Commendation of the Philadelphia Believers
The believers in Philadelphia were commended for using their little strength to serve God, keep God’s Word and honor the name of Christ.
‘Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ’ (Ephesians 3:8).
‘To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God’ (Ephesians 3:10).
When they got born-again, they received little measure of Christ’s strength and they used it for Christ without diverting it. They lived their lives for Christ, pleasing Him with their little strength at every giving opportunity. They were crucified for Christ, dead for Christ and everything in it. They considered that without Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, they would have died or be dead in sin. With this in their minds, they decided that the rest of their life on earth must be to please Christ and not self or others. By the time they received Christ’s letter, they were living for Christ and Christ praised them for that.
‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20).
‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (Ephesians 6:10).
Serving God with Little Strength
With their little strength, they were able to serve God without corruption. With their little strength, they were able to remain holy, faithful and loyal to Christ. With their little amount of money, they used it to serve God and managed to maintain faith. With little offering money, tithes and seed of faith, they remained calm to serve Christ with their little resources. They managed to serve God with little strength in their health; they never looked for healing from the devil.
With their little power, their ministers never went to the devil to look for power. They waited until the day Christ wrote to them. With their tribe’s men and women among them, they avoided tribalism, selective judgment or racism. With their little strength, they love God, loved each other, prayed together and trusted God. With their little power, they ignored the false prophets, the prophetess and rejected their prophecies. With their little resources, they met the needs of their members.
With their little resources, they depended upon God, prayed for provision and trusted God to the end. With their little strength, they overcame every enemy; persecutors, lived above division, tribal difference and maintained peace. With their little strength, they overcame their differences, loved each other, pray for the weak and cared for the fatherless. With their little strength, they were bold; they faced every problem together and overcame them. With their little strength, they faced and conquered big troubles, storms of life and afflictions.
With their little strength, they faced every opposition, temptations, Jezebels and kept God’s standard. With their little strength, they preached sound gospel, stood against false teachings, doctrines and immorality. With their little strength, they rejected evil relationship, said no to evil associations and unequally yokes. With their little strength, they refused to be corrupted, defiled or sacrifice to idols. With their little strength, they rejected heresies, sexual sins and problems associated with wrong marriages.
Victory Through Little Strength
With their little strength, they refused to permit wicked relatives to defile holy altars, lead others or control God’s finances. With their little power, small strength, they refused to be seduced by immoral women, evil men and deceivers. With their little strength, they overcame evil influence, immoral lifestyles and misleading agents of the devil. With their little strength, they refused to faint under the pressures of sin. With their little strength, they maintained relationship with one another, with Christ and practiced self-denial. With their little strength, they refused to convert the church to social club, entertainment arena and evil competition for display of wealth. Most of them were not educated, rich, greatly anointed but whatever they had was dedicated to God without a minus.
‘And he must needs go through Samaria’ (John 4:4).
They were strong in the Lord with their little strength, not in witchcraft, false prophesy or fighting one another. Not in waste, stealing God’s money or building personal kingdom. Their strength was small, very little, but they managed it and used it to serve God, used what they had to please only God. Their strengths, promotions, wealth’s, transfers did not come from charms, witch doctors, occult group or from demon possessed godfathers.
With little strength, they were strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. They never despised that little strength because they knew it came from God. That little strength was small but it is greater than the power in the whole world put together. Any gift you receive from God is greater in quality and quantity than every other thing in this world. If you receive a little power from God, it is greater, bigger and better than every other power on earth. You can overcome the devil, his agents and all the problems of this world with any little power from God.
You can overcome any problem, any mountain, and every opposition with a little power from God. You are richer, better, greater than the whole world with a little measure of God’s strength.