Holy Spirit

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/files/2013/04/holy-spirit1.jpg

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, ESV)

This passage of scripture came to me the other night as I visited a family. I was asked to come speak and pray with a lady who was on her death bed. Upon arriving I found a very weak woman in an impossible situation, naturally speaking. It was very heartbreaking to see this lady. I had a dear friend go along with me to pray for this lady, as we were praying I felt the feebleness of my own words, I knew that there was nothing in and of myself that could save this lady. I couldn’t say a good enough prayer to save her or heal her. It was truly going to have to be the power of God that saved this precious lady.

I mean I can do a lot of things in my own strength. I can encourage people, lead people, I could even preach a half decent sermon apart from Holy Spirit. But as I stood above this lady I knew that there was nothing I could muster up to save her. I could craft a really nice sounding prayer and it would not save her.

Paul tries to relate some of the same ideas in the passage above. He says that when he came to the Corinthians he didn’t even attempt to persuade them with eloquent words but rather he trusted only the power of the Spirit.

This experience here left me in a place of desperation for the Spirit’s power. I need to be utterly dependent on the Spirit everyday for his power because it is only through him that we will see people truly set free and healed.

I can’t preach a good enough sermon to save anyone; I truly need the power of the Spirit to change hearts and minds.

Think about these things the next time you are praying. The temptation is to craft a really good spiritual prayer but what matters most is what you are trusting in. Your elaborate prayer does not move God, the volume of your prayer does not move God. Rather what moves Him is faith. Faith in the Spirit's power, not your words. 

Continue

Puzzled?

http://companionsoftware.com/Company/Background.aspx

This morning my Pastor spoke about finding your place and used puzzle pieces as an analogy to explain the Body of Christ. It reminded me of a similar analogy I used in something I wrote five years ago this week. I found it amazing that the Lord would use it again as he spoke to my Pastor about it this last week. So on that subject I hope this blesses you.

August 19, 2008 

The Body of Christ is like a puzzle and when put together looks like Christ. Now every puzzle piece looks different. Some are big and some are small. Some are bright and some are dark. Then some are just a mixture of everything. Now the thing about almost every puzzle piece is that they have two distinct characteristics, the connectors. One part sticks out and one part caves in. The only way for the picture to be seen in its fullness and with clarity is to assemble the whole puzzle into one picture so the only thing that is seen is the picture and not the pieces.

Now in regards to Christ and his believers is just that. Each believer is a different piece of the puzzle meaning that they have connectors which are strengths and weaknesses. In order for Christ to be seen in his fullness, just like the puzzle we too must come together and unite. We must allow someone else's strengths to overlap and fill in our weakness. Allow our vision to contribute to someone else's. We must really see ourselves as pieces to something bigger. That each of us has been given something to contribute to the bigger picture. That even though some pieces may look bigger, they still need the smaller ones to complete the job.

The problem though arises when we believe that we have the whole picture and that there is nothing to add to it. That one puzzle piece believes he's the picture. He becomes a one man show; In essence becoming God.

Our goal and ultimate destiny is to reveal Jesus. In order to do that, we must unite every piece into one picture to show the fullness of Jesus. God made each of us distinctively different not so we would stand out, but so we could each come together in humility to share our differences in order to reveal our similarity which is Christ.

Continue