Are you poor or rich in spirit? (Part 2)
Verse of the Day: 1 Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me”
Today we have many doctrines that contradict this teaching of poverty in spirit. The devil wants to convince Christians that once we are saved, we have everything we need and therefore we no longer ask in prayer. Some even go further and say that we are equal to Jesus and we do not even need to pray in Jesus' name.
Yes we are joint heirs with Christ, but we are what we are through Him and without Him we can do nothing. Saying that we are at the same level with Christ is a blasphemy. Jesus himself said "WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING" (John 15: 5). We totally depend on him and the devil knows it but he tries to convince us that we have received the power that makes us independent of our Lord. He who believes that Jesus gave him a power that he can manage independently of Him is simply fallen into the trap of the enemy.
The verse of the day (1 Corinthians 15: 10) is one of my favorite verses in the Bible because it destroys any kind of pride. Paul says that it is by God's grace that he is what he is and if he worked better than everyone else, it was not him but it was the grace that was with him.
In other words, Paul acknowledged that he was nothing without God's grace. He did not consider his intelligence, his education, his experience, his character, his ability to preach ... but he just admitted it was the grace of God that helped him to do what he did and that without that grace he could never do it.
Many Christians do not know the true definition of grace. For a long time we learned that God's grace is the unmerited favor of God but if you read Paul's letters and the second chapter of the book of Luke, you will understand that God's grace is better than the unmerited favor of God: It is the power of God that allows us to do what the Lord wants us to do.
He who is poor in spirit is the one who recognizes his total dependence on the Lord. God wants a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51: 17). He hates pride and arrogance. Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind" (John 9: 39).
If you think you see, you may be going blind (spiritually), but if you know that you do not see (without the Holy Spirit), He will open your eyes of the spirit and you will get many revelations.
To be continued in the third part
Chris Ndikumana
