125. STRENGTH AND POWER
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My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (2Cor.12:9;4:7).
1. It must be the oil that burns and not the wick, for the wick without oil shall destroy itself! You must let Him burn to light the way, and not try to burn of yourself, or you'll soon burn out, and have no light left for your Master!
2. It is not I that burn, but Christ must burn within me, to give pure light, smokeless light, clear light, beautiful light! (Gal.2:20) You can be a beautiful wick but still burn black, with so little oil! You must soak yourself in more oil, that you burn not, but let Him burn through you to give light to all the house!
3.I've turned on the faucet.--Is the faucet working? No, it's not!--The faucet is doing nothing! It's the power and the pressure from outside that causes the water to flow through the faucet! All you do is turn it on and it flows with effortless ease! The faucet is just the channel, just a hole to let the water in and out. You say the faucet's working? The faucet is not working!--It's the water that is working! The faucet is just letting it flow! The power isn't in the faucet. The power is outside. The pump is outside, but it creates pressure in the faucet, so all you have to do is release it and let it flow. Just open the faucet and let it roll!
4. I'm a very small man, but I have a very big God Who is more than big enough for the job!
5. Sometimes God has to make you so stupid that you can't even think, to show you are an idiot and can do nothing without His help.
6. When you're the weakest in the flesh--you're the closest in the Spirit.
7. Do what you can do, and God will do what you can't do.
8. Only God knows what to do and only God knows what he wants done, and only God can do it.
9. When you've got good ideas up your sleeves, God must be on the other end of your sleeve inspiring you!
10. God's requirements are met by God's enablings.
11. He will give you power for the hour, grace for the space and wisdom for the wonder!
12. Man's extremity is God's opportunity.
13. One, on God's side, is a majority.
14. It's humanly physically impossible to do everything! You just have to do what you can do day by day, and leave the rest to the Lord. If you can't do it, He has to.
15. I can of my own self give nothing and of my own self see nothing but what the Father giveth through me and what He showeth me!
16. You can't impart something you haven't got! If you haven't had the input, how can you have the output?
17. Without Him you can do nothing good and anything bad.
18. If you don't know how you're going to make it, He can make it for you.
19. People don't realise the power of the Name of Jesus, and without that Name there is no power!
20. In the Name of Jesus there is power, because God has confined Himself to work through the power of the Name of Jesus Christ!
21. If God can't do it, nobody can.
22. There's nothing too small for the Lord or too hard for Him.
23. Watch the diamonds of dust! They don't try to sparkle & shine. They just let the light shine through them.
24. Don't underestimate the power that God has given you.
25. It takes an impossible situation for God to do a miracle!
26. God will never give you more than you can take care of!
27. May the best win!--To the strongest!--But sometimes to the weakest, who depend more on the Lord's strength than their own wisdom.
28. God never gives you burdens greater than you're able to bear!
29. Nothing can limit the power of the Spirit of God!
30. The Lord anoints according to the need.
31. All He expects you do to is obey & He'll do it through you. He enjoys using you, confining the majesty & the power of His omnipotence to little frail men & women!--God in the hands of men!
32. When you're weakest in the flesh, then you're strongest in the Spirit.
33. God helps both those who help themselves & those who can't help themselves. He helps those that help, themselves with what they can't do, and helps those that can't help themselves with what they can't do.
34. There's no limit to what you can do if you follow God!
35. The power & the spiritual atmosphere you carry with you is like an electric shock, it's the Lord!
36. When you get under pressure & persecution, the Lord gives you a special anointing, special revelations, even more than you had before, to encourage, guide and help you!
37. I know you can do it, because I know He can do it through you, as long as you depend on Him and His letters and let them be the leaders!
38. He sometimes seems to be more limited by many than by few, like with Gideon! (Judges 7:2)
39. With Him, you're everything and you can do anything.
40. You can't deal with problems in your own strength & wisdom. It'd be better if you didn't get involved at all.
41. We do the possible, and He does the impossible!
42. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
43. Got any rivers you think are uncrossable,
Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specialises in things thought impossible,
And He can do what no other friend can do.
