THE PERSONA AND THE POWER OF GOD: Best of Both Worlds

THE PERSONA AND THE POWER OF GOD: Best of Both Worlds

God is in control; don’t worry. If that phrase failed to encourage you at one point in your life, you need to read on.  If there is a common trait of God that’s known everywhere it’s this; God is powerful. We know he is. Rare a person needs convincing about this fact. God split the Red Sea and had more than 2 million people cross on dry ground. God rescued Daniel from a den of lions. God gave Samson Kryptonian strength. God is powerful. God fashioned the galaxies, the planets, the stars, the oceans by simple speaking. God is powerful! God became human so that he could die for our sins. God overcame death and the gates of Hell. God is powerful. We know God is powerful. But do we know WHO God is? We are familiar with his potency but are we familiar with his personality?

You would say, Ernest, that’s not an important question. If God is powerful, isn’t that who he is? Let me take a brief trajectory. Have you ever asked yourself questions like: Why did God allow this to happen? If God is so great why did this occur? What kind of God allows…. (fill in the blanks). One of my favourite novels is 

The Shack  by William Paul Young.  In it is a beautifully tragic story of a man who asked how could a good God allow his youngest daughter to be kidnapped and murdered. Make a point to own a copy. It will build on what I hope to teach you today.

The reason we ask some of those questions that make no sense about the creator is this: We know his potency but we do not know his personality. God is a person. God came as Jesus, as a person. He had emotions, feelings and he had thoughts. God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, is a person. He grieves (Ephesians 4:30) He rejoices (Romans 14:17). He is a person. Let me share with you a short story to break down the importance of knowing God’s persona and not just his power. 

My fiancée, Waturi, and I whilst preparing for our wedding, decided to have tailors custom make the suits and the dresses. We contracted a lady tailor and a man tailor to make the maids’ dresses and the men’s suits respectively. The former delivered on time. The latter was late. Waturi and I panicked. With 17 days to go to the wedding, rumour had it that the tailoring work had not began. I had 10 men on my wedding line-up. We called the tailor and he began to explain himself. Waturi and I could not fathom the gravity of his explanation for one chief reason. We knew his POWER to deliver. The fact that we knew he could deliver nullified all other reasons he gave.  We didn’t want reasons. We wanted suits. Days later, we realized that the man had been working on the suits and the rumour was false. We went to his tailor shop and in a private conversation he apologised for the delay and explained why it occurred. He went ahead and showed us the work he had done so far and our confidence was restored. The suits were excellent. The ties were magnificent. He was left with a few coats to stitch up and the work would be complete. Only when we interacted with the man at a personal level did we have faith that all would be well. It is the same with God, beloved. At times you only know God’s POWER to “prepare your suit” but you do not know his persona in “preparing your suit.” And like with the tailor, when we sense things are gone south, we cry foul and even curse God at times don’t we? Do you know the persona of God Almighty of simply his power?

The Bible says:

Ephesians 6:10 King James Version (KJV)

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Paul the Apostle, the writer of this verse, encourages us to find strength in two things: The LORD and in the power of his might. You cannot be encouraged by the POWER of the LORD without being encouraged by the LORD of the POWER. You see, we like THE POWER OF THE LORD because it can fix things. We are not too enthusiastic about THE LORD OF THE POWER because we know we must submit to his rules. That is parasitic living beloved and it will always frustrate you. Let me explain to you how GOD is ONE with his POWER to see that you cannot have either one without the other. You need to see that you cannot have the power of God without having the persona of God.  Look at the last part of that verse above. It says:

and in the power of his might.

