Living by Faith Alone

Hello again!

It becomes more and more true that God never sleeps and never grows weary; when we partner with Him, in an environment of faith and trust, we can count on Him to continue to work even when we are simply going about our normal life. Suddenly ordinary circumstances become encounters with heaven and kingdom-building opportunities!
I am not sure whether I have communicated this yet or not, but most of the miracles at Bethel Church happen out on the streets. This has become so true that many visitors coming to Bethel for a breakthrough often do not receive their healing during an altar call or prayer ministry, but instead get healed afterwards by randomly meeting someone from Bethel on the street! (Or in the store or wherever)
These past two weeks have been very different but altogether wonderful (like the Tim Hughes song says). My mother and sister came to visit Chad and I during American Thanksgiving, and we had a great time with them. I'm sure that they have shared their experiences with many of you, but for those that haven't heard, we traveled to San Francisco, met Bill at a special Thanksgiving Q&A, took in a few services, went shopping, and ate out quite a bit! (The cafeteria on campus was closed for the week)

It's impossible to experience so many new environments and not change your perspective on everything. Sometimes these perspectives aren't wrong, but underdeveloped, as you really can't form an opinion about something until you experience it first-hand. One such experience I have been placed in again and again is the opportunity to observe how effective the church is. More specifically, I've been able to observe how effective the church is in the real world.
When your dreams and passions are about the Kingdom, you begin to imagine and believe for revival across every city, culture, and church worldwide. This becomes your goal and one ambition. But when your experiences remain solely in the church, these goals and ambitions, these faith declarations, become nothing more than blind optimism.
There is a type of optimism that is dangerous to those that want to be Kingdom builders: Optimism that takes precedence over faith. Any optimism that denies reality and forces the believer to live outside reality gives a person the illusion of being effective, but the truth is that they are actually living on the sidelines.
I do not deny reality; I simply live from the perspective of a better one. Faith is not denying the natural, only believing that there is a reality that supersedes this one. In that sense, there are many Christians pretending that their diseases do not exist and dropping their treatment while the symptoms persist. In a similar way, many people hope for revival but never risk the chance of dashed hopes through the act of actually sizing up the mountain that we plan on moving.

We as believers truly have a lot to do. Being in San Francisco, or even simply ministering on the streets of Redding, can quickly give you a good guess as to the impossibility of this God-given task to bring heaven to earth! But He said we could do it, so I am going to take His word over my human instincts. People in San Francisco in particular are in desperate need. Many even here in Redding are suffering with drug addictions and broken families. Worse yet, there are countless millions that go through life spiritually disabled, without ever struggling with the pitfalls that churches usually target (and therefore often slip through our ministry 'radar'). I am more and more dissatisfied with any approach, conventional or cutting-edge, that does not fully rely on God's power and love to be effective. It has even been personally embarrassing, at times, to minister in such a way that God has to show up: I have prayed for people who didn't get healed, I have given words of knowledge that weren't accurate, and I have stepped out when it was naturally humiliating to do so. However, I must make this into my only method of building the Kingdom. Anything I can do out of my own efforts, I'm probably accomplishing without Him.

This is not a discouraging word! It puts our faith into practice as we force ourselves to step out each and every time our faith can be exercised. All of the excess 'ministry' in our lives that does not involve His presence or power can be left behind, freeing us up to be more virtuous, relational people. Instead of trying to build the church, we allow Christ to build His church, and we can finally have the time to pick up His commission for the Kingdom!

testimony

Chad Dedmon is a youth pastor whose Father is on staff at Bethel Church. He spoke to many of us over Thanksgiving break and gave us this testimony from his junior youth group:
Many of his kids, inspired by God's commission to walk in power, have decided to try to emulate the miracles of Jesus. One such miracle that they were excited about was Jesus' ability to walk on water. Because was not the only one who did it, and because He told us that we could do greater works, they decided to literally 'step out' every night across a backyard pool during Bethel's youth conference. They would stand at the pool's edge, pray until they felt they had enough faith, and then step out onto the water. Each night, all ten of these junior high boys would get soaking wet as they fell in the pool.
Some time later, their junior youth was having a baptism time at a local lake. These same boys, still determined, decided to try to walk on water again.
This time, all 26 of them joined hands and walked out towards the water's edge.

This time, only 25 kids fell in.

One boy, who had been attempting to walk on water with the others long before that day, walked 6 full solid steps slowly out onto the lake, taking a second to look back at those onshore. With nowhere else to go, he too fell into the lake.

People clamored around him to find out how he did such a thing. Individuals out on the water came to shore to find out how that was even possible! This young man was able to share the gospel with everyone on the beach that day, due to the miraculous power of God!

Blessings,

Connor