44. We are just little straws, but we have a mighty big wind pushing us along! You are only a little straw at which they grasp, but you can pick them up by the power of His Spirit & save them!
45. It's the Spirit, God's Spirit,
That makes you alive.
Don't think it's you
Or you'll never survive!
46. When you're weak and incapable & insufficient, then God has a chance to be strong and capable and sufficient in you.
47. I cannot, but God can!
O balm for all my care!
The burden that I drop,
His hand will lift and bear!
48. There is a power to lift you up which is stronger than all the things that hold you down.
49. Onward Christians, onward go
To join the war and face the foe!
Will ye flee in danger's hour?
Know ye not your Captain's power?
50. Don't tell me you can't, because if you couldn't, God wouldn't have asked it of you!
51. God's power is creative & loving, the Devil's power is destructive & hateful!
52. You're armed with the power of the love of God, the Spirit and His Word, the power of faith which results in works of love, & they cannot resist it!
53. When you're so weak you don't feel capable or sufficient, then God has a chance to take over & do things to suit Himself.
54. The Lord never lets you down quite all the way, even though it's your own foolish mistakes, disobedience and unpreparedness which has caused all the trouble!
55. Little is much when God is in it!
56. Little is something if God is in it, & big is nothing if God isn't!
57. God is the one that does it! It's God's breaks that make the openings!
58. Like St. Dominic, I would have to say to my enemies, "Yes, you're right:--I'm guilty of all of these things! In fact, I'm much worse than you even think: I'm terrible! But look at the Lord: Isn't He wonderful?"
59. If God's not in it, you'll never make it!
60. You cannot do the Master's Work without the Master's Power!
61. God is not limited by few or by many! (1Sam.14:6)
62. God gives you power for the hour and grace for the trial--when the hour comes and when the trials occur--not before!
63. With God all around you, even your nothing can be something!--In fact, you can be almost anything!
64. God helps those who help themselves, but He also helps those who can't help themselves. And He doesn't help those who can help themselves but won't! The Lord never seems to do anything for those who can do it themselves.
65. If you've got God with you, you're unbeatable, no matter how small you are!
66. One man against the World with God is more than a match for the Devil!--One man and God are a majority!
67. Without Him you're nothing, But with Him you're everything!
68. The power that God has given you is able to destroy the works of the Enemy.
69. Little weak, tiny, vulnerable man with his brains and the blessing of God conquered the Earth against dinosaurs!
70. His Love, Joy, Name, Power, Spirit and Words still work wonders 'round the Word!
71. You have Jesus so you have His power!
72. Are you equal to the Task?--No, but God is!
73. When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time you become aware that God is enough.
74. When I'm tired, I'm weary and I'm worn,
And fighting to survive,
In my very weakness,
Christ then comes alive!
75. It's all God's and He can take it all back if He wants to, including your life!
76. If it come, it come! If it don't come, it don't come! If you're a receiver, you'll get whatever He wants to give you in His time and His way.
77. Having so much natural strength and drive is the very thing that stands in the way of the Lord showing His strength.
78. God doesn't push His help on people when they reject it, and especially when they don't appreciate it and refuse to cooperate with Him.
79. The only way to keep a broken vessel full is to keep it always under the tap.
80. We're not "Christian Triers", but "Lord Letters".
81. The dumbest person depending on God can outsmart the smartest person not asking God for help.
82. "Without Me ye can do nothing! Ye would be as candles without tallow, as lamps without power, as flowers without fluid, as urns without oil and as empty vases full of nothingness and useless! But glorify Me in all things, then shall they candle be exalted, and thy urn be full of oil and thy vase flow freely with the Water of Life, and thy flower shall not wither, thy power shall not fail and thy wisdom shall not cease forever!"
