“Then You Will Know The Truth, and The Truth Will Set You Free” (John 8:32)

Greetings once more Friends everywhere!

We have often heard the saying, knowledge is power. Prasad Nanda in his essay bearing the title says, “Knowledge helps us make informed decisions. Knowledge is not necessarily gleaned from books in a classroom. It could come from experience, sometimes it can come from just watching other people’s lives.” That’s about as good an answer as any. Yes, it’s not just knowledge per se but true knowledge which gives us the power to do good and not evil to our neighbors. We watch people live their knowledge and see their understanding about life in real time. Lasting and constructive knowledge has to stand the test of time and the whole perspective of the human experience, where knowledge gives birth to ideas which are believed through real-life experimentation and hopefully to promote good in humanity.

But the Christian understanding of the human experience is that since Adam man has sat and searched for knowledge under the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and have eaten and made full from its fruits (Gen.2:15-17). The “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” was not corrupting of itself. It symbolized knowledge that’s necessary for humanity to make wise decisions where they understand the difference between good and evil. God used it to teach our first parents. However, in this particular instance, God used this tree as a prop to prove our first parent’s faithfulness to His purpose for them. Their unfaithfulness did not put a stop to the human thirst for knowledge. What we must realize is there is a difference between human knowledge and intellect and God’s truths as represented in the “Tree of Life” and generated through God’s Spirit. As Jesus said, “A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.” Paul explains that on one hand human knowledge vainly puffs humans up, while God’s truths Lovingly builds us up. (1 Cor.8:1) Wisdom is recognizing the difference between the two trees, and applying oneself wisely.  

The human knowledge derived from the tree which gives birth to “good and evil” essentially means that every good will always be cancelled out by evil, so our good intentions are forever nullified, no matter what. It seems like the seeds from which human actions are produced carries this genetic mutation which has positives but is always countermanded by negatives. The history of human experience bears out what the Scriptures attest.

The Bible goes into detail, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and sins not” (Eccle.7:20, KJV). Interpretation: “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous (good) deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isa.64:6, NLT). What does this tell us, our knowledge and ideas no matter how good will always be found wanting. Man, who discovered the penicillin also developed the nuclear bomb capable of destroying every man, woman, and child, from this earth. That’s “good and evil” in a nutshell. Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Human problems are simply the product of ignorance. Metaphorically speaking, we have to get up from sitting under the “tree of the fruit of good and evil,” and sit under and eat the fruits from the “the tree of life.” (Gen.2:8-9) The “tree of life” represent God’s Spirit, God’s Love. (Rom.5:5; 1 Cor.13)

So what’s the answer? From what we have read and “know” about man, only God can answer that question. It is He who will give us to sit under the “tree of life.” The reason man has a brain and mind with a fund of knowledge is because he was created to replicate God’s divine image and likeness. (Gen1:26-27) No other living creature has a mind like a human capable of discerning knowledge, develop ideas and concepts upon which to base his decision and conclusions. I wonder if we ever ask the question, If a divine Being created the human mind, did He not also create a fund of knowledge to go with it? The answer is a resounding, Yes! The foundation of God’s knowledge is founded upon one ingredient and one only – Love – that’s who He IS! “God IS Love” (1 John 4:8). Love is the substance into which man is formed into His divine image.

Graduation Day – A Day We Memorialize As A Focal Point of Scholarly Attainment – Note Emblem of Power in The Sky Above (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Before man’s creation, God existed in Love in His Tri-Personal Being. (John 17:24) Out of the three Persons of the Father, Son, and Spirit, it is the Son who was called the Logos or Word. “Word” simply means “knowledge.” John was inspired to write, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5). In this passage it is made clear that “true knowledge” is a Person not some impersonal dogma man writes up and keep on his book shelf. This Person, Jesus, is the light and is true knowledge who swallows darkness and ignorance.

The Bible can become dangerously legalistic and impersonal if we allow it. The purpose of the Bible is to point us to a Person, and not become an end in itself where it becomes a legalistic code. So knowledge is not some written information in a book, but first and foremost, knowledge is a Person. It is the utterance of a Person – Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God! Paul said this of Jesus, “In Him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col.2:3). Not in a book, but in Him! Paul said he wanted people to understand the mystery of God revealed in Jesus, who was “the Word who became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing Love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son” (John 1:14, NLT). Jesus is the fund of knowledge for the human mind, hence we read Paul say to the Ephesians, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in Love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; the Love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph.3:17-21; also Rom.8:29). To become like His Son is to possess true knowledge of Love and become glorified humans like Him in a future resurrection, and to have immortal life consummated in the divine Love of God. 

