Experience the Impossible: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven's Power on Earth (2 page)

I
want to give special thanks to my personal staff whose tireless service makes so many things possible that would not be otherwise—Michael Van Tinteren, Judy Franklin, Mary Berck and Kezia Neusch.

G
od expects every believer to experience the impossible. Does that in itself sound impossible? Take heart! It is His presence upon us that makes the impossible possible. Our job is to realize, first, that God is truly with us, and, second, that He wants us to complete every assignment within the Great Commission for His name and His glory.

Where do we begin? Where is the garden in which we abide as we grow and bear this Kingdom fruit?

This book of short readings will, I pray, help answer that question. Based on one of the most well-known and well-loved verses in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:13, we will explore faith, hope and love. These three aspects of Jesus’ grace upon us—and in us—are the rich earth and rain and sunshine that help us grow into His likeness and, like Him, unleash heaven’s power on earth.

Faith
connects us to the power issue. It is faith that enables the work of God to be done through us effectively. Everyone has been given a measure of faith. What we do with what we have determines the extent to which we move in power.
Without faith we cannot please
God.

Hope
is the joyful anticipation of good. It is the place where faith grows. It is one of the most important attitudes and values—true Christlikeness. Hope comes from discovering Jesus’ perfect
goodness, encountering Him and His perfect promises.
Without hope it is impossible to live life to
its potential.

Love
changes everything. Without love we see only hopelessness. Without love we do not have the character to employ faith. Love finds God’s promises. Love looks for solutions from a Father who loves perfectly.
Without love we
see only law and miss His desire to grace us
into victory.

Each of the 79 entries in this book explores these pivotal topics and ends with a prayer and confession. If we can truly believe that God is with us, we will not only hear His call to walk in Kingdom power, but expect to do so.

Jesus commissioned us to heal the sick, raise the dead and much more. He said that nothing shall be impossible to us. It is time to take the Master at His word, and experience the impossible in His name, for His glory.

Faith does not come from striving; it comes from surrender.

G
od is always looking for the sacrifice of the heart, for it is the yielded heart that believes. Faith comes from the heart, not the mind. Living a life of surrender to God can only result in ever-increasing faith. This place of surrender is an expression of dependence on God.

Such dependence comes from humility, which basically means “to see ourselves as He does.” Dependence is surrender made manifest. It is what true humility looks like. So, then, faith and humility are related.

Faith is not a product of human intelligence or endeavor. It is not the product of our labors, or it would be of human origin. Faith is otherworldly, firmly anchored in the nature, presence and promises of God. Learning to come before Him in awe, knowing we are accepted by Him, is vital to great faith. Faith is not a product separate from Him, but is instead
because
of Him. Faith is the result of His nature having an impact on the heart of the believer.

The priests of the Old Testament could not wear wool in God’s presence as wool might have made them sweat. They
were instructed to wear linen. The picture is fairly clear—we cannot come before God through our own labors (sweat). We must come before Him through His labors, which were designed to make us acceptable before Him.

Faith is called both a fruit and a gift of the Spirit. You have never heard a fruit tree groan and travail to produce fruit. Growing fruit is the evidence that the tree is holding its place (abiding) in the soil in order to receive nutrients, sunlight and moisture correctly. In the same way, those who abide in Christ cannot help but grow in faith as the result of being continually exposed to His nature through His Word and His manifest presence. It is as natural a result as it is for an apple tree to produce apples.

When I find that I am anxious, I ask myself the all-important question, Where did I lose my peace? If I can answer that one, I am usually able to spot the lie I believed that brought about such conflict in my soul. Confession and forsaking sin follow, which is what God uses to restore peace. And that place of peace is the place where faith matures.

Prayer

Father, I acknowledge that Jesus made it possible for me to come before You. This privilege was not something I could have earned. So I rest in the accomplishments of Jesus on my behalf. I also recognize that in my surrender to You, Your heart becomes manifest through me. And that is my great desire. Be glorified in and through me this day!

Confession

I choose to live a surrendered life today, believing that God will be glorified in who I am and all I do. I live this way because I am highly favored of the Lord. His peace—the atmosphere of heaven—is my portion.

The presence of the Lord upon us positions us for miracles.

M
any times throughout the Bible, the Lord spoke to His servants saying He would be with them. Sometimes He even described it this way: “The Spirit of the Lord came upon them.” I once made a list of every such encounter recorded in Scripture. I found an interesting truth: Whenever the Lord said He would be with someone, it meant he had just been given an impossible assignment.

