The Power of the One and Only…

The Power of the ‘One and Only’ is the power that we need to live this life here on earth! Everything else will fail us in one way or another.

©    personal power will fail you

©    friend’s power will fail you

©    corporate power will fail you

God gives us His GREAT gift in that when we get saved – we have the POWER to change our lives through Jesus Christ. We cannot do it on our own. That is why Jesus is called the ‘ONE AND ONLY’ – there is no other. There is no other way!

How do we get this Power and what do we do with it?

John 1:12 says “Yet to all who received him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”

There is a formula here for the person that accepts Christ as Savior.

Receive + Believe = Become…

So many people in this life stop at ‘Receive’ and never get to the ‘believe and become’. They do not invest in Jesus and let Him do work in their lives.

Christians fall into three categories in this life:

©    Those that never experience belief. They ‘receive’ Christ but never do anything with it in this life. They often question everything about the Lord and never walk in the fullness of His love because they don’t move forward in their relationship with Jesus. They come to church on Sunday morning and feel as though they are walking with Jesus. They ask questions like – ‘why do we need to come to church more than one time’ or ‘why do you have to hear from Jesus’ – ‘why can’t I just live my life’. They say things like – ‘I don’t have to go to church to hear from God’ or ‘God doesn’t work in my life’. ….These folks never experience the rest of the formula for a relationship with Jesus.

©    Those that receive Jesus and believe Him but never put it into practice. They say things like – ‘I believe Him but I am not going to step out in faith’ that is for other people… or ‘I believe God in my life – but the preacher is the one that should be visiting other folks’. Their walk with Jesus becomes stationary over time because they are not actively pursuing Jesus on a daily basis. They eventually lose their closeness because there is no activity in Jesus.

©    Those that Receive Jesus and Believe Jesus and Become Jesus. These are people that these other two groups call on when things go bad in their lives. These are the people that believe Christ and have a personal relationship with Him on a daily basis. These folks run after Jesus and never want to do anything else and their lives reflect it. These folks BELIEVE that Jesus is the One and Only and invest their lives in that.

This is why John, who writes this book of the Bible, calls Jesus the ‘One and Only’. He has such a personal, beautiful walk with Jesus that he can think of Jesus and KNOW He really is the One and Only! He personally understands the formula. He received Jesus, He believed Jesus and he wanted to become more like Jesus.

Where are we in these categories? The beautiful thing is that when we receive Jesus – we receive His GRACE and the GRACE is the key that unlocks the door to the POWER that we need to live a life in Him.

John 1:16 says “From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.”

God does not hold back anything from any one that is saved. We hold ourselves back from receiving and living in the Power of God. We settle in this life and live in sin and wonder why God doesn’t come to us.

God, on the other hand, says ‘I am right here’ waiting for you to turn from your sin and live out a life full of promise with me leading! You have to make one step right after another and believe God all the way.

In this verse – we see in the original Greek that ‘from the fullness of His grace’ means that we receive ‘GRACE UPON GRACE’ when we get saved.

God gives us the keys to make this life work! What this means is that we receive the ‘BLESSING OF CHRIST added to Grace and the blessings are layered upon the person that keeps their eyes on Jesus and moves toward Him.

Grace means unmerited favor of God upon us. Jesus died on the Cross to give us that and he arose from the grave in the Power of God and reigns in Heaven today to make intercession for us to the Father. Because Jesus never ends our grace never ends. That is a free gift to us upon Salvation!

John goes on to say that the believer that is using the formula of ‘Receive + Believe = Become will RECEIVE the ‘GRACE UPON GRACE’…never ending…as we become closer and closer to Jesus.

What is Grace Upon Grace in the believer’s life?

©    Blessings of this life. The Christian that believes God and is active in Him receives the blessing of God upon their life and walks under the umbrella of His love. This is not a monetary blessing but rather a blessing of the heart that helps us see that All things work together for good to those who love God. To those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

©    Pardon for sin. The Christian that believes God and asks forgiveness for sin. The Holy Spirit is alive and active in this person and there is conviction when there is sin present. All we have to do is ask God to forgive and He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. (1 John 1:9)

©    Protection from the Evil one. Those who are walking close to God have an armor that protects in ALL situations. When we put on the whole armor of God we are protected against the fiery darts of the Evil one. (Ephesians 6:11)

©    Sanctification – a building up of our faith. We are happy to die to sin and LIVE in Christ. It becomes our life work. We won’t give in and we won’t give up! We desire God more than we desire sin! (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

©    Peace while living in this world. With a close walk with Jesus there is peace that passes all understanding. Living in that knowledge makes you be able to cuddle up with Jesus and sleep anywhere and walk through the storms of this life with confidence that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. (Philippians 4:7)

©    The Promise of Heaven. The believer that is united with Christ and walking out their life as a living testimony to Him; the one who ‘receives, believes and becomes – will enter the gates of Heaven when we close our eyes on this earth. That is the ultimate promise of this life to the believer. We WILL fellowship for eternity with the One and Only. (John 6:40)

Who does this ‘GRACE UPON GRACE’ come to?

The weary, the addicted, the broken hearted, the lost; those that need mercy and forgiveness; those seeking healing.

God will come to us where we are in life with His love, mercy and GRACE.

The question we are faced with is – are we willing to not only receive Him but to believe Him and not only believe Him are we willing to become what He says we can become?

To live in the Power of the One and Only…