The Same Power

This message was delivered at Fountain of Life Christian Fellowship, Fairmont, WV on 11-2-25.

“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” Romans 8:11

If we can wrap our heads around what this verse means everything about this Christian life we are living would change dramatically. Sadly, so many people today – believers included – live defeated and desperate lives. They live lives of disappointment or are devastated by the things that have happened to them or by hardships they feel they must live with for the rest of their lives.

People evidently weren’t much different in Paul’s day because we read his prayer for those people in Ephesians 1:17-21, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand of the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” 

He also asks this question in I Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Paul was obviously concerned that those believers didn’t understand what was available to them.

Difficult Questions to Answer 

We have heard Paul’s question to the Corinthians before, and we tell ourselves that we know that the Holy Spirit lives inside us. I have a question then: If we know that, why don’t we live like it? It is a question that deserves consideration. If we truly believe that the Holy Spirit, who is that same power that raised Jesus from the dead, dwells within us, why do we not live differently than we do? Do we believe it or not?

The Greek work that Paul uses here is “dunamis.” It is from this word that we get English words like “dynamite,” “dynamo,” and “dynamic.” In the Scripture, this word is translated as “power.” It speaks of miraculous, divine power. By definition, it means inherent power. That means it is a naturally occurring power that resides in an object by virtue of its nature, like the power in a stick of dynamite. This resident, latent, potential power is there waiting to be released, but it won’t be released until a choice is made and an action taken.

Divine Power

This term is used 120 times in the New Testament. Peter uses the word “dunamis” in II Peter 1:3, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life to our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” Paul uses the word in II Timothy 1:7, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.” We find it again in II Corinthians 4:7 where we read, “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.” So, where is this power? It is inside these jars of clay, inside these mortal bodies. But here is a sad truth: As believers, we are all too often content to live below our potential because we don’t understand or believe what is possible. Why is this? It’s because we don’t understand the Word.

Jesus dealt with this very thing in Matthew 22 when the Sadducees were trying to entrap Jesus with his response. They had presented Jesus with the scenario of a man dying without leaving an heir. According to Jewish custom, his seven brothers each took the woman to be their wife, and they all died without producing an heir for their brother. The Sadducees’ question was: Whose wife will she be at the resurrection? The strangest part about this incident is that the Sadducees didn’t even believe in the resurrection. We read in Matthew 22:29 that, “Jesus replied, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.’” The word “know” here speaks of seeing, considering, or understanding. We use the word in the same way when we say something like, “I see what you’re saying.”

Those teachers of the Law did not understand or perceive the meaning of what the word stated, and we do the same thing oftentimes. Like the Sadducees, we argue about points that are really not important at all – just to make a point. We question and argue about things in life, in the Word, and in our faith that aren’t essential. The question we really need to ask is: What does this same power that raised Jesus from the dead mean for our lives? Here are four potential applications and uses of this power:

1. Restorative Power

Firstly, this power is restorative, which is the power to restore things to their original state. We all have things that have been lost, stolen, forgotten, or broken. That same power can restore them. We read in Joel 2:25 this promise of restoration, “So, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you.” 

Lost Things

What kind of things have we lost along the way? That list of things would include things like our peace, and joy, and our hope. When you are in difficult or challenging seasons of life, it is easy to lose those. When our own needs aren’t being met, we can lose our sense of compassion, and we can lose our faith when our circumstances seem impossible, and our prayers go on answered. But this same power can restore them back into our lives.

Stolen Things

What about the things that have been stolen or taken from us against our will or without our permission? This could be things like our happiness, our health, or our finances. These things are easy to steal and are stolen regularly from people. It is also possible to have our marriage and our children stolen away by the world or by the enemy. We can even have our future stolen from us – both here on earth and in the age to come if we are not careful. But that same power that resides within us can restore all these things to us.

Forgotten Things

What sort of things do we forget as believers? One thing we often forget is our mission. We forget what we’ve been redeemed to do or to be. We forget the covenant that Christ made with us, and we forget our position in Christ, our covenant partner. We also forget our first love like we read in Revelations 2:4-5. We forget the armor that Paul describes in Ephesians 6. We leave it lay where we last did battle, and we forget the authority that Christ has given us to overcome the enemy. If we can grasp the meaning of these verses, all of this can be restored.

Broken Things

This same power also restores that which has been broken. During our lifetimes, we can experience broken relationships within our families and communities. Our relationship with God or our communication with God can be broken. Our hopes, our health, and our emotions can be broken. We see many people around us suffering from each of these things, but they don’t have to remain broken. They can be restored by the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

Freedom Restored

Another thing this same power can restore is our freedom. We can have freedom from the addictions we have succumbed to.  We can have freedom from the strongholds that we have allowed to become established in our lives. We can have freedom from the enemy oppression that we consider normal because we can’t remember a time without it. We can’t forget our three favorite freedom-robbing companions that we allow to inhabit our soul: fear, anxiety, and depression. It doesn’t have to be this way because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead can also restore our freedom from them.

