Experience the Impossible: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven's Power on Earth (16 page)

Miracles are often on the other side of inconvenience.

T
he life of miracles is joyful, exiting and frustrating. It is joyful and exciting for all the obvious reasons: People are set free, and Jesus’ name is exalted! It is frustrating because miracles attract into your life people who need a miracle, and not everyone who comes leaves with what he or she came for.

That absence of a miracle presents us with two options: One, I can become satisfied with the absence of the miracle or, two, I can look for solutions, answers and understanding so I can learn to become more effective in this life that Jesus called me into. I chose the latter, which means I am always in school.

One of the more sobering lessons in this journey is seeing how often people pray, expecting God to come to them and bring the miracle. There is certainly biblical precedent for this expectation. But if we read the accounts of Jesus’ miracle ministry with an open heart, we will notice that not one miracle happened the same exact way as another. And sometimes there was an action required before the miracle happened. Sometimes the action was required of Jesus, like spitting on a blind man’s eyes and laying His hands on him (see Mark 8:23). And sometimes an action was
required of the person wanting to be healed, such as directing another blind man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam (see John 9:6). Think about that story for a moment. Does it seem a little odd for Jesus to send a blind man to the pool of Siloam—or anywhere for that matter? He cannot see! The journey could not have been easy for him. And while sometimes people were healed as they went, this man was not. His healing came only after he washed in the pool as he was instructed.

As we read the accounts of Jesus’ miracles, we see that sometimes Jesus brought the miracle to the people, and sometimes the people had to do something to get what they needed. And while we can say their action never qualified them to earn the miracle, we can say that their obedience positioned them for it. The trip to the pool would certainly qualify as an inconvenience for a blind man. But it was required for this man to be healed. And to keep things in perspective, it was not a cruel test from God mocking a blind man. Everything Jesus did was out of wisdom. In this case, wisdom was demonstrated in the assignment.

On another occasion, Jesus spoke with a woman about the miracle her daughter needed (see Mark 7:24–30). As Jesus was sent to minister to the Jews first, this Syrophoenician woman did not qualify for a miracle at that time. Her moment of inconvenience was not in performing a particular action, but in overcoming an offense.

Jesus told her that it was not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. Wow, that seems harsh! Churches have split for far less an offense than that. But throughout Jesus’ interactions with Gentiles, we see that even though their season did not come until after His resurrection, He was always moved when faith was present in their hearts. In some ways, that is probably how He knew what the Father was doing—He recognized a gift from the Father operating in the lives of Gentiles. At any rate, He put a hurdle between the woman and her requested miracle. If she made it over the hurdle of offense, she would
be positioned for the miracle. She did. And Jesus made special note of her extraordinary faith.

This is the bottom line: Thinking that God must come to us without any requirements can be one of the most arrogant approaches to God we can have. Much of what we cry out for in life is on the other side of inconvenience. Learning to get over offenses or learning to take bold actions is sometimes what is required of us to be positioned correctly for the miracle. It is time to hear and see what He is doing so that we do not miss our opportunities for breakthrough.

Prayer

Father God, help me not to think I have the right to demand that You do things my way. I know Your heart is already for me. So please help me to stay away from the fears and anxieties that cloud my ability to hear from You. I receive Your peace and Your promise, and I acknowledge that You are with me for the sake of triumph and victory that was obtained for me in Christ. Thank You in advance for my victorious breakthrough!

Confession

God’s heart is for me, not against me. I declare that Jesus’ blood paid for everything, and that I am positioned for the breakthroughs, signs, wonders and miracles that I need. I confess that God has given me the ability to hear His voice. So I set my heart to be a hearer of the Word that I might step fully into all that God has prepared for me.

When Jesus announced there would be wars and rumors of wars, He was not giving us a promise. He was describing the conditions into which He was sending His last days’ army.

W
e noted earlier that many in this present time have been brainwashed into seeing only evil, expecting evil to increase and then taking comfort in the promised return of the Lord. While His return will be greater than anyone could possibly hope for, it was never meant to be a rescue mission. Plus, does anyone really think that Jesus would send us out with a mission that could not succeed or into a future with no hope? That is inconsistent with everything else we see in Jesus’ commands and commissions.

