Crestwood Church Blog

And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

I was at an anniversary of a Christian colleague on Friday night and was challenged by many things that were said during the evening. One of the things that was said, was that when we are in Christian service (that includes all of us who confess to be a believer in the Lord Jesus) when we try something new or look at something in a fresh way, how quickly do we revert back to the way we have always done it in the past. This got me thinking about our attitudes towards God’s work.
We all have a certain default setting. On a computer when you buy it from the shop, it comes with standard operating and display settings. Many of us change these to suit our taste or preference, but at any time we can revert by the touch of a button to the original default settings.

In our Christian walk we often change back to the normal settings of our faith, how we have always shared our faith, or worshiped or preached or practically did something, because we get out of our own safe environment. Is it because we are too reliant on our own strength and not confident enough to trust the Holy Sprit to guide us in our service for him?

Paul naturally was a good speaker, he was a leader amongst the Pharisees, he knew how to win an argument in the synagogue, he knew how to be persuasive with his speeches. Once he met Christ on the Damascus Road, all that changed, his natural ability, however brilliant in the eyes of the world, were still second rate to what God was going to pour into him. I am not saying we shouldn’t use our natural talent, of course we should, but not in place of the abilities that the person of the Holy Spirit gives us. If Paul had preached in his own ability alone, he may have got a measure of success and seen a few responding to his message, but because he didn’t revert back to his own default setting, he with the guidance and power of the Spirit of God, changed the Gentile world, forever. Could Paul have achieved that on his own. With all the power he had at his disposal prior to his conversion, he still couldn’t prevent the gospel spreading in the way it did, so how much more with a harder task would Paul have found it, in his own strength alone.

Pray and ask God to fill you daily as you have your times of devotion and rely on him, first and he will use what you have to offer of yourself to achieve fruit for the kingdom

Labels: Default. change, Holy Spirit, New