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A Transcending Atmosphere
Brian Mashburn
December 2, 2007
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A Transcending Atmosphere
When Moses lifts his staff by the Red Sea, what do you expect to happen? When Elisha soaks a sacrifice for burnt offering with water and then prays, what do you expect to happen? When Gideon goes against a countless army with 300 men armed with torches and horns, what do you expect to happen? When an engaged woman is found pregnant before she is married and her fiancé is not the dad, what do you expect to happen? When a group of Galileans distribute a sack lunch out to a hungry crowd of thousands, what do you expect to happen? When a man is crucified on a cross and then buried in a tomb, what do you expect to happen?
And how about in your own life, disciple? When you go about doing something for God, what do you expect to happen?
It all depends on who you believe is at work. If Moses was at work, then expect him to drop his staff as the Egyptian army runs him and his followers down. If Elisha was at work, then expect him to be killed as his burnt offering sits untouched in a puddle. If Gideon was at work, then expect a bloodbath of his under-equipped soldiers. If the engaged woman was at work, then expect she and her illegitimate child to be abandoned by her fiancé and never heard of again. If a group of Galileans are at work, then expect the hungry crowd to still be hungry.
And if mere man is at work, then what happens after a man is crucified and buried is...nothing.
But if God is at work...if it all is, indeed, God's work...then you should expect something more.
When you go to work creating an atmosphere of life for people - that is, an accepting, challenging, accompanying, teaching, modeling, inviting, guiding, freeing, remembering, celebrating atmosphere - what do you expect to happen?
If it's your work, then don't expect much. But if it is God's work, get ready to watch the water part, the fire come down, the evil army defeated, God born into the world, the hungry fed, and resurrection from the grave. Get ready. Get ready to see, right before your eyes, right in the heart of the people you are providing this atmosphere for...life.
There's more going on here than what you are doing.