Good morning.
We said last time that the Lord gave the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 to astonish the world. When Jesus revealed this wisdom (e.g. Matthew 22:17-20, John 8:3-11 and Matthew 21:23-27), the people marvelled at Him. I can imagine them looking at one another saying: ‘That was cool. He really knew just how to put them in their place’. The Pharisees’ followers probably stood open-mouthed, getting fear in their hearts for what comes next and the devil simply cursed frustrated.
James concluded the famous passage about the power of the tongue in James 3 with: “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:13-18).”
Acting in amazing wisdom impresses the world. Some of the staff with whom I’ve worked in the past was into clairvoyance meetings and they always raved about how powerful these mediums were. Meetings like that aim to impress and causes people to get attracted to those powers. Those are what James called wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual and demonic. Satan may not be almighty, but he is powerful and will do anything within his power to get the attention of the world and in the same time draw people’s attention away from the Lord.
Jesus also intended for His disciples (that’s us) to act in such power in order for Him to impress the people and in such a way win them over to God’s Kingdom. That’s what He has done whilst He was on earth. Our preacher today had three points in his message. We should
1. Preach the Word.
2. Practice the manifesto, i.e. obey Jesus’ commands.
3. Perform miracles.
“For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20).” Really, church, the Lord is waiting for us to show His power. He did say in John 14:12: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
Getting a Word of Wisdom from the Holy Spirit, and acting on it, will differentiate you from the average religious person and prompt the hearer to listen further. The image of the church in the eyes of the world is very low. In fact the world scorns the church. If we want to do greater things than Jesus did, we really need to learn to work with the Holy Spirit. Only then will we get the attention of the world. The Holy Spirit said via our preacher the following as well: “You don’t need the Holy Spirit to practice religion.” But you do need the Holy Spirit to awe people with God’s power.
The Holy Spirit is faithful and will feed us Words of Wisdom all the time. It’s up to us to hear when He speaks and enjoy the awe we see the listeners get for God. Always remember to give the glory to the Lord though.
Lord, help me to hear when you pass me a Word of Wisdom.
If you benefited from this, why don’t you link it to your Facebook or Twitter to make it available to your friends? You can also use the e-mail link to pass it on. Please also pray for the spreading of it to those who need it. Please feel free to ask questions or discuss thoughts.
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