Our Job is to listen and Act

Luke 7:11-17

What happened to the Church, have you ever heard someone ask that question?  If you know them well you may be brave and ask for more information; and many a follower of Christ will say it seems sterile; we hear great messages but it seems as if there is no power and worse than that, it seems the body of believers is not troubled by that.  Most of us do not have the courage to ask the hard question, what needs to change? 

I read an article by Os Hillman where he was sharing a conversation from a friend who said Os, “The church seems to put all its devotion on the Father, The Son, and the Holy Scriptures.”  He went on to state that we have left out the Holy Spirit, the One Jesus told us would be our Teacher, our Helper.  And without the Holy Spirit leading us we have no authority, no power, and we end-up with sterile Churches, it looks germ free, it acts germ free but it has little life.

With that said, Dr. Luke gives us this great account of Jesus raising a widow’s son from the dead in a town close to Capernaum called Nain.  Now let us get honest, we expect Jesus to do such things as heal the blind, the deaf, and even raise one as this young man from the dead, why?  Because Jesus is God in the flesh and Jesus is very clear that not once did He use His authority as God to do anything He did.  In fact, Jesus always went to the Father for everything.  So could it be that you and I are so into the Scripture that we have allowed it to replace the Holy Spirit?  Do we ask the Holy Spirit to speak, do we say as we are instructed in Scripture to say speak Lord, and then are we quiet and listen with the intent of doing as He says?

Jesus said, I only do what I see the Father doing, and that day when Jesus had compassion on the Widow for her only son had died, Jesus saw the Father having compassion on the Widow.  You may say but Jesus and the Father are one, He knew the heart of His Father, it was easy for Jesus.  But remember Jesus became flesh like all of us He has created, and He will not use the power of being God, as a man.  So as Jesus looked to the Father, He knew it was the will of the Father to put life back into this young man, the son of the Widow.  And these were Jesus’ words: “Do not weep.”  “Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.   And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”  And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 

Do you believe Jesus tells the truth?  Do not be so quick to answer, for your life message to others may be that you have doubt in putting into practice these words of Jesus, found in John 17:20-23,  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”  You and I are one with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, so go out and do as Jesus did, spend time with the Father, and ask Him to speak, our job is to listen and act on what we are told.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice