A Course in Miracles: Seeking 101
05.05.05
Pastor Mark Batterson
This evotional begins a new series of evotionals titled A Course in Miracles. To check out old evotionals, visit the evotional archive @ www.evotional.com. During this series, Pastor Mark will be blogging his way through the book of Acts. You can read the blogs @ www.markbatterson.com.
On March 5, 2005, our staff had what I call a “spontaneous combustion” prayer meeting. We started praying and it was tough to stop. That prayer meeting was symbolic of the groundswell of spiritual momentum we’re experiencing at NCC. I’ve always wanted God to do something unexplainable and uncontrollable and uncontainable in me and in NCC. I think we’re on the verse of that.
Luke 5 gives us a picture of what God wants to do in all of our lives. The disciples had been fishing all night and hadn’t caught a thing. Jesus told them to move the boats and try again. I’m sure the professional fisherman really love Jesus give them fishing tips! But Peter was obedient. He said, “Because you say so.” They let down their nets and “caught such a large number of fish that the nets began to break.” They actually had to signal another boat to help them haul in the fish. And both boats were so full they began to sink.
Here is my take on that passage: Jesus did something uncontainable. They hadn’t caught a single fish all night. And then they caught more fish than boats could contain! That is a picture and that is a promise of what I believe the Lord wants to do in our lives! He wants to bless us beyond our ability to contain it.
The Day of Pentecost
Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into the heaven. Before he left, he gave the disciples pretty simple instructions. Acts 1:8 says, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So the disciples spent the next ten days seeking God. Acts 1:14 says, “They all joined together constantly in prayer.” Acts 2 is actually Day 10 of the prayer meeting.
We pick up the story in Acts 2 on Day 10 of their prayer meeting.
Acts 2:1 says, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled.”
Let me make an observation: the Day of Pentecost was totally unplanned. It’s not like the disciples woke up on the Day of Pentecost and said, “I feel like speaking in tongues today.” They had no category for what was about to happen. It’s not like they made an appointment to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter didn’t prepare a sermon. And they certainly didn’t plan a baptism service.
I’m not sure how the day started, but I’m pretty sure the disciples got up and took a shower and brushed their teeth like they did everyday. I’m pretty sure they put their pants on one leg at a time. They got a bowl of cereal. They read the morning paper. And then they met for prayer. But this day started out like any other day. I don’t think they had any idea that the Holy Spirit would literally rock the house that day. There is no way they could have manufactured what happened. Here is the bottom line: you can’t plan Pentecost. But if you pray for ten days some miraculous are bound to happen!
Here’s a novel thought: what if we actually did what they did in the Bible? What if we fasted and prayed for ten days? What if we sought God with the same kind of intensity and tenacity? That’s what this series of evotionals is all about. Don’t just read these evotionals. Put them into practice!
Honking Horns
There is part of us that craves predictability, but if everything in life was predictable it would be monotonous and mundane. Predictability = boredom. Some of the best things in life are unplanned.
A couple months ago we were on vacation in Orlando, Florida. One morning we were sitting at a stoplight in our rental van. The light turned green and the car in front of us didn’t go so I decided to give him a little “love tap” on the horn. When I hit the horn it got jammed and I couldn’t turn it off. The poor people in front of us! They must have thought we were raging lunatics!
I quickly pulled into a gas station while everybody stared at us. We were mortified, but the fortunately the horn stopped honking when I turned the van off. So I started the van back up and we got onto the highway. About two miles down the road the horn started honking again without me even touching it! We are literally driving down the highway blaring our horn at everybody and their brother. I have no idea what people were thinking, but if felt like we were screaming at people to get out of our lane or get off the highway because the road belongs to us! The entire time I’m pounding the horn with my fist with some limited success. The horn would turn off for a few moments and then it’d start honking again. This lasted our entire fifteen minute trip! That fifteen minute ride would rank as one of the most chaotic driving experiences of my life. But you know what? We’re still laughing about it months later. In fact, I don’t think my kids will ever forget the “honking horn.”
Now let me make an observation: most of our trip was pre-planned. We planned on swimming. We planned on catching lizards. We planned on visiting the Magic Kingdom. And all of those planned activities were a blast. But the highlight of the trip was totally unplanned. You can’t plan a horn malfunction! But that horn malfunction caused as much laughter as the rest of the trip combined.
Here’s my point: some of the best things in life are totally unplanned and unscripted. And that isn’t just true relationally or recreationally. It’s true spiritually. Part of us wants everything scripted out, but that isn’t the way God works!
Here is the mistake many of us make: we focus our energies on telling God what to do and how to do it and when to do it. Here’s a thought: what if, instead of spending all of our energy trying to make plans for God, we spent that energy seeking God? For what it’s worth, that is the prescription for anxiety that Jesus gave in Matthew 6. He said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.” He said, “Seek first his kingdom.” Too many of us try to figure things out first and seek second or third or tenth. But if we seek God first then everything else works itself out. Jesus promised that “all these things will be given to you as well.”
If you read Acts 2 you realize that God couldn’t have scripted things any better than He did. The disciples start speaking in tongues. The significance of that is this. This happens on the day of Pentecost, one of three pilgrimage feasts when Jews from around the ancient world would travel to Jerusalem. And these disciples start speaking in all of their native tongues. About three thousand pilgrims were baptized that day and turned into an army of 3,000 missionaries that God sent back to their homes.
Here is a thought. Maybe we should stop trying to plan things for God. Maybe we should stick to prayer and let God handle logistics—the when, where, and how. God is an amazing event coordinator.
I’m all for planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Jesus told us to count the cost. But there are some things you can’t plan. And miracles fall into that category.
