Believe in His Miracles

8/2/1997

A real simple reminder about the nature of this man Jesus that we have chosen to follow and this topic about a new heart. One of the reasons why He did what He did in doing what we call signs and wonders, raising the dead, etc., is really to demonstrate that He has the power to forgive sins and that He has the power to change hearts and lives. I think it is an important acknowledgment; in fact, I don’t want to understate it. Let me say it this way: You can only see a miracle from God if you Believe in miracles from God. He could do no miracles (in His home town) because they had so little faith.

You have to approach Jesus on the right basis in order to see His “wonder working love,” as the song goes. If you want to see spectacular things you have to approach Him on the right basis. That basis certainly implies being fully committed to him. The church world will never understand a church that does what even the Old Testament declares is right and righteousness, and that is that anyone who doesn’t give their whole heart to God is to be put to death. No one is going to buy that if they haven’t given their whole heart to God. The people who will fight against that are the people that don’t want to be put to death themselves. They resent the fact that a whole heart is required to follow God because they don’t have a whole heart.

So there is a church world out there that will not ever understand the teachings from Genesis through Revelation, repeated in Acts 3 if you like New Testament better, that everyone that doesn’t do what Jesus said will be completely cut off from amongst the people. That sort of a church is not only incredibly rare, but will be deeply, deeply criticized if the requirement to follow Jesus and to be part of His Church is that everyone that wants a part of Him and the Life of Christ would do it with a whole heart, with an undivided heart. That they would want it wholeheartedly. Not that they would be perfect, but that they would want it wholeheartedly and not be defensive, not be prideful, not be self-centered, not be accusatory, not be slanderous about others, etc., but their whole heart wants to be all that Jesus wants them to be.

All the way back to the beginning of time that was God’s heart for His people, and the people rejoiced when they heard that. They heard, “Everyone that doesn’t love Jesus with their whole heart, everyone that doesn’t want to serve and love God with their whole heart should be put to death, and the people let out a great cheer.” Rest assured, those people wanted to love God with a whole heart, because no one was cheering about their own execution.

That’s the way God has always called His people to be. That’s not a new thing. The people that don’t want to love Him with a whole heart will resent it, hate it and slander about it, and those that do love Him with a whole heart, or want to, will rejoice. That is God’s righteous decree.

The second part of that is that He is a God who, approached on the right basis, and that is by faith, will change our hearts and our minds and our personalities and our desires. He will rewire us, if we ask Him to and approach Him in faith. If we approach Him as a miracle worker with faith that He can change us and with a desire to be changed, we will see miracles that will testify of His greatness. Not of our commitment, but of His greatness. If we approach Him out of laziness, sloppiness, defensiveness, sin, if we approach Him on that basis, we are going to be miserable and die miserable. If we approach Him on the basis of “I’m going to be totally committed, I’m going to give Him my whole heart, watch and see, get out of my way. I’ll go with you even to death if necessary.” If we approach Him out of our own fleshly desire and ambition, we will also be miserable and be failures again and again. But the righteous shall live by faith.

The nature of this journey, this pilgrimage that is after the Father of our faith, Abraham, is that we approach Him as a miracle worker, not as a king with our sworn allegiance and we bring all of our great efforts and great gifts to the table and join Him in His cause out of our great talent and commitment. That will end in failure. He’ll make sure that we are set back again and again as Job was. He’ll make sure we are set back, not out of His displeasure with us, but out of His desire to teach that without Him we can be or do nothing. So sloppiness, laziness, arrogance, deceit, and those kinds of things He will bring us down and He’ll bring us down hard. Everyone who will not commit their life to Jesus will be completely cut off from amongst the people. It will happen one way or another, but we will be completely cut off from amongst the people if we won’t live with Him with all of our heart.

