The Power of God

1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-24, 30-31; 2:1-5


18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.......22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.......
30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
31 so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."...........



1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.


The God of glory, with all of His Omnipotent wonder, creates the universe out of nothing, causes the mountains to tremble and the oceans to stir. He upholds all things by the power of His word. He has the authority to cast people in the lake of fire, and no purpose of His can ever be withheld. There is nothing that He has decreed that will not come to pass. No scheme of man or of devils will ever prevail over the purpose of the Immutable, Unchangeable God. Clouds in thick darkness surround Him, and righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. He has parted the Red Sea, and causes desolations on the earth. He is an awe-inspiring God; a dreadful God. One so full of burning Holiness and righteous indignation, that it is indeed a fearful thing to fall into His hands. Yet though these wonders are all majestic displays of His power, the culmination of His Omnipotence is found in the preaching of Christ crucified.

The use of the word "power" here in 1 Corinthians denotes that of "ability". God's ability displayed in the cross is distinct in the fact that it is through the cross and only through the cross that the salvation and wisdom of God is found. However, we must understand that God is speaking here of more that just an event. It is not in the event of the cross that the power of God is manifested, but it is in the person who accomplished the event- Jesus. Through the incarnation, the God-become-flesh poured out His holy life to obedience to the Father. He then offered that life as a propitiation for sin, and afterward, rose again from the dead, setting the people of God back into a right relationship with the Father. Here is where the power of God is expressed in the event of the cross: That God first placed us in His Son, who Paul says has become for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The cross is the power of God because what Jesus accomplished there was the totality of Christianity. The substitutionary death of Jesus not only means that He took the wrath of God upon Himself so that we could go free, but that through the cross, He accomplished our redemption from start to finish.

Through His substitutionary death, He has also become our wisdom. We no longer have to operate in accordance to carnality and worldly wisdom, for now the very wisdom of God has become ours through Jesus. This means that no longer must I bend and yield to the common sense of the world, but I must accept the fact that I have died with Christ, so that the Wisdom of God Himself- Jesus, can express the divine discernment through me.

The substitutionary death of Jesus also provided for the people of God righteousness. Through our identification with the death of Jesus, God has done away with our carnal virtue, and wants to replace them with the virtues of the Son of God. As Christians, we can still have carnal virtues. Carnal virtues are those things in which we establish our own selves as being loving, kind, patient, nice, etc. The reason they are carnal is because the have their root in the sinful nature and not in the life of the Son of God. Carnal virtues are a weak substitute. The reason being is that they will always carry with them some bias or some breaking point. The carnal virtue of love will always have something or someone that will not be treated with truth. Carnal patience will always have an event that will bring it to its end. Carnal kindness will not be extended to all, especially to those who are one's enemies. However, the virtues of the Son of God know no limitation, because they are perfect and eternal in their duration. When Jesus is expressing His love through me, I will see people as equal. His patience will bear up under any circumstance and situation, and His kindness will be extended to all, even the undeserving. This is what God has provided for us through the atonement.

Next, His substitutionary death has provided for us sanctification- being made into the holy image of the Lord. Sanctification is not a process where we receive the Spirit of God so that He can rehabilitate us. He does not give the Spirit as a crutch that we can use to help us walk. God never honors trying, He honors surrender. God does not want to rehabilitate us, He wants to do away with us so that the life of Jesus can be made manifest through us. As long as we are in the way, we are trying to carry out sanctification on our own means and along our own terms, and we will forever remain impotent in the realm of spiritual progress. Christian sanctification is the process in which the foundation is "not I but Christ". God united us in the death of Christ so that He could get rid of our sinful disposition and nature- our selfish self-centeredness- and manifest the life of His Son through us. The reason God gave us His Spirit is not to rehabilitate us, but to put to death the deeds of the body, so that He and He alone can glorify Jesus through us. The process of sanctification is both started, carried out, and completed by Christ. He is the one who has become our holiness for us. We need to surrender and let Christ live through us, and stop trying to use the Spirit to rehabilitate us.

