John 14:13 says I will do whatsoever you may ask in my name that my Father may be glorified. Verse 12 preceding it says those who believe in me will do greater things than that I have done. Both truly astounding promises from God-as these talk of a limitless power available to us who believe in Christ.
If we ask our hearts though, the cry we often have is the same as that of the prophet Habakkuk in Chapter 3 verse 2-“Lord we have heard of your fame, we stand in awe of your deeds-repeat them in our day.” Because when we read scripture and we see the cripples walking, the blind eyes seeing, the deaf hearing and the dead raised-our hearts become alive as we see the goodness of God.
We recognise the reality of love when compassion wakes Lazarus up from the dead, and the woman with the issue of blood is healed. We recognize the inherent goodness of God and when we hear Acts 3 talk about how Jesus went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, we become confident that His agenda for our lives is good. He has the heart of a Father, and every father worth the name would not hesitate to take away the pain of their child.
But if we are honest, our walk as Christians often does not reflect this limitless power available to us but rather, we often look at the lives of the disciples and Jesus as the pinnacle of what Christianity could be. A pinnacle we have no right to dare dream of seeing in our lifetimes but that must remain solely on the pages of scripture for our admiration.
And today I would like to talk about some of the roadblocks we face and need to overcome to actually see heaven’s open hand towards us. To talk about those things that whilst the promises of God stand open and ready for us to appropriate, we find ourselves living lives that are nowhere close to what is available to us in God.
We consider the waves
It is the same with us in our walk. Our walk of faith begins with overcoming an impossibility. God’s forgiveness of our sins and tranforming of our nature into new creations is not a natural act. No, it is beyond that-it is supernatural. In an instant, we are given a place of belonging in Him, as the forgiven; as Sons, as co-heirs with Christ. In a moment, the blood of Jesus declares the ungodly to be just-and pleads life, favour and wholeness over them. And for some time, we are happy and cannot stop telling everyone about this great Jesus.
But however, soon we start considering the darkness of the world around us. We consider the sheer weight of anger and malice towards the church that the world has; and we become afraid. We consider the endless arguments about those who have failed morally in the church, and ask ourselves questions such as who are we to think we could be different? We retreat into our shells and become comfortable with the routine of church and not become the life-giving force we are called to be because it easier. In essence, we go back into the boat because it seems safer than out there where there are waves.
We postpone the victory meant for today
Lazarus of Bethany is in the grave for four days when Jesus raises him from the dead. Before this happens however, Martha says something important because more often than not, it is how we respond to the difficulty today as believers. When Jesus says “Your brother will rise again”, she responds “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” She takes a promise or an assurance about what Jesus wants to do for her today and postpones it to the last day.
And we do this often as believers. The Bible says “By His stripes we are healed” and we say in heaven, we will not have sickness. God promises to provide for our needs, we say we will not lack in heaven. Jesus says I have come to give them an abundant life, we look at this promise and assume it begins on the day of death. In many cases, it seems we let our previous hurts, or maybe losses define how we believe the promises of God will come be fulfilled. We allow the pain in our hearts to cloud the picture of God’s goodness and because we do not want to get hurt again by having hope, we postpone blessings meant for today to a date yet to come.
We ask not
James 4:2 says something that is painful but true. You do not receive because you do not ask. And this is unfortunately true today. We live our lives as though everything depended on us. Our careers, our families and our nations. We live each moment in worry, making plans based on our strength and the limits of our locations and family history-apart from the strength and goodness of God.
When faced with challenges-roadblocks in our career, family dysfunction, sickness or marriage problems, we often make the tendency to rely on our own strength. We seek promotion without invite the God who lifts the humble up to promote us. We look at historical family dysfunction, or a family member who is on the wrong path and at best we say nothing. At worst, all we have judgmental words and stare to give.
When we have challenges in school even, we do not realise that the Holy Spirit is our comforter, and our our counselor-well able to guide and counsel us to get great results. Daniel is a case in point. In Daniel 1 vs 20, he was found to be 10 times wiser than those around him. And the great thing about God is that He says He is not a respector of persons; what He did for one He will do for another.
We do not consider ourselves worthy
I feel like this is a very big one. Especially because we can rationalise it, and justify our way of thinking. We know when we have sinned. We know we have fallen short, and it hits a chord when the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So we look at the promises of God, the goodness of His mercy and we lay it against the background of our lives. Our mistakes, our rebellion and our sins against the precious sacrifice that is the blood of Jesus. The big difference then makes us afraid of asking. We consider our standing with God to be a result of our own actions-and because our actions do not measure up, we feel unworthy and therefore do not ask.
So What Next
This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are other rocks that may be blocking the river of God’s blessing’s from flowing in our lives. And the real question really on our hearts is how do we overcome them? How do we move from this place where our hearts struggle to receive God’s promises to a place where we are yielded and open to the free outpouring of His love?
There are a number of things. One is to learning to rest in God. Learning to realise that we are the forgiven of God, and that our position in him is not a result of our actions but by his grace. Just as important, is realising that we need to change what we believe about ourselves. Ephesians Chapter 2 is a chapter full of timely reminders of who we are in Christ. So is this summary of our identity in Christ here. Knowing that we are loved, beloved sons of God who thinks constantly to do us good will take us a long way in our journey to see God’s promises fulfilled in our live.
It will require for us to study the word. To guard our hearts against lies; to develop filters for what we allow into our minds so that the thoughts in our minds are of things above and not beneath. It will be necessary to realise that as believers, we are in and not of the world. And that being so, we need to embrace this difference in-order to actually be agents of change in the world.
In a simple way of speaking, it will require that we humble our minds; quiet the voices that try to make us doubt and start taking God at His word. No fancy explanations away; no beating around the bush but simply take Him at His word and act accordingly. After all, isn’t that what trust is really all about?
Selah
