FOUNDATIONS: 4 God’s Power for You

What is the critical key to successfully living the Christian life?
What is your “flesh” or the “sinful nature”?
What are the automatic effects of the Holy Spirit controlling you? Why would they be automatic?
What was especially meaningful to you in this chapter? Why?

We noted in the last chapter that the Apostle Peter was a very ordinary man when Jesus met him. But even after being a disciple of Christ for over three years Peter was still violent and fearful (cf. John 18:16-17, 26). But he became one of the most fearless and fruitful Christian leaders in the history of the Church. What made the difference? How did such a weak believer become so powerful? The Holy Spirit indwelled him that day! (cf. Acts 2:1-4). This is why after Christ’s resurrection He promised all Christians: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8).

What made the difference in Peter’s life? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. A gift of supernatural “power” given to every Christian. Releasing the “power” of the Holy Spirit in your life is the key to living the extraordinary life of Authentic Christianity: Joyfully serving Christ with our best friends to glorify God. The Bible says:

Live by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then you will not do what your sinful nature wants you to do. (Gal 5:16 NIrV)

The power to live an extraordinary life for God

is being controlled by the Holy Spirit.

The Person inside of you

We discussed in the previous chapter that one of the reasons Jesus came was to give us an extraordinary life. And that extraordinary life is found in living the extraordinary commandments of God. These include the Greatest Commandment to love Him with everything and in everything, the New Commandment to love one another just as much as He loves you, and the Great Commission to produce other obedient followers of Jesus Christ. Paul summed it up when he wrote: “Imitate God in everything you do” (Eph 5:1). Really? Imitate God in everything?

Why would God expect all of His people to obey such challenging commands and live such an extraordinary life? Because God lives in you! If God actually lives in a person, why would you not expect them to love and live like Him? God’s commands are not meant to frustrate you because you cannot do them. They tell you what is possible with the power of God’s Spirit living in and through you. The purpose of the OT Law was to show the spiritually dead how sinful they are. The purpose of the “law of Christ” (Gal 6:2) is to show those with the Spirit of God how powerful they are. The Bible says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life” (2 Pet 1:3), including God’s Spirit living in us.

The great revealed “mystery” of Christianity “is Christ in you” (Col 1:27). And the Apostle Paul proclaimed with conviction: “Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). God challenges and asks all Christians: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2 Cor 13:5). Jesus told His disciples: “You will realize that . . . I am in you” (John 14:20 NIV). Do you realize Christ lives in you? Take a moment and recognize His presence in you right now!

Think about this for a moment. What would it feel like, and look like, to have God living through you? For the perfect Jesus in you to be living, talking, thinking, feeling, and acting through you? Imagine living like Jesus Christ for the rest of the day. And then all week long. Stop reading. We are asking you to really take a moment and think about this.

Here is the amazing truth. You have a perfect Person living inside of you! You do not possess just a part of Jesus. A complete and fully functioning Jesus Christ lives inside of you! What did Paul say? “Christ lives in me!” (Gal 2:20). The Bible says: “Put on the new self, [already] created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24 NIV). This is why Paul wrote: “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Phil 2:12-13). You will have a “deep reverence” for God when you realize, “God is working in you.”

It is through the Holy Spirit’s supernatural power that you can love and live like God because God is living in you! This is why, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). In the power of the Spirit, Christ’s “yoke is easy” and His “burden is light” (Matt 11:30). This is the difference between living for God in His strength or your own strength. If obeying God feels heavy and hard it may be because you do not have the Spirit of God living in you, or He is not controlling you. The Apostle said: “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13), including all of God’s commands. The power to live an extraordinary life for God is being controlled by the Holy Spirit.

No one with only natural human power can obey the commands of God. But you Christian are not a natural human. You have been recreated into a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) and indwelled with God’s Spirit. Christians have been so radically changed on the inside that they are essentially a different species of human beings. They are the only humans who are indwelled with God.

This is what our Bible text is teaching us: “Live by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then you will not do what your sinful nature wants you to do” (Gal 5:16 NIrV). Notice some very important things here.

First, if the Holy Spirit of God controls you, you will be holy. The vital key to successfully living Authentic Christianity and doing all that God wants is being controlled by the Holy Spirit. You are not only forgiven for all the times you do not obey God’s commands. You are also empowered to fully obey those commands. Jesus did not come to just set you free from the penalty of sin. He also came to free you from the power of sin.

