“Lord Jesus, we pray that we will live out our lives in the excellence of Your power at work in us. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Act 3:11-12 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. (12) So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
Peter and John were taking the attention of the people away from themselves. At the same time, they were making known to them the glorious power of Christ that was at work in and through them in the healing of this man.
This was how God’s people lived their lives. We see the example of Joseph in interpreting the dreams of the two officers of Pharaoh. Genesis 40:8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.” So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.”
Joseph would interpret their dreams but interpretations came from the Lord. Joseph was taking their attention away from himself but was directing them to God.
If we have this understanding clear in our hearts and minds, we will go forward with confidence, to touch the lives of people and bring God’s healing into their lives. We have said this earlier, God can heal but we do not insist that healing will happen instantaneously nor that healing will always happen. God is sovereign and His ways are far higher than ours.
Genesis 41:15-16 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.” (16) So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
Joseph was making it clear to Pharaoh that it was God who will give the answer. Joseph was lifting and magnifying God and was being His witness. These are the opportunities that God gives us, to bring people’s attention to the Master.
Daniel too had a similar experience in being a witness before Emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 2:28-30 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: (29) As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. (30) But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.
Daniel was making it clear to the emperor that God was using him and his friends as instruments to reveal the interpretations of the dreams. It was not because he was wiser than others. Daniel was taking the attention away from himself, just as Peter and John were doing.
Jeremiah the prophet felt inadequate about himself to fulfil God’s ministry but the Lord encouraged him. Jeremiah 1:6-10 Then said I: “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” (7) But the LORD said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. (8) Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD. (9) Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. (10) See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
It was the Lord who was empowering Jeremiah to be His instrument for the nations. Friends, when we understand and apply this lesson to our lives, we will experience a life that truly glorifies God.
Our sufficiency is from God and this is the basis on which we live our lives and relate to the needs of people around us. II Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
We are conscious that the excellence of God’s power is at work in and through us. II Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
The Lord longs for us to come to the place, where we realise that without Christ, we are nothing, we can do nothing. John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
May we live out the experience of Peter and John in making people know that the excellence of the power is of God and not of us.