Good morning. Back to the book of Corinthians. I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. He was not some great orator who tried to persuade them with his words. He determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. That is the crux of the gospel, the message we preach. It is not a "feel good message about me". There is a harsh reality – someone died for me. Back to wisdom: my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God. The world tries to use an argument to convince us that we are wrong. They think that this is something that is in one's head. They don't understand that He is real to us. They are like the people in the book of Acts who scoffed at Paul when he talked about Jesus being raised from the dead. It is after all mind-boggling. Paul didn't just talk about it, he demonstrated the reality of his words through the power of the Holy Spirit. You really can't understand salvation, until you are born again; and you cannot really understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit, until you are also baptized in the Holy Spirit. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. This reminds us of the book of Hebrews where the author was talking about them being immature and needing milk and not solid food. So there is a place for wisdom. Paul continues: a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory. I have a Bible in which someone makes comments on the passages. They are always talking about the beginning stages of what will become Gnosticism. There is a special knowledge (The Greek word for knowledge is where the word Gnosticism comes from) that only certain people can come to know. When you hear someone talking about special people, watch out! Paul then says that the rulers of this age did not understand about God's wisdom; if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Father thank You that we have Your wisdom, Christ Jesus. You said to pray for our leaders. We ask that You impart Your wisdom to Donald Trump; that he govern according to Your will and not his own. We ask that you heal this nation and make it Your own once again.

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