Power Failure

As I arrived in Jamaica, close to midnight, suddenly at the airport all became dark. The lights went out, the computers would not work and all came to a standstill. It was a power failure.

This can happen also in a Christian’s life. After being faithful for a while, suddenly because of human weakness, sins are committed. Somehow the connection to the power source was cut off. If you disconnect your table lamp from the electric current, it has no light at all; again when you connect it back again, it has full light in it.

Jesus said, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5. Again, Paul writes, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Phil. 4:13.

There is no halfway position. We are either saved from sin by the power of God, or we are formal Christians, doing only what is humanly possible, which in reality is a lost condition.

A young man who had been into many bad habits was converted and baptized into the church. He gave up the use of drugs and alcohol, and also smoking. For more than a year he was living a faithful Christian life. Then one day his friend offered him a cigarette, and he thought that this one time only he will smoke and then after no more. He did a willful sin, and he lost the power of God. After this he could not stop smoking, and finally he resigned from the church membership.

Whenever there is a power failure in a Christian’s life, it is always caused by the believer and never by the Lord.

In the 1888 Conference in Minneapolis, the delegates who rejected the Christ’s righteousness message sinned against the Holy Spirit, and by so doing they lost the power of God. When the test came upon the church in 1914, in the time of the First World War, they all failed. They had no power to resist the evil. Only the members, who had accepted this message, remained faithful, even unto death.

Alonso Jones wrote in his book, “Everlasting righteousness, remember. Not a righteousness for today and sin tomorrow, and righteousness again and sin again. That is not everlasting righteousness. Everlasting righteousness is righteousness that is brought in and stays everlastingly in the life of him who has believed and confessed, and who still further believes and receives this everlasting righteousness in the place of all sin and all sinning. This alone is everlasting righteousness: this alone is eternal redemption from sin. And this unspeakable blessing is the gracious gift of God by the heavenly ministry which He has established in our behalf in the priesthood and ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary.” The Consecrated Way, p. 123.

Some people take Romans chapter seven as a normal part of Christian life. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.? Rom. 7:19. E. J. Waggoner writes about it, “The bondage of sin, of which the apostle complains in the seventh of Romans, is not the experience of a child of God, but a servant of sin. It is to deliver men from this captivity that Christ came, not to deliver us, during this life, from warfare and struggles, but from defeat; to enable us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that we could give thanks unto the Father “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son,” through whose blood we have redemption.” Christ and His Righteousness, p. 87.

During the 40 years of wilderness journey the people of Israel suffered power failures which kept them from entering the Promised Land.

Gladly they left the land of bondage and took their journey toward the country that flowed with milk and honey. But soon after they started murmuring and complaining. At every new difficulty they forgot how the Lord had saved them from the previous difficulties, that finally the Lord said, “Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.” Num. 14: 29, 30.

Only two men had the power of God; the rest of the adults perished because they lacked the faith which would have saved them. Paul writes, “So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.” Heb. 3:19.

Sister White writes, “The reason why our people have not more power is that they profess the truth, but do not practice it. They have but little faith and trust in God. There are but few who bear the burdens connected with His work. The Lord claims the strength of brain, bone, and muscle; but it is too often withheld from Him and given to the world. The service of God is made secondary matter, while worldly interests receive prompt attention. Thus things of minor consequence are made important, while the requirements of God, things spiritual and eternal, are treated in an indifferent manner, as something which may be taken up at will and let alone at pleasure.” Test. Vol. 4, p. 613.

“The strongest temptation cannot excuse sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel anyone to do evil. Satan attacks us at our weak points, but we need not be overcome. However severe or unexpected the assault, God has provided help for us, and in His strength we may conquer.” PP, p. 421.

“With watchfulness and prayer their weakest points can be so guarded as to become their strongest points, and they can encounter temptations without being overcome.” Test. Vol. 2, p. 511.

Every sin that we commit is a result of a power failure, and “the wages of sin is death.”

“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3: 8, 9.

“Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation? There was no sin in Him? this is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble.” GC, p. 623.

“Everyone who by faith obeys God’s commandments will reach the condition of sinlessness in which Adam lived before his transgression. When we submit ourselves to Christ, we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garments of righteousness.” ST 23/7/1902.

We don’t need to have a power failure. It is Satan’s deception that a sinless life is not possible. There will be 144,000 overcomers, who have put away every sin and reflect the image of Jesus perfectly, from the last days. May the Lord help us to have faith which will enable us to move mountains, and nothing will be impossible to us.
AMEN.

Timo Martin, Toronto, Canada