Category: Revival

"We Have Never Seen Anything Like This!"

3/18/2021

Text: Mark 2:1-12 When Jesus came back to Capernaum a few days later, it was heard that He was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer space, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. 3 And some people came, bringing to Him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men. 4 And when they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying. 5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?” 8 Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were thinking that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you thinking about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralyzed man, 11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home.” 12 And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Questions to Consider:

1. Have you ever experienced something so amazing at the hand of God that caused you to say "I've never seen anything like this!"?

2. What is it that keeps us from experiencing things today, like what took place in the story of this man?

3. What do you think is needed for our church and for the church at large to have people come and go saying "I've never seen anything like this!"?

And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

This sentiment of "We have never seen anything like this!" was common in the life and ministry of Christ and the first church.
Is it the same with the church today?
From RJ Dugone:
Let me propose something radical: We need less tradition and more, “We have never seen anything like this!” We need less tried and true and more, “We have never seen anything like this!” We need less of mundane, same old, same old, and more, “We have never seen anything like this!” We need to experience God in a way that causes people to say, “We have never seen anything like this!” To experience something that is so outside the box, so outside the expectation, so outside experience that people would proclaim, “We have never seen anything like this;” It would need to be something that is out of the ordinary. Perhaps even supernatural. By definition “supernatural” is a force that is beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
When it comes to a supernatural move of God—where do we even begin? Well, you begin by believing enough to make God your first stop in prayer. You begin by believing enough to bring your two loaves and a few fishes to Jesus, so that He can feed 5,000. You begin by believing enough to haul your friend who is paralyzed to Jesus by any means possible. You begin by fighting through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. You make running to Jesus (who is your advocate and makes intercession for you) the person that you turn to when you are faced with things that are difficult, and maybe even impossible—never forgetting that with God, all things are possible!
Missionary/Author Nik Ripken was asked, “Why don’t we see God doing miracles in our time like we read about in the Book of Acts?” (Let me paraphrase Nik’s answer) “If you want to see healings, and demons being cast out, and miracles; go serve as a missionary in a third world country where Believers are forced by circumstances to trust in God. When there are no doctors, no hospitals, no medical facilities of any kind; going to God becomes the default position for Believers. They ask for prayer and they are healed. In the American church, going to the doctor has become our default position, and we have not, because we ask not.”
Listen to the exhortation of James. He is giving us the default position of faith when we are sick. James 5:14-15 (NASB) 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
Is anyone among you sick? HE MUST call for the elders of the church. He must…we must! This is our default position when it comes to sickness. We start by calling for the elders to pray for us. Why do we call for the elders to pray over us? Because we know that the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. When we do this, we have taken the first step to move away from the mundane.
Do we want to see God move in a way that causes people to say, “We have never seen anything like this?” It all starts with believing in Jesus enough to ask, to knock and to seek. In the case of the paralyzed man, his friends believed enough to push through all the natural barriers that stood between them and Jesus. Even the roof was not enough to deter them from the miracle that was waiting to happen.

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Adjusting Our Expectations

2/18/2021

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2 Chronicles 7:11-22 (NASB)
11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in the house of the LORD and in his palace. 12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. 16 "For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 17 "As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 18 then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, 'You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.' 19 "But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 "As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?' 22 "And they will say, 'Because they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.'"

There is a weird expectation that the church in the United States clings to. It is the expectation that morality can be legislated. At the core of this belief is the erroneous idea that we can change the behavior of unbelieving people through the passage of moral laws. Although we need to have moral laws in place, we should not expect non-believers to act righteously without a heart change.

How can we "save" our nation? Firstly, we must stop looking to solve the spiritual problems in our nation with carnal tools, such as politics. The moral change that "we" desire must start with the Church. It is incumbent for Believers in Christ to take the lead in changing the direction of our country. This will not occur through political activism without the fervor of spiritual revival.

God's strategy for changing the heart of a nation always starts with God's people. God spoke the following words of wisdom to Solomon. (Please note, this is not Solomon's wisdom, these are the words of God) "If my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

God lists four specific actions that "His" people should take in order to see the spiritual healing of their land.

Humble Ourselves
Pray
Seek God's Face
Repent from Our Sin

These are four pro-active strategies for the Church. These are four spiritual weapons in our arsenal. Our nation would be will served if we stopped complaining about the state of our nation, and instead, made the spiritual investment of humility, prayer, walking in God's purposes, and finally, stopped being a part of the moral failure of the nation by repenting and turning away from the common sins of the nation. It is never too late to get started!

Questions to Consider:

Do you spend much time watching the news? (What spiritual impact has the news made on your life?)
Do you consider yourself a part of the national problem, or a part of the solution? (How can you be more effective at being the light and the salt of the earth?)
Although we can pass moral laws in our country, why can't we legislate morality itself?

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Discipleship plan

"We Have Never Seen Anything Like This!"

Adjusting Our Expectations

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