25 September 2024
The greatest miracle of the Holy Spirit is empowering us to love as Christ loved. It's His primary mission in all our souls, and it is by far the one thing God alone can do in us.
We've said it before: Miracles belong to the Covenant of Christ. Lots of people have experienced or seen miracles outside of the Covenant because God is generous. However, the miracles of His favor are a native element of the Covenant.
It's moral logic. Upon what basis does the Lord extend His hand to grant signs and wonders? It is the divine Presence. How do we recognize His Presence? The primary sense of awareness in flesh is the overwhelming sense of awe and humility. It knocks you on your face. It drains you of any sense of authority you might have in your fleshly existence. At the same time, it replaces that fleshly sense of authority with a divine one. The divine one is altogether different, having no basis in this world.
It becomes not the power to exclude, but the power to compel your own flesh to include others your flesh would never accept, much less seek out. The only exclusion is the one that comes from the Holy Spirit: Without Him, people cannot truly desire to be included. People in the flesh will be driven away by their own desires. They cannot bring themselves to surrender as the Holy Spirit requires.
Only where He dominates will the Lord reign directly in power. His power redeems what is lost; it corrects flaws. The messes we make in our fleshly existence are mitigated. Not on the basis of human need, but they are mitigated on the basis of reclaiming His rightful glory. All glory belongs to Him alone.
So, when people come together and begin to submit to Him on any basis at all, His power falls. When did Christ not do so many miracles? Wherever the people were hardened. Of course He could have done them by force, but it was not His priority to do some in most cases. Rather, His priority was to redeem those who were touched by the Spirit, those whom His Father chose to include.
When the apostles preached the Word in Gentile cities, it was not their power that brought the miracles, but the openness of some of the souls touched by God. It was the faith of the recipient in most cases; that's the norm. It's not a rule, but a policy of God. It expresses His priorities.
You cannot reduce the Holy Spirit to rules that your brain can recognize. Rather, it all depends on God's personal policy and priorities. It flexes with the context. We could become sensitive to Him personally and then we would know in the moment what matters to Him. He certainly does not keep it secret. If there is any government that has leaked openly its secrets, that would be the reign of God.
But you must be able to hear and process those leaks. You must be in total submission to what He demands even before you know what it is. And when people share that submission, they are moved together and the whole place will be shaken, as the Scripture says it. While the faith of vessels of service does matter, the faith of the recipients is the key factor we must consider from our position as His people.
Again, it is variable. When the Lord must act unilaterally to gain His glory, it is because no one is in submission. He will act according to His purposes and priorities, with or without us. The sweetness comes in being with Him, and it is entirely personal. It cannot be captured in principles that humans can enunciate intellectually. It is wholly a matter of personal connection with Him, live and in process.
The greatest miracle is that love we share in Him. All the other miracles come from that. And sometimes they don't come because He has other priorities. But the second greatest miracle He grants is the power and authority to keep pushing ahead with His mission regardless of how impossible it may be for the flesh.
This is part of what I was explaining in a previous post. The Internet is a gift from God allowing us to engage His love with people whom our flesh would flee to avoid getting involved. We have some work to do in this area. We need to avail ourselves of what is possible before we can shift our lives into His zone of priorities. Engaging each other in His love is a mandate, a requirement. We must open ourselves up to each other and come out of the shadows.
Yes, be zealous to guard your privacy from spying eyes of oppression, but don't exclude the Spirit of God in the process. His power is in His love. I'm not talking about chasing down those warm fuzzy feelings; let them come as a side-effect. Chase down the opportunity to be with each other through the worst and best. Yes, weigh yourself down with the cares and sorrows of His children, not in principle, but in person. Spend the time and effort to be with each other at every opportunity.
Our Enemy mocks this only because it's the truth: Our Lord's Covenant Law is His love.
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