We got a Costco advertisement recently in the mail.  They were advertising the new Intel Core Processors, that will allow you to do more with “blazing fast processing speeds and connect  confidently with built-in security.”  This will enable you to “unleash your power within.” It must mean from within your computer. Wow! What an appeal to the male ego; unleashing power,while having security. It got me to thinking about the actual “power” within the soul of a man who is a follower of Jesus.  How do we as men, unleash this inner power.  Here are some thoughts.

First realize there is spiritual power to be unleashed. Yes, it is within.  But it is God’s power.  It is resurrection power meant to live the “new life” in the Spirit.  Paul understood this when he prayed for himself, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead” (Phil 3:10).  He prayed that the Ephesians might understand this resurrection power. “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe in him” (Eph. 1:19).  Remember Jesus said, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart” (John 7:38).  Men can easily minimize who is within them.  John reminds us that we are overcomers ” because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” ( I John 4:4)

When you become aware of  the “resurrection power,”  allow yourself to come to rest in what God is doing in your life.  Listen to The Message.  “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself?  When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life.  With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! (Rom 8:10-11).  When we allow God’s power to work within us, I like to say that “he begins to rearrange the furniture” to make us a new man.

It is his work – resurrection power at work. But for that to take place we have to put to death, that is, crucify the old in us.  We do this by bringing sinful patterns to the cross and allow them to die with Jesus on the cross.  This is a continual practice.  Then and only then, will the resurrection power be unleashed in our lives.  What is unleashed is the resurrection life of Jesus.  This is the new man in Christ.  It is best seen in the fruit of the Spirit.

Listen again the The Message. “But what happens when we live God’s way?  He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard – things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.  We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.  We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely (Gal 5: 22-23).  This is an example of unleashed inner power.