Each of us has a choice to make, that’s how God made humans. He endowed humanity with freedom, even to rebel against Him, as Adam did. Freedom is the flip side of God’s nature of Love. There is no Love without freedom, and no freedom without Love. The two are inextricably bound in a single expression of who God is. As we consider the freedom of choice God has conferred upon us, we’ll do well to remember the example of Adam and Eve, and that at the end of the day, we will certainly lie in the bed we make for ourselves. But God says to each of us, “Today I have given you the choice (freedom) between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (Deut. 30:19, NLT). God is practically pleading, almost to the point of begging, that we should freely choose Him.

Jesus – Personification of True Knowledge and Power. Jesus walks on Water – Wiki Commons

So, remember true knowledge is the utterance of a Person who is the repository of knowledge that will produce only good, not good that’s undone by evil. He is Jesus Christ! This is the essential meaning of the Gospel Jesus brought from the Father and proclaimed to man.

So, in closing, what would be the most important knowledge a human ought to have his mind faithfully dwell upon and live out? We understand that in every age and epoch, God has given man who are willing a dispensation of the knowledge He wants human to understand and to align with and carry out His work. For Adam, it was to keep the garden and not eat of the forbidden fruit. For Noah it was prepare for the flood. For Abraham it was an unshakable faith to trust God’s word for him. For Israel, it was to keep God’s covenant with them. For us today, it is to enter a new covenant to take the Gospel of immortality in Jesus Christ to every living creature. (Matt.28:18-20; John 3:16; Heb.8:8-12). Today, knowledge is about becoming the living, breathing, walking, Gospel of Jesus. (You may read my segment titled, “Preaching” The Gospel – You’re Answerable.” Posted on 9/29/2014)

I sincerely hope God will give you the heart and insight to receive Jesus as your Savior and the fund of knowledge for you mind. He is the Personified Word of God, as He is the literal Word of God, the Bible.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com. Thank you for visiting!

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life” as a  Bulamanriver.*  Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang,  

* Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my book.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

Note: All information is copy-write. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information.

“In Him was Life; and The Life was The Light of Men” (John 1:4).

Greeting Friends! You are precious in the sight of our God – the Father of all mankind. He wants you to understand that He made you and all mankind in His Triune image so you can enjoy being in His presence. That is the Gospel in its simplest form.

Return of the Prodigal Son Depicting God’s Unquestionable Love for His Once-Lost Children (Wiki Commons)

There’s a word in Christian circle which has become so loaded and negative in its nuance it has brought a negative light on the work of the Holy Spirit: obedience. “Obedience” has become a loaded word because it is presented to people in its religious undertone, and legalistic frame of reference. Our call to live the unified Triune life of God in Christ, is not a religion to be “obeyed,” but a relationship to be experienced founded upon LOVE. Whenever God tells man in the Bible, “If you will obey Me…” (2 Kings 3:14) He is really saying, “If you will LOVE Me…” God does not enforce “obedience” upon anyone. Where His LOVE exists, there is freedom, not “obedience“ by domination. The prophet Isaiah qualifies man’s “obedience” by saying, “If you are willing and obedient…” (Isa. 1:19, emphasis added) “Obedience” that comes with a willing heart is not “obedience” but pleasure given out of freedom and LOVE.

Throughout the Bible there’s a constant contrast made between virtue and vice to underscore man’s fallen nature and his redeemed nature. After man’s fall, life became accentuated by the paradigm of right and wrong stemming from the “fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” Adam and Eve ate by Satan’s deception. God declared that even nature would compel man to choose between good and evil. (Gen.3:16-19). Before this, Adam lived in total Loving harmony with God, where only good, joy, and beauty was the experience of life. God continues to exist in total goodness in His holy Tri-Personal Being. But it was different with man, his thoughts on life have become so twisted that the prophet said, “Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet” (Isa.5:20). Human morality became based foundationally on the Ten Commandments. (Exo. 20; Deut. 5). But God’s life is based upon the Holy Spirit’s (Love) work in the believer. Paul said, “These two forces (virtue and vice) are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses” (Gal.5:17-18, NLT). So, in his moral dilemma, man’s life turned into a legalistic contrast between generosity and avarice, humility and pride, patience and wrath, diligence and laziness, etc. This darkness is what has plagued humanity since the fall of Adam.

