Skip to content
We Are Weirdos to the World

We Are Weirdos to the World

There will be times when the Holy Spirit moves on you in ways that seem strange or abnormal to other people. However, the Spirit’s activity is usually displayed in more usual ways as we go about our daily affairs—promptings to do this, to go there, to make a certain adjustment, or to contact a certain person. Sometimes, we use the paradoxical phrase naturally supernatural to characterize such events.

Look, when you’re operating in the Spirit and the supernatural, you have to get over any concerns about how weird you may look to the world. Pride is a surefire way to block the Spirit’s flow. You’re always going to rub against the grain of the natural realm if you’re operating in the spiritual realm. At the same time, it’s not necessary to develop super strange methodologies and practices in order to release the supernatural. Doing that is what gives Charismatics a bad name. Remember, it’s not the manifestation that taps into the Spirit; it is the Spirit that produces the manifestation.

You can operate in the Spirit yet be yourself. All you have to do is let the Spirit flow through you according to your personality and gift mix. The Spirit knows what you need to do to release your faith. Operating in the Spirit is about how you, as a vessel filled with God, can release the power of His kingdom onto the scene. When you do, people will notice. Because people were being miraculously healed in the days of the twelve apostles, the locals “brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also, a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed” (Acts 5:15–16).

All were healed. Of course, we understand that it is God who heals. But be careful not to adopt a mindset that says, “I am only a vessel of the Spirit. If I’m fortunate enough, He may use me. I don’t really matter or have a part in what God is doing.” That is not true humility; it is false humility, and it will rob you of your authority.

Jesus plainly said, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8). He told His disciples to heal the sick. He didn’t tell them to stop, pray, and check to see whether there was enough power in the Spirit to make it happen. Again, we know healing is the power of the Holy Spirit within us and the power of the Spirit upon the person for whom we pray. But Jesus gave us the authority to pray for a release of His power. It is a partnership. You are more than just a vessel. Adopt the mindset of carrying the miracle or being the miracle. Be the prophecy. Be the healer. Jesus the healer lives inside you. Own it.

Consider the examples of the apostles. They didn’t walk up to sick people, hit the pause button before praying, and take them through the rigmarole of learning how to be humble and how to maintain a correct religious posture. They didn’t try to qualify their actions. That’s not what Jesus modeled to them, and it certainly wasn’t what they modeled to other people. The apostles prayed for people. Their prayers were short and hot, as Jesus’ prayers had been. They simply said, “Be healed!”

Their prayers resulted not only in sicknesses being healed but also in calamities being averted. When Jesus was still with His disciples, “a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:37–39).

Jesus’ prayer in the boat was another short but effective prayer and another example of the spiritual realm influencing and altering the natural realm. We are really supernatural beings who live in physical bodies. We are equipped by the Holy Spirit to live and walk in the same miraculous power that Jesus and His apostles did.

To learn more about Mike Thompson’s new book, The Lion’s Army, visit MyCharismaShop.com

Previous article The Emergence of the New Christian Era
Next article The God of the Old Testament = The God of the New Testament