A divine arrangement is a certain method or rule by which God works. Never ask Him to change to accommodate your mind; adapt yourself to His method.
II Timothy 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Sound mind is a bad translation; a better one is discipline. God says, to build this strange, mystical thing–the new man–“I will give you, first of all, POWER, then love and a sound mind [discipline].”
Now, why did He begin with power? Because power is the dynamic by which the whole thing is made manifest. No need messing around trying to get love or something else. The whole thing is based on a dynamic power God furnishes, which is the Holy Spirit. You will find the same order in the Old and New Testament, and in your heart and mine. Whenever you See an arrangement like that in the Bible, leave it the way it is written. Some would put love first, instead of power, but we can’t change it. There is a divine order.
From creation on, everything that we have comes through the power of the Spirit: (In the Old Testament the word is ruach, and in the New Testament it is pneuma). They both have the same idea of breath or life–the outbreathing, ruach; the breath of God–that is Spirit; that is Life; pneuma, breath–pneumonia, pneumatic tire, air, breath, spirit; all come from the same word.
Why do we have the breath of Life? Because we can’t receive anything in creation without it. We have it in the life of Jesus. He was conceived by the Spirit; born of the Spirit; baptized in the Spirit; He ministered in the Spirit. His whole life moved in the power of God, called the Holy Spirit, and He lived in it, moved in it, ministered in it; and even when He died, the resurrection was by the Eternal Spirit. If all that was needed in the life of Jesus, how much more we need the power of the Spirit in our lives! We can’t get anywhere without the Holy Spirit.
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