As the God of Israel never commanded His servants to do anything beyond their ability, responsibility, or authority, so the Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, never commanded His disciples to do anything they could not do.
One day, as some of you may remember, Jesus was on a boat with Peter, James, and John, who were fishermen. He commanded them to throw out their nets for a catch. He didn't give them a golden super net, but commanded them to use the same net they had been using to fish all that night, the net they used without success.
They threw out their nets. Jesus caused a miracle catch of fish which gave them more fish than the boat could carry. Now it is noted that the very same net they had been using didn't break, so Jesus clearly strengthened the net they already had. But be clear that it was not a new net from heaven.
In the situation when Peter walked on water at Jesus' command, it was Peter's own legs, moved by Peter's own strength, that walked on water. Jesus didn't come to the boat, pick Peter up, and carry him, because that is not what Peter asked. Nor did Jesus send His Spirit into Peter to make Peter walk, or "walk for Peter." No. Peter walked, and Jesus made it possible for him to stay afloat on the water.
As it was in the Old Testament and the New Testament, so it is today.
God sends us to our destinations in the strength we have, requiring no more of us than we are able. When we use the strength that we have, God honors and vindicates us. And what we cannot do, God does for us.
As I've shared before, I share again. (If you've read my blog "How Do We Actually Keep From Sinning?", then you can skip the next analogy.)
I used to be a bouncer. One night a woman wanted me tell a man next to her to leave her alone. I asked the woman if she told the man to leave her alone. She said no. I told her that I could not tell the man to stop bothering her unless she told him first. Once she told him, then I could come in and enforce her wishes. If he refused to listen to me, I could get him out of the bar (with the other bouncers if necessary.)
She had to speak to the bothersome man according to her ability, responsibility, and authority as a free adult American citizen. Once she did, she need not do any more. I would come in and do for her what she does not have the ability, responsibility, and authority to do.
Do you see? It is the same with God.
If you are trying to break a habit, deal with a difficult person, or accomplish a difficult goal, you must do what you have the ability, responsibility, and authority to do, and pray for that which you don't have the ability or authority. If you wait for a miracle where one is not required, you will wait in vain. In addition to this, you are asking for God to dishonor you, to treat you as Satan treats those whom in enslaves. You will wait for a feeling or motivation that is really up to you. Do you want to obey God? What if you don't? What if you feel like you have no genuine desire or motivation to obey? Well what if you did? What would you do if you did have motivation to obey God? DO THAT! C.S. Lewis makes that point very well in a quote from "Mere Christianity."
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”
In whatever situation you are in, there are two issues alone:
1. Will you completely place your trust in God as your Creator and Savior right now?
2. Will you do what you know deep in your heart and conscience God requires of you?
You can do these two things with the strength you have. You need no more strength for these two things. If you did, then you have the strength to ask God. If you didn't have the strength even to ask for the strength you don't have, then God would have acted for you already. He will not leave the weak and helpless without strength or help. But He will require you to use the strength that you have to the extent that you can.
May you go in the strength that you have, wherever God's Spirit leads you.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Doing things in our own strength (Part 3)
God gave His children control over their volitions. He is not like Satan or demons who seek total domination or possession.
With Gideon and Adam we've seen the cooperation of submission.
We see the same with Abraham.
God promised Abraham and Sarah a son. God showed grace to them and fulfilled His promise. At the time God said, Sarah became pregnant.
Now how did she become pregnant? Immaculate conception? Did God Himself impregnate her, as some falsely believe that He did with the virgin Mary? BLASPHEMY!
God opened Sarah's barren womb. God gave her the ability to be impregnated by her husband, though she was naturally beyond the age of child bearing. But Abraham "knew" his wife as as any other husband would know his wife. God opened and empowered Sarah's womb. Abraham and Sarah did what husbands and wives do.
Now we come to what I consider a kind of climax in my Old Testament examples. For me, this example makes the point better than any other.
God calls Moses to deliver Israel in Exodus chapter 3. In chapter 4, Moses is concerned about Israel doubting him, and asks God about his concern. God says these words in reply,
"What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," Moses answered.
"Throw the staff to the ground."
Let's stop here and ponder what is happening.
Now this staff in Moses' hand is the very staff he has been using as a shepherd. It is this staff that God commands Moses to throw to the ground. Moses doesn't say, "LORD, I can't throw it down 'in my own strength.'" Of course Moses can throw down a stick...or allow gravity to simply pull it to the ground as he opens his fingers.
