Expect the Unexpected

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.   (Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV)

A short time ago I received an email from Pastor Samuel Gunguta, our Ministry Partner in South Africa.  He wrote to us shortly after returning to SA from a relief mission to Zimbabwe.  Almost immediately, the scripture from Ephesians above came to mind.

Not only was was the email a source of real blessing to me, it gave me pause for thought about what is happening (or not) in so many of our churches today.  I’ll share some of those thoughts with you, but first take a minute to read these excerts from the email (italics and bold are mine):

The Lord has been graceful to us in our relief program and has shown Himself mighty.  We distributed food in Wedza about 140km south of HRE [Harare] and in Shurugwi, Epworth, Mabvuku, Kuwadzana. We did the same in Bindura where we have been supporting over 100 widows. We also gave to the disadvantaged in Chitungwiza where God did awesome things. One interesting occasion was when we called people to come and receive and we were baffled with what happened.

People came, and before we distributed we started with praise and worship. After that people queued to receive and at some point I went outside. A young man came to me and said:

“Pastor thank you for giving me maize meal but I want you to know that for a long time I was never able to eat thick porridge due to illness. Actually I do not know how I am surviving. Now my request is that since you are here and have given me maize meal pray for me so I will be able to start eating from this”.

He was walking on crutches and I could not say no. When I went back inside and was giving directives to the next group of beneficiaries the young man came to the front, so I had no choice but to tell the people about him. I asked all the pastors who were with me to come and help me pray with him. The congregation stood up and I asked them to stretch their hands towards him. As we prayed for this brother God moved in an unanticipated way. The young man threw away his crutches and started walking without.

On seeing this another pastor came to me and said maybe there are others who need prayer, so why don’t you invite them? I did invite them and there came a lot of people including a woman walking on crutches. We continued to pray and God touched her. Within moments she threw away her crutches and started to walk without, praising God and weeping.

Indeed this was amazing because we never anticipated anything of this sort but God chose to reveal Himself in a simple food distribution program. We give all praise and glory to God.

I sat quietly for a few minutes, just taking in what God had done.  It was particularly amazing, since just the week before at a prayer meeting in our home church (Hope City Church, Hereford), we had focused the entire meeting on praying for the Lord to move mightily and reveal Himself in our Sunday Services!  Not only did we have a blessed service the following Sunday, but at about the same time, thousands of miles away, in the middle of a food distribution programme, the Lord moved sovereignlyand powerfully.

It made me think about how little we have come to expect from God (for the most part).  In the early church, after Pentacost, they prayed for, expected and saw miracles regularly.  Today however, we have become so complacent that we rarely expect or look for the Lord to act mightily, suddenly and with power.  In fact, we often are skeptical about supernatural occurances, even when we see them – or perhaps worse, at times reduce asking for miracles to some kind of formula or ritual.

It is sad that in practice, we have come to think of the God that was powerful enough to just speak and bring the universe into being, as limited and predictable!  Perhaps we speak (or sing) about the power and might of the Lord, but do we expect to see it?  Even worse, we have the audacity to sometimes say (or imply by our actions) that this mighty creator God, sovereign Lord, no longer works that way – that we perhaps have “grown up” too much to need or believe in awesome, unexpected displays of supernatural power. (maybe more on this in a different post).

Perhaps the key to seeing more of God’s power in our daily lives and in the Church today, lies in these words from the verse above:

“according to his power that is at work within us“

Perhaps we just have not let His Power be at work in us.  Perhaps we have let our “good ideas”, traditions, intellect, pride, habits and cultural mindset get in the way of the Holy Spirit working within us.  Maybe if we are bold enough to say to God:

“Lord, show me your power. Holy Spirit, take over in my life.  I surrender my ideas, traditions, intellect and prejudices to you.  Show me your truth, and demonstrate your power in my life and through me to others”.

Maybe then, we will see Him do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” and we will begin to Expect the Unexpected – every day.

Every blessing in Christ our Lord and Saviour – who Was and Is and Is to come.

PS: A Prayer Request from Pastor Sam that was also in the email:

While it is relatively peaceful in Zim now and food is coming into the country, it is still critical that relief continues because nearly half the population is in need of food. So pray for more resources.  We also want to help people with seeds and fertilizers so that they can grow their own food.

If you would also like to help with a donation to this work or any of our ministry projects, please contact us. Thank you.

Leaving the church after food aid was distributed