Summary: #5 in a series. "As communities of the King, we should model what the Kingdom looks like when God has His way with a group of people." John Wimber

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Gary Best: "We are natural people who have been invited and called to an amazing supernatural task. We have been given the Keys to the Kingdom. We get to unlock doors that can’t be unlocked in any other than a supernatural way and welcome people into the most incredible ’eternal life’ transformation that begins now and continues forever. If we are simply willing to try to see what God is doing and take the risk of reaching out to put our hands with His, anything can happen. A miracle is potentially within our reach at any moment. It doesn’t matter how we feel. It doesn’t matter how well or poorly we speak. It doesn’t matter how brilliantly we perform. If we happen to catch hold of what God is desiring to do, all heaven can break loose.

TELL KORTNEY’s STORY. I have been a strong believer in the power of prayer, but it has been some time since I have witnessed God’s power first hand. That day I went to my parent’s house to drop off my mom, and my father was laying on the couch suffering from chest congestion. He had been struggling for 4 days and it was getting worse. Half out of hope, and half out of a joke re: the sermon, I laid my hand on my father’s chest and spoke out in an authoritative voice, ’In the Name of Jesus be healed!’ After giving my dad a near heart attack and a good laugh, I left. I hadn’t thought about it since. Then today at lunch, my mom and I were talking and my dad’s health came up in the conversation. I learned that less than 1 hour after saying that .5 second prayer, my dad was completely healed.

Over the last four weeks, Marty has been suggesting to us that Jesus’ ministry...as we read about it in the Bible...all He says & all He does...is a TRANSFERABLE MINISTRY.

Everybody can Play! Everybody can see a God-Miracle coming through their prayers & hands.

Do you believe that? Do you believe the disciples believed it?

Look at the story of Jesus’ Feeding of the Five Thousand

READ Mark 6:30-44

Do you see how the disciples were caught up in a NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL event?

Do you see the way Jesus drew them into participating with a miracle? Let’s talk a bit about this miracle that happened here?

Do you believe the disciples had any indication that morning that Jesus was going to use them in this big miracle? They didn’t plan for it. No extra provisions, picnic baskets full of food, etc.

Where & when did the miracle actually happen?

In Jesus’ hands? In the disciples’ hands?

Did all the food appear immediately? The miracle happened as they went, as they passed out the little food that they had, obedience, along the way.

When do you think the disciples realized a miracle happened? When the food fights started? So much food that people were celebrating?

The truth of the matter is that the disciples had a HUGE MIRACLE happen in front of them as THEY SIMPLY LISTENED TO JESUS’ INSTRUCTIONS and DID WHAT HE SAID.

LISTEN & OBEY.

We do our part...He does His.

Gary Best..."If God has spoken and we are willing to give what we have, even our smallest act of obedience could be the raw material for a miracle. It is not about us and our capabilities. Doesn’t that change everything?"

So just how does this "Naturally Supernatural" thing work?

How does this "Listen & obey" thing work?

Do remember when Marty read the passages in Luke about Jesus sending out His disciples?

Luke 9:1-6 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

What did they take to prepare for such an adventure?

He told them: ’Take nothing for the journey...no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.’ So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.

If we read between the lines, it was important in the disciple’s minds to take certain things with them as they went...but Jesus said NO.

So....What kind of ’add-ons’ do we insist upon taking with us before WE go?

Big anointing.

We want a whole lot of anointing to kick in early on. Feel the power, pumped, etc.

Big grace with minimal faith.

We want a lot of God’s grace kicking in fast with us exercising minimal faith.

Big guaranty with no failure formula.

We want to know up front that God is going to act according to what we think should happen. This eliminates the risk of faith that is needed. Trust.

Jackie Pullinger, "If we wait until we have enough, we will never give. But if we give what we have, we will not only have enough, but we wil have a surplus."

Are you getting it yet?

I’ve learned this lesson so well over the years, thinking that my prayers for people would only be effective when I feel a great anointing. So many times as I have stood in front of someone feeling like I have nothing to offer and then amazed that God showed up! It is not about me.

Let me tell you this story...Annette’s story. Annette’s child bearing stories have been frought with very tough prenancies, ovaries no longer operating, a thyroid disease, etc. God began to heal each one of these conditions. Still at this point she had just suffered two miscarriages and now was pregnant again with her hormone levels dropping. That meant miscarriage again. Annette grabbed me to pray for her. She came that night with a mustard seed of faith. As I stood in front of her, I felt like I had almost no faith. All I could think of was ’Oh, no, here we go again.’ So out of that I simply prayed what I felt would be the most perfect thing that God would want to do at this moment. I simply said, ’Father, let that baby implant wherever it is right now in Jesus name!’ As Annette tells the rest of the story, the next day she visited her doctor, found that the hormone levels were now climbing, very good numbers. A few weeks later, she found out that she had a condition called placenta previa and she had the worst possible kind. The placenta was comletely covering the cervix. The way the doctor described it was, ’That baby implanted on the way out!’ I immediately thought about that night of prayer and what Sandy said and I knew that I was right in the middle of a miracle. William Graham Nucaro was born at 29 weeks gestation. He had a few minor scrapes in the beginning but nothing that left him with any abnormalities. He is a healthy walking and talking 18 month old.

There was no big feeling of anointing, no big unction of God’s grace at the moment that I stood in front of Annette, no guarantee of this working. All I knew was that I stood in front of someone in desperate need of a touch from God, a miracle to save the life of this baby.

So as you stand in front of a person who needs God to break in upon them and you are asking God ’What might your perfect will look like for this person right now?’ Will you pray and trust Him to deliver the goods?

As Gary Best says . . .’If we are simply willing to try to see what God is doing and take the risk of reaching out to put our hands with His, anything can happen. A miracle is potentially within our reach at any moment. It doesn’t matter how we feel. It doesn’t matter how well or poorly we speak. It doesn’t matter how brilliantly we perform. If we happen to catch hold of what God is desiring to do, all heaven can break loose.’

PRAYER