God did not command Moses to turn the staff into a snake, because Moses could not do that "in his own strength." But what Moses could do, God commanded. He did not take charge of Moses' arm and make his arm throw down the staff. Nor did God pull the staff from Moses' hand by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Most importantly, God did not even tell Moses the staff would become a snake! Moses had no idea this was going to happen, which is why he ran from the snake! So it took little to no "faith" for Moses to obey the commandment of God. He only did what he had the ability to do.
The same is true for his hand becoming leprous and being healed. God told Moses to put his hand inside of his cloak, not telling him it would become leprous. Moses performed the simple acts of putting his hand in his cloak and taking it out.
Moses throws down his staff. God turns it into a snake.
Moses puts his hand in his cloak, God makes it leprous.
No magical golden staff came from heaven for Moses, but only the staff in Moses' own hand was necessary, the same old staff he'd been using. With this staff, Moses performed mighty wonders.
The same is true with David. He didn't receive a super slingshot to kill Goliath, but instead he used the same slingshot he always used as a shepherd protecting sheep. He used the same basic slingshot skills he'd been using, and God blessed this with success.
Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and Gideon used the strength they had, or their own strength, to do God's will. And what they could not do, they trusted God to do, according to His ability, responsibility, and authority. But they used their God given ability, responsibility, and authority, for God's glory.
There is even a situation where the men of Israel go to war under the leadership of Joshua, and we see men of God using "their own strength" to accomplish God's will. Read these verses with me:
With Gideon and Adam we've seen the cooperation of submission.
We see the same with Abraham.
God promised Abraham and Sarah a son. God showed grace to them and fulfilled His promise. At the time God said, Sarah became pregnant.
Now how did she become pregnant? Immaculate conception? Did God Himself impregnate her, as some falsely believe that He did with the virgin Mary? BLASPHEMY!
God opened Sarah's barren womb. God gave her the ability to be impregnated by her husband, though she was naturally beyond the age of child bearing. But Abraham "knew" his wife as as any other husband would know his wife. God opened and empowered Sarah's womb. Abraham and Sarah did what husbands and wives do.
Now we come to what I consider a kind of climax in my Old Testament examples. For me, this example makes the point better than any other.
God calls Moses to deliver Israel in Exodus chapter 3. In chapter 4, Moses is concerned about Israel doubting him, and asks God about his concern. God says these words in reply,
"What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," Moses answered.
"Throw the staff to the ground."
Let's stop here and ponder what is happening.
Now this staff in Moses' hand is the very staff he has been using as a shepherd. It is this staff that God commands Moses to throw to the ground. Moses doesn't say, "LORD, I can't throw it down 'in my own strength.'" Of course Moses can throw down a stick...or allow gravity to simply pull it to the ground as he opens his fingers.
God did not command Moses to turn the staff into a snake, because Moses could not do that "in his own strength." But what Moses could do, God commanded. He did not take charge of Moses' arm and make his arm throw down the staff. Nor did God pull the staff from Moses' hand by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Most importantly, God did not even tell Moses the staff would become a snake! Moses had no idea this was going to happen, which is why he ran from the snake! So it took little to no "faith" for Moses to obey the commandment of God. He only did what he had the ability to do.
The same is true for his hand becoming leprous and being healed. God told Moses to put his hand inside of his cloak, not telling him it would become leprous. Moses performed the simple acts of putting his hand in his cloak and taking it out.
Moses throws down his staff. God turns it into a snake.
Moses puts his hand in his cloak, God makes it leprous.
No magical golden staff came from heaven for Moses, but only the staff in Moses' own hand was necessary, the same old staff he'd been using. With this staff, Moses performed mighty wonders.
The same is true with David. He didn't receive a super slingshot to kill Goliath, but instead he used the same slingshot he always used as a shepherd protecting sheep. He used the same basic slingshot skills he'd been using, and God blessed this with success.
Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and Gideon used the strength they had, or their own strength, to do God's will. And what they could not do, they trusted God to do, according to His ability, responsibility, and authority. But they used their God given ability, responsibility, and authority, for God's glory.
There is even a situation where the men of Israel go to war under the leadership of Joshua, and we see men of God using "their own strength" to accomplish God's will. Read these verses with me:
The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Exodus 17:8-13
Wow!
