You Have Potential!

This past weekend, I had the privilege to attend the Ripple Effect conference in the sprawling metropolis of Vermilion, Alberta. It was time well spent, as I learned a great deal on a variety of subjects. I am still trying to process and make sense of all that I learned, and will share my thoughts with you as I go.

In one of the opening sessions, Pastor Shawn shared a verse which I am sure I have read many times, yet he pointed out something that I had never noticed before. The verse is John 16:7-8, and reads: "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment." (emphasis added). When I heard this, I was immediately puzzled as to how it could ever be better for the disciples for Jesus to leave them. I mean, Jesus is God in the flesh, and did showed countless acts of love and kindness during His time on earth. I cannot imagine a more effective ministry than that of Jesus.

After tossing these ideas around in my head, I began to take a look at the rest of the verse, concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit, and suddenly the verse began to make a lot more sense. Jesus, while being God, could only be in one place at a time due to His also being fully human, and therefore could only proclaim His message of love and hope in one place at a time. I am not trying to place limitations on Jesus, because I know He is fully God, this is simply my understanding of His dual nature. Anyways, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of believers, the gospel could quickly spread throughout the entire world. In this way Jesus would be able to continue His ministry through the lives of believers everywhere. This appears to be a very beneficial result of Jesus returning to heaven.

I looked into this idea further and found John 14:12-14, which says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." Jesus also says in Mark 16:17-18: "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

To me, all of these verse hint at a great potential within each of us as Christians, due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus said that it would be best for Him to leave us, then He must have seen in us potential of unimaginable proportions, especially when He says that through Him, believers will perform miracles even greater than the ones He performed here on earth. It makes me wonder if we are living up to our full potential in Christ, or if we are simply acting too much in our own strength in our attempts to further the kingdom. However, it also fills me with a great sense of hope, since Jesus working through us is able to accomplish all of these things if we let Him, and that is so much easier than doing it on our own. To borrow a line from Switchfoot, we were meant to live for so much more.