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secret power
By Amber | August 5, 2008
I started reading a book by Dwight L. Moody recently entitled Secret Power. There’s a quote by the author on the cover that goes along well with what I’ve been learning about Christian life from studying Colossians recently (you’ll have to stay tuned to read about that in a later post):
If we work … to some definite purpose, we must have this power from on high. Without this power, our work will be drudgery. With it, it becomes a joyful task, a refreshing service.
This power, if you couldn’t guess, is the power of the Holy Spirit filling God’s people to minister in His strength. In his epistles, Paul is constantly pointing to God Himself as the source of Paul’s ability to serve God. In 1 TImothy 1:12, he puts it like this:
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.
In taking on this new role as GROW Groups Communications Coordinator, I have experienced this power and strengthening in a way that I rarely have before.
In a previous post I mentioned the curriculum I’m working on for core discipleship. I had created an outline of the modules and was tasked with outlining each lesson within the modules along with lesson objectives. I had two weeks to finish.
The first week I spent a lot of time on the first two modules with their lessons and objectives, about three hours each. That left me with one week to complete the remaining 16 modules!
I prayed a lot, and asked others to pray for me, too. Then I sat down and planned out my week, hoping to put in nearly double my usual time of 10 hours per week. I was also hoping that I could get each module’s lesson titles and objectives done in one hour rather than three.
Sunday went by. I hadn’t had a chance to work on it at all. Monday went by. Same thing. I was beginning to be a little nervous. Tuesday was my last day of working at my previous employer, SIGN. That day, one of my co-workers, who is also a youth pastor at a church in Prosser, lent me a book on Christian doctrine that proved to be immensely useful in fulfilling my task.
I later realized that God didn’t let me start working until Tuesday because I needed that book. Tuesday night I sat down, and in three hours I had 9 modules complete with lesson titles and objectives! The next night I finished the remaining 8 modules in another three hours. Finally, on Friday I typed them all up and finalized them. God, by the filling of His Holy Spirit, had empowered and provided amazingly and abundantly beyond what I had asked or imagined!
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