Walking in the Strength of His Power - By Wayne Weaver

Some people are more afraid of the Holy Ghost than they are of the devil. When we submit to the authority of God's Word and understand the provision he has made for us, we will walk in boldness and confidence, not in fear.

Ephesians 3 gives us a beautiful description of God's authority, the final authority for everything. Paul was made a minister through that authority, through the gift of grace "given unto me by the effectual working of his power" (verse 7). God's power is effectual. It works. In spite of his perils, Paul did not need to fear, because he knew who had established him as a minister of the gospel.

The more I see of the kingdom of God, the more I cannot believe that people would go against that authority. You can argue with the Word, but under what authority? "Well, it's my opinion." Stop right there. Your opinion is not a divine opinion. Under what authority do you express your opinion? In verse 8, Paul called himself "the least of all saints," so we can see he is writing wholly through the power of God. If Paul, with his background, is the least of saints, surely our own opinions carry no weight.

As Ephesians 3 says, God intended that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the principalities and powers ("authorities" in the Greek) in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose. Even the authorities of the heavenly realms can see God at work through us. How? Because in Christ Jesus we have "boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him."

Latch onto that word "boldness." It doesn't say, "In whom we have inferior opinions." It says, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence." Brothers and sisters, unless you have confidence and boldness in your life you will never do what God intends you to do. You will never be able to get anywhere in life--not in the business world, not in the community, and not in the church world--unless you have boldness. If we don't have that boldness, Satan will come and blow us right off the foundation. "Upon this rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand."

Paul exhorts the Ephesians not to be faint or fearful about his tribulations, because they show forth the glory of God. And Paul says, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." His bowing demonstrates that he is under the authority of God. He goes on to pray that God would strengthen the Ephesians "with might by his Spirit in the inner man." Our spirit is where the Holy Ghost lives in power, and from there it only gets better: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." When we bow to the authority of God the Father and have the Holy Ghost in our spirits and Christ in our hearts, how can we help but have strength and confidence?

According to verse 17, Christ dwells in us by faith. How do we get that faith? By being under authority and obeying the authority of the Word, by grounding ourselves on that which doesn't change: "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." Do we know everything about him? When we submit to that authority, we will comprehend what we've never comprehended before, what our natural minds cannot comprehend.

Elsewhere the scriptures say that eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for them that love him, but He has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit unveils truth to us. But we will never go as far as the Holy Ghost seeks to lead us. Though God has given us all things, it takes time to understand and move in that provision. We will never come to a place where we know God entirely. In fact, as we walk with the Spirit we come to realize more and more how little we know.

At one time I thought I understood so much, but as I look deeper and deeper into the Word, I gasp at how little I know. Ten years ago I would have been well capable in running the business I have. Today I am running it and I see I am absolutely not capable. Stupidity walks on thin ice and breaks down, but wisdom knows its limit.

Verse 20: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." Notice the power isn't up in heaven but working in us. God is our limitless resource right here, above "all that we ask or think." Take your mind and just let it go. Our thoughts can run wild, but this verse says God is able to do above even that. Remove this whole mountain range, the Allegheny Mountains. We continually limit God by our own lack of faith. He could do so much without us, but He doesn't choose to. He chooses to use us; he dwells within us by our faith. Then we hold him back. He could do a lot of things, but we continually limit him.

We always think, "God, give me another anointing. Give me a greater power. Lord, I need this and this and this." But God has already given us his anointing and power. It is not his fault that we aren't doing more. He is always out front waiting on us. We don't need to go to this revival or that desert or another service to find more of God's power. We don't need to say "I need I need I need" if we could just see that we already have what we need--we have him within us, strengthening us and helping us comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and height of Christ.

We are not asked to walk in what we don't have but in what we have. Too many of us say "I'll never be able to serve God completely until I'm a preacher." Then when we finally become a preacher, we aspire to even more. We still harbor that discontentment that we're not satisfying to God, that we're not really his until we have done the ultimate. "You haven't done the supernatural thing," the enemy whispers. "You haven't been a missionary in the dark, gloomy jungles of Africa. If you did something like that then God could smile on your life."

Sometimes we hear about a great work somewhere and think, "I wish that had been me" or "My, maybe God could use me like that too." Friends, that's wrong. We're not asked to walk in what we don't have but in what we do have. The enemy gets us to focus on what we don't have precisely so he can blind us to what we do have. He wants us to feel inferior. Then when we're asked for a testimony, we think only of our failures and we offer nothing.

Peter never divided the water of the Red Sea. Jesus himself could have divided the water when the disciples were caught in the storm, but he dealt with the problem another way. We are foolish to compare ourselves with others. We must simply submit to God's authority and let him do what he wants to do through us.

Perhaps we're waiting for the flash of an angel before we move in the power of God. We want a tingling in our feet before we'll go forward for healing. That is unbelief. Peter didn't walk on water inside the boat. He didn't wait for Jesus to lift him out. He had to step out. The power is already provided--we need to move in it. God will not do a miracle unless we move.

