Concerts, weddings and long fall walks

If you're wondering what weddings, concerts and long fall walks have in common, the answer is practically nothing except the fulfillment of my weekend. It has truly been an interesting weekend. There is however, one other additional link to these events, they all seemed to have a common theme. Have you ever experienced a time in your life when a theme kept popping up wherever you turned? That's my weekend as well, the theme is the power of God. It began Friday morning when I opened my Bible to a passage in Matthew 21:18-22. The Spirit of God told me as I was reading this passage to pay close attention to one particular phrase; "if you have faith and do not doubt... you can say to this mountain, 'go throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done." Wow, I have never experienced anything close to this kind of power, yet here Jesus is stating that it is at hand. Friday evening the power of God came up once again. My wife and I were at a Robin Mark concert (Revival in Belfast) where the guest speaker was Calvin Miller. Calvin Miller is a very elderly man who has written a lot of Christian poetry and books. Calvin was talking to us about the revival of the Celtics. To make a long story short, one of the points raised was the discovery of the power of God. The Celtics had a special word for this power, which they discovered in amazing ways during the revival years. It seems that this revival power truly had the ability to transform. People were changed, bodies healed, peace restored.
Saturday, I attended a beautiful wedding. It truly is a delight to see a godly couple, who understands what it means to live and walk the Christian faith, come together in a God honouring marriage. Anyway, this is the third time God spoke to me about His power. The theme passage was on Ephesians 3:16-19. "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with his power through his spirit in your inner being... And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ... Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." Uncanny isn't it, how when God speaks the theme keeps reverberating until we finally get the message.
So how do I apply this message? I'm still working on the answer to that question. Today, I heard the cry of a mother to be who has been told that her baby, yet to be born, has some of its organs developing outside of the baby's body. And I wondered, what does the power of God have to say to this mother? How should I pray? What if I prayed for complete healing, but God chooses not to heal? Would the mother's faith be crushed?
Today, I also went to Webster's falls, where we witnessed the power of nature. The beauty that God created through his power was very evident. But that beauty also bears with it the knowledge that the colour in the trees is a sign that the leaf has died and the tree will soon be bare. And the water falls will shortly be frozen still in the winter months to follow.
In the beginning of the Matthew passage, that I read Friday morning, Jesus cursed a fig tree because he was hungry and it had no figs. The creator of all the universe cursed a tree because it failed to live up to its purpose in life. This is the same passage that talks about the power to move mountains. Jesus says that the same power used to whither the fig tree could also be used to move mountains. I wondered what the link was?
It seems to me that God is telling us that we have the power to live out the purpose he has called us to live. For those who are married that purpose includes providing a loving environment for our families to be nurtured and to discover and experience the fulness of God. Our purpose may also be in reaching out to those who are hurting with the hope of Christ. Or, our purpose may be something else, but whatever it is, we can be sure that it requires giving glory back to our creator. And, if we fail to live out our purpose that same power which created us may also condemn us to a life of unfruitfulness. For humans, I can't think of a more tragic fate on this earth, than to fail to live up to our purpose in life, especially since we have all been given the option to plug into the power that will allow us to not only yield a fruitful life, but life that can also move mountains for the cause of Christ.