It seems that there are many of us in the church these days who look at miraculous signs and think, ‘If God would only do them, the whole world would come to Christ’. And they’re hoping that the Holy Spirit will fill a church while we worship, and fill it so full that it will somehow get to the ends of the Earth.
No. If it worked like that, He would not have told us to go! It does not get there by itself. It gets there if you go.
You think Jesus Christ, up there in heaven, couldn’t have done sky writing? Done a few signs and somehow by the power of God we’d all be one?
No.
The miraculous sign upon which all men will be judged was the cross. That is the miraculous sign that the world is waiting for, through us.
There’s this terrible song that we sing called “Lord Let Your Glory Fall”. I don’t know if you sing it, but I get real upset when we sing this song.
I can’t sing that song, especially when they sing it all sweet. You know what the Glory of God is? The Son of God, crushed, voluntarily.
“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again.”- John 10:17.
God gives us this same privilege. “Anyone who would follow me must take up his cross, daily.”- Luke 9:23
See? That’s it!
I don’t think the Glory of God is going to get to the ends of the Earth when we sing in church. I mean, it’s not a bad thing to do, to praise His name and bless His heart. But that’s not how the Gospel gets to the Nations.
You see, it isn’t “just” a miraculous sign. The miraculous sign comes through a man.
I think the world has yet to see this. The world has yet to see Christians laying down their lives. They’re singing in church for God to do it again.
I think we’re so rude to God. I mean, He gave us His son, He gave us His Holy Spirit and we say, ‘More, Lord’! What more can He give?
He gave everything, and we say ‘More Lord’?
We say, ‘We need more before we go’. No! No! We haven’t used hardly any of what He’s given us yet. And if you go and it’s quickly used up, great! Because as you use it up you get more, and you use it up, and you get more. That’s how it works!
We haven’t seen hardly any of the signs and wonders that we’re supposed to see yet. Hardly any.
Because we think that the sign and the wonder is instead of the Cross. But the sign and the wonder is “in” the cross.
Then, when we understand the Cross, which is His heart, all the other signs and wonders are the expression of His heart. They are not demonstrations of His power, merely. They’re expressions of His heart.
You know that this was Jesus’ temptation, right at the beginning of His ministry, and at the end, to have it all without the Cross.
For any of you, young people, if you will minister with the poor, everything’s backwards.
You spend a year on these people, and then they rob you of your money. In this ministry, you go backwards. God is faithful, of course, they all come off drugs by the power of the Holy Spirit, but then many of them turn back.
I was sharing this with a church in Taiwan and the pastor came up to me afterwards and said, ‘How can this be? We’ve never heard this teaching before.’ And I said, ‘It’s the way Jesus did it.’
Look at Him. At the end of three years, what’s He got to show? I mean, he’s had some great Glory meetings and some people got healed, but what’s He got at the end?
Eleven in disarray and one suicide. His group hasn’t multiplied even.
Not until Peter knows the Grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s that Rock the Church is built on; a weak, forgiven Peter knowing the Grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
And so few yet in this world have used this explosive mixture of the compassion of Lord with a broken heart, and the power of the Spirit.
It’s what the world waits for.
*Transcribed from Tape 4 in the conference tape set entitled “The Fragrance Of Justice”; VMG, 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment