What We Are Capable Of

"We stop far short of what God can do. What He wants to do."

HAD DAVID GOTTEN so used to fighting that he couldn’t lay down his sword? Or slingshot, as it may be. God honored him as a fighter. Protected him and blessed him, except for his actions against Bathsheba’s husband. David began fighting when a lion and a bear attacked the sheep and he ended by burying Saul and Jonathan, who died in battle. His children fought against him, trying to take the throne from him, from each other. It would be Solomon who would take over and rule in peace.

Yet even on his deathbed, David gave instructions to him about his enemies. He thought like a fighter. And Solomon obeyed them, eliminating those who’d fought against his father. David, we’re told, had a heart that God adored. Solomon, on the other hand, chose wisdom correctly but acted most unwisely where women and wives were concerned. So which is it, King David, we should model ourselves after in heart and conduct or Solomon who built the temple and saw the visible glory of the Lord? Well, both. Because David was unafraid of the enemy. He knew who the God of covenant is. And Solomon carried himself with discretion in matters of judgment. Also, respect for his father and mother. We are meant to learn from both and from others who lived under Old Covenant law.

But we are not meant to put ourselves underneath its rules any longer. The apostle Paul stressed this in the book of Hebrews, and it reads a bit foreign to us, who are not Jews. But the struggles of some in joining the Christian church in that day came from either side of the coin. Those raised, like Paul, in Jewish culture had a lot to let go of and great persecution for it. Those raised as Gentiles, to worship idols, were seen as oddities amongst their peers. We, too, have persecutions in the modern church, but we are also perpetrators of it in many ways. The writer of Hebrews words rise up within me, “Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness … (Hebrews 12:14 BSB).” Peace alone is not enough. We can be pseudo-peaceful, as in “not angry” and yet seethe within or be cold and indifferent and uncaring. Holiness is required to hold hands with peace.

Jesus is peaceful. He had peace, facing the cross, and extended it to His disciples. I love the Knox translation because Jesus speaks of His authority in giving peace. “And the peace which I will give you is mine to give (John 14:27, Knox).” This is how we can know that His desperation in Gethsemane was not over His death on the cross. The book of Hebrews speaks greatly of His humanity. He, who was God, gave up all He knew to become a man, a human. Born as a baby, raised in Nazareth to Jewish parents, He knew only their culture and what He was taught. Revelation given Him by the Holy Spirit, the Breath of the Father, is the reason He knew God in heaven was His Father and could say so, frankly, at age twelve. But when He was thirty and began His earthly ministry, it was as a human who walked as we should in the Spirit. The BSB translation of Galatians 5:25 says, “Let us walk in step with the Spirit.” I like this thought. Jesus walked “in step with the Spirit” and so knew what He was capable of, even as a human, because God was upon Him.

We don’t give God enough power. We accept shortcomings and failures as part of life, yet Jesus was so confident in God that He would walk on water in the height of a terrible storm without any fear of drowning or being pushed around in the wind. For that matter, He spoke to the storm and caused it to still. He multiplied bread until it was enough to feed thousands. This can’t be done by human hands, yet God in Him, God upon Him, performed it. His being God is the reason why after His death He rose victorious. But even this was knowledge formed in His heart, in His spirit man, through prayer and meditation on the Torah and the prophets and through His relationship with God.

“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

The disciples saw Him transfigured, talking to Moses and Elijah. He wasn’t flipping out when this happened but spoke to them calmly afterward. We stop far short of what God can do. What He wants to do. Minister Jesse Duplantis tells a story of a time God sent him into a hospital he was driving past. He knew no one inside but followed the instructions of the Holy Spirit to a particular room on a particular floor where a father was crying out for the healing of his son. Who amongst us would dare to obey God that far without fear or regret? Because those are the two things that hold us back. Some people reason Jesus did what He did because He was God, and yes, He is God. But on the earth, He was a man anointed by God, doing the work of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, who He sent to earth to live in us and to come upon us, as He did those in the upper room at Pentecost. Who we are as children of God is far greater than even Abraham, though he is the father of all who believe.

We live and move and speak as part of God, as part of Christ. We are His hands and His feet (Ephesians 1:22). This has been said by many, but most have failed to see it clearly. The Old Covenant drew an outline of the Messiah that came to pass in the Gospels and began to move, to walk and talk and heal, through believers in the church. Jesus set the example for who we all should be, and the devil through the mind and reasoning talked men out of portions of it. They decided He no longer healed, as if He did not care for those He’d died for to that extent. Such an enormous lie! The enemy used the appearance of things and up-and-down emotions to cause men to believe it was God’s will they were sick. And he caused them to blame God for illness and death. There is always a reason why some die, though Jesus is Healer, but the answer is found only in the Spirit. I have said that I will not say, “I don’t know,” to any question that deserves an answer. But what I will often say is you must seek His face for consolation and strength. He will give both to you in abundance. He will give you peace.

READ “Why, God, Why?”

He will give peace in times of what should be turmoil. He will give you strength to fight when it is necessary to take a stand. Both come from our time spent in the Word, meditating on it. Thinking upon it over and over, until it is a part of us. They come from our awareness of the Spirit of God. We begin with worship in our secret place, and we include confession of the truths God speaks over us. Along the way, we discover how much He loves us and how much we love Him. We are meant to always be filled with God and never to run empty. So that who we are, who He has called us to be, whether we are like David or Solomon or any other who followed after God, is continual, and we are confident in it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” (Acts 17:28)

“It is through him that we live and function and have our identity; just as your own poets have said, ‘Our lineage comes from him.’” (Acts 17:28, TPT)

Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com