<\/p>\n
\u201cMy message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit\u2019s power, so that your faith might not rest on men\u2019s wisdom, but on God\u2019s power\u201d<\/em> (1 Corinthians 2:3-5).<\/p>\n In the work world, we are trained to press through obstacles, no matter the cost. However, perseverance that is not directed by the Holy Spirit is only sweat and toil. We must learn to walk the fine line between these two concepts. On this subject of relying I believe many people are so rich and strong that they give no ground for God to work. I frequently recall the words, \u201chelpless and hopeless.\u201d I must tell God, \u201call that I have is yours, I myself have nothing. Apart from you I am truly helpless and hopeless.\u201d We need to have such a dependent attitude toward God that it is as if we cannot inhale or exhale without Him. In this way we shall see that our power as well as our holiness all comes from Him. Oh how God delights in seeing us coming hopeless and helpless to Him. A brother once asked me, \u201cWhat is the condition for the working of the Spirit?\u201d To which I replied that . . . the Holy Spirit must first bring us to a place where we can do nothing by ourselves.<\/p>\n Of course, God gives us our natural skills and He will use them, although it can be hard at times to tell whether it is God working through us or if it is our natural skill alone making things happen. We need to try to distinguish the difference even as we resist over-analyzing (which can result in paralysis by analysis).<\/p>\n The apostle Paul understood that it was not his ability to deliver eloquent sermons that changed people. It was the power of God working through him. If God\u2019s power comes through our work, that brings glory to the Father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Withholding Your Natural Gifting \u201cMy message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit\u2019s power, so that your faith might not rest on men\u2019s wisdom, but on God\u2019s power\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:3-5). In the work world, we are trained to press through obstacles, no matter the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[6023,182,3581,181,6022],"class_list":{"0":"post-18586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-devotionals","8":"tag-gifting","9":"tag-god","10":"tag-natural","11":"tag-today","12":"tag-withholding"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
on our human strength, Watchman Nee wrote:<\/p>\n