Desirable proportions of God’s power come from undesirable aspects of God’s character

Common Christians imagine the qualities of Jesus as those the world considers to be good. They do not realize that the sensibilities of the natural man find actual righteousness repugnant. They ignore the many scripture accounts where Jesus demonstrates qualities they find offensive. Jesus wasn’t crucified for being a nice guy, but for pointing out that a lot of what people thought was good was actually evil, and at least some of what people thought was evil was actually good. The problem is that God’s character cannot be subdivided, and the undesirable portions are at least as necessary to obtain as the desirable portions. All of God’s power is completely coupled to all of God’s character. To obtain and exercise his power in ways that normal people find attractive, you must also obtain and exercise his power in ways that normal people find repulsive.

When God’s power is spoken of, it is typically in the context of working miracles. The kinds of miracles you expect—healing, prophecy, and so on—are performed in conjunction with and as a result of the kind of miracles you probably wouldn’t even count as such, let alone desire. The power of God includes the power to:

• Love those who hate you.
• Rejoice in suffering for the benefit of others.
• Stare into the darkest abyss for as long as it takes to see the light
• Overcome evil with good.
• Forgive those who spitefully use you and persecute you
• Bless those who curse you.
• Limit yourself to actions that are God’s will.
• Endure all intensities and duration of suffering
• Maintain the Lord’s principles in spite of all opposition
• Overcome all things that would otherwise control you
• Do what you say.
• Say what you do.

If you aren’t interested in developing the power to do these things, you will never develop the power to perform miracles such as healing the sick, commanding the elements, or raising the dead.

God’s power is found in God’s purpose, and those who only pursue the parts of his purpose that are pleasant will find very little of his power. Only those who are as willing to advance God’s purpose when it hurts them as they are when it helps them will possess more than minimal power with God.¹