The final and most important aspect of God doing something new in you, of God doing something new in this place is simply this – God just has to show up!
And let me share this with you, when God shows up – all bets are off, all possibilities are open, and what was just a few seconds ago impossible is now possible just because God showed up.
In fact if you spend anytime in the Bible, if you were to just open up a bible and flip through some pages – I guarantee you would find a story where something was impossible, where the was no way, were there was no chance – all of a sudden God showed up and everything changed!
That’s the story that God wrote time and time again in the scriptures, and that’s just the kind of story that God longs to write in you and me!
Ok, so that’s where we are going today. I want to get there through a really fascinating article I read this week.
There was this study done by a guy named Al Seckel. Al was curious about how the brain processed images. And so he had an outlined picture of what you and I and any other adult would see as a man and woman hugging.
But what was really interesting, was when he showed this image to children under 10 years of age, what they saw was radically different – they saw the shape of 9 dolphins. Both images were there, the test was to determine which one each group would see first.
The argument was this, because the children didn’t have a prior memory to associate with the picture of the loving embrace they couldn’t see it.
To say that a little clearer, “you can’t see what you don’t know.”
To say that in a different way, ”the more we know of something the better we can see it.“
So, if I were going to apply this to our series on the new thing God wants to do in us – I would do it one sentence, “God is in the business of expanding our possibilities!”
And there is a great example of this in Acts chapter 2.
ACTS 2:1-4
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tonguest as the Spirit enabled them.
So God shows up, and all of a sudden the disciples can speak in multiple different language at once.
But what was even more spectacular was that not only could they hear what was being said in their own language, but the crowd began to look around and notice that people who didn’t speak the language they spoke – could hear in their own native language!
So here is one guy speaking in 6 – 8 – 10 – 20 different languages all at the same time!
See God shows up and all of a sudden what was impossible is possible. God shows up and all bets are off. God shows up and there is simply no telling what could happen next.
I read a story like this, and I’m usually intrigued as much by what wasn’t as what was said.
What that means is that all those people outside who were in their own little conversations, in their own languages – all of a sudden starting looking up at the place where the disciples were staying because they could hear their own language being spoken there.
I read a story like this, and I’m usually intrigued as much by what wasn’t as what was said.
For instance, when Peter woke up that morning and was having his “Honey Nut Cheerio’s”, he had no idea that God was going to use him that way; and that by the time he went to bed that night 3,000 more people would know the grace and love of God!
And part of what I want you to take away today is this -
I bet Peter’s “Honey Nut Cheerio’s” never tasted the same after that! I bet peter woke up every morning wondering what amazing thing God could do that day.
See, God had expanded Peter’s possibilities! Because, what was once impossible was all of a sudden possible, what once wasn’t even conceivable now had already been done, and from that day on all bets were off, and nothing was impossible with God.
You can also listen in here.
