Mighty Power Exodus 15:2 Ephesians 1:15-21 1 Peter 4:11 Philippians 4:13 1 Chronicles 16:11 Isaiah 40:25-31 Ephesians 6:10-13 01.15.20

MIGHTY POWER

BREAD

² The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.  Exodus 15:2 (NIV)

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray also 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 the saints, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, ²⁰ which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  Ephesians 1:15-21 (NIV)

¹¹ If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:11 (NIV)

¹³ I can do everything through him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

¹¹ Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11 (NIV)

²⁵ “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.  ²⁶ Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. ²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?  ²⁸ Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. ²⁹ He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. ³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; ³¹ but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.   Isaiah 40:25-31 (NIV) 

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.   Ephesians 6:10-13 (NIV)

BUTTER

“When a man has not strength, if he leans on God, he becomes powerful.”   D.L. Moody

“When God is our strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness.”   St. Augustine

“God is looking for courageous believers who will rely on His power to work in and through them to accomplish all He has planned for them to do. He is scouting for followers who will obey Him regardless of their present fears or past failures. He is looking for men and women who know they are good enough because of His power working in them and through them. God chooses to do extraordinary work through ordinary people who will bring glory to His name.  Men and women who know they are not good enough in their own strength but are incredibly powerful in God’s strength, slay the giants of this world.”  Sharon Jaynes

“A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness.  When God’s warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, ‘I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory’, defeat is not far distant.  God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength.  He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for ‘it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts’.  They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armour stained with disgrace.  Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He will never accept their service.  That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own.  The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away; He will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.  God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own into thee; He will first clean out the granaries before He will fill them with the finest of the wheat……Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.”   C. H. Spurgeon

“Life’s about pulling skin on Jesus on earth — and about pulling out all the stops against the powers of the air.  “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12.   The more indifferent we are to prayer, the less God’s power makes any difference in our lives.  Prayers makes us slayers. No weapon is more formidable to slay the dark and the demons, and prayer’s the weapon we wield to make everything else we do survive fire. She who commits to pray, she goes the narrow way: her prayers circle demons and slay.  Do not work so hard for Christ, that you make no time to pray to Christ.  I’d heard it once from an old farmer’s wife, how an eagle never takes a snake on the ground. An eagle always tears into the reptile with its talons and flies it into the sky. An eagle knows:  The way to win is to change the battlefield. It’s from the heights, the eagle flings the snake into the air.  A snake has no strength, no power, no way through air.  Dashed upon rocks, the snake’s food for the victorious bird. When the battle’s taken to the air, there’s winning on earth. I exhale in the darkness and I didn’t even know I was holding my breath.  Take every battle to the air in prayer — and God will take over your battles on earth.   Ann Voskamp

“Wait upon Me.  Let your life be as a deep, quiet pool.  Let your heart rest in My hand as a bird in a nest.  Let your eyes be still.  Let your hands be free.  For then I shall fill all your vision, and then I shall take your hands into Mine and My power shall flow forth into you….Only be still before Me.  Never let the toils and cares of the day rob you of this sweet fellowship with Me….I am actively engaged in working for you in ways you cannot see, to make your path clear, and to bring about things you could never accomplish, and which would otherwise absorb your energies and wear out your patience….O Lord, what shame that You should need to beg us thus!  Better that others might find us unavailable because of our occupation with You, rather than for us to be so slow to come, so dull to hear, so cold of heart, so indolent of soul….Grant this one prayer more, O Lord, that You would give us all that is lacking in us; intensify our hunger and fire our devotion; take the indifference from our spirits; and have within us Your wonderful way and perfect will, O God, we pray.  Amen.”   Frances J. Roberts

“On the basis of our Savior’s atoning sacrifice and in the strength of the Holy Spirit’s power, we charge you who love Jesus to fight bravely in this holy war, for truth and righteousness, for the kingdom and the crown. Onward! The battle is not yours but God’s, and you will yet hear Him say, ‘Well done, brave warrior, well done!’”  C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg

“‘The LORD is slow to anger’ because He is ‘great in power.’ He is truly great in power who has power over himself. When God's power restrains Himself, then it is power indeed: The power that binds omnipotence is omnipotence surpassed. A man who has a strong mind can bear to be insulted and only resents the wrong when a sense of right demands his action. The weak mind is irritated at a little; the strong mind bears it like a rock that doesn't move though a thousand breakers dash upon it and cast their pitiful malice in spray upon its summit.”  C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg

“Let me carefully mark the inward workings of thy grace, and the outward tokens of thy providence, so as daily to have a true sense of thy gracious presence in every thing, more or less important; and thereby to be ever strengthened in faith, and kept in a composed state of mind; considering that nothing happens by mere chance, but all is wisely ordered by thy providential care to our good; firmly believing, if anything goes contrary to expectation, that something better will follow in its stead, if we only can be quiet, and wait the time.”  K.H. Von Bogatzky

HEART SAVOR

• ·         The Lord is my strength and my sufficiency.
• ·         The Lord gives strength to His people and blesses His people with peace.
• ·         Tasks unaided by divine strength God will never own.  The arm of flesh is incapable of doing eternal works.