What if the very thing that turns people away from the Lord was what brings them back to the Lord?
The prodigal son leaves the Father to chase the freedom to indulge only to find the emptiness that indulgence ultimately leads to (the story is found in Luke 15).
Rebels board boats to get as far away as possible from the call of God on their lives, only to have that same boat bring them back after years of captivity (check out Jonah 1:3 and then read Isaiah 60:9).
Could it be that a generation that seems to be turning away from God because of the powerlessness they see in believers could be brought back to God because of a demonstration of God’s power through believers?
Not only do I believe it’s possible; I believe the Bible commands it.
Elijah said that it was the fire on the altar that would identify the ONE TRUE GOD (1 Kings 18:24).
Yahweh wasn’t the only named God—there were hundreds of gods in that day—but he was the only LIVING God, and only a living God can answer the cries of his people.
Paul knew that it was the power of God that would draw people to the salvation of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, he made the clear choice to demonstrate the Spirit’s power more than his giftedness.
For too long, we have said too much about God’s power and shown too little of it, and the great desertion of so many people from the church has often been in direct response to that gap between words and actions.
In her book, Wounded by God’s People, Anne Graham Lotz wrote about how her hunger for the Lord waned during a two-week Christian leadership retreat she attended as a teen. “I became increasingly skeptical of what I was being exposed to—not because there was anything unbiblical about it, but because of the disconnect between what the staff taught and I observed in their behavior.” (emphasis added)
In a debate on whether God exists that I watched recently between a Christian and an atheist, the atheist supposed that there was no way for a Christian to show that his God was the only true God. When he said it, I thought of Elijah, Paul, and people too numerous to count throughout every generation who would have simply said, “Just watch. Fire is coming, and the fire you thought you didn’t need will be the very thing that brings you to your knees.”
Do it again, Lord.
Lord, I have heard the report about you; Lord, I stand in awe of your deeds. Revive your work in these years; make it known in these years. In your wrath remember mercy! (Habakkuk 3:2)
