God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

In our last post from the book of Acts we saw how Paul was performing miracles and I shared a few resources about documented miracles that are happening today. If you’re interested you can check that out here: A Word About Miracles–Acts 19:11-20. Today I want to talk about the source of power for those miracles.

Acts 19:11-20

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Where Does Paul’s Power Come From?

So where does Paul’s power come from? How is he able to perform these miracles. And how is it that demonic entities know about Paul (and apparently fear him too)? And what about people I know, people in my family or in my circle of friends, people in whom I see Jesus so clearly? People who are obviously filled with the joy of Christ, people who love difficult people well, people who love those who disagree with them well, people who love well those with a different worldview, people who love obnoxious characters well, people who truly love the way Jesus loved: what about those people?

That overflowing with Christ’s joy thing and that loving difficult people well thing: those are miraculous to me. Those are super powers.

I think there’s a clue about how people with the power of Jesus do what they do. And we find our clue in the way Paul attached himself to Priscilla and Aquila, the two fellow tent makers. Paul and Priscilla and Aquila had tent making and Christ as common interests and we see Paul intentionally connect with these two and spend time with these two. But unfortunately we don’t have a detailed description of what the relationships were like between Paul and Priscilla and Aquila.

The Other Half of Church

I just finished a book recommended to me by a friend that I believe provides insight into what Paul and Priscilla and Aquila’s relationships might have been like. The book is called The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks. There’s brain science in this book and these neurological ideas come from Wilder by way of a UCLA professor named Dr. Allan Schore. The book explains the connection between Jesus’ teachings about loving others, and our neurology. It’s been fascinating to learn how what Jesus taught fits perfectly with how our brains work.

So when I wrote the Love Like Jesus book I shared about how Jesus lived in a way that ensured he was in good condition to love God well and to love the people around him well too. Then I shared how you and I can do the same. Most of that content can be found in chapters 21 and 24 (but also in other places throughout the book).

But after reading The Other Half of Church, there’s something I think I under emphasized. In fact I wonder if it’s possible to emphasize this enough. That something is what our relationships with other Jesus followers should look like, and how important those relationships are.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” Jesus said in John 13:34-35

Well, what does a group of people look like when they love each other the way Jesus commanded us to.

The Way Church Works (Today in America)

Maybe your church experience has been like mine. We’re led in worship by a group of talented musicians. Then we hear a sermon on important scripture. From those scriptures and that teaching, maybe we’re instructed on how to make better choices in life. If we’re lucky, we have a small group we’re involved in. But even then, usually the format is to discuss the Bible passages and the sermon from Sunday and maybe we pray together.

These are all good things to do! So don’t get me wrong. All I’m saying is this is the current pattern for the Western church.

But something is missing.

And that something is God’s shining face.

The First Attribute of a Group of Jesus Followers

Every Friday my wife Kathy sends this text to our (adult) kids and our grandson and to me too. She sent it today, at 4:52 pm:

“The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

“The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

“The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”

‭‭Numbers‬ ‭6‬:‭24‬-‭26‬ (KJV)

So that part about the Lord’s face shining upon thee. That’s something that has more importance and meaning than I realized. One of the very first things we look for as infants is a face that shines upon us: eyes that are sparkling in a way that says, I love you; a mouth that’s smiling; a face that says, I’m happy to see you. Isn’t that interesting? And, even as adults, our brains are constantly scanning our environment for faces that light up when they see us.

Jesus’ face was a face that lit up when he saw people. Jesus’ face attracted people, even sinners who were ostracized in the society of Jesus’ day. The glory of God shone from Jesus’ face. (2 Corinthians 4:6) When sinners looked at Jesus’ face, they saw his face light up, they saw a face that was happy to see them.

Psalm 89:15 says, Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,

Psalm 16:11 says, in your presence there is fullness of joy. But according to Michel Hendricks, the author of The Other Half of Church, the literal translation is “abundance of joy with your face.”

Psalm 21:6 says of the king, “For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.” But according to Hendricks the literal word for word translation there is “you make him happy with joy with your face.”

So it turns out, this joy sensation that comes from seeing peoples’ faces light up when they see us, being around people who are happy we’re there with them, this is what fuels our joy.

A person’s face shining upon us is the primary way this happens, but tone of voice is also a part of this phenomena. A tone of voice that says, I’m so glad you’re with me right now: that’s also a part of what fuels our joy.

It turns out, because of the way we’re wired neurologically, joy is completely and utterly relational.

And because Christian joy is relational, it’s not dependent on circumstances. For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. Jesus endured the cross because of how he felt about you and how he felt about me. We suffer in our sins and Jesus suffered on the cross to redeem us. Part of belonging to a group of Jesus followers who relate to each other in the way I’m describing means we don’t let each other suffer alone. We support and strengthen each other, we walk through suffering with each other. When we’re suffering, we fix our eyes on Jesus’ face shining on us, and we fix our eyes on the faces of those Jesus followers whose faces are shining on us, those happy to be with us. This is hugely important to our enduring suffering. (Hebrews 12:2)

How Important is this Joy Thing to God?

Your joy and my joy is a priority with God. Your joy is one of the big reasons Jesus came to earth.

Jesus said,

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11)

Your joy and mine was part of Christ’s purpose.

Jesus wants us to be filled with His kind of joy, this relational joy being described here.

Where the Power Comes From

If you’re like me and you wonder sometimes why you don’t seem to have God’s power to love people well, or if you wonder why you’re not experiencing the joy of Christ, I think it’s likely the reason is because you’re not connected with a high joy community.

So be intentional already. Connect yourself with a group of Jesus followers whose faces light up when they see you. People whose eyes sparkle when they see you. People who smile when they see you. People who talk in a tone that says: I’m so glad you’re here with me right now.

Connect yourself to those people.

Be with those people often and on a regular basis, and see what happens to your joy.

Be with those people and see what happens to your ability to love others the way Jesus loved others.

In our next post, we’ll look at the second attribute of a group of Jesus followers.

Notes:

Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks, The Other Half of Church, Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation, Moody Publishers (August, 2020)

Available on Amazon! Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus) Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon.)