“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:10-12).
The saints or true believers have a common and very powerful enemy – not the world and its system, not even their earthly desires but Satan. And he has an army of wicked spirits to promote all kinds of evil in an attempt to devour the believers.
On their own those who are in Christ are sure losers for they are weak and helpless, like the sheep at the mercy of the ravening wolves. Fortunately, they have their source of protection and strength – their Shepherd – “be strong in the Lord.”
And the source of their strength – who is God – is all-Powerful. The “strength of His might” (NASB) or His “mighty power” is tremendous.
Ps 66:3-9 states: ‘"How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name." Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot--come, let us rejoice in him. He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations--let not the rebellious rise up against him. Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.”
His power is not only robed with supreme authority, but adorned also with infinite wisdom!
Job declared, “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man he imprisons cannot be released. If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land. To him belong strength and victory; both deceived and deceiver are his. He leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges. He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth around their waist. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows men long established. He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders. He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty. He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light. He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them. He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste. They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards” (Job 12:13-25).
Also in Job 26:12-14, “By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent. And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"
The psalmist also proclaimed the power of God and His understanding: “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (Ps 147:5). And the prophet Isaiah added, “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” (Isa. 40:28-29).
What makes God’s power really awesome is not just the impossibility of His work, but the wisdom on how it is carried out. Thus, we finite human beings are perplexed not only how God accomplished a particular task, but also why He did it.
Thus, our own reasoning is not enough to grasp and fully appreciate the power of God. Ordinary men will doubt Jer. 32:27, “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
It takes faith to say, what Jeremiah wrote in Jer. 32:17, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
Nothing is too hard for God.
But we need faith, so we can believe it. So we can believe He has “the power that enables him to bring everything under his control” and to “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:21).
We can believe He “had power to do what he had promised” (Rom 4:21). We can believe He will “fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). We can believe He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20).
We can believe “Christ may dwell” in our hearts and be able for us to experience the great wonder of God’s love (Eph. 3:16-19). We can believe we “may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father” (Col. 1:11-12).
We can believe we are buried with Christ in baptism and also raised with Him to a new life (Col 2:12; Rom. 6:4). We can believe He will help us to “accomplish every good desire” and “do everything” our “faith produces” (2 Thess. 1:11, God’s Word Translation).
We can believe He can save “everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; John 3:13;11:25).
And we can believe that if we “put on the full armor of God “ we can take our stand against Satan and his demons. For “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4-6).
On our own we are truly weak, but we cannot accomplish something great in God’s eyes, or face and overcome our enemy by feeding our ego, by exercising self-confidence or by inflating our worth. And we cannot have sufficient strength and enjoy true security from any other source. What we need to do is to acknowledge our incompetence and find refuge in Christ.
Paul said, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Cor. 12:9).
He also wrote: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Eph 1:18-21).
Yes, there is INCOMPARABLY GREAT POWER for those who have faith in Christ, for He who is dwelling in them is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24-25)!