83. People have to see you, but they've got to see Jesus coming through you!
84. Christians are kind of childlike and stupid and a little bit dumb, that's why God can use them and that's why God works through them, confounds the mighty with the simple things, and has not revealed these things to the wise and prudent, the smart and worldly people, but unto Christian babes like you and me. "Except ye become as a little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God." People with the most education have the hardest time, you can't get past their heads.
85. "Then thou shalt continue to be a light unto My people & to quench their thirst for everlasting water & to heal their wounds & give beauty for ashes & wisdom for foolishness, & shalt pour forth thy life upon the dry ground that it may bring forth fruit.--Thou shalt glorify Me, the Author and the Finisher of all things, if thou shalt burn only with My power and flow with My life, and speak by My Spirit, and give Me the glory, and not thyself, lest thou become as one of them who have died and in whom there is no life."
86. All of God's great spiritual giants were weak men who were made strong by His power.
87. Give me a task too big
Too hard for human hands
Then shall I come at length
To lean on Thee;
And leaning find my strength.
88. The small boy was trying very hard to lift a heavy object. His father coming into the room and noting the son's struggle asked him. "Are you using all your strength?" "Yes, of course I am," the boy impatiently exclaimed. "You are not," the father answered. "You haven't asked me to help you."
89. You'll never have the spiritual strength and stamina nor the spirit that will even sustain your bodily stamina to keep going to get out the Word unless you yourself are drinking in the Word and being spiritually nourished and strengthened by it yourself first.
90. Give God all the credit all the time at every turn for every little thing and He will never fail to continue to prosper and empower you.
91. It is God that gives us the strength and God that has done it all. We are the work of God, the work of His fingers, and we give Him all the glory!
92. All glory be to Jesus! He's the One that does it all. We're merely His yielded instruments, vessels of clay in the hand of the Potter!--Merely doing His will and serving His purpose for which we were called and ordained before the foundation of the Earth!
93. The minute you start patting yourself on the back you're finished and God will see to it that you're humbled to bring you out of it! He's a jealous God, and He deserves the glory and will have no other god before Him. So you better not start admiring your own arm of the flesh or you're apt to lose it!
94. "Be not thou therefore as they, but glorify Me in all things!--Then shall thy candle be exalted and thy urn full of oil and thy vase flow freely with the water of life and thy flower shall not wither, thy power shall not fail, thy wisdom shall not cease forever."
95. Trust Him and His grace and His love and His mercy and give Him all the glory and all the credit. If there's anything good you ever do, do you give Him the glory? Do you say, "Thank You Jesus! Don't thank me, thank the Lord, it's all the Lord."
96. That's what the Lord looks upon as saintliness: The person who knows he's a sinner and therefore gives God all the glory. If anything good comes of what we've done, as Paul said, "I know that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing." (Rom.7:18) There's nothing good about me or my flesh, it's only the Lord.
97. God is the One Who wants to get the credit. God is the One Who wants to get the glory, God is the only One Who can do it and then He wants you to praise and thank Him and glorify Him because He did it. Because if you could do it, you could pat yourself on the back for it and say, "Well, look what I've done! Look how great I am! Look how wonderfully I'm doing!"
98. You better keep saying, "Wow! Look what God has done! Look at what the Lord's doing! Look at how great He's working! Look how many disciples He's getting!" Whatsoever you do in word or deed do all to the glory of God!
99. Men of force are men of faults, and the biggest fault is to keep on going in their own force instead of letting the Lord do it.
100. Just leave it with the Lord, knowing that only He can solve the problems & only He can do the work. We cannot solve the problems, He has to do it. Let go and let God!
101. It's all the Lord, it's all His love! Your the vessels of His love to manifest His love to others, you're the vessels through which He pours out His love! You are the Love of God!
102. You are weak because in your pride you're trying to do things in the energy of your own flesh instead of trusting God for His grace to do it. And the reason you haven't got the faith and can't believe God for sufficient strength is because you're not yielded yet, most of all your pride.