Cheap Seats
This series of evotionals is NOT about seeking miracles. It’s about seeking God. And when we seek God it puts us in a frame of mind and frame of spirit where miracles happen!
Seeking God increases our expectations. Let me make an observation. God wants to sanctify every part of you. The word “sanctify” means “to see apart for His purposes.” He wants to sanctify your motives so you do what you do for the right reasons. He wants to sanctify your imagination so you dream God dreams. He wants to sanctify your experiences and use them to serve His purposes. He wants to sanctify your education. He wants to sanctify your talents. He wants to sanctify your competitive streak. And He wants to sanctify your expectations.
I’m not sure any dimension of sanctification is more overlooked or underestimated that sanctified expectations. Here’s what I know for sure: the early believers had sanctified expectations. They couldn’t wait to see what God was going to do next. Acts 2:43 gives us a glimpse of the way those early believers operated. It says, “They were filled with awe.”
Here is what happens when we seek God. He gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Can I make a simple observation that I think has profound implications? How big something looks doesn’t depend on how big it really is. It also depends on how far away you are! In other words, our perception of things depends on our distance from them.
Hold that thought.
A few years ago we took our kids to the circus, but we had the cheap seats. The circus hardly kept their attention and I’ll tell you exactly why. The Elephants looked like ants. We were so far away that the elephants were unimpressive. If we’d been on the front row it would have been a totally different story. I’m pretty sure the kids would have been in awe. Why? Because size isn’t the only factor that determines how we perceive things. Distance is a huge factor.
Here’s my point. God is huge! But some of us are so far away from God that we’re nonplussed. Our problems seem so big and our God seems so small because we’re in the cheap seats! Let me tell you what sin does. It takes us further and further away from God until we’re in the last row of the top balcony. God seems smaller and smaller as we get farther and farther away from Him. Sanctification does the exact opposite. It brings us closer and closer to God so He gets bigger and bigger. God has a front row seat reversed for each of us.
At the end of Prince Caspian, one of the books in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, there is an interesting exchange. The children haven’t seen Aslan, the lion who is the Christ-figure, in quite some time and one of the girls says, "Aslan, you’re bigger." He says, "That is because you are older, little one." She says, "Not because you are bigger?" Aslan says, "I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."
So it is with our relationship with God: the more we grow the bigger God gets! We stop pigeonholing. We stop measuring. We stop bringing God down to our level or putting him into nice, neat little boxes. Psalm 34:3 says, "O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name forever." That is what this series is about. It’s seeking God so God gets bigger and our problems get smaller. It’s seeking Him until the impossible seems logical.
Let’s not reduce God to the size of our biggest problem!
A.W. Tozer said that a low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evil. He also said that a high view of God was the solution to ten thousand temporal problems!
Unplowed Ground
Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground.” Unplowed ground is ground that has been ignored. The surface has gotten hard and nothing can be planted. And nothing grows through the surface. Hosea continues, “It is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on you.” We can’t control the rain. But we can prepare the soil. I’m afraid that too many of us worry about rain instead of preparing the soil. Our job is to prepare the soil and seek God until it rains!
So here’s the $64,000 question: Where has the soil of your heart become hardened? The key to that question is this question: where have you lost hope or lost joy? What have you stopped thinking about because it’s too painful? What have you stopped praying about because it’s too unbelievable? Answer those questions and you’ll know where you need to plow!
Here’s the bottom line: our job is to prepare our minds and hearts for a miracle. We do that by consecrating ourselves to God. We seek Him and believe that in His timing He’ll reveal Himself via miracles!
Here is the greatest danger we face in a series like this. The last thing I want to do is manufacture miracles. That is what Abraham did. He got tired of waiting so he decided to “help God along” by sleeping with Hagar and manufacturing Ishmael.
This is a three week series of evotionals. I believe some miracles will happen during these three weeks, but this series is really about identifying the miracles you’ve believing God for. I’m suggesting you “pick them out of a hat.” I’m suggesting that you seek God and allow the Spirit of God to reveal what He wants you to believe Him for. It may be someone’s salvation? It may be a physical healing? It may be the resolution of a situation that seems impossible? It may be a dream that has gathered dust? It may be an addiction that seems unbreakable?
I don’t know what the miracle is, but the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you as you seek God.
Holy Experiment
We have a core value: everything is an experiment. Here is the beautiful thing about experiments. You expect some failures to be mixed in with some successes. But the key is learning from both of them. It gives us the freedom to fail. I think some of us are so afraid of disappointment that we don’t believe God for anything anymore. It’s safer. It’s easier. But that isn’t how God wants us to live. In the words of Oswald Chambers, “If you will give God the right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you.”
On May 5, 2005, we begin a ten-day experiment we’re calling a Pentecost Fast. I have no idea what God is going to do during these ten days of prayer and fasting, but that is precisely the point. It’s all about seeking Him and allowing Him to pull off another Pentecost if He so chooses!
Let me tell you how I’m approaching these ten days. I’m going to fast food for ten days. I don’t say that prescriptively. I just mention it descriptively. Fasting is only limited by your creativity. You can fast TV. You can fast sleep. You can fast a hobby. Fasting is simply giving something up for a set period of time and using that time to seek God.
But that is only half the equation. You give something up. But you’ve also got to add something to your spiritual diet. I have a confession to make. I’ve done fasts that just turn into starvation because they don’t serve a purpose. You’ve got to add prayer to your diet. You’ve got to add Scripture to your diet. You’ve got to add worship to your diet. You’ve got to feed your spirit while you starve your flesh.
So start starving your flesh and start feeding your spirit.