Jesus foretold many things, including disasters that would strike the earth. He pulled no punches, so to speak. He also let His disciples know that if He suffered persecution, so would they. That is just a logical part of the overall equation. If religious leaders did not like Jesus, neither would they like those who imitate and follow Him.

I have yet to see anyone put this promise of persecution on his or her refrigerator. It does not fit among the promises we prefer to read every day. Yet Jesus would sometimes put this kind of promise right next to the ones that I might call “the good ones.” Like the time He told His disciples that they would receive one hundred times more than they had given up to follow Him—and would receive it in this life. Then He added,
along with persecutions
(see Mark 10:28–30). I think He did that so we could not put the
hundred times more blessings
into the Millennium. We tend to take the best stuff, for which we have little to no faith, and put it into something for which we have even less understanding—the Millennium.

The commission Jesus gave to every one of His followers gives us insight into why He announced the coming calamities and difficulties. His commission was for us to pray and serve in a way that this world would become like heaven: in values, presence and purpose. He did just that when ministering to people. He once said if He cast out devils, the Kingdom of God had come upon that person (see Matthew 12:28). In other words, His world overpowered all that was wrong with this one He was delivering. It seriously was the invasion of the superior over the inferior. Darkness yields every time.

Our commission is the same. Jesus passed on His assignment to us, with the exception of His atoning death: Only Jesus, the righteous Lamb of God, the eternal Son of God, was capable of that one. Even if I am very poor at my God-given assignment, I cannot change it to something I am good at so I can feel better about my life. I am not in this to feel better about my life. Feeling good about my assignment, my giftings and my fruitfulness is not my pursuit. His will is. And in that process, I am fulfilled.

Wars, calamities and natural disasters are our assignment. If we are sent into them, then we can expect to be used by Him to bring His redemptive influence, as well as His peace, presence and power. It is much like a football coach telling his team what
the other team will try to do to get them out of sync with what they know how to do. We used to call it
hearing footsteps
. When a wide receiver goes to catch a pass, the defender wants him to lose sight of the ball and hear only his footsteps, representing the fact he is about to be hit. In the same way, the powers of darkness want us to hear footsteps and take our eyes off the ball.

In reaction, Jesus said we have all authority and power from heaven to accomplish our assignment. The wars and rumors of wars? Footsteps. We have the ball.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I love Your promises and Your plans for our lives and for this world. You are good, and all of Your plans are good. Thanks for letting me be a part. I really want to fulfill my purpose in this life and not be distracted by the things that are so easily distracting. Help me never to be impressed with the devil’s plans. And help me to live entirely for Your purposes to be accomplished on earth, and for You to be glorified forever.

Confession

When Jesus announced that He had all authority and that we were sent into the world for the great harvest of souls, He was declaring He has the ball. By God’s grace, I will never be impressed with the devil’s plans as he does not have the ball. I embrace the purposes of God for my life, that He might be glorified forever.

Sometimes our love for God is evident in what we hate.

I
f there is love, there must be hate. To love everything, even the things that destroy what we love, is not love. It is passivism. To be without emotion and tolerate everything in the name of love is not love at all. This could be compared to parents allowing a neighbor to come and abuse their children while they watch. They cannot rightfully claim to love their children. Instead, they are guilty of living without emotion and the responsibility to manage it well.

If someone threatened my wife, and I stood by saying that God would use all things for His glory and did nothing, you would have a right to question my love for my wife, as well as my sanity. Love is protective in nature. If there is a cancerous growth on the skin, we have the doctor cut it off. Why? Because we hate what could possibly threaten our health and even our very lives. This is love. It hates.

The psalmist wrote these words hundreds of years ago: “Hate evil, you who love the L
ORD
” (Psalm 97:10). Please notice that even in the Old Testament, the command was not to hate people. That would be an illegitimate expression of this
mandate. God loves people. God hates evil. Evil destroys the people that God loves.

As believers, we are sometimes afraid of emotions, especially negative ones. Yet the Bible teaches us to be angry but not sin (see Ephesians 4:26). The climate of our day has made this a challenging command. That climate is summed up in the phrase
political correctness
. It basically means that we adjust our values according to what is popular and deemed correct by the media and/or those in charge; otherwise, we might cause offense. It is strange to watch this happen in society. People operating under political correctness are willing to offend 40 percent of the population in order not to offend the 3 percent that has gained politically correct status. In the fear of violating political correctness, nations around the world are inviting their greatest threat to take the place of honor in their cities, all in the name of
not offending someone
. Political correctness is vile as it replaces a value-driven culture with a fear-driven culture. The fear of man is at the root of this issue.

