one sure way to lose friends (and gain new ones)

For years, our lives and ministry wasn't characterized by much power. Theoretically, I always believed in God's power but didn't see much. About 8 years ago I got provoked. I saw something; I saw power demonstrated that I knew I didn't have. It wasn't a healing or a demon being cast out either - it was prophetic power. I saw for the first time the gift of prophecy under a powerful anointing function. It was absolutely stunning. I could have dismissed it, I could have tried to theologically explain it away (or at least reason it was merely a 'sovereign anomoly' and not to be expected as normal).

Well that was then and almost 8 years later a Christianity with power has become what we expect today as normal. When we don't see regular miracles today, we think something is wrong.

We try to blog the things God is doing, but in addition from time to time I send out a more personalized email update to a group of friends (and/or acquaintances) who through the years have expressed a desire to know more about the things God is doing in the Middle East amongst muslims.

Why do I mention this? Because each time I send out an email update, I get at least one or two people who write back and ask to kindly be taken off our emailing list. For years, we saw little or no miracles happening and no one every asked to be taken off the list - but in the past few years, since our ministry has begun to see supernatural things, people no longer want to hear.

I know we all get lots of junk email and I don't fault people who simply don't want to receive more emails that they aren't reading. I just find it ironic that for years our ministry really looked nothing like the type of ministry that we read about in the pages of the Gospels and the New Testament and people never seemed to want to be taken off the mailing list. As our ministry began to resemble more and more the ministry of Jesus (admitting that we still a long way from anything resembling His life and ministry), people ask us to stop sending the reports.

As sad as this is, I can say that for every friend we have lost moving in this direction, we have gained even more. For every Church that no longer wants to associate with us, we have gained a couple of others that do.

Miracles always have had this effect upon people (they sure did in Jesus' life - He wouldn't have been crucified if he had simply stuck to his teaching ministry). Supernatural occurrences have always either repelled people or drawn them - rarely do people remain neutral.