Do you need God to do the impossible?

We held each other one last time before heading to the airport. And between tickles and giggles under the covers, we felt the weight of one thought: we need God to do the impossible. Our life, quite literally, hangs in the balance if He doesn’t.

By the time this posts, my husband will have officially begun working in New York City so that ultimately, we can do the impossible and start a church in the city that scares me. A church with no budget and no team (yet.) …and located in one of the most expensive cities in the nation. And all Because God told us to.

I’ve always prided myself in being a level-headed, logical woman, but its obvious all logic has been thrown out the window in the name of Jesus at this point. And I’d been lying if I said the weight of what God is asking us to do doesn’t wash over me so intensely sometimes, that it nearly takes my breath away.

Maybe you can relate. Maybe as you are reading you too, are up against the impossible and currently living a life with no back up plans and no guard rails — A terrifying combination.

If that’s you today, I want to challenge you to do one thing; one thing that will sound as simple, as it will feel impossible…

…Today God told me to tell you, He wants you to take Him at His word.

There’s a story of a man in the Bible who like us, needed Jesus to do the impossible — to heal his son who was on the brink of death. What Jesus told him was simple, but the man’s response was surprising. And it’s challenged me for weeks now.

John 4:49-51 says, [The man] wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.”Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.” The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home.

Don’t miss this: the man took Jesus at His bare word — there were no miracles (yet), no provision clearly on it’s way, and no proof that Jesus’ promise would ever be fulfilled.

All he had was a bare word from Jesus… And that’s all it took for Him to believe.

(If only that’s all it took for us to believe, am I right?)

I don’t know what has you on the brink of tears today, or what you’re urgently begging Jesus for right now. More than that, I don’t know the reason you have given up believing God will do what He promised. (Maybe the bigger question you are faced with is, how could He?)

But this week, Jesus is asking us to let His bare word collide with our unanswered questions, and He’s inviting us to lean into the power of His promises instead of being crushed under the weight of our greatest fears.

Here are three things God is asking us to do – right now – while we wait for Him to do the impossible:

1. Don’t give up

The man in the passage refused to be put off, and so should we. We must keep begging Jesus for the miracle until we receive it. Isaiah 62:7 says to, “…pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, you who pray to the Lord, Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work.” #GameOnGod

2. Act expectant

If we knew the breakthrough we’ve been begging for was right around the corner, how would it change the way we act today? Would it impact how we wake up and greet a new day, or the thoughts we replay over and over in our head?

Understand, that faith is acting out in expectancy what God has promised us He is going to do. — Think of Noah building the ark before he had ever seen rain, or the man in the passage above believing what Jesus said so much that He went home in expectancy to check on his ailing son.

What would it look like for us to act expectantly today, in what God has promised He will do in the future? Our expectance could unleash the miracle.

3. Get excited

At the end of the story, the man returns home to find that the impossible had been done  — his son was healed! Not only that, but he learned that the very moment Jesus said the words “your son lives” is when the fever broke. Understand, the same is true for us. At the end of this seemingly impossible narrative we’re currently living out, I think we’ll find two things to be true: 1.) that God did the miracle He promised 2.) that the very moment God said He would do it, it had already been done.

Though we may not see it right now, in this very moment God is working behind the scenes to make the impossible happen, He is setting the stage for the miracle to unfold, and for the provision we need to unleash.

“Do you believe Me?” God is asking you and me, “Then go ahead… get excited. Act expectant. And don’t you dare give up until the miracle you are believing for comes to fruition…”

And today, I’m taking Him up on all three. How about you?

// 52 weeks to write, 44 more to go. 44!!! Only 44! Wait. Holy crap, that’s a ton…//