THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE

THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE

           

            Christianity was never intended to be a membership in a club with a set of bylaws. It was intended to be a     supernatural life made possible only by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God’s presence and power was to animate every believer so that his or her life became a mission to the world.

            In being born again, we literally die to the kingdom of this world. We do this by entering by faith into Jesus death. So immediately some may picture this death to self and the world as a negative thing, a burden to bear, a stringent life to suffer through. But that is not what was intended by our death in Christ.

            Think instead of being a prisoner of war in some place horrible like North Korea where their only intention is to work you to death with a minimal amount of slop to eat, rags that barely cover the body against the bitter cold. What if someone came into camp that you became friends with and he said that he had come there for the express purpose of helping you escape?

            He tells you that if you will place your faith in him, he can teach you how to become invisible just like Jesus did when He escaped the angry crowds on numerous occasions. It takes time and patience and faith as your friend secretly works with you from day to day as you break rocks in the chain gang, but one day you discover that you have learned the art of invisibility and you and your friend simply walk right out of prison because the cruel guards can no longer see you.

            Likewise we are born into a prison planet that is ruled by a cruel task master whose only goal is to work you to death and discard you. To him you are the enemy. He wants to destroy you, but he is going to get some free labor out of you before you die. So whether you believe in his cause or not, you end up slaving for him in a world that has no hope unless you can escape it.

            On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and told the people that there was a way to enter into the death of the Messiah by faith. You could enter into this death and then be born again into a new kingdom in which instead of being worthless and despised prisoners, you could become kings and priests.

            In the process of this great salvation we would become invisible to the enemy and we could walk out of his camp, but there was more than just walking out. Once outside the gate you would be empowered by this new kingdom to do all the supernatural things that had been promised by the prophets… prophets like Joel who had said ahead of time:

           

            “And it shall be in the last days, God says, That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams; even upon My bond slaves, both men and women I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:17-21, Joel 2:28-32)

            This is a now and then promise from God, for peter said that this is what happened at Pentecost. Everyone that called upon the name of the Lord was able to enter into this death and resurrection… to become invisible to the enemy and to walk out as new creatures now belonging to a new kingdom with new powers to operate in this new kingdom.

            But this promise was not only for the day of Pentecost and in fact it comes right down to our day… to signs in the sun, moon and stars…signs and wonders in the sky above and on the earth beneath. And in fact if we have our eyes open we can see all of these things beginning to take place in our world today. The nations, made up of millions of prisoners are in turmoil and rebellion. They hate their suffering and their hopeless situation, but instead of coming to the only One who can set them free, they are taking it out on those who have already become free.

            This is how Satan blinds the eyes of the people so that they hate the very ones that can make them invisible. And not only that, but he is blinding the eyes of many believers so that they do not use the supernatural gifts that they have received. They live more like prisoners than escapees. Many have all but dropped their mission of helping others to escape and so they hunker down in their little clubs and wait for the Messiah to return.

            But there is a way we can be free now. Paul talks about it in Ephesians 2:4-6 saying:

            “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

            Yes, we are still on this prison planet and yes, we are still waiting for our Lord’s return, but we don’t have to lives as slaves to this world system. In the Spirit we can be seated with Christ in heavenly places even now. Not only that but we have been given the earnest or down payment of the Holy Spirit and the power of the age to come so that we can be effective witnesses to the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

            Just before He left this world, Jesus said: “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

            Why is it that so many Christians treat Pentecost as an option, or even as something that was temporary that came to an end with the first apostles? Right in his speech on the day of Pentecost Peter told them that this power would be in action at the end of time when as the book of Revelation says, the sun will lose its light and the moon will turn to blood.

            Not only that, but Peter assured them and us saying: “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.  If you belong to the Lord, then the power of Pentecost is for you. The Holy Spirit is still animating His Church.

            So when well-meaning Christians tell you that the gifts and baptism of the Holy Spirit are done away, they do so either in ignorance or in rebellion and the truth is that in any healthy church, all of the gifts of the Spirit should be in evidence… Paul gives us a list of the supernatural gifts that have been given to the church and here he is not talking about natural talents. He is talking about the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit and he says:

            “But each one is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit and another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit and to another the effecting of miracles and to another prophecy and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one as He wills.” 1 Cor. 12:7-11. Notice if you will that Paul lists 9 gifts of the Spirit here, even as He lists 9 fruits of the spirit in Gal. 5:22. Neither the gifts nor the fruit are limited to these 9 gifts or fruits for we see many other gifts and fruits mentioned in the Bible. I think the message here is that the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit must go together. You can’t truly operate in the gifts if you don’t have the love.

            The question we must ask ourselves is this: “Is my church a supernatural organism of the Holy Spirit or is it merely a Christian club. Do we operate only on bylaws, or are the gifts of the Spirit abundant and varied and active in our midst?

            To be honest, even those congregations that believe in Pentecost do not always function as Christ intended us to function. We have allowed the devil to brow beat us… often to live like prisoners, rather than free overcomers.

            According to Paul, every member of the church should have a supernatural gift. It must be a gift that goes above and beyond the natural talents of a person, although our natural talents may indicate the kind of gift that the Holy Spirit intends to work through us. In other words, He is not going to give you the ministry of singing if you can’t carry a tune. He is not going to give you the ministry of teaching if you can’t make sense of His Word. He is not going to give you the gift of prophecy if you have no ability to see the big picture and to understand how His grand purposes are all fitting together in these last days.

            But to each one has been given a spiritual gift for the betterment of the whole body and if it is no more than sweeping the floors or helping to prepare food, or whatever that gift is, then start doing it with your whole heart. Break beyond convenience and give that gift back to the Lord and he will use that floor sweeping gift or that dish washing gift and He will direct people your way and you will minister to them in ways that the Pastor or the Prophet cannot minister.

            Bonnie and I discovered this in our congregation in Washington State. We went there not to be served but to love and to serve. We became involved in the lowliest of jobs, working in the kitchen, putting on the meals, scrubbing pots and pans. We did it with exuberance and joy and soon we had a stream of people coming by for prayer, for hugs and even for prophetic discussions.

            Church for us, from that time on ceased to be mundane. It was our greatest joy and we not only felt like we were doing a job, but that we were involved in the supernatural flow of God’s purpose for our lives and our influence went far beyond simply getting the kitchen work done.

            The church today is in dire need of vision again. People drag into church hoping to receive something that will recharge their dying spiritual batteries for another week, when all along they fail to realize that they could have been supernaturally involved in the flow of the Holy Spirit , administering their gift, not just as a job to be done but with joy and exuberance and purpose. It truly is more blessed to give than to receive and it is in the giving that we are blessed.

            It is important to go before the Lord and to find out what your gift is. What is the Lord calling you to? And when you find out what that thing is, then do it with all of your heart and soul and you will soon find out that your gift has taken on a supernatural element to it and that you are operating in the flow of the Holy Spirit. This goes for both inside the church and outside of it.

            Opportunities are everywhere if we will do the supernatural thing that God has called us to do… not to be noticed, or to be on TV, but as a humble and faithful servant of the Lord. There is a crown waiting for every soul that is faithful in the little things.