I love that line, "in the power of the Spirit." I want that. Not so that I can be powerful, but that my life my be a vessel for that power. I want to be open and receptive to God's power living and shining through me.
Matthew 6:14-15
I've never heard this preached, but there it is as plain as day. There's no hidden meaning, no cryptic parable, no mystical symbolism, just unmovable truth. We must forgive. And if we don't there are serious consequences.
John 3:27, 34, 5:19, 30
"A man can receive only what is given him from heaven ... for God gives the Spirit without limit ... the Son can do nothing by himself ... By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me."
Just like the Israelites wandering through the wilderness and depending on God's daily provision for 40 full years, we should depend on God, in the same way, to direct and use us. What if every thought and heartbeat, every action and reaction, every split-second moment was directed by God? What if instead of a schizophrenia (split mind) we had theophrenia (God mind) and we let our consciousness be fully possessed by a the Most Holy deity? Impossible? Maybe - we can't be Jesus perfectly. But "God gives the Spirit without limit." So we can't be Immanuel but, by God, we can try.
