THE QUESTION

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us”
EPHESIANS 3:20

The “exceeding” and “abundantly” doing of God is in proportion to the power that is at work in us. Men want God’s working dynamic in external things without the working of God within our hearts and minds. We want the life without the death. We want the freedom of the Holy Spirit without the necessary disciplining work of Grace. God is far more interested in the internal state of our hearts than the empty religious works of men’s hands or even the overt acts of miracles and wonders. Have we not seen enough in these days of the multitudes flocking to see “acts” of power only to witness man’s failure in righteousness bringing dishonor and reproach to God’s name?

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city”
PROVERBS 16:32

The power of God which works IN us is to produce a life that testifies of Him. It is in our WALK that we reveal the power of Him who has and is saving us from our very selves. This is the real import of His Salvation. His name is Jesus, for HE came to save us FROM our sins (Matthew 1:21). Salvation is the work of God to free us and deliver us FROM OUR sins; from wrong thinking, wrong doing and wrong being. Salvation is the work of God to save us FROM this wrongness INTO HIS actual righteousness. This is all the work of HIS Spirit “according to” or in proportion to “the power that works IN US”! The power that works in us will be proportional to the yielding of our lives TO HIM.

“Therefore, brothers,
I call on you through the compassions of God
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this age,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
ROMANS 12:1-2

The transforming work of God is DEPENDENT upon the offering and presenting of ourselves unto HIM as living sacrifices. The great work of being renewed in our thinking will always be proportional to this offering of one’s self. Men who fail to develop are those who have failed to submit themselves to the continual, transforming work of God. To go only so far and allow stagnation, spiritual laziness, and age to dampen our pursuit of Him is the great tragedy of life. Without going on in the full purposes of God, there is a numbing and slumber that will surely overtake all who succumb to the weariness of the age. The greatest trial HIS people will ever face is the apathy and carelessness from without becoming the apathy and carelessness within.

“Moab hath been at ease from his youth,
and he hath settled on his lees,
and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel…
therefore his taste remained in him,
and his scent is not changed”
JEREMIAH 48:11

Men become comfortable and settled in their present “vessel” (mode of fellowship and understanding). They fail to so pursue God and be pliable and surrendered unto Him that they remain in an old thing that may be comfortable but is in fact stagnant and dead. We see Moses…

“Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt:
for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt…”
HEBREWS 11:26-27

By FAITH Moses was poured from one “vessel” into another for HIS heart was fixed upon the reward of Christ! The “power” that is at work IN us is revealed through the life we live. Words and sermons mean little; FAITH is revealed by what we do. Men who remain unchanged after years of being a “Christian” have “settled on their lees” and have become comfortable and restricted the “power” that would work in them to produce vessels “FIT and PREPARED for the MASTER’S USE” (2 Timothy 2:21).

The great and penetrating question of this hour for all of us…

“What is the power that is at WORK in US”?

 Brian Troxel