God gave such a promise to Moses. It was connected to his assignment to lead Israel out of Egypt and out of the cruel control of Pharaoh into the Promised Land. A similar word was given to Joshua, the one who took over when Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land. Joshua was assigned to lead them into their inheritance, in spite of giants and other fearful enemies. The same promise was given to Gideon, who was then to deliver a weak and humiliated Israel from the powerfully oppressive hand of the Midianites. And again the same was given to the eleven remaining disciples in the Great Commission in Matthew 28. It was tied to their assignment to
disciple
nations
. The implications of the promised presence are staggering. God’s presence requires something from us—the invasion into the impossible.

Something is always expected
from us
when God is revealed to be
with us
. It is a grave mistake to think the Holy Spirit is among us simply to comfort or encourage. That is a given. He is also present to make possible the impossible task in front of us! Perhaps this is part of what the apostle Paul wanted us to see when he asked God to show us the hope of our calling (see Ephesians 1:18–19).

One of my favorite verses, one that has had the most impact on me, has to do with Jesus, the eternal Son of God:

“You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Acts 10:38

This verse gives us a synopsis of what is already revealed throughout the gospels: Jesus healed and delivered all who came to Him. It also reveals that sickness is from the devil. But the Holy Spirit wanted to make sure we know what made healing and deliverance possible: “For God was with Him.” Although Jesus is eternally God, and never stopped being God, the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to pen this phrase,
for God was with Him
. This statement shows us that it was the same for Jesus as it was for our heroes in the Old Testament. When God is with someone, he is expected and enabled to invade the impossible. This helps us to connect with our God-given assignment by realizing and discovering His presence upon us, which makes the impossible possible.

Often when I see 10:38 on a clock, I stop and direct my heart to God and give Him thanks for the revelation of the nature and
promise of God found in the life of Jesus. Interestingly, while writing on this quote, I looked at the clock on my phone, and it is 10:38. I am thankful for this Scripture that will ignite the hearts of many to invade the impossible in His name and for His glory—for God is truly with us!

Jesus started His ministry with a bold confession: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to . . .” (Luke 4:18). The confession that started His ministry also revealed the nature of His ministry. It was to bring freedom to people, and it was because of the presence of the Spirit of God upon Him.

Prayer

Help me to become more aware of Your presence upon me as the hope of my calling into the impossible. Help me to see my assignment as being impossible, so that I do not become confident in my abilities instead of Yours. Let this be a day of great breakthrough as I discover the wonder of being the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Confession

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me for the same reason He rested upon Jesus. I embrace the call to the impossible, that God may be glorified in all the earth.

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in you, and He wants out.

T
he metaphoric picture Jesus gave in John 7:38 of the indwelling Spirit of God is that of a river. Rivers start somewhere and go somewhere. In this case, the Spirit of the resurrected Christ starts with God Himself, who dwells in us and is to flow out of us, touching the world around us. He is in us as a river, not a lake. He is constantly moving.

In Matthew 10:8, Jesus told His disciples that they had something to give, by commanding them, “Freely you received; freely give.” Love requires giving. “For God so loved the world, that He gave . . .” (John 3:16). While I believe He is primarily referring to releasing the Holy Spirit, the lesson could apply to anything He has given us, which would include things like favor, mercy, love, time and money. The list is endless, really. He gives to us hoping we will give to another. The way His life is to increase on the earth is by those He has favored to release it to others. Interestingly, we get to keep only what we give away.

This picture is basically saying that we release, or give the Spirit of God away, in our activities as believers. If that is true, then it would do us well to consider His nature and passions.
He cooperates with those who carry His heart. Compassion is a huge part of expressing the heart of God. It is not sympathy; nor is it merely identifying with a person who has an issue. Sympathy locks a person in a problem, while compassion pulls him or her out. Sympathy supports a person’s identity being built around his problem, such as a disease, like
blind Bartimaeus
. Compassion sees what can be and pulls it into the now.

This metaphor of the Holy Spirit as a river illustrates our lives as a flow of something. This “flow” happens as we love people. The power of God is expressed or released from us in all life and ministry that is truly pleasing to Him. Every time we minister in His name, declaring His truth, serving with His heart and demonstrating His power, there is a flow that goes forth from us. While this concept may be a bit abstract for the Western rational culture, it is still very much Kingdom. All life and ministry that is pleasing to Him is actually a release of His presence into a situation.

