Why is it that we love hero stories? We seem to especially love super hero stories. There must be inhuman odds of the hero ever finding success. The earth itself must be in peril. The greater the opposition and difficulty of the hero to even survive makes the story that much better. This is not a recent phenomenon. Hero stories have lasted for thousands of years. There’s something about them that we humans love.

I think it has to do with something that we’d never associate those stories with. I think it has to do with the very nature of God. It is the nature of God to overcome evil. His goodness banishes evil by Him being good. Consider this, God breathed life into Adam. That breath of God contained the essence of the Godhead. It gave life to the spirit of Adam so that we retain, how ever minute, the essence of God within us. We love stories that overcome evil because God put that desire in us. They inspire us to live above our humanity.

But is it real? Is Superman real? In a sense yes. With God, all things are possible. ALL THINGS. Nothing is impossible. When we stand against evil, we become heroes in the kingdom.  That doesn’t happen when we confine our Christian experience to church attendance and potluck socials. It only happens when we stand face to face against cancer, terrorism, sex trafficking, massive floods, death and destruction.

How do you release your super powers? By standing in the authority that God gave you. He did not say, pray and ask me to heal the sick. He said, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” (Matt 10:8) That’s super hero stuff, and every believer that is filled with the Spirit of God has it in him to do. We are capable of so much good, if we only believed it. We can stand against the very tide of evil and turn it back with a word, just as Jesus stopped the storm. He left us with the command to do as He did. (Jhn 14:12)

I believe that we will face an accounting for what we did with the power that Jesus gave us. Like the talents buried in the ground, we waste so much of what we’ve been given. And the unprofitable servant will be cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 25:30) Is that scare mongering? Perhaps, but it is also truth and plain as day in the Bible.

God did not expect us to allow the world to be overrun by evil. He gave us the power of His Spirit for a reason — to heal, bless, and release the kingdom of God everywhere we go. Whenever we stand against the devices of the enemy, the real Super Hero within us is released in power to effect His good. And He doesn’t mind us enjoying stories that inspire us to do that.