The Holy One calls to me this morning. He brings me to our meeting place with the stirring of sweet memories of miracles I have seen. Today the circumstances we are living with dial up our desperate need for miraculous supernatural intervention into the natural world we inhabit and those events we have come to call "miracles".
Our conversation begins on that note. The Holy One speaks to my heart and mind, "Jesus came bringing miracles of divine intervention and nothings has changed. He still works miracles. All you have to do is ask for them".
His words demand a deep and prolonged meditation. My internal Counselor takes me to His written word in John 14:11-14 (NIV). "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. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And 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 and I will do it".
I am humbled by my Lord's sweet invitation into the Holy place of Heaven's throne room. I am here by invitation yet the intense sense of the Holy Almighty Creator brings a fear in such an overwhelming emotion that can only be described as "dread". The dread is due to the reality that if the almighty Creator of the universe is anyone other than the loving Father that I have come to trust that He is, I would be incinerated on the spot.
To begin to grasp the power of the Creator, we need only to observe the power of nature in the created world we inhabit. Lightening, Thunder, a tsunami, a hurricane, a tornado, a great white shark. All these represent a power greater than our capability to really harness or control their devastating effects.
As I meditate and ponder the scripture of this day, and with His gentle voice prodding me to go deeper, I am struck by the realized failure of the body of Christ to even ask for miracles. We, as the body of Christ, are the Lord's ambassadors in a foreign land. We are to bring the good things from our Kingdom and our King as gifts to the people who dwell here.
One of the over-arching purposes for our lives as servants of Christ our King is to share with others the hand of friendship that our Sovereign Lord has extended to them. Back in the day when kings of the earth made peace pacts and treaties with other kingdoms, they would send envoys to the foreign land and it's king. These envoys brought gifts from their kingdom and king to demonstrate the king's willingness to live in peace and harmony. Some of the riches of their homeland were given as a token of the intent to become peaceful allies on earth.
When Jesus came, He brought the riches of His kingdom to us on earth. Miracles that touched lives day after day were the evidence He offered, that His kingdom is real and His invitation to live in peace with Him is trustworthy. In the end He even signed our peace treaty in His own blood.
Those of us who believe and trust in the Kingdom of Heaven and our Heavenly King are now His ambassadors. We are to bring the blessings of our homeland and King to this earth and to the people our lives touch.
In our trials, we are faced with opposition that wants to silence and shackle us from sharing such good news of freedom and blessing. The citizens of the world try to seduce us and make us forget about our homeland and our mission or attack us on our journey. The world is enslaved by the one we call "Satan" and is not interested in setting their captives free but rather finding more ways to enslave others to serve their self centered agendas.
I am so thankful that we have been given His letter of our deployment and commission along with His exhortation to follow His lead. Today I pick up His Word to remind myself of the riches I am to share in this foreign land and with the people who surround me and make up my temporal world. Jesus came to share the wealth and riches of Heaven and God with the same world I now inhabit.
Jesus has not changed and His words are still being echoed throughout time. Holiness speaks, "Even if you do not believe in My words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves". His exhortation to me and all who believe still stands. I repeat it again to remind myself of the great privilege and responsibility to serve Him. "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing.... (That means calling down miracles). He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask for in My name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." John 14:11-14 (NIV)
Great is the promise but greater still is the One who gave it. Faith will be challenged by unbelief every time we look at an impossible situation and try to think as to how a miracle would change it. As I consider the life of my Lord and Master, Jesus, I am stopped in my thinking at the place where I realize Jesus modelled the faith He is asking me to find. Jesus was in a flesh body, refusing to exercise divine privilege when the supernatural miracles were manifested on earth.
Jesus modelled faith in the Father. It was His faith that changed circumstances and people's lives. No wonder we have been told that faith is a "fruit" of His Spirit. Was it the faith of the masses that fed the 5000 since they all ate from the same meal? Was it the faith of the disciples who were told to feed them, when all they could say was "that's impossible"?
Today, I am called by the Holy One to repent for all the unbelief and faithless resignation to a miracle-less ambassadorship. Today I will look at the hard things and petition for miracles I now know He desires to enact by and through the faithful petitions of His servants and all for the Glory of the Father. Sitting in the presence of the Holy Spirit, conferring with His desire to bring glory to the Son , as the Son brought Glory to the Father, brings me to desire the same.
