Source of Ability, Efficiency and Might

“But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.” Acts 1:8 AMP

We are powerless. Our human nature always overrides our ability to do things. We can manipulate in the way we talk, the way we think, the way we feel and the way we act but give yourself a longer time and you can observe that we will end up doing/saying the same things over again. Neuroscience said that our brain can be molded or changed or transformed. We can train the way we perceive events so that we won’t respond irrationally. We can forge a new habit into our new life just like a New Years resolution. We can say “I can” to whatever we creatively imagine to accomplish. We can set out to change our mindset to improve our ability to face adversities. Part of those are true but there is a “but sandwich” (the other side of the coin), no matter what we do using our own strength, we can never attain true perfection without the supernatural help from God.

I do believe that we have the power to transform ourselves to become a better person. I do think that we have a part to play in our self-rebuilding. But our own strength alone is not enough to propel us throughout lifetime. One day we will fail again and be seen or heard “oh, he/she is back doing the same thing”. Nothing is wrong with that, we are humans, we are not a machine or a robot that can be pre-programmed to execute a task forever.

September 20, 2012, I made a promise to “not do something” and yesterday, July 25, 2013, I violated my promise. For months I was so successful but then all of a sudden, out of nowhere I broke my promise without even feeling guilty about it. Now, i have to start over again. I know as a person that my will power is strong. I am an endurance athlete and I trained myself to do things repeatedly even if it is painful. My workout log shows how good is my ability to sustain a habit. Take for example, for 50 days, I have not missed a single day of my daily workout. For years, I have not stopped my cycling and swimming training – even after I suffered a heart attack in 2008, I still kept the same objectives even up to this day. Every year, I never missed the Outlaw 100 miles bike ride. Or even writing a journal everyday right after waking up and using just an old iPhone4 only (yes, I’m typing all these using my iPhone). Can you see my ability to sustain a habit? Very impressive, don’t you think… but I know that one day it will not be there. It has been proven to me many years that man’s own promises/habits are meant to be broken. It’s not sustainable. We can willfully say or do something or not do things but without the help from someone, those efforts will not materialize.

Sad to recall but I used to do things the “unChristian way”. Name it and I’ve done it. But one day, the Holy Spirit came over me and started to minister me from the inside out. This small voice was trying to say, “don’t do it”, “your actions offends me”, “I’ve already redeemed you”, “walk with me at all times”, “come back to me”. This inner voice is the secret power that can transform you and me forever.

The Holy Spirit is the real source of power. It’s like the sun that never turn off its power.

One last note regarding quantifying change. God looks at us in a daily basis only and He does not keep a score of how many days we have been keeping our promise. It is a daily renewal and when we fail, we have the ability to be forgiven again. That is the beauty of the Kingdom life.

Regards to all. RA

See it at YouVersion.com:

http://bible.us/8/act.1.8.amp