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SOUNDING
OUT:
Perfection is in the Lord
God speaks today, and
it is possible to hear His voice. I'm just not sure
that ANY OF US are going to hear it with PERFECT ACCURACY
OF HEARING OR UNDERSTANDING 100% OF THE TIME.
I Corinthians 13 tells us that we "know
in part--and we PROPHESY in part--but when that which
is perfect is come--then that which is in PART will
be done away with." Until then--the BEST we've
got is PART… And anyway you slice PART, you don't
have 100%… not until he who is perfection himself
gets here.
We simply rest, confident that if we need to
know something, God can get through to us… in
or out of fellowship it doesn’t matter. We have
a perfect Word of God and a perfect God Who wrote it.
However, that is no guarantee that we will have a perfect
understanding of either. We are still fallible people
and we should walk knowing that perfection is in the
Lord.
1 Corinthians
2:1-6:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony
of God.
2 For I determined not to
know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified.
3 And I was with you in
weakness, and in fear, and in much
trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of
God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that
are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of
the princes of this world, that come to nought:
How can Paul say in verse
3 he was with them in “weakness” and then
in verse 4 say his preaching was “in demonstration
of the spirit and of power?” They must not be
mutually exclusive. Just what is the “weakness”
he is talking about? But, before we look into that let’s
first investigate “fear” and “trembling”
from verse 3.
“Fear” and “trembling”
are used in the oriental culture of reverence and obedience.
(See Pillai, K.C., The Orientalisms of the Bible,
Chapter 5 Fear and Trembling.) We come before God with
fear and trembling. Not because we are afraid, but because
we honor and revere Him. As we revere Him, our obedience
is spontaneous, voluntary, and without constraint. We
can’t legislate obedience, because it needs to
come from a willing heart. When we reverence God, obedience
develops without external influence or force. We obey
so unselfconsciously, so unaffected or unprompted by
compulsion, that it almost seems the natural thing to
do.
Jesus said, “the spirit is willing but
the flesh is weak.” As long as we live in these
earthly bodies we will be weak. The weakness Paul refers
to comes from being human and not knowing all the answers.
Paul didn’t know exactly what he was going to
face when he went to Corinth, and that can breed a sense
of weakness. If we had perfect understanding of God
and His will all the time we would not be weak. However,
as long as we are in these bodies of flesh and blood
we will have that sense of weakness, because we are
not perfect. We cannot plan out every detail to the
Nth degree. So learn to live with it.
II Corinthians
12:7-10:
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the
abundance of the revelations, there was given to me
a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
8 For this thing I besought
the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My
grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made
perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak,
then am I strong.
It was a messenger of
Satan who troubled Paul. Satan instigated people to
obstruct Paul. Here’s the man who received great
revelation, and yet, things didn’t go “perfectly”
for him. The thorns in the flesh were not removed despite
Paul’s repeated prayer. Rather, God’s answer
was, “My grace is sufficient for thee....”
That truth has never changed. His grace is still sufficient.
Paul took solace in infirmities, in reproaches,
in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s
sake: knowing that when he was weak, then he’d
be strong. Revelation didn’t always keep him out
of the situations, but he was kept while in them. Like
the old preacher said regarding Daniel in the lions’
den. “God didn’t keep Daniel FROM the den,
but He kept him IN the den.
The phrase “out of weakness was made strong”
is the figure of speech oxymoron. An oxymoron is a figure
in which what is said at first glance appears to be
foolish, yet when we consider it in depth we find it
exceeding wise. Some things are so rich that language
falls short in expressing the truth. Since language
falls short God resorts to an oxymoron to try to describe
it, so we can understand it. God’s grace allowed
Paul to be strong in situations in which he was without
strength. Paul took on life’s challenges “head-on.”
Paul’s strength was made perfect in his being
challenged to handle the situation. There is nothing
that humbles one more than looking one of life’s
biggest challenges in the eye and taking it on. When
we know we cannot handle it by ourselves, we are much
more likely to rely on God’s grace to pull us
through.
God’s grace is always sufficient and we
can be more than conquerors in every situation. Our
strength doesn’t come from being perfect, but
from knowing our weaknesses and limitations. How annoying
are the “super-spiritual” who always say,
"God told me this -- God told me that -- God told
me this other." They seem to think that their every
thought is revelation from God. No one should be that
presumptuous. God does speak to us, but He does not
chatter away, day in and day out, the way some people
claim He does. We are not the center of the universe.
We are fallible and we will make mistakes, but when
we stumble we get back up and keep walking, realizing
that perfection is in the Lord.
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