Power Indispensable

You cannot live the normal Christian life without a demonstration of power.

“Normal” as in being right. I recently learned a powerful paradigm: right is right if nobody is doing it; wrong is wrong if everybody is doing it.

Consider the following words form the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth:

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor 2:4, NKJV)

He is saying that you shouldn’t believe me if all I have is mere talk, but you should believe me when my message is backed up by a demonstration of God’s power – power to know of your problem before you tell me, power to heal you when you are sick, power to work miracle when you need one, power to differentiate if you are bothered by evil spirits or led by God’s Spirit, and power to prophesy into your future – speaking great things into being while they are not yet.

What is good for the great apostle is good enough for me. That’s why I insist that the gospel we preach must be backed up by a demonstration of God’s power.

What if we haven’t got it?

Then there’s only one thing to do: ask until you get it. You have not because you asked not.

The worst thing we can do is to make excuses. Paul couldn’t have meant what we read. The days of power is past with the apostles all dead. Because I don’t have it, it cannot be true. We don’t have to emphasize healing as we have good doctors now and good medicine. The supernatural only appeals to the simple and superstitious but today folks are knowledgeable and educated.

But does God’s word tell us that a day will come when our standard will be different from that of the Apostle Paul? Who gives us the right to demand faith without demonstrating God when even Paul dared not?

We are called believers, not doubters. Doubters doubt; believers believe. Every word God said. Plainly. Simply.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Cor 4:20, NIV)

So if we want to preach the Gospel, we must back up with power. It is that simple.