Aspirations
To what do you aspire?
Some desire to be great in man's eyes, and others just to be left alone. Some just wish to live quietly and have the things of this earth that mean so much to them. However, we are meant to aspire to certain things God desires for us in the kingdom.
Think for a moment about what the atmosphere of heaven must be like. Do you imagine that God’s power is undetectable in heaven? Do you imagine for a moment that it is not tangible and real in heaven? Do you think that when you get to heaven, God will no longer have His power? Is His power only needed until everything is complete, or is it part of His character and nature for all of eternity?
Do we really think that we are capable of being fruitful to the extent He desires without His power working in us?
Eph. 3:7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
The apostle Paul understood that any effectiveness he enjoyed in the work of the kingdom came through the power of God, as expressed through the Holy Spirit.
Colossians 1:9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
You are strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. It is His power that sustains us in every situation of life.
Ephesians 1:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
Here, Paul is speaking of the same power that raised Christ from the dead. We are meant to aspire to His glorious, mighty power working in us and through us for His purposes. People need to know Him and His power!
1Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.
2Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
2Corinthians 13:4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.
Our aspirations matter. They can be the difference in truly bearing fruit for Him or not. I aspire to walk in His power as opposed to my own.
