A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (July 20, 2017)
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13)
I heard a teaching recently about people that operate in the gifts of the Spirit. This particular teacher is one of my favorite Bible teachers but one of the statements he made during the teaching deserves a little scrutiny. The statement made was that you don’t have to be weird to be baptized in the Spirit and operate in the gifts of the Spirit. He said you can be a normal person and still be baptized in the Spirit and operate in the gifts.
I guess the key here is to define what’s weird and what’s normal. I have seen some things that most religious folks would describe as weird, but they were definitely from the Spirit of God. So, let’s look at just a few weird events and weird people in the Bible:
Moses threw down his rod and it turned into a snake
And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. (Exodus 7:10)
Elijah laid on top of a dead child and raised him from the dead
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. (1 Kings 17:21-22)
A donkey talked
And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? (Numbers 22:27-28)
John the Baptist preached in the wilderness and ate bugs
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:3-4)
Jesus healed a blind man with spit and clay
When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. (John 9:6-7)
Now, these are just a few examples of what most folks would consider weird. But, they weren’t weird to God! Supernatural is normal to God. Moses delivered his people out of Egypt. Elijah was one of the greatest prophets of all time. A donkey talking speaks for itself. John the Baptist was described by Jesus as the greatest man that ever lived. And of course, Jesus (the Son of God) was the weirdest of them all.
We need to be very careful when we start trying to put God in our puny religious and cultural boxes. We need to be open to the supernatural move of the Spirit more now than ever. One of the great things said in this same teaching was that most Christians have no problem when you say the Father is God or when you say that Jesus is God. Where some Christians have a problem is when you say the Holy Spirit is God. If you have that problem, you need to ask yourself why. The Holy Spirit is just as much a part of the Trinity as God the Father and Jesus the Son. Think about that!!!
