Spider ManWas Jesus like Spider Man?  Was He human one minute, changing into a superhero the next?? I used to struggle silently with these questions because it made no sense to me how Jesus could operate at such a miraculous level.  It seemed to me as though God gave Jesus an unfair advantage during his life on earth that I don’t have. I mean, how can I be expected to live like Jesus? I’m not the Son of God, right??

But here’s the truth that I have been wrapping my brain around for last number of years: Yes, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, but his favorite moniker was Son of Man.

Jesus was fully human every minute of his earthly life, whether laughing and walking with his disciples, or walking on water, or making a mud pack for a blind man’s eyes curing his blindness. He did everything as a man.  It’s a mystery to me how He could do this; but somehow He left his glory with the Father and took on human flesh. He chose to have to live as we do, reliant on the voice of the Holy Spirit to relay the will of the Father and empower Him for miracles.

As a result of that choice, we now have an example of what God’s glory shining in and through a person completely surrendered to Him looks like.

Just because it’s hard to imagine how he could live a perfect life as a man like us doesn’t make it untrue. Just because you’ve never walked on water doesn’t mean that Jesus used cheater powers to do that.  If Jesus did the miracles that he did using a power that we don’t have access to, then we could be impressed but unchanged and un-challenged.  But knowing that he completely shed his former glory while living as one of us on the earth, makes us accountable and challenged by the life he lived.

The truth is that Jesus had the same ‘super power’ that have access to – the Holy Spirit. The Bible records that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove.  The difference between the way Jesus hosted the presence of the Holy Spirit and the way we do as New Testament believers is that most of us don’t treat the Holy Spirit as Holy.  We treat the Holy Spirit more like a horoscope – something interesting to listen to now and then but not totally accurate and more of a suggestion than the Gospel truth.

In addition, Jesus was perfectly obedient.  The enemy had no hook in Jesus because he was perfectly obedient in hearing and doing all he heard the Father say.

I guarantee that if you and I committed ourselves to the level of obedience to and awareness of the Holy Spirit that Jesus walked in, we too would see the miracles, signs and wonders that accompanied him.  And furthermore, I believe that this world needs us to show up with that presence and power.  People are more deceived than they have ever been.  The world is actually hungrier for a spiritual answer than at any time in history. And the enemy is more than happy to offer “powerful” alternatives to the Truth.  So what evidence is the Church demonstrating that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life? It’s pretty much our word against theirs when it should be their word against God’s.

So what is the answer to this issue?

I believe that the more we meditate on the word of God and really pray to the Lord to remove the blinders from our eyes, He will do it.  He will begin to reveal to us who He created us to be and all that is available to us in the Spirit.  He will impart the hunger for His Presence that Jesus walked in day by day. Yes, it will cost us the pursuit of selfish ambitions and maybe even some relationships with people who don’t understand the importance of our decision. But in eternity, this life is going to be one drop in an ocean of never ending time where each decision we made to live for Christ will be the only things we can carry with us.

I believe that in these last days, there is a grace being poured out to reach up and touch God in a unique way.  He wants to reach the people around us more than we do and He will support us once “we” get out of the way and simply trust Him to be God in us. Church, can we commit to allowing God to be seen in us and through us?

Jesus isn’t spider Man and neither will we be.  We’re just simply us with the Holy Spirit inside – just like Jesus!

Now you:

  • Do you ever wonder where the miracles, signs and wonders of the Bible went?
  • Do you want to be used by God in unique and powerful ways?
  • Does that thought scare you? Do you start thinking – Wait, am I going to get super weird and freak people out if I surrender completely to God? Is God going to send me to the mission field and make me live as a poor homeless missionary out in some desert?

The answer is no – and yes. IF your purpose, the one that makes everything inside you jump up and down, is to go to some desert and reach people for Christ, then yes, that’s where He’ll send you.  And you’ll love every minute of being the ‘you’ that He created you to be uniquely.  A life surrendered to God isn’t one where everything we love to do becomes irrelevant and all of the experiences we have had get trashed. God created us to love what we love and be good at what we’re good at. He just wants us to be so filled with His Spirit that we walk as ‘us’ filled with His power, wisdom, knowledge, and love for people.

So don’t stress about surrendering your life to Jesus. Trust me, He makes you the ‘YOU’ you always wanted to be but could never create. Just like Jesus, you will still be fully you while being fully filled with God. I don’t completely understand how that works and I’m still striving for it myself!

Let’s pray:

Dear Heavenly Father, we need Your grace to want to do Your will and to be able to pursue it. Without Your grace and wisdom, we will never be able to be all that You created us to be. But with You, ALL things are possible, even those aspects of the life of Jesus that seem so miraculous and beyond our ability to conceive.  Lord, we’re asking You to take the blinders off of our eyes so that we can see You and ourselves through Your eyes and not through the limitations of what we’ve been taught or through our experience. You are far more than anything we have ever seen or heard, and You have a destiny for us that is more than we have imagined.  And in these last days, where the world is getting darker, You need us to rise up and shine as lights for You. Change us, O God. Create in us a heart that is completely yielded to You. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUce7T85GB0&w=560&h=315%5D