What does it mean to be mighty in faith and power?
The libraries of the world could not contain all that comes in pursuit of
the answer! However, in the current discussion and pursuit of same...
something
is missing.
Of recent date I engaged with another on the subject of supernatural signs
and wonders that are to be normative in the Church. Certainly I agree
such is to be so. Further I agree that these things should not be limited
to some move of God here or there.
However, there is a concern! In the course of the discussion and to no
avail, I referenced what one denominational leader had said some weeks earlier,
"The Scriptures provide the river banks within which the Holy Spirit
flows." Made sense to me but apparently not to the other in the
discussion.
One asks, "What do those river banks look like?" Such is
currently under study for me; however, I can say that paramount is the matter
of humbly aligning thinking, belief, and one's life with the principles and
precepts set forth in the Scriptures. In other words studying in depth
God's Word and then applying it in the small and the great arenas of one's
life! Applying it even when one does not understand it.
Though out of fashion in many congregations the terms we used to use for such
things are dedication, sacrifice, repentance, holiness, righteousness,
obedience, humility, etc.
Throughout the history of the Church, known and unknown there have been men
and women of power who would die rather than bring any kind of reproach upon
the message of the Scriptures as lived out in their lives and situations. These
are those who humbly live lives above board and who were and are on a constant
hunt for a deeper life that aligns more perfectly with the Word of God and the
God of the Word.
These are those who clearly understood that to fail ethically while in ministry was not a
matter to be taken for granted nor lightly. It was not a matter to be
hidden but confessed. It was not a matter to be explained away but prayed
through. It was not a matter to be pridefully regretted but of which one humbly repented. It was not a matter to be arrogantly dismissed but submitted to spiritual leaders for such restoration as was possible. Failure certainly lead to forgiveness but also it was understood that it would put blight
upon a person's character and ministry. Such seems not to be so today as
such things are explained away as being "just" one's fallenness, frailty, and fallibility
and that we must forgive and forget and move on.
These were men and women who clearly understood that any part of their lives that was not
totally committed to being a follower of Jesus Christ would impede the flow of
the Holy Spirit of worship, of love, and of power. They were on a quest
for those signs and wonders previously referenced but they understood it all
began with one's life being pleasing to God! They understood that such came as
one humbled one's self before the Master, Jesus Christ.
These were men and women who clearly understood that one day there would be those who touted their spiritual power and prowess and would hear, "Depart from me, I never knew you." They purposed to not be among that number but to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
These were men and women who clearly understood that in order to have spiritual might in
their lives and ministries, their relationship with God had to go beyond citing
some promise or another with an "I deserve" almost prideful
attitude. Even today in conservative Christianity there are those who
make demands of God and propose that they know the will of God. It has
gone so far for some that they teach, preach, and counsel that praying;
"Never the less not my will but Thine be done" is wrong. I see
such praying as deferring to God's decisions and in that being submitted to His
will. Wonder what they do with the "Our Father?"
If someone cares to look throughout the pages of Church history, on every
continent, in every Christian movement, in every age, there are men and women
who lived exemplary lives dedicated to serving God and man. They lived
lives of prayer and the Word. They lived lives of confession, submission,
and dedication. Often they were thrust against their own druthers into
the local, national, and international spotlight. Even so they sought
with all of their hearts to be humbly faithful--trustworthy in the eyes of
their Lord, Jesus Christ.
These were men and women who clearly understood that one shunned evil and the very appearance of
evil. They took seriously the injunction to "...take up your cross
daily..." and thus were denigrated by even their fellow Christians.
No cost was too great a sacrifice for following Jesus Christ. These are
those who chose to sacrifice ease, personal wealth, popularity with the world,
position, safety and security, a comfortable future, retirement from service,
and much, much more in an eternal cause greater than themselves. They
demanded nothing of God and in fact only demanded of themselves in their
service. They knew nothing of, "You have to love yourself before you
can love others."
Some years ago there was a couple at a major Christian University who though
wanting to marry realized that to do so would not be in keeping with God's call
upon their lives and so sorrowfully parted. There is another who gave up
success, power, position, the possibility of marriage, and even his name to become
a follower of Jesus Christ. Indeed to listen to some today is to hear an
opposite message. Today's message all too often is, "you
deserve." One can only wonder how that squares with, "Seek you
first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness..." which is what that
couple and that man did.
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| Thomas Cranmer Memorial, Oxford |
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There is great danger in this opposite and wrong message. Yet the
message of plenty, leisure, and pleasure has been foisted upon the unwise by
the winsome. The message is simply unfounded in the Scriptures. This
has been carried to the extreme, teaching that those who belong to God
deserve.... (You fill in that blank). The reality is that because of our
own sinfulness we deserve eternal punishment! That is what we
deserve! Thankfully God in His mercy and grace made it possible for us to
escape that which we deserve through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
How inconsistent these new beliefs, with the lives of people such as the
Apostle Paul, martyred by Rome; Thomas Cranmer, burned at the stake; David Brainerd,
died at a young age, spent serving the American Indians; Jim Elliot and his 4
friends, martyred while seeking to reach the Auca Indians of South America;
John and Betty Stam, martyred by the Chinese Communists; then there are those
who occupy the pages of Foxe's Book of Christian Martyrs, and yes, the
Christians who are even now being persecuted, enslaved, and dying in places
such as Egypt, Africa, China, and Iran.
When you think about the sacrifice of these and others, it leads one to
conclude that some of us ought to give up the title "Christian" for
its use suggests that we with our easy faith are like they who traveled long and difficult trails
of travail. It connects us with these and others who gave so very
much. Most of us, it seems to me, are unworthy of such a connection.
Indeed as with the closing of the Hebrews 11 list of similar people, the world
was not and is not worthy of them. The degree to which the world is in us is the degree to which we are not worthy of them or the name by which they are remembered.
What does it mean to be mighty in faith and power? That too is to be studied
but there are some things we can know. This comes of submitting to spiritual disciplines to include the following.
Such comes when one in humility seeks to perfectly aligns his or her life with God's Word through the study of the Bible, through the ministering presence of the Holy Spirit, through prayers of repentance, through humble obedience,
and through long seasons of intercessory prayer. It comes of establishing and maintaining the eternal view. It comes with companions in prayer. It comes as one seeks God for strength to do the will of the Lord. It comes of Christian fellowship, and service. It comes of having those to whom one is accountable for word and deed. It comes of failure, confession, and restoration. It comes of
selfless obedience. It comes of implicit trust in God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit, even when they seem not to make sense.
