Where To Find the Power You Need

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York without incident. But then, just moments into the flight, the plane hit a flock of geese. The Airbus A320, powered by two jet engines with thrust ratings between 25,500 to 27,000 pounds force, suddenly lost power. It stopped climbing and began going down. Capt. Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III: "But to have zero thrust coming out of those engines was shocking—the silence."

If a couple of geese can disable a huge jet plane, there also are many things in life that can rob us of the power we need. Planes aren't the only things that can go down! We can have lots of motivation and energy, lots of thrust to do something and move forward. But despite our plans and good intentions, on our own, we can hit some problem—and it saps our energy and drains our power. Even small issues can sometimes knock us down, discourage us, demoralize us. As Christians we know we should be on top of things, but somehow we've lost our energy. We've lost our thrust.

We need spiritual power and supernatural strength to deal with the troubles of life, to overcome disappointments and setbacks. We need God's help to face the troubles and the challenges that come at us in life. Because when you suck some goose down your engine, you've got to find the strength to get through the crisis. If you can't fly, you've at least got to glide; you've at least got to float. You need God's power to make it through.

Often we don't realize how desperately we need God's power until we hit something and are left with zero thrust. That's when we finally come to grips with the reality that we need God's help to make it through this world. That's when we realize that our best falls effort short.

Sometimes we have to run dry before we begin to thirst for God's refreshing. Sometimes we have to be drained and empty before we even begin to think about our need to be filled. Sometimes God can't get through to us because we're so independent and self-confident.

But like David who cried out to God when he found himself in the miry clay or in the pit or in a dry and weary land, we recognize our need when we hit the wall. When we run out of gas. When we lose all power. That's when we realize we need God's help.

When we hit some problem and lose our power, God wants to hear our call for help. He wants us to turn to him. He wants us to bring our weaknesses, our failures, our struggles, and our disappointments. He wants to touch our lives with his power and his grace.

When you're empty, bring your emptiness to God so he can fill you. No matter how empty and powerless you may feel, you can come to God, obey him, and by faith experience a miraculous infilling.

2 Kings 4:1-7 (NIV)

   1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves." 2 Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?"
   "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil."
   3 Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side."
   5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one."
   But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing.
   7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

The widow was grieving, in debt, alone, and fearful. But she came to the Lord and asked the prophet for help. She followed his instructions, and by faith she experienced a miracle. This is what God wants to do for you. No matter where you are, no matter how much trouble you might be facing, God is in the miracle-making business. Look at how bad things were for this woman:

She was overwhelmed with trouble. Her husband was dead, and she was totally dependent on him. Not only did she have to deal with the sorrow of losing her husband, as a widow, she had no other source of income. Widows in ancient times had no government safety net. No social security. No pension plan. In those days women had very little career options. Without a man—a father, a brother, a husband, or a son to rely on, a widow could be quickly and easily reduced to abject poverty.

She was in a desperate situation, even though her husband had been a prophet—a man of God! It seems he had been part of a group of men who followed the prophet Elisha and served him. Yet, despite the fact that he was a godly man doing the Lord's will, he had fallen into difficult financial times. 

Sometimes you can do all the right things and still encounter trouble. Here was a prophet who had gotten into debt. He had drained his bank account until it was empty. He had no savings. He had no inheritance to leave his family. In fact, he left them with less than nothing—he left them in debt, owing money to a lender.

However, it doesn't do us much good to rehash the past, trying to figure out who or what to blame. Troubles come in this life. Rain falls on the good and the bad. We can't change the past, but we can do something about the present. Instead of going through all the "what-ifs" or the "if-onlys," we simply need to face our problem with faith.

She had no good options. In those days there was a simple solution for paying off a debt. If you couldn't pay on time, the creditor could take you as a slave. Then he could work you or sell you to someone else to recover the money owed to him.

How would you like to try that solution? Forget about filing for chapter 11. Forget about bankruptcy. If you can't pay your bills or you're behind on your credit cards, no problem! Just leave your family and your home and all your toys and go be a slave for a few years until your debt is settled. No take-home pay. Everything you earn goes to the creditor. He takes it all because you're his slave.

It's hard to imagine such a harsh solution. And yet, debt has a similar effect on people today. A lot of people become enslaved to Visa. Debt rules over them and controls their lives. They don't call it Master Card for nothing! The Bible says the borrower is a servant to the lender (Prov 22:7).

