There is not one habit, inherited or cultivated, that God’s power cannot break! The reason we do not have that power is because we do not believe in that power. The reason we do not have it is because we do not access it. We do not crave it.
As a freshman in high school, I made the varsity team. I remember getting my uniform, No. 23, and the coach telling the team, “Young men, if you are going to be great basketball players, you must eat, drink, and sleep basketball.”
I was so excited to go home and tell my mother that I had made the first team. When the sun set, instead of putting on my pajamas, I put on No. 23 to go to bed. The next morning I was up, going to the bathroom to get ready for school, and I heard my mother call me. Now, when my mother wanted my attention, she did not call me by my first name; she said, “Boy!” And when she said that, I knew that I had better stop at attention! This particular morning, she got my attention, then asked, “Where are you going?”
“I am going to prepare for school.”
“What is that you have on?”
“My uniform.”
“Did you sleep in that?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Is that appropriate?”
“Well, no.”
“Why?”
“Mom, my coach said that if I am going to be good, if I am going to be great, I must eat, sleep, and drink basketball.”
She looked at me like I was stupid. She said, “Son, you have to understand what he was saying. He was saying that you must have a passion for it. That is what he meant.” Are you following this? You have to have a passion for it.
My wife has always been No. 2 in my life. She knows that. We started dating when we were 17 years of age. We went to high school together and have been together ever since. When I got out of college, we married.
When I was in high school, I thought I was something very good because I was a basketball player. My wife could not stand basketball players. That was a challenge in itself. Growing up in Chicago, Illinois, there were a lot of street gangs, but basketball kept me out of those gangs. I would play in the winter; I would play in the rain; I would play in the snow. When my date wanted to go out somewhere, I would always put her off, saying that we would do something the next week.” It always occurred that way. I do not know why she stayed with me, because she was No. 2 to basketball. She is still No. 2, but not to basketball—to Jesus now. My point is this: there is a power in passion.
Happiness
When I played basketball, I was in so much pain. The drugs would wear off; the needle would wear off; the ultra-sound treatment did not work, but I had such zeal and passion for the sport, I rose above the pain. That was for a corruptible crown.
When you are possessed by God, you do not become fanatical. No. You have a radical change in your life, but there is a balance. The fact is that you love God more than the necessary food. You love God so much that you are willing to do anything to make Him happy.
People say, “I want to be happy.” Wait a minute! When you make God happy, you are going to be happy.
In Romans 1:16, Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation.” From 1 Corinthians 1:18, we know that the cross of Jesus is the power of God.
Romans 1:16 includes the phrase, “unto salvation.” Salvation means, to save from sin. What is sin? 1 John 3:4 tells us that “Sin is the transgression of the law.”
So, the gospel contains the power to deliver us from sin. That power is invested in Jesus Christ. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12. To those who become sons and daughters, Jesus gives authority; He gives them power. We are not talking about Internet power or nuclear power; we are talking about a power that made the Internet. We are talking about a power that made nuclear. It is the energy and power that brought the world into existence. This same energy that brought the world into existence is found in God’s Word. There is power there. When we receive His Word, not intellectually only, but when it becomes a part of our lives, there will be a change in us. We are not going to be the same. The change is going to be radical. That does not mean we are instantly perfect and ready to go to heaven, but that the power is transforming.
Do Not Practice Spiritualism
God gives you power. If you have been struggling with the same sin problem, year after year after year, when you hear His voice today, access this power. You do not have to continue to be under the control of the demonic forces. You are going to have trials and tests, but that does not mean you succumb to them. The Spirit is the President; the flesh is the resident, and the resident does not tell the President what to do.
In Galatians 5:16, we read, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” It does not say that you are not going to have tests and trials, but it says that you do not have to succumb to them. Do not converse with the resident. When you listen to the resident, you practice spiritualism.
Spiritualism simply means the dead communicate with the living. Now, we definitely know that the dead are dead in the grave. We know the situation with Saul (see 1 Samuel 28), but at the same time, the average Seventh-day Adventist is not going to be caught up into believing that the dead communicate with the living. But the average Christian Adventist will be caught up if they do not get the victory over the flesh, because the Bible says, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin?” Romans 6:11.
