The Stuff

When John Wimber, a church leader from years ago, first became a Christian, he read the book of Acts and asked his church leaders " When do we get to do the stuff?".

The same question applies now.

Any group of people can love and care for each other. They can have a sense of community, they can even be sacrificial in their love for each other. Any group of people can organise meetings and accept those who aren't acceptable in society. Anyone can have good values and morals. Anyone can do good acts and set up charities to help others. Anyone can play and sing uplifting music. So what makes the church any different?

'The stuff'. That's what.

Moses, before he took the Israelites out of Egypt, met with God and pleaded with him. "Don't send us unless your presence goes with us. How will the people know we are any different if you're not with us?"

He wanted to do 'the stuff' too. Like John Wimber, he knew that if God wasn't with him powerfully and in a real way, then there was no point to what he was doing.

When we, as the church, are seeking God and asking for His presence to be with us, we'll get to do 'the stuff' too. When we realise that nothing and nobody else satisfies us in the same way as Jesus, we'll put aside all our differences and focus on the important things. We'll see people healed. We'll see miracles. We'll see lives transformed. We'll see amazing provision. We'll sense the awesome-ness of God and we will be changed by it. We will have an unquenchable thirst and passion for Jesus which will be contagious. Far from being boring and irrelevant anymore, church will be the most exciting group of people on the planet. People will see how incredible and amazing God is, and they'll want to know Him and do 'the stuff' too.

The question is, are we happy with the status quo now or do we want to do 'the stuff' too? How much are we willing to step out and take some steps of faith? How desperate are we for God to be with us? How hungry are we for God? Or are we quite satisfied with what we have?

There is so much more. I want to see it. Do you?