Thursday, December 3, 2015
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Through the years of ministry, God has miraculously provided so many things through His people that we'd have never been able to buy. So much of the furniture and equipment in our office is like a God-story.
I remember when we got the new telephone system. A Christian brother was upgrading the system at his company and he donated his old system to us. And that old system was great for us! The phones had a battery of buttons on them, but most of those buttons we had just been looking at or ignoring. We didn't have much of an idea what they did. And our team was so busy no one had really taken the time to read the manual.
Finally, we assigned that research to Jeff. And he reported back to our team with some amazing news! He showed us all kinds of sophisticated tricks the phones could do, and here we were settling for just a phone line and the "hold" button. Those phones turned out to be amazing for us. We had been slumming it when we could have been going in style!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unused Capabilities."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God. We're in Matthew 14:25. Jesus' disciples were out in a boat and they were being battered by a violent storm. Let me read it to you. "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 it's 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 you've ever 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. Maybe we know some other people who have tapped into those capabilities, but we're 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 this universe. You have Jesus' resurrection power in your life. Are you living like it? 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. You know that's the Bible, and you need to be reading it every day. Not just for theology, but looking for the keys to powerful faith and then using them. And tell the Lord, "Lord, I want the "something more" you've made my heart hungry for. Surrender yourself in a new, fresh way to Him. With all the things that are going on in your life now, update that old surrender. Let go of those areas that you've insisted on controlling. Get out of that 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 3:20) 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 to do all you were created for. So go and become what you were born to be.