A Power In Your Weakness
On Sunday, we pressed into the reality of “A Renewed Heart,” focusing on the beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit healing our hearts in Romans 8: 26-27:
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
It is so encouraging that God’s presence is in our deepest places.
Not only does the Holy Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, live in us (Romans 8:11), but He makes it real in us by revealing Jesus, dwelling in our heart (Ephesians 3:17).
Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus can begin to press His love and strength into our areas of weakness, unknowing, fear, etc.
The heart seems complex to us. But it is not complex to Him. In fact, He knows our heart-layers, the areas that we can’t always access, the areas that are just too deep for words.
The word above translated “weakness” is literally infirmity. Infirmity is the word for physical sickness in the scriptures. And here, it is a sickness in the heart. A sickness that saps our strength… making it hard to recover... leaving us feeling frail. What do we do with this?
Well, in Jesus’s day, there wasn’t a hard line between physical and spiritual issues. Physical and spiritual sickness always had the same root—in the sin that separated us from God.
So when Jesus says to the Pharisees, “‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ —he said to the man who was paralyzed— ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home,’” (Luke 5:24) He was declaring a single, decisive victory available through Him. To us, this appears as a dual reality, but for Jesus it was one in the same.
For Jesus, healing the sick and forgiving the sinner are the same. We have significant faith for Jesus’ forgiveness, and the same faith can be applied to the entirety of what Jesus paid for on the cross. He dealt with the source of sin, the sickness in our hearts.
The gospel of Matthew reiterates Jesus’ healing and his atonement, saying, “He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’”(Matthew 8:16-17).
Matthew is quoting Isaiah 53:4-5, where we testify in the very same passage that, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
There has been, is, and always will be “wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb,” and today, take a moment to consider…
What would it mean for that power to be at work in your heart?
What area of weakness or infirmity are you needing Jesus to bear for you now?
His cross paid for everything, including your wordless places.
What would it be like to take a moment to receive from Him now?
Remember, it is the role of the Holy Spirit to be in that undone, messy place. He knows the things you cannot even put words to, and leaning into His presence there, can be hugely healing for our hearts.
The word, groan, if you trace the etymology of the Greek, actually means the sound of a gate creaking/groaning open. And when the gate is opened, it is the word abide. The groaning you’re experiencing is the process of opening. And the fruit of opening is abiding.
Lastly, wherever you are, don’t forget, it’s not just you groaning, it’s actually the Holy Spirit in this passage who is groaning over you, your heart, your story, your wordless places.
Why not take some time to talk with Him about this now?
For further encouragement, click below to view the stories I shared of John Mark McMillan and John Wimber that testify of A Renewed Heart:
John Mark McMillian & How He Loves – The broken heart of the artist John Mark McMillan over the death of his close friend Stephen led to a deep encounter with God. This moment created one of the most powerful and viral songs in the last few decades, “How He Loves.” It’s worth taking a few minutes to dig into this story:
First, check out this brief, raw YouTube video of McMillan from when “How He Loves” was first launched, as he shares in tears, “This song has wings. Everywhere it goes I get emails from kids who have been delivered, (from) people who have been saved just by listening.”.
Next, “How He Loves” was covered by Jesus Culture in the early 2000’s, going viral a second time and wider time, in this now famous YouTube worship video (with almost 27 million views).
A decade later, Jesus Culture and McMillan are interviewed together about the powerful, generational impact of “How He Loves.”
And lastly, McMillian shares candidly in a live concert, 20 years after the song first went viral, about “How He Loves” now and what he thinks about currently with Stephen and this song.
John Wimber’s Testimony & God’s Tears:
John Wimber shares a powerful, honest, and often funny testimony of his journey from his drug-filled days in the rock band, “The Righteous Brothers” to a series of revolutionary moments in his own walk with God. This includes the powerful story I shared where Wimber realized, “God was weeping over me.” This is an edifying, encouraging, and uplifting testimony filmed at an early conference at Calvary Chapel in 1985. Check out John Wimber's testimony here.
After spending January in the Renewing Power of the Holy Spirit in our minds, bodies, and hearts, let’s be expectant this Sunday for God to take us deeper into this Sunday’s topic, “A Renewed Confidence.”