It was the end of our evening and it had been a rich house church gathering: worship, prayer, Scripture, great conversations, etc. Often we take a moment and share a “take away” in order to highlight whatever has impacted us most deeply from the evening.
One man (who happens to be my son-in-law) spoke just five words: “Follow Jesus and expect miracles.”
I can’t recall what part of the evening led up to this comment, but the words seared themselves into my mind and heart as soon as he spoke them and they have continued to reverberate with me.
Perhaps it’s because I have been so focused on the following dynamics that I see as important for moving the church from programs to organic movements:
- Every believer becomes a daily follower.
- Every follower becomes a disciple/gatherer.
- Every gathering becomes an apprenticeship for life and mission.
Every believer becomes a daily follower… of Jesus… expecting miracles. Yes! That is the heart of our walk. It is unquestionably and of necessity a supernatural life. If we are following Jesus… then our walk and life are no longer simply natural events that unfold according to the physical laws of life and science. Just the opposite, we follow Him by His supernatural grace and step into a life that is a supernatural encounter filled with supernatural experiences.
Follow Jesus and expect miracles.
I have a friend, Michael, who loves to hit the streets on a regular basis and expect miracles as he prays for people facing all kinds of situations and problems—including physical ailments. Legs grow out, illnesses disappear. This is good stuff. You can follow his journey here. And, I must comment that there is little true progress in the Gospel in so many parts of the world where we work without God’s confirming miracles. Clearly this is part of what we can expect as followers of Jesus—that signs will follow.
Yet there is also much more to this supernatural life with Jesus. It is so important to open our awareness to this miraculous existence that we, as followers, get to walk in.
Think about it:
1. Daily intimacy with Jesus is about His supernatural love invading our hearts, drawing us toward Him, opening our ears to hear Him, and giving us the motivation and ability to love and obey Him. It’s such a marvelous, miraculous process—a daily faith journey into the joy and wonder of knowing and serving God.
2. Transformation (healing, sanctification) is available continually. The Spirit of God is at work in us through a dynamic, supernatural process: we open the parts of our life that are hidden, in darkness, covered over with shame, or broken and find that He frees, heals, and transforms (glory to glory)—a miraculous process that we cooperate with through openness and vulnerability before Him… but marvelously miraculous, nonetheless, from beginning to end.
3. Redemption and restoration of those parts of our life that have broken. If we have been followers for longer than five minutes, we have found areas in our lives (marriages, children, relationships, failures) that can only be restored, worked through, and redeemed (good brought forth from it) by God’s supernatural hand. He does this. He has done it. He continues to do it. Even in the darkest moments (and I have had many) this supernatural process is taking place!
4. He fulfills His purposes (Kingdom purposes) through us. He uses our various spiritual gifts and works wonders through us as we step out with Him. It’s a wonder, really!
5. He works in and through our vocation, our job, our various callings. He gives us supernatural ability to create new ideas, new ventures, or new approaches to what we are doing.
This list of the supernatural ways God works as we follow Him could be nearly endless… The point is that I hope to be deeply reminded to follow Jesus AND to expect miracles. This changes the landscape around me so much so that I barely notice that it takes any effort at all to put one foot in front of the other… because of who I am looking at and because of what is going on around me when my eyes are expecting and seeing miracles.
