Lockdown Day 27 : A BIGGER-BOTTLE-BELIEF-SYSTEM
I am reminded again this morning of my recent visit to Syria and the amazing heroes of faith I met. For eight uninterrupted years they have faithfully ministered to the people of their regions through deep despair, severe suffering, and extreme sacrifice. And yet, the message we heard was not the one we expected. It was not a message of people lamenting their circumstances and bemoaning the fact that they were victims of an unjust war. It was not a group of people seeking sympathy in the midst of their hardship. There was a contagious excitement present in those we met. Without exception the one message they all shared was simply: “THIS IS GOD’S TIME FOR SYRIA!”
My faith was challenged. This was such a different message than the relentless reports from the news media that made us believe Syria was at a point of no return. Like the apostles I cried out to God: “Increase my capacity O Lord. Help me to look beyond the obvious and lead me into the significant. Enlarge my spiritual capacity and my ability to look through Your eyes. Develop my capacity to respond O Lord.”
Enter COVID-19 and a five-week lockdown
The one golden thread in all the testimonies we heard from the Syrian pastors is the same golden thread for COVID-19 – We need to turn the hardship into a harvest. This pandemic can become a conduit for building capacity. The one Pastor from Homs shared how the war had matured believers and resulted in unprecedented growth in the Church.
Capacity growth and capacity building are inseparable from a faith that is stretched and challenged to the limit. The simple truth is that the greatest threat to a pursuit of spiritual maturity is a safe religion, nestled in health, wealth and prosperity, that limits capacity development.
And this is THE challenge of COVID-19!
Christians are often like empty bottles when we attend services and seminars, hoping to be filled with information and to leave as “filled vessels” with more knowledge than before to address the needs in the world. These meetings are focused on content more than on capacity.
What should happen is that we leave a service not as “FILLED vessels” but as “EXPANDED vessels” and a capacity that has been stretched and enlarged. We need to enter a meeting like a 1-liter container of available volume and leave the meeting like a 5-liter container, with a greater capacity to contain more. But sadly most sermons are about content and not capacity. We inform but we don’t interpret. During COVID-19 we need to increase our capacity to develop a Kingdom Culture. We need to be discontent to live a life of spiritual smallness, just to fill our small bottles every Sunday without any desire to increase our capacity to be relevant in the season we live in.
COVID-19 demands capacity building and capacity development. The question every believer should ask himself or herself is whether we are satisfied with standard capacity or do we desire an overflow capacity? Embrace it!
From the Book: CAPACITY