Does God move according to our perception of Him?
[ Preached by Pastor Kenneth Chin at Acts Church Malaysia on 21 May 2017 ]
We know God is not limited by man’s limitations. He is all-seeing, all-doing and all-mighty! However, can our perception of Him influence His ability to work in our lives?
1. Jesus perceived as a common carpenter
Read | Mark 6:1-6
Jesus returned to Nazareth, the place where He was raised. After performing mighty miracles across Israel, Jesus could do no remarkable work in His hometown.
The villagers could not see Jesus as an honourable prophet. They saw Him simply as a village boy and a carpenter. This faithless perception created a barrier for amazing miracles they would have been able to experience.
2. Jesus perceived to redeem Israel
Read | Luke 24:13-32
Two of Jesus’ disciples were walking to Emmaus, talking about past events that had transpired. Jesus, who they thought would be made king and ascend to the throne of Jerusalem, was crucified instead.
When Jesus came up and joined them, they failed to recognise Him. Downcast, they were overwhelmed by their perception about the situation. But as Jesus shared the Word with them, something stirred within their hearts.
When they approached the village, they insisted Jesus to stay with them for the night. Thank God they did that! As they broke bread with Christ Himself, “their eyes were opened and they recognised Him”.
As we seek God and His ways, we will be able to perceive the things of God and a fire will spring from within us. If we stay foolish and slow to believe, we might go our way, never to break bread with God, and never to realise His truth and promises in our lives.
3. Jesus perceived as a powerful miracle worker
Read | Matthew 8: 5-13
If we are to examine the faith of the centurion, he clarified his perspective about Jesus when he said the words “I also am a man under authority”.
The centurion knew that Jesus had awesome power within Him, able to command illnesses to “go” and miracles to “come”. This described faith, and our expectation follows from our faith.
Our perception determines our expectation, which determines our reception.
The servant was healed, because of the centurion’s great faith which invited God to weave miracles into his life.
4. Jesus perceived as a common Jew
Finally, the woman at the well. Jesus had came all the way to meet the Samaritan woman, but was received coldly by her. He then began to change the woman’s perception about him, but she stuck to her old and familiar way of tradition.
When she finally realised who Jesus was, her perception shifted and by her testimony, she brought an entire town to the faith.
Does this not show us that we have mastery over our perception, and that it can either invite or lock out God’s blessings in our lives?
Make no mistake, God is always ready to move. But first, He wants us to enter the mindset of expectation, devoid of “ifs” and “buts”. He invites us to change our perspective.
He is a gentlemen,
He does not move with force
if our spirit is unwilling.
It is to every benefit of the enemy that we stay boxed up in our false perceptions about God, that our thoughts towards Him stay narrow, blurred and cause unfruitfulness in our lives.
But when our eyes are open, when we learn to be expectant and to see God the way He intends us to, we are inviting Him to enter our lives and radically transform us for greater things.
Written By: Writer’s Ink
Edited By: Ivy Wambaa & Hailey Chung
