Thursday, January 31, 2013; Expect the Supernatural
I have been thinking about that a lot since that, and considering how easy it is to miss God at work in our lives. I also considered how often that happened in Biblical stories. The first one that came to mind was Jacob. In Genesis 28, after Jacob had tricked his father to cheat his brother out of their father's blessing and fled for his life, he stopped to sleep and dreamed about a ladder connecting heaven and earth, with angels descending and ascending on it. God was above the ladder, and spoke to Jacob and blessed him.
Isn't it interesting that Jacob lied, manipulated, and cheated to get a blessing from his father, but God just came and blessed him while he was sleeping. He did not have to do anything to earn God's favor, in fact, if you read his whole story, you would think he would have been the last person to receive a special blessing from God.
When Jacob woke up, he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." (Gen. 28:16)
What an amazing statement. Jehovah God is here, but I almost missed Him. God showed up in an unexpected time and place.
After Jesus resurrection, no one seemed to recognize him.
Mary Magdalene thought he was the gardener. (John 20)
The disciples didn't believe the women's report that he was risen. They thought they had made it up. (Luke 24)
Jesus walked with two disciples, had a long conversation where he showed them how all of the Scriptures revealed the Christ. The were amazed, but did not know he was Jesus until he sat down to dinner with them, prayed, and broke bread. Luke 24:31-32, "And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"
I love that statement. A man shared deep revelations of the Scriptures, and their hearts burned, but they did not realize who was speaking to them.
The evening of his resurrection, when he appeared to the disciples in a locked room, they were afraid, because they thought it was a ghost. Luke 24:30 says that they were talking about all the evidences of the resurrection, but, still, when he appeared to them, they were shocked and afraid.
In the book of Acts, there is an account of Peter being arrested and imprisoned. Acts 12:3 says that "earnest prayer was made to God by the church." An angel came to Peter in the night and led him out of prison. He immediately went to the home where a prayer meeting was going on and knocked at the door. A servant girl came to the door, apparently said, "Who's there." When she heard the reply, "It's Peter", she forgot to open the door, but ran and told the believers who were earnestly praying for his release. Their response? "You are crazy. It can't be Peter, he's in prison...Oh, no, it must be his ghost." Meanwhile, Peter is still outside. "But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed." Acts 12:16
I like to be surprised by God. I don't want to be complacent and take for granted that God will show up and work. I don't apologize for an amazed attitude, "Wow, look what God did."
But, I want to have an expectancy.
Did you notice how often people were afraid when Jesus showed up unexpectedly? That is what I DO NOT want to feel. Excitement, amazement, even shock will be OK, but I do not want to be afraid. God is BIG, HUGE, very wise, and totally creative. Well, He is the Creator. He can do unexpected, totally creative things that have never been done before...burning bush, talking donkey, battle with marching and blowing trumpets, tongues of fire... Just because we haven't seen it before does not mean it isn't God.
I'm waiting for God to do amazing things, and I am open to ANYTHING!
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