So, if that flesh begins to speak to you, enticing you to do something you know you should not do, telling you that it is all right, that nobody is watching you, and you begin to converse with that flesh that is supposed to be dead, I know it might sound a bit strange, but you are communicating with the dead! Do not listen to that flesh; listen to the Spirit of the living God, who is alive and will give power to you.
We read of the power of God in Jeremiah 10:12: “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” We see also the words of Jesus, in Acts 1:8, promising the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what we should be looking for today, that Pentecostal power. How did the apostles receive it? They emptied themselves of themselves. A person that is already full with self cannot be filled with anything else, just as you cannot pour more water into an already full glass of water. When we empty ourselves of ourselves, God will fill us with power.
History is Past
At the pool of Bethesda, the people were waiting for the moving of the water, but there was no power in the water. That certain man had been lying there beside it for 38 years, unable to get into the waters when they were stirred. (John 5:5.) Inspiration says that the reason this man was in such a condition for 38 years was because of his own choices. “His disease was in a great degree the result of his own sin, and was looked upon as a judgment from God.” The Desire of Ages, 202. He had messed up! How many of us have fallen? How many of us have messed up? But when Jesus overshadowed that man with His dignified shadow, He did not rehearse to that man the history of his mistakes. He just asked one question: “Wilt thou be made whole?” John 5:6.
That is what He is asking of each one of us today. He says, “I know your history; I know where you have fallen. Wilt thou be made whole?” I am sure you would want to instantly respond that you indeed wish to be healed; you want that power! Do you believe that Jesus is going to give that power to you? He gave it to that man.
Too many of God’s people are struggling with the sin problem, and we are told that we will keep sinning till Jesus comes. To me, that is almost blasphemy! Calvary should be a revelation to our dull senses of what sin does to the heart of God. God hates sin. He will eradicate it, and He will get it out of us.
The Blind
There were, by the pool of Bethesda, other impotent people, including the sightless, those who were blind. (John 5:3.)
Revelation 3 directs us to the Laodicean church, which is rebuked for its lukewarmness, and then, in Revelation 3:17, another element of this people is described:
“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” [Emphasis added.]
This is not speaking about other churches, but about God’s people, of which there are those who are blind, spiritually blind. This is why God counseled: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Verse 18.
“I counsel thee to buy of me . . .”; to whom is “Me” referring? It is definitely not referring to man or to a church. God holds the resources. Isaiah 55:1 tells us, “Every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” How are we going to buy or otherwise acquire power from Jesus? We cannot buy it; all He wants is our sin in exchange for His righteousness. He just wants to hear: “Lord, here I am. I recognize that I am wretched, miserable, and poor. I am blind, God. I have failed, and You have promised me that You will give to me, if I come and buy. The only thing I can give You is my sin.” What kind of a deal is this, when God says, “Just give Me your sin; I will give you My righteousness”?
Read again Revelation 3:18. The “gold tried in the fire” is understood to be faith and love, faith that works by love and purifies the soul. It goes on to state, “Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” The anointing of the eyes is that the Holy Spirit wants to awaken us to the reality that we might see our need. We need eyesalve so that we may see how we look. We need to pick up and look into the mirror—the perfect law of liberty—to see in what kind of condition we are. As we draw closer to Jesus, we will continue to see our wretchedness.
God is not going to save us in our sin; He is going to deliver us from our sin. The more we behold Jesus, the more we see our need. But the more we behold one another, the more we think that we look pretty good. We must behold Christ, and the more we see ourselves through the eyes of Jesus, we are going to cry, as did the apostle Paul, “O wretched man that I am.” Romans 7:24.
We need the eyesalve to help us to see our wretchedness, and then we need the other eye anointed so we can see the needs of our fellow human beings. We need to see ourselves the way we are and know that God can clean us; then we need to see that our fellowman needs our help. We must turn our eyes from ourselves, from me and mine. There is no healing in the pool of Bethesda for that, but Jesus said, “I counsel thee, . . . anoint thine eyes.”
“I will bring the blind by a way [that] they knew not; I will lead them in paths [that] they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” Isaiah 42:16. God said that He would take the blind, and lead them out of darkness. All we need to do is ask.
To be concluded . . .
Thomas Jackson is a health evangelist and Director of Missionary Education and Evangelistic Training (M.E.E.T.) Ministry in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He may be contacted by e-mail at: godsplan@meetministry.org or by telephone at: 731-986-3518.