“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).
Before he ascends into heaven, Jesus promises power to his apostles.
To judge from a broad internet seach of the term, power is something human beings are very fond of. Besides our preoccupation with the various power sources needed to fuel our vehicles and computers, we seem to be fascinated with powerful people.
I found web pages listing the most powerful people in sports, the most powerful people in politics, the most powerful people in networking, the most powerful people in corporate America, and on and on and on. (Incidentally, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, made two of these lists. At 36 years old, he was named first on Forbes Magazine’s list of “Top CEOs: Corporate America’s Most Powerful People,” and was also considered one of the most powerful in networking.)
Is this what Jesus promises his followers?
First, the power given by the Holy Spirit is power with and in God, shared with the people of God, and inseparable from love. This is not a power which gives us control over others or which makes us privileged in the eyes of society. There is no list of the 100 people most empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Second, the Spirit, paradoxically, gives us the power to be weak. It is the power to give ourselves totally to God, as Jesus did — to be emptied of what we think of as our own strength in order to receive the power of God. In the long run, this is the only power that endures and the only power that brings any kind of lasting joy.
“. . . but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” (1 Corinthians 12:9-10)