14/08/2008

Signs and wonders?

I was looking back over these past months and noting God’s hand at work in so many ways in my life and in my family.
There are so many, many instances, especially from Easter Sunday through Cindy’s dad’s precious final days and death, the joyful celebration of his life at his funeral, the birth of our grandaughter, Jessica…and the next day praying with Ian’s mum as she made her last journey, taking her funeral, my first. Numerous other joys and challenges…not least that Sunday morning a few weeks ago when I was called upon to preach unexpectedly. Many ups and downs along the way. Still learning, often the hard way.
We have had some real answers to prayer… Cindy called them ‘signs and wonders’ which in a way they are. That phrase ‘signs and wonders’ also popped up at the course JeongSook and I are currently on at Lincoln and again in my daily readings in 2 different places, and again the other day when I opened a book about Holy Spirit Ministry, so I’m going with what God is saying, I believe.

Signs and wonders. Wherever God is at work, there are signs and wonders. They may be simple, everyday answers to our prayers as we offer matters to God where we need His specific intervention. They may be really big things like people being healed of their illnesses. Hallelujah!
These are evidences of God’s favour and we must be ready not only to thank Him but to trust and obey Him for the days ahead.
At the same time as we observe these signs and wonders, there are a number of instances of the devil at work, and we must be alert, watchful and put on God’s armour.

Friends, we have a huge responsibility in these dark and difficult days.
It has often been said that we are God’s hands on Earth, that He has no plan B; it is down to us Christians to do the work of the Kingdom, or rather to permit God to do it in and through us.
This is a challenge none of us can shirk. I have previously spoken about revival… If My people(2Chron 7v14)…the healing of the land can only happen through us you see. Knife crime is going to get worse, drugs, abortion and wholesale rejection of Christian standards, unless we get before God in prayer, humility and sincere repentance it’s going to get worse.
Can you see it? Can you understand? It’s down to you and me in the time we have left on Earth to be about Kingdom business. And we can’t do it while our own lives are in a mess.
I have been saying this stuff for years…. Check out my sermon blog and you’ll see…. And I know that I too need sorting constantly, I have to say that to you, or I would be a hypocrite. Daily I need to come before the throne of grace. Paul said he was the chief of sinners. How can he be worse than me? And yet at the same time somehow God in Christ is moving me forward to become more like Jesus.

The enemy is out to get you the moment you start to disturb him. And nothing disturbs him more than the prayers of believers. Satan trembles when a Christian prays, you know, because prayer is a bridge over which the powers of the Kingdom, powers of the age to come, reach into the here and now, and bring The Light of the World into the dominion of darkness., bring healing and wholeness where there was previously sickness and depression.
You want to suffer….then pray. You want to follow Jesus, then take up the cross.
On that Sunday four weeks ago I said that we are called to be witnesses… people who ‘know’ the saviour…really know him in our hearts. People whose words and deeds witness to those around us. And as witnesses we are martyrs (the Greek word for witness and martyr is the same). No messing. No nominal Christianity. It’s all or nothing.
Wesley was diametrically opposite to most Western Christians today.
We talked about Wesley a few weeks ago at the men’s cell group. He was not self satisfied. Seeing the state of the world around him he committed himself to be different. He was determined he was going to live a holy life, following Christ. He would pray, fast and discipline himself and demand that of others. He was a tough cookie. It was an uphill struggle and he made no converts.
His determination was admirable, and puts most of us to shame. But he didn’t know the Jesus he sought to serve. Every ounce of his energy went into doing what he thought was God’s will. But he had not experienced the love of Jesus. Each day he rose early and set out to live simply so he could devote himself to God’s work. But he did not have the power of the Spirit.
Until Aldersgate Street, when someone was reading Luther’s dry and academic preface to the book of Romans. God’s timing is wonderful. Imagine the dryest and most boring sermon you have ever sat through! Might be one of mine. Imagine feeling utterly miserable and worthless. And then God intervenes. Whoomph! And takes you to a new place within. Peace, joy, love, power.

We on the other hand want the blessing without the discipline. Disciple means discipline.
When Wesley got the blessing, he already had the discipline.
And the rest is history as they say.

This, I fear, is where the Church is today for the most part. The reverse of Wesley.
Desiring the blessing, but unwilling to count the cost, in terms of true discipleship.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about ‘costly grace’ and ‘cheap grace’ in his book ‘The Cost of Discipleship’.. Keith Norton has preached on that. So ask him about it. I have yet to read the book.
A book I have read however is Arnold Bittlinger’s ‘Gifts and ministries’. In it he says this:

'Frequently the real enemies of the gospel are not heathens or atheists: rather, they are those who know about Jesus but refuse to bow to His sovereign claim.........those for whom Christianity merely constitutes one sector of life, the centre of which is their personal ego, who are not prepared to let another have dominion over them. Such people have always been ready to cry ‘Lord, Lord’ and to take an active part in worship--but they have not been ready to change their lives and do the will of Jesus. Bearing the semblance of a godly life they lack its power. Jesus imparts no power for the execution of personal desires and representations. Power is only available to the Christian in order that he may place his life into the hands of Jesus and permit the Holy Spirit to be active through him. Jesus does not grant power that is independent of Himself. He either bestows himself or he bestows nothing at all. Jesus himself is the power.’

This paragraph spoke to me a number of years ago, and I keep reading it to remind me that I need always to place my life into the hands of Jesus and let the Holy Spirit be active in me., it is a matter of the will. If the Holy Spirit is not working in me and through me, what’s the point?
Bittlinger suggests that I might even be an enemy of the gospel… God forbid!

There is always a cost. Read the gospels! As I have said, the Greek for ‘witness’ is martys which is precisely the same word used by the NT writers for martyr. So where Jesus says,’ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ read: ‘you will be my martyrs in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
Does that encourage you?
You and I can choose one way or the other.
But we may not expect the real blessings, the signs and wonders, the necessary power, the going with the Spirit’s flow, unless we are prepared to count the cost.
It will impact on our time, money and relationships, but I can tell you, it’s worth it…He is worth it. !!
Will you choose to take up the cross and follow the Master? Be a true disciple? Make a difference?