And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
I envy people whose minds work in a way that makes them excellent apologists and debaters. Unfortunately for me, I am not one of those people. I don’t have the attitude that apologetics is a waste of time and should not be engaged in. However, I do hold strongly to the position that no amount of logical reasoning or fancy philosophizing will bring anyone into saving faith in Christ.
Why am I so adamant about that? Because Scripture makes it abundantly clear that outside of Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins. If you look carefully at the meaning of the word, dead, you will find that what it actually means is, dead. The last time I checked dead people couldn’t do anything for themselves. They are dead. So the question is, can a person be argued from death to life? I don’t believe so.
The New Birth is a miracle. It is a demonstration of the Spirit. It is a demonstration of the power of God. Dead people coming alive in Christ. No amount of words of human wisdom can accomplish that.
Paul’s ministry was characterized by many other demonstrations of the Spirit and power. Demon possessed people were delivered from their captivity. Sick and lame people were healed. Greatest of all, hearts were changed to become loving people and people of Jesus-like character.
There are millions of people within an hour’s drive of us who need to find this kind of forgiveness and deliverance. Some are afflicted with the kinds of bondage that Jesus said, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29 NKJV)
Prayer and fasting have been proven by experience to precede every disciple-making movement in this century. We have been commanded to go make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Jesus taught. Part of what Jesus taught is this command to go make disciples. One of our prayer goals, if we are to pray Biblically, is for the Lord to raise up laborers who will make disciples. Of course, many of us need to heed that command ourselves. Disciple-making is one of the commands of Jesus we are to teach and to obey ourselves.
Thus, prayer and fasting. I know that I am not capable of making a disciple of Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit is capable of doing that. Which is why Jesus told his first disciples/apostles to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power before launching on their disciple-making mission. When our efforts to bring people to Jesus are heavily seasoned first with prayer and fasting, then we will see the demonstration of the Spirit and power. And we will see the multiplication of disciple-makers moving us closer to the completion of the Great Commission as well as the transformation of our community because its citizens will be transformed by the power of God.
Let us pray for the complete transformation of San Diego County (and your community for all of you out of my region) by the transformation of its citizens by the power of God in the gospel.
