"Fathers, provoke not your children, that they be not discouraged." - Colossians 3:21
There is more instruction in the New Testament for parents than for children. This may be because the occupation of being a parent is harder than any other. It requires a God-given sensitivity. Authority must be used with restraint, because its excessive use may stiffen resistance. This verse warns us that insensitive parents can easily provoke their children to the point of discouragement.
In every way you are stronger than your child. You may subdue him by an overbearing will or simply by your physical strength. If you goad him to such an extent, then he will just wait for the day of liberation. When that day comes, he will throw off all restraint and claim freedom in everything. Ask yourselves, therefore, what kind of home it was that led the needy son to resolve, 'I will arise and go to my father.'
The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Colossians 3
Showing posts with label authority. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authority. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Power of Jesus' Name
"By what power, or in what name, have ye done this?" - Acts 4:7
Our eyes must be opened to see the mighty change wrought by the ascension. The name of Jesus certainly establishes the identity of the One in the throne with the Carpenter of Nazareth, but it goes further than that. It represents the power and dominion before which every knee in heaven and earth and beneath the earth must bow. Even the Jewish leaders recognized that there could be this kind of significance in a mere name, when they asked this question of the disciples concerning the lame man's healing.
Today the name tells us that God has committed all authority to His Son, so that in the very name itself there is power. But further, not only is it His, but it is "given among men". He has placed that authority in our hands for us to use. In three passages in His last discourse the Lord Jesus repeats the words "ask in My name". What confidence He must place in us to say, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do!"
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Acts 4
Our eyes must be opened to see the mighty change wrought by the ascension. The name of Jesus certainly establishes the identity of the One in the throne with the Carpenter of Nazareth, but it goes further than that. It represents the power and dominion before which every knee in heaven and earth and beneath the earth must bow. Even the Jewish leaders recognized that there could be this kind of significance in a mere name, when they asked this question of the disciples concerning the lame man's healing.
Today the name tells us that God has committed all authority to His Son, so that in the very name itself there is power. But further, not only is it His, but it is "given among men". He has placed that authority in our hands for us to use. In three passages in His last discourse the Lord Jesus repeats the words "ask in My name". What confidence He must place in us to say, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do!"
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Acts 4
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