{"id":149,"date":"2009-11-26T05:45:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-26T13:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=149"},"modified":"2009-11-27T06:20:15","modified_gmt":"2009-11-27T14:20:15","slug":"the-focal-point-of-spiritual-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"The Focal Point of Spiritual Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
November 26, 2009<\/div>\n
Music and video for today: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hILaSh78yHQ&feature=related<\/a><\/div>\n
. . . except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . \u2014Galatians 6:14<\/div>\n
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If you want to know the power of God (that is, the resurrection life of Jesus) in your human flesh, you must dwell on the tragedy of God<\/span><\/strong>. Break away from your personal concern over your own spiritual condition, and with a completely open spirit consider the tragedy of God. Instantly the power of God will be in you<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I find myself really drawn to this type of guarantee. \u00a0It’s almost magical or vending machine like. \u00a0 Perhaps that is the reason that God has not seen fit to activate this mechanism in me more– Magic and Vending Machine not being the right reason. \u00a0 \u00a0Maybe I haven’t focused correctly on the tragedy of God, as Oswald suggests. \u00a0 As I do that, even now, it does shrink the size of my problems that I was thinking of before starting this reading. \u00a0 The challenge, it seems, is to stay in that place all the time. \u00a0Conscious of God’s Tragedy —djr<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“Look to Me<\/em>. . .” (Isaiah 45:22). Pay attention to the external Source and the internal power will be there. We lose power because we don\u2019t focus on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these<\/span><\/strong>. We are to preach “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (\u00a01 Corinthians 2:2<\/a> ). The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. Concentrate on God\u2019s focal point in your preaching, and even if your listeners seem to pay it no attention, they will never be the same again. If I share my own words, they are of no more importance than your words are to me. But if we share the truth of God with one another, we will encounter it again and again. We have to focus on the great point of spiritual power\u2014 the Cross. If we stay in contact with that center of power, its energy is released in our lives. In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings, the focus tends to be put not on the Cross of Christ but on the effects of the Cross.<\/p>\n

Once again Oswald reminds us that there is supernatural power for us\u00a0in the cross and the sacrifice of our God. He reminds us that we stay connected to\u00a0God’s \u00a0power by staying focused on the cross, NOT the effects of the cross. The effects, the results, and all the outcomes are controlled and manifest by the power of the living God when we simply focus on His sacrifice. We do not focus on our circumstance, the overwhelming and what looks like impending “train wreck” of our lives, we focus on Jesus at the cross.<\/em><\/p>\n

When we do this, God is able to work supernatually in our lives. The cross is the foundation of our faith and our lives, day to day:<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Cor 2:2 (Phi) …It was my determination to concentrate entirely on Jesus Christ himself and the fact of his death upon the cross.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

  • A.W. Tozer: “The old cross is a symbol of death. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again in newness of life. God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It always stands at the far side of the cross.”…….JD<\/em><\/li>\n

    The feebleness of the church is being criticized today, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the feebleness is that there has not been this focus on the true center of spiritual power. We have not dwelt enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of redemption.<\/p>\n

    Perhaps we have not focused enough on the cross of Christ and the redemptive powers therein…..It seems that staying connected to God begins and ends here, everyday, every morning as we gather our manna for the day.\u00a0…JD<\/em><\/div>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    November 26, 2009 Music and video for today: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hILaSh78yHQ&feature=related . . . except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . \u2014Galatians 6:14 If you want to know the power of God (that is, the resurrection life of Jesus) in your human flesh, you must dwell on the tragedy of God. Break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}