Able-ness, Ability, Can-doitition

Divine Able-ness: DEFINED

There should be no surprise that Infinity properly defines God. Raw and infinite power defines God. This is the significance of the MYSTERY OF GODLINESS, that God gives life to the dead.  Even in the incarnation where the majesty of the Godhead is somewhat veiled, raw power and ability are on display. The Word becoming flesh  is called a humiliation and an emptying (Phil. 2:7-8) and even then God’s ability to have his way plays out with amazing outcomes.  The entire experience of the believer is a down payment on the coming glory, and that future remains our hope.  The Spirit of God at work in us is a measured enterprise.  Only of Christ can it be said that his endowments are without or beyond measure. God’s ability does not define us, it saved us; it gave life to the dead. Our new status and our lifestyle are the outcome of extreme – great – love, and think we can agree that it is the greatest thing. In any galaxy and forever people will be singing the praises of the Lamb, and that praise and joyful recognition begin with our conversion. Paul calls us God’s poiema, a finished work started and guaranteed (Ephesians 2:10).

34. “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. (John 3:34-35, NASB)

It is exciting that discussions of God’s power and of the life of believers in the Holy Spirit typically revolves around faith’s victory.  Believing in Christ made us new children of God, and that faith works by love, in service  into triumphalism; that idea that people can do all things because Christ is strengthening them. Triumphalism denies the fact that God allows some things  to come into being only when faith is present, and in the vast majority of cases, the fantastic things, such as a man receiving an amputated arm or leg back or funerals interrupted with any regularity have not been observed, even when the minutest amount of vape is required to move the mountain.

Divine Ableness: UNDERSTOOD

Believers are endowed with many things that were on display in the incarnation, however our finite understanding does not allow us to predict, decree and execute the divine will with CHRIST’s unique integrity.  One mistake, or one misspeak, or one speculation shows our understanding to fall short. In the wider view, if our understanding of DA does not align with or fit into the redemptive scheme of the now revealed things of the Godhead then all we have is the witness of the heavens and the firmament. 

Faith itself provides our understanding of divine being and power

When we say “… can do …” or ask “Could you?” we are addressing power.  It is important to separate fact from fiction. God’s not about to be shown as a false witness or a failure at any level. The Testimony we bring must include gratitude for divine ability and for the pattern of Yeshua’s life, not in the life he has  in glory, but the life he showed in preparation for the cross, and the life at the cross.  All authority and power end at Christ’s throne and his distribution of gifts, whether by interventions or permanent endowments, prospers us.  But we never acquire all power or authority. Salvation does not place us beyond in permanent aseity.  Christ is the Only-Begotten.  We will never be. Christ had life in himself and we do not. In all the circumstances of life we found ourselves supremely conquering.   We do not get to Zion by checking off a list of victories.

A. The act of salvation in the Exodus did not trickle down into the journey to Canaan

B. The act of confirming popular desire did not trickle down into an empire

📜 Because God is able does not mean he acts

📜 God’s spiritual blessings are non-consumable and beyond the mundane needs

📜 His view most always exceeds and supercedes our view. 

Our security is not to be measured by blessing. Food, drink, and shelter, all common blessings, are God’s gifts to all humanity. Christians are not saved from hunger, thirst, and homelessness.

Unbelief, Testimony, Reporting Progress

God turns unbelief  into faith to declare his righteousness.  Wand People Posting Progress are the iconic images of power abuse, because miracles and all kinds of signs and wonders are not the means of saving people, and if there is one unforgettable and lasting exercise of power it is the righteousness of God declared in the cross. On the other hand God’s power is so distinct from our helplessness that wanting to have divine attributes becomes sinful. Under no circumstance or promise do humans become the Eternal God: we partake of divine nature, that is the Spirit, acquire immortal bodies, but we do not ever become omniscient, omnipresent, ineffable, infinite and sovereign potentate. Humility ought to sober us up and heal us of a kind of can-do-all-things aspiration. No-one has ever seen a human grow an amputated limb, but the salamander does several times. Birds have no middle man when they need a house or a meal, but we do.

Gifts from God’s able-ness and great gain

Healing the whole body still leaves the person who prays for it and the one who gets it in need of something more to enter God’s kingdom.  The growth in grace is Exhibit A when God’s able-ness is the foundation of life.   Able-ness – power and ability ≠ intervention.  At its most satisfying level, divine able-ness makes us godly and content, with a river inside of us springing up into eternal Life.