But the second issue is this; the way to live with Him with all of our heart is on our knees in humility and by faith, believing that I can do nothing except through Him who strengthens me. I really don’t have the courage, the obedience, the strength of will or heart or mind to be able to pull this off, but I really believe He can do a miracle in me. I really believe He can change me, I really believe that He can change you. I really believe that the miracle-working Jesus can change my heart, rewire me. He can take my emotions and make them subject to His will, His heart, His mind. He can take my fleshly desires, my fears, my past, my present, my future; He can take all of that and create in me a clean heart. He can make me a person who is whole and complete and without fear but also without arrogance, with deep sensitivity but not battered by every wind of circumstance or pressure of emotion or relationship that comes along. The Just, the Righteous shall live by Faith.

He wants people born of Abraham’s faith and brought into His image by His miraculous touch to be part of His tribe, to be part of those who would call on His name, those who would demonstrate His greatness not our own commitment.

It is absolutely true that we will be executed and cut off from amongst the people if we won’t give Him our whole heart. That has never changed. It has never been any different. But the good news is this: “Go tell John what you have seen. The dead are raised to life. The blind can see. The deaf can hear. The mute can talk. The lame can walk. Go tell John what you have seen. I am the Messiah. I change lives. And those that will come to Me by faith, not by their own striving or their own laziness or arrogance or selfishness, but those who will come with a soft heart and believe and trust and call on the name of the Lord, they will not be put to shame. I will change their hearts, their minds, and their emotions. I will do miraculous things in them, just as clear as walking on water or walking through walls or raising the dead, I will make them new people that are like me. I will make them like Myself if they will yield to Me and totally trust Me, if they will turn their face to Me and totally trust Me, call on My name and say, ‘I believe You can change me. I’m in this thing for the long haul. You are not on some kind of time schedule, Jesus. I’m not going to put a gun to Your head and tell You that You have to perform for me. I’m here for You for the rest of my life until I see You face to face. I trust you, I believe You with confidence and with joy in my heart. I believe You can rewire me and I desperately need that. I want that. I have to have that. You are a God who raises the dead and I believe You for that. I don’t know why it hasn’t happened on my schedule just yet and every perceptible way that I think it ought to be, but I totally trust You and I love You and I’m with You for the long haul, and I will love what You love, and I will love who You love, those that are bought by your blood. And I will believe You and trust You for the future. It’s going to be okay. You are the God who raises the dead and I am here for you. No matter what happens, no matter how I’m perceived, I’m here for You and I’m going to lay down my life for You and for those who You bought with your blood. I believe You in my heart. There is a wellspring of joy that says, ‘I know You can do this in me and I know how much You need to and I trust you. It will happen, I know it will.’ “

Few people have seen that sort of miraculous transformation because few people really have trusted Him in this way. They are always dancing in and out. “I trusted You yesterday and it didn’t happen so now I’m mad.” That back and forth thing. The kind of faith we are talking about is Abraham’s abandonment into the process of living and trusting for a heart change miraculously. But He wants to do that for each us so that we will have a testimony of His greatness. As long as we are striving with Him, either ignoring His will or striving to accomplish it, both of those things will be dead-end streets. But when we finally come to Him on His ground, on Abraham’s ground, in faith, trusting and believing in simple humility and softness of heart, when we come to Him on His ground and run on His road, then we will see some amazing things happen that we will be able to take no credit for because we will know that it was just purely Him.

I want to remind you of what the nature of our journey is -- the just shall live by faith. This is the victory that overcomes the strivings and the pains of life. Our trust in Him, our abandonment to letting Him love on us and change us in miraculous ways. Tell Him in your heart that this is what you want. You won’t fight Him, you won’t strive against Him, you won’t raise your fist at Him, and you won’t blackmail Him with a series of demands that He has to prove something to you. On a similar basis you are not going to strive and make the same mistake Peter and others did -- “I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it.” You are going to let both of those dead-end roads go and tell Him you believe Him for miracles in your life and in the lives of those around you, no matter how bad it looks, in their case or your case. He raises the dead and He wants to do that with us, too.