2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

At the onset of this series I said, “What is the need for power if power is not to be exercised?”

Were you under the impression that we own power, that power is ours to wield? I hope I did not give you that impression. I have come across many a believer that think they possess the power. We possess the power in the same manner in which we are possessed of the Holy Spirit. He dwells in us to guide us, instruct us, teach us, correct us, and if and when our cooperative will matches the will of God, move in power as God, not us.

Look to today’s verse. Not according to our works. According to His purpose. It is the vanities of all vanities to think that we possess the power. It resides in us, in the form of the Holy Spirit, but we do not control that power by force of will. That isn’t how His power works.

John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

If Jesus declared He did nothing on His own, why should we think we can? He sought the Father’s will and this is our example of how we can execute God’s will.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

To will and to do is God moving in power. Now if that is to be done in us or through us, it is because we sought His will and submitted to His will.

It still remains within you to choose if you want in on the action. Do you?

Psalm 95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

Yesterday I set before you a series of verses in which the term “I will” appeared. For the most part those verses did not indicate any specific action that was done but rather a condition of the heart. A willing heart lays at the bottom of command performance.

In our opening devotional in this series we saw the apostles sent out by Jesus under His authority. Jesus commanded and their performance was put into question in the one case set before us. If we were to examine the text and see that the apostles had not properly prepared themselves for those terms of service, to do the Master’s bidding, then it could be said they did not know His ways.

These men had spent nearly three years with Jesus and observed all that He did yet did not “know my ways”. The failing, if we are to believe Psalm 95, was one of the heart. All the knowledge and training in the world cannot duplicate the command performance of a prepared heart.

Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

May I offer that a contrite heart, one that is crushed, cares not for things of this world. If we are to be men and women after God’s own heart, then those things which weigh heavily on God’s heart, will crush ours. This is not worldly care, human compassion, human interests, or human emotions, it is Godly sorrows too much for us to bear alone.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

We hid as it were our faces from Him for the pain was too much to bear. To do His will we need to meet Him face to face and not turn away from His will for us.

Sounds impossible doesn’t it. But He has not given us the spirit of fear…..