Anyone?

 "Anyone who has faith in Me can do what I have been doing. He will do greater things than these because I am going to the Father." John 14:12....."All the possessions of the Father are the inheritance of His children." Chris Tiegreen

How many times might we have read John 14:12, or heard it preached? Do we really listen to what Jesus is saying? Do we believe Him? Or have we somehow watered down what He's saying to fit into our rational, 21st century thinking? Surely He doesn't mean that we will do not only what He did when He ministered on earth, but even greater things. I mean, we're only human, right? Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Us? Well, we're just who we are, and we can't conceive of His words ever becoming our reality. But if He said them, doesn't He mean them? We believe that all that was in the Father was equally in the Son. Why can we not believe that it is also in us, in we who are His?

Tiegreen challenges us to begin every day with these questions, asked in sincerity and expectation...."Lord, show me today how this Scripture can be true in me," and, "Father, how shall I use my inheritance today?" I know from personal experience that those are extremely scary questions. I've been seeking to incorporate them into my prayer life, but as I do, that voice of doubt rises up. " Can this really be true? Can I do even greater works than these?"

Jesus, at various times asked His listeners, "CAN you believe this?" with the emphasis on the "can." He was asking if they, we, could reach a place in our faith walk where we really do believe that we are the "anyone" He speaks of? If we can, the results would more than boggle our minds. They would impact the world just as they impacted His world. When Christ returned to His Father, He entrusted us with His ministry, and He gave us His Holy Spirit to do it. Can we say that we have even begun to do it? And why haven't we?

I think one of the great hindrances to our believing has been so much of the teaching, bad teaching in my mind, that all the giftings and miraculous happenings of the early church ceased with the passing of the early, post-Pentecost church. Tell me, when you read your Bible, when you hear His words, do you get any indication that this is so? If you are a Spirit-filled and led person, does the witness of the Spirit within you tell you this is so? There is no indication in the Word of God that its true. We believe that His words are always directed to His church throughout the ages. Why do we make an exception with these words?

I'm not saying that we can go about doing these works on our own initiative and at times of our own choosing. He is the initiator, and He chooses the times and ways. Our key is to walk and minister in complete communion with Him, and be vessels through which He can minister, and do His works. Peter was such. Paul was such. So were countless others, great and small in the early church. I believe we can be such too.

John Stott said that someday, someone will pick up a Bible, read it, believe it to be true, and change the world. Can't that someday be now? Can't that someone be you, and me? I want to be bold enough to have the faith to believe that I can be, you can be, the "anyone" Christ speaks of. I want to be free of the chains of my rational, western mindset, and simply, like a child, believe. Jesus told us that we must have faith like a child, instead of the cynical half-faith of much of the church, and outright non-faith of the world. I want to be that anyone. How about you?

Blessings,

Pastor O