As I have grown older, and I understand I am still young, I have begun to find myself disgusted with the same things most of us have become so accustomed to.
I do not think of myself as being anything special or unique. I grew up in an average home with normal parents and an ethnic background leaning heavily on the Italian roots from my father. I didn't grow up rich and I didn't grow up so poor that I would be destined for a "rags to riches" life story. I graduated high school, I played sports but was not the star on any team, I never went through a goth phase growing up, my parents never forced me to go to sleep with my bible in hand nor did they force me to memorize entire books of the bible at a time, and my favorite food was jello. In other words, I am rather ordinary, nothing special about me. Yet I have this burning desire inside of me that tells me I cannot accept the ordinary and the normal and the traditional things of Christ, of the Christian life.
Jesus was a lot of things but ordinary was not one of them. I'd imagine when people asked their neighbors, "Have you of that Jesus guy going around?" the answer was never "You mean that normal dude?" or "that plain looking fellow? The one who sits in the back of the church and doesn't say much?" For example, at one point Jesus told His disciples to eat His body and drink His blood....That's not normal.
So, when Jesus says in the Bible "These same works I have done, you will do also and greater works than these." I have to take Him at His word. When He tells me (and you) to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and cast out the demons..." I assume that means I am not only able to do those things but I am SUPPOSED to do those things.
When did it become okay for Christians to not heal people? When did it become okay for Christians to work a normal job, live in a normal apartment, and attend a normal church for their entire lives without ever experiencing a real Jesus? When did it become okay to forget about the power and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit? When did the extent of God's power become limited to our checking accounts? When did the most powerful thing we see in church become the book club? Since when did preachers become known as the most popular because of what they said and not because of the manifestation of the miraculous in their lives?
We sing songs talking about healing, freedom, grace, peace, love, mercy, and all these other powerful words but I am not entirely sure we understand what any of those words actually mean.
I think we have been focussed on hype for far too long in churches. Everything we do has become about the next big event or the next catchy title of the sermon series. We rely on hype and advertising to bring the people into our churches and hope they enjoy themselves so much that they choose to stick around. But hype will never sustain a church. The only thing to sustain a church over a long period of time is the power and the presence of God.
I am begging you, whomever is reading this, please stop, Stop the nonsense, stop the regurgitating the same thing everyone else is saying, please stop the same boring life. Let's do something, let's be used by the Holy Spirit and actually see the power of God move through our lives into our cities.
In the book of Acts it says that 5,000 were lead to the way in a single day. The city I live in has a population of around 125,000. That means we should be able to transform this city for the kingdom of God in 25 days. But we won't do it by inviting them to bible study and by holding a book club. We will transform it by getting in the streets, loving the people, and allowing God to actually move through us in ways of His manifest power and love.
Join the movement, join the revolution. Don't be satisfied with what you have or where you are. Pray and tell God you are open to Him, tell Him you want to be used for His kingdom in a very real and powerful way.
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