All believers have a strong appetite for the supernatural. In fact the supernatural is natural to the believer. When I say this, I am fully aware that most Christians don’t experience the supernatural in their lives on a regular basis. But most, if not all, of them recognize that God is supernatural. When I say God’s nature is supernatural I mean He can intervene with the order He put in place in nature to accomplish His purposes or to reverse an order that came about as result of the intrusion of evil. The Bible tells us in many places that we have His nature: for example, 2 Peter 1:4 says that we are partakers of the divine nature, and in Gal 2:20 we are told that it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. If it were so, if God’s nature is supernatural and that a believer has the nature of God, surely to the believer the supernatural is natural also. So, when a believer yearns for miracles, signs and wonders, he is simply yearning for his nature to be let out and lived out, the nature he inherited from Christ.
Something is very wrong if a believer doesn’t have the desire to experience miracles, signs and wonders. You might as well say an Indian hated curry or a monkey doesn’t like banana. Every time you read in the Gospels that Jesus performed miracles you hoped you could be like Him, and when you read that the disciples healed the sick you wished you could be like them, didn’t you? What about John 14:12? Jesus said you will do even greater works than He did.
A few days ago I was reminded again of this inborn desire by none other than my wife. We went to pray for a sister tormented by a recurring ailment. I will not go into the details here. It suffices to say that when we reached her place she greeted us with anxiety and discomfort written all over her face, but by the time we left her demeanor was one of ease and peace. On the car my wife told me that she felt very fulfilled that she could minister healing and deliverance. Her words got me thinking. Yes, I know that she was very happy for our sister to be relieved from her ailment, but it was equally true she was very happy because she got to express herself, the nature she inherited from Christ.
Are there Christians who don’t have an appetite for signs and wonders? Yes there are. There are many reasons why many believers don’t have the appetite for the supernatural; one of them I believe is because they have been taught wrong. The result is that they not only don’t have the appetite, they actually developed an aversion towards the supernatural. I once heard a preacher say this: “If you give each of ten new converts a Bible, tell them to read it on their own without consulting anyone, none of them will come to the conclusion that signs and wonders are not for today. They have to be taught this stuff.” Isn’t it profound? Somebody got to teach them that signs and wonders are not for them, they won’t get it from the Bible. If a monkey has been told from birth everyday that banana is not good for him, that it is poisonous, trust me, the monkey will shun banana.
I have faith in you that this won’t be your problem, so I will not dwell on it. If there be any problem, you will say, it is that even though I have the desire to cast out demons, heal the sick and raise the dead I couldn’t do so with much success. You find it hard to accept that it is part of your nature even though you have a strong appetite for signs and wonders because your experience didn’t add up to it. You have a desire but you feel limited in your ability to fulfill it. If the above describes your condition I urge you not to despair. I urge you not to elevate your experience above the truth presented in God’s Word. I have a word for you. This verse has been burning in my heart for some ten days now and I didn’t know why, until I sat down and write this article. It’s for you and it’s for me. A part of the sixth verse of Psalm 68 says this: He brings out those who are bound into prosperity (NKJV). The word “bound” gives a connotation of limitation. It is as though a part of you has been kept in prison. If you have been limited for a long time in your ability to live out your nature (the one you inherited from Christ), take heart. The Lord Himself will lead you out into success and fulfillment. His Word is your surety.
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