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?

People Don't Want To Listen About Jesus

Have you noticed it is harder for people to accept Jesus Christ these days? You can present them with the truth of their condition, share your testimony and even share parts of the gospel to them, but they persist in their disbelief. You are doing all you can but nothing seems to be happening. Well, glory to Yahweh, you are at least planting a seed that the Holy Spirit will continue to work on. But why is it getting harder to share the good news of Jesus?

I believe I found a hint during my recent read-through of Exodus. Moses had already presented himself to Pharaoh and listed the demands of the LORD. In turn Pharaoh rejected the demands and ordered that hard labour of the Hebrew slaves to be increased by removing the provision of the straw for the making of bricks. Pharaoh knew what he was doing. By making them suffer because of Moses the people would turn on Moses.

Moses spoke to the people with the great news from the LORD, that he was rescuing them from their oppressors, taking them to a new land "flowing with milk and honey", and was claiming them as his children. This should have been absolutely fantastic news to them. In fact, they had never known the name of their God and here he revealed it as Yahweh, translated in our Bibles as "the LORD". This was an indication of the intimacy into which he wanted to bring them. But the people didn't want to listen. Life was hard enough. They could not lift their eyes beyond what they knew:

So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. (Exodus 6:9)

Circumstances are a bit different today but it comes down to the same thing. People are lost in their "anguish of spirit" and their "cruel bondage". We know that bondage today to be the bondage of sin and how it keeps their spirit from the one who created them. I find it interesting that Jesus came with the same good news that Yahweh gave to Moses:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus read these words of Isaiah as he proclaimed the beginning of his mission. He brought to us the good news. He came to proclaim freedom for the prisoner, sight for the blind, freedom from oppression and to announce the LORD's favor. We, like Moses, take these words to a people who are in "anguish of spirit" and lost in "cruel bondage", only they don't even realize it, just as the people around Jesus did not know.

How did Yahweh get through to the people? With a demonstration of his mighty power. He gave them signs and wonders to encourage them in their belief. How did Jesus wake the people up? With signs and wonders, a demonstration of his might, both to heal the body and the soul. How did Paul present the message of Jesus? By a demonstration of power:

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

What the captives of our age need are messengers who are not afraid to allow the LORD to work through us however he sees fit. Sometimes our testimony is enough to open a person's heart to the freedom of Jesus but other times that heart is so hard it takes a "demonstration of the Spirit's power". Don't be afraid to offer yourself fully to Jesus, to be used by him however he needs you, even if it is to work miracles. This generation is desperate for the Good News because they can't see beyond what they know.