There are three functions of power given to us by The Holy Spirit!
There are three aspects or functions to God’s supernatural power. In the Greek these three functions are:
1) God’s dunamis power, which we receive in our spirits when we are born again and that strengthens us spiritually,
2) His kratos might, which operates in our souls and strengthens us emotionally, and
3) His ischus strength which operates in our bodies and strengthens us physically.
These three functions are very important for us to understand because they make up the process by which God’s resurrection power works in each of our lives. All three of these words represent some part, some function, or some aspect of God’s resurrection power. They are not the same thing at all. Together they make up the process by which God’s power works in each of our lives. However, if we don’t personally understand this process, it will be very easy to quench God’s Spirit in one of these areas and block His Life from coming forth.
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in Ephesians chapter 1:
18 I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of His calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that He finds in us, His Holy ones!
19 I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power
20 that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the Heavenly realm!
It is vital that you dwell on the above passage for it reveals the reality and Truth that is in each of us even in its dormant state. We must pursue and expect its full activation!
The first aspect of power is the word dunamis which means “Divine ability” or “Divine empowerment.” It is a source of dependable and continuous power. It is inherent power—meaning power that belongs to the essential nature of something. Dunamis almost always points to a new and higher force that has entered and is now working through us.
When we become born again, we receive God’s dunamis power in our spirits. This power cannot be released in our lives, however, until our own spirits and hearts are cleansed:
David recorded by THE SPIRIT in Psalm 51:
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Keep creating in me a clean heart. Fill me with pure thoughts and holy desires, ready to please you.
In other words, God doesn’t give supernatural power to the “old man,” but only to the “new one.” One of the reasons we lack power in the Christian body is because we have quenched God’s Spirit in our hearts. Rather than cleanse ourselves, we often choose to follow our own self-centered ways and end up not only blocking God’s Love, but also His resurrection power.
God’s resurrection power can only grow stronger in us when our soulish man (our own self-centered thoughts, emotions, and desires) is totally submitted and yielded to God. Even though we receive God’s power in our spirit at our new birth, we’ll be unable to use it until we learn to relinquish and surrender ourselves daily.