--Recognizing God's Power~~

--HARRY HOUDINI the great escape artist earned his fame by escaping handcuffs, prison cells, and all manner of contraptions designed to confine him. He boasted on numerous occasions that no jail cell could hold him. He had never failed. He always escaped.

Well, almost always.

Urban legend says that on one occasion Houdini entered a cell as he usually did, wearing his street clothes. The authorities shut the cell behind him and left him. Alone, he did what he had done so many times before: he pulled a thin but strong piece of metal from his belt, he began working the lock. But this time the cell wouldn't open. The lock would not yield. He worked feverishly, applying his amazing knowledge of locks and their mechanisms to the task. Two hours later, in frustration and failure, he gave up. The lock simply would not yield. The Great Houdini had finally failed.

-Why? What went wrong?

--'The guards had forgotten to lock the cell.'
All he needed to do was to push open the cell door. The only place the door had been locked was in Houdini's mind.

Sound familiar? Think of those trying so hard to find the power of God for their lives, seeking method after method for unleashing God's power but never quite able to pick the lock behind which the power of God must surely reside. Finally, in frustration they quit, assuming that somehow the power is too elusive, meant for some select few, or for people in the distant past, or only accessed through some method they cannot figure out.

It is no small thing for disciples of Jesus to admit that they do not experience the power of God in their lives. It is, in a way, humiliating. Yet, promises of power are woven inextricably throughout the New Testament, reminding us of the resource God has provided every Christian--the One resource necessary to live victoriously.
--Our Victory is found in Jesus Christ.

--"Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world?
Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."
--1 John 5:4-