WHAT IS POWER?
WHAT IS POWER?
The apostle writes, “I ... will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power”. Power was thus the virtue which would determine their proper value. Power, divine power in helpless men, must easily be seen. The power of God in the earthen vessel must make a very distinct mark. The nature of that power is our present inquiry.
With reference to the apostles it was spoken of when our Lord said, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high”. That was the power of the Holy Spirit. We read of Stephen, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit”. And a little further on it is said that Stephen was “full of grace and power”. The power was literally that of the Holy Spirit. It was the power of God, not something that a man could do. Everything done by the Spirit of God is power. Thus power is in advance of faith. Faith counts on God and reckons on His intervention, but power enables me to be something that otherwise I should not be; an act divine in its character and not merely human. Divine power is known by the way in which it enables a man to be divinely above his own immediate circumstances. Elisha, when he received power from Elijah as he went up, immediately took hold of his own clothes (typically his natural surroundings) and rent them in two pieces. This is the first mark of the power of God, at least in the eyes of others. A soul can have gleams of peace through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, but when there is power through walking in the Spirit, there is a distinct practical freedom “from the law of sin and death”. It is a wonderful day when I am able to put Christ before me instead of myself. It is not only that Christ suffered for me, and that I have faith in God to interfere for me, but “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”.
[p. 360] Unless I am at liberty from myself, I cannot be in power. Here the christian differs from all who went before him. The men of God aforetime continually so counted on God in their acts that He interfered for them. Samson slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. David killed Goliath with a smooth stone from the brook. When faith counts on God, He manifests Himself on behalf of His servant; but power sets me in practical superiority to the circumstances in which I am. It is not deliverance out of them, but I have superiority to them.
When David indited Psalm 34 he was in the sense of power, because he was with God above the circumstances, though he did nothing. Samuel was in power when he retired to Ramah. Power must begin with that which is nearest to me, or there would be no virtue in it. In faith I am supported by God, and things are granted to me, but when I am in His power I am solely dependent on Him, and conscious of His sustainment, though nothing be done on my behalf. Our blessed Lord slept in the storm because He was in power; He rebuked the storm in faith.
When I am in the Spirit’s power I have liberty from myself, and I can devote to Christ the things I would have ministered to myself; like the woman in the Pharisee’s house in Luke 7 who expended the alabaster box of ointment on Him. This is only an illustration, but power is marked by a delight to make much of Christ at my own expense. I gladly put Him in the place of myself, and where this power is, it is apparent to every Pharisee.
But power advances. There was still greater power in Mary’s act. She anoints the Lord’s body for His burial. I mean that the power to surrender one’s personal honours for Christ grows into a greater and a deeper thing — even to bury them with Him — as there is an advance from reckoning oneself dead to sin to being dead to the world, which orders of power are known in Romans and in Colossians respectively. And though it is not the highest order, still if you were to meet a man of [p. 361] this order you could not fail to perceive his power. He would not only think of Christ instead of himself, but he would be markedly weaned from this scene where Christ had died. The one in this power, while in no way monastic, would give no uncertain sound; however great in mind or means he would ‘carry his bed’ in the circle of daily life. A practical pilgrim, this earth could not be the scene of his interest, for he would be an entire stranger to it. He would not use natural means in mere self-consideration, and none of the embellishments of things here would interest him. His house and the ordering of his family would bear witness that he was a man of power. Truly it humbles us to find how little we are in power — the Spirit’s power — as we walk down here. No man is in power if he is not in faith, and as I am in power so I am in faith. The more I am practically superior to everything around me, which is power, the more do I reckon on God to do His will in spite of all opposition, seeing that through His grace I am not opposing His will but concurring with it.
We may indeed feel how little we have this power in effect, yet it is what can be known on this side Jordan, and not the highest order of power which is ours through grace; and in considering the subject of power I must endeavour to set forth what is the highest order.
The apostle says, “that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection”, and the latter part of the prayer in Ephesians 1 is that we may know “the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”. The power which brought Christ up from the dead is the same power which has brought up each of His members, so that now one can say,
”... the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heav’nly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o’er”. (74:5)
[p. 362] When I know this power, I am sensibly enjoying Christ’s life in the sphere where Christ is. I am in a region of light, detached for the moment from everything connected with this present life. And when I resume my connection with it and my duties here, I do so with the assured sense in my heart that I belong to another sphere, which in the power of the Spirit I have entered into. I resume my duties here with cheerful alacrity, not as a small-minded man suddenly elevated to supreme distinction might scorn to enter on the small duties and works he was engaged in and bound to do before his elevation. On the contrary, as the christian enjoys divine power first for his own blessing and joy in company with the Lord, so does he earnestly and truly use the power in which he was elevated for doing everything here, whether it be with reference to the church, the circle of Christ’s interest on earth, or his own domestic circle. It is in this twofold way that the man of power is fully declared. First, and above everything else, the church as a whole is his concern, both as to the preservation of the unity of the Spirit, and its edification by gifts and joints. A man in whom the power of God works will have as his paramount interest the church, which is Christ’s treasure and pearl here. This is the service which peculiarly and singularly distinguishes the man of power at this present time. Difficulties are great, but he is greater, because of the power that works in him; and it is true of him, as Paul writes to Timothy, that he has “fully known my doctrine”.
If a man has not power at the lower level, of course he cannot have it at the highest; but if he has it at the highest, one unmistakeable trait of it is that he devotes himself to preserve the church in its unity, and to seek its edification. He has no concern prior to this. He regards everything as it affects the church, be it leaven or gangrene. He has one simple motto “Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever”. His own individual conduct among the saints as Ephesians 4: 1 to 5 21 enjoins, testifies that [p. 363] he practically upholds what he advocates; and he can truly say with regard to discipline cases, “... not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you”; and “commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God”. Every act for the church by the man of power is plain and convincing to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. All the godly will readily approve. Woe betide the servant of God who attempts to act beyond his faith or power! Nothing is more grievous than any assumption in the church of God, assuming to have faith or power which one has not. Not only is the Lord dishonoured by the miscarriage, but the servant is disqualified from prominence afterwards in the matter in which he has failed.
But in connection with this trait of power, marked devotedness to the interests of Christ here, there is besides the beautiful walk among the saints to which I have referred, another sphere where the man of power is pre-eminently distinguished. I refer now to his own domestic circle. As to spiritual oversight in the church, we know that “if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” But it is more general here. A man of power, heavenly power, is to behave in the ordinary relations of life in quite an unknown way. He is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, he is to bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He may say that he fails, that everyone fails, but this only proves that he is not a man of power. “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” When branches wither, there is a failure of vigour in the tree; when we fail in the domestic circle we may rest assured that we are not in true vigour in the circle where all Christ’s great interests are and which is, par excellence, the one nearest to His heart.
[p. 364] It would be discouraging to be made aware of the little power we have if it were not through grace as much within our reach as ever it has been, and the real benefit of being awakened to our lack is to stimulate us to accept that power which through grace is ours.