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Dunlap SDA Church

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Avenues of God’s Power

It will cheer us up in spite of the thunder around us.

And we will just ask the Lord to bless us and that the Holy Spirit will be able to work with power in our hearts.

Heavenly Father, we ask you especially that the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight our Lord and Savior and Redeemer amen And may the rain be a symbol of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, because that is what we need.

Now I thought about the avenues of God's power, but before that I have a question.

When you get up in the morning and you go to breakfast, What is the focus of the day?

You know, I remember there was a time in my life I got up and switched on the radio.

Associated Press, BBC, National Public Radio and whatever, and get the latest what is taking place in the world.

And then, of course, in breakfast, we talk about it.

And at the end of the day, how was your day, and what's new?

And I can tell you that what you hear during the day, in the morning and in the evening, is generally not good news.

And the question is now, what is your focus in daily living?

And in the light of this, a few days ago a friend of mine shared a thought, a statement that was quite profound.

And I'd like to share this with you in the light of God's power.

Many fix their eyes upon the terrible wickedness existing around them, The apostasy, the weakness on every side, and they talk of those things until their hearts are filled with sadness and doubt.

They keep uppermost before them the mind, in mind the masterly workings of the arch deceiver.

It's a mistake to think of the enemy of righteousness as closed with so great power when we dwell so little upon the love of God and his might.

Therefore, we must talk of the mightiness of Christ.

You can see the contrast here between what Satan is planning to do and what Christ wants us to do.

And you find this in Councils to the Church, page 79.

And in this light, I thought to myself, what shall I share?

Now we know that all power is in the hands of Jesus, right?

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

It's in the hands of God, it's in the hands of Christ.

What good does that do to my life, my struggles, my weaknesses?

Yes, all power is in Christ's hand, but what about me?

So I looked then and studied the aspects of all the avenues that God makes available his power to us.

Because it doesn't matter too much if all power is in his hands.

Yes, for some it may help, but what does it do to my life?

And I found about 5 areas that are extremely helpful to each 1 of us.

First of all, divine power can come through the grace of Christ.

Then divine power through the Holy Spirit.

Now, of course, you know, in our church, in some churches, this is debatable.

And your understanding of what is the Holy Spirit is crucial in the success of your life.

When you got up this morning, did you realize where the angel was?

Divine powers through the Holy Scriptures.

So there's all avenues that are available to you and me.

And then, if time allows, I would like to give you examples of divine power in humans.

So let us first start to the grace of Christ.

What does grace of Christ What does grace of Christ do?

First of all, grace is necessary for what?

Forgiveness for sins, it's extremely important.

And most of us reflect on our forgiveness.

But there is another aspect of grace that many of us don't think about it.

And that is the power to victory over sin.

1 aspect of grace is to take care of our problems, to take care of forgiveness, to take care and give us a good feeling.

You know, I mean, many Christians do this like Roman Catholics, our Roman Catholic friends.

You do this and that and the other thing, and that takes care of it.

And every week you come back, and you confess again and again.

You have to do a number of assignments, and then you feel good because you do something yourself.

But what about the power that God makes available?

All power is in the hands of Christ, and what does it need?

And so here then divine power comes through the grace of Christ.

We may believe in him, knowing that he will give us grace and power to do just what he bids us.

You get it in Signs of the Times, August 11, 1909.

So you believe in him, and he gives you grace and power to do what he wants you to do.

And that's important because that enables us to do what he wants us to do.

Here again, the perfection of Christian character.

Now some of us don't like to talk about this because we see that we don't match up to the perfection of Christ.

But the perfection of Christ depends, of Christ's Christian character depends what?

Holy upon the grace and strength found alone in God.

And so if you want to be perfect, what do you have to do?

Many think, okay, you have to work on it.

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Avenues of God’s Power

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