The Faithless have done many wicked things, but one of the most diabolical is how they have unfairly undermined spiritual power. They say it is unspiritual. They treat it as unimportant. Some pretend it was only for the past, reserved for apostles and prophets. In doing this, they have gutted the Christian life and sterilized the church. They have declared that God should remain silent and invisible. They have defined spiritual maturity as the absence of power. They have made human weakness the standard for godliness, and they have invented a gospel that keeps God away.

This distortion was never innocent. It did not arise from a sincere reading of Scripture or an attempt to understand God’s will. It was a strategic dismantling of divine activity. Satan saw what power did in the life of Christ. He saw what power did in the early church. He saw how healing the sick, casting out demons, and commanding nature announced the presence of the kingdom and advanced the gospel. And he saw what power would do if believers in every generation began to live like that. So he devised a scheme. He disguised his fear as Christian orthodoxy. He whispered that power is irrelevant. He taught that power is unwise. He convinced many that power is worldly and fleshly. He masked his panic as piety.

But what is power? It is not merely the ability to perform miracles or make things happen. Power is God himself. When power is in motion, it is his presence expressed in effect. The power that heals the sick is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. The power that casts out demons is the same power by which Christ upholds the universe. The power that causes a person to speak in tongues, or to prophesy, or to walk on water is not an impersonal force. It is God himself moving. Scripture does not divide him into categories. God is love. God is holiness. God is power. To separate these is to carve up the divine nature. To diminish one is to offend the whole.

To say that power is unspiritual is to speak blasphemy. It is to say that God is unspiritual. It is to say that his work is beneath his character. It is to say that the very things he did in Scripture are somehow improper for us to desire. But there is no godliness apart from power. There is no spirituality apart from power. There is no New Testament Christianity that does not burst with power, miracles, and signs that cause men to fall on their faces and confess that God is truly among us.

Some pretend to preserve reverence for God by reserving power for a few. They say power was only for apostles and prophets, as if God’s nearness has a time limit. But if power is God himself, and he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then any doctrine that limits power limits God. Any claim that power is gone is a claim that God has withdrawn. Any theory that miracles ended with the apostles is a theory that God’s hand has closed and his presence has faded.

If power was given only to them, then God was given only to them. If miracle-working power confirmed their message, then we have no confirmation today. If the Spirit fell in visible glory upon them, but now comes only as an idea or a quiet feeling, then something greater was given to them than is available to us. But this is false. It is heresy dressed as humility. This is not good news at all. The gospel is the good news that God is here, that Christ has won, and that deliverance has arrived.

This is why it is never wrong to seek power. It is never immature to desire it. Power is the main event, not a distraction, because God is power. It is the very reality of God, no less than love and justice. To love God is to love power. To hunger for righteousness is to hunger for power. To preach the gospel is to release power. And to pray in faith is to summon power. The one who knows God, who is love, cannot undermine the idea of love. We can say the same about patience, justice, and other things that the religious think about God. But we must say the same about power. The Christian who seeks power is not carnal. He has the right desire. It is the natural instinct of the regenerate spirit. He is following God himself.

We must also discard the obsession with balance. Balance is a mask for unbelief. It is a polite way to say, “You have too much of God.” No one says, “Have some love, but not too much.” No one warns, “Be joyful, but stay balanced with depression and suicidal thoughts.” Yet when it comes to power, people imagine that there is such a thing as excess. They warn about too much emphasis on miracles and prophecies, as if God himself is a danger to our spiritual life. But this is nonsense. Power is good. More power is better. There is no limit to how much of God we should desire and embrace.

Power and love are never in conflict. God is both power and love, and together they form a single perfection, just as God is one and he is perfect. His compassion is almighty. When Jesus forgave sins, he also healed the paralyzed, touched the leper, rebuked the storm, and destroyed the works of the devil. His miracles were the outworking of love. Love reaches its true expression only when there is power. In fact, the love of God is present only when the power of God is present, because God is one. When the power of God is not there, what you see is the virtue of man pretending to be the love of God.

When Christians undermine power, they surrender to a different gospel. When churches discourage the pursuit of miracles, they betray the very Spirit they claim to follow. When theologians reduce power to allegory, they create a religion that has little to do with Christ and that cannot reach the world. The result is a faith that looks holy to ignorant men, but lacks substance and salvation. It sounds religious, but it is false and it produces nothing. And it allows Satan to operate unopposed, while the people of God wait for a better time.

But that better time is now. The gospel is here. The Spirit is here. And power is here. The same God who split the sea and shook the mountain is present in the one who believes. The same Christ who walked on water lives in every person who confesses his name. The same Spirit who raised him from the dead gives life to mortal bodies and causes miracles and prophecies to overflow. God is power, and that power belongs to us.