Power
"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
I've been wandering around these Bible passages this past week, ever since my dad happened to quote it on his blog. This is what I have been pursuing for many months now. I've been writing about various topics on my blog and I have received a variety of compliments lately for my developing writing skills. I can craft clever stories, augment our arguments, relate real reasons and write really rightly. Hey, I'm even good with alliteration.
The thing is that I'm tired of talk. I'm even tired of my talk. I've heard a million sermons and I've read a bunch of books. I have had debates with my Christian friends about certain aspects of our faith and about our slightly different theology. I've seen Christians use the same old cliches and judgments and I've heard non-Christians do the same. I've done the Bible studies and the youth groups and the ministry in church. I can pick any point from the Bible and find a half-dozen contrasting view points. Everyone has an opinion.
We have great intentions, to be sure. I find that I'm left with one question, though, a question that keeps coming back to my mind: What is the point? Where is the change? What about the difference in us? If these ideas are true, show them to me. Prove it. Not with more words but with real life. If my words are real, where is the evidence in my own life?
And so I've been circling the verses above. That's sort of where Paul was when he first visited the city of Corinth. He would often start his missionary work in new cities by visiting the temples and synagogues, reasoning with the people there. Time after time, he found it difficult to make any progress in this way, even though this was his training as a zealous Jew growing up. And if he did make some progress, his efforts were soon crushed by others afterwards.
By the time Paul got to Corinth, as described in Acts 16-18, he found that he just couldn't keep using this pattern. He gave up on depending his talents, on his extensive knowledge of the Old Testament Bible, on his persuasiveness. He decided to focus on the message of Jesus dying for us, on how much God loves us, on how repentance and forgiveness can set us free.
And what's more, Paul relied on God's power to back him up. The power of the Holy Spirit.
This means that there were signs and miracles, healings and prophecies, maybe all of that. More powerful still was how the Holy Spirit could connect with a person and change their hearts and lives. It was an outward power that was visible to everyone. It was also an inward power and the effect on people's lives was equally visible to everyone.
I want that. I want the power of the Holy Spirit to change me and to change my friends. I don't want a weak faith that has to be convinced, I want people to see and know that God is real and that he really cares for them. I want hope and life and freedom and faith.
I want that.
9 comments:
So why is it that we don't see the power of the Holy Spirit working like it did in the early church?
That's a great question, Abe. And off the top of my head, I could give six different answers. I know how various friends would answer that question.
That's why I've been pursuing friends that do exhibit this kind of thing, that do have the fruit. That's also the reason that I'm starting to read more biographies of people that have had this. "Follow the fruit."
Right now, though, I'm not interested in the church as a whole. I have a small goal to start with just one person - me.
Dear Abe et. al.
The power of the Holy Spirit working today.
The problem is not that the Holy Spirit is not working in full power. It is as you said, “we don't see it.” This is because we are looking for something that is different than what He says he will do.
There are probably forty miracles in the NT. This is spread over the lives of several people.
They told others including us.
I have seen almost every New Testament miracle take place.
I have a friend who prayed for a girl who had been blind from birth in his church and she saw.
I have seen people healed instantaneously when Kathryn Kulman or Oral Roberts prayed for them.
I have seen several people on their death beds get up and be fully healed to live for many years longer after I prayed for them.
I have seen God provide to the penny for specific financial needs when I did not share with anyone what I was praying for.
I have seen drug addicts be fully restored to their right mind and delivered from addiction without withdrawal.
I have seen demons driven out of insane people.
One had five personalities and every fifth word he spoke was one personality. When they taped him and transcribed his speech you could follow all five conversations. I prayed for him that the demonic spirits that afflicted him would be bound and for an half an hour I had a normal conversation with him. When I came to the point where I asked him to accept Jesus he said no and immediately returned to his former insanity.
The first was when I was in Toronto doing street evangelism and was asked to come to the apartment of a young man who was deeply involved in Eastern mysticism. After we were there for a while I asked him if he would like to recieve Jesus. He said he would and we began to pray. He fell down on the floor and began hissing and slithering around like a snake. Then my partner started doing the same thing. I had read the Bible enough to know that Jesus cammanded demons to come out of people. So I began to command them to come out of my frined first then when he got free he began to pray for the other fellow. Soon he got free as well.
