Welcome The Impossible

Luke 1:37 (ESV) “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

The third relapse of our son’s cancer showed its character. It was ruthless and aggressive. Spreading throughout his body, the image lit up like a Christmas tree. The battle had turned into a war. According to medical science, it was a losing battle at that. If the progression of the disease could be slowed, there might be a chance of saving him. Three treatments into his third round of chemotherapy, the initial shock of such a devastating diagnosis had eased and now the rhythm of routine kept us moving along. The doctor came to discuss the plans. Her voice hushed as not to disturb others with the harsh reality of his disease through thin curtains which offered no privacy. It was time to do another scan. She needed to prepare me. The goal was to see if this treatment had stopped the rapid growth. Since it was his third round of chemo, it was important that if it wasn’t working than it needed to be stopped as not to risk organ damage. I understood every word she spoke. Who wouldn’t? She was not condescending but clear and evident as not wanting to instill anything false or misleading. She was firm that there would be disease and that was to be expected. A positive result would be no further growth and that the treatment was working. I became a bit indignant at this point. Let’s be real. I am a Christian. I am a believer. I respect doctors and their professional opinion. But I would not lower my expectation to a human level to give her confidence. I pressed. I wanted to know what would happy if the cancer was leaving his body. She redirected me to the reasonable result which was to stop progression. Less cancer, though it would be awesome was highly unlikely. No, that’s not good enough. So I pressed a little further. “But what if it is gone?” She began to retrace her steps because clearly I did not understand the gravity of our conversation at all. So I asked her again, “What if it is gone?” She held my hand looking me straight in the eye as if to deliver devastating news and whispered, “We are in the realm of hope now.” I pushed a little more. “Good! What if the cancer is gone?” She finally said it, “It is impossible!” My soul celebrated as the Spirit of God danced within me.

The seven words of Luke 1:37 will change your life forever. If at some point, faith takes hold of them. Chews them up, digests them and allowing them to feed our soul and revive our spirit. Nothing is impossible for God. When something is labeled “impossible” – it is the Goliath challenge to the David within us. It is a decree of the enemy drawn like a line in the sand daring God to come any closer. God loves such talk. It is usually the point in time when people turn to Him and come running. Trying everything humanly possible seeking the God of the impossible.

Mark 10:27 (ESV) Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

The word “impossible” means incapable of being or occurring. It is also the feeling that something is incapable of being done, attained, fulfilled, and insuperably difficult. “Insuperably” means incapable of being surmounted, overcome, passed over or solved. The word “nothing” means not anything, no thing and not any part. We must get to the granular meaning of this verse to apply it to everyday life. I have seen God do the miraculous many times now over the course of time. It has always begun with an impossible situation. When it becomes impossible for man, God steps in to show His Power and release His Glory by making the impossible suddenly possible. You must only have faith. It seems so small written in words. In reality true faith really is that small equated only to a mustard seed. You don’t have to have a massive quantity just one small seed to plant firmly in the realm of hope will produce a miracle.

Matthew 17:20 (ESV) He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

A man brought his son to Jesus. Kneeling before the Lord, he shared of his first visit to the disciples who could not heal him. Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy and he was healed instantly. The disciples came to Jesus. What went wrong? Why couldn’t we heal him? Jesus replied, “Because of your little faith…” The disciples of Jesus obviously believed that He was the Messiah. They had a working knowledge of Jesus and an ongoing relationship with Him yet the Power of God was still elusive. Pause here. Is this you today? Are you following Jesus? Studying His Word? Seeking His Face? Filled with His Spirit? Desirous of His Power? And nothing… We must have faith. Real faith. Seed-like faith. Every seed must be planted to grow. Carrying them in your pocket will do nothing. They must go in the ground. Dying to their present form giving way to the purpose inside them until they prosper into the secret promise within. Our faith must be real and tangible. We must learn to invest our faith in everyday life and all situations rather than keeping it tucked away for days of devastation or desperation. A mustard seed was familiar to the disciples. They could grasp the concept of a seed being planted in the ground. But would they do it? Would they invest in the realm of hope? Would they welcome the impossible?

Hebrews 11:6 (ESV) And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith is more than a word – it is an action. It holds substance. It produces something in our life that is required to experience the rich and satisfying life promised by Jesus. I can promise you this if just one impossible becomes possible no one will ever convince you differently. The doctor and her team are wonderful. I consider all of them friends. I trust their care and concern for our son emphatically in the natural. However, natural medicine was not enough to heal him. He needed an impossible God to make it possible. I know the doctor left our conversation that day with the feeling that she had done her best to warn me before the next scan. She didn’t want me to be disappointed or devastated when there was still so much disease in his body. The only reason this tough lady did not give in was because she thought I was dug into denial. Well… she called me three days later. When I answered the phone, she was already laughing. Her first words, “Well, I should’ve known – the cancer is gone.”

