Bethel Church’s Blog

• A Supernatural Lifestyle

  
  
  
  Are you hungry for the reality of the Kingdom of God to invade earth? I often ask God for a gift of hunger for the things pertaining to His Kingdom. I used to weigh 375 pounds. I was constantly eating. I lived for the next meal or trip to McDonald’s. It’s funny that I sat all those years and ate fast food--whether a Big Mac, large fries or a chocolate shake--yet I never morphed into one of those things I was eating. My waistline began to increase, but that’s another story itself.

  This story can be compared to church life. Just because I may go to church, I still may not be a born-again believer (John 3:3-8). Attending church could just make me very religious. But we know that religion does not save. It is our Savior Christ Jesus who saves.
  When we receive Christ, we receive a new identity and are no longer sinners but saints! We step out of darkness and into the light. I believe that God wants to give us a fresh revelation of who He is in us as the Church, and who the Church is in Him.

  The normal Christian life is to live life in the supernatural. God is not looking for a vessel of gold or silver to use, but is simply looking for willing vessels (I Sam. 6:7), young or old. He looks at our hearts.
  From the revelation that we are sons and daughters of Christ, we can walk and do what He said we could do. In this article, I want to talk about living in the supernatural where signs and wonders become normal. Years ago, I thought that we had to have a special gift on our lives to see people healed, so I never prayed for the sick. Then I began to be bothered by a passage from the book of Mark in the Bible:

  And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
  creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not
  believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: in
  My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will
  take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt
  them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mark 16:15-18).
  

  These verses say that believers will lay their hands on the sick and that the sick will recover. I began to think to myself, "Something is not right here, and I know that God’s word is true." Then I began to have righteous anger rise inside of me. I knew that I was a believer, but this sign of healing was not evident in my life. I would tell myself over and over, "Chris, you are a believer and you are going to lay your hands on the sick and see them recover!"

  Even though I did not see breakthrough at first, it did not change God’s word in my mind. If someone would ask me, "Chris, how many people have you raised from the dead?" I would say, "None, YET, but I have only prayed for three to be raised."

  If we create our theology and doctrine around our personal experience of discouragement, we lower the gospel to a humanistic mentality of words that can demonstrate no power. One of the greatest sins in the Church is doubt and unbelief. As Bill Johnson has said, "The Holy Spirit is imprisoned in unbelieving believers." He wants to use us more than we want Him to use us. It is not wrong to dream about being used by God. When we go to the movies, there is usually a sneak preview of a new movie to be released soon. What does that have to do with anything? It’s almost been seven years since I first began to dream about being used by God in the realm of the supernatural. I can even remember quoting Mark 16 and John 14:12 over my life. I had begun to think about the "greater works." If we can see the "greater works" and believe in them, they will become reality.

  I would go into the secret place because He is in the secret place. I would see myself on the street praying for someone’s hurt knee. Then, while I was still in my prayer closet, I would act it out as if it were reality. I would place my hands where the knee would be and then command the pain to be gone, and he would be healed! Although this was not taking place in the natural, I knew it was my inheritance as a believer.

  Signs and wonders are not for entertainment but are to lead us into a deeper revelation of Christ Himself. To expect a life of powerlessness is to accept a lower-grade gospel. If Jesus had done all the miracles only as God (not as man), then it would be impossible for us to do the same. It’s not good enough for us to only display one side of Christianity like good character and fruit of the Spirit. That’s absurd! The Kingdom of God is not just in words but in power.

  The first time I was in South Africa, I had my first chance to go on a safari at Krueger Park. As a team, we did not know how to get there even though we were very close. So we began to look for signs and finally spotted a sign that led us to the park. In the same way, signs and wonders point the lost to His Kingdom. When someone gets physically healed of sickness or a disease, this sign will point the person in the direction that Christ designed before the foundation of the world. It will point him or her to a soul-saving relationship. Stay hungry for the things of God. What you feed on will feed others around you. Intimacy is the foundation of Christianity.

  The supernatural lifestyle is an outer flow of an inner commitment to Christ. If we desire to be used by God through miracles, signs and wonders, we desire His heart. We are a generation that is calling on Heaven to invade earth. In Heaven there is no sickness or disease. That must also be our mindset here on earth because in the school of prayer, He taught His disciples to pray that His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). Reach and touch someone. If you can see it, you can believe it, and it will become reality. 

  Written by: Chris Overstreet

  May 8th, 2008
• Mossy Oaks

   

  A fallen leaf floats about, blown by easy breezes like a miniature sailboat. The old bass snoozes under a sunken log. Plunk. One acorn drops into the water and disturbs the glassy reflection. Oak images dance and waver as ripples pass by, then return to calmed stillness. The sailboat-leaves return to their courses.
  
  The trees lean in to watch. They are impassive spectators of this capricious fluid domain.
  
  Side by side, these mossy oaks hold their peace. Like old and bearded watchmen, they stand poised in their grassy places and quietly gaze into froggy waters. Patiently and powerfully, they bide their time, deepening roots into a fixed and rocky earth. Wooden tendrils explore the soil and stone below. The twisted and knotted trunks betray a less-peaceful existence.
  