I know that people would say, oh they were just pretending. And just to help me never believe that God did an amazing thing. The young man's sister lived in the same building as he did. She was in the second floor apartment at the back of the building on the opposite side as the young man who lived at the front of the building. There were about twelve apartments on each floor. I say this only to say that she could not have heard what was going on with us.
Only a minute after the young man got free she was pounding on his door. She came in and started yelling abut how she had been sleeping and suddenly she woke feeling a huge snake wrapped around her body. She said she felt a hand come down from heaven and forcefully pull the snake off her. She then heard a voice saying "Be still and know that I am God." She ran down to tell her brother what had happened and there we were praying for her brother to be delivered from a demon. She showed us the marks on her body where the snake had been wrapped around her which she said had been there when she ran to see her brother. I did not see marks but I know what happened was not coincidental.
I have heard a word from heaven that saved my wife's life.
I have had prophecies that came to pass exactly like they said.
I have spoken in tongues in an actual language that gave information as to where a missing person was.
I have had words of wisdom and knowledge that gave me supernatural revelations about things that could not have been known otherwise. One was when I stopped to help a woman fix her flat tire. As we were talking the Lord told me a specific detail of her life that I could not have ever known. When I told her it she was overcome with the reality of God.
I once had God tell me about the adulterous relationship my secretary was having with a man fifteen years younger than her. It was so well hidden that if I did not know God’s voice I would have never believed it. When I confronted her with it, it was exactly as God said.
I have had visions that revealed supernaturally things that could not have been known.
One led me exactly to where a thief had tossed my wife's bike that he had stolen. She was there. She can tell you that it was true.
I could on for a long time. These are verifiable events.
But almost no one believes them.
They find natural explanations for all of them.
Or even say they are occult.
The point is what God once told me. He said that people don't see miracles because they don't expect them to happen or when they happen they dismiss them as not being miracles.
What we really need is not more miracles. They are constantly going on around us all the time.
We need to start seeing them.
We need to start identifying them to ourselves and others.
We need to start living our lives in expectation of the miraculous.
And we need to start living in a way that we need them.
Oral Roberts always said "Expect a Miracle." One day God said after Oral said this, "If they don't expect to see them they won't see them."
Having eyes to see they see not....
Power is nothing but a seductress that will leave you empty but still wanting more.
Paul was not about power. He was first, middle and lastly about Jesus. If we think power is what it is all about, we won't be singing at midnight after a severe flogging. Acts 17:22-25.
Power demonstrations are seductive but they have nothing do with seeking Jesus. Interestingly enough if we are seeking Jesus, power will be there when Jesus deems it should be.
Paul demonstrated power because of things that were distracting people from seeing Jesus. If his demonstration of power drew attention to himself or the miracles rather than Jesus he would have wept the most bitter of tears. When he says I've determined to preach nothing but Jesus Christ, he really meant it.
Discover the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, abide in Him and you will not be disappointed.
Awesome. God is just awesome. I have never before heard such a list of miracles, despite the fact that I have asked and looked for such.
Follow the fruit, right? As my dad said, it's not because we were looking for miracles, it's because we were looking for Jesus that miracles happened.
I'm just blown away by Leonard's life.
You're right Jamie. I don't know anyone who has so devoted himself to Jesus and has more wisdom in his little finger than most men can gain in a lifetime. He really is an elder of elders. I cherish being able to call him my friend.
I've allowed my focus to shift too much towards my problems lately.
Your post has encouraged me to shift my focus back and to remember and take joy in the fact that I serve a living God who knows all, and is STILL in the business of miracles!
Hallelujah!
The thing is that I'm tired of talk. I'm even tired of my talk. I've heard a million sermons and I've read a bunch of books...I've done the Bible studies and the youth groups and the ministry in church. I can pick any point from the Bible and find a half-dozen contrasting view points.
I guess my best advice would be to read what we already have been directly given from God. God has already spoken to us extensively, yet so many Christians fail to realize the amazing truths that are evident in the Bible's pages, instead looking for the "outside experience".
This is not a criticism (heck, for all I know you spend 4 hours a day reading Scripture). I struggle with taking time to read the Bible as much as anyone. I just know that the best times in my life and the ones where I am closest to God are the ones where I am consistently in the Word.
Just my two cents.
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