SUPERNATURAL v NATURAL

In too many churches the modus operandi is to do everything according to natural resources. The central plank is that everything is to be done decently and in order so a planned programme is put in place to avoid anyone or anything injecting a supernatural experience into proceedings.

This is fine if you like a well organised and sanitised religion devoid of power that meets the need for a religion that is comfortable and affluent and one that doesn’t demand any sacrifice.

However, if you want to be a New Testament expression of the Christian faith, the supernatural is par for the course. I would go as far as to say that you cannot be New Testament without the supernatural bearing in mind it is littered with supernatural activity.

Generally speaking, the sorts of sermons we get do not encourage anything supernatural. They are usually the views of someone about a verse or a few verses of scripture, usually taken out of context and an insipid conclusion is drawn from what has been said.

Motivating people to go and heal the sick or cast out demons or to expect God to speak through dreams, visions and prophecy like he said he would in scripture is as rare as hen’s teeth.

I am led to believe that if one wants to convert a Muslim to Christ, and that is happening in their thousands, the supernatural is indispensible. Arguing logic will not cut it.

It would appear that in various countries, the church is so non supernatural, that God is appearing supernaturally to Muslims in the form of dreams and visions and Christ himself is appearing to them. This has convinced them that Jesus is the real deal and they have left Islam, on pain of death and embraced Christianity.

One Muslim woman did this and when she told her family, her father believed that it brought disgrace on his family. A month later she was still alive which the father could not understand. He asked why she was still alive because it transpired that on three separate occasions he had poisoned the food she ate.

She testified to the power of God to protect her and the whole family converted to Christianity. A Muslim needs to experience the supernatural to change his faith and to stay converted. Arguing about what the Bible and the Koran says will achieve nothing.

In the New Testament the preaching was backed up with the supernatural. Today in most cases, preaching is backed up with…a nice meeting. In other words, you will have to take my word for it as I am not prepared to prove what I say.

I am pleased to say that the uneducated and poor in third world countries don’t have this problem. They are often converted from a religion that is full of fear of spirits so the spirit world is natural for them. As a consequence when they are told that Jesus can raise people from the dead they believe it. When the dead are prayed for, guess what happens? They come back to life.

Generally speaking, the western church doesn’t need God because it has a modern health care system, government welfare, trained and experienced psychologists, and it has affluence.

It sounds to me that despite all this we are the poorer for it because the one thing that we don’t have as a result is faith in God, who provides for us in every sphere of life. That is if we will let him. Generally speaking, we don’t let him. As one brother said to me “if all else fails, then I will let God have a go.” On that basis, God is just a bit player that we call on when we need a fallback position.