Proven

 There are things within your purview that you are capable of doing. There are others you have no control over, things that you cannot affect, no matter how much you might try. It’s easy to remove a pebble from your shoe. It’s impossible to move a mountain, no matter how much you heave and ho. At least, it’s impossible for you. No such thing as impossible for God.

I’ve been part of a ministry since I was twelve years old. My grandfather ran it until his passing; then, it fell on my shoulders to continue the work. Since its inception, the ministry's vision has been far greater than its bank account or ability to see it through without help. Every project exceeded our present ability to see it through to its rightful end.  

When my grandfather gathered us around the kitchen table and informed us that God had told him we should build an orphanage in Romania, we had less than $500 in the ministry bank account. Four years later, the project was completed, and to this day, children are being cared for and trained up in the way they should go in that building.

Had we leaned on our understanding and attempted to employ human reason to the problem, the project would have never gotten off the ground, nevermind been completed.

We knew that we could not carry out the vision God had birthed in our hearts but that He could. That was enough for us to take the first step, then the second, and when we could no longer walk, God was there to be a present help, to give us strength, and to prove His faithfulness.

God is a proven factor. He is quantifiable. You don’t have to guess whether He is capable of something; you know it with the immovable certainty that all who have seen His hand move in their lives do. You’re not stepping out blindly; you’re stepping out in faith. There’s a difference and a big one. You are stepping out with a promise backed by the full faith and credit of a sovereign God.

It’s when we wander off on our own or when we begin new works catering more to serving the flesh than serving God that we fall flat on our faces, and there is no one there to lend a helping hand. Had God told you to begin the new work, He would have been faithful in seeing it through to completion.

Don’t take it upon yourself to do something God never commanded you to do. You will fail and fail spectacularly. Even if it may not seem so difficult to pull off, even if you reason that a bit of elbow grease and a few sleepless nights will make it a reality. God doesn’t need architects, visionaries, or influencers; God needs laborers. He will provide the plan, He will provide the vision, and He will provide the influence. All you have to do is the grunt work. No, it doesn’t sound glamorous, and it isn’t; I’d be lying if I said it was, but if glamour’s what you’re looking for, I hear the fashion industry’s left somewhat of a vacuum recently.

The work of God requires the removal of your ego from the equation. It hurts at first, but once you begin to catalog all the things that God has done, things that you would never have dreamed of accomplishing on your own, you realize your ego was nothing more than an impotent, toothless lion who thought itself fierce and capable.

Yes! You can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you, but that implies that you can do nothing without Him. Rather than carry the idea to its rightful conclusion and walk humbly with our God, we shortened it to I can do all things, then talked ourselves into believing we were the captains of our ships and masters of our destinies.

We’ve gone from God being our refuge and strength to building our own towers, taking steroids, and having 911 on speed dial. Then we have the audacity to wonder why every other day you hear stories of supposed Christians doing things that the mere thought of keeps you up at night.

When the sons of Korah wrote the forty-sixth psalm, they weren’t doing it by way of secondhand or third-hand information. They did not write as though they had no experience with the power of God or that they heard through the grapevine stories of what God did somewhere far away, in a time long forgotten. God is our refuge, they wrote, including themselves in the experience of having seen the mighty hand of God move on their behalf.

We cannot be satisfied with the testimonies of others when it comes to the present, manifest power of God. If we are, there will always be a niggling doubt as to whether or not God can do as He promised. Once you experience God as your refuge, once you are invigorated by Him, and He becomes your strength, once your enemy presses you in on all sides and He becomes your refuge, you will have lived the reality of what He can do and does do for His beloved.

We must desire to see His presence in our lives. Towards that end, we hunger and thirst for righteousness; we strive for a pure heart so that we may see God and the fulfillment of His promises toward us.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.