Deep Insecurity, Part 6: Deep Power

Prayer prepares my heart

One of the most difficult aspects of walking with God is believing he will exert his power in and through our lives. We have an easier time believing in Harry Potter’s magic or the force in Star Wars than we do in the power of God.

We have to pray about this, which means getting honest about how little we think about, value or believe in God’s power. It means praying to let go of our humanism (man is most powerful) and take hold of “Deep Spirituality (God is most powerful and can work through us).”

Scripture sets my mind

From this position of complete powerlessness, Manasseh finally humbled himself and begged the forgiveness of the Eternal God of his fathers. [13] He heard Manasseh’s prayer and found it sincere; He returned Manasseh to the throne in Jerusalem. From that day forward, Manasseh never doubted that the Eternal was the True God.

2 Chronicles 33:12-13 Voice

Time and again the Scriptures make clear that, when man recognizes his powerlessness, God’s power flows into his life. II Corinthians 12:7-10 goes so far as to say we should boast in our weakness, because it is then that God can make us strong.

II Chronicles 33:12-13 is perhaps most compelling of all because Manasseh was one of the most sinful kings ever. Yet when he recognized his powerlessness, God forgave all the evil he had done. In short, when we become powerless, God becomes powerful in our lives. This must be our mindset for today.

Questions focus my reading

II Chronicles is a tremendous book for understanding the power of God. There are 36 chapters and some long lists so we are going to tackle 2-3 chapters a day, but you need to read every word. If God didn’t want them to read, he wouldn’t have written them.

Remember, when we read the Scriptures, we are trying to get to know God, not find some self-help tips. So use these questions to learn how God’s power flows into our lives.

• What words are used to describe God’s power?
• What events demonstrate God’s power?
• How do people move God to exert his power on their behalf?
• Does God’s power come and go in the lives of people?
• What kind of people seem to always have God’s power flowing in their lives?
• How can we prevent God’s power from working in our lives?

Read, annotate, note

What we want to do in this Bible study is learn how to walk in the power of God. This means having prayers that are answered, confidence to take risks based on faith, and the ability to dream bigger than any human thinks wise.

You want to be working to find the 5-10 characteristics of the person who has a powerful walk with God.

Probe, examine, reflect

Take your list of 5-10 characteristics of a person who has a powerful walk with God, then compare it to your life.

• Which ones do you have?
• Which ones are you missing?
• Do you see God moving in your life in a shallow way, deeply, or not at all?
• How can you change your view of God, attitude toward obedience, and willingness to pray so you can experience more of God’s power in your life?

Prayer, Faith, Power

Pray you can stop relying on human effort, human wisdom, human strategy, and human approval. Ask God to incline your heart to rely on him and his power.

Identify

Ask yourself the following questions:

• How would you change your spiritual expectations for what you can do to advance God’s kingdom if you knew his power would be with you in everything?
• How could you make a greater contribution or be a better influence?
• As a leader?
• As someone who serves?
• As someone who does good in the community?
• As someone whose excellence at work or in school makes God attractive?

Share

Select 4-6 people who you can ask for input on how you can make a greater contribution to build God’s kingdom, do good in the community, or excel at work or in school so you can make God attractive.

Instead of being burdened or intimidated, decide to turn to God, and ask for the power to become exactly what they share with you.

Decide

Decide to become the person God can make you, instead of settling for who you think you can be.

Act

Once you have made a decision to live by faith and rely on the power of God to do something you thought was impossible, then it is time for you to study with others.

Find 1-2 people you can inspire to take the “Deep Power” leap with you so that, by walking with God, they can become who God wants them to be rather than settling for what they think their abilities will allow.