Let me paint you a picture. You are a Christian. Every day you hope to live the best you can for the glory of God but more times than not you find yourself failing. You read the Bible in the morning, feel like you are on top of the world, then reality hits hard and you get mad at a loved one, say something you should not, or think something you know is wrong. Then you come home defeated just to restart the process the next day. What is wrong? This is what we call a life with no “Diving Power”. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the simple words of Jesus: “for without Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5).
Take a look at my very elementary illustration of the Christian life filled with Divine Power:
Put short, you and I can’t function without this Divine Power in our lives. So let me ask the question for you: How do I get this Divine Power?
Defining the Funnel
Let’s start with the scripture that I am getting all this from:
“for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”
2 Peter 1:3 NASB
The picture above shows a funnel as the means by which the Divine Power finds entrance into our lives. What most people don’t know is what this funnel is or how it functions. The above verse defines for us what the funnel is. It is: “the true knowledge of Him (Jesus)…”
But now the question remains: How do we get more knowledge of Jesus?
How the Funnel Works
Back to the scripture:
“Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:5-8 LSB
Peter lays out for us 7 additions to our faith that we are to diligently add. The list includes: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and as the chief of all of them: love. We are promised that if we diligently add these to our faith and they are found to be “increasing” then we are the opposite of “useless” and “unfruitful” when it comes to the knowledge of Jesus which is useful and fruitful. This, as a result, gives us a working funnel and a channel for the Divine Power to be experienced in our lives.
Before I continue I must mention that when I say “knowledge” I do not simply mean a big head full of facts. Paul put it best when he said: “to know this love that surpasses knowledge…” (Eph 3:19). The word used here indicates a relational knowing. Not simply head knowledge but more so heart knowledge. Everything I am speaking of in this post is partly what Jesus was getting after when He prayed to the Father: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
Remembrance
Peter finds this concept of such importance that 3 times in the first chapter of his letter he tells the readers/listeners that he seeks to put them in “remembrance” of “these things” (2 Peter 1: 12,13,15) He even says that after he passes away he prays that the church will continue to put themselves in remembrance of this concept. (v. 15). All that to say, this is IMPORTANT.
I am seeking to do the same thing as Peter: put you in remembrance of this. God, through His divine power, has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the funnel (knowledge of Jesus). By this we are given incredible promises from God that by them we may be partakers of His Divine Nature and escape the pollution of this wicked world. For this reason we are to give ourselves to the diligence of adding to our faith the 7 virtues above. IF we do this and they abound in us then we have a working funnel for Divine Power in our life.
All About Him
Before I end I want to make a comment about the motivation behind all of this. You may be tempted to look at the photo above and therefore crave a knowledge of Jesus that YOU would have a more successful life. That is not what I want you to do. This is just a very surface level view of how divine power comes into our life. But the focus is not to be on getting more divine power for yourself. You will begin to see this as more of an effect than a cause. The true cause is simply: Knowing Jesus. It’s all about Him. Getting to know Him, desiring to be intimate with Him, reading your Bible to find more about Him, praying to talk to Him, obeying the Word to experience Him, etc. As you do so you will find Divine Power growing in your life. But NOT because you were focusing on getting it, rather because you were focusing on getting to know our Lord Jesus Christ.
Action
- Praise God for allowing someone life you and I to have Divine Power in our lives
- Confess to God your lack of focus on the knowledge of Jesus
- Ask God to give you a right motivation to seek Jesus for Himself
- Listen to this posts song: Relationship