103. You who don't seem to think that you can do anything or are anybody or ever get anywhere, you who are almost too shy to even open your mouth or lift your voice or say a word or do anything, if you'll just keep sweet and be meek and lowly and humble and quiet, God will use you. He'll speak through you and open your mouth!
104. The biggest failures in the Word of God were the bigshot boys who thought they could do it in their natural wisdom and instead went out and fell flat on their faces.
105. People with a lot of drive and talent and personality and natural charm have a hard time really letting go and letting God, because they've got so much to let go of. When they do let go, they think they're drowning or sinking.
106. It's much more difficult for people with a great deal of natural talent to just trust the Lord because they've got so much natural strength and they're used to leaning on that. They're used to having it there and when it's suddenly gone they just collapse.
107. If all the little people in the past have already performed miracles by the scores and scores, both in the Old and New Testament and down through Church History, then the little people of the present can do it too and they don't have to wait for the Tribulation or Millennium or the new Earth, they can do it now!
(See also No. 9, 25, 45, 66, 74, 159, 169, 171, 191, 328, 720, 1091, 1375, 1427, 1493.)
108. GEN.18:14a Is any thing too hard for the Lord?
109. EXO.4:10-12a And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
110. EXO.14:13a,14 Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
111. EXO.15:2 The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him.
112. DEU.8:18a Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.
113. DEU.20:1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
114. DEU.31:8 The Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
115. DEU.33:25 Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
116. JOS.23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you, as He hath promised you.
117. 1SA.2:9 He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
118. 1SA.14:6b For there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.
119. 1SA.17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
120. 1SA.17:47 And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands.
121. 2SA.22:33 God is my strength and power: and He maketh my way perfect.
122. 2CH.14:11 And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude.
123. 2CH.16:7,8 And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, He delivered them into thine hand.
124. 2CH.20:12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.
125. 2CH.20:15b Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.
126. 2CH.20:17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.
127. 2CH.32:7,8 Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles.
128. NEH.4:20b Our God shall fight for us.
129. JOB.42:2a I know that thou canst do every thing.
130. PSA.8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
131. PSA.20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
132. PSA.28:7a The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped.
133. PSA.33:16,17 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
134. PSA.37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble.
135. PSA.44:6 I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
136. PSA.49:6,7 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
137. PSA.60:11 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
138. PSA.68:35b The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people.
139. PSA.71:16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
140. PSA.72:12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
141. PSA.73:26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
142. PSA.84:5a Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee.
143. PSA.89:17,18 For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted. For the Lord is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
144. PSA.105:4a Seek the Lord, and His strength.
145. PSA.118:8,9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
146. PSA.127:1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
147. PRO.21:31 The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.
148. ECC.5:19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
149. ISA.22:11 Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
150. ISA.25:4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
151. ISA.40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
152. ISA.40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
153. ISA.50:4 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
154. JER.10:23 O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
155. JER.17:5 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
156. JER.32:27 Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
157. DAN.11:32b The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
158. HOS.10:13b Ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
159. ZEP.3:17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.
160. ZEC.4:6b Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
161. ZEC.10:12 And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in His name, saith the Lord.
162. MAT.10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
163. MAT.19:26b With God all things are possible.
164. JOH.14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father.
165. JOH.15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
166. JOH.17:7 All things...thou hast given me are of Thee.
167. ROM.7:18a For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.
168. 1CO.1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
169. 2CO.3:4,5 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
170. 2CO.4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
171. 2CO.10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
172. 2CO.12:9,10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
173. GAL.2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
174. PHI.2:13 It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
175. PHI.3:4,7 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
176. PHI.4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
177. COL.1:27b Christ in you, the hope of glory:
178. COL.3:11b Christ is all, and in all.
179. 2TI.4:17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
180. JAM.4:13-15 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
181. 1PE.4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
182. 1JO.4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
183. JUD.24,25 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
(See also 1SA.2:6-8; 1SA.17:36,37,45-47; 1Ch.29:11,12; JOB.12:14-25; PSA.20:8; ISA.31:1-3; ZEC.9:8,14-16.)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family