Conviction Releases God's Power

Ephesians 1:15-19 “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,  (16)  do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:  (17)  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,  (18)  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know … (19) what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

We have seen thus far that we all have hardened hearts when we come into the kingdom of God. So what does the scripture mean when it says that we have hardened hearts? It simply means that our mindset is completely contrary to what God’s word says on any given subject. The bible calls it carnal thinking, which is actually hostile toward God and toward His word (Romans 8:7). So how do believers overcome the problem of having mindsets that are contrary to God’s word? The starting point is prayer, for as we have already seen it is only God who can open our understanding to His word so that we can see things as God sees them. The apostle Paul understood that concept very clearly, which is why, as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, he prayed that God would open the understanding of the saints in the church at Ephesus. Obviously Paul prayed that same prayer for all the churches. But I want to draw your attention to the desired outcome of Paul’s prayer, i.e. that the saints would experience the exceeding greatness of God’s power. Paul goes on to mention that the desired outcome would only be experienced by the saints who choose to believe however, for he says that God’s power is “toward us who believe”. That is exactly what the doctrine of faith toward God is all about, i.e. experiencing the power of God being made manifest through the exercising of our faith in Him. And so the sequence we have discussed thus far is as follows; we pray and ask God to open our understanding to His word on any given subject. God then answers our prayer by opening our understanding to His word. Once we have understanding of God’s word on the topic in question we are then able to exercise our faith in His word, which in turn causes God’s power to be made manifest. As an aside, I need to mention the importance of the saints praying for fellow believers to gain understanding of God’s word. Clearly Paul understood this concept, which is why he prayed for the churches in this manner. So why is it important for us to pray for our brethren to have the eyes of their understanding enlightened? The reason is because very often the saints do not even realise that it is because of their lack of understanding of God’s word that they are prevented from experiencing God’s power in their lives. Think about the unsaved for example. If the saints do not pray for them to see the light of the gospel they certainly won’t pray for themselves, for they do not acknowledge that they need salvation. I’m convinced that God uses His saints to pray for the unsaved in this exact manner, which is why Jesus said that when we share the message of the gospel with the unsaved, that we reap that for which others have laboured (John 4:37-38). In the same manner, unless we pray for fellow believers to have the eyes of their understanding enlightened to the truths in God’s word, many will not pray for themselves and thus never experience the reality of God’s power in their lives.

Romans 4:20-21 “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”

We have seen that if we are going to be able to exercise our faith in God’s word, we need to pray and ask Him to open our understanding to His word. And so when God answers that prayer and gives the saint understanding of His word on any given subject, what happens is that the saint becomes exposed, for the first time, to what God says about that subject. Bearing in mind that until that point the saint’s thinking on that subject would have been as this world thinks, which is completely opposite to what God’s word says. And so the saint is then faced with the challenge of changing their thinking to line up with what God’s word says about the subject. We have already seen in scripture that in order for our faith to work in any given area, we must be fully convinced in our minds about what God’s word declares on the subject in question. The bible calls it “renewing” our mind, and depending on various factors, that process can be relatively quick or it can take some time (Romans 12:2). Nevertheless no matter how long it takes, it will not be until the saint is fully convinced in their minds that what God’s word declares on the subject is real, that they will be able to exercise their faith in His word. The above quoted passage of scripture is an illustration of this point, for in this passage we see that Abraham was fully convinced in his mind that what God had promised He was also able to perform, referring to the promise that God made to both Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son named Isaac. The scriptural account of when God made that promise, reveals how both Abraham and Sarah had to change their thinking until they became fully convinced that God’s word would come to pass. God initially appeared to Abraham only, and told him that he and Sarah would have a son within a year and they were to name him Isaac. At the same time God told Abraham that He had changed Sarai’s name to Sarah. When God appeared to Abraham he was almost one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety years old and had been barren her whole life. Abraham’s thinking on the subject at that time was the same as this world thinks, i.e. it is impossible for a man one hundred years old and a woman ninety years old, who has been barren her whole life, to have children, and so he initially laughed to himself when he heard what God said. In fact Abraham’s thinking was so contrary to what God was saying that he tried to persuade the Lord to use his son Ishmael (who’s mother was Hagar, Sarah’s maid) as his heir rather than the unrealistic (in his mind) option of Isaac that God had proposed. God assured Abraham that he would bless Ishmael but nevertheless Isaac would be born and God’s covenant would be with him. That was the end of the conversation and God departed from Abraham. After the vision, Abraham told Sarah about God changing her name but he did not tell her what God had said about Isaac. One of the reasons that Abraham did not tell Sarah what God had said, was because he was still struggling to get his mind to accept the concept of the two of them having a child in their old age. It took roughly three months for Abraham to finally become fully convinced in his mind that God’s promise of Isaac being born would come to pass. And so at the end of the three months the Lord appeared to Abraham again and this time Sarah was with him. The Lord addressed both of them on this occasion and told them that “according to the time of life” i.e. nine months, Sarah would have a son. This time it was Sarah who laughed to herself when she thought about the prospect of her and Abraham having a child together in their old age. The Lord rebuked her for laughing at what He had just said and assured her that nothing was too hard for Him. Being fearful, Sarah tried to deny that she had laughed, not realising that the Lord knew exactly what she was thinking. Sarah quickly repented after this encounter with the Lord, and as a result she too became fully convinced that God’s word would come to pass (Hebrews 11:11). And so we see that because both Abraham and Sarah had changed their thinking to become fully convinced in their minds that what God had said was real, they could therefore exercise their faith in His word. The result of their faith being activated released the power of God which strengthened both of their bodies, and shortly thereafter Isaac was conceived (Genesis 17, 18, 21). And so we see from this example that God revealed His word about Isaac to both Abraham and Sarah. We see that both Abraham and Sarah had mindsets that were completely contrary to God’s word on the subject when He spoke to them. We also see that both of them had to change their thinking to become fully convinced in their minds that God’s word was true. Once they were fully convinced that God’s word was real, their faith was activated and God power was released, and Isaac was born i.e. God’s word came to pass.

Michael E.B. Maher

Faith Toward God

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