I've got the power! - Devotion for 5/23/07

I’ve got the power! – Devotion for 5/23/07

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think about a particular scene in the movie “Bruce Almighty” and think how cool it might be to have that kind of power. The scene I’m talking about is when Bruce really begins to realize what he is capable of doing, and as he walks down the street he makes different things happen: fire hydrant begin to spray water, he get a new set of clothes, and a “mysterious” wind blows up a womans . . . umm, you get the picture. Sometimes I think about how cool it might be to be able to make things happen with just a “snap” of the fingers. Sometimes just for fun, when my sons and I are sitting at a stoplight, I will say “boom, shaka-laka, boom” and point my fingers at the stoplight trying to get it to change from red to green . . . and again, maybe that’s just me. I just think it would be so cool do be able to have that kind of power and ability to just make something happen.

The thing is we do have that kind of power available. OK – maybe we will not be able to create “mysterious” winds, but I do believe that we have the power to make unnatural things occur. Need proof? The Book of Acts. In the Book of Acts we hear about the early Christian community there in Jerusalem were sharing their things, and even selling property and things to ensure that the needs of everyone was met. Acts 4:34-35 says, “For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.” Selling things? Giving proceeds to the apostles? Not a needy person among them? Dude, that’s seriously unnatural. That is water spraying from a fire hydrant unnatural. That is wind blowing up a skirt unnatural. If that kind of thing happened today people would be freaked out and start calling it a cult.

What kind of power would make someone do these kind of things? “And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). All they were doing was testifying to what God had done through Jesus Christ, and the people were filled with the abundant grace and power of the Holy Spirit. As the apostles were teaching how Jesus gave His all, the people began to live this out by giving all that they had to benefit others. You and I have access to this same kind of power. No, we might not be able to change a stoplight from red to green, but I believe that we can change the world – you tell me which one takes more power. I believe that if today each one of us would claim hold of that power, and begin to tell someone about what God has done for you, and if we would begin to live that out by doing things for others, then we will see unnatural things. We have the power to change the world. In the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Go forth today and proclaim the Gospel; and if you must, use words.”