21 January 2011
Read Luke 9:28-45
Luke 9:41
“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
The transfiguration episode and the failure of the disciples to drive out the evil spirit are supposed to go together.
The transfiguration is a mountain-top experience while their inability to cast out the demon is a rock-bottom encounter.
Many Bible teachers like to overemphasize the importance of not relying on experiences that the Christian life seems to be stuck at the mundane, ordinary and unexciting. I do not think so. I think if we walk close with God, we are in for the ride of our lives and we will encounter many dramatic, spectacular events with God. The intimacy with God in prayer, the revelation of His plan through Christian meditation and the daily unfolding of his plan in human history should not be dismissed as unimportant.
However, the mountaintop experience serves to prepare us for the down periods of our lives. Look at the disciples. After the transfiguration and the glory, they descend into the valley where failure in ministry causes Jesus to rebuke them.
God draws us close to Him and brings us to a spiritual high in order to prepare us to meet the lows and challenges of service. The spiritual highs are a reminder to us that we need God and to equip us for more and bigger ministry opportunities.
Look at Jesus. He understands that. The transfiguration is a glorious moment for him. It serves to remind and prepare him to go to the lowest valley of his life – the cross (Luke 9:44).
We must learn the discipline of balance – to neither despise the mountaintop nor the valleys of our lives.
We must also understand the way that God prepares and equips us for greater ministry in Him. He does so by assuring us of his love through the spiritual highs to enable us to walk through the valleys of brokenness in which fruitfulness in ministry will result.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”(John 14:12)
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"Many Bible teachers like to overemphasize the importance of not relying on experiences that the Christian life seems to be stuck at the mundane, ordinary and unexciting."
ReplyDeleteI think maybe everyone interprets the 'experiences' differently. If let's say you are a Christian but you are always seeking out miracles and dramatic loud signs from God, then you may be very well disappointed. (If this is how someone defines experience). But God does great things and we experience great things many times but do we marvel at them? Or do we just overlook and think: It's just another normal day.
Nicely said Danielle. God is speaking even when we think He is silent.
ReplyDeleteThe church likes to put an either/or kind of option to the Christian life. I came from an old school where the word is taught consistently and we were told subtly to dismiss and not expect any experiences of the supernatural. Then there is the other school where so much talk is about 'experiencing and seeing God' that everything is so subjective that the Word of God loses its 'authority' to check these experiences.
To have both experiences (loud and soft) and the Word as our reference and our anchor of faith is to grow spiritually.