Signs
There will never be enough signs to convince a doubting heart of the truth.
Matthew 12:38Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41“The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
42“The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
43“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.
44“Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
45“Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
In this passage, Jesus has just been called demonized because he is casting out demons, the greatest sign that He is bringing a new kingdom....That He is the Messiah:
Matthew 12:28“But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29“Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
30“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
The signs will never be enough unless the heart of the believer is willing to receive them and then make them true in his own heart. There will never be enough prophetic words, there will never be enough dreams, there will never be enough of Jesus' voice in your heart unless you are willing to make them enough.
Going into a new year is a great time to reflect on what I have done with what has already been given.
Have I let the fact that I have a life that I didn't create myself be enough to know for sure that someone good made me to love me, if I will let Him? Have I let the nature of nature be enough to know God is really good, really smart, and really powerful, and that He made the entire experience of life for my good, despite the ways the enemy lies about this continually?
Have I let the prophetic promises given to me in the past be alive now?
Do I keep God's words, written, breathed, and spoken to me....Do I keep them fresh in my heart.. or, do I gratefully cast them aside after a quick hit to my heart...hoping for more corroboration...More evidence that they might be true?
Am I faithful with little, or do I let doubt tarnish what has already been shown and been given?
One of the first supernatural experiences I ever had in the Lord...The first tangible breaking in of heaven into my life... Was my mom being miraculously healed of Lupus. It was a pretty dramatic event...It was clearly miraculous...It has shown itself true over decades...Yet, unless I try to remember, I mostly forget it even happened. I spend hours in prayer asking God to release miraculous healing into my life and my church, while at the same time often forgetting that one of the first things He ever introduced into my testimony was a massive supernatural healing that I got to be a part of!
So many areas of my life mirror this same principle...That what has happened in the past is so easily forgotten in the reach for tomorrow. This isn't faith... This is an insatiable appetite for more "seeing" while really not valuing what has already been seen. This, if left unchecked, will eventually lead to a complete loss of faith...This will lead to judgment.
At some point, I am going to be held accountable for how I RESPONDED to what God has given. I don't know about you, but God has given me MUCH. I wake up every day with no real effort of my own...The breath in my lungs is proof minute by minute that someone bigger than me keeps me going. The roof over my head, food in the fridge, kids that I can love, a wife I get to hang out with and share life with.
Sunrises, laughing, snow on trees, light dancing on water, butterflies, fish, kittens, music, the constellations and movements of the heavens, clouds...Another layer of proof that the universe is organized in a beautiful, intentional, and enjoyable way.
The Bible...The fact that God has taken the time, spent the blood and sweat, and precisely written out very poetic, intentional, and alive instructions to me, and made them available to me should be one of the biggest signs of the importance of my destiny I could ever realize...But more than that, the little bits of these infinite and powerful words that I can actually make sense of...Add to that the passages that actually speak to my heart and move my life in a direction. The word of God is one of the greatest continual miracles in my life...But that isn't all!
The times I've heard God speak to my heart...When he comforts the storm of emotion, or fixes the hurt, when He excites me with His plans for me...The Spirit speaking to my inner man should be enough to set my gaze on heaven for the rest of my days...But even more...
Those rare times when God tells someone else who I am....When he sneaks open a peek at the book of my life for someone else to speak into the truth of what He has planted in my heart. The prophetic promise....Even one...that rings true in my heart makes me one of the most privileged creations to ever walk on planet earth...But is it enough? Is it ever enough?
It will only ever be enough if I MAKE it enough....If I choose for it to be enough...To respond with all I have.
There is no lack of signage....The lack is in my belief.
I want to make 2017 the year that I take what I have been given already, polish it up with my gratitude, and stand on it in a way that shows God how thankful I am He took the time to give it to me, whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago.
I want gratitude and belief. I'll take another word...I'll take another healing....I'll take another sign...But more than that, I want the faith to keep it. I don't just want to empty out the doubt for a minute...I want to fill my inner man...My house ... with faith, hope, and love.