By far the most important key to a happy and fulfilling marriage is two people living in the power of the Holy Spirit. By far the most important thing to being the parent, worker, and church member you need to be, is being controlled by the Holy Spirit. God never created these roles to be successful without the power of the Holy Spirit.

The battle inside of you

But you must recognize there is another power working in you that desires to control you. The Bible calls this the “flesh” or “sinful nature.” Your sinful nature is just that: a nature, force, or habit of thinking and doing that hates God. It consists of all the sinful lies programmed in your mind by this sinful world. The Bible says, “The sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will” (Rom 8:7). The Apostle Paul called it a spiritual disease of: “sin living in me . . . in my sinful nature” (Rom 7:17-18).

If the Spirit is the key to being the person you want to be, then the sinful nature is your greatest enemy. It is the work of the Devil in you and through you. Nothing, and we mean nothing, hurts your life, marriage, and children more than your sinful nature. When it is controlling you, you are destroying everything good in your life.

It is understandable that these two powers, Sin and the Spirit, are at war within you. The Bible says:

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. (Gal 5:17)

Notice something very important: You are always controlled by either the Holy Spirit or your sinful nature. Always. Our text for this chapter says you either “Live by the Holy Spirit’s power” or you “do what your sinful nature wants you to do” (Gal 5:16 NIrV). This is because sin or the Spirit are the only two choices for the Christian. One or the other is always ruling us during every conscious minute of every day.

The power within you

Therefore, notice the wonderful promise in our verse: “Live by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then you will not do what your sinful nature wants you to do” (Gal 5:16 NIrV). Why is that so wonderful? Because of all the amazing things you will experience through “the Holy Spirit’s power” and all the horrible desires of “your sinful nature” that you will be free from if you can learn to be controlled by God’s Spirit in you!

One of the greatest mistakes Christians make is failing to recognize throughout the day whether Sin or the Spirit is controlling them. They have lived under the power of anger, worry, lust, frustration, and discouragement for so long they believe these sinful feelings are part of the normal Christian life. No!

You must constantly recognize your sinful nature and rebel against it! You must stop tolerating its control in your life because now God lives in you. Do not merely accept feeling angry, afraid, lonely, or worthless but hate these things because they are sin controlling you. It is time to declare war on your sinful, God-hating, people-hating, destructive nature within you! Violence is commanded of the Christian for only one thing: “Put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires” (Col 3:5). God commands you to hate and murder the sinful nature inside of you.

How do you know if you are being controlled by the Holy Spirit? “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). Whenever you are not feeling and experiencing those things you are being controlled by your sinful nature. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are the normal Christian life!

Notice that when the Holy Spirit controls you, you will automatically obey God because God is controlling you. If God controls you, then you do not need to struggle or choose to feel “love, joy, peace.” You will experience His powers in an effortless and enduring way. They are the automatic power and result of being controlled by the Holy Spirit.

All of this is why the only test you will be given throughout the Christian Essentials is the “Spiritual Power Test” explained below. Unfortunately, Christians evaluate their spiritual growth and maturity on many things that often mean very little. How much biblical theology and doctrine you know is of little value, if you are consistently getting frustrated and angry with your wife, children, and coworkers. Even if you are dedicated to consistent “quiet times,” and church meetings and ministry, you may be a fairly young and weak Christian because you struggle so much with guilt, worry, fear, anger, pride, and depression.

It is not how much you know, or even how much you do, but what you are experiencing, that truly measures your spiritual growth. How consistently you are experiencing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control in your closest relationships and greatest challenges is the real measure of your spiritual maturity. It is the absence of anger, depression, worry, frustration, selfishness, greed, apathy, lust, and other sins that is the true measure of what kind of Christian you are.

Therefore, you will not be tested on what you know or what you are doing in the Christian Essentials discipleship materials. If the Spirit of God is consistently controlling you then it is because you are believing the right things, and then you will be doing the right things.

In the next chapter we will explain how you can more consistently, “Live by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then you will not do what your sinful nature wants you to do” (Gal 5:16 NIrV). But for now, understand and believe this: The power to live an extraordinary life for God is being controlled by the Holy Spirit.

► Return to the beginning and answer the questions there.

► Recite John 10:10 from memory.

► Memorize Galatians 5:16 in the translation above or another one.

► Complete Project 2.C by completing Appendix E: “Spiritual Power Test” before your Barnabas Group this week.