Some of you may wonder what this looks like. If you have hung around the more charismatic side of our family, this verse could mean a lot of things. Not that I have any problem with charismatic expression. I just believe that Paul is pointing to a greater demonstration of power & the Spirit. He is speaking of a demonstration that impacted these people toward faith in Christ. There was something tangible, visible, & powerful about the way in which he embodied the Gospel. THAT...is what I'm after.
Many people in our family have been caught up in debate. They believe that Apologetics is the best way to present the faith. The problem I have with this approach is that apologetics was meant as a defense of the faith. While we are called to give a defense to what we believe, I don't think being defensive is the best approach, nor the best embodiment of what we believe. The faith we possess is meant to be embodied through demonstration.
Demonstration - a making manifest, showing forth, a proof. I believe this was our design from the beginning. The fact that we were created with image & likeness gives proof to the fact that we were always meant to manifest God in the earth. Sharing our faith should not be any different. My approach in ministry is not to get people to simply say a prayer. I want them to encounter the goodness & love of God. I want there to be a moment where they are not just convinced in their head but to know in their heart that God has spoken to them. This is where a demonstration of power & the Spirit is vital in all that we do. Demonstration forces us to embody the faith. How we live, the compassion that we display, the sincerity in our approach, all of these things matter. It's not enough to have good witnessing tools at our disposal. A sensitivity to the Spirit of God becomes our greatest asset. Hearing the Lord, responding to Him, and making Him manifest in our lives is the greatest proof we can possess.
Paul reminds the church at Corinth about his embodiment of the Gospel because there were many of them who had begun to create camps within the Body. Some were saying they were of Paul. Others claimed allegiance to Apollos. There was a group aligning themselves with Peter. They even had a Jesus only crowd in their midst. He wanted these believers to understand the reason he carried the message the way he did. He did not want their faith to be built upon the arguments (or wisdom) of man, but to have sheer confidence in the power of God. This is why I am passionate about verses like this one. This is why I often talk about seeing the Lord manifest in the way we minister to others. Our arguments will often fall on deaf ears, but that which comes through the power of the Holy Spirit is quite different.
How do I flesh this out? For me, personally, it means entering into a dialogue with people. Having a conversation. Listening to them & the Lord at the same time. It is amazing to me how quickly He moves in those moments. Words of knowledge, discernment, & the prophetic speaks volumes to people. I'm not there to win an argument. I'm there to win a person. While I know how to debate and reason, I choose to let the Spirit of God manifest Himself in me & in them.
I don't know what it looked like in Corinth when Paul chose to be a demonstration. I can imagine.
I imagine him sharing a word of prophecy that touched the life of an individual. I imagine him healing the sick in their midst. I imagine him creating such an atmosphere of love & goodness that people could not resist the Good News. I imagine that he did take them through a historical understanding of Jesus coming into the world, giving His life, and being resurrected from the dead. I imagine that he was able to give a good defense of what he believed, all the while ushering these people into a new found freedom in Christ. Whatever it was, and however it happened, he was able to call them to remembrance.
Here's what I believe: I believe the reason Paul focused on the demonstration of power & the Spirit is because he didn't want faith in Christ to fall into another philosophy of the day.
Oh how the Gentiles loved their philosophy. They enjoyed discussing, debating, and reasoning about the new ways of thinking. Paul showed up with something different. Faith in Christ wasn't the new philosophy on the block. This message came with power. We need to remember that Jesus sent His disciples out with more than a message. They were to heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, & preach the Good News. It wasn't words alone that would win the nations. It was demonstration. It was an embodiment of the message. It meant bearing in their bodies the marks of the Lord, becoming a spectacle, and bringing people into an experience.
Jesus told the religious leaders of His day: "If you don't believe my words, then believe the miracles."
The majority of the church today says: "If you don't believe my words, then bow to my arguments."
Why not be a demonstration? Why not seek to embody the Gospel with all of its good news and all of its power? Let the Holy Spirit be the game changer. Trust me. He is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine.
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