More
Power to You
by Major Stephen Court
We love to believe in a God
who exists, who cares, and who has the power to intervene in
our lives.
Otherwise, we’re just invested in tradition, cultural
sentimentality, wistfulness, or superstition.
At each step of the argument,
we’re in danger of being rendered irrelevant.
If God doesn’t exist, we’re wasting our time;
if God doesn’t care, that’s a
case for fear and existential meaninglessness;
if God doesn’t have the power
to intervene in our lives, we’d might as well wave the white
flag and throw in the towel.
The good news is that all
three beliefs are true: He exists, He cares, and He has the
power to intervene in our lives.
And we can have as much
confidence as Jesus did. What
was His approach?
A taste:
“Do not believe Me unless I do the works of My Father. But if
I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the
works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in
Me, and I in the Father.’” John 10:37-38 NIV
“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father
is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works
themselves.” John 14:11 NIV
Forget about throwing in the towel!
Jesus readily threw down the gauntlet.
He let the signs and wonders carry the arguments where
words were insufficient.
He pointed to ‘the works’ to prove His veracity.
He leveraged his miracles to win loyalty.
And we’re meant to be like Jesus.
He sent His disciples out in the same way: “As you go, proclaim this message: “The kingdom of
heaven has come near.” Heal those who are ill, raise the
dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.
Freely you have
received; freely give.”
Matthew 10:7-8 NIV
“Then
the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord
worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that
accompanied it.” Mark
16:20 NIV
Do you see how Jesus ties the truth to ‘the works’?
Do you see how His commission to the disciples includes
preaching and healing and dead raising and cleansing and
exorcism? Do you
see how they all go together?
And that as the disciples obediently go out and
preached everywhere, the Lord worked with them, and that signs
accompanied? This
is what the Kingdom looks like.
This is how the great commission advances.
When we hear of Commissioner Wesley Harris’s grandfather
coming back to life, of Commissioner Kay Rader raised up from
the dead, of various Salvos in Canada, Nigeria, and India (and
maybe more!) praying life into dead bodies and seeing God work
these miracles by bringing them back to life – all in our day
– do we need to keep asking if God does it today? (see Dead
Raising Prayers in JAC82, article 9, for details of these; and
the Aussie Salvo book GREATER THINGS: 41 days of miracles, for
more stories than you can shake a stick at).
I guess, maybe, we do – in one
way: Is God still doing this in
your life,
today?
Do you remember the words of that song?
Here are a few lines:
“To be like Jesus this hope possesses me
In every thought and deed this is my aim, my creed
…
His Spirit helping me, like Him I’ll be.”
‘In every deed’?
Raising the dead?
Healing the sick?
Kicking out demons?
Commanding nature?
Giving sight to the blind?
Making the deaf hear?
Is this hope possessing me?
Is this my aim?
(note – for this to be your aim, you have to be a whole lot
more than merely ‘open’ to power and gifts of the Holy Spirit,
which, since we’re commanded to ‘eagerly desire them in 1
Corinthians 14:1, would be merely sinful).
Is this your resolve? (‘like Him I’ll be’)
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