I awoke with these words ringing in my ears: In your own strength, you can do nothing.
I had been going through a season where I was struggling in the areas that were known to be my “strengths”: discipline, evidenced by time management, organizational skills, commitment, and diligence. I prayed. I cried. I grieved for the absence of these “strengths” in my life. I sought God to find out if this was some sort of attack or if I had opened a door for the adversary to come in and plunder my goods. I could not seem to find an answer to the cause nor was I able to turn things around.
So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and began to change some things in the routine of my natural life hoping that this would help facilitate the change that I so desperately desired. I made several attempts to be steadfast to those changes but, in a matter of days, I was right back at the same place of weakness. Finally, one day, I found myself at a terribly low place and it was in that moment that I realized how foolish I was. I have known that the things that we see in the natural do not appear from the natural realm. The natural realm manifests what is occurring in the spiritual realm. Therefore, the changes that I was seeing must be indicative of a change concerning me in the spiritual realm.
As I shifted my mindset from “What can I do to fix this?” to “Something must have changed in the spiritual realm”, the Holy Spirit was finally able to reach me with His words, “In your own strength, you can do nothing.” I thought on that statement and was reminded of:
- John 15:5, 5c (NKJV) – “ … As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. …for without Me you can do nothing.”
- Philippians 2:13 (AMPC) – “[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work….”
Often times, because we have been given a measure of strength and that strength has gotten us some results, we tend to lean mostly on that strength forgetting that although we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. Once we are born again, we have entered a war that causes our lives’ journey to be now primarily spiritual and thus must be lived not by our own strength, but by God’s strength. This is why Paul said to the church at Ephesus, “… be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:12, NKJV). He also testified to the church at Philippi, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13, NKJV). And to the church at Corinth he shared that God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV).
The more we mature and the higher we rise in God, the more we should be depending on His strength. I had been growing and rising in God. He, through His Holy Spirit, had taught me discipline. Without realizing it, I had gradually moved away from having the mindset of “this discipline is His empowering” to it being “this discipline is one of my strengths”. Simultaneously, the Lord had been preparing me for a new level, a new season but I was still holding on to my perceived “strengths”, trying to lean on those strengths. The Holy Spirit then revealed that my strengths were not sufficient for where He was taking me and for the assignments He needed me to fulfill. Like Joseph, I was being stripped of my coat of many colors (Genesis 37:23) in preparation for my next. He was taking me on another journey so that more of His Strength(s) could be formed in and revealed through me. This season of loss or seeming weakness was actually a path to new strength, strength for this new phase of my life, strength that will ensure victory.
Friends, the times in which we live necessitates the strength of God. Our strengths that can be represented as our understanding/intellect, our emotional intelligence, our finances, or our skills/abilities are not sufficient to stand against the forces of darkness that have been released against our lives, families, communities, cities, and nations. Leaning on those strengths will only take us so far and no more. We will come to a time when those strengths will produce nothing, no results. Therefore, we must be intentional about staying connected to our source of Strength – the Vine – and depend on Him to give us power, His strength, both to desire and to act. For, in our own strength, we can do nothing.
Let us pray: Father, please forgive me for leaning on my own strength. Forgive me for making my strengths idols in my life and for turning away from You, the true source of my strength. Help me to submit to the working of the Holy Spirit in my life so that I can receive Your power to will and to do, in Jesus’ name, Amen.