Supernatural Lifestyle

Image above from Inklings.

It is "all spiritual," says Paul to the Colossians. Knowing God's will and being filled with it is all about wisdom and understanding that is all spiritual, or wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, says another version. Anything from the Holy Spirit is supernatural, something out of this world. The world can never give you what the Holy Spirit gives.

Thus, since I was among young people in our church, I have always believed that Jesus followers should live a supernatural lifestyle. Everyday, every moment---which, however, was not I was seeing in church then. Everyone lived, connected and related in the physical realms only, just like non-Christians did.

However, as long as we're seeking God's will, we have to do it the Spirit's way---and we need to know God's will for us daily and each moment. Right? So there's no other option but to live supernaturally---because Paul says the only way to please God is to live a supernatural lifestyle. Here's the whole passage:

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might...

Your relationship with God and your ministry all depend on a supernatural lifestyle. You are supernaturally strengthened "with all power according to his glorious might" only if you live a supernatural lifestyle---filled with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom. Just imagine being strengthened with all power through God's glorious might. That's nothing short of supernatural.

Church today forfeits itself of this glorious power by remaining earthly. Mundane. The only thing it understands about "spiritual" is going to church on Sundays, practicing in the choir or worship team, preparing Sunday worship programs, preparing sermon outlines, studying the bible, praying, quoting bible verses (and posting them on Facebook) and saying "Amen" and "Praise the Lord." These things are good, but a supernatural lifestyle is something else.

All spiritual is living the life of Jesus daily each moment. Check it out in the Gospel and see if Jesus operated like ordinary men, in an earthly manner. Perhaps he did so one out of 20---or I may be even wrong. It may had been zero out of 20. He got hungry and intended to pick figs to eat---okay, this was one. But even in this case, he was disappointed and cursed the tree so that it withered supernaturally.

What else? He was thirsty and asked the Samaritan woman for water. Actually, he never got the water and never got to drink it. Well, anyway, we can count this one as an earthly operation. Nothing supernatural about it. Anyone of us can ask water from a woman. No big deal. And how about when he got mad in the temple? This was earthly, too. Anyone can get mad inside a temple and kick chairs and tables and drive out sellers. Nothing supernatural about that.

What else?

The point is, about 1 out of 20, Jesus operated in the earthly realms. The rest was supernatural operation---supernaturally doing things. Church today is the opposite. One out of 20 it operates supernaturally. Well, most times never. You attend a church service and all you see is man and his program for God. They often claim God is there in their midst but you see nothing supernatural whatsoever.

But smart Alecks will say, "It's not necessary to experience goose bumps just to be spiritual. You see God in ordinary things---the smiles of people in church, the acts of kindness, the singing of hymns and spiritual songs, the choir, the nice preaching, things like that. Even in the happy, content look on the face of a dying person. And it is in these ordinary things that God shows himself to us powerfully, not anymore in signs and wonders and supernatural things."

Sounds good. But the problem is, this is not what's in Scriptures. We read the bible and find so many supernatural works of God in the midst of church---even outside it. The same thing in the Old Testament and in the apostolic writings. I wonder what would've happened if Paul and Silas merely smiled at the jailer or sang a hymn and then thought about how God showed himself in small, ordinary ways---like a little kindness now and then from the jailer, perhaps?

Or, if Peter merely smiled at the lame beggar at the temple courts. Or prayed for him the way church today prays for the sick---"Lord, give him the strength to accept his ailment and feel joy rather than sadness despite of it," or something to that effect. Today, the church dare not pray for on-the-spot complete healing or instant miracles. They excuse themselves and say God heals in his perfect time. They just ask for God's will for the sick---to play safe. If the sick dies or recuperates, it won't matter because either way, it would be God's will. If people look for someone to blame, then they would have to blame God because it was his will.

It would be funny to hear Jesus pray like that---if it happens then it's God's will, If not, then it's not God's will.

What if Jesus prayed like that for Lazarus? "Father, if it is your will, then Lazarus will live again. If not, then he'd remain dead." Sounds ridiculous, but that is how church prays today. And we need not ask if it is God's will. This would be a silly prayer. Jesus knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was God's will to give life to people. "I came that they may have life," didn't he once say? And the Gospel says, "In him was life." God sent his Son to give us life.

So, how did Jesus do it with Lazarus? Watch this daring act and prayer [Jn. 11]:

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father,I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Did you see that? There's nothing about "If it is your will." Jesus boldly and confidently assumed he was heard and that supernatural and miraculous healing WILL happen.

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

If you are Jesus' follower, you should have the same imagination and boldness. He is your Lord. YOu should imitate him. However, church today would rather explain pain and sufferings rather than remedy them. It's God's will to feel empathy for the ailing and troubled, "mourn with those who mourn," but that's not all the bible says. It is replete with examples of Jesus or the apostles and prophets healing sickness and rebuking terminal diseases. But church would have nothing of that. They'd rather resort to powerless human theology, psychological counseling, medical science, medicines, etc. but NOT supernatural and miraculous healing, the ways of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, they will pray, but the kind of prayer that eliminates any risk to keep their respectability intact. Their prayer is more earthly than supernatural. "Lord, use the medicines the doctors give to cure our patients." In case the patient is not cured, they have the medicines to blame, not themselves or their faith. Or, they resort to the safe prayer: "Lord, your will be done."

The church has been programmed for decades, perhaps even centuries, to think earthly. If church people see someone trying to imitate Jesus when he prayed for the few loaves and fish to feed 5,000 or the 4,000, they'd scorn him for being blasphemous. "What does he think of himself? God?" would be the censure. I have heard many times how church people would rather give credit to "chance" than God if they see miraculous answers to prayer. "Didn't we pray for a miraculous healing for John? Well, he's out of danger now, said the doctor!"

But someone would rebut or think to the contrary. "It was the medicine that really did it. Just a coincidence." Or, "Well, God used the medicines." God doesn't like sharing his glory. Don't glorify medicines along with God, as if they were equals, or as if God cannot do without them. If God did it, then glorify him. Forget about the medicine. He also uses meds, hospitals, treatments and doctors. But glorify God alone.

I've also seen some church elders think demon-possession is a matter for psychological counseling. Once, I dealt with 3 grade school pupils who were demon-influenced in their school. But the teachers and principal---all born-again Christians---didn't believe demon influence or possession could happen today in our modern world. "It's just their imagination," they said. "All they need is some counseling." Some of them even said we shouldn't pay the kids any attention. "They just want attention."

There are times when people just need plain counseling or perhaps attention. But a pastor trained in the supernatural things of God will know if it's something else, something out of this world. The problem is, the church no longer is supernatural. It has become plainly earthly---merely natural. The natural man cannot accept the things of the Spirit. It is foolishness to him.

Thus, instead of miraculous healing it resorts to medical doctors and medicines and medical missions (which cause-oriented groups like Lion's Club and Rotary Club also do). Instead of dealing supernaturally with demon possession it resorts to psychology or psychiatry. Instead of supernaturally speaking in strange or angelic tongues it says tongues are all human languages you can learn from schools.

I hear Christians on radio talk about politics the way politicians or political analysts also do. So, what of the Kingdom are we giving people when we do that? What difference do we make? We prefer to be merely "one of them" and our voice drowned in the sea of earthly opinions aired on radio than to be like Jesus operating uniquely in the raw power of God and getting directions straight from HIM.

And yup, instead of hearing God's voice supernaturally, church today resorts to interpreting the bible using "systematic" human theology, the theology they have invented.

Worse, they mock at anything supernatural. They think you're an idiot if you talk or live a supernatural lifestyle. But if you're intellectual, they respect you.

There's no way to skip this. God does not change. He is still a supernatural God no matter how "modern" our world gets. And truth is, supernatural is a thousand degrees more advanced than anything we call modern in our world. Going back to what Paul said to the Colossians, we can never fulfill God's real will unless we operate in his supernatural ways.