First, notice that the "staff in Moses' hand," the same old staff he'd been using as a regular old shepherd, is now THE STAFF OF GOD! Not a new, shiny heavenly golden staff, mind you! The same old staff!
Second, MOSES' HANDS GREW TIRED!
Now wait just a minute!
Why didn't God give Moses supernatural strength and endurance, like he would give Samson later on? We know Moses is holding up the staff "in his own strength" because he is getting tired, and God never gets tired. So what happens? Does God strengthen Moses' arms? Negative. Aaron and Hur hold up Mose's hands, IN THEIR OWN STRENGTH! It is human strength that is holding up Moses' hands--the human strength of Moses, Aaron, and Hur. Now why didn't Aaron or Hur just take "the staff of God" and hold it INSTEAD OF MOSES? In fact, and again, WHY ANY OF THIS? WHY DOESN'T GOD JUST WIPE OUT THE AMALEKITES HIMSELF?!!?! FIRE FROM HEAVEN? PLAGUES!!!? SOMETHING!?
No, we see a cooperation between God and men, earth and heaven. God would not do for Moses, Aaron, and Hur, what they could do for themselves, according to the ability, responsibility, and authority He gave them, as well as not doing anything for Joshua and the army that they had the ability to do.
These are my examples from the Old Testament. Now we move to Jesus, God in the flesh. As it was with the Father, so we will see with the Son....
Doing things in our own strength (Part 2)
In the Bible, from beginning to end, God does not require of people what He has not given them the ability, responsibility, and authority to do. And God does not do for people what He has given them the ability, responsibility, and authority to do.
Take Adam in the Garden of Eden.
In Genesis chapter 2, God planted the Garden of Eden and put the man in the garden to work it.
Who planted the Garden?
God.
Who put the man in the garden?
God.
Who worked the garden?
Adam.
God made Adam in His image and likeness. As God brought order in creation, Adam was to bring order in the garden.
God created the garden. God put man in the garden. Man worked the garden. We see the cooperation of freewill submission, and not the domination of demon possession.
Again, look at God's relationship to Adam in the same chapter of Genesis.
God made the animals. God brought the animals to Adam. Adam named the animals.
God did not require Adam to make the animals and bring them to himself. If God had, then Adam could have rightly said, "LORD, I can't do that 'in my own strength.'" And he would have been right. He did not have the ability, responsibility, or authority to create animals.
But Adam was created in the image and God. God named the day, night, sky, earth, and seas. And Adam, in the image of God, had the ability, responsibility, and authority to name the animals. After all, God gave Adam dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves on the earth.
Yet again, take for example, God's creation of the woman.
God put the man into a deep sleep, opened up his flesh, took out a rib, closed the man's flesh, and made a woman out of the rib. God then brings the woman to the man. So far, we see God alone acting according to His divine ability, responsibility, and authority. God was not pleased that the man should be alone, so it was up to Him to do what pleased Him in relation to the man.
Once God brings the woman to the man, then the man says, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man."
God made her. God brought her. Adam named her.
God acts. Man acts in the cooperation of free will submission. We'll see the same thing happening with Abraham and Moses.
Take Adam in the Garden of Eden.
In Genesis chapter 2, God planted the Garden of Eden and put the man in the garden to work it.
Who planted the Garden?
God.
Who put the man in the garden?
God.
Who worked the garden?
Adam.
God made Adam in His image and likeness. As God brought order in creation, Adam was to bring order in the garden.
God created the garden. God put man in the garden. Man worked the garden. We see the cooperation of freewill submission, and not the domination of demon possession.
Again, look at God's relationship to Adam in the same chapter of Genesis.
God made the animals. God brought the animals to Adam. Adam named the animals.
God did not require Adam to make the animals and bring them to himself. If God had, then Adam could have rightly said, "LORD, I can't do that 'in my own strength.'" And he would have been right. He did not have the ability, responsibility, or authority to create animals.
But Adam was created in the image and God. God named the day, night, sky, earth, and seas. And Adam, in the image of God, had the ability, responsibility, and authority to name the animals. After all, God gave Adam dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves on the earth.
Yet again, take for example, God's creation of the woman.
God put the man into a deep sleep, opened up his flesh, took out a rib, closed the man's flesh, and made a woman out of the rib. God then brings the woman to the man. So far, we see God alone acting according to His divine ability, responsibility, and authority. God was not pleased that the man should be alone, so it was up to Him to do what pleased Him in relation to the man.
