Power is in Him as your connection

I found it interesting that the woman who recently took over Willow Creek Community Church as the head pastor credited one book for influencing her and other members of the “succession team” for the past year. It’s called, The Power of the Other: The startling effect other people have on you, from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond--and what to do about it.

In a short critique of the book, a CEO of an internet company writes, “As a habit, I am always on the lookout for ways to either confirm my philosophies or challenge them.  Most of the time, I have a vague idea of the direction I must head, but cannot clearly explain why that direction is correct. At such times, it is important to adjust my focus. This happened with a book I recently read. The Power of the Other is Dr. Henry Cloud's newest book. In it he discusses, among other things, the science that proves positive human interaction makes all of us better. It is fascinating."

*****

Wisdom, as the Bible uses the word (over 240 times), is simply the application of knowledge. Transformation occurs through faith in what the Word says about who we really are, seeing ourselves in our new nature in Christ.

“We have an identity in Christ in the spirit world that we can’t touch or feel, but it’s REAL,” explains Jordan. “So how do I bring it into my experience where I live? It’s the w-o-r-d-s of the Spirit on the physical pages of a Book that’s the connection. It’s my faith resting in those words in a Book that energizes my inner man and that’s the mechanics of it. That’s how it works! It’s just that simple!”

“If you talk to God about what’s on your mind, wouldn’t you like to hear what’s on His mind? So, how’s He going to talk to you?

*****

Bible authority Keith Blades writes, “Paul makes it clear that the power of God’s Word at work within us today is the most excellent display of God’s power. The exceeding great power that belongs to God’s Word is put on display in an unprecedented manner.

“This is because not only is God’s Word working within us able to do ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think’ regarding the condition of our inner man, it is also able to do exceeding abundantly above all that Satan thinks he can do, as he works to show the capacity he still has to influence us in our inner man.

“That Satan desires to show that he is still able to affect our inner man, is something Paul makes clear throughout our epistles.”

*****

The hip credo today is No. 1, “God is irrelevant,” and No. 2, “Human reason is supreme.”

“Our culture today is totally dominated by the human viewpoints and philosophies of men,” says Jordan. “There’s a complete rejection of God’s Word and God’s truth.

“The Psalmist in Psalm 39 says that ‘man at his best state is altogether vanity.’ That means the best you’re ever going to do with your human thinking processes apart from the Word of God, and what God has to say, is going to be empty, futile and delusional.

“In Isaiah 55:8, God talks, saying, ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.’

“Folks, the best you can do is going to fall short when it comes to figuring out what life is all about. The 19^th century English poet Matthew Arnold wrote, ‘What is the course of the life of mortal men on the earth? Most men eddy about here and there—eat and drink, chatter and love and hate, gather and squander, are raised aloft, are hurled in the dust, striving blindly, achieving
nothing; and then they die.’

“That’s saying exactly what the wisest man in the Bible, King Solomon, says. I think the first two verses of Proverbs 18 are two of the most deadly verses in the Bible:
[1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
[2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

“Now, notice how that passage reads. ‘Through desire’; an inner desire. You got something you want to do. Your heart wants to get something.

“Solomon writes, ‘Through desire, a man having separated himself.’ When you separate yourself away, and you seek and intermeddle with all wisdom, there’s a word that comes out of that and it’s the word elitism. Another word is egalitarianism."