We’re not supposed to be the end users of God’s power
by Stephan Joubert God’s power is revealed in human weakness, Paul says (2 Cor 12:8). This won’t make sense to many people in church today who have come to associate power with everything but weakness! Well, it even took Paul a few prayers to come to grips with God’s ultimate understanding of power in the lives of his children. Up till that time when he wrote 2 Corinthians he had a very successful ministry. He planted churches right across the Roman Empire; helped to define the theology of the early church and determined the shape of the church in general. Undoubtedly the entrapments of power loomed large in his vicinity. But then Paul had an unexpected quarrel with a local church leader in Corinth. The result: he left the city humiliated and his ego bruised (2 Cor 2, 7). To add insult to injury, a bunch of flamboyant preachers came to the church in Corinth soon afterwards. These show-stoppers had all the necessary miracles and spiritual special effects up their sleeves to impress local believers out of their hard-earned money (2 Cor 10-13). No wonder they all started making jokes about Paul’s “weak bodily appearance” and “unimpressive speech” (2 Cor 10:10). Paul approached God three times in prayer to remove these weaknesses and other afflictions he had to suffer for the sake of Christ, as he tells us in 2 Corinthians 12. He urgently wanted his Samson-like spiritual power back. Finally God answered Paul that it’s no longer about power, but about the paradox of divine power in human weakness! This revelation changed the entire course of Paul’s ministry. He learned a few valuable lessons that we all should take seriously: Lesson one: God is the only power supply in the church. It’s never about us! We’re merely the power cables, definitely not the sources of power. Lesson two: We don’t have to experience God’s power before He gets to work. Most of the time God works in spite of what we see, feel or experience. As a matter of fact: we’ll always experience a lack of spiritual power since we’re merely the power cables and not the source of power. Paul learned this lesson the hard way. In today’s power-hungry church environment, fraught with competition for more members, the best worship services in town, bigger buildings, more money, etc, we also have to take this lesson seriously; otherwise we’ll be blinded by the entrapments of superficial spiritual power. Lesson three: Believers are distributors of the biggest power in the entire universe. We convey awesome amounts of power from God into his broken world. In Ephesians 1:18-20 Paul prays that God will open our eyes to realise that the same power is at work in us that resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead. Talk about immense power that is constantly at work in and through us! Lesson four: The emphasis is never on the power cables, but on the recipients at the other end. When God’s power flows through us, the results will eventually become apparent in the lives of those that God intends us to serve and care for. We’re God’s living gifts to his broken world and his church. If we are faithful to our calling, others will experience his abundance and blessings. We are weak servants of Christ who must care enough for others to let his divine healing power flow to them. Lesson Five: We need to remain connected to the divine power supply at all times. All power comes from God (2 Cor 4:7). His power cannot be faked. As long as we remain anchored in Christ, God will let streams of living water flow through us (John 7:38). Fact is, we aren’t the end users of his power, just the full-time distributors thereof.