But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49, ESV)

Christians are still human. Faith in Jesus Christ does not transform us into gods, and in many ways, we remain similar to the non-Christians. We still get sleepy, and we go to sleep. We still get hungry, and we eat. Like the unbelievers, we go to school and to work. We marry, buy and sell, and die.

However, these are only superficial similarities, because Jesus Christ has made us into something more and something better than the non-Christians. We remain human, but we are superior. We are infused with the same divine energy that powered the works of Christ. This is the same power that came upon the prophets and the apostles.

Of course, we are not superior in ourselves, just like any man is not superior to another in himself. But Jesus is superior to any man, and he has regenerated our spirits and predestined us to conform to his image. The Holy Spirit is superior to any earthly thing, and his power clothes each believer with a heavenly quality that cannot be matched or mimicked by the non-Christian. The Christian is a superior kind of human because God is superior to any man or woman, and God indwells the Christian in all his fullness.

The Bible never suggests that power is a threat to orthodoxy and godliness. In fact, the Bible knows no orthodoxy and godliness without this otherworldly power. But there are those who claim to be Christians, but who insist that your theology is orthodox only if you reject this power, and you are godly only if you refuse to seek it.

What has happened? Satan cannot fight this power in head-on confrontation – he is no match for it – but he would gain the upper hand if he could talk us into thinking that this power is not for us, that it is not good for us, and that we would be heretics for wanting it and claiming it. Then he could keep the church in bondage without lifting a finger. And this is why believers are weak and defeated.

You might not seem like anyone special. You think that you have no talents, and that there is not much you can contribute to the cause of Christ. You doubt that you can contend for the faith and stand up against the onslaughts of unbelievers. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can. Perhaps you have very little education – certainly many people have more than you. Perhaps you do not have much money. In many ways, you appear less than others. But by this power from heaven, you can be something more than the rest of men. You can be more. You can be better, stronger, more useful. You can live a more meaningful and significant life. Believe the promise, and receive the power.