HIS
POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS
BREAD
4 For
to be sure, He was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power.
Likewise, we are weak in Him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve
you. 2 Corinthians 13:3-4 (NIV)
5 Your
attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped, 7 but
made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient to death--even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him
the name that is above every name, 10 that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, 11 and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians
2:5-11 (NIV)
18 I
pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may
know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which
he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his
right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion,
and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the
one to come. Ephesians 1:18-21 (NIV)
7 To
keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great
revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to
torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away
from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore
I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power
may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For
when I am weak, then I am strong. 2
Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
8 We
do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in
the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to
endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed,
in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might
not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He
has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we
have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as
you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the
gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (NIV)
1 When
I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I
proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I
came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were
not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s
power, 5 so that
your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NIV)
11 With
this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of
his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours
and every act prompted by your faith. 12 We
pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you
in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (NIV)
BUTTER
“It is only through the power of the Holy
Spirit that we are able to crucify sin in our lives. Flesh so often fails. Go in His power and strength. And take hold of the life that is truly
life.” BHY
“Christ followed the course of weakness
to the cross. In the Resurrection the
magnitude of that untapped power was displayed. This side of the grave Paul like Jesus
followed the path of ‘weakness’ but as in Jesus’ life, a glimmer of God’s
power showed through….When Paul came to the end of himself, Christ
alone was seen. When he was weak, then
Christ, by His strength, could make Paul spiritually strong.” Bible Knowledge Commentary
“The true secret
to all ministry is spiritual power. It is not man’s genius, or man’s intellect,
or man’s energy; but simply the power of the Spirit of the God of the Gospel.
‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts
(Zech.iv.6) It is well for all
ministers (and believers) to bear this ever in mind. It will sustain the heart
and give constant freshness to their ministry (and lives). A ministry which flows from abiding
dependence upon the Holy Spirit can never become barren. If a man is drawing on
his own resources, he will soon run dry. It matters not what his powers may be,
or how extensive his reading, or how vast his stores of information; if the
Holy Spirit be not the spring and power of his ministry, it must, sooner or
later, lose its freshness and its effectiveness. How important then, that all
who minister (and live) in the gospel…should lean continually and exclusively
on the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows what souls need, and He can supply
it. But he must be trusted and used. It will not do to lean partly on self and
partly on the Spirit.” C H Macintosh
“When we can do nothing Jesus can do all things; let
us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well.” Charles Spurgeon
“The goal is Christlikeness. The power to achieve this high calling, is
only through the all-achieving indwelling Omnipotence of the Holy Spirit
residing in every true believer of sweet Jesus.
Our willingness, lame and limping as it so often is, to this
superlatively high calling is our meager contribution.” BHY
“A
primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing
God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. When God’s warrior marches forth to battle,
strong in his own might, when he boasts, ‘I know that I shall conquer, my own
right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory’, defeat is not
far distant. God will not go forth with
that man who marches in his own strength.
He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for ‘it is not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts’. They who go forth to fight, boasting of their
prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their
armour stained with disgrace. Those who
serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He will never
accept their service. That which man
doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away;
He will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by
grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.
God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own into
thee; He will first clean out the granaries before He will fill them with the
finest of the wheat……Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and
your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.” C. H.
Spurgeon
“If the Sovereign, Omnipotent, Omniscient God is on
our side, as His child, seriously, what do we have to fear? He, Who loves us with an everlasting love,
Who ever has His eye upon us, Who never leaves us nor forsakes us, Who not only
died to save us but has also given us the Grand Deposit of the precious Holy
Spirit to empower us to walk in a manner worthy of our high calling all the way
Home – this God, this very God is for us and not against us. No matter what the circumstances of your life
may be bellowing out. The world shouts
fear while God whispers peace. He will
never let the righteous fall and we can trust Him with our lives and with the
lives of all we love and hold dear.”
BHY
“Against me earth
and hell combine, But on my side is power divine; Jesus is all, and He is
mine!” Charles H. Spurgeon
HEART SAVOR
- ·
Anything eternal done by us is done through the power
of the indwelling Holy Spirit – works done in the flesh will not make it
through the fire which will test the quality of each man’s work.
- · Our attitude is to be the same as that of Christ Jesus Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing for us, humbling Himself and becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.
- ·
His power is made perfect in our weakness.