Finally, the cornerstone of apostolic preaching is now made manifest to us. It is the preaching of the cross in the Spirit and power of God. Wherever there is any sort of preaching, whether it is gospel preaching, righteousness preaching, or sanctification preaching, if it has any other foundation and premise than the substitutionary death of Jesus, it will not be accompanied by the Spirit and power of God. The reason being is that Paul has stated in the previous verses that the preaching of the cross is where the power of God is manifested. Therefore, if we want the Spirit and power of God operating in our lives and in our preaching, it must all be centered on the cross. Sanctification, righteousness, and wisdom preached on any other way will not have the anointing of God, and the practice of it in the lives of those who hear will not be blessed with the power and Spirit of God to bring about true sanctification, righteousness, and wisdom. All other preaching is carnal and worldly in its wisdom. If you ever hear someone tell you that sanctification and righteous living can be obtained any other way than through the death of Jesus and Him living His life through you, avoid such teaching. In obeying such worldly wisdom, you will forfeit the working of the Spirit, who only operates in and through the cross of Christ (Rm. 8:1-2).

A Spirit of Mourning

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4


Again, Jesus cuts through the superficial, humanistic mindset of happiness by exalting a virtue that gains no mainstay in the world. Yet in heaven, it rises to the throne of God as a flagship, leading the way to spiritual blessing. The word translated "mourn" conveys the idea of grief of the deepest kind. It is a sorrow that begins in the heart, takes possession the the entire person, and is then outwardly manifested. It is of significance to note that the idea of bereavement is not primarily in view, though it is by no means excluded. The type of mourning portrayed here is a deep sense of contrition that comes over sin and lukewarmness, over the slowness of our spiritual growth, of our distance from Him; it is grief over our spiritual bankruptcy.

This attitude is manifested in the life of Christ disciples in three main ways: repentance, prayer, and intercession.

Repentance- It is those disciples who have wandered from the flame of the Holy Spirit who have the great need of the Omnipotent God to show them mercy, and pour out a spirit of mourning upon them. They have forsaken their first love and have become cold, calloused, and uncaring. They have become fascinated by the world, and are in danger of receiving the loving rod of discipline from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. They have little passion for the glory of Christ, and live out a nominal existence with a phenomenal God. These saints know little of the presence and blessing of God. They are like a child who has never gotten over his fascination of breaking waves on the seashore. Content with what he finds after the tide has gone out, he has no desire to explore the true depths of the sea. What unknown wonders he could discover if only he would actually venture out into the ocean itself. These Christians are only paddling on the edge of the possibilities of grace. Only when they come with brokenness and repentance over their sin and lukewarmness, will they ever be able to experience the depths of God.

Prayer- It is possible for a Christian to mourn over the slowness of his or her growth and the feebleness of his or her spiritual attainment apart from any actual sin in their life. This is indeed a healthy attitude to have. It keeps the disciple in the place of humility, realizing that the only way he or she will continue to be transformed into the image of Christ is through hiddeness in Christ. The place of prayer becomes the pinnacle of existence, because it is in that place that union and abiding with Christ takes on its fullest expression. In the place of prayer, the word of God becomes etched within our soul. As we gaze upon the reality of the Son of God, we lose consciousness of our self; decreasing and becoming invisible, so that Jesus may have his rightful dominion over us.

Intercession- Besides evangelism, this is by far the most neglected ministry of the modern church. We know little of intercession and its power because we know little of what it means to mourn. Yes we pray for those who are sick or in dire circumstances, but we know little of the power of prayer when it comes to the spiritual transformation of human lives. The apostle John states in 1 John 5:16 that if anyone sees his brother sinning a sin that does not lead to death, that he should pray for him and God will give him life. Are we so blind that we do not recognize the enormity of such a promise? Is are faith in God so feeble that when we hear a promise such as that, we immediately become suspicious? When was the last time that your eyes flowed with tears because of the rampant unconfessed sin and lukewarmness that runs amok in the lives of Christians today? When was the last time you mourned over the soul of a lost friend or neighbor?

One who has been gripped by the holiness of God will hate what He hates, and experience His grief over sin in the lives of His people. If we have been blessed with a spirit of mourning, we will dive head long into the ministry of intercession, knowing that we can pray the power of the atonement into the lives of God's children. In response to our intercession, God has promised to give the sinning disciple life. This life is nothing other than the life of Jesus himself. Through the power of the atonement, God will come and replace the bondage of sin with the very virtue of Christ Himself. When a disciple is caught up in the Great Way of God, he becomes so intertwined with the will of God, that his intercession is the expression of the prayer life of the Son of God, who always is heard by the Father and obtains what He ask for. The disciples intercession becomes the avenue for God to express His will and fulfill His purpose upon the earth.

If you do not have this spirit of mourning, don't waist another minute of your life. Hit your knees and cry out to God to give you this blessed attitude.

Spiritual Paupers

Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."


