How To Live a Power-Filled Life – Part 1

Have you ever wondered how you can be the best person you were created to be and to triumph in the sphere of influence that you have been called to? Did you know that the Bible has all the answers to these questions?

It may seem obvious but many people do not realise that the main area that keeps them from living a power-filled life is in their mind.

The key verse we will look at today is from James 4:7 in the Amplified Version.

“So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you.”

I am sure that you have heard this verse many, many times and have probably even memorised it. But have you ever actually stopped and thought about what this verse means for you personally and how you would apply this teaching to your own life?

Firstly, Submit to God.

Instead of just skipping past this and thinking, “Sure, I do this. This is easy.” Stop and think about it. What does it actually mean to ‘submit to God’?

How do you do this? What do you think of when you hear ‘submission’?

I have had many, interesting conversations regarding the verse in Ephesians 5:22 where it says that ‘wives should submit to their husbands’. In today’s society, many people gravitate to the belief that submission means becoming a doormat or even less than the person they are in submission to. There’s a whole other post here but I will say this: when you have a husband who is kind to you, loves you, and honours you as his wife (I have the best husband ever!), it is very easy to submit to him because you KNOW that he would not make decisions to purposely hurt you.

This is how God is. It is easy to submit to Him when you understand that He loves you with an ‘everlasting love’ (Jeremiah 31:3) and loves with such intensity that He gave up His only Son to die – just for YOU! (John 3:16)

Philippians 2 (Phillips Version) says, “Let Christ Himself be your example as to what your attitude should be. For He, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to His prerogatives as God’s equal, but stripped Himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, He humbled Himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death He died was the death of a common criminal.”

This is how I see submission to God.

1. We give up any rights and privileges that we think we have.
2. We are to become slaves to God. Romans 6:22 says, “But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God.”
3. We are to live a life of total obedience to God.

If Jesus is our example, we must live with the same attitude. Our lives are to serve Him and Him only.

First Time Obedience

To illustrate this last point, I will give you the example that I give to our children of why first time obedience is imperative in a life following Jesus.

When our first 3 children were small and were acting disobedient, I would count. You know, “1 … 2 … 3 …”. For number one and three child, this worked well. For the second one, not so much. By the time number four child came along, I decided that this was not an effective way of parenting. About the same time, the Lord was showing me the importance of ‘first time obedience’. Here is my example.

A child is about to run out onto a road and you can see that a car is coming in the distance. You begin counting, “1”. The car is getting closer and the child is almost on the road. You count louder, “2”. The child isn’t listening but he is still running. The child and the car collide before you get to “3”. If the child had have been taught to obey the FIRST time instead of the third, this scenario would have ended very differently.

See my point?

Now, before you think, “Man, total submission. That is so boring!” I can assure it is anything but. God can use a surrendered heart, no matter the capability, and He loves to be kind and generous to His children – above and beyond what we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

I am nothing special in the world but I am privileged enough to see many amazing miracles.

Here is a miracle that explains the importance of obedience.

One afternoon I was playing with our children and the Lord told me I had to go and pray …. now. I thought in my mind that I would just finish the game and then go and pray. God interrupted my thoughts and said, “Now”. I was embarrassed that He had to ask me twice so I immediately hid myself in our bedroom and asked the Lord what I was praying for. He told me that I was praying for my dad but He didn’t tell me why. I had such an extreme burden to pray that I just cried that gut wrenching cry when immersed in emotional pain. This went on for 2 hours. It was only after the Lord told me to stop that He told me the why behind the prayer. A subsequent phone call to my mum confirmed what the Lord showed me. My dad was in hospital, which is a very common occurrence, except this time the spirit of death was there to take him. God showed me the room and what had happened during that 2 hours. My dad had had an anaphylactic reaction to some medication and was hallucinating and going in and out of consciousness. As I was praying, the Lord had sent an angel to stand between the spirit of death and my dad. You see, my dad isn’t a Believer. God promised me 30 years ago that He would not let my dad die until he surrendered his life to Jesus. God was staying true to His promise.

But ….. what would have happened if I had not been obedient and got to praying when I was told to? What if I had said, “It’s ok God. I’ll do it tonight”? God was keeping His end of the promise. I cry even now when I think of it. God is SO GOOD!!

Living For God Is Exciting!

Living for God is only hard when you don’t realise His immense love for you. The relationship becomes difficult when you only want things your way. Yes, you will have to give up some things but I can assure you, it will only be the things that hurt you or aren’t the best for you anyway. God really does know best and He wants to bless you, protect you, and grant you favour wherever you go.

Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14 to see just how greatly the Lord wants to bless you for your obedience to Him. I’ll have me a truck load of that, thank you very much! I’m sure you would too.

Well, I guess I got so excited writing this post that it will have to be split into two. Sorry about that. It just oozes with anticipation for what comes next …… some of the keys to defeat the enemy and live a power-filled life!

I would love to hear your thoughts about submission to God and what that means to you. Please share in the comments below and let’s get the discussion rolling.

As always, my prayers are with you.

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