Fellowship Restored

One final area this same power restores is our fellowship with God, with our family, and within the body of Christ. This same power can even ignite revival in our personal life which can then spread into our corporate fellowship.

Be encouraged today. All is not lost. Our outlook is not bleak because that same power that raised Jesus from the grave can restore all those things that it been lost, stolen, forgotten, or broken.

2. Authoritative Power

Secondly, this power within us is authoritative. In Luke 10:19, Jesus told his disciples, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.” Personally, I have no interest getting anywhere close to snakes or scorpions, but I don’t believe that is what Jesus is referring to here. Jesus is speaking figuratively here about those things which are evil and that seek to bring us harm. We read Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 

Power Over Strongholds

The same power that resides within each of us gives us authority and the power to tear down the strongholds that have been constructed in our lives. There are several areas in our lives that can become strongholds. These are those guarded and protected areas; those places of refuge that we retreat to when we are threatened. They are places like disappointments, rejection, and painful memories of things that hurt us in the past.

We hide behind being critical of others to protect ourselves from attack. We wrap ourselves in shame and guilt to prove our offenders right. There are other strongholds like addictions, doubt, and self-loathing. These creep in so gradually that we don’t notice their presence until it’s too late. There are also things like unforgiveness, judgment and anger that can seem like natural dispositions or family norms. But we must remember that these actions and reactions are not the character of Christ, and if they have become a stronghold in our life, we have the power and the authority to tear them down.

Power Over Imaginations

The Word also says that we have power and authority over imaginations. We’re not talking about creativity here, nor about the ability to pretend. What we are talking about here are the more sinister, harmful things that take place in our minds. These are the thoughts that do not align with God’s plan or temptations that drag us away into sin. It’s our personal prejudices. It’s unreasonable, unsubstantiated fear. It’s the debilitating anxiety that renders us weak and defenseless. And it’s deep, dark, and unrelenting depression that cannot be explained or rationalized. These are imaginations – snakes and scorpions – if you please, and we have the power and authority to cast them down.

Power Over Sin

We also have power over sin. We don’t have to sin. Nothing and no one is forcing us. We choose to sin. We choose to participate in things like hatred, greed, lust, pride, lying, and selfishness. But we have the power and authority to reject and refuse to participate in any of these things – along with the multitude of other sins that are available to us. That same power that raised Jesus from the dead gives us that power and authority.

Power Over Evil

As we read in Ephesians 6:12, we also have power and authority over evil. Here, Paul lists “principalities,” which are high-ranking evil entities that have existed from the beginning. He lists “powers.” These are the underlings that serve Satan. Next, he lists “rulers of darkness.” This is a collective term used to refer to Satan and the fallen angels. And he lists “spiritual wickedness in high places.” This likely refers to the supernatural control over a region or territory like we see in Daniel 10 with the reference to the prince of Persia. These sound pretty ominous, don’t they?

I will add spiritual oppression to this list, which is a cruel or unjust use of external pressure to force submission. Oppression is something that most believers will face at some point in their life. We must remember that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and dwells in us is greater than all of these, and we have the power and authority from Jesus himself to wage battle against them and win.

Power Over Idolatry

We will finish this section with the power we have over the idols in our lives. Now, I am certain that everyone reading this can truthfully testify that we do not have a secret shrine set up in a locked closet in our house where we worship some little statue. Those are not the kind of idols that people worship today. In modern society, we have more sophisticated idols that we worship, things that we would do almost anything to appease. Some examples of modern-day idols include seeking the approval of those around us to verify our worth. Another one of our idols is our possessions – the flashier and the more expensive the better – because that also improves our approval rating and gets us more likes and shares on social media.

Reputations, especially in our professions, are guarded and nurtured to ensure success. Some individuals feel a need to control their surroundings and situations. Relationships are another major idol today. Even a bad relationship is better than none. Seeking pleasure is another idol in our society. We call it “entertainment” these days, and we spend a ton of time and money to participate either in person or on TV. And don’t forget money because it drives people to do things they never could have imagined doing. More recently, politics has become an idol because our political beliefs have become our national identity regardless of the cost to our family or friends or even to our faith.

Do we all have the same idols? No, but if you’re honest with yourself, you would have to admit that one or more of one of these may have had a place of prominence in your life or maybe still does. But they don’t have to. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead has given us power and authority over these idols.

3. Transformative Power

A third type of power that is available is the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. That same power that resided in Christ resides in us to transform us. Paul writes in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good pleasing and perfect will.” And in II Corinthians 3:18 it says, “And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” It is the Holy Spirit’s purpose and intent to transform us into a mirror-like image of Christ so that we can reflect his glory into this dark world.

Redeems the Soul

This transformation process redeems the soul – our thinking, our will, and emotions. This is accomplished through the forgiveness of sins. This transformation process has given us a new heart and a new life as new creations in Christ. In addition to this, we have a new identity. We are the children of God rather than the children of darkness. We have a new focus. The old things don’t hold power over us anymore. Our focus has shifted from the temporal to the eternal, and we have a new purpose in life. Our purpose now being to please God rather than ourselves.

