Inner Strength (Isaiah 64:1-9)

I have been reading Bear Grylls autobiography. Its powerful stuff about what it is to be a man able to go beyond his limitations; about a man who God helped reach where eagles dare.  Some of you don’t have a clue who I’m talking about but he has climbed Everest, he is seen on Television each week surviving some of the world’s harshest places, he’s been made the Chief Scout as role model for hundreds of thousands of children, he eats marrow from old bones, crunches live grubs and drinks from camels stomachs. Bear Grylls is SAS trained tough on Prime TV’s Man vs Wild and comes from a line of commandos; his granddad and dad.  Bear, as his much older sister called him, had to find his own individual place in the grueling world of the British SAS and at the young age of 20 years old. He’s a man who has done the impossible and he attributes his success to a simple faith in Jesus Christ and fronts the Alpha advertisements nowadays.

Bear Grylls says that in the endurance section of SAS selection that he and his mate were lost and running out of time in the dark mountainous region of Wales called the VW Brecons (VW meaning voluntary withdrawal.) The two of them were so lost and desperate after twenty odd hours of traversing mountains they earnestly prayed for God’s help in the fog. He hears the words of Isaiah 41:13, “I am holding you by your right hand…Do not be afraid. I am here to help you.” Next thing they found themselves sliding down a steep mud and ice face and turning to climb right back up they saw a light below which was the truck they had been looking for as the end rendezvous of the whole trip. If they hadn’t fallen in the darkness they would have overrun the end and been truly lost. They both survived because Bear believes God caused them to fall in their weakness and see what they couldn’t before they prayed.

People faith is that simple! Faith is about believing that God who can do anything and wants to help you in the everyday things of life. Faith is about maintaining a relationship with the most powerful friend you could ever have in this world, Jesus Christ. Faith is about enlisting in the kingdom army of Almighty God and reaching heights where eagles dare; reaching beyond the impossible and into the realms of miracles. Faith is about being a Spiritual person above and beyond fear and failure and into the place where there is no loser. Bear Grylls competes with the fears that plague mankind and wins; and so can we because Jesus Christ is our Lord and master who has given us His Spirit of overcomer-against-all-odds.

Bear Grylls is such an overcomer who knows where his inner strength comes from. Unashamed to stand tall and tough yet proclaiming Jesus Christ the one who gets him through the “Who Dares Wins” motto of the elite force he is part of. Bear says faith is meant to be simple but school chapel and church services seemed to make it so difficult.  He was reawakened to the simple faith of a child through the hardships of selection for SAS reserves.  I can tell you this that there are times when I have not been able to find my way in the bush; times when I was equally lost but God has always pulled me through. There are times in every Christian’s life when God steps up and is holding our hand. We may not feel him there but having prayed we find the outcome is a victory for prayer.

Who could not love a God like this? Simple faith that works for Bear Grylls and works for Mike Oliver and works for you who call out to Him in prayer. No degree in systematic theology can improve on faith like this; no amount of reading can improve upon a simple prayer for help and the reward of that victory won. I phone 111 and ask for an ambulance and they come. I go to the hardware store and ask for something to prevent blight in my tomatoes or potatoes and they find me a remedy. I ask Shelley to help me with this and with that and she does. Why then shouldn’t we know that our Father in heaven would not come to our rescue as soon as we ask. Bear’s mountain was shaken to cause him to fall as in our reading today Isaiah says,

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That you would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence – to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations might tremble at Your presence!“

If you have not read Isaiah you are missing the most poetically revealing words about our God. He called Himself “I AM” simply because I believe mankind finds it so hard to believe He exists! Our God is alive and willing to be our strength where we are weak. Tough man Bear Grylls in his recent autobiography about his climb of Mt Everest continually talks about how the spirit of man can either make or break in these toughest of situations. He talks about the inner strength that comes out when the physical is all used up and how the elation of making it to the next goal and reuniting with a close friend with the help of God re-energises the soul through the spirit. A depressed or fearful spirit has no power to dig into. But a hopeful and determined spirit has the power to defeat adversity.

Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke says, “Bible Christianity is supernatural. It demands the highest kind of living but provides the power for it. Its standards are possible only by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Christian faith is nothing less than God alongside us, even outpouring Himself. The Christian ethic comes with the Christian dynamic. With the demand comes the enabling. Like running and needing more air, your intake increases automatically. That's how God does it...”

Why is it that Jesus says that unless you are born again you can by no means enter the kingdom of heaven? Clearly it is because the dying spirit of man has no hope and no determination. To be in Christ truly is to live and have abundant life. Abundant life is a life exciting and enduring in happiness. Sure there are the tough times when things all seem to conspire against us, but like the storm with strong wind and rain, it’s days are limited and the day comes when it shines again.

Christianity is like living with challenges sometimes too big for us and calling on our Father in heaven we find wings we never knew we had, and we find ourselves rising up to greater heights. My Christianity is not about confining myself to a set of rules though the rules exist. My kind of Christianity is like the infant child learning how to walk; there are stages of growth and achievement interspaced with accidents and injuries. But oh that joy when eventually the crawl is left behind for the walk, and the walk turns into the run. And I will run the race set before me!

Christianity is a whole new set of prospects; an enormous potential waiting to be discovered. It is a supernatural strength that provides the power for its own needs. My kind of Christianity comes with batteries included; rechargeable batteries of the supernatural kind. I go as far as I can and when it gets too tough I draw on the living God who feeds my spirit with His promised Spirit and I find myself once again recharged and able. Life is hard for those who do aren’t able to draw on that inner strength of spirit; I found that out nearly 27yrs ago during the last recession.

There are people who are just now finding that out but as yet don’t know this message about Jesus Christ who all at once opened the gates to the kingdom of heaven for all to come in. His blood spilt for us on Calvary Hill put paid on all of our bill of unrighteousness before our Father in heaven. Many don’t know what a wonderful life is in store for them that love the Lord and are filled with His Spirit. God help us if we cannot find a way to set them free to enjoy this life in abundant victory rather than their death in defeat.