Explosive Power

I pray 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 his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…

Ephesians 1:18-20

If you’ve been watching SpaceX launch their experimental rockets, you’ve seen a mixture of success and failure. And the failures are spectacular explosions. Thankfully, no one is on the rockets when they explode. But they are good reminders as to the power and danger of rockets that launch us to the moon and to Mars.

Rockets that can send us into outer space are basically bombs. The only difference is that the explosion is funneled in one direction allowing it to press pass the force of gravity and into space. The goal is to control the explosion throughout the flight. Yet, we’ve seen SpaceX rockets explode on the launch pad, in mid-flight, and even just after landing.

As I watch these trial flights to space, I am reminded that the Holy Spirit has that kind of explosive power. And that power dwells within us. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is contained inside of us (Romans 8:11). You can see how that could be used for incredible good. It could also be used for incredible harm. Likewise, it can cause an implosion of someone’s life if the structure of their character is not sound. A rocket with insufficient structural integrity is a bomb waiting to happen.

The same is true for us. God has to be able to trust our integrity, the structural soundness of our character, before releasing too much power through us. All of the power is there, residing in the Holy Spirit who is in us. But all that power can’t be released all at once without creating damage. God must strengthen our character to be able to handle the release of power. When the structural integrity of our character is sound, all of that power can move in one direction allowing us to be a rocket launching to new heights.

If you want to operate in more power, it might not be that you need more power. It might be that you have plenty of power inside of you waiting to happen. But in order for God to release it without destroying you in the process, He may need your character to strengthen. And this happens primarily by full surrender of our life and quick obedience to His direction.