Here is a prayer we sometimes hear: "Lord, just give me the opportunity to talk with my friend." Why do we pray that? Is he on another planet? What are we asking? We have already been commissioned to talk to people about the Lord. We need no further revelation on that. All we need is some old-fashioned obedience and a right burden in our heart.

Colossians 2 talks further about the power of God. Verse 10 says we are "complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." What more do we need? This verse alone gives us power over the enemy. Sometimes all we do is scold the enemy, begging him to get away from us, but we do it with no authority. So the enemy stays put. Our authority is in Christ, and when we exercise that authority the enemy will move. He will have to go, and it won't be because of our scolding. It will be because of Calvary, as this Colossians passage makes clear. We need not fear the enemy.

Verse 15 says, "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Christ has full authority, and he dwells in our hearts and makes us complete in him. His Spirit indwells our spirit. It is a mystery to me why we argue in our hearts that the enemy has strongholds we can't overcome.

We beg for more and more of the Holy Ghost and more and more of God's power, but we fool ourselves. We already have everything. We say our problem is we don't have enough, but our problem is actually one of obedience--we don't walk in the power within us. "If I could just get one more anointing then I would crest over the peak and start going downhill." You might as well make up your mind--this is the Christian life. You'll never get on that downhill slope. There is always a hill ahead.

1 John 1:27: "But the anointing which ye have received of him abided in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

Some of us think we don't have an anointing on our life, but this passage makes it clear that if we are born again we have God's anointing and it abides in us. Verse 28 says why: that we "may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." We need not cower before the enemy and worry about the Lord's appearance. His work in us cleanses us from sin and makes us confident to see him.

Let's examine the power and confidence of Samson. He tore the gate from the wall and carried it up the hill. We know that the power of the Holy Ghost was upon him, enabling him to perform miracles. But what was the one thing that allowed God to put his blessing on Samson's life? It was Samson's obedience. As long as his hair was long, Samson lived in God's power, but as soon as he disobeyed and cut his hair, that power departed.

We see the role of authority in the story of Samson. As long as Samson bowed to God's authority and obeyed God's word, God could work through him. God could exercise his authority on earth through this willing vessel. But when Samson became disobedient and cut off God's authority in his own life, then that authority could no longer work through him to command the principalities and powers around him. The vessel was closed to God's working.

When Samson, in his obedient days, was confronted with a problem, he didn't wait for a tingling in his feet. He walked up to the gates and pulled them down. He moved in confidence and authority. He had all of heaven backing him up.

Why don't we believe in miracles today? Because of disobedience and unbelief. The Bible says, "These signs shall follow them that believe." You cannot truly believe and be disobedient. The one word does not separate from the other. Only through believing and being obedient can we receive the authority God has given us.

In the parable of the servants in Matthew 25, the master provided authority to three servants to use his money--one ten talents, another five, and another one talent. Two of the three servants took the master at his word and obeyed him, investing the talents wisely and accomplishing great things with the master's money. The third servant had no confidence but only fear, as we see in verse 25: "And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth." He was so afraid he would lose the money that he just sat on it. And the master called him a "wicked man" and cast him into outer darkness.

I tell you, friends, that some of you are in this situation. God has given you a talent; an ability, a responsibility, and you are not using it. You are sitting on the gold and silver placed in your life. If I ask for a testimony and you know in your heart you have one, you had better get to your feet in confidence and say it. If you sit there and wrestle with fear--fear that God's work in your life won't measure up to what he's doing in someone else's life--then you are burying your talent in the earth.

I am greatly blessed when I see a man with only a small gift who is faithful to that gift and grows in it. Give him about five years and watch how much he changes.

Some of you think you cannot tell another person about Jesus. Yes, you can! You are hiding what God has given you and not allowing the Holy Spirit to operate. The Spirit cannot flourish in your life unless you step out in obedience. You might be praying, "God, give me more, give me more, give me more wisdom and ability," but you aren't stepping out with what he has given you already.

In the early stages of my Christian life, after God had anointed me with the Holy Ghost very specifically for this work, somebody brought an old Satanist priest to me. He was even dressed like a devil. Had I in fear hidden the talent that God had just given me, and then God could not have exercised his authority in the situation. But I spoke out in boldness, and the man and his wife were both set free. They are going to church up in Cleveland, Ohio.

We might have inferior ideas about ourselves, but that's not the way God looks at us. We need boldness and confidence, not in ourselves but in him. I never walk in here without being bombarded with ideas of my inferiority in coming to preach to you. I would rather not do it. But that is nothing other than pride--I'm afraid because I don't want to look bad. God cannot use us with that attitude. We need to repent and ask the Lord to remove that veil from us.

Paul asked many times for others to pray that he would have boldness. He knew that his boldness must come from God, and that only through God's authority and power could he accomplish anything worthwhile. Paul focused on God and what God could do, not on his own weakness. God has provided all that we need. The scriptures say we are complete in Him and need not fear our own inadequacies.

Write this down and hang it on your wall: To have God's strength and authority in your life, you cannot focus on your ability or inability but on God alone.