Use The Power You Have
To Become The Thing You Must
To say God has all power is to say what we can easily understand, not because we have experienced it but because we, through rational thought, can reach this conclusion logically.
Obviously, I don’t have to prove there is power. It’s a no-brainer. Scientifically we have identified many different forms of power.
It is all around us, very available and is presented mostly in manageable forms. We derive much benefit from power – we couldn’t live without it – but the bottom line is we cannot create it. If it wasn’t freely supplied we wouldn’t have it.
We have learned ways to harness it effectively and to convert it from one non-useable form to a more useable one but, again, we cannot create it. In fact, one well established principle of physics reminds us that…
Energy can be converted from one form to another but it cannot be created or destroyed.
At least not by us.
Even the power we manage is presented to us in a controlled state. If it wasn’t we would be out of luck. Sunshine, rain and wind are all forms of power that can become quite destructive if supplied in excessive amounts.
Can you imagine the outcome if rain was presented in one large gulp and not in well spread droplets? Devastating to say the least. Even the droplets can be overbearing if we get too many at one time.
We are able to convert these sources of power into constructive work only because they are presented to us in the right amounts, most of the time. And much of our work involves managing these resources as they come.
- We build dams to regulate the supply of water.
- We design solar units to make better use of the sun’s energy and to store it up for future use.
- We have rediscovered windmills to take capture the power of the wind.
And we do all this because we can’t create these sources of power at will. We can’t even dictate when they are supplied or in what amounts.
The building of a dam is at least an admission that we depend on the external supply of power. If we weren’t dependent, why go to the trouble.
Each person is also a unit of power.
We have the power to think, to learn, to act, to interact, to communicate, to make use of other forms of power, to make life more beautiful and so on. But all the power we use to do these things is borrowed or lent.
We don’t create ourselves or generate our own talents. Our potential abilities (power) are naturally derived, meaning we can claim no credit for them. We can use this power well or we can waste it but we cannot create it.
And most people, instead of developing their natural abilities, spend their time complaining about the ones they don’t have. They would rather have:
- A different body type
- Different hair color
- Different mental capability
- Different sporting talents
- And on and on and on
What we really want is the power to do nothing and be everything.
But the point is, all the power we have is given to us. We don’t ask for it, deserve it or create it.
We, nor our parents or peers have any part in providing or selecting our particular skill set. Parents often spend as much time wishing their children were different as the children do. Sometimes they even voice this opinion.
Peers will often discourage the development of a person’s abilities just because it makes them look better when they don’t.
All of any person’s power is theirs to develop, but is completely borrowed and is not even self sustaining. Without a regular supply of additional power supporting elements (food, water, sleep, activity) – none of which could be supplied entirely by human effort alone – we would burn out like old batteries.
And we use power sources that we don’t understand to gain an understanding of things that make life better. The brain is a good example of this.
We know more about the brain today than ever before but we still don’t understand it fully.
Everything we DO know about the brain, however, is the result of many generations before us – all of whom understood less about the brain than we do – using brain power to discover knowledge about the brain. We don’t understand the brain but we have used it well to understand it better. Without it we would understand nothing about anything. And that amazing device was designed and supplied without our asking for it. We had no part in developing it and we sometimes don’t use it like we should.
All of that is to say, without the benevolent supply of well designed power we couldn’t make it. Within ourselves we are very dependent, powerless. It is only logical to conclude that even though we can’t create power, we know it comes from somewhere and we know the supplier is both benevolent and intelligent.
The idea of some person being both the source and the ultimate controller of all power is not a difficult thing to accept.
Power management requires a great deal of intelligence. We know this from experience. Raw, unleashed power of any kind, in any form, is unimaginably destructive. I’ve already made that point.
We become beneficiaries or victims by the smallest of swings in the balance of earth’s power and those swings are totally beyond our control. If we could control it absolutely we would never be victims.
The shifting of earth’s axis, which we cannot control, causes temperature differentials that threaten life. We can prepare for these changes (air-cons, shade trees, heaters and fires) but we cannot stop them or moderate them.
And the fine-tuning of this balance to support life has very limited tolerances. Move earth a little further from the sun and we freeze. Move a fraction closer and we roast.
But the truth is, the power we use is not our own. We manage it, we don’t create it or supply it. And we haven’t always done a great job of using it efficiently. “Conservation” is a relatively recent concept. Before we entertained the idea seriously many resources were wasted.
Power is all around us. We see it, give it names, study it and sink a lot of time and energy (power) into developing ways to use it. It obviously came from some unobservable place and we must attribute it to a source beyond human inspection.
And that is where God comes into the picture.
No reasonable person has any problem entertaining the idea that God is the source and controller of all power. No one has to accept this idea but very few will deny the plausibility of the suggestion.
And if any person rejects the possibility that power has a single source then they must logically come up with another idea. We’ll save that discussion for another post.
For now, where we usually get confused is in the discussion on how God manages power. The word we use to describe God as all powerful is “omnipotent.” The word we use to describe God’s management of His power is “sovereignty.”
These words are not synonymous. We can’t lump them together and treat them as one.
Omnipotence refers to God’s nature. He is self-existing and therefore the source of all power.
Sovereignty refers to God’s methods for managing that power and the best term to describe His approach is “power sharing.” Something to discuss in another post.
For now, consider the concept of power and tell us what do you THINK!AboutIt.
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