The undeniable power of change

“Bad news travels fast. Good news takes the scenic route.” — Doug Larson

If you’ve watched the news or been on any social media outlet, you know the truth of that quote. “If it bleeds, it leads” was the general rule of thumb for what story kicked off a news segment. Today, the more shocking, the more viral.

And yet, I want to push back on that quote and tell you that there’s some news that can travel even faster than bad news. Maybe not on your local news channel, but in your local town, church, business, or family, miraculous news can still outrun the bad stuff.

Take some time and really let these words used by J. B. Phillips settle down in your soul. I love the way he paraphrased the response of the religious leaders to the healing of a crippled man in the fourth chapter of Acts.

When they saw the complete assurance of Peter and John, who were obviously uneducated and untrained men, they were staggered. They recognized them as men who had been with Jesus, yet since they could see the man who had been cured standing beside them, they could find no effective reply. All they could do was to order them out of the Sanhedrin and hold a conference among themselves. “What are we going to do with these men?” they said to each other. “It is evident to everyone living in Jerusalem that an extraordinary miracle has taken place through them and that is something we cannot deny.” (Acts 4:13-16, Phillips, emphasis mine)

For as long as I’ve lived, I’ve never sensed the urgency for the undeniable like I do now. In a world being overrun with AI and deep fakes, people are craving an encounter with the undeniable power of God, and when they experience it, they find themselves staggering as a result.

They won’t be staggering because an enthusiastic minister pushes them, but because the dynamic power of God overwhelms them. And when others try to explain it away, they won’t be able to find an effective reply. The miraculous news of transformation spreads like wildfire, and it burns faster than bad news or skeptics can throw water on it.

Haters gonna hate, as they say.

And skeptics gonna skep. But no matter how much the cynic sneers, he will never be able to deny the witness and power of a changed life.

“Come and see a man who…” becomes the mantra of the transformed, and the transformation can only be explained by the presence of the One who transforms.

“They recognized them as men who had been with Jesus” is how the religious leaders described it in our passage.

The unchurched in a pagan town experiencing revival simply called them Christians (see Acts 11:26) because they looked more and more like the One they were following.

The more we look like Jesus, the less they can explain away the undeniable, and the faster the news of our miraculous transformation spreads.

When the unfiltered power of God leads to an undeniable move of God, no hype is needed to attract people to it.

Only an invitation to come and meet the One who can change them, too.

Photo by Håkon Grimstad on Unsplash

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