Knob and tube wiring – uh-oh.

Your breaker box isn’t up to code – uh-oh.

If you’ve ever watched an HGTV home remodel show of any sort you’ve heard these terms before, and you realize that they always mean spending lots more money to get a home in working order.

Physically, our wiring is the thing that provides our home with a source of power. It’s the conduit that allows Alabama Power Company to share their product with us. Can you even imagine trying to run a modern home without electricity? Watching a couple of episodes of a reality show on off-the-grid living makes that possibility very unappealing. We are a bit spoiled here in America where available electricity seems like a right and a necessity, while being without electricity for 2 hours during a storm upsets our evening.

Spiritually, we are also dependent upon a power source outside ourselves. We have no power on our own to manufacture the spiritual power we need to triumph over our sinful flesh, defeat the enemy’s fiery darts, or become righteous, Spirit-filled children of God. We don’t even have the power to make ourselves keep our promises, follow through on good habits, or control that tiny, destructive organ in our mouth called the tongue. Without a holy infusion of power from on high, we are left to our own devices controlled by faulty human flesh.

So what are the wires that connect us to our power source spiritually?

First, God’s Word. He gave His Word to us. It is His direct communication to us. He reveals Himself and His ways to us through His written Word.

1. It is truth. “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.” Psalm 119:160
2. It illumines. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Psalm 119:105
3. It is alive and active. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
4. It is useful in our everyday life. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16.
   • It teaches.
   • It reubkes
   • It corrects.
   • It trains us.
   • It equips us.

Second, Prayer. James 5:16 tells us “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Prayer is powerful because it “plugs us in” to the source of all power, our Omnipotent Heavenly Father. If He is truly omnipotent (all-powerful) then any power we possess ultimately belongs to Him. When we feel desperately low and needy, longing for a burst of energy to restart our lives, He is that source. We must train ourselves to connect to Him through prayer. How?

1. “Pray continuously.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
2. Don’t worry, pray! “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
3. Pray for His will for our lives.  “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9-10
4. Pray for the needs of your life. “Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11
5. Pray for forgiveness and the ability to forgive others. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12
6. Pray for deliverance. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13
7. Pray for others. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
8. Kneel/bow to pray. “For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray…” Ephesians 3:14-15
9. Cry out in prayer. “Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them?” Luke 18:7
10. Pray for strength. “I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit.” Ephesians 3:16
11. Pray for faith. “Immediately the father of the boy cried out, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief!’ ” Mark 9:24 “I pray that… Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Ephesians 3:17
12. Pray with others. “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:19
13. Pray for others. “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:18-19

Are you connected to your Source of Power? Or do you have faulty wiring? Are you accessing His strength daily through His Holy Scriptures and through praying? Or are you trying to live off-the-grid spiritually? Do you find yourself spiritually “out in the cold,” wandering without illumination, sitting in the dark disconnected from the “power company?” Has your breaker flipped? Or perhaps you’ve lived without those lines ever being connected and it’s time you turn to the true all-powerful source, The Living God and Creator of the universe. Seek Him today – it’s time to get your wiring up to code.