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Chapter 2

Activity of God

Mar 9:23 Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. (MKJV)

Mat 19:26 But Jesus looked on them and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. (MKJV)

In the above biblical quotes, Jesus said a few things that will help even the intellectuals see the truth of the Bible more clearly (if they will open-mindedly look around and observe). Though we are to believe on Him for our salvation, Jesus did NOT say that if you can believe in Me, all things would be possible. Nor did He say that if you believe only Christian doctrine, all things would be possible. He said that if you can believe, ALL things are possible. Does this put some light on the way the world works? Those in the New Age (or self-sufficiency belief systems) utilize this truth and find that they are able to focus their minds intently, believing they can receive the material goods, achieve their goals, and attain any other desires they may have. Like magic, more often than not, those very things materialize in their lives. All the positive thinking books carry the message that what you believe will manifest in your life. Jesus pointed this truth out for us, but why? Did He want us to manifest lots of things in our lives so we could be happy? No, that wasn't His goal. He does want us happy, but not in mere worldly acquisitions. Christ's goal was much deeper than temporal satisfaction. Have you noticed that worldly acquisitions never ultimately satisfy? We tend to always want more.

Jesus gave us some commands, which He wants us to follow through. They consist primarily of loving those who irritate us (or even those who outright hate us). Impossible you say? If the self-sufficiency and worldly thinkers can reach their impossible goals of acquiring material goods by merely believing they can, we can show the Lord we love Him, by applying the same principle and achieving what Jesus wants us to do. The problem isn't whether or not we can love our enemies. The problem is whether or not we want to love them. Secular humanism teaches us to be nice, but it doesn't really address the deeper resentments and carnality that resides just below the surface of our lives. Secular humanism teaches repression and suppression of our sin nature through self-control, but that eventually only leads to a blow-up of our tempers, or a mental or emotional crack-up, as we lose the self-control to the underlying carnality. We need the deliverance from that sin nature which only Jesus offers. That is why we must have Jesus in our hearts and lives. That is why He is the only way. We Christians must choose (utilizing our free will) to want Jesus' help in eliminating our propensity to sin, our desire to be in control, and determine everything of our own volition. This is the foundation of Christianity and it must be established in our hearts, if we are to make any headway in this world to reach the atheists.

There is immense satisfaction when we begin to achieve God's goals for us (laid out carefully in God's Word). They are designed to take us out of the realm of "self" and lead us into a life of selflessness. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves able to distribute awesome supplies of fruit of the spirit (like joy, love, and peace) to those suffering in this world. When our eye remains single (that is, when our holy goal of truly following Jesus is all we desire), then anything the world presents to try and snuff out our holy motive, will fail. In our acquired selflessness, we are given perfect love, which the Bible says, casts out fear.

Jesus also said that with God all things are possible. While Jesus was here on this earth, He demonstrated some impossible things. It is impossible to feed 5000 men (plus their wives and children) with just a few loaves of bread and some fish, but this happened more than once. My wife, Eva, and I have experienced God's impossible acts numerous times, as have many others on this planet, even in this modern time. Thanksgiving, one year, Eva had carefully prepared just enough food for 25 people, but, unexpectedly, 50 came instead. Everyone ate their fill but, amazingly, there was food left over. She has experienced this phenomenon on two other occasions.

I will share some more supernatural occurrences my wife and I have experienced a little later in this book. I know that, had we been skeptical about it, we never would have experienced them. The reason we have been able to see God's power is because we believe. Faithlessness makes us blind to the workings of God in our lives. Even many Christians have a degree of faithlessness. Jesus could say, even today, what he often said to his disciples, "Oh you of little faith."

Atheists have somehow gotten off on the wrong foot and have determined (or had faith) that there is nothing to believe in. We can ask the unbelievers a few questions, should the occasion arise: Do you write off every miracle that ever occurred in this world as nonsense? Why are you spending all your effort refuting God and His activity? Instead of looking for a lack of God, why not look for the presence of Him? You do well to fear that if you did that, you'd begin to see indications of His existence. Seek and you will find, says God's Word. Truthfully, if ANY miracle, (even today) ever occurred, before your eyes, in which natural physical laws were upended, your entire belief system of there being no God, would have to crumble.

Why is it that I can read and appreciate amazing occurrences that are happening to people in today's world, in which there is absolutely no "natural" explanations, but the atheist doesn't consider them, or research into them? Could it be that we have simply made different decisions which established our belief systems and that is why God is obvious to me, but not to them?

Our belief system, which includes God, has not disappointed me, or my wife. When we have turned impossible situations over to Him, we have found Him more than able to make them turn out right. I could never prove this to a skeptical non-believer, by describing the supernatural occurrences, for the things outside us will not cause the miracle of belief in God to suddenly manifest itself. A person who is determined to doubt, will refuse to see a miracle, even if it occurred right before his very eyes. Such a person may desperately attempt to disprove or explain away the miracle. Like the Pharisees of Jesus' time, modern doubters feel threatened, and so they deny, refute, or discredit, in order to retain their status quo. (For those believers, who may desire to read it, you can read my story, loaded with supernatural occurrences in my book, The Opening Window, available here on this site website, TheFinalHarvest.org.) Jesus' incredible miracles of multiplying the loaves and fishes and even raising people from the dead, did not cause all people's jaws to drop open in astonishment, and make everyone believers4. But the point here is that one CAN see the power of God manifest in one's life, once one chooses to believe in God. There is something in the invisible "spark" of life that embraces belief in God and, surprise! That belief is answered by an infilling of the heart with amazing love. Otherwise, the millions who have committed their faith to Jesus would not be internally encouraged as they are. As the believers know, it is this intimate relationship with God (by faith) that makes Him real to them.

Obviously it is possible to go through life and never witness God's supernatural occurrences. Can you see that this, too, is a manifestation of belief? Refusing to believe in God, or denying that there is a God, will give one the anti-God manifestation. In other words, because one has made up one's mind to not believe in God, THAT belief has manifested itself and made itself appear to be true. But it isn't. Everywhere we look, we will seek "discerning evidence" or sort out witnesses that back what we have determined to believe and we will feel justified in continuing to believe it, even if what we chose was in error. Oddly, then, it is possible for someone to utilize their God-given mind to think with, and as they practice their belief in unbelief, they will see manifestations of unbelief all around them. They will find proof that God doesn't exist because of their focus, yet they will deny the very mechanism they are using. It was God's idea to give our mere belief so much weight in this world. God "believed" the world, and the universe, into existence—and He gave His children this same power (but to a lesser degree, of course). We cannot make the entire universe, but we, indeed, do have the power to adopt belief systems, from which we build the foundation of our lives.

Let's pray: Father, help us all come to a true understanding of Your nature, how You work, and what it takes to know You (through Your Son, Jesus). Even Christians need to be reminded, afresh, that we don't want our Christian lives to deteriorate into the untasteful lukewarmness, so prevalent in the Church today. Lord, make our lives exciting in You. Take our days and mold them as we, in awe and wonder, watch You do your glorious and redeeming work, showing even the most hard-hearted individuals, Your love. Give us a heart for the lost, oh Lord. Help us help You fulfill Your plan of salvation by our quickened desire to do Your will and not ours.



4. Many atheists have decided that these miracles can all be explained as hallucinations and/or myths that have become exaggerated over time. Back

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