As the story goes.....I was on my first day's driving between Corpus Christi, TX and Tampico, Mexico last Saturday when I got a phone call from my wife. She explained to me that she had talked with Ron and that Ron's youngest granddaughter Elizabeth had drowned in the swimming pool at home. Elizabeth is two years old and the youngest of 9 children. Michael and Tammy are her parents. Tammy is Ron's daughter.
Apparently the gate to the pool at Michael and Tammy's house had been accidentally left open and Elizabeth had wandered away and slipped in through the gate and had fallen into the pool and drowned. When they found her they pulled her out of the pool, and as Ron relayed the story to me, she had turned blue and swollen and was completely dead. Tammy told Ron that when she looked into Elizabeth's eyes she could see that she was completely dead. She wasn't there anymore. She had no vitals, her heart was not beating and her body had completely shut down.
Michael, Elizabeth's dad and Ron's son-in-law, began to pray over her and rebuke the spirit of death and speak life back into his daughter. In that time Tammy had called her dad and asked him to pray for them. While doing so they asked the Lord to remove all water from her lungs, restart her heart, put oxygen back into her blood and cause her blood to recirculate. All of this happened exactly as they had prayed and Elizabeth came back to life. In all she was apparently dead for about 20 minutes.
"For the kingdom of God is not about talk, it's about power." 1 Corinthians 4:20
Why do I share this with you? In February we had a several of our Mexican friends from church over for a dinner party and I shared with them testimony of the power of God and how God can even raise men from the dead, even today. I told them I knew of an American businessman whom God told to move to Guadalajara, Mexico many years ago. This man had shared with Ron and I how he had seen God move powerfully amongst the Mexican people, even in ways he had never seen in America. His stories of power and faith in the church in Mexico always intrigued me.
"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4,5
Michael and Tammy's faith rest in the power of God. When tested, they turned to the Lord. Yes, they called 911 and the EMT's eventually showed up. But they exercised their faith, prayed and wielded the sword of the Spirit as the first option. They prayed and they moved in faith.
"You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." James 2:22
Their faith was in God. And he did not fail them. By the time the ambulance showed up Elizabeth had come back to life.
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| "Talitha koum!" Mark 5:41 |
As we all move forward in the realm of time we need mountain-moving faith in context of our relational faith. We have a relationship with the Lord and within that relational faith the Lord gives us mountain-moving faith from time to time. In Relational Faith God says, "Go here. Take this job. Do this. Do that. Marry this person. Start this business. Take this vacation. Raise your kids like this. Buy this car. Prepare for this trial. Sell this item or give money to that person." Those are relational commands. That is relational faith. That is hearing God on a relational basis and doing what we are told to do.
"We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in God must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:3-6
And how did Jesus walk? Simply put....he walked in relational faith with God the Father.
"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." John 5:19
"For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know what his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 12:49,50
"I and the Father are one." John 10:30Jesus and the Father are one through relational faith. And as we walk as Jesus did we become one with both he and the Father. In our oneness with him we have the embodiment of relational faith. We hear God and act relationally. Faith is hearing God and acting (Romans 10:17). And within that relationship we need to believe in the Power of God. We need to have mountain-moving faith within that relational-faith.
"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. he will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." John 14:12We move in miracles, signs and wonders within the relational faith that we have in him. Relationship encompasses miracles. Relationship breeds power. And the power of God validates the depth of our relationship with him.
"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17,18
There are two types of faith. First relational faith, then mountain-moving faith. First relationship. Then power.
Be Blessed,
JEB
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