Thursday, January 7, 2016

Abiding

ABIDING

With all the distractions in the world it can be hard to stay focused on what is most important. Think about that for a moment. What is the most important thing you can do? This past Sunday we started a sermon series about our True ID as we go through the Gospel of Mark. I found the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6 to be a fascinating picture of abiding in Christ. If we look deeply into the text we can see how the disciples saw, felt, spoke, and blessed. As we continue to delve into the text we can then see how Jesus saw, felt, spoke, and blessed. Our ways are not His ways, as far as the heavens are above the earth, so His ways are above our ways. The disciples saw a crowd who was physically hungry, Jesus saw a crowd who was spiritually hungry. The disciples felt no compassion for the hungry, Jesus felt compassion for the harvest that was hungry and ripe. The disciples spoke about the impossibilities of feeding the five thousand (which does not include women and children), Jesus spoke that all things are possible with God. What a difference! The theme of the story, apart from abiding in Christ we can do nothing supernatural. The text says that the disciples kept coming to Jesus and their baskets were continuing to be filled. You see the fourth principle here, we can not bless others unless we are abiding in and with the power of Christ. Before we can bless others with the supernatural, we must be blessed by experiencing the supernatural while we abide in Christ. Only then can we please God by our faith. We can do nothing apart from Christ. But so many of us try to minster in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ without abiding. We minister in our strengths, in our abilities, in our understanding. We must not define our theology of the supernatural by experience but by the very word of God. We must not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may walk in God's perfect and acceptable will for our lives. His will is not from the natural of this world but from the supernatural of His Kingdom. Walking in the natural reveals a form of godliness but denying its power. The supernatural miracles of God have not ceased, our faith in them has ceased. And without faith it is impossible to please Him and experience the supernatural of God's Kingdom on earth as it is heaven. We also have stopped abiding. If we are not completely dependent on God, knowing our weakness, knowing our inadequacies, then God will never be strong, He will never become our adequacy. And what a supernatural adequacy it is! Watch carefully! The text says they kept coming to Jesus. If we want to experience an identity that brings the supernatural power of God's Kingdom to earth we must go to Him who never stops giving. We must abide in the King so we can be blessed to bring the Kingdom to the world! Just like Jesus.   

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