Signs and Wonders on the Internet

Trying to make some kind of sense of what seems to be stirring throughout the Christian Church can certainly be a formidable undertaking, and at times an unattainable task.

Just take a few hours if you can spare them and look over the evangelical/charismatic websites to catch a glimpse of a wide array of where our interest lay and where our focus is aimed. One thing is for certain there is a disconcerting fascination on supernatural signs wonders and miracles.

It appears that our ‘eggs’ – at least the supernatural ones we deem more important – are all in the same basket. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are certainly a distant second in significance.

This currently seems to be the epicentre of who we are as a Christian community, our narrative if you will our Christian witness as the world at large surfs the internet looking for substance to entertain, excite, arouse and yet hopefully awaken themselves. Human nature has not changed nor has its great and eternal need for a relationship with Jesus Christ. What have changed are the mediums in which the truth of the message is communicated.

The itinerant horseback preacher on the frontiers of this North American continent has been replaced with cameras, cables and microphones capturing every move and word spoken for the whole planet to view.

What kind of message is the North American Church conveying over this vast social medium anyway?

I sometimes wonder if this is more about us rather than God. We seem to be so caught up with telling one and all that ‘our’ church is experiencing  some new something or other and we need to post the latest stirrings  that all may see that God is here, ‘among us.’ My question is why? What is the deepest hidden motive of our heart for doing so? Is it really about that we are so excited and in love with His Person and Presence  and we just want to tell everyone of His faithfulness, mercy and grace for showing up in our own services. Think of it, the God of the universe right here among us, wow!

Or is it a kind of Christian bragging rights, you know the kind that makes sure everyone knows that we must be special or have something extraordinary , because God is here and look what He’s doing in ‘our church.’ Of course this might sound somewhat critical or judgemental but please bear with me for a moment.

Let me put it this way, for someone to judge the motives of our heart and make a pronouncement about the why’s and reasons we do what we do, or say what we say would be a judgement that God alone can know and make. However, if what I do outwardly bears a certain visible discernable ’fruit’ where one would be able to distinguish one fruit from another, then it is no longer judging the inward motives of the heart right? Therefore as an example, if I tell you I’m sorry for saying something to you that was wrong and hurtful and then ten minutes later I say it again and then a little later I say it again, you do not have to judge my motives to know if they are genuine or not you can tell by the ‘fruit of what I keep saying that I am not sincere and the apology is not contrite, and I am not really sorry at all.(now if I am truly sorry and cannot help being rude and insensitive than I need help)

With some kind of strange yearning, varying aspects of the Body of Christ, the Church, want to display itself to others and the world at large the so called miraculous signs and wonders happening within its walls all the while what the world is witnessing is marriage infidelity, abortion that equals the world, avarice and self indulgence from those who purport to be the mirror and example of the Christian faith. Even in the very midst of so called ‘outpouring’ of God! What seems to surface so often is our very decadent carnal nature. I am not talking about perfection or a moral ‘slip up’ believe me we are all so human. This seems to be about demonstrating to a watching, dying and lost world that we have God in our camp, and here, look at all the signs and wonders happening amongst us, all the while our godly character and spiritual fruit which should be our number one priority is compromised with hypocrisy and double standards; this dear friends is what the world sees.

The questions than begs to be asked is, ‘well should we not give a testimony of what God is doing amongst us for the world to see’? Maybe we should ask how we would perceive these media clips if we were in their shoes and through their eyes.

The emphasis is all about who’s got the power. The Church with the power will have its moments in the sunshine of media attention and certainly move up on the Christian pecking order of importance among the celebrity stars we have created. Aren’t the signs and wonders supposed to follow the true preaching of the Gospel and not be the spotlight of all our attention and the real reason we assemble as congregations?

King David in his affair with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband did find mercy and forgiveness from God after he had genuinely repented, however God told David via Nathan the prophet that David’s actions has caused  the heathen nations around Israel  to blaspheme God’s Holy name. The other aspect would be the judgement of God; the sword which David had conspired to kill Bathsheba’s husband would now bring death and destruction in his own family.(2 Samuel 12:14)

It would appear that the church has given the world a whole lot of ammunition to mock and blaspheme God with as well. Our revivals and great campaigns have so often been cloaked with ambition and envy enough to quench any true blessing God would want to dispense on hungry searching souls.

People by the millions surf the internet looking as many of us once did through other mediums, for truth meaning and purpose, what does the Church truly have to offer them? If we as a group of believers had only one chance to demonstrate the ‘total sum’ of our  message which would allow the world to at least catch a glimpse of who Jesus is and the significance that singularly identifies Him, what would that message look like and sound like? I realize that there is no one easy answer to such a challenge, but it certainly begs our consideration.

