9/26/26 The Strength of IAM
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Paul in the 6th chapter of this letter to the church of Ephesus gives us a command. Many will immediately equate this chapter with spiritual warfare due to the Armor of God passage and rightfully so. Spiritual warfare is something we deal with more than we know but cannot see the point of origination because obviously it is spiritual. The result of this unseen is manifest in the seen, material world. This is everything from individual divergences to national movements. A misunderstanding is that darkness always wins due to the consistent state of decline of cultures globally. This is not always the case, however. The strength of communities & regions all depends on the strength of the people in those areas because evil never sleeps, and do the people cave to the push from the media & the ungodly to accept the ungodly within their culture.
When we talk strength many people aren’t fully in line with what this means because the term can be pervasive, even relative. What we can all agree on is tat there are different types of strength. Not every one is blessed to have these forms of strength, and to understand the initial portion of this scripture we have to place it in the proper context and dig deep.
Relational strength- Many would call this a network off the top but it more than that. DO you have friends, I mean true friends who will give you their ear, give you their heart, who will take care of you if needed. Yes it is advantageous to have a network, but do you have trusting relationships that can fill your gaps sharing with you the good times & the bad? If you do you have relational strength. You have a sounding board that is genuine, you have people you can count on. You have people who can help you find & exploit opportunities.
Emotional strength- This is the people who do not bend to emotionalism, they are still able to stand when tragedy hits & make sound decisions & fend off a world that continually tells us that you are never good enough. This is the type of person who can be a pillar when the pressure is on, & still meet the goals when stress is tantamount. Those who possess emotional strength can be stable while others move to minimize them, marginalize them, even to assassinate their character with slander & lies. The essence of emotional strength is not that the person is stoic, or numb emotionally, it is that they can sustain control while the world around them goes further & further away from love. Emotional strength is something that more than fleeting, it is sustained over time despite trauma. This really shows itself best in a period of long suffering, when patience is seen as extraordinary. It is more than just discipline, it is control over matters of the heart without getting assassinated from the oppression brought against.
Physical Strength- for many this is the most obvious of the forms of strength but it is not exclusive to people who operate in gyms. Some of us have been blessed with life situations that keep our bodies working to complete tasks and merely out of adaptation to our environments we garner strength in our ligaments and tendons aside from our muscles.
This is more than just being able to move weight it is a means to endure loads of oppression and move after hours of repeating or engaging in motions needed to adapt to our prolonged tasks & environments. There are insanely physically strong people who are well less than 300 pounds so size does not always mean strength.
Financial strength- This form of strength is more than just the obvious sign of being wealthy & it showing itself in possessions & lifestyle. While we can understand that there are methods of showing financial strength these outward methods are not the only manner in which financial strength shows itself. This also shows itself in the form of being able to meet financial goals, or even generate capitol in a manner uncustomary to the norms of society. Whether it is investments of strategies the people with this type of strength seem to fall into opportunities or create them & reap the rewards of doing so with seemingly little difficulty.
But then there is Strong in the Lord. This is what the verse says, & is not to be misunderstood as any of the forms of strength mentioned. See this type of strength shows a belief, a faith in the things of & the person of the Lord that they can be led to the gates of hell, the world can be falling down around them. Loved ones are suffering, finances are crumbling, relationships have been met with betrayal, and our physical health is suffering from the effects of our world that has been intentionally been introduced into our food & water supply.
The anointing of this form of strength does not keep us from weariness from doing good. But in spite of all this, the person with this type of strength remembers that they are in the Lord. Do you know what that means? It means you are in someone whop has greater authority than you. It means that you are in step with the one who has control. I am talking about the fires f hell are around you, they threaten you, you can feel the heat but you cling to the one you are in who has authority over hell, over the devil & overcame the world.
This strength is a supernatural strength because it derives from a super natural source. While material, resources, relationships & well being may start to look dim, this person will be viewed by others as awe inspiring because they will endure all of this and tell the world, My help comes from the Lord! I will not fall because he is the one who sustains me, he is the one who is my source, he is the one who is my strength!
