The following are brief thoughts in response to Pastor Josh Feay's sermon on the miraculous in Christianity. Sermon was delivered at Sanctuary, Fairfield, CT, on 2/16/14. I stand in agreement with Pastor Feay's position and add my own thoughts here.
Regardless of the theological
position we maintain, we must never limit the Lord’s movement in our
midst. We cannot limit His ability to
intervene in any given situation at any moment, through supernatural or natural
means. If we say to God, “You no longer
speak through your people,” have we not limited a limitless God? If we say to Him, “You must move in this
situation,” have we not given God a mandate that He need not follow? How can we who are finite say to the Infinite
how He must move or how He must reply?
It is arrogance for any position to claim a monopoly on theological
accuracies. One says, “God healed me”
and the other says “Medicine healed me” but are they not one in the same since
all knowledge and healing comes from God?
We must not be myopic in our pursuit for the miraculous and claim that
miracles must occur as we say they ought, but we also must not limit the miraculous
to the usage of the natural. Surely at
any moment, the Lord can touch a tumor and it can vanish but in any moment in
chemotherapy God can utilize the Christian’s joyous response while suffering to
cause others to worship Him.
We must release our grip on these
matters and leave our hands open in humble recognition that once we argue one
position, the other position already has its rebuttal prepared. As the children of God argue, the children of
the earth perish. Therefore, we ought to
go forth offering the Lord, presenting our requests to Him with persistent
boldness, offering no certainties and guarantees except that He is good and His
mercy endures forever. When the Lord presents
Himself, He sovereignly does so in the way that will give Him the greatest
glory in the life of the person to whom He enlightens with His grace and
presence. We must not claim to know what
brings the Lord the greatest glory for only He can know such things; we are
foolish if we say to God that we will build Him a house if He is satisfied with
a tent (cf. 2 Samuel 7). We go forth in
great faith and warring against spiritual forces of darkness, possessing faith that sees God’s hand in all things even if we do not understand the
circumstance.
