Here On Earth

I hate to be a wet blanket Nicholas but these verses can be a real sore spot for me.

Yes, I can do all things through Christ, verse 12 talks about being abased and hungry and suffering need, and then Paul says he can do all things. This verse is widely miss applied and causes considerable suffering when people think they can do all things and then find out they can’t. Have you ever been to a funeral? Can you raise the dead? Have you lost an unsaved loved one? Can you remove their soul from hell? You can’t do all things.

I have tried to delight myself in the Lord but I still don’t have the desires of my heart. Many people have told me that Ps 37:4 comes to fruit not when we receive our desires but when our desires change so that we find ourselves content in the state where we are.

While heaven is my eternal home, there are lots of things I would like to accomplish here on this earth. Right now I don’t see those things happening. I guess you can tell I am more than a little discouraged right now. These verses sound great, but real life experience keeps telling me they are not true, at least not the way we often interpret them.

 

I believe this verse is talking about God giving us the ability to do his will. I don't think it means that just anything we desire to do we can. It must be looked at in relationship to what God wants for us in our lives. If God calls us to do something, even if it might seem impossible He will give us the strength and enable us.

 

Nicholas25,



After reading my last post I think it might look like I was disagreeing with you. When in fact I was really more agreeing with you in your response to NC Tentmaker's post. Hope is is more clear now.

 

Are you limiting the power of Christ? The verse says "...all things through Christ...". If He wants me to do something supernatural...who am I to say that through Him I can't?

 

Agreed with this, do not limit God.

I believe the key is in verse 11, Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Learning to be content is a difficult thing for most Christians. Here Paul is in a Philippian prison but the Church was taking care of him. He is really saying I can't ask for more from either my brother's or Christ, I'm ok just as I am. And if I do find something that i'm not content with, God will strengthen me in that area so I can be content. I can endure all things through Christ because he will strengthen me or will be my strength.

The icing is the last verse, Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. This also speaks to the verse from Psalms. There are certian things you are not strong enough to have. For a person who worships money, I doubt if God will give you a lot just because you will stray from him.

So how do we contrast "desires of our heart" with "according to his riches?"

 

It's not about limiting God, but about applying Scripture. Scripture doesn't say that we are going to be doing supernatural things during this dispensation. The signs, wonders and miracles are for the Jews.

That doesn't mean that God doesn't still work miracles, but it's not in the same way that we see those things happening in Scripture.

That doesn't mean He couldn't, but it's just not the focus now.

As for the "I" can do all things through Christ, I would agree with what has been said in that unfortunately we have a lot of misapplication when it comes to this verse of Scripture.

"I" can't do squat without God's grace. NOTHING. The amazing thing about God's grace is that He gives me credit and you credit when we allow Him to work through us as if we did it ourselves, but EVERYTHING that is gold, silver or precious stones at the judgment seat of Christ will be a work of God and not of "I".

 

Where does the Bible use the term "dispensation" or say that God can no longer do miracles?

 

This is an argument from silence. I'm not saying that we can raise the dead, but through Christ we could, just as what happened in Acts. Are we not in the same dispensation?

Act 20:9 and a young man named Eutychus was sitting on a window sill and sank into a deep sleep as Paul kept on speaking. When he was overcome by sleep he fell down from the third story, and was picked up dead.
Act 20:10 But Paul went down, threw himself on him, embraced him, and said, "Don't be alarmed, for his life is in him!"
Act 20:11 After going upstairs, breaking the bread, and eating, he conversed a considerable time until dawn. Then he left.
Act 20:12 They brought the boy home alive and were greatly comforted.

 

The Phillippians were concerned about Paul's having been in need and their not being able to help. He writes to encourage and comfort them, saying that in Christ he has strength for any situation, good or bad. His concern is not whether he, or any of us, can raise the dead, and we should be careful about using his words to try to prove something that he did not intend to prove.

 

True in the case of these verses, the Phillipians were poor but wanted adly to help Paul which was great for them.

However, Jesus did say, "Jn 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 he do; because I go unto my Father."

 

Yep, that's a good one. I did not mean to imply that we could not do supernatural things through God's power, I only meant that this was not what Paul was speaking of. There are other passages, like the one you quoted, which speak to that topic.

 

I'll jump in here a minute.

As far as I know the Bible never says, or even implies - 'God can no longer do miracles...', but implies, rather, that He can always do miracles, at His discretion, and in accordance with His own will, IMO. :thumbs: It's called omnipotence, for the 'theological types'!

As to where does the Bible use the term, at least sometimes translated "dispensation", from the Greek 'oikonomia', (and incidentally, from where we get the English word, 'economy') meaning 'stewardship' or'dispensation', try Luke 16:2, although usually here translated as 'stewardship', for starters, as only Jesus (8 times) and Paul (9 times) used the word 'oikonomia' and the cognate words 'oikonomeo' and 'oikonomos', as far as I can tell.

You can find 'oikonomia' actually translated as 'dispensation' in I Cor. 9:17 (KJV); Eph: 1:10 (ASV, KJV, NKJV, WYC, et al.); Eph 3:2 (ASV, KJV, NKJV, YLT, WYC); Eph. 3:9 (ASV, WYC); Col. 1:25 (ASV, KJV, YLT, WYC, DARBY). (Interestingly enough, and as far as I can tell, Col. 1:25 is the only time Darby translates ANY word anywhere as 'dispensation', and he usually gets wrongfully blamed as the originator of, and for all of any perceived evils of 'dispensationalism'.)

Just bein' as you asked! :thumbs: :smilewinkgrin:

Ed

 

Wonderful verses, but I would agree with TentMaker on the Phil. 4:13 verse. Except where he said they are not true. Now granted he did say something to the effect of not true in the way many interpret them.

But we know that the Bible says in John 17:17 that God's Word is Truth. So, there is truth in that verse Paul wrote in his epistle to the Philippians.

As to the Psalm 37 verse, I do believe when we delight in the Lord, even in the most sorrowful of times in our lives, He will indeed give us the desires of our heart. Not our desires that were already there, but He will place desires in our heart.