 1: 7 - For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power...
His powerful movements in all of their lives proved to these women that by being submissive to their husbands and by symbolically declaring this to God and His angels in covering their heads in public prayer, they would get power from the angels to solve some of their problems. They learned that they should have faith in I Corinthians 11 and stick to this church tradition as being truly from God, not from men.
I Corinthians 11:2 - Now I praise you because you...hold firmly to the (Biblical, not men's) traditions, just as I delivered them to you.
This testimony shows that we will not find His power for a situation if we don't yet know and haven't yet studied and believed all of the pertinent Scriptures regarding it. God sent me as His vessel and mouthpiece to this righteous woman in honor of her faithfulness to Him and her obedience of Him in being submissiveness to her difficult husband whom He had given her.
My job was to show her the open door that He had for her to now solve some of her more persistent problems.
I have learned in my own many failures to actually receive asked for and promised powers from God for particular problems (after searching my heart for evil and having sought out, found and correctly interpreted all of the pertinent Scriptures that I could about those problems) that God has been faithful to bring forth a powerful teaching movement upon me from His Holy Spirit to comfort me with an explanation as to why that power had not yet come forth.
John 14:26 - But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf],
He will teach you all things.
I have found that when I am frustrated by some failure on God's part to do that for which I have asked and expected Him to do, His will for that situation at that time is to teach me the underlying reason as to why He didn't move on my behalf. This knowledge then gives me His inner man power to overcome my frustration with Him and to patiently endure the situation's unresolved duration.
Proverbs 24:5b - ...a man of knowledge increases (his inner man) power.
God's Holy Spirit is also faithful to enter into intercessory prayer with the Father God for me while I am going thru this usually miserable state of affairs.
Romans 8:26b - ...we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us...
Somewhere along this path He comforts me by reminding me that His ways are much better than mine, even though at the time, I can't yet see how or why they are better for that particular matter.
Isaiah 55:8 - 9 - For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
He also comforts me with the thought that His power to solve my problems is as nothing to Him, a mere snap of His mighty fingers so to speak, compared to the exertion of so much of His mighty power during the creation.
Isaiah 40:26 - Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars - the One who leads forth their host by number! He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power.
His comforting Holy Spirit takes me into a mental place wherein I gain His perspective of things. There, He reminds me that He can solve any of my problems at any time but for good reasons of His own, He has not yet chosen to do so.
Wow! These awe inspiring thoughts of His immense power to accomplish such huge things become a soothing mental balm to my emotional hurt when He hasn't yet done the small miraculous thing that I am seeking for Him to do for me. These thoughts elevate me beyond my tiny little problems into the enormity of His almighty power!
Especially when a difficult situation is long lasting and I am getting weary with it (as my faith is tried over and over again in it) and as I wait upon Him to bring forth some powerful solution for it.
Isaiah 40:29 - He gives (inner) strength to the weary and to him who lacks might He increases power.
In order to humble me so that I am mentally ready for one of His powerful movements, the Holy Spirit also shames me into realizing my own inevitable hidden self-centeredness in the matter.
Genesis 4:6 -7 - ...why do you look sad and depressed and dejected? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.
He reminds me that mastering my sinful ego in a matter can only be done by seeking His humility because the desire for self-inflation is always present in any of my requests for power.Romans 7:21b - ...when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
One way He teaches me to accept a difficult situation until He moves powerfully to fix it is by reminding me of Shadrack's, Meshack's and Abednego's faith to the death in God's power to deliver them.
Daniel 3:17 - 18 - our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up (even though it may mean our gruesome death!)."
These 3 men didn't feel that they had to receive power from God to overcome the terrible difficulty of their immediate imminent death by fire because they believed that He had the power to protect them in death if He didn't save them from it.
I Peter 1:4b - 5a - ...you...are protected (whether in this life or thru death) by the power of God through faith...
This explains why did He not save the many Christian martyrs that the Romans fed to the lions when obviously they had met His criteria for Him to powerfully answer their desperate prayers to do so.
Hebrews 11: 13 - All these died in faith, without receiving the promises...
