There’s that famous line from the Spiderman movie: “With great power, comes great responsibility.” I wonder, is that true of God’s power as well? Specifically, when we have His power? The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us who follow Him today (Romans 8:11). While those of us in America often downplay (or flat out ignore) this, the reality is that this is no small matter. But how should this look? God once healed people and cast out demons through handkerchiefs and aprons that had simply touched the Apostle Paul (Acts 19:12). That’s weird. Or remember that God asks Moses what was in his hand. Eventually, his staff would be used in all matter of miracles. Moses received a tangible item infused with God’s power. So much so, that Moses even had the ability to use this item—equipped with God’s power—for something against God’s will! The second time Moses needs to get water out of a rock he is told to speak to the rock in order to make it happen. Instead, he strikes the rock with his staff as he had previously done (Numbers 20:11-12). Despite being different than what God instructed, it works. Think on that for a second. God allowed Moses to use his God-powered staff to disobey God. The staff didn’t only work when Moses followed instructions. It worked when it was in Moses’ hand. Why would God allow Moses to use God’s power to sin? You might come up with all sorts of explanations for this, but my answer is quite simple: because that’s what you do in a relationship. You trust the other person. You give them the ability to hurt you. If you want them to follow you or love you, then this must be in place. Anyone who has ever fallen in love—the kind that causes you to choose to sacrifice for the other person—intuitively knows this. And so God grieves as He watches Moses use supernatural power on his terms. Jump back to us today. As people who live with the resurrection power of Jesus in our lives we must realize that what we do with this power matters. We have a responsibility. We can choose to use it selfishly, on our terms and in our ways. Or we might just ignore it. While God might allow that to happen, it always causes us to feel separation from Him and ultimately diminishes His power in our life. Instead, what if we carefully considered how we might best apply this power? Not just the power of what we alone are capable of doing, but what we are capable of doing with the power of God fueling us? What dreams, what ideas, and what longings would we pursue? How would we boldly sacrifice ourselves for others knowing we have all we need? We need not fear messing it up. Although Moses didn’t get to walk in the Promised Land as a result of his disobedience, God didn’t end His relationship with him. But we can see that he ignored the responsibility that came with the staff in his hands. Unlike many Christians today, at least Moses didn’t act like he had no staff at all. I wonder what God thinks when He watches so many Christians (supposedly aware of the power inside of them) live day-to-day as if it all depended on themselves? God’s power shouldn’t create anxiety in us but should rather motivate us to live beyond the normal life. That’s how we tap into the Kingdom in our midst.

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