Your Promise of Power
And while staying with them [Jesus] ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” — Acts 1:4-5
Most of us try to live a spiritual life by natural power. We do this because we learn to live this way from our first breath. Those around us have trained us to rely upon our natural energy, effort, and education to accomplish the work before us. Then we become followers of Christ and attempt to apply natural tactics, human effort, and positive self-talk to spiritual life. And this is futile. It is a waste of time to apply natural tactics to spiritual life.
Instead, we need a spiritual power to live a spiritual life. The Holy Spirit is this power. And understanding how to live and walk in the Spirit is a little awkward at first. But as we learn to live and walk in the Spirit, it comes with incredible supernatural power. It's the promised power of God that lives within us. And we need a new power because our power is powerless. We have tried living by our own power. It doesn't work. We need spiritual power. And it's going to take a while to learn to walk in this new way, but by this Spirit, we battle sin, discover purpose, and share truth with the world.
Today, instead of immediately attempting to resolve issues by natural power and human ingenuity — try this. Take a few minutes to invite the Holy Spirit to work in you where you need power. You could ask the Spirit to do one, or many, of these things:
- Teach you.
- Convict you.
- Fill you.
- Renew you.
- Cleanse you.
- Guide you.
- Reveal truth to you.
- Increase your capacity.
And then, as you ask the Spirit to do this, wait. Just wait, and see what God does. And let's unlearn trusting in our power and take some first steps to rely on God's great power that lives in us.
ASK THIS: Where do you need spiritual power right now? (Share it in the comments below)
DO THIS: Take a step and trust in the Spirit's power
PRAY THIS: God, teach me, convict me, fill me, renew me, cleanse me, guide me, reveal truth to me, and increase the Spirit within me.
PLAY THIS: Holy Spirit.
SIGN UP — MEN'S DAILY DEVO
short | practical | biblical
Read through the Bible daily with Vince Miller.
I need help being more like Jesus and less like me… my path is way too wide and I need some rerouting to get back on the narrow path.
I need the fruits of the spirit in every interaction with every person to better connect with everyone I engage with to lead by example.
As the days pass and I watch the demise of this world, the Holy Spirit is what we need to tap into.
“not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait” Wait can be hard for me. I seem to depart before I can see what God does. I’m asking the Spirit to teach me to wait!
I especially need to be convicted but, I can use conviction with all of them and many not listed.
Guidance, patience, humility, compassion.
As my wife and I begin the journey of being foster parents.
I need spiritual power to teach, convict, empower, fill, cleansing revealed truth.
Humble, kind, loving, patience and thankful for what I have…..
Guidance, patience with my employees and customers. Increase my understanding.