Experience the Impossible: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven's Power on Earth (10 page)

God’s trust in us is measured by what He has entrusted to us.

W
hen I make this statement, many people think I am referring to wealth, title or fame. I never bring those elements into the equation, for true wealth has little to do with those things. God’s value system is quite different from ours as He looks at everything with eternity in mind. Besides, those things could never adequately reveal the greatness of His heart for us because they are all finite, and His love for us is infinite.

God’s trust in us is seen in His gift to us, the great treasure of heaven—the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ. And with His presence comes His name, His authority, His glory, His joy, His purpose, His destiny. This list of benefits is without end.

The Holy Spirit is so revered in heaven that Jesus warned us that blaspheming Him is to step into eternal judgment. While the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself, both the Father and the Son speak of Him with great love, respect and celebration. And it is that Third Person of the Trinity who resides in us and rests upon us. How much does God trust us, and how much does He trust what He has done in us? Enough to give us the Holy Spirit, the treasure of heaven. That one thought alone could keep us in awe for all eternity.

Every aspect of the life of the believer is made successful or not according to our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Some make the mistake of speaking of the Holy Spirit as an “it.” Tragically, for many He is not a person one can know and interact with. Such a mistake is costly. It is like starving to death while standing next to a refrigerator full of food. The answer to everything in life really has to do with our desire and willingness to listen to and be empowered by Him. Whether it refers to our personal lives or ministries, all is connected to the influence of this indwelling presence of God.

This is why any focus on
our
strength,
our
faith,
our
willingness to obey,
our
surrender,
our
motives is entirely wrong. Now, these things matter. They do. They really, really do. But when I am the focus, I am relying on my own strength. It is about me. It is about my perspective and extremely limited perception of what God has already accomplished for me. And nothing could be more boring or trite. But when He is the focus, there is strength for everything I am assigned to do.

I challenge you to consider how much God believes in you and what He has done in you. Put your faith where His is. I challenge you to start the journey of discovery of how much God really believes in what He has done for you. The answer is: Enough to entrust the revered One, the feared One, the fragile One (in all the right ways) to live within the being of every single follower of Jesus Christ. Shift the focus from yourself to Him, from your faith to His faith, from your understanding to His understanding, from your confidence to His confidence, and you will have endless courage to follow God’s predetermined plan to make you successful in all things pertaining to His Kingdom.

Prayer

Father, You amaze me in every possible way. I need to see the way You do, which is not even possible without Your help. I want to see
the profound nature of Your work on my behalf. I long to see why You are so confident in me, enough to entrust me with the Holy Spirit. Thank You that You have already set the stage for this to be answered. And let this answer be unto the glory of God!

Confession

I believe in the thorough work of Christ on the cross—it was for me. I believe the Father’s perspectives can be mine. So I declare that the blood of Jesus qualified me for the Holy Spirit. I am qualified. I declare that the Holy Spirit qualified me for every good work modeled by Jesus. I am qualified. My confidence is in what God accomplished on my behalf. I will not dishonor Him by embracing fear above faith or turning my focus from Him to myself. My faith is alive, practical and looking for another expression today, that God may be glorified.

Sometimes our breakthroughs begin when we refuse to be impressed with the size of our problems.

I
t is common for me to go to a city and hear statistics about how few believers attend church on a weekly basis, or how many witch covens are within a 25-mile radius of the church, or how revival has not come to that city. It is common to hear how many pastors have quit serving in the area in order to go sell insurance or some other occupation besides ministry. It is way too normal to hear from people who need to be healed that they have been prayed for hundreds of times without any noticeable improvement, or that their disease gives them a less than 1 percent chance of survival, or that their sickness is rare.

This is a real tightrope for me, as I want people to be real and not pretend that something good has happened. Yet the fact remains: Many people are impressed by their problems. They live in reaction to the devil.

I do not mean that they are impressed in the sense of having admiration for the devil or for the issue in their lives. But
they are impressed in the sense that the problem has left an imprint—an impression on their minds—over and above any promise from God or the revelation of His extremely benevolent nature. It is as though they speak self-fulfilling prophecy, as it becomes increasingly difficult for them to see breakthrough, while the same problem yields easily in the life of another who is not impressed with darkness. There is nothing wrong with an honest approach to a problem, but I am never impressed with the size of a problem if I have seen Him or His promises clearly.

