Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader - Plough

came new men. The heavens opened, and the Lord broughtthe disciples into a unity with the things of heaven. Powersfrom above descended and covered everything upon earth.And through these powers, everything shall henceforth beovercome, and the powers of darkness shall be trampled underfoot.(Johann Christoph Blumhardt)How is it that everything came to life wherever theapostles preached? They were not great men; they had noearthly wisdom and cleverness, no special way of speakingor gift of oratory. No, it was simply the glory of God, which,in Greece and Rome, in Macedonia and Asia Minor, in Palestineand everywhere, was bearing fruit to his honor.[As with Paul in 2 Cor. 12], it is quite natural that the extraordinaryshould come forth in a person who is truly freedand born again as a new creature, standing, therefore, in anew, totally different relationship to God from that of mostpeople. If something striking did not show itself, we wouldhave to doubt whether a new creature actually was present.Now we must generalize this thought and say that, if in aChristian community nothing of the extraordinary is experienced—thatis, nothing extraordinary in a recognition andexperience of God, as also in a recognition and experienceof the opposite, of sin and its power—then that communityis in fact incapacitated.