How Much Can YOU Do?
Good News Magazine
December 1957
Volume: Vol VI, No. 12
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How Much Can YOU Do?

Many of you may be downcast — may NOT REALIZE the great GOOD you personally are capable of accomplishing! Here's what can be done, THROUGH YOU!

   "SOMETIMES I feel I'm not worth very much," writes one member to us. "I know I'm not very important, and not much help," said another.
   FAR FROM IT!
   Perhaps NONE of you brethren have truly visualized the great POWER you can potentially wield in the work of God.

Would YOU Have Been Insulted?

   When the apostle Paul returned to Ephesus from the area of Galatia, he found certain disciples, and "said unto them, 'Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed?'" (Acts 19:2.) Can you picture it? He looked these persons in the eye and ASKED them if they had received the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD! They answered they HAD NOT EVEN HEARD of the Holy Spirit. Paul explained, and later they received this priceless gift!
   But would YOU have shuffled your feet nervously, looked down, tried to change the subject, given a hesitating answer — in other words, would you have been EMBARRASSED by such a question?
   What about it!
   Could you answer INSTANTLY, "YES — I KNOW I have the Spirit of God!"?

Overwhelming Potential

   Jesus Christ said, "I can of mine OWN SELF do nothing!" (John 5:30.) But went on to explain, "... the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth IN me, HE doeth the works!" (John 14:10.)
   Just think of that! Your Saviour said He could accomplish NOTHING HIMSELF, when left just to Himself — BY HIMSELF! Just as many of YOU get to feeling YOU can "do NOTHING" to really HELP in this WORK OF GOD!
   But Jesus DID GREAT MIRACLES! And He did it by the power of the Spirit of God!
   That great overwhelming power is potentially YOURS today, if you will truly YIELD to God — and allow Him to work through you!
   Christ records through Luke that He is more willing to give of His Spirit than we are willing to feed our own hungry children! (Luke 11:13.) He stands WILLING, EAGER to GIVE US of that same power!
   But aren't we the "weak" of the earth? Aren't we the POOR, the HUMBLE, and the despised FEW — who have NO POWER, and NO STRENGTH? Yes, we have NO STRENGTH OF OURSELVES — but with the Spirit of God we ARE POSSESSORS OF ALL POWER!
   Jesus said, "ALL POWER is given me in Heaven and in earth" (Matt. 28:18). And Christ is to be LIVING within US! (Gal. 2:20, Phil. 2:5, Rom. 8:9.) Potentially we all share in THAT POWER! And so YOU are to have the One who CREATED THE WORLDS, WHO MADE ADAM, WHO SENT THE FLOOD, WHO DIVIDED THE RED SEA, WHO BECAME Jesus CHRIST — LIVING PERSONALLY, INDIVIDUALLY WITHIN YOU! And you think you have no power?

Just What CAN You Accomplish?

   You, as one, separate individual can save a nation! You can alter the course of human lives, you can PREVENT WAR!
   Believe it or not! The Bible contains examples of the PRAYERS of just ONE PERSON accomplishing truly GREAT things!
   Turn to the 9th chapter of Deuteronomy and read it. God does not "threaten" emptily as does a man — He was not trying to "frighten" the people. God actually PURPOSED in His own mind to DESTROY THE ENTIRE NATION OF ISRAEL, and make a new nation of the seed of MOSES!
   But the earnest, fervent PRAYERS of just ONE MAN — MOSES — altered the course of a nation. That prayer is one good reason why you are ALIVE today.
   Next, read II Chronicles the 20th chapter. Here, King Jehoshaphat "feared, and SET HIMSELF to seek the Eternal, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah" (vs. 3). He then prayed about the threat of the allied armies of the Moabites and Ammonites that were about to kill the Israelites. GOD ANSWERED THAT PRAYER, and delivered the armies of TWO NATIONS into the hands of the inhabitants of Jerusalem! Notice it — the prayers of one righteous man!
   DANIEL prayed earnestly, and God revealed not only an INTERPRETATION of a dream, but the entire dream itself as well! As a result, many lives were saved, and Daniel was made an executive in the Chaldean government.
   But weren't these GREAT men — FAMOUS men — of whom such great faith and righteousness WOULD NATURALLY BE EXPECTED?
   No! They were MOSES, who ran from the call of God, who broke the tables of stone in anger, and who was prevented from entering the promised land because of his own temper; and Jehoshaphat, who "cried out" when he thought he was going to be killed (II Chron. 18:31), and who "feared" when he saw the armies threatening him (II Chron. 20:3); Daniel, who FAINTED, and was SICK when God showed him the frightful symbols of prophecy (Dan. 8:27).
   These men were human beings, like you and me — human beings with faults, with shortcomings, with temptations of the flesh. And yet, because they WENT TO GOD WITH THEIR PROBLEMS, the courses of nations were altered because of them!

How HIGH Is Our Calling?

   Little do we begin to visualize how GREAT is this salvation (Heb. 2:3) into which even the powerful angels wish to look! (I Pet. 1:12.)
   WE are to someday be ABOVE the angels, ABOVE the cherubim, the seraphim, and ABOVE the 24 elders seated about God's very throne! WE ARE TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY OF GOD TO BECOME GOD!
   God expects you to THINK BIG! Let the entire UNIVERSE come into the scope of your thinking! PRAY that God will NOT permit a war in Syria. PRAY God WILL put a man in the Presidency of the United States who will follow policies that will be BEST FOR THE WORK OF GOD! PRAY that God will ALTER THE WEATHER when need be — and ESPECIALLY WHEN WE HAVE TO FLEE!
   PRAY BIG! THINK BIG! Do not believe for one second your prayers cannot accomplish GREAT MIRACLES today!
   Is Christ living WITHIN you? Is He? If you KNOW He is — then ACT on it — and begin coming BOLDLY to that throne of grace, KNOWING God has obligated Himself to answer your prayers!
   WHAT DO YOU MEAN — "can't do any good?" Paul wrote, "I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST which strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). SO CAN YOU!

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Good News MagazineDecember 1957Vol VI, No. 12