  Certainly, this day feels lovely, but what of those seasons when the moody waters rise? Rain and wind taunt the stream, and it responds like a rallied warrior. Three, four, five feet of rushing surge and mud scatter bass into hollows until the liquid tantrum passes. The once coy stream transforms into an adversary, threatening to carry away the very earth itself. Foundations are in jeopardy; the oaks seem to frown their disapproval. Will they hold fast? Will they be carried away? Sunken logs warn of past disasters.
  
  Experts say that nature is in perfect harmony. Yet, the interaction between soil and stream seems more like two warriors observing a precarious suspension in hostilities. So much of nature is this way. So much of life is lived in tension, like a wary standoff.
  
  In Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Chapter 1, he cites creation as an illustration of God’s divine nature. In spite of God’s invisibility, we can see Him “through what has been made.” (Romans 1:20) By observing our natural surroundings, we can discover aspects of God’s ways.
  
  This doesn’t mean that nature is a barometer of God’s emotional state. God is not prone to tantrums, as are men. It is the child’s place to wonder aloud whether God is angry when, during the night, howling winds and slapping rains assault a bedroom window. As we age, we learn that storms are a natural consequence of our planet’s heating and cooling—a symptom of climatic tension between hot and cold. To emotionalize natural events is a mistake; this is not what Paul means. And believing that weather is a measure of God’s emotional state would put us on a par with the ancient Greeks, who invented mythical gods to explain their world in human terms.
  
  Rather, Paul is commenting on God’s deliberate use of tension. All of nature exists in a state of suspense. Natural science calls this state a dynamic equilibrium, the condition of balance between continuing processes. Creation is constantly feeling the effect of competing forces of deluge and drought, indulgence and deprivation, beginnings and endings. I can think of no exceptions to this rule.
  
  Even our earth has two poles. Though we occupy a sphere, still it spins on an axis. God saw fit to fashion “ends on a round planet.” And at those ends, virtually no life can be sustained. Rather, it is in the center of these polar extremes that life is found in abundance. This, then, is our observation of God’s divine nature: that life is best lived away from the poles, embracing the tension between seemingly opposing forces. This is true for us as both natural and spiritual beings. Jesus uncovers this mystery to a thirsty Samaritan woman:
  
  But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24 NASB)
  
  Our nature is to seek the poles and flee from tension. Living in suspense is uncomfortable and risky, yet that is precisely where life abounds. People prefer lives of predictability. We want our answers to important questions to be legally binding upon God and nature, and when those questions remain unanswered, or our expectations are outright violated, we are left in confusion and doubt. In the course of our lives, we learn shallow slogans and mottos like “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” or “Life happens.” Our empty phrases uncover our natural need to explain unpredictability in our daily lives. We are in good company; even the disciples wrestled with the same questions (Luke 18:34).
  
  We long to sink our roots deep into rules and formulas. Some of us spend our lives searching out rules to answer the mysterious questions of life. Praying for the miracle, we need to see the breakthrough. Fixed and rooted, we become those mossy oaks leaning in. We become watchers forming superficial answers. We are saying, “This or that, but not both, please.”
  
  Feeling stiff and wooden, we watch and lean in as observers. We strain our eyes looking into the froggy waters of circumstances for clarity. We ask God, “Why wasn’t I healed?” or “Why did this or that happen?” When we find ourselves facing jeopardy, we stand like oaks, frowning our disapproval. Will we hold fast?  Will we be carried away?
  
  Answers enable us to make sense of our world; seeking them is not wrong. Yet, the answer may be different than we expect. Answers may reveal the profound wisdom of tension, of polar extremes. Answers may become simply and rather than or and we can learn to thrive in that place of paradox.
  
  For some of us, our search for truth is really a search for a formula. We are saying, “God, keep me in one world or the other. Give me land or water. Give me spirit or truth. Give me something I can count on.” Yet, seldom will God respond with an or answer. Instead, He offers the and option of Spirit and truth. God intended for us to live and worship in tension, to live between the poles. Truth may be deeper than we think. Our failures and challenges need not wreck our faith; our roots can hold us fast, even in the face of a tempest.
  
  Worship does not come easily in times of jeopardy, yet that is our challenge. Sometimes, foundations really do slip away; our ideas and hopes fall prey to rising waters. In those times, we must bravely move on, leaving old ideas behind like sunken logs. Those who thrive in the seasons of life have learned the importance of and. They are able to find God in good times and in difficult times (Phil 4:12). They are able to celebrate in every circumstance in which they find themselves. They worship in Spirit and truth.
  
  I am finding my place in tension. I still feel uncomfortable there, and I find that God is not afraid of my discomfort. Rather, He is interested in my growth and fruitfulness. He is invested in my success, as I live between two poles. God is a Spirit, and like the oaks, we are left the task of understanding His windy and watery ways. This is the curriculum of the school of life. The Teacher and Author will see us through the storms of life as we are rooted and grounded in relationship, not formulas.
  
  So—what are you learning? Are you pressing through discomfort? Can you feel yourself living in the and, or do you flee to the safety of the or? Because, as you trust Him and grow in Christ, you will find yourself more deeply rooted in faith, clutching the stones and burrows of God’s goodness, discovering the wealth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
  
  …that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 NASB)
  
    

  

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen De Silva is the Pastor of Finances at Bethel Church in Redding, CA. He is fully invested in the revival God is bringing today to the church and marketplace. He is committed to equipping people in maintaining financial integrity through insightful teaching that empowers revivalists in His Kingdom economy.

  May 8th, 2008