I began reading a new book the other night, one a friend of mine recommended.  It’s called Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible, written by Steven Furtick, and after getting past my own personal hang-up with the current fascination writers seem to have with “audacious faith,” I began to think about the fact that Jacob once prayed for God to make the sun stand still and how crazy that really is.

Now, regardless of what I think about what audacious faith really means and should look like (remember in my last blog that I confessed to a grand amount of judgment), Jacob’s prayer is, in fact, quite bold and very revealing in the area of the power given us in the Spirit and by God, and I mentally pursued what it meant in terms of my true identity in Christ.

Joshua 10:12-14 reads as follows:

“On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:

‘Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.’
So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a human being. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!”

There is so much present in this passage that speaks to our empowerment in the Spirit that I don’t really know where to start, but here is what I do know…I often feel weak and powerless in my faith, in my life, in my marriage, in my home, in my life, and I often feel like even prayer won’t do the trick.

But, here’s the thing, we are given all power and all authority to create our own worlds and existences, and the truth is that if we are in line with God’s will and His truth, our existences and our worlds will be magnificent, despite the regular trials of life.  What typically happens though is that we feel so defeated in our lives that it feels like our hands are tied.

My friends, they aren’t.

Do you want change in your marriage?  Ask God to change it.  Do you want to be different?  Ask God to help you be different.  Do you want your spouse to be different?  Then, ask God to make you be what you need to be so that your spouse can react accordingly.

Be bold, be audacious, be brave, and believe.  Don’t allow the enemy to tell you that you are weak and powerless because you are NOT.  You are powerful and empowered.  That is your true identity.

We have a mighty power at our disposal…we are a new creation, we are already made clean, reconciled, and restored.  We have God living in us, we have the power of the blood of Christ already covering us, we have God’s grace raining down on us, and we have His love consistently extended toward us.

We simply have to receive it in faith, and then extend it to others.

We are not weak, we are not powerless.  In fact, we have the exact same power behind us that Jacob had when he asked God to make the sun stand still.

What do you want to see happen in your life?  If that lines up with God’s truth, be bold and ask Him to do it in, through, and for you.

Do you believe your marriage is to the point of ruin and isn’t fixable?  Well, that’s simply a lie.  God can restore anything and anyone.

Do you believe you are powerless to overcome a sinful struggle?  Well, that too is a lie.  God is sitting there waiting for you to surrender to His will, to be your guide, to cover you in grace, and to see you be all that you really are in Him.  Ask Him for it.  Exercise the power already given to you.  Ask the sun to stand still in your own life in whatever area you are seeking it.  Don’t give in to the lie that you are weak and powerless.  That is NOT you; that is not your identity.

Do you believe your spouse will never change?  Well, that too isn’t necessarily true.  Seek Him for His power, seek Him for His truth about who you are, and then become that truth.  Your spouse will change as a direct course.  I guarantee it.  As you become what you were designed and destined to be, the world around you will change.  Will it be perfect?  Of course not.  We live in a fallen world, and people will forever have their own free will to do as they choose.  But, trust me, as you change yourself, those around you will be different.

Anyway, here is what I realized as I read about Jacob and his audacious prayer…

I am powerful and empowered…but I am only truly empowered in Christ, and my identity isn’t one of weakness and powerlessness and failure.  It is one of power and empowerment.  Apart from Him, I can do nothing.  But, in Him, I will bear much fruit.

I will leave you with this verse:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)