Shovel…or backhoe?

          I was talking with a friend a few days ago. She was telling about digging a ditch down to a water tank on her property. She dug and dug, and it was very slow going, until she decided to hire a backhoe to finish the work. “That big shovel dug through the dirt and rock like a warm knife through butter,” she recalled.  All this time, she had been just picking away, little by little in the dirt and rock. It is amazing what a big shovel and a little power behind it can do. Surely there is a spiritual truth in this. 

          In much of our lives as Christians, we willingly pick up our shovels and picks, and get to work digging the ditches we are called to dig. We peck away, day after day, shoveling scoops up and over the sides of our ditch, all too often only in our own power. We forget the power within us that is ours because of the Person within us. We have all the power of the One who spoke our universe into existence by His very words, at our disposal. We have it because the Holy Spirit of God Himself makes His home in us. Jesus told His disciples (and us) that they would be able to do even greater things than the disciples witnessed Jesus doing. Yet, we don’t. I haven’t seen many Christians raising the dead lately. Nor have I witnessed any water changed to wine or thousands of people being fed on a few loaves and fish. Why is that? Perhaps Jesus was referring to something other than signs and wonders in telling us that. Perhaps the greater things were things totally out of the physical realm. Something like sharing and being part of the miracle of a changed life in the miracle of salvation of a lost soul. (But that is another sermon) Or perhaps we are not doing things we would term greater than Jesus did because we are not tapping into the intense magnitude of God’s power that resides within us, just waiting to be released from a totally surrendered, unwaveringly trusting, unfailingly believing, totally committed child of THE MOST HIGH GOD! 

          We fear that He would not use such an unworthy vessel as ourselves. We lack the belief and trust that it is His will to show Himself strong on our behalf and the behalf of humanity. And we wonder without confidence, what would happen to our reputation and standing if we were to take a bold stand and proclamation, and fail, or have Jesus not come through for us. It is safer to wander around powerless in self- pride and false humility, than it is to boldly proclaim God’s power and believe that He is who He says He is, and He does what He says He will do, and He is the one who is in control.  

          Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were filled with the power from on high. (Luke 24:49) We need that power to do anything. We need that power to be who God wants us to be in this world. Jesus walked this Earth in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14) and He is our example. It is only the power of God that we tap within us that enables us to live the life we need to live as witnesses of Jesus Christ and children of God. (Acts 1:8) Anything short of tapping into God’s power available to us is just digging in the rocky soil with our little shovel, trying to get the ditch dug. It is God’s power working in us that causes us to rise above the mundane and touch the miraculous (See Acts 3:12 and the story just preceding it, Acts 4:33, Acts 6:8). Like Jesus, we can do nothing of ourselves, and like Paul, we can do all things through our indwelling Savior Jesus Christ. I don’t know about you, but I would like to realize the power of God within me to be able to just speak up for the Lord and stand boldly for Him in everyday situations! With my own shovel, it is sometimes difficult to just do something as simple as that; but can you imagine what a world this would be if all those professing to have Jesus within (and therefore access to His power) would use the power of the “backhoe” to live His life in the darkness? 

          Acts 10:38 says that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and bringing healing to all who were oppressed by the devil. Are we anointed by God as His children for any less?? 

          The Holy Spirit also serves to give us hope (Romans 15:13). Hope to keep the backhoe going. Hope that one day the ditch will be done. The final shovel-full will be dug out, and our mission and purpose for God’s glory finished; and the words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant” will ring in our ears. 

          It is in the power of God that any ministry takes place, in spite of earthly hardships (2 Corinthians 6:7). We indeed live because of the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4), and although on our own we are weak, God delights in using weak children to display His power through (2 Cor. 12:9). 

          My goal, like Paul’s, is to KNOW HIM, and the POWER of His resurrection, as well as the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10). I am ready to trade in my pick and shovel for a seat in the Lord’s backhoe. I can’t wait to cut through the butter of this world like a warm Holy Spirit knife. How about you? 

          “ For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of POWER and LOVE, and a SOUND MIND.”  Amen.