Mach 20, Spirit Power, and You

Have you heard about this thing?!  I saw it in the news today.

The Falcon HTV-2 is an experimental unmanned aircraft.  It caught my nerd attention when I realized how fast this bad boy moves.  It can reach Mach 20.  Mach 20. . . Mach 20!  That's 20 times the speed of sound for those less nerdy than I.  That means that this thing can move at 13,000 miles per hour!  No wonder its unmanned.  Could you imagine trying to fly that thing?  It can travel from LA to New York City in 12 minutes.  And to think it takes my flight 2 hours to get Christy and I from Chicago to Maryland.

I was thinking about how incredibly fast this thing can move when I recalled two stories from the Bible about fast moving people.  One guy in the Bible gets moving at some pretty incredible speeds, but nothing near Mach 20.  But another guy actually moves faster than Mach 20!


1 Kings 18:45-46


Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy wind came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.  The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.


There is a lot going on in this story, but all I want to point out is that the prophet Elijah outran a horse drawn chariot all the way to the city.  That takes quite a lot of speed and endurance.  How did he do it?  He was empowered by God.

Acts 8:39-40


When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the Eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.  Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.


In this story, Philip has gone down to the middle of nowhere to share the gospel with one man.  The man puts his faith in Christ and Philip baptizes him right then and there.  As soon as Philip's job is done Poof!  Philip vanishes.  He literally teleports to an entirely different town.  Philip looks around, realizes that the Holy Spirit has done something supernatural again, and he decides to start preaching to anyone he can find.

Elijah's movement is supernatural but nowhere near as fast as the Falcon at Mach 20.  But Philip's speed blows Mach 20 out of the water.

So all of this has me thinking that as incredible as technology has gotten, the power of God is still at the top.  Both men were empowered by the Holy Spirit to do things beyond their own capabilities.  And what is even more amazing is that that same Holy Spirit lives within you.

Ephesians 1:13 says "....Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit..."

If you are in Christ, then the Holy Spirit is in you.  While it means a lot of other things, that means that you have an unbeatable power house living within you!  The Holy Spirit can empower you to do even the impossible because for Him all things are possible.

So, what things has God called you to do that you have been putting off because you are afraid, think you're not good enough, or feel like somebody else would be better at doing it?

Are you afraid to share the gospel with a friend because you are bad with words?  Ask the Holy Spirit for help and go get 'em!

Have you been avoiding serving at church because you feel like somebody else would be better?  Ask the Holy Spirit for help and get in there!

Could it be God wants to do big things through you, but you are thinking too small, forgetting that the Holy Spirit Himself is within you?

Take a minute to think about the things that God wants you to do.  What are you avoiding?  What can you trust the Holy Spirit to empower you to do?