Chapter 3: Beginning at the End of Ourselves

The Importance of Relying on God's Power
The Witchdoctor Story
David opens up this chapter with a nice little story. It is a story of a man named Raden who was ministering to a Christian family in India. While he was speaking with the family, the witchdoctor of the village came in and challenged Raden. Raden went outside and the witchdoctor was challenging him to a fight of some sort. Raden simply told the witchdoctor, "I let my God do the fighting for me." Then as the witchdoctor was about to speak, he started gasping for air and fell over, dead. The rest of the village saw this and were in awe of the power of God that was evident in that situation. Talk about God doing the fighting. Now this story doesn't mean that you should go out and start challenging witch doctors and watch God kill them all off, it is just a story that shows the magnitude of God's power.

We are nothing but weak humans and we rely on God's power in everything we do. In fact, David suggests that God delights in our inabilities as humans and that God uses our inabilities to give glory to himself.

Another example of God shining through our inabilities is the story of Jericho in the Bible. God tells Joshua that they need to march around the city of Jericho for six days and on the seventh day blow the trumpets and give out a loud shout and then the walls will fall. Now when was the last time that you saw an army blow the trumpets and yell and have a city fall down? Yeah, it sounds impossible and that is exactly the point. There was a seemingly impossible situation on earth and God caused it to be possible with his power. God used his power to bring down the walls of Jericho and all the glory went to God. Throughout the rest of scripture there are even more stories of God's power shining through our inabilities.

"God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in his extraordinary provision. He stand ready to allocate his power to all who are radically dependent on him and radically devoted to making much of him."

Now how does God allocate his power to those who are dependent on him and who are devoted to making much of God and nothing of themselves?
The answer is the Holy Spirit. Far too often the Holy Spirit becomes the forgotten God that no one thinks about. But in reality, the Holy Spirit is what God has sent us when we ask for him to provide for us.
When we ask for peace, God sends us the comforter. When we ask for guidance, he sends us the guide. The Holy Spirit. When we ask for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control....God gives us the Spirit who makes all of these things a reality in our lives.
God will provide us with everything we need if we are devoted to him and dedicate our lives to glorifying him.
Jesus even tells us that whatever we ask in His name, he will do it. Jesus means this when He says it, but it doesn't mean that Jesus is a "genie in a bottle." We just don't get what we ask for without anything in return. God will provide for us and give us what we ask for in order for him to be glorified in our life.

That's what it comes down to. We need to be willing to submit ourselves to God, lower ourselves, and raise and glorify God in all things. When we choose to devote our lives to honoring God and glorifying him, he will provide for us in all things.