Overcoming – Power from on High

Overcoming – Power from on High

Overcoming – Power From On High

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me…”
Acts 1:8

It is through the unction and power of the Holy Spirit that fallen man is made alive in Christ.

“you shall receive power”

Let these words cause us to throw off the passivity and mediocrity that has gripped much of the Church of God in our day. It is in Him alone that we have the strength to overcome. We cannot depend on our own strength, or fleshly determination, to stand true in a day of growing hostility to all that is Holy and Pure.

The disciples did not have this strength in themselves. They walked with Jesus for three and a half years and they were still afraid, still carnal, and still arguing amongst themselves about who was the greatest. Not so after the mighty outpouring of God Himself. They were new creations, changed by the very power they had received. They were not special in themselves; they were simply recipients of the person of the Holy Spirit.

So it will be in the darkest time ever to be experienced by God’s creation.

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”
Matthew 24:21-22

That day is now coming upon us, though there be many scoffers and those who are content with words rather than His power. As the church of the Laodiceans declared: “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing…” (Rev. 3:17) I am content with the life I am living. I have had an encounter with God, I am a recipient of His forgiveness, and I have no further need for more of Him.

It is to such a church God speaks: “not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17)

What does the Word of God declare will be the ethos of these last days (including many who call themselves by His name)?

“knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.”
2 Peter 3:3

What are these scoffers saying?

“They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
2 Peter 3:4 (these are not the reasonings of the lost)

The blindness overtakes those who fall into the apathy of “lukewarmness”, a state with horrendous eternal implications. Peter uses the days of Noah, with the ungodly mocking a faithful servant of God, to characterize this time.

Jesus also said His return would be like it was in the days of Noah:

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”
Luke 17:26-27

It is unfathomable to consider facing this day apart from the unconquerable strength and power of the Holy Spirit.

There remains for us a much greater portion than what we know now. For eternity there will be an unending revelation of His person and majesty. Those who have touched Him in truth will cry out for more of Him in every aspect of their lives. To know Him is to hunger for more of Him. He is the eternal treasure the blessed ones pursue. There are no words or accolades to aptly describe our God. May those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, understand the Day that is breaking upon us!

Even Peter, who had received the ministration of the Holy Spirit, spoke of a fuller revelation of the salvation of God in the last days. Let us consider all that the Apostles spoke of and hungered for the fulness of God to which they had not yet attained. (Phil. 3:12). They saw more because they knew Him who is always more.

“Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
1 Peter 1:5

There is an aspect of His salvation yet to be revealed. Paul and Peter were both pressed in spirit to see the fulness of that “earnest” that they had received. (Eph. 1:13-14).

Do we not feel the press of His Spirit within us to “go on” to His fulness? If the ministries of the early church were urging the people of God to greater things, how can we not feel the urgency in this hour? We fall short of that early fire of God, yet they (as with Daniel and all the other prophets) spoke of us as being those “upon whom the ends of the world are come”. (1 Corinthians 10:11)

Let us read afresh by the illumination of the Holy Spirit:

“Let us go on”

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment”
Hebrews 6:1-2

To be continued: We are posting segments of a wider scope of work where these individual posts are but part of the whole. We pray God would grant mercy for the readers to receive grace from these fragments…

Other Excerpts from the new book: The Overcoming Life

Overcoming: The Nature of Faith

Overcoming: The Substance of Faith

Overcoming: Faith and the New Birth

Brian Troxel