So much of the furniture and equipment in our office is a God-story. He has miraculously provided so many things through His people - things we could never have been able to buy. One of those things is our telephone system. A Christian brother was upgrading the system at his company - and donated his old system to us. And that old system is great for us! Now our phones have this battery of buttons on them - most of which we have just been looking at or ignoring. We have had no idea what they do. Our Team has been so busy that no one has really had the time to read the manual! Finally, we assigned that research to Jeff - and the other day, he reported back to our Team. He showed us all kinds of sophisticated tricks our phones could do - and here we've been settling for just using a phone line and the "hold" button. These phones are amazing. They've been amazing all along. We've been slumming it - when we could have been going in style!
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unused Capabilities."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 14:25. Jesus' disciples were out in a boat and they're being battered by a violent storm. "During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. 'It's a ghost,' they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! It is I! Don't be afraid.' 'Lord, if its You,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to You on the water.' 'Come,' He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus."
All the disciples were just trying to ride out the storm. But Peter suddenly got a glimpse of the power of his Master - and of something supernatural he could do if he risked everything on Jesus. And suddenly Peter was doing what people don't do - he was walking on water!
The fact is that Jesus may be preparing you to step up to something far more supernatural than you've ever been or done before. In fact, He's made your heart restless for more so you would get out of the boat and start walking toward Him in an exciting new way. Peter found out that day that if Jesus wants you to do it - no matter how beyond your capability it may be - He will give you whatever it takes to do it.
A lot of our Christian lives are like our Team and those multi-faceted phones. We're settling for a level that is far below where we could be living. We're looking at all those spiritual buttons. We may know some other people who have tapped into those capabilities. But we are settling for a powerless life when Christ in us wants to make our life really powerful. We're settling for the mediocre when we're wired for the miraculous. You have the Holy Spirit of Almighty God living in your body - you have backing you up the authority that Jesus has over everything in the universe - you have Jesus' resurrection power in your life - are you living like it? Or are you settling for only pushing a couple of God's buttons when there are so many more that could open up a whole new frontier for you?
You need to be reading the Manual - the Bible - every day. Not just for theology - but looking for the keys to powerful faith - and then using them. And tell the Lord you want the "something more" He's been making your heart hungry for. Surrender yourself to Him - let go of those areas you have insisted on controlling - get out of the safe little boat and dare to walk where you've never walked before!
Your Lord is "able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:21). Immeasurably more. Like our phone system, it's all right there. You got it when you got Jesus. It's time you began to be and do all you were created for.