Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Spiritual Enablement and Empowerment

...faith involves both renunciation and reliance.
We have to first renounce all confidence in our
own power and then rely entirely on the power 
of the Holy Spirit.  We must be enabled, not merely
helped.  What's the difference?  The word help implies 
we have some ability but not enough; we need 
someone else to supplement our partially adequate
ability.  By contrast, enablement implies that we 
have no ability whatsoever.  We're entirely powerless.
We can do nothing.  But when by faith we renounce 
self-sufficiency and embrace reliance on the power
of the Holy Spirit, we receive divine empowerment,
enablement, and strength for personal transformation
and ministry.

Jerry Bridges
Bob Bevington
The Bookends of the Christian Life
Page 85

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can
you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the 
branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears
much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-5

Blessed is man who trusts in the Lord and whose
trust is the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:7

A faith that does not rest fully on the Lord is an incomplete faith, a faith that is not fully mature. In one way or the other, this applies to all of us. I am reminded of the man who called out to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief."  This is a cry that all of us could make. Our faith should rest fully on Christ, both for our salvation and our sanctification. Just as we did not begin our spiritual life without the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot live our spiritual life apart from His enabling power.

In applying this to our lives, it should even affect how we pray. How many times have we asked the Lord to help us versus empower or enable us? Yes, we are responsible, and we must act and we must do; but in our acting and doing He is the One enabling and empowering. The Scriptures do not give us a formula for this, for faith does not have a formula. We walk by faith, faith in Him and not in ourselves, which should lead to trust in Him and not in ourselves.

When I was a child, my mother would never let me use the phrase 'I can't' for her reply would be, "Can't never could do anything." Then she would tell me the story of the little engine who could, and for those who don't know the story, the little engine would chant, "I know I can, I know I can." as he was pulling the huge load up the steep hill. This kind of human effort, the positive can do attitude, has polluted our minds, and is one of the humanisms we bring into our faith; and it rides into our Christian life on the back of our pride.

Renunciaton and reliance are an assault on our human pride, and require a submissive humility, which again, is quite impossible without His enabling power. It is only after we have been humbled by our spiritual impotency to overcome sin and to be pleasing to God, that we will ask for forgiveness and acceptance from Him so that we may be saved; and it is in a continued submissive humility that we ask for enablement and empowerment to live the life He has called us to live.

Even to the end, our spiritual life is designed so that the Lord receives the glory for it, not us. For all things are from Him, through Him, and to Him, and we exist for Him; and let us remember that we can do all things through......Him who strengthens us.  

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Good Reflections from a Man of God

It is never too late to start, nor too early to begin.
Kevin Stilley says it well.  Here is the link.
http://buff.ly/1pS0B7f

Sunday, November 09, 2014

A Prayer for Sunday

Father, speak Your Word through me this morning.
Through Your Word, train, instruct, strengthen,
encourage, and correct your people.  Send forth
Your Word attended by Your Spirit, so that it
may do all you have intended in the lives of those
who hear it today.  For Your glory and Your
kingdom. Amen


Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Living by Faith, Not by Sight

There was a blog post concerning II Corinthians 5:7, and its misuse and misapplication.  Below is my comment concerning this verse and the context in which it is in.


  1. The section vs 7 is in begins with 4:13 when Paul states, “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written…” The crescendo of this thought is in 4:18 “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
    Living by faith means seeing with eyes of faith, eyes that look to and see the eternal things, the things not seen. How do we see the unseen eternal things? We see them through the Word of God, the things written. Jesus speaks to this in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” We see another example in Moses in Hebrews 11:26-27, “considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”
    Seeing is the equivalent of knowing, and we see this played out in the verses in chapter five that follow on the heels of 4:18:
    5:1 For we know…
    5:6 Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing
    5:11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord
    5:16 Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have know Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
    Abraham and Moses saw eternal things, things not seen with human eyes, but with eyes of faith; and they saw these things through the promises of God. Even though unseen, the promises of God have substance and reality. We don’t see our Lord now, but believe in Him because we see Him in and through the Word of God. The Lord talks to us and we experience Him and come to know Him through the Word of God. When we take Him at His Word, and believe His Word, He opens our eyes to see Him and to know Him; and the eternal things become a present reality for us…just like they did for Abraham and Moses; and Paul.
    So, yes, living by faith is what all true Christians do. It is living with eyes of faith that see the unseen through the Word of God, because we believe the Word that has been spoken to us.
  2. Also, here is the link to a post from 2010 where I address this.
  3. http://morris-pressingon.blogspot.com/2010/11/eyes-of-faith.html