BY GREG CRUM
“So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.” Mark 16:19-20
The last two verses of the Gospel of Mark that we read here remind me of how much God desires to show up and show off for His creation known as man. God desires us to experience a relationship with Him, not just for us to know of Him intellectually. It seems that many modern Christians have followed the path of religion and confined God to the box of their minds. Their faith has become mental ascent.
Mental ascent? What am I talking about? One definition of “mental ascent” is the intellectual agreement or acceptance of certain beliefs and propositions without necessarily allowing them to influence one’s actions in life. It’s the state of acknowledging something as “true” but not fully committing to those truths in meaningful and transformative ways. Sounds like some people’s “walk” with the Lord, right? Friends, our faith is designed by God to be living, to be transformative. It was crafted to progressively and continually change us in every way for the better. But for this to occur, our faith must be experiential, not just intellectual.
Let me ask you this: Do you know God, or do you just know of God? There’s a huge difference that the preposition “of” makes. It’s wonderful to have Bible knowledge, but the devil has that, right? I can’t count the times I’ve cringed listening to modern doctors of theology speak of their knowledge of God, knowing by what they were saying that they didn’t really personally know God any more than they personally knew Abraham Lincoln. They just had some facts about God that they (usually) twisted to fit their worldview. Now, that’s them, but what about us? How much of what we have heard about God, or know of Him, have we personally experienced?
From the onset of the “Great Commission” recorded in Mark 16, God has desired to demonstrate the truths we have heard. He has desired to confirm those spoken truths by miraculous demonstrations of His grace and power. The earliest believers in Jesus understood this. They expected this, and God was able to work with them to accomplish His will in this planet. How about us? Do we still believe as the early church? Do we expect God to confirm the words we relay from Him?
Brothers and sisters, God still desires to confirm His Word today! It’s needed now as much as it ever was. Now, think about that word “confirm” for a moment and its implications in the context of what was being described in Mark 16:20. God wants to “bring about, generate or effect” what He has spoken to us from the Holy Scriptures. He wants to “establish” and “to cause to become regular or usual” His promises of the Word. Our Lord desires “to introduce and put into force” His Word in our day just as He was able to do in the days of the early Christian church. God desires the miraculous, the supernatural, to become the norm in our times together. Why? To put into force His will and ways in these last few days we have here on this version of Earth!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.