The key words are Divine and Empowerment.
Divine is relating or pertaining to God. It is another term for godly.
Empowerment is power or authority given to someone. Ability given for enablement. Empowerment can be a process through which people become strong enough to participate within, share in the control of, and influence events affecting their lives. It necessitates that people gain particular skills or knowledge. Therefore, divine empowerment is the release of God's ability in human beings through the Holy Spirit to accomplish purposes. It is the power and the enablement God has given to one to accomplish, to fulfill destiny and to end well.
One can be empowered financially, socially,
professionally, academically, martially and spiritually.
Divine empowerment is needed in all areas
of man's life to be able to do all that are needed to be done for without God, man can do nothing.
God divinely empowered us through the Holy Spirit and this is evident in Jn 14:16&18 when Jesus was going to his Father in heaven he said, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate/ comforter/ counsellor to help you and be with you forever. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." Jesus did not just go back leaving us as orphans but asked the father to empower us.
Some of the evidence are provided
below.
Phi 4:13. I can do all things through
Christ which strengthens me.
Phi 4:19 But my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
Ps 18:29-"With your help I can advance
against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall."
Isa 41:10-"So do not fear, for I am
with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help
you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isa 43:2&3a-When you pass through the
waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not
sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the
flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy one of
Israel, your saviour."
Jer 1:19-"They will fight against you
but will not overcome you, for I am with you
and will rescue you,"declares the LORD
Matt 28:20b.-"And surely I am with you
always to the very end of the age."
Brethren, considering the few passages
above, we know God has empowered us
through various ways with confidence, assurances, boldness , security,
protection, safety, victory and grace to go out and disciple others.
What is the purpose of divine
empowerment?
It enables us to do exploits for God and to live in the supernatural. It enables us to be bold and have confidence to proclaim Jesus anywhere.
It promotes our
spiritual growth to maturity and grants us the enablement to handle kingdom
assignments with confidence. It grants us the grace to manifest the attributes
of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and to be fully armed with the spiritual armour
of God so as to be able to withstand the
devices of the devil. It enables us to live a victorious Christian life and to
end well and strong. It makes one to be
connected spiritually to God, One who is greater than the one who is in the
world.1 Jh4:4.
The early disciples of Jesus were able to do great
exploits because they were divinely empowered. Going about spreading the
gospel, preaching, healing the sick and
casting out demons. They made use of divine empowerment.
Brethren, it is not impossible to
waste or bury the empowerment. The
person given one talent wasted it by just keeping it whereas the other two men
given five and two talents respectively made use of them and were applauded by God for he was
satisfied with them but dissatisfied
with the man given one talent and the
talent was withdrawn from him. So God expects us to manifest the empowerment given us in many ways especially in evangelism, in
soul winning and in the Great Commission.
Divine empowerment is a gift from God
and one needs to retain it. How? By
abiding in Christ, by not 'grieving the Holy Spirit' through sin and through
blaspheming. The Holy Spirit can not
dwell in a dirty vessel, so one needs to live holy and be obedient to God's
commands. Intimacy with God and spending quality time praising him, worshipping
him in Spirit and in truth. Studying, meditating and living by the word will enhance its
sustainability and praying without ceasing will enable one to communicate with
God regularly. You shall not diminish in
Jesus name.
Some characters in the Bible that utilised
their divine empowerment:
Elijah, Elisha, Moses, Joshua and Paul engaged their
divine empowerment greatly and did so much in the kingdom service. God
expects same from us if not greater because Jesus said "Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he also, and
greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my
Father."Jh12:14.
Let us consider one or two activities
God empowered each of the above listed to do.
Elijah-: 1 kings17:2-23. While Elijah
was sojourning with the widow of Zarephath as he was directed by God, God
empowered him to stretch for a long period the handful of flour in a jar and a
little oil in a jug that were meant as a last for the widow and her son to feed and die. Even with Elijah they fed
until the day the Lord sent rain to the land. He was also empowered to revive
miraculously the same widow's only son who died while Elijah was still with her
at Zarephath.
Elisha-:2 kings4:1-37.He was divinely
empowered through the miracle of oil to bail out the widow of one of the sons
of the prophets whose two sons would have been taken away by her late husband
creditors to offset the debt the husband owed. The little oil in a small jar the woman had at home was greatly
multiplied into many jars that the widow sold them to offset the debt and lived
on what was left. Also like his mentor Elijah, he too was able to restore to life the Shunammite
woman's son who died.
Moses-:Exo 14:15-31. Moses was
divinely empowered to part the Red Sea. God instructed him to stretch out his
hand over the sea and as he did all that night
the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into
dry land and the Israelites went through
the sea on dry ground. As the Egyptians pursued them, the Lord empowered
Moses the more by asking him to stretch out his hand over the sea again, as he
did the sea went back to its place and the Egyptians pursuing them were swept
into the sea with their chariots and horsemen. This event made the Israelites
to fear God and put their trust in him and
in Moses his servant.
Joshua-: Jos 10:1-14 The Gibeonites sought the assistance of Joshua against the five kings of the Amorites who rose against them and the Lord empowered him to win the battle. The Lord told him" Do not be afraid of them, I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." The Lord honoured his command when he raised his voice to God in the presence of Israel, saying "Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon over the valley of Aijalor on the day the Lord gave Amorites to Israel." So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky. There has never been a day like it before or since - a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Joshua was so empowered to be at the forefront of the fall of Jericho and the Lord delivered Jericho into his hands along with its king and its fighting men. So the Lord was with him and his fame spread throughout the land. Jos 5:13- 6:27.
Paul-: Acts 20:9-12 He was able to
raise from dead Eutychus who fell to the ground from the third story and died.
Paul just put his arms around him and he came back alive.
At the Island of Malta as Paul
gathered some wood and put it on fire, a viper, driven out by the heat fastened
itself on his hand. He shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill
effects, though the people expected him to swell up or to suddenly fall dead.
When nothing happened to him the people
said he was "a god". Not knowing that he had been divinely empowered
from above and actually God gave him power to perform extraordinary miracles.
Acts 28: 3-6.
Brethren, the One who is in you is greater than the one who is
in the world and you can do all things through Christ which strengthens you.
You have been empowered, you have got
all the potentials to do exploits, in fact extraordinary ones for God. You will
manifest and not diminish in Jesus name.
Prayer.
Father, I thank you for empowering me through the Holy Spirit and by the spoken word from Jesus as in Jh12:14. I pray that I will be able to use the endowment in your kingdom service on earth and finish well and strong in Jesus mighty name.
