A Monster Amberjack!

1 Corinthians 2:4  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Paul’s message and his preaching, two very specific and different things are mentioned in the passage.  In the same way each of us has a message that we live every day.  Whether that is the message of how we live family, business or relationships, the way we live life is a message that the world is hearing every day.   Our lives are about something. 

Preaching on the other hand is what we have to say about our message.  Who do we give the credit to?  Is our success due to good living, hard work and planning ahead?  While these are definitely good things, in the end, in and of themselves their sum total amounts to Paul’s referenced “wise and persuasive words.”  God has so much more for us than this.

What if both our message, the way we live life and our preaching, what we credit as our source and motivation, were not simply wise and persuasive words, but were instead an actual demonstration of the Spirit’s power? 

What would it look like for your family to be supernatural?  Abraham and Sarah had children in their old age.  How about the little boy whose five loaves and two fish fed 5,000 people?  The widow had a small vase of oil that just wouldn't quit.  Another poor widow's mite amounted in God's eyes to more than all the Pharisee's gold.  Their message was that God can multiply anything no matter the physical circumstances and that his view of supply is a little different from our view! 

What would it look like for your business to be such a demonstration of the Spirit’s power because your nets caught so many large fish that the nets start to break?  What if you got money to pay your taxes the same way Peter did, by getting a coin from a fish’s mouth?  What if we like Jacob, while following the Lord reaped a 100 fold of everything we planted, although the entire world around us is in economic turmoil?

Above is a picture of an 85 pound amberjack that I caught while deep sea fishing several miles off the coast of Louisiana.  An 85 pound amberjack is basically a great granddaddy of amber jacks and it is rare that one ever catches one of this size.  Wikipedia says the average adult amberjack weighs 40 pounds or less...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amberjack .  Like this monster amberjack, let's believe for a demonstration of the Spirit's power by trusting God to help each of us catch the big fish in our families, businesses and our lives!

Jesus said that we could do greater works than him.  Let’s take some time to ask God to transform our lives in such a way that consistently demonstrate the Spirits power.  God’s goal is this…that others faith would not rest on our good advice and hard work, but that their faith would rest in God’s power.