Maybe you're struggling with a load of debt. Every month it's a battle to make ends meet. God wants to set you free from that bondage, but you're going to need his help to make some tough decisions. You'll need his help to make some changes in lifestyle. We're not talking a bailout here. We're talking about doing the right thing.

However, monetary debt isn't the only way someone can become enslaved. The devil wants to bury us in spiritual debt. He wants to keep us in bondage to sin. He wants us to owe him something forever. He is the creditor that enslaves!

They had tried to do the right thing.

This woman's husband was a servant to Elisha (ebed in the Hebrew). The same word is translated as slave in verse 1—what the creditor wanted to make of her two sons. The man served God, but became indebted to a creditor. Now, even though he had served God, his sons were about to become slaves to the creditor.

Let me ask you, Do you serve God? And if you do, Who are your kids going to serve? We cannot afford to become indebted to this world. We can't afford to mix our allegiance—serving both God and the world. Because there is a price to pay if we try to do that. In fact, Jesus said it is impossible to serve two masters (Luke 16:13).

Many people never really understand that you can't be independent. You cannot remain neutral. There is no middle ground. If you refuse to serve God, then you're going to serve the devil. If you try to straddle the fence, you kids may end up paying the spiritual consequences.

If you're trying to play the middle ground, trying to serve the Lord in a half-hearted sort of commitment, you can get yourself in debt to the devil! This can happen if we compromise our commitment to the Lord and allow other things to creep into our lives—things that undermine our walk with the Lord; things that weaken our faith.

What do you fill your head with? What do you watch? What do you listen to? What do you read? How do you spend your time and your energy?

Whenever certain activities or certain things undermine our faith or dilute our commitment, we run the risk of getting in debt to the devil! You can love the Lord and still get yourself in spiritual debt. And it doesn't merely affect you! It can affect your family—your wife and your children.

Some people don't want to commit to serving God. They want the blessings but they're not ready to make the commitment. They want Jesus to be their Savior but not their Lord and Master. They think they can avoid the decision and remain neutral. But it doesn't work that way.

Thirty years ago Bob Dylan wrote a song, "Gotta Serve Somebody." He said everybody serves something or someone in life. There are no exceptions. It doesn't matter how high up the social ladder you climb. If you're not God's servant, you're going to be somebody else's slave.

You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

Chorus:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Copyright ©1979 Special Rider Music

Everybody, Dylan says, has to serve someone or something. There are no exceptions. The CEO may run the company, but he still has a board and stockholders to answer to. The owner of the company may call the shots, but if he wants the company to do well, he still has to serve his customers. The drug lord may think he's in charge, but he becomes a slave to his own life choices, always looking over his shoulder.

And the bottom line is this—we either follow the Lord and serve him or we end up serving the devil.

The Bible says we're either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. (Rom 6:16-19).

Since we all have to serve somebody, doesn't it make sense to serve the Lord who loves us than the devil who wants to destroy us?

But let's get back to the widow. They had tried to do what was right, but they had gotten in trouble. Now she faced a horrible situation without any options to fix things, so she came to Elisha to ask for advice and for help.

What happens if we find ourselves in trouble like her? What do we do if the creditor is coming to enslave us? What does God want to do for his people who are in spiritual turmoil?

God's message to this widow parallels the spiritual truths that he would say to us. Elisha gave her three instructions that can help us with our challenges:

1. "What do you have?"  We need to take a look at what we have.

In those days oil (probably olive oil) was used for cooking, for burning in lamps, for treating dry skin, and even for medicinal purposes like an ointment or a salve. It was a common household commodity, used daily in all kinds of ways. With so many usages there was continual a need for more, and this gave it value.

How do you get a miracle? It's human nature to ask God, "What do you have for me?" But God asks us the same question: "What do you have?"

How do we get a miracle? How does God work in our lives? Often it's when we finally surrender to him. It's when we give him permission to take us and what we have so he can make something out of it.

Even the smallest resource can be used in miraculous ways when we offer it to God. This widow had "nothing" at all to speak of—except for a small bottle of oil.

Here is the important lesson for us to grasp: Out of our "nothingness" God wants to release his blessing into our lives.

