Billy Graham Made this statement Can you see God? You haven't seen him? I've never seen the wind. I see the effects of the wind, but I've never seen the wind. There's a mystery to it.
As we learned on the sabbath Just like the water goes from a high place to a low place. It leaves an effect on us, a change that happens. The water of the word is powerful because it has the power to change us. Look at the Grand Canyon, The traveling water has transformed it. It is big as a canyon but it changes one grain at a time.
God's word can take us and transform us from darkness to light, a complete transformation, a grand canyon of change. But it does it on a microscope level one small piece at a time.
John 14:7-9
The disciples said show us the father and that shall suffice.
As humans we want to peel back and see behind the curtain so we can understand it or even explain it away.
If we are not aware of how to see and read the effects we will miss the father and what he has done and is doing.
Isaiah 55:2
His ways are higher than our ways and so when we try to see God. from our ways we restrict him and limit him to be seen the way we want him to be seen which I think ultimately causes us to not really see him.
As an audio engineer you can put effects on a voice but you still always need that voice that's the source to effect. The better the source the more pure the source the better the effect is.
I sometimes joke back and forth with band members and tell them there's no talent knob on a soundboard. That's all you. I can do my best to make it sound good but ultimately it has to be something good to start with otherwise.
Sometimes an effect causes the sound to be significantly unique and immediately recognizable. I believe there are some effects that God has in our life that become immediately recognizable. They are something only he could do. It's his signature effect. Now the enemy will try to copy that effect like when auto-tune came out the first person who used it was unique and then everybody tried it and it was no longer cool anymore it was the copy. God has done some original amazing things and the devil always tries to copy it.
Luke 17:11-17 Ten Lepers Cleansed
One of the ten saw the change, the effect of God's word combined with his obedience.
He saw the kingdom. The 9 nine didn’t see it and neither did the Pharisees watching this all happen.
So some of God's signature effects are repentance, forgiveness, restoration, healing, forgiveness, wisdom, peace and salvation.
This week we are leading into the day of atonement. God's effect on our life this week is that we choose to repent, we choose to be cleansed, we choose and desire salvation. Our name is written in the book of life and not blotted out. These are effects that only God can do in our life. The devil really cannot copy these things and that's why we serve the one true living God.
God doesn't want to see us destroyed by sin he has made a way that sin does not have to be our destiny yet he requires us to recognize sin for what it is turn repent from it and look to him as a redeemer that he may apply the effect of the blood of the Lamb to our life and it cleanses it changes us. The submission to the work that Jesus did on the cross has an effect in our life.
So you may say I can't see God.
Can you see the effect of forgiveness?
Can you see the effect of redemption ?
Can you see the effect of Peace ?
Can you see the effect of Joy of the Lord being restored to someone's life?
Can you see the effect of Healing ?
If you can see the effects of God you are seeing God because only he can do that in our lives.
The one man who returned to Jesus and Gave Glory to God was made well.
I encourage us to testify of what God has begun in our lives so that he might complete it.
What effect of God has impacted your life?
What was you Aha moment that the Word became alive to you from this message?
One of the effects of God on my life was the moment He delivered me from depression and anxiety. Many people tried to explain it away by saying it was circumstances that changed in my life (new marriage, new life, etc..). But I KNEW it was God. This is something I had never been freed from before, no matter WHAT circumstance I was in. And once the deliverance happened, I couldn't explain it. All I know was it was something that was on me, someone prayed and layed hands on me, and then it was gone. Something like that doesn't just "go away" no matter how hard you try all the different things in the natural, including circumstances changing! Believe…
The effects of God have affected and impacted my life… and more than once! Physical healing, my hand/thumb still doesn’t hurt all these years later, He’s touched my mind freeing me from anger, prophecies fulfilled and more. He turns hearts and is turning hearts in this city and it’s happening before my very eyes!
Leading to aha… we gotta look! Look back and remember what the Lord HAS done and actively look for what He’s doing in the real live now. Not just to see God for myself but so that others can see and know Him, testify. “Now, look here…” I don’t want to miss God because I “kind of” know what He should look like or have my…
The effect of God that has impacted my life is the cleansing when confession and repentance takes place. It’s one thing to go about living life tidied up enough to get by, but cleansing, newness, a ever nook and cranny washed and made as new is a whole different thing.
Which works right in why my “aha”:
The water of the word reveals what He created you to be.
as opposed to the adding on to ourselves that we try to do on our own.
Ever effect we try to add to make ourselves original, remarkable are just that - add ons/counterfeits. The example I saw is the effect of peace in our lives. The best we can do is…
The effect of God that has impacted my life the most is His working of miracles in my life. From giving me the desires of my heart, to healing me of pain that would bring me to my knees at any given moment, to using me to influence someone’s life that has changed their life. Those effects have changed me forever. No man could ever have done those things, only God.
The “aha” moment was, like Rev. Ryan only the one coming back with thanks and praise. It makes me realize I need to be more vocally thankful to God for what He does in my life. For not only myself to hear but also others. People need to be…
What effect of God has impacted your life?
God continues to affect my life with His effects daily but the one that really is reverberating in my life on a daily basis is His compassion for people who I am in contact with on a daily basis. Without this effect, I would be out of tune with His heart beat and have no desire to share the gospel with them at all. There is not a day that goes by that His compassion does not rise up in me towards someone that causes me to get involved in a communication with them. During that conversation, God will impart something into them to encourage them or introduce or reintroduce Himself …