{"id":2262,"date":"2020-01-24T04:28:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T04:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=2262"},"modified":"2025-07-29T15:52:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:52:19","slug":"are-you-more-like-batman-or-spider-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=2262","title":{"rendered":"Are You More Like Batman or Spider-man? (Republished in Everlasting Way)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his book, Union with Christ, Rankin Wilborne asks us to consider two superheroes. Batman, a rich, strong man with \u201clots of cool gadgets\u201d [1]<\/a> and<\/a> Spider-man, a superhero because of a bite from a radioactive spider. The encounter with the spider changed Peter Parker from within. He became Spider-man. Batman had to rely on his own abilities and possessions.<\/p>\n

Who are you most like?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a believer in Jesus Christ, you\u2019ve become a new man. Jesus Christ now lives within you. You’ve been changed from within.<\/p>\n

Jesus told His disciples, \u201cAnd I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.\u201d (John 14:16 NASB)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Paul confirms that the Holy Spirit of Jesus now lives inside of believers, fundamentally changing who we are. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation\u2014having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:13 NASB)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Spider Powers<\/h3>\n

Like Spider-man, we\u2019ve been changed, but what are our spider powers? Although it would be fun, it\u2019s not squirting webs to buildings and swinging through the air.<\/p>\n

Consider the following powers: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,<\/em> \u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 NASB)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

These powers include a quality of love which is sacrificial beyond reason, joy and peace which transcend every circumstance, kindness and goodness which puts others first and looks past every offence, faithfulness and gentleness which becomes for others a soothing balm in all infirmities, and control to walk in these inner powers no matter how we\u2019re feeling.<\/p>\n

What Joy we\u2019d experience if these powers of Christ continually flowed from within us.<\/p>\n

But too often we forget about the powers within. We might ask God to give us<\/em> patience and self-control, but that\u2019s just asking God to change us<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He wants so much more. He<\/em> wants to be<\/em> our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control from the inside out.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a real difference between asking God to help me and relying on His Spirit within to empower me.<\/p>\n

Real Life Example<\/h3>\n

My dad struggled with alcoholism for decades. It cost him his marriage and almost his life. But things changed. He ended up not drinking the last fifteen years of his life.<\/p>\n

One day I asked him how he did it. \u201cI tried everything,\u201d he said. \u201cAA and countless programs, but nothing worked. I\u2019d been asking God to help me quit, but it just wasn\u2019t working. Finally, I said, \u2018God you have to do it, I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

After praying this prayer, he cut the grass and opened a beer. He said it tasted awful. He spit it out, poured out the beer and never had another drop. My dad learned to depend upon the power of God to deliver him when nothing else did.<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/h3>\n

Lord, Your Spirit has changed me forever. Please forgive me for living on my own. You tell me that apart from You, I can do nothing.[2]<\/strong><\/a> I\u2019m tired of wearing myself out in my own strength accomplishing nothing. Trying to live without you is like Spider-man not using his powers is. Never again I pray. Please teach me how to live every moment of every day in the Living Waters of Your Spirit within. Stop me quickly when I do life without You and teach me how to utterly depend on You. Have Your way with me I pray. Amen<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Union with Christ, Rankin Wilborne, David Cook, p. 52-53<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> John 15:5<\/p>\n

Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.<\/em><\/p>\n

Subscribe below to get email notifications of new posts. We post a few times a month. Thank you for reading.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Novels by the Author:<\/span><\/p>\n

What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for?\u00a0 Beyond Time<\/a><\/p>\n

By finding two undelivered letters in a old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowing set off a series of events which uncover a plot to wipe out a whole family. Hope Remains<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his book, Union with Christ, Rankin Wilborne asks us to consider two superheroes. Batman, a rich, strong man with \u201clots of cool gadgets\u201d [1] and Spider-man, a superhero because of a bite from a radioactive spider. The encounter with the spider changed Peter Parker from within. He became Spider-man. Batman had to rely on his own abilities and possessions.<\/p>\n

Who are you most like?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[397,1721],"tags":[1733,1732,1723,1736,78,1730,1082,1735,1728,1011,408,1002,1012,1734,1731,97,20,1727,163,7,1010,656,605,99,1009,233,1725,1726,1722,1013,1724,1260,1729],"class_list":["post-2262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indwelling-christ","category-union-with-christ","tag-aa","tag-alcoholism","tag-batman","tag-changed","tag-christ","tag-disciples","tag-drinking","tag-empower","tag-ephesians-113","tag-faithfulness","tag-fruit-of-the-spirit","tag-galatians-522-23","tag-gentleness","tag-god-holy-spirit","tag-goodness","tag-indwelling-christ","tag-jesus","tag-john-1416","tag-john-159","tag-joy","tag-kindness","tag-living-waters","tag-lord","tag-love","tag-patience","tag-peace","tag-peter-parker","tag-radioactive-spider","tag-rankin-wilborne","tag-self-control","tag-spider-man","tag-union-with-christ","tag-webs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2262"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7385,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions\/7385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}