Over the next month, the following blogs will be over some of the beatitudes listed here in the Sermon on the Mount. The reason such a discussion over the beatitudes is necessary is because these are the ideal characteristics that are to be in the lives of His disciples. It is of utmost importance to realize that these characteristics were present in Jesus with all of their perfection. That being the case, it is only as He lives His life through us, that these attitudes can become a reality in us.


In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was mainly addressing his disciples (vs1-2). These ideals that he was instructing them in cut across the temper of the age, redefining the popular idea of blessedness. We will do well to listen to his instruction, for never do such words radiate with such relevancy in the humanistic, ego centric, pleasure seeking culture that we find ourselves in today.


Ask people in the world what they think makes them happy? Ask them what they think of when you say the words "Blessed" or "Blessings". They will probably say something along the lines of having immeasurable wealth, good health, the absence of suffering and pain, a good job, the opportunity to fulfill the gratification of their lustful appetites, or being a "good person." All of these replies are materialistic and carnally minded.


Thanks to prosperity preachers, this type of mentality has flowed into the church. Christians think that they are truly blessed and favored by God if they have good health, lots of money, a great job, no trials, etc. Now, obviously, these are blessings from the Lord, but they are not evidence of a blessed life. It was exactly this type of thinking that Jesus was rooting out of his disciples with the beatitudes.


A life that is truly blessed takes on characteristics that the world deems unsuitable. Let us now look at the first blessed attitude.


The word blessed could be translated, "oh the bliss". Here, it is the one who realizes their spiritual inadequacy that finds a state of bliss, or a blessed life. There are two words for "poor" in the Greek. One means someone who has nothing unnecessary; the other , one who has nothing at all. It speaks of one who is bankrupt, having no resources at all. It is this second meaning that Jesus is referring to here. He is stating that until a person recognizes that they are in a state of spiritual bankruptcy, having no resources in themselves for anything spiritual, they will never be in a state of bliss.

We have to realize that we bring nothing good to the table. We have nothing to offer Jesus. The Bible says that in our former, unregenerate state, that we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:2). Because of the fall, we are born in sin. This is what theologians call Original Sin. Because of Original Sin, our will is held in bondage by our sinful nature. We do not seek after God, nor do we desire Him at all. The book of Romans makes it clear that there is none who seek after God, and that there is none who do good (Rm 3:11-12). Every part of our being is corrupted by sin. We have no power to return to God or will anything good. Everything we do is corrupted by pride and self centeredness.

The thought of Jesus parallels with the thought of Paul. We are all spiritual bankrupt, devoid of any righteousness or ability to love God. It is only when we recognize this about ourselves that we can obtain the kingdom of heaven. The only way the we can come to this realization is by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8). The tool that the Holy Spirit uses to show us our depravity is the Law of God (10 commandments). For Paul said that through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rm. 7:7). Once we have been humbled and broken, and have come to the realization of our depravity, the grace of God is then made clear to us.

The thing that we are in danger of as Christians is to somehow naively believe that there was some good thing in us that cause us to believe. We walk the path of the anointed cherub who fell from his state of beauty when we entertain the idea that we can offer God anything. As Christians, we should be growing daily in this attitude of being poor in spirit.

Upon our conversion, we were made to sit with Christ in heavenly places, and are now co-heirs with Him. This means that we have access to all the spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus. However, these blessings never become a reality as long as pride governs our life. The only way we transact business in the heavenly places is through being poor in spirit. When we are constantly growing in the recognition of our inability and the recognition of the magnificent grace of God, all the glories of Christ become a reality in our life.

When we do not access all that has been given to us through the atonement, we are like a man who has a bank account with millions of dollars in it, but because he does not know how to access his account, lives in abject poverty. We indeed are bankrupt in spirit, yet through the cross, God has opened up to us the inheritance of His Son. However, we will never experience the fullness of our union with Christ until we grasp the concept that it is not I but Christ.

This is why Jesus considers this a blessed attitude to have. For when we have the attitude of a spiritual pauper, one who is totally dependant upon the resources of Christ, the fullness of the kingdom and all that comes with it, will be ours abounding and overflowing. This is a blessed life: One that recognizes their own inadequacy in the spiritual realm and because of this revelation, comes to inherit the kingdom of God.

Jesus himself displayed this attitude of total dependency on the Father all throughout His life. It is He an He alone that can rise up within you and produce the humility in you that is necessary to walk in the fullness of your union with God. Let your prayer this week be, "Lord, by your grace, bring me to a deeper understanding of my spiritual bankruptcy, and come and produce your life of total dependency through me, so that you may be glorified and that I may experience all that you have given me through your death and resurrection.