God's power

OK Christian friends. I have been feeling challenged lately and I want to challenge you also.

Do you believe God is all powerful?  Do you really believe He can do anything?  Do you believe He wants to show us His power? (Romans 1:20, Ephesians 3:20, 1 Corinthians 4:20)

But do we live like we do?  I find myself picking projects that I know I can accomplish. But if I only do things that I have the ability to accomplish He doesn't get to show Himself powerful. I want to go so far as to say God ENJOYS the impossible!

God wants to show His power! Don't believe me?  Do a keyword search for powerful in the bible. (Or click here.)

Do you know the story of Gideon?  (If you don't like my paraphrase you can read it yourself in Judges 7:1-25)  Gideon was called on by God to defend the land that God and given to the Israelites from the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples. This was a huge group of people attacking Gideon. And so Gideon gathers together 32,000 men to fight the battle and he has to be thinking to himself "Great, lets do this thing!". But God interrupts and says that he has too many men and to tell anyone who is afraid to go home. So 22,000 men hightail it out of there. Gideon might have been doubting a bit by then but maybe is thinking "God is on our side, we've still got this thing." But God says he wants to thin them one more time and God has Gideon get rid of another 9,700 men. Leaving them as an army of 300.  Against a huge multitude. And it gets better. God then arms them with trumpets and clay pots. No actual weapons. God made it so that there was absolutely no way Gideon could win the battle. But that is the point. The soldiers in their strength could not do it. God has to have won the victory for them! He desired to show how powerful he was.

How about the story of Lazarus?  Jesus got word he was sick.  He could have gone right away and healed him. But maybe few would have heard. Or maybe some would have doubted that Jesus actually did it and that Lazarus was going to get better on his own.  So Jesus waited until he was four days dead and decaying. You don't generally come back from that. THEN God showed His power.  No one would doubt that it was only the power of God who raised Lazarus from the dead.

There are lots of stories in the bible where God showed Himself powerful.  How about Elijah?  He said "Get that altar extra wet. I don't want anyone thinking it was an accidental brushfire that got this party started!" (Also my paraphrase- you can read his actual words 1 Kings 18:22-40).  There were 12 buckets of water poured on it, so much so there were puddles forming. But you don't see Elijah thinking he bit off more than he could chew. I'm afraid, if that whole thing had been my assignment I would have gone about it a lot differently. But in the end people might have just wondered if God had a hand in it and certainly no one would be reading about it three thousand years later. Instead, there is no doubt God did it and He is powerful.

So, I've started to pray that God would show Himself powerful in my life and ministry. And I know God answers prayer. That possibly means I'm going to start acting a little strange. Like trying to start a big bonfire after I've poured gallons of water over it. Or waging battles, but rather than recruiting more soldiers, I'll be sending most home. I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek.

But also I'm being sort of serious. I want to be an instrument of God's power at work around me for those who are suffering and lost.

How about you?  Will you also accept for God to show himself powerful?