2026 Powered by the Holy Spirit

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Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.


Powered by the Holy Spirit

The fifth and last of the great biblical words found in Romans 15:13 is power, in the phrase “by the power of the Holy Spirit.” In Greek, the word is dynamis, not exousia (which is sometimes also translated as power, but actually means authority). It is a power that gets things done.

This phrase reminds us that nothing of any spiritual value is possible in and of ourselves since, as Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We cannot believe unless we are enabled to believe by God (Eph. 2:8). We cannot find peace unless we submit our requests to God by prayer and earnest petition (Phil. 4:6–7). Joy comes only from God and is a fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work within (Gal. 5:22). Hope is impossible (Eph. 2:12). But while these blessings are impossible for any of us to achieve by ourselves, everything is possible for God who makes them possible for us and in us by his Spirit’s power. In fact, God promises to bless us in all these ways if we will trust him, and it is for this that Paul is praying in Romans 15.

By ending with a reference to “the power of the Holy Spirit,” the prayer that is our text both begins and ends with God. This is an important point, and it should be familiar to us by now, as it is exactly what we found in Romans 11:36, which closes the long doctrinal section of the epistle. It ended with a doxology, the final words of which were:


    For from him and through him and to him are all things.

      To him be the glory forever! Amen.




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