1126 灵力的焦点
…只夸我们主耶稣基督的十字架…《加拉太书 6:14》
如果你想认识在你肉身中神的大能（即耶稣的复活生命），你就必须思想神的悲剧。抛开你对自己灵命状况的个人担忧，以完全敞开的灵来思想神的悲剧，神的能力立刻就会在你里面。 「仰望我」（以赛亚书 45:22），注意外在的源泉，内在的力量就会在那里；我们失去力量是因为我们并未专注于正确之事。十字架的功效是救恩、成圣、医治等等，但我们不应该传讲这些；我们是要传讲「耶稣基督并他钉十字架」（哥林多前书 2:2），宣扬耶稣自会发挥其作用。在你讲道中专注于神的焦点，即使你的听众似乎并未注意到，他们也将不再一样。如果我分享我自己的话，它们对我来说并不比你对我讲的话更重要。但如果我们彼此分享神的真理，我们就会一次又一次地遇到它。我们必须关注属灵力量的伟大点——十字架。如果我们与那个力量核心保持接触，它的能量就会在我们的生活中释放出来。在圣洁运动和属灵经历聚会中，焦点容易不放在基督的十字架上，而是放在十字架的果效上。
今日教会被批评为软弱，这种批评是有道理的。软弱的原因之一是没有把注意力集中在灵里力量的真正核心上。我们没有思想够加略山的悲剧或救赎的意义。
来自章伯斯的智慧
对那些没有经历过痛苦的人，耶稣说：「我没有什么可以给你的；站稳自己的脚，挺起自己的肩膀（挺身而立）。我是为这样的人而来：知道自己所面对的远超出他能应付的，知道有他无法触碰的势力；若他放手让我来，我必为他做一切的事。只要让一个人承认他有需要，我必出手帮助他。」《痛苦的阴影》
1126 The Focal Point of Spiritual Power
…except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14
If you want to know the power of God (that is, the resurrection life of Jesus) in your human flesh, you must dwell on the tragedy of God. Break away from your personal concern over your own spiritual condition, and with a completely open spirit consider the tragedy of God. Instantly the power of God will be in you. “Look to Me…” (Isaiah 45:22). Pay attention to the external Source and the internal power will be there. We lose power because we don’t focus on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these. We are to preach “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. Concentrate on God’s focal point in your preaching, and even if your listeners seem to pay it no attention, they will never be the same again. If I share my own words, they are of no more importance than your words are to me. But if we share the truth of God with one another, we will encounter it again and again. We have to focus on the great point of spiritual power— the Cross. If we stay in contact with that center of power, its energy is released in our lives. In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings, the focus tends to be put not on the Cross of Christ but on the effects of the Cross.
The feebleness of the church is being criticized today, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the feebleness is that there has not been this focus on the true center of spiritual power. We have not dwelt enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of redemption.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.” –The Shadow of an Agony, 1166 R