I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord

It was Paul who exclaimed when I am weak then I am strong. Paul had discovered the great secret which has the inherent power to alter every new creation’s view of himself and thus move into the full reality of the cross. Far too often we are victims of the flood of occurrences that come against us. Humanly speaking many of the things we face are too big for us. A sense of defeat, depression and impotence can hold us in a tight grip. Some of those seasons are merely the Spirit teaching us that He comes perfectly through us whether we are sparkling or are down, which is an important lesson to learn for many of us.

But the majority of our defeats are a result of us trying to find the resources to face our challenges by human means. Paul had visited that place of nothingness and thus been persuaded to look somewhere else to find the strength to be an overcomer. Christ in Paul was his strength. He had thoroughly learned that he could reckon on the indwelling Christ in every circumstance. This doesn’t mean that whenever he faced opposition or difficult circumstances he would always fall on his knees in prayer. No, to the contrary, he would face whatever he met as Paul knowing that he was Christ in his form with every resource in the universe to his disposal in order to bring redemption to his world.

"And the Lord said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea'" (Exodus 14:15,16). In effect God is saying to Moses: “Why do you want me to do it? Do it yourself. I have given you a new self, a new identity. That rod of old is cleansed. The snake is dispelled. You are new through and through. Stretch out your rod (express your new self) and divide the sea.” Moses had said to God, “You do it”, but God said: “You do it.”

Every one of us starts our walk on the highway of faith with much of the old grave cloths from the Fall still upon us. Separation from God has been our blatant reality. We know the weakness of the flesh and its inclinations. We are more used to visible lack and need than the bounty of supply in the invisible. But when the new word comes which objective is to undress the grave cloths a question arises; do we have ears to hear? The prophet had and hence cried: “But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD.” (Micah 3:8) In effect the prophet is saying: I am God’s mouthpiece and I am to call into existence things that do not yet exist.

Norman Grubb wrote: “You feel weak, you don't sense the presence of Christ, you feel loveless, and of little faith, and all the rest of it, because you still live in the devil's lies of the have-not life. But you have all things. All is within, if Christ the Savior is within. Burst through those bonds of feelings. Say, 'Though all men and devils say I have not, I say I have, on the authority of God's word.”

It is the personal, intimate and deeply private revelation that we are one with God which empowers us to go against the grain and boldly recognize every stirring within as a safe desire which first originated in the heart of our Father. Oneness finds no other explanation to those stirrings and as a consequence affirms the prophet’s words; “I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord.” We finally have the key to Mark 11:24: "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." Our faith focus isn’t arbitrary any more when Oneness is our outlook since we then are not governed by condemnation. Condemnation makes us see need everywhere even where there is no need. It brings confusion and we always fall short of its demands. The truth is that God has given each and every one of us a sphere of influence which we swiftly recognize when we operate in the freedom of the Spirit. No man can tell us what to do when our sole motivation is those joyful inner promptings which are an interwoven part of our makeup as new creations.