Wonder Working Woman & Super Natural Man
The Marvel comics franchise has made billions of dollars capitalizing on our fascination with super heroes. For some, it is simply entertainment. For others, it speaks to the deep desire within us to be more than we are, to transcend human frailty, and make an impact on the world at large. I’m the latter of the two. Though the action-packed adventures are usually a fun ride, very few days go by that I don’t long to be a better version of myself.
This desire is God-given. He creates each of us with a God-shaped hole that no amount of human achievement can fill. The spirit part of us cries daily for more as our body and soul struggle in vain to respond. Temporary gratification becomes the norm as we move from experience to experience, material item to material item, desperately hoping to alleviate the ache, if only for a moment. Bible commentator Derek Kidner explains, “What spoils the pleasures of life for us is our hunger to get out of them more than they can ever deliver. Getting eternal and ultimate meaning out of temporal and temporary pursuits is destined to fail.”
Deep down, mature Believers know the answer to the nagging emptiness is in Christ and Him alone. Yet we continue walking the treadmill of life, never slowing to readjust our priorities and schedule time for Him, seeking Him first above all else. The church in Ephesus was exemplary in every way but one. They had left their first love—a serious issue—one worthy of true repentance: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5, ASV) Repent.
Though we’ve endured patiently, toiled and worked industriously, and not fainted under immense pressure, if we have left our first love, we are told to repent. In our politically-correct culture and seeker-friendly churches, repentance isn’t a word we hear too often. People are too afraid of offending one another or making someone feel uncomfortable. Christ isn’t concerned with our comfort, but our character. If we are to walk worthy of Him, we must allow Him to live through us. As Paul says, “I no longer live but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) So many of us have accepted Christ as Savior, but not surrendered to Him as Lord. If He is Lord, he will be first—number one in our daily to-do-list, number one in every relationship and decision.
Seeking Him and His Kingdom first is simple, yet we make it mysteriously complicated. It comes down to prayer, meditation, worship, and reading His Word, and acts of love and service to those around us flow naturally from our time in the secret place. God’s desire for us is to be wonder-working women and super-natural men. As children of the King and Christ’s ambassadors, our lives are to be more than the 9-5 grind. The enemy keeps us busy so we forget that our purpose is eternal.
What would happen if today we all purposed in our hearts to keep Christ first in our lives, to pursue Him more passionately than any other pursuit? What if not a day went by without us pressing into prayer and reading and studying His Word? I Thessalonians 2:13 tells us, “The Word of God is effectually atwork in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in andrely on it]” (AMP). The apostle Paul was his own kind of Superman. He said, “For this I labor [unto weariness], striving with all the superhuman energy which He so mightily enkindles and work within me” (Col. 1:29, AMP).
Superhuman power and energy is found in complete surrender to Christ. “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you” (Rom. 8:11, NLT). What? Resurrection power living on the inside? That sounds remarkably similar to a Marvel superhero, no? And yet there it is in black and white, the inspired, authoritative, infallible Word of God inviting us into the supernatural life.
Will we accept the invitation? Will we seek Him, His Kingdom, and His righteousness above all else? There are no shortcuts. Olympic athletes trainfor excellence, and so must we. I’m asking God for supernatural grace for all of us to become the Wonder-Working Women and Super-Natural Men He longs for us to become!
