The Way to Power
by Annette Capps

Have you ever felt that you lacked true power in your life? Felt powerless? Even victimized? I think many people have probably felt that way, even after hearing sermon after sermon about being more than conquerors. Their lives outside of church don’t seem to line up with what is heard in church. Jesus said, "…He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my father." How many of us are operating in that kind of power? And, why aren’t we? The simple answer is that we do not believe that we can. The reason we cannot believe is that we have too many negative obsessions, and the consequence of negative obsessions is powerlessness. Your negative obsession may be a failed relationship such as a divorce, family feud, church split, or how your parents treated you. It could be anything that happened in the past that damaged you emotionally. You may be living your life with the obsession of sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, or physical abuse. Whatever past event that still holds power in your life will prevent you from walking in true power. What is True Power? True power is the power that comes from within. It is internal. It remains when all the external objects of power have disappeared. True power is knowing who you are, the offspring of God, endued with the power of the Holy Spirit. An heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ is a powerful person. External things give people an illusion of power, but it is not true power. A person can have all the symbols of power and not have true power. Money, big houses, expensive sports cars, impressive clothing, these are external symbols of power and they can disappear in a moment. So can important positions in the company or community. If it takes something outside of yourself to make you feel powerful, then it is not true power. True power can help manifest these external things, but does not rely on them. What are you afraid of losing? If there is something or someone so important to you that you feel it’s loss would defeat your soul, then it has power over you. You are relying on that external power to support you. True support comes from within, from God. In Matthew chapter 19, when the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he could do to gain eternal life, Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. Now, we know that giving away all your money does not give you eternal life! The lesson is that money and possessions were the power holding his soul. He was afraid to let go of them because he felt that his wealth was his true source of power. Had he done what Jesus said and given up his possessions, he feared would no longer have position, prestige, and power. There is nothing inherently sinful about possessing money or things. The question is, "Does it possess you?" Jesus was not controlled by external power. He did not care if he had the approval of the Sanhedrin or the public. He was not emotionally destroyed when Judas betrayed him. He did not suffer from depression when his message was rejected by religious people and was slanderously accused of being possessed of the devil. He did not suffer a blow to his self-esteem when he had to borrow a donkey to ride. He did not feel that he was victimized when he freely forgave those that crucified him! He recognized that true power is internal freedom from every external act of treachery. CHOICES Regardless of the circumstances in your life, you always have a choice. It may not be a physical choice, but it is a spiritual choice. You may not have had a choice when your husband decided to divorce you, but you can choose to let it go and move on with your life. The other choice is to hold on to the emotional damage and let it become a negative obsession. Emotional damage generates fear, and fear keeps us from true power. True power knows that no person or circumstance can control your life unless you let it. You may not have chosen to lose your job, but you can choose to let it go and take this opportunity to change the direction of your life. The other choice you have is to feel like a failure and never try again. You may not have had a choice in the way the circumstances of life treated you, but you have a choice in how you respond now and what you create with the words of your mouth. YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE! 3 THINGS YOU HAVE THE POWER TO DO - YOU HAVE THE POWER TO FORGIVE There is an illusion that "anger is power". It is an illusion. Anger just seems powerful. True power is choosing to forgive. True power is love, not hate. When a past injustice is kept alive in your thoughts, it becomes a negative obsession. That negative obsession has power over you. The person you refuse to forgive has power over you. - YOU HAVE THE POWER TO SAY NO There is an illusion that "approval is power". "If everyone approves of who I am and what I do, then I am accepted and have power." When everyone likes you, it means that you have given up parts of your true self to all those people. If you can’t say no when you want to, then you are selling yourself to gain approval. - YOU HAVE THE POWER TO LET GO One of the symptoms of powerlessness is the need to control. It may be the need to control through anger, sickness, or acting like a victim or a tyrant. The illusion is that "control over people and circumstances is power". It can never be. Can you force someone to love you? Forgive you? You may hold them at gunpoint or physically torture them, but you have no power over their soul! You can manipulate circumstances to just how you think things should be, but in the end, your need to control has power over you. Letting go and leaving each person and circumstance with God is true power. EMOTIONAL HEALING The first step to true power is recognizing what person or past event still has control over you. What are your negative obsessions? What event, thoughts or beliefs are still stuck in your mind? Emotional healing can only begin when you acknowledge what you need to be healed from, but don’t get stuck in that process. Once you bring it up, keep going until it is resolved. Don’t get stuck in the emotion of it. The power comes in letting it go and moving on. To the degree that you focus on negative events in your life, to that degree you are bound. Obsessing about past hurts, enslaves you to that moment in time and to the person who "sinned" against you. Didn’t Christ come to free us from the power of sin? That means we can be free from the power of other’s sins against us as well as our own personal sins. Sin no longer has power over us. You have a choice to make. Do you want to be truly empowered by Christ in you, letting go of your past, forgiving others? Do you want to see God’s power in your life and circumstances? Do you really want your words to come to pass? Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into complete spiritual and emotional healing. Every person will have a different path to healing through the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Trust His Wisdom on the inside of you.  Back to Newsletter Index.