Discovering the Impossible - 3

I was listening to the God channel the other day and a couple of things really stood out to me. A man had ventured into a foreign nation to preach the gospel and to reach the lost for Jesus. He had felt that the Holy Spirit was leading him and his team across a certain river into an area in which God wanted them to minister to other people. They followed God’s lead and tested to see how deep the water was. When they discovered that the river was only knee-deep they continued to walk across the river with the water only coming up to their knees.

They arrived in the area and began to minister to the people. When they had completed their mission, the people asked them how they had arrived in the area.  They responded that they had merely walked across the river, as it was only knee deep. The people explained to them that the river was in fact very deep. They proceeded to test the depth of the river and discovered that very close the shore the river was in fact fifteen to twenty feet deep. The Lord had, unbeknown to the mission team, performed a miracle! To this day, the man does not know whether God had lowered the river level or raised a sand bar for them to walk on.

“What is the point of this story?” you may ask. The missionary shared with the TV audience that his revelation was that we are not to pursue the miraculous by itself, but to pursue the lost (those needing Jesus) and God will give us the miraculous to fulfil this mission, in this missionary’s words: “following miracles is like chasing after rainbows”. The mission team had the goal of reaching the lost in that area for Jesus. God provided the miracle.

This truly is a challenge and something that we must consider. What is the motive of our hearts when it comes to the miraculous power of God? Bill Johnson says that the miraculous power of God is always to point unbelievers (and us) towards Jesus. The miraculous power is not merely to satisfy our needs and confirm our theology. It is rather to point us to the reality of the Holy Spirit and His power and that God wants to partner with us in releasing/realising His will on earth :that none should perish but all come to a knowledge of Him.

Lots of love

Ryan

DISCOVERING THE IMPOSSIBLE - II

It has been three weeks since I began my quest to discover the impossible nature of God for myself. Well it truly has been an interesting experience.

My first observation is that God is willing to meet you wherever you are. In terms of my experience, that was not a place of confidence in flowing in the supernatural. Actually, quite the opposite was true. I had a certain amount of fear and hesitation in approaching people and sharing what God had put on my heart and praying for healing, especially because there is a real possibility that I might fail.

My second observation is that the supernatural is within our grasp. Jesus seems to be waiting for us to take the first step and trust him for something impossible. He wants us to have the faith to step out of the boat and trust him in this new area.

This last Friday, the Oasis Revival Youth from Howick, Kwazulu-Natal, ventured out on a ‘Treasure Hunt’. This term is coined from an activity that the Bethel Church, Redding, USA, conducts on a regular basis. This is where a team of people get together and ask Jesus for very specific ‘clues’ which they write down on their ‘treasure maps’. Here the Holy Spirit gives people’s names, colour of clothing, details of places and specific body parts that need healing. The teams then embark on finding their treasure using the ‘treasure map’ that God has given them.

We spent time praying for our treasure map and left for the mall with many clues in hand. Many of us spent time giving prophetic words to waiters whilst looking for our treasure to appear. We gave the one waitress a prophetic word, where we encouraged her about her circumstances and gave her a word about who God has called her to be. We then left. Members of our group returned to eat at the restaurant where she worked and this waitress approached them again. She told of how she was amazed at how we had described her so accurately even though we had no idea who she was. She explained that she was a Roman Catholic believer and how she had now decided that she was going to be praying to Jesus. What a testimony!

Later in the evening, we discovered some of our treasure. On our treasure map, we had the colour red and the place ‘Fegos’ coffee shop. So there at Fego’s, was a man in a red shirt with his fiance. This must be our treasure we thought. We then approached with our treasure map in hand and began sharing what God had given us as clues. It worked out that this was definitely a God encounter. They were believers but had been going through a tough time and they shared that they were expecting a baby. We were able to share words of encouragement and even to pray over the baby that they were expecting. They felt uplifted that God would care for them to send people to encourage them in their circumstances.

Another aspect that seems to come through repeatedly is that ‘treasure hunting’ really is an enjoyable experience that releases fun and joy in those that participate in it. This was my experience with our youth. They loved the thrill of being used by God for the miraculous and they want to do it again.

So after really experiencing an increase in my life for the impossible, I think the challenge now is to make the experience a lifestyle by incorporating it in to everyday life. The only way to do this is to ask God for the treasure map for each day!

Later,

Ryan