If the Lord's own people do not ask for miracles when facing the impossible things in life or when standing alongside others who are in such need, how will the world see the "evidence" of the miracles themselves that confirm His identity and represent His love and encourage them to believe in Him as God? Jesus claimed He is God and the miracles were and are the evidence that His claim is true.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Our conversation begins on that note. The Holy One speaks to my heart and mind, "Jesus came bringing miracles of divine intervention and nothings has changed. He still works miracles. All you have to do is ask for them".
His words demand a deep and prolonged meditation. My internal Counselor takes me to His written word in John 14:11-14 (NIV). "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. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And 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 and I will do it".
I am humbled by my Lord's sweet invitation into the Holy place of Heaven's throne room. I am here by invitation yet the intense sense of the Holy Almighty Creator brings a fear in such an overwhelming emotion that can only be described as "dread". The dread is due to the reality that if the almighty Creator of the universe is anyone other than the loving Father that I have come to trust that He is, I would be incinerated on the spot.
To begin to grasp the power of the Creator, we need only to observe the power of nature in the created world we inhabit. Lightening, Thunder, a tsunami, a hurricane, a tornado, a great white shark. All these represent a power greater than our capability to really harness or control their devastating effects.
As I meditate and ponder the scripture of this day, and with His gentle voice prodding me to go deeper, I am struck by the realized failure of the body of Christ to even ask for miracles. We, as the body of Christ, are the Lord's ambassadors in a foreign land. We are to bring the good things from our Kingdom and our King as gifts to the people who dwell here.
One of the over-arching purposes for our lives as servants of Christ our King is to share with others the hand of friendship that our Sovereign Lord has extended to them. Back in the day when kings of the earth made peace pacts and treaties with other kingdoms, they would send envoys to the foreign land and it's king. These envoys brought gifts from their kingdom and king to demonstrate the king's willingness to live in peace and harmony. Some of the riches of their homeland were given as a token of the intent to become peaceful allies on earth.
When Jesus came, He brought the riches of His kingdom to us on earth. Miracles that touched lives day after day were the evidence He offered, that His kingdom is real and His invitation to live in peace with Him is trustworthy. In the end He even signed our peace treaty in His own blood.
Those of us who believe and trust in the Kingdom of Heaven and our Heavenly King are now His ambassadors. We are to bring the blessings of our homeland and King to this earth and to the people our lives touch.
In our trials, we are faced with opposition that wants to silence and shackle us from sharing such good news of freedom and blessing. The citizens of the world try to seduce us and make us forget about our homeland and our mission or attack us on our journey. The world is enslaved by the one we call "Satan" and is not interested in setting their captives free but rather finding more ways to enslave others to serve their self centered agendas.
I am so thankful that we have been given His letter of our deployment and commission along with His exhortation to follow His lead. Today I pick up His Word to remind myself of the riches I am to share in this foreign land and with the people who surround me and make up my temporal world. Jesus came to share the wealth and riches of Heaven and God with the same world I now inhabit.
Jesus has not changed and His words are still being echoed throughout time. Holiness speaks, "Even if you do not believe in My words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves". His exhortation to me and all who believe still stands. I repeat it again to remind myself of the great privilege and responsibility to serve Him. "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing.... (That means calling down miracles). He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask for in My name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." John 14:11-14 (NIV)
Great is the promise but greater still is the One who gave it. Faith will be challenged by unbelief every time we look at an impossible situation and try to think as to how a miracle would change it. As I consider the life of my Lord and Master, Jesus, I am stopped in my thinking at the place where I realize Jesus modelled the faith He is asking me to find. Jesus was in a flesh body, refusing to exercise divine privilege when the supernatural miracles were manifested on earth.
Jesus modelled faith in the Father. It was His faith that changed circumstances and people's lives. No wonder we have been told that faith is a "fruit" of His Spirit. Was it the faith of the masses that fed the 5000 since they all ate from the same meal? Was it the faith of the disciples who were told to feed them, when all they could say was "that's impossible"?
Today, I am called by the Holy One to repent for all the unbelief and faithless resignation to a miracle-less ambassadorship. Today I will look at the hard things and petition for miracles I now know He desires to enact by and through the faithful petitions of His servants and all for the Glory of the Father. Sitting in the presence of the Holy Spirit, conferring with His desire to bring glory to the Son , as the Son brought Glory to the Father, brings me to desire the same.
If the Lord's own people do not ask for miracles when facing the impossible things in life or when standing alongside others who are in such need, how will the world see the "evidence" of the miracles themselves that confirm His identity and represent His love and encourage them to believe in Him as God? Jesus claimed He is God and the miracles were and are the evidence that His claim is true.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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