My Eloquence and God's Power

The Lord never ceases to remind me through this slow process of sanctification, the futility of my own abilities and control. My passion for Jesus Christ and His glory can turn my labor into a self-determined authority and “Holy Spirit-less” ministry. I find myself thinking that I have to “do good enough,” “be eloquent enough” or “say just the right things” in order for something eternal to happen in the life of another. What a danger for the pastor, the shepherd, the ministry leader…the Christian.

Here’s the temptation ultimately…to dethrone the Holy Spirit.

I love Paul’s proclamation of this truth in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“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, that your faith might not rest in wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
*1 Cor. 2:1-5.

God continually humbles me in these things, as my passion for evangelism and discipleship can turn into “Alex’s white-knuckled manipulation to get someone from point A to point B.” I find myself seeing (or actually more of reading) “the plan, the goal, the mission” and then running my hardest toward these things and wanting to labor for the Lord…all the while I have wandered from sitting under the power of God and being His vessel rather than my own idol.

I’m amazed at how much I try to do apart from the Holy Spirit! I wonder if this is why Paul confronts this human tendency when he speaks so boldly and continually of “walking in the Spirit,” “being led by the Spirit,” “living by the Spirit,” “being filled with the Spirit,” in Galatians 5:16-26.

I know that I sit under the waterfall of grace and patience from the Lord. God promises that His grace is sufficient in my weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9), but in walking with Him, my idolatrous heart in evangelism and discipleship must go at the feet of Christ!

May this encourage you to abide in Him and diligently plead with the Spirit to lead and infect the times and conversations you have with people. For what is not of God will perish.

Grace and Peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
To Him be the Glory and Honor and Power FOREVER!