God approved of their dying faith but for reasons of His own, which we cannot possibly fully understand even to this day, He did not elect to answer their requests to spare their lives from this terrible suffering.
Hebrews 11:39 - 40 - And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better...
All they knew at the time was that if God did not answer their prayers for deliverance, He must have something better awaiting them in heaven. Empathizing with them and their terrible suffering in not receiving the promises from God for deliverance, humbles me.
And God goes on to remind me of all of the Hall of Faith heroes mentioned in Hebrews 11 who, on this earth, never did receive all that He had promised them.
Hebrew 11:13a - All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.
The Holy Spirit also humbles me by reminding me of Job's terrible suffering and his contrite, accepting attitude when he realizes that God might never restore him back to his accustomed health and wealth on this earth.
Job 1:15 - Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.
All of these verses explaining God's failure to act on people's behalf even though He has apparently boxed Himself in to do so, are brought to my remembrance by the Holy Spirit to humble me. In this manner I may become fit to receive His mighty power for a situation, should it become His will to send it to me here on this earth.
James 4:6b - God...gives (power thru) grace [continually] to the lowly (who, thru their humility, will be able to receive it)
The Holy Spirit brings me into remembrance of the principles of these kinds of verses to reaffirm to me that He is powerfully working on things much better for me than I can yet perceive.
Isaiah 50:2b - ...have I no power to deliver?
Remembrance of these verses eases my internal mental struggle over His apparent failure to move as I have requested for Him to move and as He has promised me in His Word that He will move for me.
John 14:26 - the Helper, the Holy Spirit... will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance ALL that I said (in the Word of God).
The remembrance of all of these humbling thoughts from God's Word helps me to put my call upon Him to honor His promises to me into the proper, eternal perspective where it belongs.
Colossians 1:10 - 12 ...so that (I) will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all power (in my inner man), according to His glorious might,
for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father (even and especially when He does not give me that for which I ask)...(personalized)
These humbling thoughts also work together to give me a more powerful faith than I have had before, whenever I am called by God to patiently wait upon Him to powerfully move on my behalf.
Ephesians 3:14 - 16 - For this reason I bow my knees before the Father...that He...(has)...granted me...to be strengthened with power through His Spirit - in my inner man...(personalized)
This humble acceptance of any bad situation until God decides to move is actually His Holy Spirit power already being manifested to me within my inner being!
Luke 4:14 - ...in the power of the Spirit...
My belief from Him in all of these verses is His manifested power within me by which for me to be strong and powerful minded about my unresolved problems and to not whine, whimper or turn away from Him over not getting a requested miracle from Him that I requested to solve them.
Psalm 68:35b - ...God...Himself gives strength and power to the people.
This self control truly is to me, His Holy Spirit given, inner man power and strength!
Acts 1: 8 - ...but you will receive (not only outward but also inner) power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you...(personalized)
His power is manifested to me, not in granting me the powerful movements for which I have been seeking, but rather in strengthening me within my inner being to endure my difficulties until He does or until I'm in heaven!
Ephesians 6:10a - be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]...
With this power of His within me, I can humbly and patiently do the good work of waiting upon Him to move in the way that I have asked or to move in a much better way than I can yet envision, to solve my problems.
Colossians 1: 29 - For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
The following is a true story told to me by a Christian of whom I know which well describes this entire process at work.
This Christian man's wife started and owned their family business and when he joined it she looked to him to lead and run it for her. He did this and did this well because they became quite profitable. He was her 3rd husband and she was his 2nd wife so she had children when he married her. When her oldest boy turned 16 she had him employ the boy and she gave him a very good rate of pay for a person his age.
But the boy resented his step-father because he always believed that his own biological father would have been a much better father for him to have around. The boy wanted a father who would be his companion to hunt and fish with him but this step-father was a city person and too much involved in their business to do things like that with him. Besides, he did not really enjoy doing those outdoor things and would not have been good at them.
So, because of the boy's inherent resentment of his step-father and his upset with his mother for marrying him, he dragged his feet in all of his work, arriving late and leaving as early as possible while being pretty uncooperative. But he was always right there to get his big paycheck on Friday afternoons.
