Dunamis - unlimited God's power lies within you

Dunamis! The Power that Brings Change

Compiled by Innocent Mwangi

The day was 29^th January 2006. The venue was the House of Bread, a ministry of Life Celebration Centre International located in Nairobi at City Square Building, 3^rd floor.

As Bishop Mark Kariuki took the podium to bring the Word of the Day, he declared: “Unless the pain of where you are is greater than the pain of change, you will never change!”

That simple yet profound statement yanked my listening faculties into sharp attention. I knew without a doubt that I was in for a veritable feast of the Word of God – replete with divine revelation and knowledge.

Reading from the Gospel according to Luke (4: 1, 2, 14-19), Bishop Mark said that the Word of God is life-changing. When Jesus was being baptized by John at the River Jordan, God affirmed Him as His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased. After this affirmation, Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit.

In the wilderness, Bishop Mark said, you may not have everything you want. Although it is a difficult place, it is not permanent. In the wilderness, Jesus had no food. For forty days and forty nights He fasted – went without food. One can therefore say that He was indeed famished when the devil prodded Him to turn stones into bread – He needed food really bad.

When His hunger pangs were at their most severe, Satan sauntered to where Jesus was, ready to provide Him with temporary gratification (food). The devil’s plan was to nip God’s redemption plan in the bud. Imagine if Jesus fell for the devil’s temptations! The whole of God’s plan to redeem you and I would have been aborted.

Thankfully, Jesus stood His ground and refused to fall for Satan’s evil designs. He defeated the devil by speaking God’s Word. Likewise, we should speak the Word of God when we are in our wilderness. As we speak His Word, a power so formidable is created within us. This life-changing, devil-shattering power is called dunamis, a Greek word that means dynamite. The devil could not stand the power-packed, highly-explosive Word of God that came out the mouth of Jesus. Likewise, Satan cannot stand the power that lies in God’s Word when you speak it.

The wilderness is not a dying place. It is a place where the power of God is manifested and where Satan is defeated. It’s therefore not a bad thing to go through the wilderness – as long as the Holy Spirit is with you. When you are in the wilderness, don’t build permanent structures – you are not there to stay!

Jesus did not go into the wilderness alone – He was led there by the Holy Spirit. When He was in the wilderness, He did not complain and murmur because of the afflictions He was going through. Instead, He prayed and spoke the Word whenever Satan came calling.

In the wilderness you will not be alone. The way you behave while in the wilderness will determine how you come out of the wilderness. The wilderness can either leave you better or bitter. Complaining and murmuring while in the wilderness will leave you bitter. Speaking the Word of God in the wilderness will leave you a better person.

The devil wants to bring you to a point where you doubt who you are. He does not want you to utilize the dunamis (power) that you project when you speak the Word of God. You must come to a point where you will not allow the wilderness to define who you are. The fact that you are in the wilderness does not mean that the wilderness is in you. The wilderness should not control you; you should control it! Even at His weakest point, Jesus managed to overcome the enemy by speaking the Word of God.

Jesus went into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit. When He came out, he was full of the POWER of the Holy Spirit. Imbued with this wilderness-tested power, he goes to the Synagogue ‘as was His custom’. He is given a scripture to read as was His custom. He reads and sits down as was His custom. However, as He sat down and every eye was pinned on Him, something uncustomary happened to Him. The dunamis power that was fostered in the wilderness quickens Him to stand on His feet. He makes a revolutionary statement that from that moment set the pace for His ministry. In effect, the power that was distilled into Him when He was in the wilderness starts to change His perspective on life and His ministry. This is not the same Jesus that left for the wilderness. This is not the same person whom the Galileans knew as the son of Joseph. This was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had come face to face with God in the wilderness.

Power (dunamis) comes from a wilderness experience. When you receive the revealed Word of God, your life is never the same again. The Word of God is power-packed, and it’s aimed at causing change to happen in your life.

There is a power within you – and it’s from God. It is called Dunamis – and it comes to bring change in your life. It’s not acquired in the echelons of convenience and comfort zones. Nay! It’s acquired in the wilderness – on that dark night when mourning seem to go on endlessly. It is acquired in the valley of dry bones where hope seems to have left many years ago. It is acquired on that hospital bed where the doctors have decreed that you will not live. It is acquired in that difficult place – the proverbial place between a rock and a hard place. That place of difficulty where the only shred of hope seems to have taken an indefinite vacation.

The good news is that your wilderness experience is now over. Forty days and forty nights have passed and you are still standing. Into raging storms you disappeared, and now everyone can see you as you victoriously come out; declaring purpose on one hand, and victory on the other. You went to the hospital on a wheelchair. Now you are coming out running – putting to shame all those that said you will come back in a straightjacket.

You have been tested and overcome. Satan has tried to bring you down by offering instant gratification, but you have spoken God’s Word to defeat him. You are now victorious. And the POWER of God is now within you. Now you can command that mountain to move and it will say “Sir, Yes Sir”.