SPIRIT POWER II

In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul, an apostle, lays out a platform of dichotomous beginnings. He says, “For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached. For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:21-25). Jesus Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. We are to become like our teacher.

As Paul continues, he reminds this group, “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, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

As Spirit-filled followers of Jesus, and like Paul, we have as our weapons against death (and the fear of death), the devil and sin, what they had: “demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

It is Spirit Power that gives us authority and victory. 

“The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.” Jesus