Tuesday, October 20, 2015

being like Jesus: walking in power for the miraculous

As believers, most of us would agree we are called to be Christlike. And yet, many believers do not actually believe they can be like Jesus, at least in this life. I didn't used to believe that I could totally overcome sin or see the miraculous mark my life and ministry. Now I do.

2 Peter 1:4 actually says that through God's promises, we "may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." We know we are called new creations and that the old man has died with Christ.

I'm going to talk about the new nature and our ability to live free from sin in a future post; this one is going to be about walking in the miraculous as Jesus did.

In his book, When Heaven Invades Earth, Bill Johnson suggests that though Jesus was entirely God, he chose to live as a human with the same limitations men would have once redeemed. This is hard for me to completely accept, but I ask myself whether that's because it's not true or just because my experience tells me otherwise. I never want to form what I believe based on my experience instead of what God actually says. I'm in process on this. Jesus did say, "The Son can do nothing by himself," (John 5:19) and it is written that he was led by the Spirit. The distinctions of his humanity: Jesus had no sin separating himself from God, and he lived in dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit.

Like Jesus, we have no sin separating us from God once we have been justified through Jesus' blood. If we argue with this point then we question whether his sacrifice was enough for what he intended to accomplish! The question then would be, "how dependent on the Holy Spirit are we willing to live?" (p. 30)

It is undeniable that Jesus favored miracles and acts of power in his ministry, and that he sent out his disciples to do the same. Why? Bill goes into many reasons for this in his book, but I found it particularly impactful when he said, "It is common for people to acknowledge the kindness of the Church and still not be brought to repentance. But power forces the issue because of its inherent ability to humble mankind. Jesus said, 'If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin." John 15:24 (p. 121) His miracles proved he was from God.

Miracles display God's power, and his incredible love. They can skip past theological discussions and defeat doubts of God's existence. They bring joy!

"The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power." 1 Corinthians 4:20

Jesus' words: "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they 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 Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."" John 14:12-14

Right there Jesus says we are not only not limited to doing only the measure of miracles that he did, but even greater things. He also doesn't just say his disciples would do this, but "whoever believes" in him, and he who asks.

Again Jesus says, "These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16:17-18)

Quoting Bill, "God doesn’t have to try to do supernatural things. He is supernatural. He would have to try to not be. If He is invited to a situation, we should expect nothing but supernatural invasion.” (p. 74)

Bringing heaven to earth

Jesus taught us to pray, "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Our job is to bring heaven to earth. Bill says, "If it exists in heaven, it is to be loosed on earth. If it is not free to exist in heaven, it must be bound here." (p. 59-60) For example, there are no tumors in heaven so we have the authority by faith to tell tumors to vanish here on earth, as well. Whether they always do and why is another discussion.

I love this analogy, "Just as ambassadors of the United States have an income based on the standard of living of this nation regardless of what nation they serve in, so also ambassadors of the kingdom of God live according to the economy of heaven, though they are still on earth." (p. 74)

This is a super rough overview of what I've been learning about our ability to walk in the miraculous, but it's a start. I'd highly recommend reading the book for more depth and his biblical basis! It's a scary thing to conclude God may actually want us to seek to walk in the miraculous because that requires a ton of risk! But I am learning it is so worth it.

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