Supernatural Process

Mark 11:22-24

Richard Tow 3.16.14

I want to talk with you this morning on the subject: Supernatural Process. Is there a pattern in the way God brings His will to pass in our lives? Can I learn that pattern and by learning it, cooperate more fully with what God wants to do in my life? I want to say up front, there is a biblical pattern in the way God usually works. I say usually because I live by the 2% rule. Anytime you think you have God figured out, you had better leave at least a 2% possibility that He won’t do it the way you think. First of all, He is sovereign and can do anything He wants to do. He doesn’t have to check with a committee, he doesn’t need a majority vote—He’s God and can fix it any way He wants to. Not to mention the fact, that all of us are still learning more about the ways of God. God works through His relationship with us, not through some mechanical steps of making things happen. I want to make sure I get that caveat said before I proceed. But with that said, I do believe there are truths revealed in Scripture that can help us enter into God’s miracles for our lives. That’s what I want to talk about this morning.

Let’s begin by reading 1 Cor. 2:7-14. Paul is talking to the Corinthian Church about the futility of trying to know God through mere intellect. Knowing God and taping into His wisdom does not come through reasoning power; it only comes as He reveals Himself to us: Spirit to spirit. That’s our context.

Read 1 Cor. 2:7-14.

Circle the word prepared

Circle the word revealed

When we encounter a problem in our lives, our response is to pray and ask God to do something to solve the problem. From our perspective, the problem is the beginning of the process toward a miracle. But God is way ahead of that. He saw the problem coming long before you were ever born. He knows the end from the beginning. In reality, supernatural process begins with God’s foreknowledge and PROVISION. Peter (1:3) tells us that His divine power has given (past tense) to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God did something for each and every person here 2000 years ago at the cross that is beyond human comprehension. He opened a joint checking account with your name on it, and deposited into that account “all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” We have already been made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. It will help your faith to know this. “By His stripes you were healed.” The healing is already deposited. No matter what problem you may be facing today or in the future—God already has you covered. In fact, through His eternal foreknowledge, He had you covered before the world was ever formed. Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. His death happened in time and space, but it is an eternal reality.

Look back with me at 1 Cor. 2:9 (a reference to Isa. 64). “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has (everybody say has) past tense—prepared for those who love Him.” The things God has prepared for those who love Him. Have you ever thought about the things God has prepared for you—already prepared? Now here is the mistake I made for years when I read this verse. I thought the things were just stuff that I would get in heaven after I die—laid up for me somewhere in the by and by. It includes that; but it is not limited to that. In fact, the real power of the verse comes into our lives when we realize these things are laid up for our lives in the now! We are now in eternal life; we are now seated with Christ in the spiritual realm. The things we need in this life have already been prepared for us. That means when I encounter a problem, the first thing I should remember is God foresaw this need; He has already prepared a solution for me. If I need a house, He already has the perfect one in mind for me. If I need a healing, it is already there available to me. If I need an open door of ministry, He already has it all planned out in advance. What do you need at this point in your life? Can you begin by acknowledging God has it covered already?

Another mistake people make when they read this passage is to stop at verse 9. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Look at verse 14 “but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.” Those verses are saying that the flesh cannot discern nor receive the things that God has laid up. The natural man (an unsaved person) and a carnal Christian cannot see these things, nor can he tap into them. What is a carnal Christian? Later in this passage, Paul makes a clear distinction between a carnal Christian and a spiritual Christian. A carnal Christian operates out of his five natural senses. If he can’t see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or touch it—he doesn’t even recognize it’s there. He makes all his decisions based on what his flesh tells him. Doesn’t mean he’s not going to heaven one day. Does mean that he will not enjoy much of his divine inheritance in this life. A spiritual Christian is sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing. A spiritual Christian lives with an ear toward heaven and makes his decisions based on what he hears from God. So whether it is in a natural man (an unregenerate person) or a carnal Christian (born again, but living according to the dictates of the flesh)—flesh has not seen, nor heard, nor imagined in his heart, the things God has prepared.