“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

One definition of power is “the ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing … to supply with electricity or other means of power.”

It’s difficult, maybe impossible, to get much done without power. In the olden days we operated using horsepower; now we use electrical power, battery power, nuclear power, gas power, etc. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think I am completely out of gas. Then something comes along that is a crisis, or maybe it’s something fun like seeing my grandchildren, and I find an inner reservoir of power that keeps me going.

And we admire powerful people, probably because of their ability to get things done. I once heard a highly respected person in the Nashville community speak on power (Nelson Andrews, now deceased). He said that a person could have wealth, position, intelligence, physical ability, talents or skills; however, unless that person spent those resources, they did not exhibit power.

As humans, we need power to keep us moving, and we also need power to keep us on course. Likewise, Jesus, in his humanity, needed power to keep him perfectly obedient. Did you ever wonder how He did it? How was he able to be perfectly obedient? After all, he was challenged, he was tempted just like we are. Many biblical scholars would say that it was impossible for Jesus to sin because of his God nature. I can’t argue with that; however, I believe that the Holy Spirit played a major role in Jesus’ perfect obedience. We know from Scripture that the Holy Spirit was with Jesus during his entire life on earth. Here are some verses that point this out:

• At His conception:  “And the angel answered (Mary) and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God’” (Luke 1:35).
• At His baptism: “And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, ‘You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased’” (Luke 3:22).
• During his time in the wilderness: “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Luke 4:1).
• As He worked: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed . . . Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18,21).
• As he performed miracles: “But, if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28).
• To raise him from the dead: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

The Message puts it like this in Romans 8:9-11:

“But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!”

The song, Same Power, by Jeremy Camp plays over and over in my mind, reminding me that I have the power of the Holy Spirit residing in me. And you have the power of the Holy Spirit residing in you. It’s up to us to call on this power residing in us, to use it to obey more perfectly, to grow in our Christlikeness, and to empower our ministry here on earth in Jesus name and for His glory.