I am convinced that some people do not want to be healed. Oh, they would like to be free from pain and affliction or doctor’s bills. But the attention to their problems actually provides great emotional currency. The wrong kind of attention has the ability to fuel the problem, giving it a reason or license to remain. For some, the need for attention and sympathy far outweighs the need for anything else. It is a perversion, to be sure. But it is not as uncommon an attitude as one might suspect. Just about the time you sense they are breaking free from this way of thinking, they begin once more trying to convince you how serious the problem is or how rare a breakthrough is in that area. Strangely it is easier to feel good about not getting a breakthrough when the problem appears big. This weird approach is actually the evidence of unbelief.

Remember the old saying “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”? The attention I receive from the problem feels secure and stable. In this illustration it is the bird in the hand. The miracle of healing or deliverance is much harder to hope for, for then I face the possibility of disappointment. This is the two in the bush. The unrenewed mind values the security of sympathy now over the possibility of a miracle. For with sympathy, at least I know what to expect.

The drive to remain free from disappointment has given place to this hopelessness and perversion of Christianity.

Prayer

Father, I am in great need of seeing what You are like. I have spent way too much time being impressed with the size of my problems instead of being overwhelmed by Your greatness as seen through the promises of Your Word. Please increase the grace upon my life to behold You, clearly. You are all I want. I want to please You with every gaze of my heart. Please allow me the privilege of displaying Your greatness to those You have given me to touch with Your love. I ask these things, all for Your glory and honor.

Confession

By the grace given to me I declare that I will no longer live in reaction to the devil, but will instead live in response to God. His promises are great. He has thoroughly thought through everything I will face in my lifetime and has provided promises for every situation. I refuse to feed my soul on sympathy and pity. I refuse to allow my heart to settle for lesser things. God is a perfect Father to me, and I joyfully embrace His perfect will for my life.

Jesus is building a community of believers who can recognize the source of a word they do not understand.

T
he most profound example of community in the Bible is no doubt the new believers in Jerusalem after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is found in the first few chapters of Acts. Their love for each other was so powerful that the Bible says they had no needs. All of their requirements for food, housing and employment were met. My favorite part of this story is that the sacrificial giving that took place in the context of community was never commanded. It came out of the love they had for God, which was illustrated in the love they had for each other. This is a beautiful picture of love, of community.

Jesus started this reality in the lives of the disciples. While there is not a lot of information about how they took care of these sorts of needs, we do see Him addressing everything from self-promotion, giving and serving to preferring one another. These are all subjects connected to community. It appears that these twelve men, plus Jesus, lived in community as they traveled around the country preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. A
beachhead was established that exploded exponentially in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

I have pastored two different churches in my lifetime. Each of them had a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first one came after I had pastored a group of people for about sixteen years. While there is always a certain measure of surprise and many questions whenever God shows up in powerful ways, the church remained intact throughout that season of great change. New wine is poured into new wineskins because stretching is involved.

When the outpouring of the Spirit came to the second church, it caused great upheaval. It started a month or two after my arrival as their new pastor. As a result, about a thousand people left the church, splitting it in half. What was the difference? In the first church, our relationships helped us weather the mysteries that an outpouring brings. In the second church, I was new and had not yet built the sense of community in which the bond of love would hold us together. Some very wonderful people left as a result.

Jesus was a popular speaker. People would go without food and travel great distances just to hear Him talk and perform the miracles that gave credibility to the message. But that popularity was brought into question one day. There were thousands of people present. Probably close to fifteen thousand people had gathered around Him. He had already multiplied food to feed them. He then decided to preach. His sermon topic was the most offensive of His career. He announced that the people had to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have any part with Him. The community of listeners was divided over His message. As a result, they fought and argued with one another.

