Show yourself!

Maybe you recognize that phrase from last year's Frozen 2. Elsa has finally reached the end of her journey, searching for the voice she's been hearing in her head, and she marches in, ready to meet the source of that voice. "Show Yourself" (written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and sung by Edina Menzel) takes us into the moment where Elsa finally realizes where her powers came from, and not just where they came from, or why she has them, but who they connect her to.

The power that the Bible tells us dwells within us as believers is the power of God that dwells within us by his very presence, which is the direct result of his love for us. But it's a process to learn to trust God's power, to let it show, to learn to work in cooperation and coordination with God in who you are as a unique person.

The whole point of the gospel is to enable us to live more fully in the love of God as your truest self, manifesting all the power of God that he so powerfully works in you...

...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:16-19)

Like Elsa, we can misunderstand the power that lies within us. We can fear it - we can fear God himself (in a bad way), distrusting him, avoiding him, locking the door of our hearts and putting on the gloves to make sure that the power of God in us doesn't do anything shocking or embarrassing or scary. Conceal it, don't feel it, don't let it show. There are whole systems of theology to justify this. But is it biblical? I don't think so. I think that God's whole point in restoring us to life is that we might emerge from our dark tombs and live in the light of his eternal day, that we might move and work and function and play and sing and eat.

God's power is the power of life. In us, he produces life-giving joy, love, faith, peace, kindness, and these fruits of his Spirit feed our spirits and fuel all kinds of crazy acts of spiritual power. Radical forgiveness. Life-changing acts of kindness. Mind-altering leaps of faith. Peace that surpasses understanding. Joy that bubbles over in the depths of darkness. Outside-the-box but just-right ideas to spread the word to others. Sacrificial giving of time, money, and energy.

God's power enables us to live, exactly as he hardwired and created us to live - as OURSELVES.

And yet that can be the truly scary part. Our natural posture is one of hiding, of covering ourselves, of shame and of fear.

Elsa's journey took her from a locked bedroom to an ice castle of her own making. That wasn't far enough. She needed to continue that journey out of fear all the way into love, and eventually straight into the heart of the power that lived within her. She needed to be connected to the one whose power lived in her, the one who had loved her from the very first moment of her life.

In order to wield the power of eternal life that lives within us, we too need to journey out of fear and into the heart of God. His love is where that power comes from, and his love directs that power towards us, for our sake. In order to live in the power of his love, we have to search earnestly for him. It's not enough to know him from a distance. If you want to live in the power of God that lives in you, you must take a step into the unknown and follow the sound of his voice speaking to your soul...calling you towards his face.

You need to make eye contact with God. This is where the experience of the power of eternal life begins. I pray again with Paul...

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Eph 1:17-23)