The whole world groped in the darkness Satan has incarcerated humans, and because of it man have come “to love darkness instead of the light” (John 3:19). Even the goodness of men was esteemed by God this way, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isa.64:6).

The Cross, Symbol of “God So Loved the World He Gave His Only Son that Whosoever Believes In Him Will Not Perish but Have Everlasting Life” (John 3:16) (Wiki Commons)

When Christ appeared, John records, “The people living in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, light has shined” (Matt.4:16). Where Adam brought darkness, Jesus, the second Adam, brought light. Hence we read Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Paul said, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor.15:22; also 1 Cor.15:45). John explains, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Light  is possessed by nothing but good, that’s where God resides in total holiness. Light is the depiction of God’s Love for man. There is no good and evil in Jesus’ light, there’s only good.

How does this light enter the life of humans so he no longer live in darkness? Jesus explains, “Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When He said “living water,” He was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in Him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into His glory.) (John 7:37-38, NLT). The Spirit’s presence in man is shown metaphorically as a river flowing that washes man clean so the light of Jesus may shine through life. Paul explains this, “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph.1:13b; also Rom.5:5). 

God reveals how He will make this reality of Jesus’ light happen, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor.6:16; Lev.26:12). That is how God lived with Adam and Eve before they were evicted from Eden and His presence. Paul tells us, “Christ is our righteousness… God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor.5:21; 1 Cor. 1:30; Rom.4:6, 22-25; Phil. 3:9; Ps. 32:2). Again, what this says is God will Himself guide and walk us to the reality we have in Jesus the light. And how does He do it, through the gift of the Holy Spirit who is the Personification of God’s Love in man. The Bibles reveals “We are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16a). That is how light comes into the human experience. Paul says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?” (1 Cor.6:19, NLT; also, 1 Cor.3:16). The Spirit is the light of Jesus in your life, for Jesus said, “He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you” (John 16:14). 

Dove, Symbol of Holy Spirit and Deposit of God’s Love in Man (Rom.5:5) (Wiki Commons)

From the above we see man existing in darkness and sin from Adam’s fall, but through Jesus God confers the Holy Spirit who is the light of God in the life of man. From darkness to light; from death to life. So, we see how the three-fold activity of the Tri-Personal Being of God living and Loving the believer. Yes, it must take the fullness of the Spirit indwelling man to make it happen. The Spirit’s work is to sanctify man so God can embrace him in Love. To live this life is what I call the “Triune Life.” In it man lives in the presence of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and finds his calling and destiny. Man has returned to his roots where he lives in complete joy in the Triune Life of God as in Eden.  It was never about “obedience,” but Love. When we Love God we live to please (if it may be called “obey”) Him. 

I hope I have encouraged you about God’s inerrant Love for you today! Go, live in His Love!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com. Thank you for visting!

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life” as a  Bulamanriver.*  Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang,  

* Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my book.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

Note: All information is copy-write. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” – United States Constitution

Warm Greetings Friends! I hope you will find the subject I have chosen for this segment interesting while at the same time applicable in your life and those of your loved ones. I am talking about power. Power is something important to each and everyone no matter where we live, what profession we have, and how we invest our time daily.

A Bolt of Lightning, Equivalent to 10 billion Watts of Power (Wiki Commons)

Power as a measure is the influence and control over outcomes, events, issues and actors. We speak of the balance of power in the world, but power is also private and individualized because it is relative to all peoples from the lowest to the highest levels. Traditional power as we know it on the world stage has shifted greatly. Power has become more transient. Internationally, power has spread geographically according to economic, political, and militarial status and prominence. Today, we speak of soft, hard, and smart power, and how it’s implemented in the world. We see a lot of power transfer to individuals who have the capacity to act alone with immense consequences. Think of an app called Instagram, many don’t know that it was sold for a billion dollars (yes, $1b) when it hardly had a dozen or so employees. We are seeing gridlock and paralysis in a lot of countries and the inability of governments to reach agreements and move forward any policies. We have seen it recently with the United States with the sequester and the helplessness of the political parties and Congress and the White House to agree on how the tax dollar is spent. This same trend is seen around the world. In democracies, power is becoming much harder to wield. Why this inconsistency in power and our obvious powerlessness?

