09/29/2023
If our faith is predicated on understanding God then we will fail at it. God is more than the natural things that we can quantify, classify, and catalog; He is supernatural and until we grasp that fact and immerse ourselves in that reality then we are doomed to never truly knowing Him. We study God’s Word and preach what the Spirit reveals to us, but we can only speak what He has given us, and not from any understanding beyond that.
Do we preach Bible stories and repeat the words we read in scripture with some sense of personal satisfaction, confidence, and mastery, believing as we do that we understand it completely? When a new insight into scripture comes to us do we say “How did I miss that?”, when we should be thanking God for revealing this next tiny glimmer of Himself to us?
“For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
1 Corinthians 9:16 ESV
Paul knew he must preach the gospel, but he could never fully understand why he was chosen, or the enormity of that responsibility beyond the fact that he must preach. He was an unlikely man, who was knocked down, blinded, healed, called by Jesus, and sent into the world. All of these were Supernatural occurrences that reached into his physical world.
God demonstrated His supernatural self throughout the Bible. Every miracle, by its very nature, was a supernatural event, and they still occur today. I am reading a book titled "7 Lessons From Heaven" it is written by a woman, a Surgeon, who drowned in January of 1999, was dead for thirty minutes, and then was revived. By all accounts she should have been a mental vegetable after that length of time, but she wasn't, and isn't. She visited heaven, met Jesus and was sent back to our physical world. She too had a mission; something to accomplish, and she also struggled to understand it.
"I assured them, as Jesus had assured me, that everything would be fine if I stayed, but they were adamant. To convince me they gently began to tell me about some of the work I still needed to do on earth." - Mary C. Neal, M.D.
God chose Paul for his mission on earth, just as certainly as he chose Doctor Neal. He chooses many of us and gives us a task to accomplish, but most people are beneficiaries of those who were personally called in this supernatural way... partakers of their miracles. Miracles typically have a purpose, and all of them serve God’s will, far beyond the individual(s) to which they occur.
When we are confronted by a miracle we immediately begin the task of explaining it away. The thought of something that is beyond our ability to fathom unsettles us. Even as Christians, who base our faith on the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, we try to make the miracles in our lives less supernatural and more earthly and easily understood.
Paul, even though he had been the object of a miracle, tried to categorize the event. He concentrated on the mission he was given and rarely mentioned the miracle again. He became a man on a mission and he wasn't doing it because of the miracle, but sought in it a purpose, a reward...
“What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.”
1 Corinthians 9:18-19 ESV
Dr. Neal tried to explain away her experience as well. Doctors are real people dealing with real bodies and illnesses, and yet they run headlong into miracles. They are firsthand witnesses to miracles more often than most of us, and yet they continue to search for a way to explain them away. Dr. Neal treated her miracle the same way... that is, until she ran out of explanations and was forced to confront what happened to her as spiritual fact.
When searching for God through our faith we often find ourselves trying to make Him real, to give Him a body that we can touch and place Him somewhere we can taste, feel, smell, and see, but God is spirit. He is a supernatural entity that transcends our reality, and though we hate to admit it, this unsettles us. Until we come to grips with our fear of His transcendence we can't begin to give ourselves over to Him, and we continue to maintain that grip upon our world based self which limits our relationship with Him.
Paul explains to us the need to give our physical bodies to God, but then he goes on to speak of our minds... the part of us that is more spiritual than physical; the bridge that stretches between heaven and earth. He tells us that this is the will of God and what perfects us.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:1-2 ESV
So the question becomes... can I believe that God is supernatural and that I can never fully understand Him as I would like? This involves our reading the miracles of the Bible as real occurrences and not myths or lessons encapsulated in stories. It brings us face to face with who we are, and who God is... and who He is not. God is not like us, but we are a likeness of Him. We are not Him, but we contain some of who He is. We are encapsulated in a body, and He is not. We live a life, and God has created that life. The list goes on and on. God is beyond our understanding and the forces of nature... He is supernatural and His will is greater than our ability to comprehend; our best effort keeps us somewhere within it.
To yield our self to God requires that we come to grips with the supernatural nature of God. It is necessary that we not only accept this fact but become relaxed in it... and lea n comfortably into Him. Until we do this and accept the way He moves in our lives as good, then our relationship with Him will be strained, and the struggle to containerize Him will go on. However, once we are comfortable in the mystery and miracle (not the understanding) of who He is then the perfection of our faith and relationship begins.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for creating me in your image, and I thank you for the unbound and unbridled greatness of who you are. Each miracle I read about. or experience, allows me to see that you move in and about me and my world at your leisure, and that you transcend all time, places, and things. Holy Father you are indeed Supernatural, far more than your creation, and beyond my ability to grasp. I think of you in awe, I feel your presence in wonder, and I worship your majesty with the help of your Holy Spirit. I thank you Father for the miracle of your Son Jesus who reconciled me to you through His obedience to your will, and His sacrifice for my sins. I thank you for the miracles He performed at your bequest so that we might see your power and greatness. You expect very little of us Father, and yet in that little you give us everything. In our faith and obedience you pour out blessings upon us and give us access to your glory throughout eternity. Praised be your name Father, and in the miracle of resurrection may I bask in your presence always and always... forever and ever.
Rich Forbes