Where Are All The Miracles?

Is Jesus more than a philosophy, a collection of teachings, a code to live by, a doctrine of love? Is the Bible just a collection of laws to follow, a type of moral code? Is Christianity nothing more than a collection of stories to illustrate principles of life that might be a good idea to put into practice? Is it just something to give us a false hope in a world lacking hope? I don't believe it is but the way we live as Christians certainly makes it appear that way.

Some of the most popular movies are those that add a bit of magic to life. We love to escape from our boring, mundane and grey world by slipping into fantasy, even if it is for a mere few hours. Yet, we deny the fantastic colours of life that are demonstrated to us in the Word of God. We reduce Jesus to a philosophy and the Bible to a collection of laws to follow. We strip away all the power, the wonder, the miraculous, the spiritual. After all, it is easier to believe what we can put into practice than to believe in what we cannot see.

I want us to think of Joseph for a moment. He was nobody special, just a guy like you and me. He had a lot of tragedies that he had to face and he was at a really low place; a slave, imprisoned in a foreign land for a crime he hadn't committed. But Joseph was a man who had experienced the unexpected from Yahweh through dreams and he had been given the gift of dream interpretation. Little did he know that this gift would lead him to ruling Egypt, a land in which he had entered as a slave. But Joseph never for a moment thought that this gift came from himself:

“It’s not me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable response.” (Genesis 41:16)

Now if we fast forward to Daniel we discover an even more amazing thing. Again, Daniel was a prisoner in a foreign land but Yahweh had lifted him up to a position of importance. He too was a receiver and interpreter of dreams. Only this time the king didn't just want an interpretation. The king wanted someone to tell him what his dream was without being told. Again, the servant of the Lord did not take credit for what was from Yahweh:

“Sages, enchanters, dream interpreters, and diviners can’t explain to the king the mystery he seeks. But there is a God in heaven, a revealer of mysteries, who has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the days to come! Now this was your dream—this was the vision in your head as you lay in your bed:" (Daniel 2:27-28)

Now fast forward to the first century Church where they were just learning who they were in Jesus, what this new creation looked and felt like. Empowered by the Spirit, who all of us have received from Jesus, each believer was given a demonstration of the Spirit. They were no longer members of a grey world but a colourful Kingdom:

A word of wisdom is given by the Spirit to one person, a word of knowledge to another according to the same Spirit, faith to still another by the same Spirit, gifts of healing to another in the one Spirit, performance of miracles to another, prophecy to another, the ability to tell spirits apart to another, different kinds of tongues to another, and the interpretation of the tongues to another. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)

That's you and me, empowered by the Spirit, to demonstrate the reality of Yahweh to a dying world. But to operate in the Spirit we must walk in the Spirit. We have to become intimate with him every moment of our day. The thing about these people I have mentioned is that they were completely sold out to Yahweh. I doubt you would find them in a movie theatre, a Super Bowl game or anything else that would distract them from their relationship with Yahweh. The reason we don't see the power in the Church today is because we are too distracted. We have allowed the world to become so loud in us we can't hear the Spirit so we settle for living laws and discussing philosophies.

The Spirit is calling us back, calling us to repentance and sanctification. He is calling us back to our mission and purpose. He is calling us back to our first love, our Lord Jesus Christ. Are we brave enough to respond?

Dare To Be A Daniel

I think we need to follow James' advice and spend more time asking Yahweh for wisdom because it appears we don't have enough. We are an incredibly blessed people having great knowledge of Father through our King, Jesus the Christ. We have been given the keys to unlock great riches in the Word. We have blessings such as salvation, righteousness, holiness poured out on us. We have been given power through the Holy Spirit in us to operate in great spiritual gifts so we can serve Jesus with power. We are rich beyond our understanding and have great joy and peace. Yet, we either don't know how to use any of it or we refuse.

Yesterday we considered how Yahweh equips us for whatever he calls us to do and we used Daniel as an example. We read:

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. (Daniel 1:17)

This is great to read and is encouraging for us but it would have been useless for everyone if Daniel and his friends failed to operate in it. It's great to be blessed in this way but we have to use the blessings. Right away Daniel and his friends were put to work using these tools. The king wanted someone to not just interpret his dream but to actually know what the dream was without being told. He wanted a word of knowledge. Because no one could do it he was going to kill all the wise men. But Daniel used his tools:

Then with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. (Daniel 2:14)

That was the tool of wisdom but Daniel followed this up with the tool Yahweh had given specifically to him:

Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision.  (v. 17-19)

Daniel trusted Yahweh and used the tools/gifts he had been given and it resulted in a huge impact in this foreign kingdom. It revealed Yahweh to Nebuchadnrezzar:

Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret. (v. 47)

And it paid off pretty good for Daniel and his friends as well with the king placing Daniel as the ruler of the province of Babylon allowing Daniel to appoint his friends to high positions as well. Now they were in a place to protect the people of Israel.

I will be honest with you: I have received certain gifts that I have often avoided using. I am afraid of them because I am afraid of operating in my flesh instead of the Spirit. It is a trust issue that I have to work through because I have been given those gifts as tools, not to profit myself, but for the purposes of the Kingdom. Many of us are like this, failing to use the tools we have been given for the purpose and mission of Jesus. Some people ignore their gifts, others are timid and others misuse them for their own personal gain.

We have no excuse for the current state of affairs in the Body and in our personal lives. Jesus has made sure that we are equipped with everything we need to be his witnesses, to minister to a suffering world, to demonstrate his love with power and conviction. It is we who choose to fail; who choose to hide; who choose to seek for ourselves. We need to find our courage again; to rise up in the anointing of the Spirit and use the tools we have been given for the mission of our King.

As a little lad in Sunday School, I remember singing "Dare to be a Daniel" which was a great little children's chorus promoting the need to stand in our testimony concerning Jesus, no matter the cost. But we fail to grasp that there was more to Daniel than just taking a stand. There was also the willingness to be the man Yahweh needed at that time to represent him to the king. There was the willingness to operate in the gifts Yahweh had given him for the task. The interpretation of dreams is no small thing. Because of his reliance on Yahweh, his willingness to operate in the Spirit and the great amounts of time he devoted in prayer, he was also available to receive a ton of prophecy. Yet, we are greater than Daniel simply because we have made a decision for Jesus. We are better equipped. We have been called to a greater work. We are possessed by the Spirit. So I do ask, will you dare to be a Daniel in the full context of our relationship with Jesus? Will you do more than stand? Will you also work in obedience according to the will of Father with the tools that have been provided?