What does impossible look like to you? Don’t let it be a stopping point. Let it be your starting point. The place where you lay down your expectations in every other means and place your expectation solely in Jesus. It is hard. I had to be pressed down, shaken altogether and life completely undone to see the greatest gift I have is faith. Faith that can be invested in the realm of hope and produce miraculous results. It comes at the end of self which is a harrowing and brutal journey but well worth it. Nothing is impossible for the Lord. Nothing. What is humanly impossible is God possible because Jesus lives in you and has given you a measure of faith to invest in His Kingdom. To produce His Glory in our life the impossible must become possible by faith to Him who believes. Faith without works is dead. The work of faith is sowing it into God completely. You have everything you need right now for a miracle. It’s time to welcome the impossible, my friend.

Attempt something so impossible that unless God is in it, it’s doomed to failure. – John Haggai

And When They Were Alone

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“And When They Were Alone”
By C.W. Ruth

If you would confide in a friend and really open up your heart, you wait until such a time as your friend can take time to come apart and be alone with you. So they who would know the secret and hidden things of God and have Him “expound all things,” must find time to be alone with Him. Such is the philosophy of love; while there may be the throbbing heart, and some expressions of affection in the presence of the multitudes, the hour of true bliss is when the doors are closed and the curtains drawn. It is there that love finds her opportunity for expression, and the confiding heart gives forth its secrets. The intensity of love demands the secret interview and longs for an opportunity of being alone with the object of its love. We read of “the secret place of the Most High” (Ps. 91:1), and “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him” (Ps. 25:14). So we can see plainly the Lord has secrets and a secret place for His children. How beautiful it is to feel and know that one is permitted to come into “the secret place of the Most High.” Visitors and strangers come into reception halls and parlors, but only they who are in most intimate relations known to be tried and true can come into the secret places. What is the meaning of a secret place, but the shutting out of all that might intrude or detract; to be left alone with the object of its love? Again we say, the deepest expressions of mutual affection, confidence and pleasure are not in public assemblies, in hurried greetings and mere social relations, but in the “secret place,” alone and unobserved.

It is exactly so in our relations to Jesus. Men and women who fail to take time to be much “alone” in the “secret place” with Jesus, are never deeply spiritual and are compelled to get their news concerning the kingdom second-hand. They know simply what the preacher or some one else tells them; they are ever running after men -the newest preacher and the latest evangelist- to get some more news, second-hand, concerning the King’s business. But they who have learned the “secret” of being much alone with Him in the secret Place, get the secrets of the Lord directly from the King himself and so are not dependent on the newspapers for the latest news. No amount of religious activities or service can make up for the lack of secret communion and fellowship with God. Joseph and Mary had been engaged in the worship and service of the Temple when they lost Jesus, and traveled a whole day’s journey “supposing Him to have been in the company” before they discovered they had lost Him. One may become so absorbed with religious work and duties, so hurried and preoccupied that there is no time for secret prayer, and being alone with Him and the Word, and become lean in soul and backslide while thus engaged in the work of the “Temple”.

The Man Who Lent Christ the Upper Room

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The Man Who Lent Christ the Upper Room.
By Andrew Bonar

Matth. 26: 17-19

THE disciples did not go to look for a room till they had consulted with their Lord. Never do anything without asking counsel of your Master. But why did they need to do this? It was Christ’s way to wait till He was asked, and you know it is His way still. ‘I will for this be inquired of.’

Do you not feel a sort of envy of those who were permitted to do anything for Christ? Do you not envy Peter who lent Christ his boat? And do you not envy this man who was able to lend Him his upper room? There are many things we can lend Christ now though He is not with us.

Here comes to light a secret friend, as if to counter balance the secret foe, Judas. This man loved Christ, for the name ‘Master’ (‘didaskalos’) works on him like a talisman. Notice–

I. This man’s reverence for ordinances.–He had got ready a fine, large airy room to lend to worshippers who came up at this Feast. He had set couches ready for the guests– ‘furnished’–for they were not as those in old time coming out of bondage, staff in hand. They are sons in freedom. The Lord chose the room for its airiness and comfort, for He never wants us needlessly to do penance. It was large–for He knew what was to be transacted in that upper room another day.

II. This man’s love for Christ.–There was no more needed than to say, ‘The Master saith.’ Scribes and Pharisees would not speak of Him thus, but friends did. A hint was enough–as when John whispered to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ You may say there is no express command for certain things. But do you need an express command? Is a hint not enough?

III. The honour put on the man.–Did not Peter get a reward in the draught of fishes for lending his boat? and the boy who lent his basket? This room is to be known for ever as a ‘Peniel’–a ‘Bethel’ — ‘Jehovah Shammah’–greater than the temple. If men proudly say, ‘Queen Mary stayed here a night’–what would this man ever after say? ‘Here He, the King of Glory, washed His disciples feet. Here He ate the Passover, and instituted the Supper. Here he said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” ‘ That upper room is fragrant with the myrrh and aloes and cassia of Christ’s words of grace. But more; He came back to that upper room, and breathed the Holy Ghost on His disciples. This man was no doubt one of the hundred and twenty disciples who afterwards waited in that upper room in prayer. Are you like him? Will you say of your heart, ‘Be lifted up and let the King of Glory come in’ ? He will sit down there and make that heart of yours memorable. He will wash you in His blood from every stain. He will fill you with His own Spirit. He will discourse over again to you these words of His. He will keep the Supper with you!

Transcribed from Reminiscences of Andrew A. Bonar D.D.