Spiritual Dynamite

Looking at Jesus’ disciples, we would likely wonder how a ragtag group of individuals could change the world. This group of 12 included some fishermen and a tax collector. Next to Jesus, their leader was Simon Peter, who denied Christ after the words of a servant girl in the high priest’s courtyard demoralized him.

The disciples’ group consisted of flawed individuals, very ordinary people. So how could any of them go anywhere and preach the gospel? Jesus answered this question when He said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (Acts 1:8 NLT). The way they would do it was with power they didn’t naturally possess. It was supernatural power, a power to do something beyond what they had done before and had the natural power to do: the power to change the world.

Later in Acts, we read how God poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples in what we now know as the Pentecost. Addressing the crowd, Peter said, “This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God” (Acts 2:39 NLT). What was the promise that Peter was talking about? It’s the promise of the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,” the word He used for “power” was the Greek word dunamis. Our English word “dynamite” comes from this term.

But Jesus was talking about spiritual power—the power to change our lives and the world. Therefore, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to do what God has called us to do. The same power that set the first-century Church in motion is available to us today—the power to be witnesses, the power to share our faith, and the power to turn the world upside down.