War and Poverty – Proof of Human Weakness, Not Power (Wiki Commons)

First and foremost, the most basic explanation for human power as we understand it, is not true power at all. What we see is human weakness trying to wield what it sees and understand as power. So, true power is unseen to man and controls everything. God’s power “is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come” (Eph.1:19-23) True power belongs to the Creator God alone, and from whom power originates. We just have to look at the earth and all the life forms upon it, and the universe at large and realize God is truly all powerful because man can never duplicate such power. Though man may have invented many ingenious creations, it’s an ability given to him to reflect the Creator in whose likeness he was made, and is actually a foretaste of man’s destiny in God’s spiritual realm.

If man is dominated by human weakness, what exactly is it, and how do we explain its impact upon man and the way we see power, and how we live? Human weakness is the essence of our fallen human nature inherited from Adam’s own fall in Eden at the hands of the devil. (Gen. 3) Human weakness is a curse upon humanity and human evolution. All of mankind’s problems can be attributed to one thing, and one thing alone, human weakness! Human weakness encapsulates man’s deficiency and inadequacy in every single aspect of human life. It is responsible for human suffering from the past, the present, and into the future. Human weakness is reflected in the inability of our intellectual faculty, our spiritual incapacity, our mental and psychological disorders, our physical and bodily infirmities, and the lack of a moral compass in human relationships. It is responsible for humanity’s state of confusion and disorder. Yes, every single crime committed, every war fought, every act of hatred, all misdeeds of man’s inhumanity to man, every sickness and disease, and every generous act we owe others and fail to own up and take responsibility for, is the result of one thing – our powerlessness through human weakness!

Gun Violence & Diseases – Proof of Human Weakness (Wiki Commons)

The opposite of weakness is genuine power! Power ends all the suffering which human weakness spawn. The disorderly and uncontrollable state of the world today in every aspect of its governance, especially in human relations, and relations between nations, is proof enough of man’s powerlessness in the face of its problems. And the Bible prediction is it will get worse before the Creator Himself has to step in to stop human ineptitude through human weakness. (Matt.24:14)

The most basic form of expressing human weakness is man’s inability to treat his fellow humans as equals in God’s sight. Man was made in God’s image which makes all humans, regardless of their many differences, equals. The U.S. Constitution says this of its citizens, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” We all deserve each other’s respect and Love because we were formed in the Creator’s image and likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) This is the underpinning, the bedrock, upon which true power derives its authority. When we disrespect the likeness of God we see in our fellowmen, we plant the seeds of weakness. There is no weakness in God’s power because His actions are always shaped by His Love (“God is Love” – that’s His image – 1 John 4:8). Love is what makes us all equals. When fear (weakness) instead of Love controls man’s actions, the result is not power but weakness. It is a true saying that things are not as they appear, and this applies to human power in the world today. It’s a form of pretension of power which God instructs we should reject. (2 Cor.10:5-6)

I would like us to see God’s indictment upon man’s sinful state of existence since his fall in Eden, so we understand human weakness and it’s relation to human power. The scriptures says this of man, 1) “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isa.64:6, NLT). 2) The prophet Micah said, “Even the best of them is like a brier; the most honest is as dangerous as a hedge of thorns. But your judgment day is coming swiftly now. Your time of punishment is here, a time of confusion” (Mic.7:4). 3) The Psalmist said, “Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you” (Psa.143:2). 4) Paul asserted, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). 5) The Old Testament says, “There is no one who does not sin” (2 Chron.6:36). 6) Paul surmises, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Rom.3:9-12). 7) John enlightens us, saying, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8, 10). 8) Back to the Psalmist, “For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue” (Psa.5:9).9) Jesus said, “Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every bad tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them” (Matt.7:16-20).

  

Purposeful Living & Joy Through Genuine Power & Good Leadership (Wiki Commons)

I have divulged 9 passages from the Bible (there are more) to show one fundamental truth about man, he is depraved, wicked, and sick to the core of his being. This is not akin to describing someone with genuine power. A person with authentic power would not be depraved but noble, he’s not wicked but virtuous, not sick but sound and right-thinking. I am sorry if I have insulted the sensibilities of those who believe in the goodness of man. We do believe the same things, but not the same processes and outcomes. If man can’t help living a way of life totally opposed to God because of his fallen state of being, how can he extricate himself from it? How can he save himself if God calls even the good he does, “filthy rags” (Isa.64:6).

