God has designed us, and invited us to co-create and co-dream with Him in perfect relationship. AND IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! Since I have been here at school (to cite a few wild encounters), two women have gotten out of wheelchairs and walked! (One of these women was officially paralyzed from the waist - down from a car accident.) These happened from students praying for healing out in the streets of Redding. I have also seen with my own two eyes a blind man (who decided to get baptized one Sunday) go under the water blind, and come up with restored sight!
The craziest thing happened to me personally a couple of weeks ago! I woke up in the morning with a peculiar feeling. It was as if I had been hit with a jolt of faith. And as I was praying, I began declaring, "God! I choose to believe you in this season!" I became excited about greater things soon to come (even though I can't see them yet). I got ready for class, and then headed for school. As I was singing along during worship, that feeling of heightened faith was still on me, and growing. Then one of the pastors walked up onstage and shared a word with everyone: "Whatever breakthrough that you've been pressing in for... IT'S HERE! Breakthrough is here! It's a new season!" As she was speaking, I felt my hands buzzing and tingling. And I heard God say to me, "Look down at your hands!" When I looked down, I started jumping around in excitement like a kid in a candy store, because BOTH of my hands were CAKED with silver and gold dust! I want nothing more than to live out what I believe, and I want people to see that Jesus is no joke! This was an amazing sign of what's to come through my life!
Now there has been a lot of hype and controversy in conversations surrounding healing, miracles, signs and wonders, revival, and prophecy in the Christian faith. The Church has been polarized to where some have rooted themselves in human logic, hyper-religion and legalism out of fear of the unknown; others have become possessed by the zealous pursuit of God's power over His character. This dilemma has left less than a desirable taste in the mouths of those who are still on a journey to find God.
As followers of Christ, we should be willing to stand in the tension of what we have read and believed about Jesus' life, and what we have yet to see happen in our own lives (concerning the unexplainable). We should constantly be positioning ourselves with faith for the impossible to occur. If Jesus did it, and we believe that He has given us His spirit, then powerlessness for us is inexcusable. God is with us wherever we go! And every miracle displayed is an opportunity for an unbeliever to encounter the Living God. Jesus Himself, after walking out a lifestyle in the supernatural, declared to His disciples that they would do greater works than He did. But this is only half of the conversation.
The All-Powerful God is also a loving Father. The Scriptures tell us that He IS Love. If we just focus on how much He loves us, we will in turn become perfect lovers of Him and our own Humanity; signs and wonders, prophecy, and miracles will follow, and people will KNOW the love and wonder of God. The FULL Christian life is cultivated on a platform from which we are secure in the Perfect Love of God. This empowers us to serve Humanity well, and risk doing the impossible, all for love; to be carriers of the undeniable presence of God EVERYWHERE WE GO!
1st Corinthians 13 says it BEST...
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
AND NOW THESE THREE REMAIN: FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE."
I am on a mission to encounter the greatest love of all; the love of my Father, the King of Heaven and Earth, and God of the Universe! And I have the audacity to believe that He is relentlessly pursuing every single human being on earth. We are that precious to Him. He knows us intimately, and He is determined for us to find out not only 'who we are', but more importantly 'WHO'S we are'. We were designed to walk in power, but first we must simply receive His perfect love.
Wherever you are in your spiritual journey (even if you already profess to know Jesus), if you don't know how much God loves you, ASK HIM! As it reads in the book of Jeremiah: "You will seek me (God) and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you... Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Ask the Living God, your Father, how much He loves you, and be prepared for an answer. We are His precious children, and we were created to accomplish the impossible through vehicles of FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE!
