Doing great works like Jesus...

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:12-14

One of the points in the sermon on July 20, was that Jesus exercised great power, and promised that when he returned to the Father, his disciples would do even greater works. Between services, I was asked why it was that we do not see this in practice. I thought is was a great question and deserved special treatment in response.

I believe the answer lies primarily in the fourth chapter of James. The first reason we do not see great spiritual works is that we do not ask for them. James writes “you do not have, because you do not ask.” (verse 2b) So, why don’t we ask for God to do great works in our day? First, because we are very rich in material possessions. Even with tough times, we are rich beyond imagination compared to any other people in history. Therefore, we are quite content to rely on things we can see and pay for to take care of the needs that we perceive in our lives.

Second, we do not ask because we lack faith. While we will clearly acknowledge that God CAN do miracles, we lack the faith to believe that he is in the regular business of granting them on our behalf. Perhaps we have tried praying about certain things in the past, but God let us down. Thus, we lack the faith to boldly approach the throne of grace with our requests. We tend to think God has bigger things to worry about than our requests, and we forget that he is our loving dad who loves to take care of his children.

Third, we are afraid to ask. We have seen so much that passes for “supernatural” or “charismatic” that we are afraid we will open a big can of worms if we pray for things out of the ordinary. The problem here isn’t worrying that God won’t answer, but worrying that he WILL answer. I am skeptical of much that passes for faith healing and extraordinary works in our day and age. However, God clearly is able to do these things. Perhaps we need to worry less about what impression these requests may leave and simply pray with more boldness.

A second reason we don’t see these works today is contained in James 4:3. James goes on to say “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” So when we ask God for him to work on our behalf, we need to do it with a careful eye towards our motives and desires. Are we asking God to give us things that we have a tendency to value more than we value God? If so, we are asking him to enable our worship of idols. Are we asking for things that will make us look good and bring us personal glory? Then we are asking him to worship us!

In verse 6, James quotes Proverbs as he says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” God will not do great works through men and women who are competing with him for the glory. However, he is EAGER to do them through men and women who are humbly walking with Jesus and whose desire is to see Jesus get all the glory and honor and praise. So whose glory are YOU seeking?