Sunday, October 6, 2013

Greater Things

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  It is truly a new day.  Each and every day is a fresh start.  Closed into the history books is yesterday's sorrow, and yesterday's mistakes and even yesterday's victories.  God's mercies are new every morning and each day presents new opportunities to see and experience them.

The Holy One greets me this morning with, "Open your mind to My possibilities and remember the "human" limits the Divine".  That is a lot to unpack in one sentence, but I am excited to go deeper into this conference call today to grasp what the Holy Spirit is trying to convey.

Jesus, upon His departure from planet earth said, "Believe Me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.  I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing and even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.  I will do whatever you ask in My name so that the Son may bring Glory to the Father.  You may ask Me for anything in My name and I will do it".

This promise looms large, yet even in the Body of Christ, there is little evidence of the things Jesus did, actually happening in our world today.  It seems that we always have an excuse to fall back on, that puts the failure onto anything but our own dismal unbelief and faithlessness. 

Why do we give up so easily on things Jesus told us we should expect to have Him do through us or in us?  Just like the things He did over 2000 years ago, during His first appearance on earth, we are told we can and should expect to do the "greater things".

His Word to me this morning challenges me to go deep.  Jesus charged and commissioned His followers to commit themselves to the great works that Glorify the Father just as He did during His earthy life.

In Matthew 17, there was a day when the disciples, having been sent out to experience and do the "greater things",  met with a demon possessed boy and his father.  The disciples were "powerless" to heal and all were brought to Jesus.  He rebuked the demon and the boy was healed from that very moment.

A discussion between Jesus and the disciples followed during which they asked about their inability to drive out the demon causing the boy's physical problems.  Jesus, as the patient Teacher that He is replied, "Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth if you have the faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you."

We live on the Pentecostal side of the Cross.  We must adjust our carnal minds and surrender to the activity of the Holy Spirit sent forth on that Glorious day on earth.  Intellectual faith will never heal the sick or raise the dead.  Intellectual faith is carnal at best because our minds are still part of, and controlled by our flesh.

With this in "mind",  I think, "what on earth can I do to impact the suffering of those around me?"

Rather than speaking and operating in the unlimited "why nots", of restoration and healing, I come bringing soup and a crutch to the infirmed. What's so wrong with this picture is that soup and a crutch may reveal my egotistical sympathy, but it doesn't speak of God's power. authority and restorative love for the one suffering.

We humans seem to be willing to stop at asking the Lord to do what we cannot;  that which is beyond human ability to execute.  The church won't ask for anything more than church can do in and of itself. 

Jesus said "anything we ask in His name", that He would do.  We have the pride of calling ourselves by His Great and Holy Name but then get hung up about what we ask Him to do in that same Name.

Our salvation had nothing to do with our performance so why do we continue to think that these "greater works" depend entirely on our "anything" short of asking Him to intervene?

The link up we so often miss IS the Divine Nature of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us:

The faith we need is actually His.
The prayer we give voice to is actually His
The wisdom promised to all who ask is actually His
The power to change the circumstance is actually His.

Jesus said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing".  The Holy Spirit is His Spirit and He is part of my being.  If the Holy Spirit inside of me tells the mountain to move, move it must, and move it will!

Today I am humbled by my own pride of intellect realizing how often it has gotten in the way of the Divine Hand so willing to do "greater things" through me.  What can the Creator of all things possibly do in my world today?  Absolutely anything!  Once I place my faith IN Christ, I have inside my being the faith OF Christ.  And with that faith, nothing is impossible.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?      

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