Gone

Some of us are familiar with the colloquial phrase "they're gone". This is not a reference to someone leaving a particular geographical location, but rather a description of one's mental or psychological state. When a person is referred to as "Gone", it generally means that the person has made a transition mentally and psychologically that has them operating behaviorially in a way that's either outside of the norm or maybe even looked at as extreme or unconventional. The connotation of "they're gone" doesn't have to be negative; it can be positive such as is in sports if someone is excelling beyond their athletic peers, someone could say "they're gone" as like operating in another performance zone. But generally, when this phrase is used, the person could be gone relationally, physically, attitudinally, emotionally. Basically, they've moved beyond the realm of conventional expectation.

I say all of this because, generally speaking, people don't like to be referred to as "Gone". People want to be looked at as relatively normal and operating within given expectations. But as for the believer in Christ and us as children of God, it's high time people start looking at our Christian witness and say, "they're gone". Too many Christians are playing it "too close to the vest" as it relates to the demonstration of our Christian witness. A lot of believers are so scared of being viewed as a "Christian fanatic" that they won't sell out for Christ. This fear and apprehension is not of God. Too many of us are still being regulated by tradition, denominationalism, ritualism and congregational expectations. Bottom line, these are all man-made phenomena. None of these things are germain to bringing Glory to God. The only way we're going to bring Glory to God is that our witness for the Lord is described as "Gone".

There's a line that's being drawn in the church, and at some point every believer in Christ is going to have to make a conscious decision of where they personally fall in regards to that line. The line that's being drawn in the church is the line between the Natural and the Supernatural. Too many churches want to worship God within the confines and restrictions of the Natural Order. Let me say for the record, this is not the Will of God. I would suspect that many Christians grew up in churches where the Manifestation of the Supernatural (miracles, signs and wonders) was not the norm. However, that doesn't mean it was right, let alone the Divine Will of God. The scripture says in Acts 17 that there was a time when God "winked" at some things. In other words, He tolerated the lack of faith of His people and let some things go. But He's not winking anymore; and one of the demands that the Lord is pressing upon His church and His people is a return to the Supernatural. We serve a Supernatural God. Therefore we ought to expect Supernatural Demonstration and Supernatural Manifestation.

However, if the church is going to witness Supernatural Manifestation, we must develop a "supernautral" type faith. And in order to do that, we're going to have to "go out there". We're going to have to get out of the boat (referring to Peter, Matthew 14) of our complacency, self-interest, self-centeredness and comfort zone and really reach for Christ in submission and obedience like we never have before. But the only way you can do this is, you have to be Gone.