Luke 12:45“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk,
46“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
Matthew 17:17Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”
18And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21“However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Matthew 12:38Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41“The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
42“The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
43“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.
44“Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
45“Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
In this passage, Jesus has just been called demonized because he is casting out demons, the greatest sign that He is bringing a new kingdom....That He is the Messiah:
Matthew 12:28“But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29“Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
30“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
The signs will never be enough unless the heart of the believer is willing to receive them and then make them true in his own heart. There will never be enough prophetic words, there will never be enough dreams, there will never be enough of Jesus' voice in your heart unless you are willing to make them enough.
Going into a new year is a great time to reflect on what I have done with what has already been given.
Have I let the fact that I have a life that I didn't create myself be enough to know for sure that someone good made me to love me, if I will let Him? Have I let the nature of nature be enough to know God is really good, really smart, and really powerful, and that He made the entire experience of life for my good, despite the ways the enemy lies about this continually?
Have I let the prophetic promises given to me in the past be alive now?
Do I keep God's words, written, breathed, and spoken to me....Do I keep them fresh in my heart.. or, do I gratefully cast them aside after a quick hit to my heart...hoping for more corroboration...More evidence that they might be true?
Am I faithful with little, or do I let doubt tarnish what has already been shown and been given?
One of the first supernatural experiences I ever had in the Lord...The first tangible breaking in of heaven into my life... Was my mom being miraculously healed of Lupus. It was a pretty dramatic event...It was clearly miraculous...It has shown itself true over decades...Yet, unless I try to remember, I mostly forget it even happened. I spend hours in prayer asking God to release miraculous healing into my life and my church, while at the same time often forgetting that one of the first things He ever introduced into my testimony was a massive supernatural healing that I got to be a part of!
So many areas of my life mirror this same principle...That what has happened in the past is so easily forgotten in the reach for tomorrow. This isn't faith... This is an insatiable appetite for more "seeing" while really not valuing what has already been seen. This, if left unchecked, will eventually lead to a complete loss of faith...This will lead to judgment.
At some point, I am going to be held accountable for how I RESPONDED to what God has given. I don't know about you, but God has given me MUCH. I wake up every day with no real effort of my own...The breath in my lungs is proof minute by minute that someone bigger than me keeps me going. The roof over my head, food in the fridge, kids that I can love, a wife I get to hang out with and share life with.
Sunrises, laughing, snow on trees, light dancing on water, butterflies, fish, kittens, music, the constellations and movements of the heavens, clouds...Another layer of proof that the universe is organized in a beautiful, intentional, and enjoyable way.
The Bible...The fact that God has taken the time, spent the blood and sweat, and precisely written out very poetic, intentional, and alive instructions to me, and made them available to me should be one of the biggest signs of the importance of my destiny I could ever realize...But more than that, the little bits of these infinite and powerful words that I can actually make sense of...Add to that the passages that actually speak to my heart and move my life in a direction. The word of God is one of the greatest continual miracles in my life...But that isn't all!
The times I've heard God speak to my heart...When he comforts the storm of emotion, or fixes the hurt, when He excites me with His plans for me...The Spirit speaking to my inner man should be enough to set my gaze on heaven for the rest of my days...But even more...
Those rare times when God tells someone else who I am....When he sneaks open a peek at the book of my life for someone else to speak into the truth of what He has planted in my heart. The prophetic promise....Even one...that rings true in my heart makes me one of the most privileged creations to ever walk on planet earth...But is it enough? Is it ever enough?
It will only ever be enough if I MAKE it enough....If I choose for it to be enough...To respond with all I have.
There is no lack of signage....The lack is in my belief.
I want to make 2017 the year that I take what I have been given already, polish it up with my gratitude, and stand on it in a way that shows God how thankful I am He took the time to give it to me, whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago.
I want gratitude and belief. I'll take another word...I'll take another healing....I'll take another sign...But more than that, I want the faith to keep it. I don't just want to empty out the doubt for a minute...I want to fill my inner man...My house ... with faith, hope, and love.
Luke 12:45“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk,
46“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
Matthew 17:17Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”
18And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21“However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
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