WHERE THE POWER OF GOD LIES

Mark 4v26-28 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

The seed spoken of in the above parable is the Word of God. The one who sows it is not only the Son of God, but his servants (for God sows into peoples' live through using us as His servants). When we as Christians put forth the Word of God, the Lord and the Spirit go about to make that seed fruitful; both to grow it and make life come from it. This seed does not consist of certain parts of the Word, but of any and all parts of it; for it is all Spirit, and all life, for it is all of Jesus:

John 1v1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

We as Christians can often mistake where the power of God comes from. The scripture from Mark, at the top of this post, shows that the power of God does not come from our powers of persuasion, and it doesn't come from what we believe is good about God. The power of God lies in neither of those things, for it is its own power, which does not originate in us. We often do not understand this, and do not understand the fact that we will not understand how this seed sprouts and grows, because it is He who does both these workings (Mark 4v27).

When we evangelise, our task is to share the gospel of God and also to share anything and everything the Word teaches us. That is the power of the seed, for the seed reveals all the characteristics of God and of our Lord Jesus, and all these things are good. The power of God does not lie in our ability to share the gospel and the Word, or in any parable we may make up, for parables test whether men are being moved by the Spirit of God, or by natural means (means related only to feelings and to the feeding of the flesh i.e when many deserted Jesus due to Him not providing physical bread for them anymore). This is clear from the fact that, straight after Jesus shared the parable in Mark 4 v26-29 and then another parable in the same Chapter from v30-32, He then explained the parable He had spoken to the disciples:

Mark 4v33-34:
With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when He was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Parables actually came as a test for the unsaved; for in their natural understanding, people would have thought Christ was actually talking about a literal seed. But, if they were truly being moved by the Spirit of God, then they would have realised that the seed was speaking about the Word, and the Kingdom of God in spiritual terms, not a literal Kingdom for the present time. Jesus showed the disciples that the power of God lay in the Spirit, not in the flesh and in human ways of understanding or in powers of persuasion. Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus didn't use parables to make the Word easier for the unsaved to understand. And that is where the Church has run in to much trouble, for we have often diluted the Word of God in only giving likenesses to the Kingdom, which actually giving the truth as it really is, and in full. When this happens preaching and evangelism becomes a useless, fleshly thing.

The only way Christians will ever know if they are having an effect on this world, and are seeing true conversions, will be to preach the Gospel and the Word as it truly is- not by compromise or by half measure, but by any and every part of the Bible. The test must be given by showing the truth as it is, and not fearing that we may lose because of it, for that is not trusting God, but trusting in ourselves and in our own strength, and showing that, at least in part, we have selfish motives for preaching and evangelising. That is a preaching out of fear and the flesh, and there will come bad fruit from it.

Jesus taught us that the power of God lies in the Spirit and in His work to grow the seed and to make it fruitful. We will often not understand how this works, for the world says that it will only love God if God has something good for them, according to their understanding of what good is. The world says that they will love God if He suits their desires and does what they want Him to do. But that is contrary to truth, for God is the only God there is, and we are only His creation. We must serve Him and we must follow and obey Him, not the other way around. We serve His desires and His truth, and not our own desires and understanding. Whereas the Word often offers up hard truths and things difficult for us to understand and accept. The Word says that those that follow Jesus will have to suffer and will face many hardships. The Word says that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross, and it says that in this world we will have tribulation.

We must trust that God knows what is best for people and the unsaved, whereas we don't. If we do this, and preach the Word and Christ as He truly is, then we will be sure to see the power of God. God will take care of us, and He will also take care of those that rightly respond to that preaching. He will take care of His work and grow it and make it fruitful in a way that passes our understanding. God will build His Church, and the gates of Hell, and all powers of men will not prevail to hinder this, or to destroy it in any way.