The "Meh" or the Miraculous

The “meh” or the miraculous
November 9, 2014

Luke 5:1-11 NKJV

So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

We have become attune to the shrieking noise of normalcy. We wake up every day expecting the expected...the world’s realm...rather than waking expecting the miraculous, God’s realm.
As new creations in Christ Jesus, our thinking should change as well about the economy in which we live, but sadly, most of us serve a miraculous God from the prison walls of mediocrity. What do we not understand about what Jesus said when he uttered the words, “greater things than these shall you do”?
The church you are sitting in this morning is not a church birthed out of mediocrity....or a “meh” spirit....She was born from repeated miracle after miracle...watching God take hopeless situations and place them under his feet. We have watched him heal our bodies, change our situations, and provide plenty where there was once none. It is time for us to look up to the heavens from where our help comes and expect not the “meh” ...but the miraculous.

Empty boats and empty expectations

Romans 5:5 NKJV

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

We recently heard a life changing message in our Sunday evening group taught by video from Danny Silk. The message was about the difference between expectation and expectancy. Now expectation is that thing we trump up in our minds...the way we think things ought to be...while expectancy is that condition of being pregnant with what God is about to do.
Preconceived notions can be our biggest enemy when believing God for the miraculous. When we begin to develop “expectations” over what we think God should be doing in a situation, we place constraints over receiving in our hearts the overabundance of what God actually can do in a situation if we simply do not try to change His plans but change ours to surrender to His.
When we attempt to inject our version of How God is to move in a situation, we enter into “expectations”. Expectations are simply what we believe God can do in a situation. Expectancy, however, is when we take our hands off of the wheel and allow God to act upon our faith and move in the miraculous on our behalf. The results are quite different.

Toil and its toll

Psalms 127:1-2 NKJV

Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.

The disciples were quick to tell Jesus, “we toiled all night”. “We know better than you, Lord! We’re professionals!” Sometimes we choose to enter into toil rather than God’s rest. There is no mention of entering into toil to receive from God anywhere in the Bible...there is however a place where it says we are to enter into his “rest”.
Unless the Lord build the house is not a suggestion, it is a principal. Ephesians tells us to do all that we can in our physical strength, but after that it REPEATEDLY tells us to stand. Another emphatic place in the Bible is in Matthew where Jesus repeatedly tells us not to worry. Toiling belongs in the toilet. When we enter into vain toil, we enter into the arm of the flesh. It is a faithless place where the miraculous is far from us. It is the land of “meh”.
Jesus’ answer to the disciples was not to change bait, or buy new nets...his suggestion was not to just stay on shore and give up. His suggestion was to set out into deep waters...get to a place of no return....commit....throw everything in...and THAT is where the miracle happened.

Step away from the usual embrace the miraculous

Acts 19:11-20 NKJV

Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

Satan is not smart, but he is crafty. He will allow us to sit on a stump and whittle while our miracle is at the other end of simply trusting God. But many of us won’t trust God because we don’t want to end up looking like a fool. Now looking like a fool is subject to deeper definition, because Jesus thanked God that revelation truth had not been revealed to the “so called wise”, but to the simple...the foolish, so who’s the fool?
Paul the Apostle was one of the most learned men of his time. He studied at the feet of scholars in Hebrew law. His was not simply an education, but a continuance of legacy. Still, in order for him to receive what God was going to give him, he had to be knocked off of his horse and struck blind. He would be retrained by the people he once hated. He would be taught everything that he knew was wrong. He would be given a new name...a new identity. He would become an enemy of those who once honored him and mistrusted by those he now served. He would be broken and humbled...but he would become so powerful in the things of God that inanimate objects that touched him would instantaneously heal people. He would preach in places he never dreamed. He would see himself received deadly bites from poisonous reptiles and not simply survive, but flourish.
Your miracle life is not hiding behind a rock of religion; it is casting out into the deep. Your Holy Spirit power is not trapped inside some Christian self-help book...it is trusting God enough to cast your net overboard into a place where you, yourself found not fruit. Your miracle life is not embossed upon a parchment of your accomplishments, it is tattooed upon your forearm with the scars of trusting God. Abandon the “Meh”....move into the miraculous. Its called risk. Those who refuse to risk will always sit at the feet of someone who did.