“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 (NKJV)
How many Christians do you know today who have their faith in man’s words concerning God? A lot of people love to teach God’s Word like a history book where it’s no longer relevant and helpful for today’s challenges. They may be correct teachings of the history of God’s Word, but they lack the demonstration of the Spirit and God’s power.
God didn’t deliver us from sin so that we could live in bondage to fear, sickness, or our present situations and circumstances, and yet many Christians live that way. Jesus said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Those who don’t believe in the power of God often look for remedies in other things. They’ll visit psychics, read horoscopes, delve into witchcraft or other ungodly supernatural encounters. Perhaps the Christians they know and surround themselves with have only put their faith in human wisdom and man’s philosophy and not in the demonstration of the Spirit and of God’s power. The Bible says there will be those who are “having a form of godliness but denying its power. From such, turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:5).
God would like every one of you to operate in His supernatural power. Some people get nervous because they don’t believe it’s God’s will and calling for every person to live that way. They said it was for the time of the apostles in the Book of Acts. It was for a different time and season; it’s not for today. But Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35). God’s Word is still the same now as it was then. Jesus is still healing, delivering, saving, restoring, promoting, and transforming people’s lives. The Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus said, “these signs shall follow you if you believe…” (Mark 16:17a). The prerequisite to demonstrating God’s power is to believe.
Remember, it’s not the power of man but the demonstration of the Spirit and of God’s power. The secret to God’s power is really no secret at all. The Apostle Paul shares with us what the Lord shared with him concerning God’s power working in His life. When the Apostle Paul was being tormented by Satan, he prayed and asked the Lord to remove that torment. This is the revelation that he received, “But he answered me, ‘My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.’ So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me. So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 TPT).
Jesus said, “My power finds its full expression through your weakness.” The Apostle Paul’s weakness became a portal to God’s power! When we are weak, He is strong. Weakness is not being weak and pathetic. Weakness is referencing that in our own selves, in our own sufficiency, in our own ways, our own wisdom, our own strength we are nothing and can do nothing to defeat the enemy. It’s surrendering to God and God alone. It’s honoring God with a sincere heart despite what we are going through and humbling ourselves before Him by not insisting to God that we have it our way. It’s doing God’s will and obeying His Word above all else whether we feel like it or not. Whether we are equipped, trained, gifted, educated or NOT, we obey His Word anyway with a sincere heart. It’s called, “dying to self.”
When we die to self, we die to our selfishness, our self-pity, our carnal self, our prideful self, and all those things that are rooted in self. We must give ourselves completely over to God and the only way we can do that is to die to self. The Apostle Paul said it best, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The Apostle Paul knew how difficult it is to die to self and that the selfish, prideful, carnal self had to “die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31b).
When we die daily to ourselves, we are made strong because that is where the portal of God’s power flows in our lives. This is where our transformation takes place. This is where the demonstration of the Spirit and the power of God flows in and through us. We were made for God’s signs and wonders.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
I was having this conversation with a Christian. He felt that he couldn’t do the works of Jesus because he wasn’t gifted, nor was it in his personality. He mentioned to me that he wasn’t called into the ministry. I shared with him that it wasn’t in his own strength that he could do what Jesus did to serve others but it was in the strength and power of the Spirit of God living in him. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).
It wasn’t about him doing the work in his own strength. God has never called us to serve Him in our own strength. If we did, we wouldn’t last. We would quit. We would say that it’s not my calling. I wasn’t made to do this. This is impossible. I began to share with this brother the same revelation that John the Baptist had when speaking to his disciples about Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). I began to share with him that he needed to die to himself so Christ could live mighty in him and demonstrate the power of God. He began to listen to what I was saying and today, he’s transformed into a powerful man of God. He leads men to Christ and disciple them to be men of God who in turn become better husbands and fathers. It’s Christ in him, the hope of glory! (Colossians 1:27b)
“Yet we don’t see ourselves as capable enough to do anything in our own strength, for our true competence flows from God’s empowering presence” (2 Corinthians 3:5 TPT). (Pastor Scott Tsuha)
TODAY’S DECLARATION
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Therefore, I can do everything through Christ Jesus, who gives me strength. In my inability to produce results I will trust in God’s ability to work through me because the Greater One lives in me.”
TODAY’S BIBLE READING
Our Bible Reading Plan gives 25 daily readings per month. There is no scheduled reading for today. You can use this time to catch up on any readings you may have missed, or read through previous passages again.