The other employees who were doing their jobs well all grumbled and complained to this man about the boy's poor work behavior because they had to do his work when he didn't do it. So the man went to his wife and explained the situation to her. But she responded by accusing him of picking on the poor kid. This wasn't true but that's how she chose to see it because she was projecting upon this man a fear of abuse of this boy, because her 2nd husband had abused him.
The man went back to her a number of times to try to convince her that she was wrong about the matter telling her that the boy needed to go and work somewhere else until he matured enough to appreciate what they were doing for him. But she still reacted in the same manner, being overly protective of the boy. Nothing he would say could change her mind.
So finally, after months of arguing about this matter the man gave up on trying to reason with her any further and just prayed it out and left it all at God's throne. He then took the humble attitude that until God moved he would just endure the situation, even if it never changed!
Psalm 54:1b - ...(Oh Lord,) vindicate me by Your power.
Though his wife was wrong about him in the whole matter, he loved her deeply and he desired no further arguments with her over the boy. So he resigned himself to permanently suffering in the situation so that they could stay loving towards one another.
John 15:13 - No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life...
The man sensed the boy gloating at his powerlessness to deal with him but he loved his wife enough to even endure that! He just resigned himself to the boy's bad behavior and hoped that eventually the boy would grow up or that she'd open her eyes to realize what was going on.
Numbers 12:2c - 4a - ...the LORD heard it (someone poorly speaking of God's man). Now the man...was very humble more than any man...Suddenly the LORD...(moved on his behalf)...
When this man reached the point where he humbly resigned himself to accepting this abuse for the rest of his life, then he was humble enough for the Lord to move on his behalf, which He did rapidly and powerfully in bringing about a series of events which righted this very wrong situation.
Isaiah 51:22 - 23 - This is what the Sovereign Lord, your God and Defender, says: “See, I have taken the terrible cup from your hands. You will drink no more of (it).
Instead, I will hand that cup to your tormentors, those who said, ‘We will trample you into the dust and walk on your backs.’”
About 3 a.m. one Saturday morning the man and his wife received a phone call from the police telling them that their company vehicle, which the boy was using that Friday night, was sitting on a knocked down light pole on the edge of town with no driver anywhere to be found. The police said that there was blood on the steering wheel and they were searching the surrounding corn fields to see if the driver had staggered off and passed out! They suspected drunken driving because of empty beer cans in the car and they thought that the driver must have hit his head on the steering wheel at impact, leaving blood on it. The police told them that they had notified the local hospitals to report to them if anyone came in with a head injury.
So he and his wife immediately dressed and drove over to the place of the accident. Having by then conducted a thorough search of the area, the police found no one. So the man's wife became deeply distraught about the situation and very worried about the boy's well-being. But at the same time she was angry with the boy because he had already had a number of traffic problems and a couple of accidents resulting in their insurance company warning her that one more incident from him would cancel their policy.Consequently, she had put the boy on notice to be very careful whenever he was in the company car.
Therefore, she was quite upset about the incident because not only was her son possibly severely injured somewhere but, so as to avoid being dropped by them, she would now have to pay big-time for everything involved so as to not report it to the insurance company.
So, they arranged to have the car towed to a repair facility and got the information they needed to determine the cost from the city to repair its light pole. They then went back home hoping that he was ok and that he had just fled the scene to avoid be given a DUI ticket from the police. They both hoped that he would soon call to allay their fears and let them know where he was and if he had been severely injured.
However, they did not receive a call from him that night or the next day, or the next, or the next? But the next day his younger brother told them that he had been in touch with him and that he was only scratched up, otherwise he was fine. His mother asked why he was avoiding her and his brother told her that he had secretly purchased a motorcycle months ago and that he was on it on his way to another state to find his biological father!
Well, she was dead set against any of her children having or riding motorcycles because they were so dangerous, so his disobedience in buying one and now driving it all the way to another state plus the fact that he did not call her to inform her of his condition made her become very angry with him. Her fears for his well-being were now completely replaced by very strong anger towards him. So she told her husband that because of the car accident and his behavior towards her that she had decided that he was just too irresponsible to come back to work at the company!
