Where’s the Beef?
This question was made popular by the 1984 Wendy’s television
commercial comparing their hamburgers with those of McDonald’s and Burger
King. It showed a lot of fluffy bun, but hardly any meat inside.
Today we can ask the same question
regarding the conspicuous absence of miraculous power being manifested in the
church as a whole—“Where’s the beef…Where’s the miraculous power today that was
evident throughout the ages as seen in the Bible?
All through the Old Testament God
showed up with miraculous power. Jesus came on the scene and demonstrated
miraculous power. The early church took off demonstrating miraculous power.
Church history has sprinklings of power, and we hear and read of accounts here
and there of God’s power demonstrated today, but as a whole, we of the church
have a lot of talk, a lot of fluffy buns, but not a lot of walk when it comes
to a consistent demonstration of God’s miraculous power. I include myself
because I am facing some issues in my life that will require some supernatural
power to overcome.
So
I have been asking the Lord, “O.K., Lord, shoot straight with me. Why are we
not walking in your manifested power as we should?” The following is what I
have been seeing.
Believers /
Disciples
There is a difference in being a
believer simply believing to make it to heaven someday and a disciple who is
intensely training to carry out God’s mission on earth. The first believer is
basically just along for the ride. That’s fine. That’s why Jesus came, to
redeem mankind from hell to take him to heaven. But that’s not all. There is
more to the program. God works through people to reach people. This is why the
apostle Paul lived a lifestyle of forgetting those things behind and pressing
forward to those things God had for him and wanted to accomplish through him
(Philippians 3). So we need to examine exactly what a disciple is and what
power of God we can expect to see demonstrated through a committed disciple of
Jesus Christ.
Soldier,
Athlete, Farmer
Paul related being a true disciple to
a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer (2Timothy 2: 1-7). He told Timothy to think
about this and the Lord would give him understanding on what it meant.
A soldier, upon induction into
service, basically loses his personal identity and his personal life and is
consumed in being one thing—a soldier. His focus is only on one thing, to
conquer the enemy. He goes through rigorous mental and physical training. He
puts on battle gear, and he goes into battle to conquer an enemy.
An
athlete is much the same as a soldier, but he is more on the level of
competitiveness to obtain a prize.
A farmer sows works the dirt and seeds,
watching the weather, and when it is harvest time, all else is laid aside to reap
the harvest. More could be said about each of these, but here we see a disciple
is one who is engaged in battle, is seeking a prize, and lays all aside to
gather the harvest.
The language
of Jesus about discipleship and eternal life
Jesus talked about forsaking all,
taking up your cross daily to follow him, and if you don’t love him more than
family, friends, lands, and even your own life, you are not worthy of him
(Matt. 10: 37, 38). He said if you find your “life”, or you could say “if you
live to maintain your personal identity”, you will lose it, and if you lose
your “life”, your “personal identity”, you will gain it (Matt. 10: 39). He
talked about letting the legitimate concerns of life take a back seat to the
business of preaching the gospel to the whole world—let the dead bury the dead,
but you go preach the gospel (Matt. 8:22). He said if we confess him before
men, he will confess us before the heavenly Father, and if we deny him before
men, he will deny us before the Father (Matt. 10: 32, 33). He went on to say
that unless one is converted and becomes as a little child, he will not see the
kingdom of heaven, but if you humble yourself as a child, you will be greatest
in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18: 1-4). He talked about the greatest ones are
the ones who are servant to others (Matt. 20: 26, 27). And finally, he told a
rich young ruler that was very religious that for him to have eternal life and
be “perfect”, he needed to sell all, give to the poor, and come (obviously
leaving all) and follow him (Matt. 19: 16-22).
If we put all this together, we see a
composite picture of one type of person: totally committed.
This person has one focus, one motive,
one mind: kingdom business. Everything revolves around what the Lord wants, not
what “self” wants. So there is a battle between what “self” wants and what the
Savior wants.
Is God out to deprive us of the “good
things in life”? Quite the contrary, rather, he wants to position us to really
receive the good things in life. The biggest hindrance to us really receiving
the good things is self. He wants to help us get self out of the way, under
control, so he can manifestly bless us.
The good
thing
The really good thing in life is to be
in the manifested presence and power of God. From that, all other good things
flow—spiritual and physical healing, healing for family and finances, and
prosperity in general in every way. What a prize! So if this is our focus, to
bring all our spiritual, mental, physical, family, financial, and social
activities in line with the Word, then we are pressing in to that place of
being in the manifested presence and power of God (See Philippians 3). Jesus
called us to forsake all and follow him. He is the Word. So as we forsake “our
life” to live out the “life of the Word”, we are forsaking all to follow Jesus.
Walking with him, walking in the Word, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit,
is walking in the manifested presence and power of God. This is where “the
beef” is. This is where the really good things of life take place. See the life
and ministry of Jesus. See the life and ministry of the early church. They had
“the beef.” This is where we will find “the beef” today.
Love and
faith brings God on the scene
“Where’s the beef?” Here’s the beef:
The summation of all good things is
embodied in one word—love. God is love (1Jn. 4: 16). But love sitting in the
heavens does not do people a lot of good, and God is out to do good to all. He wants to reap the harvest of bringing every
soul on earth into eternal life. It takes faith to bring the living God into
this dying earth, and faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10: 17). So not clinging to the natural but
choosing to walk in submissive love to God and in service to one’s fellow man to
reap the harvest is where it starts to happen. And, not clinging to the
natural, but living by faith in accordance to what the Word says in spite of
all natural evidences, is also where it starts to happen. Walking in this love
by faith in the Word is all in the same as forsaking all to follow him. You are
not living and following your own life, you are living out and following his
life, the life of The Word. This is true discipleship. This is what brings God
on the scene in a manifestation of supernatural power.
Being
a true disciple of Jesus Christ will bring about the manifestation of God’s
miraculous power in our lives today. There’s the beef.
Affirmation
of faith: I am a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I live a lifestyle of choosing
to walk in love and of choosing to go by what the Word says rather than by
natural circumstances or conditions. I choose to accept what the Word says
about me, rather than what I see of myself. I declare that my mind is under
control, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, and I bring every thought into obedience of
Christ. I declare that my body is under control as the temple of the Spirit of
God, not yielding my members to sin, but to righteousness by the Spirit of God.
I do not fear, but I am made perfect in love, a fit vessel for God to work
through any way he so desires. I yield to the Word and anointing of the Holy
Spirit so that God’s supernatural power operates in my life on a daily basis. I
commit myself to Jesus Christ on a daily basis to hear his voice and obey his
promptings through the Spirit. I walk in praise and thanksgiving to God every
day in all circumstances and situations. By him I offer the sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving because he is worthy of all praise at all times. Thank you Lord for training me as a true disciple of yours for the
glory of your holy name.