One of the better statements to come to the forefront in recent years is, “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” This is a time when such a value must take center stage, for it carries the love/hate combination with great clarity. As a skilled surgeon carefully uses a scalpel, so must we be careful to hate evil only and not hate people. In fact, God’s heart for people is extreme!

Perhaps the greatest verse in the Bible is, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God’s love is sacrificial. Love must be seen in giving. And what is given is not what is deserved. Jesus taught us that to give someone what he has earned is really nothing special. But when we give in opposition to the judgment he deserves, then we have really loved well and given accordingly. This amazing truth is held alongside the contrast of hating sin. And it is this amazing love that reveals the kindness of God and leads people to repentance.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I know You hate evil. I do not want to slip into the spirit of the day and lose my passion for all things right. But I also do not want to fall into the trap of hating people, even evil people. Please help me to represent You well by loving and giving to people long before they could earn it. I set my heart toward this privilege, that You might be glorified.

Confession

I was designed to love God, love people and hate evil. I will not partner with the spirit of the day and lose my perspective on the heart of God, and then become tolerant of the very things that rob people of life. I set my heart on this for the glory of God.

Most of what you need in life will be brought to you. But most of what you want, you will have to go get.

O
ne of the frequent mistakes I see people make in the realm of miracles is waiting for God to come to them. They say, “God knows I’m hungry for revival. If He wants me to have it, He knows my address.” Or the more common, “Why should I have to travel to that city or visit that church? God is here, too. If it’s His will for us to have a great move of God, He knows we’re willing.” Some of these things sound spiritual but are actually very arrogant. It is foolish for us to think we can require God to pursue us. As someone once said, wise men still travel.

Lest you misunderstand, all of us are saved because God pursued us. There is no question about that. Did we find Jesus? Perhaps. But only after He found us and made Himself known to us. Certain things will be brought to us throughout our lives, but without an honest pursuit of God and all He has for us, it is impossible to fulfill our purposes and destinies. Some things can be discovered only by those willing to be inconvenienced with risk. Alongside the promises of complete and full supply
are the commands to “Ask and keep on asking. Knock and keep on knocking. Seek and keep on seeking.”

We would never think of looking for gold nuggets in our living rooms. We would never try to catch a big wave in our back yards. We would never entertain the idea of fishing for salmon in our bathrooms. As silly as these illustrations sound, they reveal that we know what it is to go wherever we need to go to find what we are looking for. God expects the same of us. Oftentimes, not a noble action is required, just movement that reveals true hunger for more. Faith is revealed by actions.

Jesus gave the disciples authority to drive out demons (see Mark 3:14–15), yet they were unable to bring deliverance to the boy whose story is told in Mark 9. Jesus explained that fasting and prayer were necessary. If the disciples already had sufficient power and authority, what would fasting and prayer do?

It was for their sakes. Fervent prayer, fasting and sustained pursuit of God’s purposes work to shape us. They change us. These expressions of hunger transform us into vessels that can contain what God is releasing to us. Without those transformational experiences, we are prone to lose the very things God releases to us.

Refined character is the result, creating a place for God to release the weightiness of His work on the earth. It is His glory. Without refined character that can only be formed through perseverance, we will quickly lose the very gift of God given to us. Proverbs 20:21 warns us that an inheritance gained too quickly will not be blessed in the end. God is the ultimate giver of inheritance. And while He gives it to us all at once through promise, only faith can make the withdrawals. What is in my possession is different from what is in my account.

Prayer

Papa God, I never want to assume that all the actions in life are up to You. I am willing to go anywhere, and do anything to live in
all that You have promised. Help me to live simply and humbly, always willing to do anything necessary to go to the next level. I am hungry for more. And I want the “more” You pour into my life to bring glory to the name of Jesus forever!

Confession

Jesus has already given me everything needed to make me successful now and throughout eternity. This He did at Calvary. I have set my heart to live by faith, making the withdrawals necessary to bring Him glory by pursuing all He has for me in this life.