Have you ever thought to yourself, 'I wish I lived during the times of the apostles or the time of Acts where miracles seem to happen all the time!'
Or have you ever asked, 'Why doesn't God move in powerful ways today like He did back in Egypt for the Israelites? Why don't I experience God moving in powerful ways in my life today?
If you have, you're in good company because the average Christian feels this way.
That we believe in a great, big God who can do the impossible, but just don't experience it.
In many ways, some Christians let this idea affect their thinking and start to feel and believe that they are some sort of second-rate believer because they're not experiencing these spiritual highs we read or hear about.
If you're in this camp, does that mean you're the problem?
Does God not work in supernatural ways like He did in the bible?
Well, Maybe but maybe not?
Here's a caveat before I hop in.
FIRST PREMISE:
Before you scroll away, our God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Theologians call Him 'Immutable', meaning He can't and doesn't change, because He is literally perfect.
“"I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” (Mal 3:6, NIV)
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb 13:8, NIV)
“But you remain the same, and your years will never end.” (Psa 102:27, NIV)
The fact that He is the same, and claims to be the same, should first show us that what He has done before He will do again. That if God split the seas once, He can and will again. If God fed millions in the desert, He can and will again. If God raised Lazarus from the dead, He can and will again.
SECOND PREMISE:
God works through people. This simply means that we play a role in whether God is able to work in our lives or not. Take for example a time when Jesus, fully God and fully man, said He could not do many miracles here because of their lack of faith.
“When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home." And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” (Mat 13:53-58, NIV)
THIRD PREMISE:
God wants the best for his children, and means no harm to us.
“"Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11, NIV)
Jesus says in John 10:10 that the whole point in which He came to earth was to save us. To bring us Life! This is God’s heart and desire to the core.
So if God is the same, who does and desires to do miracles and a major thing between us and experiencing them is ourselves,
Here are my 4 thoughts and suggestions to help us work through them.
Stop Normalizing culture.
When we normalize culture, we choke our faith.
Many of us have gotten used to living like the world.
Because we live in the world, we adopt its culture to a certain degree, even in church. We then treat culture as if it’s from God. This leads to many problems that are not new.
For example, the Israelites did not learn how to leave their learned culture from Egypt and slavery and suffered for it all the way into the promised land.
The new believers in Jesus who were Jews, struggled to welcome Gentile believers into the fold and also struggled to co-exist because of the major differences between Jewish and Gentile cultural customs. This caused so much divide and division within the early church that many of the New Testament letters address.
We are no different.
When we choose to live like the world, and pretend that their traditions or festivals or celebrations don’t mean anything, we deceive ourselves.
“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Eph 5:11, NIV)
I’m not saying let's be celibate or monks, but we have to use wisdom and discernment and stop pretending that we can participate in evil and carry that with us as if God protects us when we willingly choose to step into glorifying evil.
The Israelites repeatedly tried to worship Baal and were not protected from it but punished for it.
Think about it from their perspective, they just wanted life. Baal worship meant fertility and growth in crops and that’s not bad on the surface. But they were punished time and time again because at its core, it was evil. They were worshiping an Idol at its core.
This is a needed cleansing process that leads to a sound mind instead of the confusion many of us experience between what is of God and what isn’t, and what to participate in.
One common theme I find this helps heal is the idea that things in our world are just physical and not spiritual. That’s not true.
There are spiritual aspects to almost anything physical in our world. What I mean is, almost everything physical has a spiritual ramification. And I say almost because it’s not everything, but definitely more than we give it credit for.
When we begin to normalize evil, we loose touch with God, and that is the enemy's plan. That we would grow so numb to things that are spiritual and live in ignorance while under attack.
What better way for the enemy to defeat you than to make you think there is no war or better yet, no threat?
So protect yourself from the kind of shows you watch like horror movies that glorifies death, to the kind of music you listen to that objectifies women or idolizes money or encourages sensualism. Guard your heart.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Pro 4:23, NIV)
Re-Focus
A mission-less mindset only leads to a lackluster faith.
Most christians don’t realize that their life isn’t theirs. Most have lost focus of what life should truly be about. The reason why many don’t experience God is because they are busy living life for themselves. And here’s the problem, when we are lost in our own world, we forget God’s.
God empowers us for a mission driven by His vision. He’s made us for intimacy with Him according to His vision. He designed us to change the world according to His vision. He formed us with beauty and creativity by His vision. He created us to thrive by his vision.
But how can we live to God’s vision for us, when we are more focused on our own vision for our lives?
When we don’t live with God’s mission as the most important thing in our lives, we lose focus of everything else. We miss out on His plans and purposes and it gives way to disengaging from Him.
If serving God in your local church is not a priority to you, if giving is not a priority to you, if praying for the lost is not a priority to you, if loving your neighbor is not a priority to you, that will only open the door to feeling less and less connected to God.
Cue in the lackluster faith.
The ones who say they believe in God but don’t really feel it. The faith that has no real power because it’s empty. Like the seeds scattered on the rocks. See Jesus’ parable of the sower for context.
When we have God’s Mission as first priority, nothing connects us more and encourages us more.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."” (Act 1:8, NIV)
Anticipate
Faithless expectations lead to more faithlessness.
Many of us carry disappointment from asking God for provision in the past, only to be seemingly un-answered. This leads many of us naturally, to expect less or rather, to expect to be disappointed and hence our expectations are lowered or faithless. Not based on what our God can or wants to do, but based on our disappointments.
We approach God with expectations based on our past experiences which leads to us asking very little if anything of God. It's a defense mechanism against being disappointed again. But here’s what we dont see, it's what hinders us from experiencing the full power of God in our lives.
See Jesus once said this,
“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (Joh 16:24, NIV)
And his half brother James reiterates this as well in James 4:2.
We have to have faith-filled expectations. But how do we do that when we ask for things that still don't come to pass? Well I do this which helps me.
Point 1 - Ask God for what is on your heart. But make sure you hold it loosely because we don't know what God's will is and all of the ramifications of something miraculous happening.
Point 2 - We don't stop asking unless God prompts us to. There are times when what we are asking for is not in line with God and His heart or nature. In those times it’s important to step back, and re-reflect on the reason why we want what we are asking for.
Point 3 - When what we've asked for seems to be un-answered, we should do 4 things.
1) We choose to trust that God has a better plan in store
2) We choose to trust that God is still working all things for our good
3) We confess that we don't know or understand all things, and have to relinquish control to God
4) We choose to believe that it could still happen and God could be answering our prayer, it just doesn't look like what we thought it would.
And we have to accept that God is doing what is best because He is all powerful and knows best.
Think about it.
Do you think Joseph son of Jacob wanted to be enslaved for years and imprisoned for over 13 years to help Israel avoid famine?
Do you think Israel wanted to wander the desert for so many years before entering the promised land, when in all truth they were just a short distance away?
Do you think Samson wanted to end his reign as judge, chained and blinded by the Philistines?
No, not at all!
But God used what He could, with the complexities of free willed human beings, and still brought the best for everyone.
Have child-like faith
What do I mean by that? Observe any child and you’ll see how a child holds onto the wonder of each moment as if it were everything. Children don’t often consider the ramifications of a choice for their future, but are filled with the desire and passion of what is in the moment.
They ask for what they want in the moment and just as quickly are able to move onto the next thing and forget what they wanted just a moment ago.
When you approach God, ask like a child.
Ask with everything you have without it being everything to you.
Ask for what you desire unapologetically, but don’t hold onto it when it doesn't happen. Move onto what’s next, and let God handle the rest.
“And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat 18:3, NIV)
I hope this was helpful!
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Pastor Reuben
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