A few posts back, I mentioned a situation that I had been in for about three years.
I’m going to be vulnerable here—this one was brutal. I was mortified of what God would do with this situation and how I would handle it. I would look at this behemoth of a mountain and sob, “God, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this heartbreak. I don’t know if I can get through this heartbreak.” And you know what? Last week, God moved that mountain in a way that I didn’t think He would. He gave me a backpack, some good hiking boots and a walking stick. I looked up at it, took a big, nervous gulp, and asked God if I could handle all the emotions that would be coming my way as I traversed this mountain. That is when He looked at me and said “you can. Now, I need you to take the first step.”
I do want to clarify that today’s post is more about the power of Christ in us rather than the power of Christ in general. This is what I mean: could God have squashed that mountain like a bug and then had me skip over flat land with cute little flowers swaying and birds chirping in the breeze? Yes. But instead, He told me, “lace up your boots. There’s mud on the way up.” It’s not “I will conquer the mountain for you,” it’s “even though I could conquer the mountain for you, I want you to know that you can conquer it because of my power within you.”
That being said, open up with me to Luke and Philippians.
I think a whole lot of actually using the authority and power that Christ has given us is realizing that it’s there in the first place. As human beings, we have a tendency to rely on our own strength, and even then, we can act as if our own minds limit that strength. Of course, we’ll have situations in life that force us to be stronger than we think we can be—and that’s when we realize that God has given us more strength than we had initially thought. And so, we realize that we have much more authority than we thought, and we are capable of more than we thought. This is not a one time realization. Every time we feel as if a mountain is too high for us, we must remember that it isn’t too high for Him. God doesn’t get surprised. And He will give you what you need to get over that mountain.
But we don’t draw that capability from our own power, we draw it from Christ’s. Luke 10:19 TPT says, “Now you understand that I have imparted to you my authority to trample over his kingdom. You will trample upon every demon before you and overcome every power Satan possesses. Absolutely nothing will harm you as you walk in this authority.” This verse promises three things: one, you can defeat the enemy because God says you can, two, God wins every time, and three, God will be with us in the fight, from the first sword drawn to the final victory. His power and authority encompass every part of the spiritual battle we face here on earth. And it also encompasses every step of these mountains we’ve found ourselves scaling.
We also must remember that the authority and power of God doesn’t depend on circumstance. In other words, it’s not going to leave us when the situation gets tough—when the mountain gets steep. Philippians 4:12-13 TPT says “I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I’m trained in the secret of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. And I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.” When the difficulty is too much for us to conquer, that is when we truly lean into the Lord and trust Him for strength. That is when Christ’s power gets majorly explosive. And God will always deliver, somehow, someway, even if it doesn’t look the way we thought it would. Even if it looks like us having strength we never thought we could have.
Like I said, my situation didn’t end in the way I thought it would. But I can tell you this: through every single moment, I leaned on the Lord for strength that I didn’t really believe I could muster. And I didn’t muster it—God gave it to me. What’s more is that He will do so until I’m at the top of the mountain, and even on the way down. So, yes, because God gives me the strength to conquer this mountain, I can and will do it. So will you.
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