Once God brings the woman to the man, then the man says, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man."
God made her. God brought her. Adam named her.
God acts. Man acts in the cooperation of free will submission. We'll see the same thing happening with Abraham and Moses.
Doing things in our own strength (Part 1)
"We can not do anything in 'our own strength,'" according to some Christians.
By "anything," they mean the act of submitting to God and resisting the devil, or doing God's will and refusing the devil's. This is an attempt in humility, according to Jesus' words, "Abide in me, and I in you. .. Apart from me you can do nothing." (See John 15)
The impression I've always gotten from this concept is that a miraculous power has to come over me, enable me to want to do God's will, and then make me do it. So if I was tempted by sin, I should pray, quote scriptures, and wait for "the power." According to those who hold such a belief, I should pray something like this, "I can't do it. God, do it through me." I should "let go and let God." After all, "it's not about trying, it's about trusting." And so the cliches go.
I understand the desire of those who believe this, having been one who was taught the same, and one who practiced "letting go and letting God." I know the desire to abide in Christ, to stay connected to Him in total dependence and total surrender, seeking His power. But there are two problems with this belief:
1. A Deception. The power never happened when I would wait for it to hit me. No matter how many prayers I prayed or scriptures I quoted, God never made me want to obey Him, and He never made me obey Him. No feeling came. No internal motivation to resist sin came. No internal supernatural ability came to say "no" to Satan and sin, and "yes" to God.
2. The reason is that God is not Satan or a demon. He does not partake in possession or domination in the ways of Satan and demons. With God there is the cooperation of free will submission.
Understand these two truths:
For example, in Judges 6:11-14, when God called Gideon to save Israel from the Midians, the LORD said to Gideon, "Go in the strength that you have and save Israel from the Midanites. Am I not sending you?"
What is the difference between Gideon "going in the strength that he has" and "going in his own strength," according to the present day cliche? Nothing. These are two ways of saying the same thing. And it is actually very encouraging for God to say this to Gideon. It shows that all Gideon has to do is be as strong as he presently is at that moment. No more strength is required of him than what he has. I believe this is what happened in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and what happens today with God's children in their God given missions. We see this with Adam, Abraham, and Moses in the Old Testament. We see this with Jesus in relationship to His disciples. We'll discuss this in the coming blogs....
By "anything," they mean the act of submitting to God and resisting the devil, or doing God's will and refusing the devil's. This is an attempt in humility, according to Jesus' words, "Abide in me, and I in you. .. Apart from me you can do nothing." (See John 15)
The impression I've always gotten from this concept is that a miraculous power has to come over me, enable me to want to do God's will, and then make me do it. So if I was tempted by sin, I should pray, quote scriptures, and wait for "the power." According to those who hold such a belief, I should pray something like this, "I can't do it. God, do it through me." I should "let go and let God." After all, "it's not about trying, it's about trusting." And so the cliches go.
I understand the desire of those who believe this, having been one who was taught the same, and one who practiced "letting go and letting God." I know the desire to abide in Christ, to stay connected to Him in total dependence and total surrender, seeking His power. But there are two problems with this belief:
1. A Deception. The power never happened when I would wait for it to hit me. No matter how many prayers I prayed or scriptures I quoted, God never made me want to obey Him, and He never made me obey Him. No feeling came. No internal motivation to resist sin came. No internal supernatural ability came to say "no" to Satan and sin, and "yes" to God.
2. The reason is that God is not Satan or a demon. He does not partake in possession or domination in the ways of Satan and demons. With God there is the cooperation of free will submission.
Understand these two truths:
God does not do for us what He has given us the ability, responsibility, and authority to do.
God does not require of us what He does not give us the ability, responsibility, and authority to do.
For example, in Judges 6:11-14, when God called Gideon to save Israel from the Midians, the LORD said to Gideon, "Go in the strength that you have and save Israel from the Midanites. Am I not sending you?"
What is the difference between Gideon "going in the strength that he has" and "going in his own strength," according to the present day cliche? Nothing. These are two ways of saying the same thing. And it is actually very encouraging for God to say this to Gideon. It shows that all Gideon has to do is be as strong as he presently is at that moment. No more strength is required of him than what he has. I believe this is what happened in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and what happens today with God's children in their God given missions. We see this with Adam, Abraham, and Moses in the Old Testament. We see this with Jesus in relationship to His disciples. We'll discuss this in the coming blogs....
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