Great Power
The following article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
It is my son Jude’s favorite quote from the Spider-Man movies, and a derivative of an ancient proverb. It is also the unequivocal truth about you.
1 John 4:4 says, “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” It is an exhilarating truth and one that should give you great courage and motivation! It is also a truth that should be received in the context in which it is given.
Take a few moments today to read 1 John 4, and especially verses 1-6. Notice the context in which this tremendous promise of Divine power is made. We are told that our world is full of competing voices and spirits. We are told those competing voices are out to deceive us, and that we are to test the message from those voices against that which we know to be true. Maybe most critical for The True today, we are told that those who are not in God will not listen to the truth within us (v. 6).
So step back and consider the context:
Most of the world around us is hostile to truth. Your God has placed truth—and the tremendous power it wields—within you. The hostile word around you desperately needs that truth and power, but the spirits and voices of this world are at odds with that truth and power, and are therefore working overtime to ensure that those who need the great power you offer will not listen to you.
Herein lies your great responsibility. It is your job to find creative ways to inject that power and truth into the lives of those around you. It will be frustrating, because those not yet in God will not be inclined to listen to you. But remember, you are not seeking personal vindication! You are shouldering the great responsibility that comes hand-in-hand with great power! You are endeavoring to share an eternal truth in a skillful, patient, and careful way that can overcome the competing voices of the lesser powers of this world (2 Tim. 4:2)!
There are a plethora of agendas competing for your time and attention this week. Plenty of them are important on at least some level, and there are an abundance of ways you may be called to speak and act into those agendas. But remember this: Your overarching mandate is inextricably tied to the great power that lives within you.
While most of the world is today pondering how to seize and leverage the power of this world, a greater power already lives in you. How will you take on your responsibility to steward that power in a way that unleashes it into a world of lesser powers? That is your mission and your great responsibility.