Today we continue our series, “As Jesus Is”, under the banner of the overall series for the year, “Supernatural Manifestation.” We have spent over a month looking at 1 John 4:16,17. A few messages ago, I told you that we would add to this passage: John 14, John 17 and Philippians 2. We have been looking at John 14 for a few days now. Let’s go back to it and 1 John this morning.
The Apostle John said:
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
(1 John 4:16, 17 KJV)
Jesus said the following, in response to a question from Philip:
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”
Jesus answered, “Philip, I have been with you for a long time. So you should know me. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father too. So why do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The things I have told you don’t come from me. The Father lives in me, and he is doing his own work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or believe because of the miracles I have done.
I can assure you that whoever believes in me will do the same things I have done. And they will do even greater things than I have done, because I am going to the Father. And if you ask for anything in my name, I will do it for you. Then the Father’s glory will be shown through the Son.
(John 14:8-13 ERV)
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. The Father expects you to live as ONE with Him. The first step in making this a reality is SEEING yourself as ONE with God. If you can’t SEE it, you will never BE it.
2. Once you see yourself as ONE with the Father, you are in position to attempt things that exceed human power, ability and strength. At first you will feel uneasy, but faith requires you to attempt the impossible, the superhuman, the supernatural. If you never attempt it, you will never see God do it through you.
3. Wouldn’t it be a shame to live for decades with God inside of you, only to get to heaven and realize that you never let Him do anything through you that exceeded human ability? What good is having God inside of you, if you are never going to let Him out?
4. Jesus used miracles as evidence that God was living inside of Him. We are supposed to do the same.
5. Here are a few personal testimonies concerning the supernatural:
a) The first time I asked God to manifest His power in my life. When I was younger I suffered from nose-bleeds on a regular basis. When my nose started bleeding, I had a routine I went through to get it to stop and it normally took about 10-15 minutes or so. A few days after giving my life to Christ I had a nose-bleed. Since I was a new Christian, I figured I would give God a try and ask Him to get involved with the it. Before I started my normal routine, I prayed and God responded quickly. My nose stopped bleeding almost immediately and I was pumped! I knew it was God and this was the first of many, many experiences with the God of the supernatural. It is critically important that you experience God, and don’t just read about Him.
b) The first time I saw someone healed. I was at Faith Outreach, a church in Augusta, GA, and I was a member when the church was a startup. Our church was meeting in an elementary school and we purchased a few acres of land to build our first building. The real estate agent that helped us secure the land came to worship with us one Sunday morning. My Pastor, Richard Peoples, was led to pray for her. He asked her to stand and to raise her hands. She only raised one arm. He asked her to raise the other arm. She explained that she had been injured years earlier and she could not raise it. She had not been able to raise her arm for years. Pastor Peoples prayed for her, God touched her, and her arm was healed instantly. The woman was overwhelmed. She started running around the church, in tears, swinging her arm like crazy, telling everyone that she could not do that before. I have witnessed many healings since then, but I will never forget this one, because it was the first healing I witnessed with my own eyes. Once you have an experience with God like this, no one can convince you that God cannot heal.
c) God using me for healing. God has used me to heal many people of many things over the years. I will just pick one to talk about today. A couple of years ago I preached a message and when I gave the altar call a young lady came up for prayer for her ear. She had been in an accident years earlier and it resulted in a total loss of hearing out of one ear. When she told me what happened and she asked me to pray for her, I prayed like I have hundreds of times for people before her. I don’t have any healing, in my own strength, so I simply invoked God’s presence and power. She heard her ear “pop” and her hearing was restored, just like that, in an instant. I gave God praise for it and I moved on to pray for the next person. The young lady gave God praise and the people rejoiced. Honestly, I have seen God heal so much, that it was not a surprise for me. However, a friend of mine had come to hear me preach and he was blown away that God did what He did through me. He called me afterwards to discuss it, because, although he has been in church all his life, he has not seen the power of God manifested. This was uncommon to him. This is why I am teaching things like this. It is unfortunate that believers spend decades in church and they never experience God’s power. This is why you must see yourself AS JESUS IS. The supernatural is supposed to be natural to us.
*** I will close by saying this: you must attempt the supernatural. If you are ONE with God and God is ONE with you, He can do what you can’t do. But you will never experience it if you don’t have the faith to attempt it!
Closing Confession: Father, this is a year of Great Victory for me. I am ONE with You and You are ONE with me. Jesus was a human conduit of the divine. Jesus said that I would do what He did. I declare that I am just like Jesus, and that I will live the way He lived in the earth. I have God Himself on the inside of me and I am determined to let You out! By faith I attempt things that I cannot do on my own, at the risk of looking foolish, all for Your glory! Because as Jesus is, so am I, in this world! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
