Live by His Power
Mark Driscoll
I have followed Mark Driscoll’s ministry for a while. I enjoy some of his sermons and teachings. I was interested in this book because of the title. This book does not disappoint on pastoral wisdom. Mark Driscoll begins his book by sharing part of his personal story and writes about Christian growth from a pastoral perspective. He lays out the plan for studying the life of Jesus and how the Spirit of God interacted with Him.
In the first chapter, the author lays out the theological and doctrinal understanding of how Jesus lived. He talks about how much the Bible has been read and translated around the world. Although Jesus had small beginnings, He is the most important person and all of history. He goes over biblical accounts of Jesus, and in doing so shows the true nature of Jesus and His ministry.
In Chapter 2, Driscoll describes Jesus’s family from the Gospels. Jesus’s cousins are Spirit-filled, and so is His mother. He stays mostly in the Gospel of Luke. He describes how Jesus is Spirit-filled in the beginning of His ministry and in the wilderness. Driscoll goes into detail about how the Gospels describe the brothers of Jesus: James, Jude, and perhaps Simon or Simeon are Spirit-filled, and some of them wrote Scripture. He describes how Jesus’s family was involved in ministry and the faith.
In Chapter 3, the author talks about becoming mature like Jesus. Jesus can relate to every age. This raises the question of how Jesus matured and that looked like. Jesus was God, but He was human, and developed like us. Jesus had to grow like the rest of us and went through every stage of development. He describes how Jesus matured. Jesus had a relationship with the Holy Spirit that Luke expands upon throughout his Gospel. The only way for a Christian to be mature is through the power of the Spirit.
Driscoll describes how to love like Jesus in Chapter 4. God created us and made us to need love. Living a Spirit-filled life begins with loving others. We need to live in the love of God before we can love others the way He does. He takes a closer look at the stages of how to love.
Chapter 5 is about five weapons to defeat the demonic. Driscoll goes through the history of Satan and how he came to be. We live on a battlefield. He describes the difference between Satan and god. He goes through Matthew 4 where Jesus is tempted by the devil in the wilderness. He describes the difference between us and spirit beings. Satan attacks your identity in Christ. The third Point the author gives us is that we must be careful to not take the bait and forget about the hook I have certain and send. We must maintain a godly and Christian perspective. The fourth weapon is scripture. The last weapon he discusses is faith and trust.
The author talks about Jesus’s secret to emotional health. Jesus had a rough life. It’s surprising that he was so emotionally well balanced. He describes different emotional philosophies in biblical times. My favorite quote from this chapter is “There is no possibility to be emotionally healthy without a deep personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.” He goes through some of the emotions Jesus had in the Gospels. God has emotions and created us with them. But He calls us do use our emotions righteously as He does.
In chapter 7, the author talks about relationships. He describes twelve relational lines. He shows how twelve types of relationships can be found in Jesus’s life. Then he gives eight laws of relationships. Chapter 8 is all about how to face evil people. One quote I will remember is, “How you choose to respond to your experiences determines who you become.” We need to treat different people differently. He describes the connection to dealing with people with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We need wisdom to know how to deal with people. He talks about people from the view of the Proverbs that they are wise, foolish, and evil. He gives pastoral wisdom on how to handle each category of person. He gives six kinds of relationships we can have.
In Chapter 9, Driscoll talks about how to be perfected through suffering. Sin causes God’s suffering. It hurts His heart. He shows how sin has caused human suffering throughout the Bible. He spends most of the chapter describing the suffering Jesus went through throughout the Gospels. We can be blessed because the Holy Spirit rests on us when we are suffering. He continues to talk about suffering in the next chapter. He talks about four Scriptures that show how Jesus suffered and then how we suffer. He shows us some ways to biblically deal with our suffering.
Chapter 11 is about how are forgiven people should forgive people. Sin is a problem we all deal with. Jesus’s example of forgiveness should be our norm as believers. It may not feel good to forgive others, but we do it to honor Jesus. Driscoll focuses on things that need to be forgiven. He explains forgiveness as a bank account that people withdraw from or deposit in our lives. He gives things to remember about forgiveness. He says forgiveness is not contingent on repentance from our offender. Sometimes people don’t apologize. He goes through the kinds of unforgiving people. This was a great part of the chapter. Jesus has made us new in him and we can forgive others because his new nature is in us.
In the next chapter, he continues with seven reasons to forgive. These are great things to remember when you forgive others. I enjoyed this chapter and was happy the author did not focus on forgetting others to make yourself feel better or as a way to self-heal. He further tells the story of Joseph from Genesis to illustrate the power of forgiveness.
In Chapter 13, Driscoll describe the difference between the life in the Spirit and the life in the flesh. He describes what the Bible means by “the flesh.” He also explains the difference Jesus makes so that we don’t have to follow the desires of our flesh anymore. He goes through seven stages of our flesh that can destroy our life. He then describes what life in the Spirit looks like.
In Chapter 14, he talks about the Kingdom of God. He describes the difference between living culture up and kingdom down. Jesus is the center of God’s Kingdom. Our allegiance belongs only to Him. He asks a series of questions to help you know if you are living for God’s Kingdom. He finishes the book with an appendix for ministry leaders. He talks about how different traditions talk about Holy Spirit. I appreciate Driscoll’s pastoral approach. This book gives you wisdom on many levels of Christian living. It is a good approach to the Spirit-filled life. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in growing in Christ in the areas Driscoll covers.
