Church must be built in the supernatural power of God. And I added ‘providence’ of God, that’s reformed redemptive theology, the ‘power’ of God is more Pentecostal or charismatic. Regardless, whatever tribe you are from, it’s time to see all that God has for us, and indeed church planting growth, evangelism, and personal walk with God, we have to see our lives, and the kingdom of God moving forward in the lens of spiritual warfare, though not all of it, but it has to be pretty much front and center. This is a tremendous faith uplifting passage in facing war of Israel:
Deuteronomy 20:1–4 (ESV)
20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’
This is right after the amazing exodus of Israel out of Egypt, through the raging Red Sea, and they were now in the wilderness led by Joshua getting ready to conquer the new land, Jericho. And of course, this is one event, albeit huge climatic one after the Red Sea Miracle, of huge miracle as Jordan River was similarly cut off for 3 million Jews to walk across on dry land like Red Sea. Can we say that for our daily life today? Not exactly, but the principles of facing daily life warfare remain, which I will expound later. But most importantly, I want you to see the words, “. 2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
Facing a larger enemy army than ours
2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
The first thing that hits me is that you see an army larger than your own. Frankly that’s how we feel many times, when we are facing an uphill task, a challenging life story, or trying to live close with the Lord in a very hostile society. Things do come up, and sometimes they do disappoint us, and at times we just feel exasperated looking at this mountain, this larger army. But this is precisely what God told us, when we go to war. This actually sets up the glorious opportunity for God to show forth his glory, as He said, “you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And God said it to give us heads up, its coming, and its larger than our ability. How far we have fallen in our weakness, our struggle thinking we can handle it, and how many times we have failed miserably and disappointed ourselves and others. All we need is God is with us. That’s all. That’s all we need to face however large an army facing us. No matter how strong and evil and powerful our enemy is, we have no fear, because the Lor dour God who brought us out of Egypt the the raging Red Sea, will do it again, and its nothing.
We are living in a spiritual warfare
2 “When you go out to war against your enemies”
It’s not if you go out to war, but rather it’s when you go out to war. For Israel that’s their specific mission to get into their promised land, Israel, but on the way, they are called by God to destroy and annihilate a bunch evil nations that have been bent on idolatry, evils, and godless like even child sacrifice. God uses their journey to destroy the evils. And seriously, on the way, it’s how God trained their hands for war (Psalm 144:1)[1], and emboldened their faith for the bigger work ahead of them. Nothing happens by accident, the fact that you go through some parts of life, that you find uncomfortable, don’t faint, because it’s precisely this moment, God is refining the crucible for purity and beauty.
Psalm 66 For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
The God that doesn’t show his supernatural power, is not the God that we read from the Bible. Old Testament is absolutely full of the miracles of God, and indeed the New testament are also full of the miracles and signs of God, especially through the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus raised the cripped, raised the dead, walked on water, opened the eyes of the blinds, cleansed the leper….and the list goes on.
The point I am making here is that Christians will live in a diminished worldview and hence experience of the supernatural, if our minds are bound to the traditional thinking of all signs and wonders have ceased, and so have the spiritual gifts. And what is happening is that we have thousands of millions of evangelical Christians walking in a subterrain of sub-supernatural, while we have a pocket of them walking in faith and proclaiming the power of God.
The point here is that we are now living to take the eland as Joshua generation were called by God to take the land. For them is the actual physical land, for us it’s to take and win souls that the Kingdom of God come on earth as its in heaven. Matt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
No one thinks that God’s kingdom can come without a fight. As Jesus said: Matthew 11:12
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Warfare takes force, spiritual force, not a spiritual weakling. There are truly moments of strong force needed, which in our case, will be our prayers, evangelism, discipleship. Mainly warfare seems to be won on our prayers. That’s why I believe it’s good to pray 3 times a day, morning, noon, and evening. Muslims pray 5 times; Jews pray 3 times a day. Not to be sucked into legalism, but some structure helps us to focus. Jesus frequently withdrew to quiet places to pray especially in the morning. To move into the realm of supernatural, it will require a humbled soul, and soul that hungers and thirsts for the move of God. Paul prayed unceasingly for the churches. Paul is not only mighty in deeds, signs, supernatural, but primarily his prayers go deep. Jesus obviously prayed with loud cries of tears even to the Father, frequently, what a solace full type of life. Such dedication produces the powerful breed of the supernatural. Jesus in fact, fasted 30 days before tempted and tested by Satan, and then, only then, launched into the public ministry. If Jesus needed that, what more to say about us mortal feeble beings on earth following Christ?
To bring to our modernity, scriptures clearly say we are in a spiritual warfare, and we need to move in the supernatural. And that’s half of the book, the power of the Spirit, the charismatics gifts and the reformed teachings.
Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
We should not go crazy in signs and wonders, admittedly, the apostolic signs and wonders and of course Jesus’s miracles, are not replicable in our days and age, although Jesus did say:
The Expectations and faith to move in the supernatural
John 14:12–14
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Burge commentary writes, “It is of utmost importance to note that the astonishing promise of 14:12 points to the future. Jesus must first go to the Father before the promise of remarkable works and realized prayer can come.” [2]
That means after Jesus been to the Father, we will see the promise of the remarkable and realized prayer come to pass.
Burge writes, “Note that the promise of 14:12 does not simply point to miracles. What Jesus has been doing includes deeds of humility, service, and love as well as miraculous signs. Jesus’ followers will do works that are “greater” even than these.” [3]
The “greater works” here not only means miracles, but also service, humility, love on top of miracles. This is a ‘wow’!
Burge writes, “This promise can hardly mean that the efforts of disciples will exceed those of Jesus, who, for instance, provided the stupendous miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. What is “greater” is that these works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. This is why the departure of Jesus is crucial, for only through that can the Holy Spirit become a reality to all who follow him (7:37–39).” [4]
These works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. How much and how depends on his calling and our seeking Him. The point is, it is there: we should seek him and ask. Matthew 7:7–8 (ESV) 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
John 7:37–39 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
[1] Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
[2] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (pp. 393–394). Zondervan Publishing House.
[3] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.
[4] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.
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