INTRODUCTION
An interesting word was given to me
while speaking to my Dear Sister in Christ, Mary, one night. We were discussing our times of feeling weak
and helpless and our inability to understand why the power we needed to address
our circumstance was not there. In our
moments of greatest weakness we are IN THE SHADOW OF HIS POWER. As our conversation continued this word was
also given to us, HIS POWER IS AT THE EDGE OF OUR WEAKNESS; that power we so
desire and need in those moments of crises.
What the Apostle Paul experienced, we were told that night, that we were
in a MODE OF PREPARTION to gain that power we both needed. In order for God to work in our lives His
power, we must first come to certain levels of weakness of human efforts and
strengths. It is written that “ALL”
power had been given to the Son of God, Jesus.
So, if we ever needed power in our lives, that power needed would have
to come through Him. In my book,
“Warnings of the Occult,” I dealt with this matter of the latent power of the
human soul, which I revealed was not to be used independent from God; the
reason being because there was an Evil present desiring to tap into this power
coming from humanity. For the true
Christian we are commanded to go through Christ for this power and not self effort
or subconscious latent powers.
Most are so close to the answer, yet
do not understand that there is this need to come to weakness first, not
knowing this, they give up on God and turn to others and other means of gaining
power. We read verses that say, “apart
from Him we can do nothing:” yet do not realize the experience of that verse
which at times can be devastating. If we
only knew that our request for power brought about this weaken state, thus
seeing it as an act of God fulfilling our request through weakness first, then
power following our weakness, that the Excellency be of God and not us; (I Cor.
2:1; II Cor. 4:7; Phil. 3:8) if we would see this we would express what Paul
said in Romans Chapter 5 that he learned to rejoice in tribulations because
these trial lead him, through his weakness, to strength. (I Cor. 1:27-29; I
Cor. 4:10; II Cor. 11:30; II Cor. 12:10; II Cor. 13:3-4) You can understand what Paul meant, “When I
am weak, I am strong” and his saying that he boasted in his weakness, because
he found that this is the only way God manifests His strength through any of
us. So it wasn’t as an old religious
saying would have you to believe, “God helps those who help themselves,” but
really should read, “God CAN”T help those who help themselves.” We have it back wards; as long as we feel we
can handle a matter, no matter how small or great, God can not entering into
our experience. It is only after human
efforts of strength subside that God’s power is manifested.
None of us like feeling weak and
helpless, I understand. And the fact of
our being performance oriented from birth by not only the world but also in
religion, does not help matters. If we
dared to show any degree of weakness we find we meet with rejection. We see so much weakness around us and
helplessness that we avoid it at all cost.
Not knowing that those we see, and we ourselves, are in those moments on
the edge of God’s power. If only one of
the weak individuals would see what Mary and I saw that night, the power of God
would come through that one to not only save the weakest but also the one
through whom God’s power would flow. The
truth is BOTH are weak and not only one; it’s only a matter of one seeing this,
that then this power would come for both.
It is never the power of an individual.
This book will be dealing with the
path to real power; a path less sought, a path to weakness where God’s strength
is found. We are so close so many times
not understanding we are “Walking in the Shadow of His Power.” Paul
C. Woodward… August 11, 2010
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