LET JESUS DO THE WALKING


LET JESUS DO THE WALKING



            Many years ago I wrote 20 songs for 2 children’s CDs. They were recorded for a group called the Heritage Singers out of California and they sold these CDs (Cassette Tapes then) at their concerts.



            Well, at any rate I was going through a box of musical memorabilia the other day and I stumbled onto that old tape called “Gospel Train” so I plunked it into my equally old cassette player and gave it a listen. Actually it was very good in my humble estimation. The kids were so talented and their energy and enthusiasm came through bright and cheerful.



            My two boys were on that tape as two of the singers and to give you some idea of the time frame, my son Zach was probably 10 years old and that would make Josh about 6. Zach is now 42 and Josh 38. So it was great fun and a flood of memories washed over me as I listened to the songs after so many years.



            One of the songs was called “Let Jesus Do the Walking.” As I listened to the song, I thought to myself, “Wow, maybe that song was a bit overly optimistic since most of us as Christians have yet to experience in real life the words of that song. It went like this:



            I can’t walk on water… I can’t calm the sea… I can’t walk on water… Don’t depend on me… I can’t heal the blind man… Or set the captives free… But Jesus has the power and He’s living in me. I let Jesus do the walking… Let Jesus do the walking in me… Let Jesus do the walking… Let Jesus do the walking in me… When I see the sick and lame I just speak to them in Jesus’ name and watch those people leap to their feet… I let Jesus do the walking… Jesus Do the walking… I let Jesus do the walking in me.”



            Do I believe in miracles? Absolutely! We see them at church on a regular basis… people delivered from demons… sick made well and crippled people delivered from their maladies. Well… as for walking on water, I have not seen or heard of it since Jesus did it and our miracles are not always as dramatic or as cut and dried as the song implies… so the question is Why?



            In John 14:12 (The same chapter in which Jesus promises that He is preparing a place for us in heaven He also says:



            “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”



            We have discussed before the fact that when Jesus begins a sentence with Truly, truly, or verily, verily, He is making an emphatic statement, saying in effect. ”You can take this check to the bank… and when you cash it, it won’t bounce”



            So if we believe Jesus when He says that we must be born again                (Another one of those emphatic statements found in John 3:3) then we must also believe that Jesus fully intended for us to let Him do the walking in us. This is in fact what Pentecost was all about. Jesus, having returned to heaven to be glorified, sends down His very own Spirit, the same Spirit that He walked in and did His miracles by, He has placed in us so that we can continue His work in the world.



            Religious types can say that all of these miracles and gifts died with the last apostle, or whatever, but they won’t find Scripture to support it, for Jesus said as a parting shot: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Mt. 28:20b.



            Jesus also said in His prayer for us in John 17: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their Word.” John 17:20.



            And in speaking of the gift of the Holy Spirit Peter said: “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself. Acts 2:39.



            So we believe what Jesus said and we believe these things in theory if not in practice and yet there is a cry of our hearts for the power of the early church.



            We tend to forget that they had power because Jesus was their “first love.” and that they operated in the midst of horrible persecution when Christians were being fed to wild animals in the coliseums for entertainment.



            The truth is, the Gospel shines most brightly in the darkest of times and while we may hope for an escape from here, I can’t help but think that before we leave this mortal coil we will once again face Pharaoh like Moses did and that our miracles will prove to be superior to those slight-of- hand miracles that Satan will perform as he pretends to by the world’s Christ.



            In my way of thinking something drastic must yet happen on a global scale that will shake us from our complacent form of Christianity in which comfort takes first place. As our Pastor said at prayer meeting last night: “We can sit in our comfortable pews and wonder why one of the lightbulbs is out in the chandelier or why the temperature is one degree away from perfect and we forget that we have come to worship Almighty God, Jesus, the risen Savior who is high and lifted up so that the train of His robe fills the temple.



            So I believe that we will yet see the same kinds of miracles that the first church saw, but I also believe that perhaps it is going to come under the same kinds of circumstances, because complacent Christianity will never be able to do what a persecuted church, freshly baptized in the Holy Spirit can do.



            We should not be satisfied with our lives until we can say that Jesus is doing His walking in us and that we have truly become vessels of His ministry in the world… and we won’t do it under the bright lights of a TV, but humbly and quietly, with love and compassion for the needs of others.



            In truth, I believe that we are seeing the situation being set up for just the kind of environment that the early church faced. With the rise of the global elite along with the global religion of the beast and with the apostasy of large portions of the church as they depart from the solid faith of the Gospel, we will yet have to face governors and kings and Pharaohs with a power that we are not often seeing in our present time.



            So, in a very real sense, we should set aside our escapist mentality and pray for the removal of those things in our lives that prevent Jesus from doing His walking in us.

            “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. Acts 1:8

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