I was having a conversation with someone about what's normal/abnormal in the Church. What I believe the majority understands as normal is really abnormal. It's what I used to think was normal as well.
Then I got wised up by the Holy Spirit.
Let me show you what I think is normal Christian/Church activity.
Acts 3:6-8 (AMP) - "(6) But Peter said, Silver and gold (money) I do not have; but what I do have, that I give to you: in [the use of] the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk! (7) Then he took hold of the man's right hand with a firm grip and raised him up. And at once his feet and ankle bones became strong and steady, (8) And leaping forth he stood and began to walk, and he went into the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God."
That's normal.
"Pish posh! I've never seen any such thing, nor have I ever even known anyone who experienced such a thing. And besides, my pastor says that we should no longer expect these types of miracles, signs and wonders to happen anymore because God stopped operating that way after the last apostle died."
Unfortunately the latter has overcome the former as what contitutes normal.
I wasn't quite that bad when I started out. I always believed that God still performs miracles through the authority Jesus passed on to His disciples (then and now). I was just too ignorant to actually apply the object lessons provided by His Word to actually make it manifest. I thought all I had to do was pray and ask God and He would take it the rest of the way. No wonder those were lean times in the house of God.
By the way, the "last apostle" hasn't died. There are many of us alive and well and operating in the signs following the believer. Those numbers are growing every day. Never has there been more people getting saved, healed, and delivered in the Body of Christ. Praise God for that!
And we have the gaul to sit back and beg, wonder, pray, ask, and plead for revival?
We can't even see what is right in front of us. Talk about that confounded veil. I think parts of it remain in those who are dull of spirit just so the devil can keep people religious.
We say, "Oh God, send us a revival" (if your praying that way you are already on a resuscitator). In essence, it's asking God to fix what we can't even acknowledge is reality. It's like a cancer patient who smoked all of their life begging the doctor to fix them as they inhale a cigarette through their trach tube.
It's chronic abnormality masquerading as normal.
All along the picture of Peter yanking the cripple to his feet AS HE declares His healing, has been missed by centuries of good intending people who never, ever, ever saw so much as a sniffle healed by God. After that long a time abnormal starts to be the new normal.
The stuff that takes root when the religious mind freak casts its spell is staggering.
Do you realize that the incident with the cripple in Acts 3 is the gateway to how the Church was to operate? Do you think God just threw these examples in there to just be cute stories? Just for encouragement? NO! It was to equip us to carry out what Jesus commanded us to!
Over the years the Church ignored, or just plain threw away the instructions.
Not me. I'm not going back there. Not for anything. I like being normal too much.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
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