Empowerment is important for a happy, peaceful, and successful life.
God has empowered everyone (having normal mental faculties) to repent from sin and turn to God (Lk. 13:13). And, He has empowered all men to believe into the name of Jesus and therefore receive the right to become children of God (Jn. 1:12-13). But God empowers Christians beyond the power granted to alien sinners.
Paul writes to the Colossians: "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light" (Col. 1:9-12).
Note these points of interest from the above Scripture:
This is Paul's prayer to God for them (vs. 9).
Paul prays that they are filled with the full-knowledge of God's will (vs. 9).
Paul prays that they be filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding (vs. 9).
The result of being filled with full-knowledge; spiritual wisdom and understanding:
vs. 10 walk worthy of the Lord.
vs. 10 fully pleasing - literally: into all pleasing.
vs. 10 being fruitful in every good work.
vs. 10 increasing in the full-knowledge of God.
vs. 11 strengthened with all might - literally: empowered with all power.
vs. 11 for all patience and longsuffering with joy.
Now someone asks, "How do I do that? How do I access the power from God in my life?"
First: We must come to a full-knowledge of God through His word. Jesus says: "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn. 8:31-32). The word of God empowers us through knowledge to overcome sin through Christ. Additionally, Christians are empowered to overcome every trial of life to "glory in tribulations" (Rom. 5:3).
Second: We make our requests known to our Father in heaven. We are confident that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us (1 Jn. 5:14). We cast all our care upon Him (1 Pet. 5:7). And our faith assures us of God's providential care.
Third: We gain strength from other Christians as we assemble in considering one another in order to stir up love and good works (Heb. 10:24-25). We admonish one another (Rom. 15:14), restore the one overtaken in a trespass in a spirit of gentleness (Gal. 6:1), and bear one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2).
God has blessed us with the revelation of His mind, an avenue whereby we may petition Him, and a spiritual family to edify, encourage, and admonish one another. God Himself even chastens us if we sin and refuse to turn back to Him (Heb. 12:5-11).
God strengthens (empowers) Christians with a power that the world cannot receive. Therefore, we should not compare ourselves to the world, nor should we be of the world. For we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own chosen people (1 Pet. 2:9).2
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Then the Lord God formed the man
of dust from the ground and
breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became
a living creature.