Image courtesy of comicvine.com

Not in the might of his power but in the power of his might. The main noun here is the might not the power. Paul gives the might a description (i.e. power/ powerful if you like adjectives). When someone has power, he yields it. We say he HAS power. The power is an extension of the person.  However, someone’s might is who he is, not what he has. Might is part of a person. From that verse I could deduce that God’s might (WHO HE IS) has power (WHAT HE HAS). Therefore, God’s might is his power and God’s power is his might. They are one; you cannot separate them. But we do separate them, don’t we? We ask God to give us our school fees and if he doesn’t we get mad at him but we do not want to spent time at his feet and worship him. God split Red Seas for those that worshipped him. He gave long life to those that honoured him. He fought battles for those that had blind faith in him. But not us in the 21^st Century right? We have technology so we don’t need faith, worship and all that  honour stuff right? How wrong you are. The power of God may change to look like different interventions but the person of GOD is the same. Hebrews 13:13 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  And if God is the same let me enlighten you beloved, we still need to worship him. We still need to wake up daily and read his word. You’re not a special breed of people who can operate without the word. You need to memorize scripture (Yes, it's not for Sunday School and old women). You need to belong to a fellowship. You need to pray. You need to give. You need to spread the word of love of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Don’t be consoled cause half the world is not doing any of that stuff. Half the world is wrong. Jesus is not talking to half the world at this moment. Jesus is talking to you reading this blog. How well do you know God’s persona?

Here are some reasons why we are not familiar with God’s persona.

God’s hand provides for us. God’s face draws us to be intimate with him and have a personal relationship that may have you looking un-cool, not “with it” and deny you lots of worldly things. If you care about the money in your bank more than the consistency of your waking up to read the Bible, you’re after his hand not his face. Some of you will be offended reading this and that’s okay. The gospel is an offence to mediocrity. If you are more concerned about having the latest phone than spending a quiet time with Jesus, you’re after his hand and not his face. The danger of that is this. When you know God’s hand, the day you lack, your world falls apart. When you know his face, he favours you beyond provision. The day you lack, you are secure in his love because you know his persona that promises he will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). You not only know but you experience. Click here to see a personal experience of what I'm saying.   He favours your relationships. He favours the work of your hands. He favours all that concerns you because you know his persona. Moses of the Bible was a friend of God to the extent that when Miriam and Aaron gossiped about him, God had Moses' back by striking Miriam with leprosy (Numbers 12). Read it. When you know the LORD OF THE POWER, the POWER OF THE LORD will know you.

The sooner you realize that this life is not about you, the better it is for you.  You are not an owner on planet earth; you are a broker. Living for one self is the most worthless form of living. There is a League of Higher Living. Read it afterwards by clicking here.

If I had a hate-mail account, it would be replete by now but I will not apologise for it. Such was the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that separated mother from daughter, father from son (Matthew 10:34-36). We are ignorant. We have graduated from colleges and universities and attained the highest levels of folly because we are ignorant of the word of God. We seem content that Charles Darwin had more wisdom than his creator. In Hosea 4:6 God says My people perish for lack of Knowledge… It doesn’t end there. If you read the rest of verse 6 you understand why they perish for lack of Knowledge. Is it because knowledge is not available? No. The rest of Hosea 4:6 reads …because they have rejected knowledge”

How do we reject knowledge? But not reading the word. It's available and we ignore it. Ignorance in the 21st Century sounds something like this, "It's not that serious." "How do we really know it's true?" "Gosh, that's so boring." Boring has riches in heaven and boring has eternal life. If you have exchanged the knowledge of God for a lie, you will forever have that gap aching to be filled. Darwin won’t do it. Activists won’t do it. The persona of God, the man JESUS CHRIST will. You don’t believe me? Just wait 20 years living as if Jesus is an option and you will see it first hand in your own life. What the word of God is to the devil and the world is what ignorance is to God and his glorious riches. How often do you read the word?

It’s called idol worship and it’s the latest fashion in town. Whatever takes pre-eminence in your life is your worship. It may be your image, your boyfriend, your girlfriend your icon or even your iPhone. If you cannot trade it for a life for JESUS, watch out. Our God is a jealous God. Let me let you in on his persona. No other God shall you place before him. Our God is a loving God. He gave his life and blood for you. Our God is a great God. Our God is an awesome God. Stop pursuing things that will not last and follow the everlasting Father. Stop frustrating yourself with the crossroads in your life and follow the road to the cross of Christ. Stop fighting to belong to a world that does not love you and be an ambassador of a Heavenly King who loves you enough to die for you.