You may not feel like you have much. You may not feel like you are much. You may even feel worthless. Inadequate. Sub par. You may say, "I just don't have what it takes." You may think others are better than you—better skilled, better equipped, smarter, better trained, better looking. It doesn't matter!

Bring what you have to Jesus.

The boy gave him two small fish and five small loaves of bread. The size of his lunch wasn't the important thing. It was whom he gave it to that was important!

There was another woman who put two small copper coins in the offering. Yet Jesus said she gave more than others who gave large, showy gifts—because he saw her heart and the attitude she had when she gave.

The man with one talent wasn't condemned because he only had one. He wasn't taken to task because others had more than him—two talents or five. No! The man with the one talent was condemned because he went and buried what he had. He was condemned because he didn't use what he had.

What do you have? You might not think it's much, but try giving what you have to the Lord and see what will happen. God can use little things to accomplish enormous miracles!

2. "Go to your neighbors."  Let God work through others.

God often works his miracles through others. Of course he can do his work without our help, but often he wants his people to be his ambassadors and do his work.

This is why we must connect with other believers. You cannot thrive if you go it alone. (In fact, you can barely survive on your own.) Some of you come to church on Sundays—and though you're in a crowd of worshipers—you don't reach out and connect with others.

I understand. You're shy and cautious. You're hesitant to get outside your comfort zone. Maybe you're nervous about opening your life to someone else.

But the truth is, we need others. We need our neighbors to help us through the tough times. Sometimes I wonder if God doesn't allow tough times to come along so we learn how to help each other.

Look around. Your neighbors aren't perfect. They don't have it all put together. None of them are perfect; none have arrived yet. They're like the borrowed pots the widow brought into her house—all kinds of pots, all kinds of shapes, all kinds of colors. Some pots were big, some were little, and all of them had been used and were flawed. Some had seen more wear than others, and some pots were even cracked or chipped. But she and her sons brought all these pots into their home.

And God used these common, ordinary, flawed pots to hold his miracle! The oil flowed as long as there were empty pots to hold the miracle. When no empty pots remained, the miracle stopped.

2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

God releases his miracles into our lives through our "neighbors"—through our fellow believers in the body of Christ! If we don't go to our neighbors, if we don't get to know them, if we don't connect with them, God can't really use them to impart his special work in our lives? How are we going to receive his miraculous supply if we don't have the pots?

3. "Ask...for empty jars."  Give God your emptiness!

We already talked about surrendering whatever small amount we might have to he can multiply it for a miracle. But this takes it one step farther.

The widow let God use the small amount of oil. She didn't withhold it and say, "But I need that to cook tonight's supper. She released it into God's hand so he could multiply it.

But God needed more than her oil to complete this miracle. He needed emptiness as well. Without an empty, available container, there would have been no flow of the miraculous. God wants people who will open their hearts to him—who will come with their troubles, problems, deficiency, debt, and shortage. God wants people who will bring their emptiness to him so he can fill them.

Do you know what this may mean? It may mean that you have to empty yourself first so God can fill you. Think about it. If your life is filled with all kinds of activities and interests—the junk of this world—how can God pour anything into your life. It's too full.

God can't fill people who have their lives already filled with other things. So maybe for you the first step is to empty yourself before the Lord. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when he said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" (Luke 9:24)

Mary, the mother of Jesus said, "He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:53). They were sent away empty because they were so full and rich in other things. There is no room for spiritual blessings if material blessings take all the available space. But the hungry—those who come to the Lord empty—are "filled...with good things."

When we bring our emptiness to God, that's when we are filled. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matt 5:6).

Let God fill your emptiness with his abundance! Remove the distractions. Get rid of the junk. Clean out the worldly ways so you can be empty—ready to open your life to God's supernatural flow of blessings.

What do you have? No matter how small or insignificant, surrender what you have to God. Give him yourself! Allow him to have control in your life.

Go to your neighbors. Develop life-giving relationships. Build one another up. Connect with others. Join a small group for study and encouragement and support. Let God flow through you to them—and receive his blessings back from them.

Give God your emptiness. He longs to fill you to overflowing. He longs to fill your life with abundance! Come to him, and when you've brought the last empty vessel, then the miraculous flow of blessing stops. So admit your need to him. Bring your spiritual emptiness and debt to God so he can fill you up.