Evangelical doubt – Can He do mighty works with so much unbelief?
Recently I had an experience with a group of Christian leaders that was difficult. We were listening to a someone share a testimony of an extrarordinary miracle which he claimed he had witnessed. The individual sharing the story told it in a very matter of fact way, with little drama or theatrics to his presentation.
As this person shared several stories of similiar kinds of supernatural interventions he had personally witnessed, I could not help but notice what seemed to me to be an atmosphere of doubt and skepticism. At one point one person made a lighthearted joke referring to a particular miraculous incident that was shared. The joke wasn’t funny. It was actually painful.
At a certain point as I listened I felt it would have been appropriate to get on my knees, or even on my face and just weep. I really wish I had had the courage to do it. Now my feeling was two-fold; One, I just felt humbled by this very sincere and devoted Christian talking about the power of God at work bringing many hundreds of people to Jesus and two, I felt ashamed at how easy it seemed to dismiss what this man was saying. Some of the folks got up from their seats to leave, while the man was still sharing. I don’t begrudge them that, I’m sure these guys had places to go and people to see. But I wondered to myself – would I have left if I had another appointment? Or would I have recognized that what this man was sharing about the work of God was more important than anything else I had to do that day? I mean here we were sitting in the presence of a young man who had probably led more people to Christ in his ministry than all of the churches represented in that gathering had done in their entire histories. Shouldn’t our response have been to humbly seek to receive whatever wisdom, or blessing he might have imparted to us? I thought to myself – we are sitting in the presence of a great man, Lord have mercy on our unbelief.
I hope I don’t sound crazy or arrogant. I surely don’t mean to suggest that I possess any superior spiritual knowledge or wisdom. I feel desperate and needy of God. I am hungering and thirsting for a visitation of His Spirit. I honestly can’t imagine living out the next 20 years of my life in this climate of spiritual impotency. I run to Brazil every year now because I need the refreshment of being someplace where God is working powerfully. Brazil has become for me a injection of hope that I need to pump my heart up to come back into a place that feels so spiritually oppressive and hopeless. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lamb and I love my brothers and sisters in the Cry for Awakening. But man, sometimes the level of unbelief that is resident in those who claim to know Christ is just overwhelming to me. Simple things like praying together becomes a herculean effort that every conceivable obstacle that can be in the way, is in the way. (I was just thinking as I was writing that this isn’t much of an Easter meditation is it?)
Its at times like these I think of my brother David Bryant, and I am comforted. David has given his life to raising up a national movement of prayer and consciousness of the Supramacy of Christ. He has faced more resistance and disappointment that I will ever face. Yet he bubbles over with joy and confidence in Jesus. He is my hero (along with Tom Padley, Ned Berube, Ray Nethery and Marcos and Paula from the Amazon). I am so encouraged by David’s faith and hope in God. It actually lifts me when I am down. Thanks Dave, love ya man!
Anyway, I’m rambling. I am grateful that Jesus triumphed over death and has left a credible witness to his resurrection. I believe that to anyone who will examine the evidence will find a compelling witness that Jesus really did get up alive after really being dead. I rejoice in His resurrection! But I am also hungry to witness that resurrection power in the church of the U.S. in 2007. I want to leave a credible witness to those who will bother to look that the same Jesus who rose from the dead is alive and working with great power in His people right here in Essex County, New Jersey. Even So, Come, Lord Jesus, Come!
April 6th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Love ya back, man! YOU WROTE HERE: I honestly can’t imagine living out the next 20 years of my life in this climate of spiritual impotency. WELL….NEITHER CAN I!!! Let’s stand together in the call of God to “take no rest and give God no rest, until….”(Isa 62). Like the guy pounding on his nieghbor’s door at midnight, refushing to go away until bread is dispensed. Refusing! Yes, I refuse to accept the status quo. For my own need for refreshment? Yes and no. No, because mostly for me (and I know for you too, Scott) because our glorious Lord Jesus deserves so much more! This impotency brings shame to the Name. On this Resurrection weekend, however, I take hope in the realities of II Cor 1:8-11 — that this would become the experience of the whole Church, in the midst of our “sentence of death”. I’m thrilled to have such a precious brother to join me in pressing the promises of God before His Throne in the clear and certain knowledge that our labors in doing so will not be in vain — the day of the Christ-awakening is at hand. Let us, wholeheartedly, “believe this good news” and (as C.S. Lewis put it in Mere Christianity) “act as if”! DAVID