When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson

Author:Bill Johnson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2012-01-03T16:44:59+00:00

10

Powerlessness: Unnecessary and Unbalanced

I'm not impressed with anyone's life unless they have integrity. But I'm not happy with their life until they are dangerous.1 As much as I have the ability to do so, I'll not let those around me get away with just being nice people!

Many believers have made it their primary goal in life to be well-respected citizens of their communities. Good character enables us to be solid contributors to society, but most of what is recognized as a Christian lifestyle can be accomplished by people who don't even know God. Every believer should be highly respected AND MORE. It's the and more part that we're often lacking.

While character must be at the heart of our ministries, power revolutionizes the world around us. Until the Church returns to Jesus' model for true revolutionaries, we will continue to be recognized by the world merely as nice people—while it is overcome with disease and torment, on its way to hell.

Some Christians actually have considered it to be more noble to choose character over power. But we must not separate the two. It is an unjustifiable, illegitimate choice. Together they bring us to the only real issue—obedience.

Once, while teaching a group of students about the importance of signs and wonders in the ministry of the gospel, a young man spoke up saying, "I'll pursue signs and wonders when I know I have more of the character of Christ in me." As good as that may sound, it comes from a religious mindset, not a heart abandoned to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In response to this student's comment, I opened to the Gospel of Matthew and read the Lord's charge: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ... teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.."2 I then asked him, Who gave you the right to determine when you are ready to obey His command?

Impressing God

Does anyone think that God is impressed with us when we tell Him, "I'll obey You when I have more character?" Character is shaped through obedience. Jesus commanded His disciples to go, and in going they were to teach all that they had been taught. And part of what they were taught was specific training on how to live and operate in the miraculous.3 They were commanded to "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons."4 And now they were responsible to teach this requirement as the lifestyle for all who were to become followers of Jesus Christ. In this way His standard could remain the standard—the norm for all who call upon the name of the Lord for salvation.

Many consider themselves unworthy of God using them in the miraculous, and therefore never pursue that realm. Isn't it ironic that Christians will disobey God by not diligently seeking after spiritual gifts— they won't lay hands on the sick or seek to deliver the demonized—because they realize their need for more character? In none of the commissions of Jesus to His disciples did He deal specifically with character.

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