Isaiah 8:11 - ...the LORD spoke to ...(this man in this event) with mighty power...
This man was very pleased about this turn of events and felt that he saw God's mighty hand bringing it about for him.
Meanwhile, the boy did not call his mother for a couple of months. But during that time he told his brother that he had found his biological father and that they were having a grand time hunting and fishing together and that he liked his father's wife and that he considered the two of them to be a better family for him than the family of his own mother and step-father!
When this man's wife heard this, she hit the roof, declaring that the boy was a lazy, ungrateful son and did not deserve all that she had done for him or to have such a good step-father like her husband!
I Chronicles 29:12 - in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great...
Wow! It just kept getting better and better for this man! Everything about which he had argued for months with her concerning the boy and which she had rejected was now coming out of her own mouth!
Luke 5:17c - ...the power of the Lord was present...
When the man heard her say all of this, all that he could see was God's mighty power working on his behalf to exonerate him and establish his own goodness in the affair.
I Peter 5:6 - Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
Well, finally she got a call from the boy, asking if he could come back home? She asked him why he wanted to do that since his other family was so wonderful? He then told her that at first that was what he thought. But his biological father was a biker and had a biker bar and a couple of dangerous events had happened to him there. He confessed that his father had not been at all protective of him in these situations and had left him to fend for himself.
He also felt that the man was a rip-off, having cheated him out of some labor money on a job that he was to be paid for and out of some other money on a purchase that he made from him. Then He declared that he knew his stepfather would never do those kind of things to him and he was sorry about the way he had treated him and he had now come to appreciate him.
Luke 10: 19 - "Behold, I have given you authority...over all the power of the enemy.
So she told him that he could come home but that she would not employ him again until he matured enough to be a worthwhile employee (which did not happen for 4 long years).
Thru these mighty events God substantiated this man's advice and counsel to his wife about the boy while He also worked on the boy to show him the truth about his biological father and about this man being a benevolent step-father.
Psalm 145: 6 - Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts...
This man joked with me about this chain of events, declaring that he came to realize that he could have tied them both up and beaten them half to death with whips and chains and never, no never have gotten any of these changes done within their minds. But God, in His wisdom and knowledge of all of their hearts, mightily accomplished this seemingly impossible task in ways of which he, in a million, billion, trillion years could never have thought or dreamed!
II Peter 1:3a - ...His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us...
The true knowledge of God for this situation was that God engineered this situation so that He could display His mighty power to the man.
Exodus 9:16 - for this reason I have allowed you (the stubborn wife) to remain (stubborn), in order to show...My power.
God had called this man to first love his wife above himself even though she was being evil towards him by stubbornly and falsely accusing him. Then his self sacrificial love for her forced him into a position of weakness in regards to her and the boy, a situation where the devil, using his step-son, could mock him. But because of the man's love, humility and persistent patience in that weak and abused position, God could then exerted His power on his behalf.
Luke 24:49 - "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but...(wait)...until you are clothed with power from on high."
To the man later, his suffering in the situation seemed similar in a way to Christ's own saving work for everyone on the cross, because even though Jesus endured much pain, everyone involved was eventually saved from this evil.
II Corinthians 13:4 - For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God, for we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God.
God's wise and mighty power for the situation worked perfectly to solve all of their problems in this situation in one fell swoop of powerful events!
II Corinthians 12:9 - for (His) power is perfected in (my) weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
All this man could see at first was the evil being directed towards him by the boy and his wife's evil reaction. He didn't really sympathize with the evil position that his wife's fear of the boy's abuse forced her into (by Satan). And because of his own misery at the boy's hand, he didn't empathize with the boy's pain at not having his real father when he felt that he needed him. But Jesus saw all of this and knew just what to wisely do to right all of these wrongs.
I Corinthians 1:23 - ...Christ; the power of God and the wisdom of God.
In God's brilliance, He used Satan's temporary victory over each of them to humble this good man before He would bring forth His mighty power for this complicated situation's solution.
Jeremiah 32: 17 - Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!
Then He brought forth His wise and mighty power to bring about the events that solved these problems.
