The Best Kept Secret of Spiritual Power

January 31, 2014

“…He gives power to the weak…” (Isaiah 40:29)

There are many ways to be powerful.  We can be physically powerful, intellectually powerful, or we can be spiritually powerful like the prophet who speaks for God with the energizing anointing of the Holy Spirit upon his words.  Often preachers seek out those who preach with great spiritual power trying to discover their secret.  Their pursuit of spiritual power is often accompanied by a frantic attempt to strengthen their own spiritual life.

As one of the most spiritually powerful people who ever lived, the Apostle Paul shared the best kept secret of spiritual power when he wrote: “When I am weak then I am strong.”  (2 Corinthians 12:10) He preceded that by claiming God told him:“My strength is made perfect in (your) weakness.” It is in this context that Paul told the Corinthian Church he was with them in great weakness.  He also challenged them to take a good look at their church because if they did they would realize: “God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty…” (1Corinthians 1:27)

Jesus taught that the first attitude we need to be salt and light is to be poor in spirit.  This means among other things that we are in touch with our spiritual weakness.  After we realize that we can’t do the work of God in our own power and offer ourselves as a conduit of what God wants to be and do through us, then God gives spiritual power to us in our weakness.

God gives power to the weak. We don’t find spiritual power by trying to make ourselves strong, but by confessing and accepting our weakness.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

The Greatest Thing in the World

November 8, 2013

“There are three things that last — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love.”  (1 Corinthians 13:13)

What is the greatest thing in the world?  The Apostle Paul sifts his answer down to three things:  hope, faith and love.  Hope is the conviction that there can be good in life.  God plants hope in the hearts of human beings. People sometimes commit suicide because they lose that conviction.

On the positive side, hope gives birth to faith, and faith is one of the greatest things because faith brings us to God.  However, when Paul compares these two great concepts with love, without hesitation he concludes that love is the greatest thing in the world.  This is true because love is not something that brings us to something that brings us to God.  When we experience the special love Paul describes we are in the Presence of God.  There is a particular quality of love that is God and God is a particular quality of love.

To acquaint us with that specific quality of love, in the middle of this chapter he passes this quality of love through the “prism” of his Holy Spirit inspired intellect.  It comes out on the other side as a cluster of 15 virtues. All these virtues of love are others-centered, unselfish ways of expressing unconditional love. If you study these virtues you will find in them a cross section of the love that is God–and is the greatest thing in the world.

One reason Paul presents these three concepts as the greatest things is that they are the things that last.  Love is the greatest of the three because one day we will no longer need hope and faith when throughout all eternity we will love.

Therefore, pursue the greatest thing in the world – love.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

The Second Level of Commitment to Christ

October 5, 2013

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The Apostle Paul’s favorite description of committed disciples is found in the two words “in Christ.”  Paul uses this expression just under 100 times in his inspired letters.  “By Christ” means that by faith we are saved and have access to many blessings. “In Christ” means we are not taking Him into our plans but He is taking us into His plans. It means we can have a relationship with Christ, be united to Him, and draw strength from Him.

Paul also wrote that we have “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3) The heavenly places refer to the spiritual dimension of this life.

While living in Palo Alto, California, I had a friend with a Ph. D in paleontology from Stanford University.  He told me that, as a devout believer, when he finished his master’s degree and started work on his doctor’s degree he surrendered to those teaching him by agreeing that there is no God.

He did not want to live if there is no God.  He therefore decided to commit suicide.  Just before he drank cyanide he bowed his head to pray.  He then laughed at himself.  He was taking his life because there is no God and the last thing he wanted to do was talk to Him.  He then remembered a verse: “God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

He realized we do not find God in a fossil or a test tube.  We find God in the spiritual dimension of this life, “in Christ.”

Are you seeking God in the right places?

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Posted by Dick Woodward

Three Levels of Commitment to Christ

October 1, 2013

“And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”   (2 Corinthians 5:18 KJV)

In the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians we find one of the most profound passages of Scripture in the New Testament.  In this chapter we have a window into the heart of the Apostle Paul as he writes about what motivates him.  It is a passage that clearly defines the Gospel.  Paul gives us here the vision absolutes that defend why he lived like a madman.  He then clearly writes that every believer who has been reconciled to God by Christ has been commissioned with the message and the ministry of being a peacemaker and a minister of reconciliation.  The passage concludes with a very clear description of the meaning of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

This profound passage also describes three levels of commitment to Jesus Christ that are identified by prepositions.  In the verse quoted above the first ‘entry’ level of commitment to Christ is described as Paul uses the preposition “by Jesus Christ.”  We are saved “by Christ.”  When He saves us He often fills our life with good things the way He filled Peter’s boat with fish (Luke 5: 1-11). It doesn’t take us long to realize that the changes taking place in our lives are by Jesus Christ.  We also discover there are many things we can only do by Jesus Christ.

Study this passage (verse 13 through 21), and see if you can identify two more levels of commitment to Christ.  What are they and what would they look like if you applied them to your walk with Christ?

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Posted by Dick Woodward

The Confirmation of the Gospel

August 24, 2013

“…  In the…  confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me…” (Philippians 1:7)

When the Apostle Paul writes the confirmation of the gospel he is referring to a great experience he had in his preaching ministry.  As a great scholar, (and because he could do it), Paul quoted Greek philosophers and poets while preaching in Athens.  But as a result of that sermon very few believed; just a few individuals are named.  There is no letter of Paul to a church in Athens found in the New Testament.

When he was called to preach the gospel in Corinth immediately after Athens, he was frightened.  You would have been frightened too.  Jesus Christ had never been preached there.  The city of Corinth was exceedingly sinful.  It was considered profanity to call someone a Corinthian.  Corinth had many temples where temple prostitutes were offered to those who worshiped an erotic god by engaging in all kinds of sexual perversions. A worshiper would be offered little boys or little girls if that was their pleasure.

God appeared to Paul in Corinth and told him not to be afraid because He had many people in that city.   God told Paul if he would simply preach that Christ died and was raised again for our sins he would find out who those people were.  That is what he meant by the confirmation of the gospel.  He preached the gospel in Corinth and many believed. He wrote to the Romans that he was eager to preach the gospel in Rome because everywhere he proclaimed the gospel he found out who God’s people were.  He was sure that would happen in Rome also.

Do you have the faith to share the gospel – and find out who God’s people are?

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Posted by Dick Woodward

The Furtherance of the Gospel

August 21, 2013

“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel…  ”   (Philippians 1:12)

Paul is in prison as he writes to his favorite church.  While he was free he preached the gospel with passion and great zeal, but when he was put in prison and could not preach other men in the Church at Philippi began preaching.  That rejoiced the heart of the apostle.

In the New Testament when you study the letters of Paul and others you find that the early churches had pastors.  Anytime the word pastor is found it is in the plural unless it is referring to Jesus Christ.  He is the great Shepherd of the sheep; otherwise, churches have pastors.  Strictly speaking you will not find a precedent for “Dr. Pete Bunny the pastor of the First Community Church of Chicago” in the New Testament.

I am convinced that the first churches also had a plurality of preachers.  That’s why the fact that many men in the Church at Philippi were preaching rejoiced the heart of the apostle.   Church is a team sport.  Based on their cluster of spiritual gifts some are called and equipped to preach.  They should preach.  Some should heal, some should teach and some should evangelize.  All of this should result in the furtherance of the gospel.

Our churches would be more effective in furthering the gospel and we would solve so very many problems if we took our blueprints from the New Testament.  We would not need as many retreat centers for burned out pastors if we did.

When will we ever learn that when all else fails we should follow the directions?

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Posted by Dick Woodward

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