God's Invitation Leads to a Crisis of Belief

"God-Sized Assignments

God wants the world to know Him. That way, people will come to understand what God is like when they see Him at work. They will know His nature when they see it expressed in His activity.

Some people believe God will never ask them to undertake anything that seems impossible. They believe God will never lead a church to attempt something they cannot afford, ask someone to do something outside their giftedness, or lead someone to do something they are afraid of doing. Yet if people are going to see God at work, they must witness more than just sincere Christians doing the work, they must witness more than just sincere Christians doing the best they can. People must see God at work in Christians' lives....

Scripture indicates that God will ask us to attempt things that are impossible apart from divine intervention. While some church leaders believe this is irresponsible, the fact is that when we accomplish things that can only be explained by God, we provide a powerful witness to God's presence and guidance. The God-sized assignments in the Bible are how He demonstrated His nature, strength, provision, and love to His people - and to a watching world. Those who witnessed God powerfully at work through His people saw what God is truly like.

Consider a few of these God-sized assignments. God told Abraham to father a nation when Abraham had no son, and Sarah was long past the age to bear children. He told Moses to deliver the children of Israel, to cross the Red Sea, and to provide water from a rock. He told Gideon to defeat a Midianite army of a hundred and twenty thousand with three hundred men. God told a virgin that she would give birth to the Messiah. Jesus told the disciples to feed the multitudes and to make disciples of all the nations. Not one of these things was humanly possible. But when God's people and the world see something happen that only God can do, they come to know God. ...

The Early Church

Christians in the early church followed the directions of the Holy Spirit, and here is the testimony of the impact God had on their world:

• The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in foreign languages they had not learned. Peter preached and "those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 people were added to them." (Acts 2:41)
• Peter and John healed a crippled beggar in the name of Jesus. They preached, and "many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of men came to about 5,000." (Acts 4:4)
• God used Peter to raise Dorcas from the dead. "This became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord." (Acts 9:42)

What our world often sees are devoted, committed Christians serving God to the best of their ability. But they are not seeing God. They comment, "Well there's a dedicated, faithful group of people." But they don't witness anything happening that can only be explained in terms of God's activity. Why? Because we aren't attempting anything that only God can do!

The World Comes To Know God

Our world is not attracted to Christ because we don't allow them to see Him at work. They don't hesitate to attack the Christian position on morality because they have no fear of the God we serve. They see us doing good thing for God and say, "That's fine, but that's not my thing." The world passes us by, not wanting to become involved because they are merely seeing people at work, not God.

Let the world see God at work, and He will attract them. Let Christ be lifted up - not in words, but in life. Let them see the difference the living Christ makes in a life, a family, or a church, and this will affect how they respond. When the world sees things happening through God's people that cannot be explained except that God Himself has done them, then people will be drawn to God. Let world leaders see the miraculous signs of an all-powerful God, and they, like Nebuchadnezzar, will declare that He is the one true God.

The world comes to know God when they see God's nature expressed through His activity. When God starts to work, He accomplishes something only He can do, and both God's people and the world come to experience Him in ways they have never known Him before. That is why God gives God-sized assignments to His people. ...

The reason much of the world is not attracted to Christ and His church is that God's people lack the faith to attempt things only God can do. If you or your church are not responding to God and pursuing things only He can accomplish, then you are not exercising faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). If people in your community are not responding to the gospel as they did in the New Testament times, one possible reason is that they do not see God in what you are doing as a church."

Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, and Claude King; "Experiencing God"