Matthew 6:13 - For Thine is...the power...
He brought it forth thru this man's heartfelt prayer and his faithful and humble eventual release to Him of the problem.
Romans 15:18 - ...what Christ has accomplished through (him)...in the power of the Spirit...(personalized)
This beautiful, powerful solution to this complicated problem led all 3 of these people into a new and much better (in a way even heavenly) relationship which they did not have before Satan brought these problems forth.
I Corinthians 14:22 - For the kingdom of heaven (within us) consists not in word but in power.
God never said, "No - period" to the man's request for deliverance from this family problem, He instead said, "No, not now because in the future I have something better for you. For now just humble yourself to the situation and wait upon Me to move on your behalf."
Romans 8: 18 - ...consider...(your) present sufferings...not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed...(personalized)
All the while God gave Satan the power to continue to uphold this bad situation until this suffering man got into the right place of humility and under the right Scriptural principles for God's problem solving power to gloriously manifest.
Hebrews 1:3 - ...He...upholds all things by the Word of His power...
He had to turn from his own evil, argumentative way in order to get Jesus to deal powerfully to solve their problems.
II Corinthians 4:6 - 7 - For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power (for all of our problems) will be of God and not from ourselves.
When this man turned away from using the evil of anger and argumentation in his efforts to correct his wife and instead humbled himself and prayed and sought for God and God alone to solve the problem, then God moved wisely and powerfully on his behalf.
II Chronicles 7:14 - If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their (spiritual) land (their situations).
Can it not truly be said about the verse above, that in this circumstance...
Hebrew 4:12 - ...the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]
This is how I feel that I have been led by God to teach everyone to find the power of God to solve their immediate problems. When God doesn't move immediately on our behalf we need to see this failure to move as a demonstration of His Spirit and an adequate dose of His power for us to believe that He will reward us with better things for enduring our problems now, in the future and into eternity.
I Corinthians 2:4 - and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
God hides his powerful movements from us until He has accomplished everything that He wants to accomplish in our difficult situations, then He reveals His power to solve them.
Habakkuk 3:4b - ...there is the hiding of His power.
I believe that Jesus has given me this unusual teaching as a gift of His mighty grace and that He wants me to here record it for others.
Jeremiah 30:2 - Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write all the words that I have spoken to you...
I believe that the Lord wants this teaching to be a gift to all of you who read it just as it was to me.Ephesians 3:7 - I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
I believe that all of the power of this teaching comes from Him and Him alone.
Luke 6:19 - ...power was coming from Him...
It is yours because of your belief in the pertinence of the here a little, there a little Scriptural interpretations that have been used here.
Isaiah 28:9 - 10 - "To whom would He teach knowledge, and to whom would He interpret the message? "For He says...a little here, a little there.'"
Even though I know none of you personally who read this, it is my prayer that you will begin to incorporate this teaching into your own affairs.
II Thessalonians 1:11 - 12 - To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling,
and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power,
so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you...
I pray that this teaching of always getting what we ask for or getting something better in the future with which He has blessed me, benefits all whom God brings here.
Ephesians 1:18 - 19 - I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know
...what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
(This is) in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.
This teaching can become a mighty spiritual weapon for you to utilize in your own lives' spiritual battles.
II Corinthians 10:4 - 5 - for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God...
I believe that this is an apostolic teaching because of its powerful substantiating verses and testimonies and because of its great hidden power for Christians.
Acts 4: 33 - ...and with great power the apostles were giving testimonyI believe that thru your belief in this teaching, you too can experience many powerful movements of God thru your prayers. Then, just as did Moses, you will find that God will give you the power to perform awesome wonders.
Exodus 4:21 - ...see that you perform...all of the wonders which I have put in your power...
Always remember that God can and will do what we ask from Him or that He will be forced by all of His promises found within His Word to always and only do something better for us than we could think of to ask of Him.
Phillipians 3:21 - by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
This is the true box in which I believe that our good God has placed Himself! When you ask for something He must give it to you or He must eventually do something better for you that will completely offset your long suffering as you patiently wait forthat for which you asked!
Ephesians 3:20 - 21 - Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
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