It’s enlightening to look at the “nothing” passages in the Gospels. Jesus once confessed, “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (
John 5:19). Jesus later promised that with faith as small as a mustard seed “nothing shall be impossible unto you” (
Matt. 17:20). There’s quite a lot in these “nothing” texts. As the old song goes,
“Little [and I would add, “nothing”]
is much when God is in it.”Fourth, order ensued. In conjunction with the Spirit moving, God spoke and order ensued. The lights came on, and everything began falling into place.
Advertisement
When John the Baptist arrived on the scene of first-century Judea, chaos prevailed. God’s Spirit moved as John preached. In the hearts and lives of those who received his words by faith, order ensued (
Mark 1:4-11).
When Paul arrived in Ephesus, chaos prevailed. Apollos’ confused converts were caught somewhere between faith and law. God’s Spirit moved as Paul preached. Convinced and baptized, those converts experienced God’s Spirit moving in their hearts and setting their lives in order
(
Acts 19:1–7).
Veteran missiologist Donald McGavran identified a principle at work on the world’s fields that he termed “redemption and lift.” Over and over he observed that when redemption becomes a reality in any people group, their whole standard of
living is lifted. In other words, chaos ends and order ensues.
All of this New Year’s talk about “turning over a new leaf,” “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps,” “cleaning up your act” and “becoming a new you” are, to rephrase the words of the R.E.M. album title, “Fables of Reconstruction.” The only way to get to where you want to go from here starts with the Spirit and the Word.
