2015: The Year of Overcoming Power

The same power, the same power that crushed the enemy

The same power, the same power, the same power lives in me!

–Risen, Covenant Worship & Israel Houghton

As I was minding my own business, listening to ‘Risen’, the Lord placed upon by heart the theme for 2015, With every accurate Rhema word, there must be scriptural backing (Logos word) as well as confirmations, both which have been evident throughout the past month. The word ‘power’ has been spawning all over the place, from sermons to sharing and even to songs. But what power are we talking about here?

I present you the theme of the year: 

And the theme verse:

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. [1 John 4:4 KJV]

And not to forget the theme song:

Risen by Covenant Worship & Israel Houghton

A good place to start is the definition of power. In the Greek, ‘power’ is ‘dunamis’, where we get our English word ‘dynamite’. It refers to strength, power and ability, and it’s used in many areas of the New Testament. However, what about overcoming?

2015: The Year of Overcoming Power

This overcoming power is the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:4 GNT, MSG), whom Jesus describes as a person who convicts unbelievers of sin and believers of righteousness (John 16:9–10). This same power raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:20) is also known as ‘resurrection power’, implying that death, an enemy of God (1 Corinthians 15:26), has been crushed. It is the fully realised power of the sample that Jesus imparted in Matthew 9, the power that overcomes demons, disease and death, the effects of sin.

As such, the power in us is the exploding strength, power and ability to overcome the effects of sin, namely condemnation (ref Romans 8:1), fear (the antithesis to love, ref 1 John 4:18) and stress (ref Genesis 3:19), that lead to the more apparent issues that surface:

This power will provide things that pertain to life and godliness to overcome the above. The growth of this power, how it multiplies, is brought forth through the increased knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:2–4). While ignorance of Jesus will limit the power, knowledge causes it to multiply. And the knowledge is that we have been completely cleansed from all our former sins (2 Peter 1:9).

Contextually, the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost, when Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit, on which the disciples spoke in tongues (Acts 2:4) and when Peter preached to a multitude, 3,000 being saved (Acts 2:14–41). But prophetically for Singapore, 2015 is Singapore’s Jubilee Year, 50 years of independence, paralleling the Pentecost that occurred 50 days after the Passover, thus implying an explosive nature of the Holy Spirit to fall upon the nation, the power that will overcome the above-mentioned struggles that we face.

This overcoming power is released from God and into us. It is supernatural, not one of self effort, and is received, not earned, in the unity of the body of Christ. As John Piper puts it, “You will not experience the overcoming power of the gospel in your life without the local church.” When the Church in Singapore is united, putting aside trivial matters and focused on Jesus, then a mighty outpouring of the Spirit forms the overcoming power that enables the above to come to pass. Why? So that you may have the power to live and share the abundant life which Jesus promised to all who trust and obey Him. Through overcoming power, we can substantively testify of the Gospel to our unsaved loved ones.

So get ready for 2015: the Year of Overcoming Power.