Renews the Mind

This transformation process renews the mind. We have new habits and a new outlook on life. Things that used to control, influence, or define us are no more. We have deeper and better discernment of right and wrong. We have a newfound discipline in our lives, and we are more closely aligned with Father’s plans for our lives. Our nature and character aligns with his character and his nature. Even our behavior more closely aligns with his Word.

Revives the Spirit

This process also revives the human spirit. This is the part of us that needs reviving more than anything else. The transformative work of the Holy Spirit makes us more aware of sin and convicts us to change. Our old sinful nature is transformed to be holy and righteous in the sight of God. This transformation also reestablishes the intended connection between our spirit and his, and our ability and desire to pray is revived making our prayers more powerful and effective.

Revitalizes Our Hope

Another transformation that takes place is the revitalization of our hope. It is important to remember that hope is more than wishful thinking. It is an eager expectation of receiving what we asked for. The hope we have for our families, our relationships, and our homes is revitalized through this process. There is a sense of expectation and a sense that good is coming. Our outlook for our finances and our health is stronger and more positive, and our hope for a future with God is secure. This is all because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is dwelling in us.

Glory Bestowed

 We are transformed, redeemed, revived, and revitalized when these things have been removed by that same power, and in their place the very glory of God is bestowed on our lives to transform us. Our appearance is changed like Moses’ was on the mountain. We can enter God’s presence as often as we choose to gaze upon his glory and to be immersed and transformed by that glory. We can enjoy a deeper relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters as a result. We can also understand what it means to walk in the Spirit like Paul talks about in Galatians 5:25. The same spirit that raised Christ from the grave is the same spirit who walks with us and is transforming us from glory to glory.

4. Sustaining Power

The last kind of power that comes from having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is the power to sustain this new life. David writes in Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the Lord, and he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous be shaken.” We often warn kids about using the word “never” because never is a very long time. But when the Word says “never,” I hold it to mean just that. “Never” means there is not even the smallest chance of it being anything different. “Never” means it will exist for all time without ever changing. The righteous will never be shaken by doubt, never shaken by our circumstances, never shaken by enemy attacks, never shaken by anything. Never.

Spiritual Strength

The sustaining power of the Holy Spirit gives a spiritual strength. This means we have strength to pray more effectively and fervently, strength to stand when we are under spiritual attack, strength to believe when the odds are stacked against us, strength to overcome whatever obstacle or enemy that stands in our way, strength to withstand the onslaught and fiery darts of the enemy, and strength to declare victory before the final battle has been won. All this because of this same power that dwells inside of us.

Courage to Obey

This sustaining power gives us the courage to obey. I know in my own life that there have been times when I have wavered, have questioned, have failed to obey because I lacked courage. This sustaining power of the Holy Spirit gives us the courage to speak the truth in the face of the enemy, in private conversations, and in the public square if need be. It gives us the courage to testify, to tell our story, and to tell what the Lord has done for us in us, for us, and through us. It gives us the courage to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons like Jesus said in Matthew 10:8. Jesus gave his authority to do so, and he said that we would do even greater things than these. And the Holy Spirit gives us the courage to preach the gospel which is the good news that the Kingdom of God has come in the person of Jesus Christ to all who will listen.

Power to Overcome

This sustaining power also gives us the power to overcome, not merely survive. The picture of an overcomer, in my mind, is one who is still standing strong, undefeated, and confident even after fighting a battle for their very life. He or she remains strong, standing tall, and victorious over whatever enemy has tried to defeat them. These can be enemies like temptation, deception, or opposition – both carnal and spiritual. They could be enemies like crippling fear, financial, emotional, or spiritual hardship, and of course, our archenemy who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The Word says, however, that we are overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

Power in Weakness

Let us not be like those who cower and say, “This is impossible. It can’t be done.” Nor let us be like those who tell themselves, “I don’t have the strength nor the ability to do something like this.” Let’s not fall back on that lame excuse, “I’m not qualified for this task. I’ve never done anything like this before.” And certainly, let us never confess, “I can’t do this.”

What does the Word say? It says that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Father is not put off by our weakness. In fact, he welcomes it like we see in II Corinthians12:9 where Paul writes, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” His power is made perfect or complete in our weakness. This same power that raised Jesus from the dead reaches its intended end in us when are weak. You can do this!

Final Encouragement

In fact, someone has already prayed for you concerning these things. We find that prayer in Ephesians 3:17-21 where Paul prays for those reading his letter – then and now: “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

That same power that raised Jesus from the dead is working in us to accomplish Father’s will in our lives, in our homes, and in our communities. We may be living in difficult times, but we have been brought to this place and reminded of this powerful truth for such a time as this.

It is time for us all to remember that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave dwells in us and then recommit to what he wants to do through us during these last days. Blessings to you all.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®

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