Dynamite is just that, something with an explosive potential too great for anyone to contain. The word dynamite comes from the Greek word dunamis, which means power.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…
These are the words of Jesus. So, as John MacArthur points out in his book “Found: God’s Will”, if you’ve accepted Jesus into your heart “you are literally walking dynamite.”
The problem is, a lot of the time I don’t feel dynamite at all. In fact, I feel downright helpless, overwhelmed and exhausted.
I want to help others, help my family, my small group, all the kids we work with in K-Rock, but a lot of the time, I feel unable to do any of that.
Then, it occurs to me that I have the Holy Spirit within me and I should have uncontainable power.
So, where’s the disconnect? I read my bible daily (mostly), I pray daily (but not enough), I strive to live right with God (but often fall into sin) and I serve the body of Christ (sometimes not enough and sometimes too much).
In thinking this all through, I had one of those “ah ha!” moments and realized there is no one set answer, but there are several components to the answer that have several variations within each.
For instance, as my friend Tom pointed out last night, our sin hinders our prayers. The more sinful we are, the less effective our prayers. Every time I give in to sin, I’m putting a blockade between myself and God’s power. Makes me feel kinda dumb to think of it that way. Why would I do anything to prevent myself from accessing that power?
Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Romans 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
The less time I spend in the word, the more emaciated by spiritual life becomes.
The less time I spend surrounded by other Christians, the more emaciated it becomes as well.
When I don’t intentionally fill my spirit tank daily, it runs dangerously close to empty as I strive to pour what I have into others.
If I’m not intentionally praying with gusto every day, how can I hope to access the dunamis of the Holy Spirit?
So, here I am, trying to use sin-soaked, spirit diminished, under-fueled dynamite to blow up the world for Christ with a weaker than it should be prayer life.
No wonder it’s not working. Duh!
To that end, I’d like to ask those of you who read these words to join with me in a few things:
1) Giving our sin over to God, so that he can diminish it (for we’ll never do it on our own).
2) Dedicating daily time, no matter what, to the Word.
3) Dedicating daily time to prayer, no matter what.
4) Pouring into one another, so that as we share God’s love, we can fill each other with spiritual dynamite so that we’re all empowered to do His work, whenever and wherever necessary.
Who’s in?
Seems to me the reward of this sort of thing is certainly something worth yelling about.
Well, it probably goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway: I'M IN!!! :-D
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