We know instinctively that self-centered living does little to release the presence of God into a situation. We would never, for example, expect the shadow of a depressed follower of Jesus to heal anyone. Why? Because, like it or not, we all release the nature of the world we are most aware of into the world around us. A depressed believer is not focused on God’s abiding presence, His Kingdom or His promises. That is why depression has such a deep-seated control over her mind and emotions, bringing a cloud over her spirit. But the one abiding in Christ, with His words filling her heart, can expect the same outcome as found in the Scriptures. The atmosphere around her changes according to the atmosphere within her. This is the great impact of the Gospel lived in community. That is why the Kingdom is called leaven. It works subtly through all who give Him place in their hearts.

Realizing this truth enables us to live more intentionally. When we live aware of the Spirit of God in us, we are much
more inclined to realize when His presence is released from us. Discovering the nature of the mysterious is one of the great joys of following the One whose name is Truth.

Prayer

I need Your help to live aware of You above all else. So many things compete for my attention, and, therefore, my affection, that I find it difficult at times to live consistently aware of Your Spirit within me. But that is truly what I long for. Help me in this next season to grow in my confidence in Your abiding presence, and to give love the way You do. Thank You for the Spirit without measure.

Confession

I confess with the psalmist, “One thing I have asked from the L
ORD
, that I shall seek” (Psalm 27:4). I will forever delight in the Holy Spirit, the gift sent to me from Jesus Himself, and seek for the increased manifestation of this indescribable One. I was born for this purpose, to know and manifest this glorious One to those I know and love.

Regardless of the level of faith, Jesus always brought a miracle.

F
aith is anchored in His Word. The credibility of His Word is linked to His nature. To know Him, we need to encounter Him and experience His nature. One of the ways people experience Him in Scripture is through miracles, signs and wonders.

Jesus often addressed the issue of faith by exposing unbelief and then exhorting people to believe. Yet He never withheld a miracle because of faith in small measure. He healed everyone who came to Him, regardless of the person’s heart condition. When Jesus addressed small faith, it was never to humiliate or condemn. It was always to position the person to grow in faith, for without faith we cannot please God. Miracles made people more aware of their divine moments and ensured that they responded to God with greater trust—which is greater faith, the result of what they just experienced.

I have been unable to find a smaller measure of faith than that in the heart of the father with the child who needed healing and deliverance, whose story is told in Mark 9. This compassionate but overwhelmed father had seen the demons try to kill his child
while he stood by helpless. What made matters worse was that he had brought the child to the disciples, but they could not help.

The father said to Jesus/God, “If You can do anything . . .” (Mark 9:22). Imagine the kind of faith that is not even sure God is capable. His desperate cry moved the heart of Jesus. But before Jesus performed the requested miracle, He turned the tables on him by saying, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes” (verse 23). In other words, God’s ability to perform a miracle is not in question. The only question that remains is, Will you believe? This story is where the well-known quote comes from:
I believe, but help me in my unbelief.

Most of us read our Bibles with religious, cultural biases more than we realize. Look at this verse, for example. Jesus said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe” (John 4:48). I grew up imagining that His tone of voice was one of disgust because He was scolding them for the weak faith that must have some kind of experience in order to believe. But what if He was just acknowledging how faith grows? That thought seems to be supported by the fact that Jesus followed this statement with a miracle. Why? First of all, miracles always came out of His love for people. But secondly, He wanted them to grow in faith. And He had just the process for their development—seeing signs and wonders.

Jesus used what little measure this father had, and then positioned him for increase by drawing his attention to God’s heart, nature and purpose. Miracles always put people in a position to increase. The entire New Testament confirms this fact. What people do in response to what God does is up to them. But the process is clear—people believe because of miracles.

Faith is vital. It is through faith we please God; faith is that essential. But to shift our focus to our measure of faith alone is to ignore that Jesus never punished people who knew whom to come to, even if they had small faith. Whenever we concern ourselves only with a particular measure of faith, we have turned
our focus from God and His nature seen in His promises, to ourselves and what we carry. That is always a dead-end road.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, Your goodness and kindness are beyond my comprehension. I love You so much for always going past my expectations. Please help me to stop evaluating how well I am doing; instead, help me to be caught up with who You are and what You are like. I come to You as I am, with blemishes and weakness included. And I thank You in advance that You will complete the good work You have started in me.

Confession

I confess that God’s goodness is not restricted by my faith, and that God has chosen to use the weak things to confound the wise. I am designed to believe God. That is my nature.