Man is fallen in his being and needs saving. He cannot save himself because he doesn’t know how. Only His Creator who gave him the reason for his existence can save him. Man did not come to this true knowledge of himself on his own. He never knew he was living in this fallen and depraved shelll of existence. If God had not brought the truth of man’s fallen state of being, he would have remained in his ignorance, and he would live a life which leads to untimate extinction. (Matt.24:22) But God would not allow that to happen, for He made man for immortality in His spiritual realm of existence. (2 Tim.1:10) Yes, man would not be any the wiser if God had not disclosed by revelation in His Word our lineage to Him, and what had become of us in our fallen state of being, and how He plans to restore man and His purpose for him.  

Be that as it may, man was not created to live in a posture opposed to his Creator. Something happened along the way which made man depraved and weak. We understand this from Adam’s fall, we became inheritors of his fallen state of existence from Eden because of his rebellion. Prior to the fall, man lived in holy union with God, and man lived in the Creator’s likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) Yes, although our nature has become weak because of sin, underneath, in our heart of hearts, we are basically attuned to God’s Loving nature. The Creator made certain His divine Loving image is never lost to man. His basic Triune nature is etched all over man and creation. And since human weakness is not God’s image, man can change, if we so choose. We can change when we are given the mind and the power to see the difference between weakness and power, light and darkness, good and evil, Love and fear.

Jesus Walks on Water – Source of True Power (Wiki Commons)

Man has to discover and find his true self, for in his true self is genuine power where all human weakness is overcome and defeated. We have seen that true power resides with God who implements it through His Loving nature. We also saw God will not allow His purpose in man to come to nought through human weakness instilled by the enemy. In His Loving nature He expresses His grace toward man and crowns him with His mercy. He sends Jesus to become man (the prophesied Immanuel), and thereby take the weakness of our humanity, its depravity and wickedness (death/sin), and redeemed man in Himself through His perfect human life, His sacrificial death, His incarnational resurrection and ascension. Man has not done anything to deserve this incomprehensible grace of God the Father, but this is the expression of who He is in His Love by giving His Son to save man. 

So we read, “But God demonstrates His own Love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). That’s to say, while we are still ignorant of our dire and hopeless situation, God stepped into our lost state of existence and saved us in His Love.

Power rests in the domain of the God of Love and righteousness. Power comes from true knowledge personified in Jesus, the Word. The price for being redeemed from human weakness has already been paid for by Jesus. The sin condition man inherited from Adam reveals the inborn weakness of man. A person may not be consciously aware that his or her deepest problem is the sin condition which breeds weakness, and separates him from God, the source of power. Jesus presents the solution to human weakness this way, “You must be born again of the Spirit” (John 3:3-8). Weakness or powerlessness is the “condition” which permits evil to dominate, as opposed to strength or power which is the “condition” of the Spirit which defeats and triumph over sin through Love. (Rom.5:5) If it were not for the Spirit moving and empowering the lives of humans in the world, we would be left to live in a hell of our own making. (Matt.24:21-22) In essence, human weakness embodies man’s existence which is why he is the quintessence of sin. We all must realize we are sinners in God’s eyes. 

Yet, we must hold a positive attitude toward human weakness in which we find ourselves, why, because Jesus has defeated it in our stead so we can embrace and live vicariously through His power. We hear Paul explains this, “I boast in my weakness.” What did he mean? It means he was not discouraged by his weakness but instead boasted in Christ who overcame all his weakness by defeating the devil in the temptations in the Judean wilderness, and dying on the cross for him. (Matt. 4:1-12; John 19:28-30) The Lord answered Paul’s prayer saying, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Because of the Lord’s grace, he can say, and we can say, ”I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, in insults, in hardship, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor.12:8-10). In other words, each time Paul focuses on his weakness, he realizes his only hope comes from the Lord through the Spirit’s presence who overcomes weakness and gives him power in God’s Love. That’s the picture Paul paints for us: “For when I’m weak, then I’m strong (powerful) in Christ!” We are strong in God’s power and Love.

Resurrection to Immortality – Weakness is Banished & Power is Man’s Eternal Inheritance (Wiki Commons)

Paul said this, “For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” (1 Cor.4:20) Let’s now move on our knees in prayer thanking and praising God, so we can move on our feet in power, no longer plagued by weaknesses.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write to me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life” as a  Bulamanriver.*  Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang,  

*Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

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