Powered by Faith // How to Live an Extraordinary Life, Pt 19

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Most times when we run into difficult issues in our lives, we try to overcome them in our own strength – or perhaps with the help of a friend. But what do we do when we run into difficulties, obstacles, problems that are way beyond human strength? Then what?

It’s great to be with you again today, almost the end of the week; getting there, not quite but almost. I don’t know how you feel towards the end of the week but as much as I love doing what I do I really do look forward to a rest over the weekend. I work long and hard during the week and I love to rest at the end of the week. Okay, not everyone’s life follows that cadence and mine hasn’t always either, but at some point we need a rest. Doing life drains us. The thing that energises me during the week isn’t just living life; it isn’t the fact that I really, really enjoy what I’m doing, it’s more the fact that I don’t have to go it alone.

Today on the program we’re looking at what it means to live an extraordinary life. This is message number 19 in a series of 20 on that very subject. I’m not sure where the time’s flown, but it has. It’s flown past rather quickly, and today’s chat is all about power. The power to make things happen, the power to go on, the power to crash through brick walls when we don’t have what it takes to crash through the brick wall, and the power it takes to make sacrifices in our lives.

In your life, let me ask you, where do you get that power, do you have that sort of power? Well me neither. Well, that’s not quite true. In and of myself I don’t have that sort of power, but when from time to time things get beyond me I know where to go and get it. Sound interesting? Let’s take a look.

In this razzamatazz kind of world we live in, we’re supposed to have our own power. We’re supposed to be strong, self-sufficient. We’re supposed to be quick, smart, clever and all that stuff. That’s the theory but I guess in part I agree with that. We should grow, we should mature, we should use the strengths and gifts that we’ve been given. But I don’t care, even if your name is Hercules, there are going to be times when the job before us is going to be way, way, way beyond us. So when you’re in that place where do you get the power – the power to live an absolutely extraordinary life?

Well let’s take a look. The question is, what are you powered by? Here is what Jesus had to say on the subject because in our journey of discovery of how to live an extraordinary life over these past few weeks, we’ve been following Him around through the account of His life in the gospel of Matthew in the New Testament to discover how it is that Jesus lived His extraordinary life. Here’s what Jesus had to say about power and where to get it. Matthew Chapter 8 and beginning at verse 5:

When Jesus entered Capernaum a Centurion came to Him saying, ‘Lord my servant is lying paralysed in terrible distress at home’. And Jesus said to him, ‘I’ll come and cure him’. But the Centurion answered, ‘Lord I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof but just speak the word and my servant will be healed for I also am a man under authority with soldiers under me.

I say to one ‘Go’ and he goes and to another ‘Come’ and he comes and to my slave I say ‘Do this’ and the slave does it.’ When Jesus heard him He was amazed and He said to all those who followed Him, ‘Truly I tell in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

I tell you many will come from the east and the west and they will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven while the heirs of the Kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And to the Centurion Jesus said, ‘Go, let it be done to you according to your faith’. And the servant was healed in that very hour.

Now, here was the Centurion, not one of God’s chosen people mind you, but a Roman soldier of the Italian Cohort. He was faced with a problem that was way, way, way beyond him. His servant was very sick and obviously this servant meant a lot to him. So what do you do? There were no fancy emergency clinics back in those days; none of the advances in medicine that we take for granted today. Yet he’d heard about this miracle man, Jesus, and in his simple mind he decided that Jesus must have the power, but how to lay hold of that power? Well, I’ll get up I’ll go and see him. With a bit of luck, being a Centurion I’ll get through the crowds and I’ll get to ask Him for help. But how does the Centurion ask? Let’s take another look:

'Lord I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof but just speak the word and my servant will be healed for I also am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I say to one ‘Go’ and he goes and to another ‘Come’ and he comes and to my slave I say ‘Do this’ and the slave does it’.

The Centurion sets out the simple soldier’s logic of his faith in Jesus. He explains his reason for putting his trust in Jesus and Jesus is totally blown away by this guy’s faith. The moment this faith is expressed it releases the power of God. The Centurion, in and of himself didn’t have the power to heal the servant but he knew where to go and get the power by placing his trust, his faith in Jesus.

Is that it? Is that the end of the story? Not really. Of course the Centurion received what he asked for my faith, but interestingly Jesus also received what He asked for by faith. See, it seems that Jesus actually practiced what He preached which is quite a nice change when you think about it. Matthew Chapter 8 verse 23:

When Jesus got into the boat His disciples followed Him but a wind storm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but He was asleep. But when they woke Him up saying, ‘Save us, we’re perishing!’ and He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith!’ And He got up, He rebuked the winds and the sea and there was dead calm. They were amazed saying, ‘What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’

Well, I’ll tell you what sort of man He was. He was a man of faith. He rebuked the Disciples for their lack of faith and then in faith He stilled the storm. Remember, Jesus had laid all His power aside to become a man. Yes, Jesus was and is the Son of God but He was also the Son of Man. He had, in and of Himself exactly the same amount of power that you and I do. What He relied on to do the extraordinary things He did was God’s power by faith. And as a result He was able to still the storm; He was able to feed the 5000, to heal the sick, to raise the dead – by faith.

Now I try my hardest in life, I marshal all my abilities and strengths whenever I’m facing something. I figure I should be able to do things that I’m capable of doing but there are plenty of times that I’m called to do things that are beyond me. I sat preparing this message at the airport to Dubai on my way from Delhi to Nairobi. I’d just been to India to grow the reach and the impact of these messages on radio there and now I was heading off to Africa to do the same. I can’t tell you how often on these trips I look around and think to myself, ‘who do I think am? What am I doing here, for crying out loud? I can’t make a difference in all these foreign places.’

And then I remember the Centurion and his simple logic. To him it was patently obvious that Jesus could do what he asked. Then I remember Jesus who by faith stilled the storm through the power of God Himself. It wasn’t complicated for either of them, not for the Centurion, not for Christ. Faith is faith – simple sweet and pure. And it’s that child-like faith that lays hold of the awesome power of God to do the extraordinary things in this world, the things that are way beyond our power, way beyond the natural, and the supernatural.

Looking for power to lead an extraordinary life? Well, I can tell you where to find it.