Unlimited Potential

Unlimited Potential

Read: John 14:9-14

“Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

John 14:12

“Your Christian life is to be a continuous proof that God works impossibilities.”

—Andrew Murray

IN WORD How we would love to water down this verse! Why? Because we don’t live up to it. There are all sorts of reasons we can give: Jesus means that we will do the kinds of works He does, compassionate good deeds, but with no miracles; or He means that the church as a whole will accomplish even more of His work throughout history. But neither of these things is really what He says. He implies that when He goes to the Father and sends His Spirit, our potential will be no more limited than that of Jesus. In other words, the sky’s the limit.

We who believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man often emphasize the God side of Him more. But the only advantage He had in His humanity over us was His sinlessness, and the Cross has remedied that. Every aspect of His relationship with the Father is available to us. He heard the Father speaking because human beings can hear the Father speaking when their heart is right and their ears are attuned to His voice. He did miracles because human beings can do miracles when empowered by the Holy Spirit as Jesus was empowered. He is unique in His sonship, but He confers sonship on us as well. God gave us a picture of what He can do when He clothes Himself in human flesh, and the picture was Jesus. Amazingly, Jesus says that can also be a picture of us.

IN DEED Do not be satisfied with a powerless faith. It is not consistent with the teachings of Jesus or the New Testament as a whole. Ask Jesus to show you what this verse means, not by informing you but by demonstrating it in you. Make whatever adjustments you must make for this promise to be realized in your life. The work of God is not limited by our concept of weak, human flesh. The potential is amazing. Ask God to let you see it.