2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

How many people that you know, glory in their infirmities? This chapter of 2 Corinthians highlights the difference between the one who boasts in order to elevate themselves, and the other who boasts in their weaknesses so that Christ might be elevated. There is a great chasm between the two camps. We see clearly in 2 Cor 12 that the power of Christ is manifested not by dreams or visions or even out of body experiences to places such as ” the third heaven, but rather the power of Christ is manifested in his humbled servants who can see and are not ashamed of their infirmities. Now why would this be? Surely the fantastic element of the supernatural would draw people? Yes indeed it does, but not to Christ. It draws them to the one who “boasts,” of them. Paul’s greatest desire is that the power of Christ may rest upon him and that all men would be drawn towards Jesus, not himself.

If you are looking for  the difference between a true shepherd of Christ, or a hireling, listen to what they say. Many elevate themselves by telling stories of spiritual “adventures.” They want to show you how important they are in spiritual matters and will boast, over and over again, about these matters. Paul does the opposite. Listen to what he says that he takes pleasure in for Christ’s sake.1. Infirmities. 2. Reproaches. 3. Needs. 4. Persecutions. 5. distresses. He has fully grasped the tremendous spiritual truth that when we are weak then He is strong. The power of Christ rests upon those who understand that His grace is sufficient for us and His strength in us is “made perfect” by our weakness. The name it and claim it folks, the prosperity people cannot understand this. To them, healing is everything because in the end it is all about them. They desperately want the healing and their very lives are a denial of the sufficiency of God’s grace.The hirelings they follow desperately want any healing so that they can boast in that and elevate themselves.

Consider Paul and Silas in the dungeon. Were they not weak? Were they not reproached? Were they not persecuted? Were they not in distress? Yes indeed and so much more. Yet, incredibly, Paul says that he takes pleasure in these things. And this very incident in the dungeon proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gods word through Paul was more than just words. He lived this life. The power of Christ did rest upon him for this very reason. And this in no way inhibited the supernatural power of God, quite the opposite. It is from a place of glorifying God, whether we live or whether we die, that His perfect strength is demonstrated in us. Why do we see so few miracles? Because we do not embrace the sufficiency of His grace. We, self, must have what we want, what we consider we need. Our very lives seem to be all important when in actual fact all that is important is the glory of God. It’s in this glory that God operates. Brothers and sisters, when we can glorify God in our infirmities (The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord) then we can manifest His perfect strength through us and show the world what it truly means to walk in the all sufficient grace of God as His power rests upon us.