We are all in some way to blame for the confusing chaos ‘aired’ proudly as the statement of our identity and substance, who we are and what we embrace as believers. Our celebrities, those we have put up on the pedestal, despairingly at times do not reflect our Lord but rather reveal our natural base desires to edify our own selfish ambitions tucked neatly away deep inside our insecure selves ever craving for some recognition and affirmation which in all truth can only be received from a good Heavenly Father and not from the admiration or envy of other people. It will never be only about the signs and the wonders, it seems that the Church has gotten itself stuck in this rut and we cannot move on, to continue up the mountain of God.

We really have no idea how naked and blind we have become as a North American church.

“ I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”   (Revelations 3:18)

In many ways there is a thread of legalism that runs throughout our ‘transfixed” gaze on the miraculous. Not only does it lack the humility of Christ which was at rest in the purposes and will of the Father, this underlying current speaks of trying to ‘get’ something from God. It would appear that if we put all our ‘celebrities together in one place and get our worship bands rocking the crowds of believers into a frenzy that somehow God will be persuaded or pressured to ‘grace’ us with the supernatural. It’s the same motive one would have for reading the Bible, praying or fasting if it’s done for spiritual brownie points or to get Daddy’s attention, then we are moving in a legalistic direction. Our reading the Word, praying fasting, or worship has to come from a heart that is hungry and thirsty for God alone! These disciplines are the doors to position us into His Presence and not lip service to manipulate God for our selfish ends.

A large segment of the Church wants God to show up and take control of our services, we pray and cry out for revival and for great wonders to happen. Would we be able to even stand in His Holy Presence if He did? We are so big in ourselves that we have no problem pre-empting any leading of the Holy Spirit which would bring the Church to a place of brokenness, repentance and humility. The sad truth is we think that in some bizarre way that we have a right to all of God’s manifest power and Presence  just because we believe it to be so and we feel  that as God’s kids we have a right to it, scary indeed.

We have an avid affection for the ‘laughing fest’, the ’slosh fest’ or some other aberration focused only on meeting an unquenchable desire for more goose bumps or shakings. What fear of God do we really have when we try and orchestrate a “revival’ meeting out of mere human energy and frail carnal resources which amounts to nothing less than ‘strange fire’. (Numbers 3:4)

The Presence of God in scripture always left men face down on the ground in fear and trembling, with no ability to speak. This is the ‘visitation we should pray for, free from the organization of man, services that ring with the Glory and atmosphere of Heaven itself. Where the Holy Spirit has a free hand to move the service along through broken and submissive vessels proven and tried in God’s refining fires, vessels that have forsaken the need for title or celebrity status.

God is in Heaven and He does whatever He pleases. He is the One that I must ‘follow’ and be careful not to run ahead of Him or bask in His glory.

Jesus displayed for us the true example of Son ship. We find a repetition of these words in the Gospel of John chapter 8 “I only do those things I see my Father do and I say only those things I hear my Father say” (my rendering)

This ought to be the only mandate the church should embark on.

There is such a security and power that comes from being under the authority of the Father; that is of course if we can accept His will for us and be at rest in His purposes for us in every season. This cannot be about what I want to do and then pray “God please bless what I have purposed to do here tonight.” These are not the words of a submissive servant.

Jesus did not need to move out on His own He had no axe to grind or personal agenda to fulfill every word and act was the expressions of a Son whose only delight was to please and be in the center of the purposes of His Father.  “I delight to do Thy will O God, thy laws are written in My heart” (Ps. 40) This desire alone consumed Him, this was His directive from the Father, is it ours?

What we see so often in our services and media links is an anointed man or woman using a gift given by God to benefit and minister to the Body of Christ, the Church. What seems to be the common pitfall over time for many is in the forgetting who they are and who God is and the ‘holy’ origin of this gift and why God endues someone in the first place.

There are no great men or woman of God, only a Great God. The wonderful gifts and anointing that enable weak and frail human beings to permit them to do miraculous things come from a gracious God. However when the ‘vessel’ ceases from abiding under the ‘Shadow of the Almighty’ as happens so often, they soon find themselves in the arms of a prostitute, becoming famous or piling up the gold for their own ends at the conclusion  of the campaign. A sad reality indeed.

We only have one life to live, one life to surrender to God, one will to submit, only God can take this ‘little’ life of ours and break it and harness it for His own ends and for His glory, I must lose my ‘self’ life and like Jesus forfeit this life in total abandonment “nevertheless not My will be done but Yours”.

In conclusion we may not be able to alter what is displayed on the internet in the Name of God but certainly we can alter this one life we have at the Cross of Jesus Christ, that our own social world may see the character and person of Christ in us, certainly a miraculous sign and wonder.