If what we believe is true, it should show up in how we live. Not in theory or intention, but in action. It is easy to say something matters. It is much harder to live like it does. Most of us would say our faith matters, that God matters, and that what Jesus accomplished matters. Yet when I step back and look at my own life honestly, I don’t always live like it matters.
Every May, as spring begins here in Utah, I’m reminded how things start to show what’s actually alive beneath the surface. What looked dead just weeks ago begins to push through the soil. Green replaces brown, and life becomes visible where nothing seemed to exist. The reality is, it was never dead. It was waiting to be revealed.
Our walk with God can look the same way at times. There are seasons where things feel still, where growth is not obvious, and where it seems like nothing is happening. In those moments, it is easy to slip into simply going through the motions as life moves forward, and that often leads to a quiet disconnect from what truly matters. Yet beneath the surface, something real is still at work—something that can break into the open at any moment and become visible in a powerful way.
Pentecost was that moment on a scale the world had never seen. It was not just another day on a calendar. It was the moment everything God had been building toward finally broke open into full view.
From the beginning, God wanted a family. He created people in His image with the ability to love Him freely, and real love required real choice. That meant there was risk. Adam chose wrongly, and what God created for relationship was broken. Even in that moment, God spoke of what was coming—a Redeemer—and from that day on, every step forward was tied to that promise.
Through generations of failure, faithfulness, rebellion, and restoration, God continued working toward a single outcome. Then Jesus Christ entered the world, not as God in disguise, but as a man born by God’s power—one who would succeed where Adam failed. He obeyed when it was difficult, trusted when it cost him, and carried that obedience all the way to the cross.
When he said, “It is finished,” it was not the end of something falling apart. It was the completion of everything required. He died fully, remained dead, and then God raised him. That moment stands at the center of everything—the point where God’s plan to reconcile us and bring us back to Him was fully accomplished.
What followed was something extraordinary—something no one saw coming, not even the adversary. God was no longer working through one man in one place. Through the risen Christ, He would now work in people—ordinary people like us. Pentecost was not just a beginning; it was the moment everything shifted, when the gift of holy spirit was poured out and, for the first time, God’s presence was not just with His people, but in them. (Colossians 1:27)
That reality has not changed. The same gift given in Acts 2 is the same gift every believer has right now. The same power is present, and nothing stands between us and God. The issue is not what has been given. The issue is whether we will act on what we have already been given. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…” (2 Peter 1:3)
This is where it becomes personal for all of us. It is easy to read the book of Acts and admire what those believers did. It is much harder to live with that same resolve and dedication. They did not simply agree with truth; they acted on it. They spoke, moved, and lived with a desire to please God, even when they did not have everything figured out or made mistakes. “So we make it our goal to please Him…” (2 Corinthians 5:9)
Over time, many of us have settled into something less than what we were called to do. We tell ourselves we are waiting for clarity, for the right moment, or for more confidence. Meanwhile, what God has already placed within us sits silent. Scripture does not present a lack of power as the problem. The problem is whether we will choose to act, or allow the flesh to direct our lives. “Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit.” (Galatians 5:25)
Spiritual power (dunamis) is not manifested by simply knowing about it. It is demonstrated through action. It becomes visible when we step forward in obedience, even in ways that seem small at the time. That step may not feel significant in the moment. It may even feel uncertain or uncomfortable. Yet that is where power begins to show itself—not in what we understand, but in what we are willing to do. The moment we take that step, God moves. What was once internal becomes outward. What was once potential becomes reality. Power does not stay hidden when it is put into motion; it becomes visible when we act.
There is a moment in the Gospels that speaks clearly to this idea. A woman pours expensive perfume on Jesus, and those around her immediately begin to criticize. They measure the act, question its value, and conclude it was not worth it. Jesus does not join them. He cuts through it all with a simple and direct response: “She did what she could.” (Mark 14:8)
That statement leaves nothing to hide behind. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” (James 4:17)
It removes the idea that we need something more before we begin. It brings everything down to one unavoidable question: what are we actually doing with what we have been given? Period.
“This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:1–2)
At some point, each of us will stand before Christ, and the question will not be complicated. It will not be about what we intended to do, what we should have done, or even what we understood. It will come down to what we did with what we were given.
We are not lacking anything. God has already accomplished what needed to be done and given us what we need. The question is not whether we have access to Him, but whether we are stepping into what He has made available. Will we live like it matters, doing what He has called us to do—or choose to live as though it doesn’t.
Will we keep delaying what we already know to do? Will we keep waiting for a moment that never needs to come? Or will we step forward with what has already been placed in our hands? Nothing more is required. What has been entrusted to us is sufficient, and it is ours to walk in.
What remains is simple, but it is not easy. We either act on what we have been given, or lose the purpose for which it was given.
Real change does not begin with something dramatic. It begins in the small, quiet moments where we choose obedience instead of complacency. It begins when what we believe stops sitting in our minds and starts showing up in our daily lives.
If this truly matters, then it cannot stay where it is. It cannot remain something we agree with but never act on. It has to move into how we live. The time for waiting, hesitating, and putting it off is over. What God has given is already ours, and what remains is what we will do with it.
With love,