A mass exodus ensued. Imagine speaking to thousands, watching them disperse until you are left with twelve disciples. You can imagine how the disciples felt. They were riding His popularity quite well, hoping He would soon become king. Their
aspirations were quickly evaporating. He turned to His community, the Twelve, and stated that His words “are spirit,” and that the Spirit gives life (John 6:63). In other words, what He had just taught the crowd was as full of the Holy Spirit as were the messages the crowds liked. He said only what He heard His Father say. But this time, the people did not understand what was spoken. In fact, they found His words offensive. While the disciples also failed to get the message, they did recognize that when Jesus spoke, they received life (see John 6:68).

In the context of community, there is grace to receive things from God that would be threatening otherwise. Love enables us to extract the richness of life that God intends to give us through a word we do not yet understand. That is a huge part of the life of the follower of Jesus. As someone once said, “God offends our minds to reveal our hearts.” This was never truer than in John 6.

Prayer

Father God, I want to live in love as You designed it. Help me not to live in independence and call it obedience to You. I desperately want my love for You to be measured by my love for people, my sense of community. And in the context of community, help me to embrace those things You have brought my way that are designed for Your glory and for my benefit, even though I may not understand them completely. I trust You and give You praise.

Confession

I will live in love. I will live in community. My heart is set on glorifying God by how I value people. As a result, I have purposed not to react to the things I do not yet understand, but will seek for understanding in the context of my love for God and my love for people. I do these things for the glory of God.

One of my greatest joys is to stand with faith-filled people. But one of my greatest honors is to stand in the midst of unbelief.

J
ust being in a room filled with faith is a joy beyond description. True faith is not burdensome or self-promoting. It does not need to prove itself. Instead, it gives overwhelming confidence in the ever-present goodness of God, the One who acts on behalf of His own.

It is one thing to see an individual with great faith; it is quite another to see the same from a company of people. This is rare indeed. But I believe it is about to become the norm. I am thankful to be able to say that this reality is increasing almost daily. As a result, the exploits that are done for the glory of God are staggering. This biblical mandate of faith is being lived out by a community of believers who have the same level of devotion to Christ. The variety of gifts and expressions creates the most beautiful tapestry I have ever seen. This is the privilege of living in a community of believing believers. But it seldom starts there.

Before there is a community of great faith, there must be a person who puts a stake in the ground and says, “I will live by faith regardless of how many people join me.” Great movements usually start with one person who says he will follow God regardless of who else follows. He seeks to honor God in the way that pleases Him—with great faith. Tragically, I have heard good people state that they are waiting for a spouse to believe before they will pursue this God of the impossible. Others wait for family members or friends. Still others want their church elders to lead the way. Regardless of how sane that reasoning sounds, it is insane. The issue is not, Who should believe with us? It is, What will I do with the God-given moment before me? The grace to believe is a gift from God that must not be disregarded through delay. It is not a disposable commodity. It is a most precious gift from God.

While I will always prefer being able to stand in faith with the great company of believing believers, I embrace the moments when I am forced to stand alone. Those are the moments that shape us. They rid us of that dreadful fear of man that is so often given a virtuous name, such as
honor
or
wisdom
. In those moments we find out what really is in our heart of hearts.

A word of caution in order: Even though I cherish the moments to stand when others do not, these moments must never allow me to ignore the fact that I am still only one member of a very huge Body, and that accountability and honor matter.

Is it possible to stand in faith when those we are accountable to will not? Yes. Never lower your faith to those around you. Instead, demonstrate the authentic nature of your faith through the love and honor shown to those who question your wisdom and position. Remember, faith works through love (see Galatians 5:6). If my faith exists without love, it will be self-promoting and eventually self-destructive. Love never promotes itself. And neither does faith, when it works through love.

Prayer

Father, I thank You for all the moments You give me to honor You through faith, for You are truly the faithful One. Help me to embrace these moments without fear, and even accept that challenge to stand alone when it is needed. I know that the ability to believe when others turn away is not because of my greatness but is the product of Your grace. Thank You. I simply want to bring glory to You through Your wonderful gift of faith.

Confession

I love the privilege of standing with people of great faith. And I will treasure the moments when I find myself standing alone, believing when others have become fearful. The grace of God is more than enough for me in any and all situations, as I was created to bring God glory through who I am and all I do.