THE RIDICULOUS PRODUCE THE MIRACULOUS –Part 3

You might ask, “Why does God ask us or require us to do the ordinarily ridiculous to experience the miraculous?” Simply, because God is not man- He is God. He has His own unique modus operandi as God. His ways are different from the ways of man and His thoughts different from the thoughts of man. Also, He does it to take all the glory alone, because He cannot and does not share His glory with man; all the glory belongs to Him alone. Moreover, 1st Corinthians 1:18-29 perfectly addresses this question, let’s read “The message about the cross is nonsense to those who are being destroyed, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved. Scripture says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will reject the intelligence of intelligent people.” Where is the wise person? Where is the scholar? Where is the persuasive speaker of our time? Hasn’t God turned the wisdom of the world into nonsense? The world with its wisdom was unable to recognize God in terms of his own wisdom. So God decided to use the nonsense of the Good News we speak to save those who believe. Jews ask for miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but our message is that Christ was crucified. This offends Jewish people and makes no sense to people who are not Jewish. But to those Jews and Greeks who are called, he is Christ, God’s power and God’s wisdom. God’s nonsense is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, consider what you were when God called you to be Christians. Not many of you were wise from a human point of view. You were not in powerful positions or in the upper social classes. But God chose what the world considers nonsense to put wise people to shame. God chose what the world considers weak to put what is strong to shame. God chose what the world considers ordinary and what it despises—what it considers to be nothing—in order to destroy what it considers to be something. As a result, no one can brag in God’s presence.”

We understand from the above scripture that God operates in that unique manner just to confound and shame those operating with human (earthly) wisdom and logic (like He did to Naaman); to make foolish and stupid the wisdom of the world.

In as much as the commandments of God may appear to be ridiculous and impracticable, God is not a wicked God to command us to do what is not practicable, neither is He cruel and unkind to ask us to do what He has not equipped us to do nor provided all that we need to carry out.  Our loving God has given us the grace and power to obey all His commandments through His Holy Spirit He gave us to live in us. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of holiness (Romans 1:4). To be holy is simply to live in obedience to the commandments of God in the Bible. This is why God gives each child of His the Holy Spirit, to enable them live holy lives. Therefore, whoever is saved and has the Holy Spirit living in them can live holy lives. The problem is that many Christians fail to allow the Holy Spirit control them, but yield themselves rather to the control of the flesh (the sinful nature inherited from Adam).

To live in obedience to the commands of God, we must make a tenacious decision to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and obey God. This is why the Bible says in Romans 8:14 that those who are led (controlled) by the Holy Spirit are the true children of God. It is when we allow the Holy Spirit take control of our lives, and we study and practice the word of God daily, that our faith grows and becomes strong to obey every one of God’s command to us, regardless of its nature. God has always specialized in asking His people to walk by faith rather than what seems like the best and most logical option; to trust Him when we would rather choose an alternate route.

Grow your faith by hearing, studying, and meditating on the Word of God day and night, so that you can readily obey the commandments of God and live in the miraculous, where miraculous things will be your constant experience.

Walking by faith seems terrifying until you start doing it. We serve an unbelievably faithful God who will not call you to a task then leave you empty-handed. When you take the opportunity to trust Him, you will shortly find it was no mistake. Eventually, you learn the truly logical path is to walk by faith because you have the greatest guarantee of success and victory when you are in His will. There is an unremarkable peace that comes from knowing you are in the hands of the One who holds it all.

A pearl of wisdom: When God instructs you to do something, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, obey Him, for there is untold wisdom in that instruction -it is given for your lifting. Do not be discouraged when God asks you to do something that won’t make sense from a logical perspective. He specializes in asking His people to rely on Him, and He has a track record of infallible faithfulness.

God bless you!