Tag Archives: powerful living

Chapter 15: In Weakness

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Chapter 15: In Weakness

It is hard being a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For within the role is the dynamic of all of God and then all of who we are.

All of God are the miracles and the signs and the wonders.

All of us are the aches and pains and the loss and the sorrow that we each personally have.

We preach healing and we experience sickness ourselves.

We declare healthy lives and we struggle with estranged relationships.

We teach and lead others to Christ and then can barely find him for ourselves.

I am reminded of Elijah in the book of 1 Kings chapters 18 & 19.

Elijah was a mighty man of God.  He walked in obedience and risked his life time and again to bring the word of the Lord.

For instance, in 1 Kings 18 we find him battling it out with the priests of Baal with a mighty result,

“Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust.  It even licked up all the water in the trench!”  1 Kings 18:38 NLT 

A great work of the Lord to be followed by another miracle (Read 1 Kings 18:41-44) and then special strength,

“Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah.  He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.” 1 Kings 18:46 NLT

All of this simply shows the Holy Spirit pouring through Elijah.  As God and Elijah worked as one, mighty miracles took place and a great witness of the Lord’s power was established.

And then that particular work was over and Elijah went off into the wilderness and we read,

“I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”  1 Kings 19:4b NLT

After the great works of the Lord Elijah finds himself despondent and oh so very human. 

He is dejected and tired, to the point of wanting the Lord to take him.

Don’t we all feel this in our persons?  After a work of God pouring through us we are simply reminded of our humanity and the frailty of our hearts and minds and lives.

Praying healing over a crowd, speaking God’s heart to your congregation, visiting the sick and the down-trodden, all this and more carries a mark of God upon it, and when the work ceases for a time we must simply rest.

I suggest that the exhaustion after God’s work is simply very normal.  It is something we can in fact expect, always remembering that in that exhausted place the Lord cares for us.

“Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree.  But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!”  He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water!  So he ate and drank and lay down again. 

Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said,  “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”

So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.  There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.”  1 Kings 19:5-9 NLT

Ministering the Lord to others is not about us being larger than life.  It is about the extraordinary of God stirring through our very ordinary lives.

If we expect to be extraordinary, we will be disappointed and disillusioned.

No, rather it is our God who is extraordinary.  And in fact, when we feel very human, we can be sure we have just encountered our living God.

For it is the contrast of us and God that reminds us of our weakness.

The good news is that where we know we are weak there the Lord is strong indeed.

Time and again we find in the Bible promises and hope for those who are weak:

“He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” Isaiah 40:29 NLT

Paul himself said this, “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  Each time he said,  “My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.”  So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NLT 

In all this we come to find that there is nothing to fear in weakness.

We find that our humanity and the frailty of being human is exactly what God wants to harness for his Kingdom.

When we know our weakness, when we feel our humanity, that is when we depend on God more than ever before, and that is when there is more room for God to work.

And through it all, the hardships, the deprivations, and the sacrifice we find as the Psalmist did,

“My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.”  Psalm 73:26 NLT 

Be strong in the Lord today, as you bring him your weakness.  Allow the Spirit to inhabit all of your life and simply be blessed today.

Application

The only thing, and most powerful thing, to do with our weaknesses is to dedicate them to the Lord, for his glory, and unto the Kingdom of God through us. 

  • Take some time to come to prayer and bring your weaknesses to God. 
  • Confess where you have been upset and angry about your weakness. 
  • Name the difficulty accompanied with your weakness. 
  • Tell God how you feel about your weakness. 
  • Then, commit your weakness to the glory of God, dedicate your weakness to his purposes. 

Prayer 

“God, today I come in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ. Father, you know this weakness that I have, you know how I have struggled with this, and you know the purposes you have through it. Today I commit even my weakness to your glory and honour and to your plans and purposes. I declare that my weakness will contain the strength of the Lord, in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen”

Summary – In Weakness

In our weakness God proves strong.  Psalm 73:26

We serve the Lord and he does the work through us.  Philippians 2:13

God takes our ordinary and makes it extraordinary.  John 14:12

The work belongs to the Lord, we are conduits of Him.  John 5:30

Obedience is Powerful

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I’ve been reading a book titled The Art of Significance. What caught my attention about this book is the very first chapter ‘Practice Obedience Instead of Free Will Agency’.

Stunning, is all I have to say.

I’ve never seen this written out anywhere before.

The Walking in Spiritual Authority Discipleship Course that I am currently writing is very strong on this. When we are in sync with the Lord, when we are walking in obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, this is when we are most effective. It is when God can trust us that we are then entrusted with the keys of the Kingdom.

When young and as we grew we believed that adulthood came doing what we wanted, when we wanted. But as anyone who has advanced knows, the most influential among us are the most disciplined. The most adult among us are the one’s surrendering their actions to a higher wisdom and the ‘rules of the road’ that this world runs by.

Contrary to this, the opposite of obedience is disregard. I’ve been witness to this in people over the years and it is quite sad actually – a heart and spirit that cannot obey, that refuses to respond to say the (literal) simple rules of the road, or the wisdom of experts (because what do they know anyway), are at a significant disadvantage.

The inability to obey has one flailing on one’s own, unable to access wisdom gone before.

Walking with the Lord is a simple equation actually – grow in obedience, respect, and surrender.

Being used by the Lord is the same equation. Do you want to be used by the Lord? Grow in listening, in responding, in acting on an instruction even if it you don’t understand all the way.

Obedience is a prerequisite to a fulfilling life. The obedient are marked by self-control, by wisdom, and by deliberate action and reaction.

The ability to take oneself in hand and set a course of action, of being intentional and following through with excellent execution, are not the skills of someone doing as they wish, but rather the disciplined outcome of one who has an obedient way of doing life.

The disobedient think they always know best and simply follow their own path and formula.

It never works.

Rather those willing to learn and to grow reap many rewards. The patterns of success are evident in every sphere of life, and it is those able to ascribe their life accordingly that will receive the satisfaction of a job well done and a life well lived.

Where are you shrugging obedience? Where are you doing your own thing?

And where might obedience make difference for you this week?

Those wanting health must obey the rules of healthy living – eat right, exercise, get lots of sleep. And try these ideas

Those wanting financial health must obey the rules of finance – spend less than you make, tithe, save for a rainy day. This is a great list

Those wanting business health must obey the rules of business – be strategic, do not make emotional decisions. Check out these 15 rules

Simply put, grow in obedience, our lives will thank us.