It was no ordinary week by any stretch of the imagination. What began as a natural week of routine activity soon turned into a week of supernatural activity when the Lord showed up.
One thing is sure: we cannot limit God’s ability to intervene in our everyday lives and do unusual, impossible, supernatural things! If you think you have life figured out with the ducks neatly lined up and your days neatly ordered, I challenge you to invite the Lord into that neat box of predictability and see what happens.
I’m pretty sure Jesus Christ authored the whole concept of thinking outside the box. He indeed modeled an out-of-the-box lifestyle, and from that sprung His very supernatural life. Webster’s Dictionary defines supernatural as “of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe especially of or relating to God or a god, demigod, spirit, or devil.” Walking on water was supernatural. Making lame people walk was supernatural. So was healing lepers and blind people. Raising Lazarus from the dead did not fit into anyone’s box as the dead man walked out of his tomb.
We should expect the Lord to show up with signs, wonders, and miracles when we pray. We should welcome His nudging to step out in faith and pray for someone or take a flying leap of faith into a new venture. James 2:17 says, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. That’s an essential key to moving from natural to supernatural. Jesus constantly challenged His disciples to exercise faith by doing something—laying hands on someone who needed healing, calling a demon out of an oppressed person, dropping their fishing nets in waters that had yielded no fish.
The week started very much INSIDE the box of routine and predictability. In church on Sunday, two of my friends laid hands on me and prayed that my collarbone would heal. It was a stubborn break that was still painful and not fully healed after six months. My pastor friend felt the Lord was going to sovereignly “excise” something from me. He assured me I didn’t need to do one more thing; the Lord would supernaturally “excise” something spiritually. Hope sprung up inside of me!
That was Sunday. On Monday, my granddaughter suffered from intense abdominal pain when she came home from school and went to bed. I suggested we anoint her with oil, as James 5:14-15 instructs: Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. Within an hour, she was beaming. The pain was completely gone, and it did not return! Supernatural. Out-of-the-box. The God of the impossible was working.
Tuesday, I went to hear an enthusiastic, anointed evangelist speak. His message on prayer was riveting, and as he spoke, the Holy Spirit let me know that this man was a “long-distance runner” for God. The enemy intended him to be a sprinter in the Kingdom of God by giving him cystic fibrosis and a poor prognosis of a short life, but he was divinely healed as a child. Suddenly, in the spirit, I saw his shoes get very big—like clown shoes. What about those big shoes? I wondered. What could they possibly mean? The Lord impressed on me that his shoes were FULL of the gospel of peace. I recalled Ephesians 6:15, where Paul says, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The man’s love for and understanding of the Word pleased the Lord, and his “shoes” would get bigger. I was able to share the vision with him, plus my daughter had a meaningful prophetic word. He was blessed and encouraged. Our supernatural God did another out-of-the-box thing!
On Thursday evening, several of us prayed for a young woman to be delivered and set free from demonic oppression. She left that night with peace and joy she hadn’t felt for many years. The God of the impossible had met her and done an extraordinary, supernatural, out-of-the-box thing.
On Friday evening, I responded when the evangelist encouraged anyone with cancer issues to receive prayer and healing from the Lord. Hands were laid on me, and I believed the Lord was touching my collarbone—very likely the “excising” my pastor friend had spoken of on Sunday. The bone became very warm. I thanked Jesus and shared with the people that this was likely the final healing step. There was no more pain. On Saturday, I was doing things I’d been unable to do without causing pain. Life was entirely out of the box for me.
At a ladies' Bible study on Saturday, I had the opportunity to pray for a young woman as several of us joined together and asked the Lord to comfort, lead, and guide her through a troubling time. We encouraged her to trust Jesus with her concerns, and we could see her spirit lift. There was the God of the impossible again! Jesus was doing yet another supernatural thing! What a week!
All of us who know the living Savior are called to jump from a natural existence to a supernatural one, expecting the Lord to do impossible things, just as recorded in the Bible. Jesus is a here-and-now God, ready, willing, and able to meet us when we take even the smallest step of faith.
Supernatural: relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe especially of or relating to God. Why not invite the God of the impossible into your box and see what happens?
© 2023, Chris Werre