If “wimp-to-warrior” was a scale measuring your spiritual life, zero being wimpy and ten being the ultimate warrior- where would your spiritual life fall on the scale?
If we were sincere about our hearts condition, most of us would probably come in somewhere under 3 or 4. The truth is we do not live up to our God-given potential. Why is this? Why do we have so many believers who seem to be more defeated than victorious?
Hmmm…Why am I not more warrior than wimp?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this question lately.
The Bible tells us a group of rag-tag and somewhat wimpy disciples turned the world upside down. Upside Down, not a little bit of shaking and rocking and rolling… but downright-upside down!
One example of such change was Peter, who went from a man who followed Jesus at a distance to a man who preached boldly to thousands. What had happened; what had transformed Peter? What made him strong and bold for Jesus? What changed the disciples into men who could affect their entire world, these warrior-type men we read about in the book of Acts?
There was only one thing that was now different about these men.
When Jesus left this earth, he sent in his place another helper, the Holy Spirit. In Romans, Paul calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ. So no longer did the disciples have Jesus in flesh and blood, but now they had him in the form of the Spirit within them. That was the difference! With the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, these men went from wimp to warrior, from 0 to 10, just like that! An immediate transformation occurred. The disciple’s human capacities changed into supernatural abilities. They were, in a sense, super-charged.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus told the disciples, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” The word power here in Greek is dunamis which is the word from which we get dynamic. In other words, Jesus was telling the disciples they would receive this “dynamic,” this power that would change them. And, of course, this is what happened. So much change occurred that the world was turned upside down, and it has never been the same since.
As a believer in Jesus, we, too, have this dunamis, this dynamic power in our lives! That same power that raised Jesus from the dead and made disciples change from wimp to warrior is inside us.
This truth gives me such hope!
How about you?
In Ephesians 3:16, Paul prays this prayer for the Ephesians, and I pray it for you, “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.“
Help us, Lord, by the dunamis, the dynamic power of your Spirit, to go from wimp to warrior!
Amen!
After this, I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting, “Praise the LORD! Salvation and glory and power (dunamis) belong to our God.
Revelation 19:1
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Anne Farnum 