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| Seth Barnes | | 17 Comments on 7 forms of spiritual empowerment | Views 3440

7 forms of spiritual empowerment

spiritual empowerment
Because we humans are needy, perpetually requiring help to navigate life and the responsibilities that it hands us, the empowerment we seek can take on many forms. I don’t know about you, but too often I feel like I’m navigating life on my own. I take comfort in Jesus’ words, “No, I will not a…
By Seth Barnes
By Seth Barnes
108 1Because we humans are needy, perpetually requiring help to navigate life and the responsibilities that it hands us, the empowerment we seek can take on many forms.
I don’t know about you, but too often I feel like I’m navigating life on my own. I take comfort in Jesus’ words, “No, I will not abandon you as orphans.” (John 14:18)
I’m encouraged that he said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.”
But though I believe what Jesus said, I still need to know how that plays out practically in life. I want to know how he’s leading me. He does so in a lot of ways – here are seven.
1. Empowerment = Vision
You may have sensed a call to serve God, for example, but feeling dispirited along the way, you may have lost your desire to continue (as described in Prov. 29:18). For you, empowerment may look like a bigger picture of where God is taking you – a vision. Such a vision answers the question “Why?” Without it, you can lose hope and become depressed.
2. Empowerment = Guidance

Having set your feet on the path, you may feel confused about direction. You may wonder if perhaps you’ve wandered off the path along the way. God promises us over and over again that he will guide us if we seek him (Prov. 3, Is. 58 are good examples). Perhaps you have a complicated decision to make. You need guidance. You’re asking questions and not coming up with answers. Questions like: “Am I wasting my time in this role that I have agreed to fulfill?” “How much longer do I keep doing this?” “Am I working with the right people?” For you, empowerment may be a sense of peace about a decision you need to make.

3. Empowerment = Spiritual Gifts
We often think about divine empowerment in terms spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and Romans 12 describe the many different gifts that God gives to his children. He knew that we’d need equipping if we were to be able to take on the “spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) But even these lists are incomplete. For example, we are all called to pray, but some people have the gift of intercession. God gives them something that makes it easy and natural to want to pray and to pray effectively.
4. Empowerment = Anointing

And the gifts themselves may take on greater specificity or nuance. For example, God may give you the gift of healing, but you may find that you are particularly motivated and effective when you pray for a certain kind of disease. Some people call this an “anointing.” Whatever it is, it’s God working through you in a specific way.

5. Empowerment = Weakness

For others of us, empowerment will work not in an area of strength, but in a place where we feel weak (2 Cor. 12). For example, a young person struggling with discipline may find that the Spirit of Truth makes it easier to do the hard things he wanted to set aside. Whereas in the past he may have felt a sense of complacency or an inability to commit, God may quicken his  spirit so that he feels a greater urgency about getting a particular task done. He may find it easier to commit and may feel empowered to throw himself at it in ways that surprise himself and others.

6. Empowerment = Authority

Empowerment finds its manifestation in a number of ways that are subtle. Jesus didn’t give his disciples spiritual gifts, but he did assign them impossible tasks and give them the authority they needed to complete them (Matt. 10). You as a follower of Jesus have that same authority. You may discover that you are empowered to do miraculous things as you step out in faith and use it.

7. Empowerment = Identity

Ultimately our first and greatest source of empowerment is knowing who we are. When Jesus was being put through the spiritual gauntlet by the devil, he found himself tested about who who he was and what God had promised. What a marvelous thing it is to know who God made you to be (here’s a list), to know that he loves you no matter what. That is spiritual empowerment of the highest order.

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