WHY THE CHRISTIAN LIFE REQUIRES THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Have you ever decided this would finally be the week you got it together?
You’d be more disciplined, doomscroll less, wake up early, pray consistently, read your Bible every day. This is the week you’d learn to stop worrying so much or handle that difficult person differently or stop falling into the habit that leaves you frustrated with yourself.
You’ve even got a plan: “I’m gonna try harder.” Genius! What could go wrong? Sometimes that works. Well, at least for a little while. But it never lasts.
The problem grows when we start treating our Christian life that way. We assume spiritual growth is a matter of just “trying harder.” It’s about effort, discipline, and the grit to keep going even when it gets hard.
The truth is that the Christian life does require effort. Jesus never called His followers to be lazy or look for a free ride. He didn’t promise it’d be easy. He also never expected that we’d be able to do it all on our own, through our own power.
But there’s a difference between effort and power.
When You’re the One Pulling the Oars
Imagine being in a rowboat crossing a wide lake. You’ve got the oars in your hands and you’re working hard to make it to the other side.
Every inch of progress comes from you. Pulling the oars, driving your legs, rolling your shoulders. Reset and repeat. Pull, drive, row. Again. Again. There’s a rhythm. It’s work. Focus on the other shore. Row.
You can make real progress that way. But eventually your shoulders burn. Your hands get tired, and unless you can keep up the rhythm, you may not make it to where you want to be.
Now imagine the same lake, but this time, you’re in a sailboat.
There’s still plenty for you to do. You raise the sails, steer the rudder, and respond to changing conditions. You can’t go take a nap in the bottom of the boat if you want to get to the other side. But it’s also not nearly as exhausting as the rowboat.
The difference is where the power comes from. The rower has to produce every bit of the power. The sailor receives power from outside himself.
This simple image has helped me better understand the work of the Holy Spirit. Faithfulness requires our participation, obedience, and attention, but we’re not the power behind the process. The power has to come from somewhere beyond us.
The Christian life isn’t about trying harder. It’s about receiving power from the Holy Spirit to participate in His work.
Jesus Told Them to Wait
Right before Jesus ascended, He gave His disciples an assignment that must have sounded impossible: take His message to the whole world. Jerusalem. Judea. Samaria. Eventually, the ends of the earth.
These were ordinary, uneducated people from one small part of the world. They didn’t have money, influence, political power, or any obvious means of carrying the message beyond their small corner of the world.
Jesus had already worked this out. He told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised... in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5).
Then He explained why. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Jesus gave them a mission that would have been impossible if it were up to them to row that boat alone. They had heard His teaching, seen His miracles, witnessed Him alive after the resurrection, but information wasn’t enough. They needed power.
The Power You Cannot Produce
Acts uses the Greek word dunamis for power. It’s the same root word that gives us words like dynamite and dynamic. It means strength, might, and ability.
Jesus promised to give His followers God’s power for God’s work.
That same power, through the same Spirit, is God’s gift to every believer.
I think about it in three phrases.
God’s Spirit is with me: His presence is with me at all times.
God’s Spirit is in me: He’s transforming my heart from the inside out.
God’s Spirit is upon me: He gives me the ability to do His work in the world.
The gift is His presence, His transformation, and His power. We need all three.
When we come to Jesus, God begins forming something in us that we cannot create ourselves.
Understanding this changes the way we think about spiritual growth. Patience is no longer, “I need to force myself to be more patient.” Courage is no longer, “I need to stop being afraid.” Self-control is no longer, “I need to get stronger so I can beat this habit.” There’s still obedience involved and choices to make, but the difference is that we are no longer forcing it by sheer willpower and pretending the power originates with us.
We’re not rowing a boat all by ourselves. We get to raise the sails. Even when we reach the limits of our own abilities, God’s power does not. His grace meets us in our weakness and keeps forming us into the people He has called us to be.
You Can Exhaust Yourself Doing Good Things
Some of the most exhausting rowing happens when we’re doing good things.
You can serve people in your own strength. You can lead in your own strength. You can parent in your own strength. You can prepare a Bible study, volunteer at church, have hard conversations, try to forgive somebody, fight temptation, and attempt to become a better person almost entirely in your own strength. You might even look good doing it.
But Jesus never told His disciples, “Go try harder.” He told them to wait for power. The work the disciples did mattered. They preached, traveled, endured opposition, made decisions, served people, and took enormous risks. Their work mattered. But it wasn’t the source of the power.
Don’t try to do with human strength what Jesus intended to be done by the Spirit.
There’s More Available Than Trying Harder
Most of us are used to solving problems by trying harder. There’s definitely a place for discipline in our spiritual lives. Scripture talks a lot about training, perseverance, self-control, and endurance.
But discipline was never meant to replace dependence. Your skills and stamina might be pretty impressive, but they still have limits. God has given us His Spirit because the life He calls us to is bigger than our limits.
Sometimes we need to stop fighting the oars long enough to remember that God has given us a sail.
Take Action
Where have you been rowing the hardest? Where in your life are you trying to do in human strength what Jesus intended to be done by the Spirit? Name that area and ask the Holy Spirit for His help there specifically.
Before that next hard conversation, difficult decision, stressful meeting, or uncertain moment, take sixty seconds and pray: “Holy Spirit, lead me. Fill me with your Spirit. Empower me. Give me what I need for what is in front of me.”
Then pay attention and act in faith.
All for Jesus,
Brad D. Jenkins
P.S. — If this has been helpful, please send me a message at brad@bradjenkins.me and let me know. My writing aims to help people enjoy a vibrant relationship with Jesus, and it is an honor to be on this journey with you. To read previous newsletters or to sign up so that you don’t miss future posts, visit www.bradjenkins.me/blog.
If you want to explore this topic more, check out the book I recently released: Holy Habits: How to Walk with Jesus for a Lifetime, which is available on Amazon.