God Has No Experts

As one who has been involved in the transformation and healing the land movement that is taking place throughout the world, I have never been comfortable with referring to those of us who have seen God at work to some degree in these areas in our own sphere of influence as "experts" or as "practitioners" as if we had mastered the technique for God to bring transformation. We sometimes get invited to these "national summits" as if we were at the top, at the summit, from where we can dispense answers to others.

The kingdom of God is not a "top-down" approach to human relations. In fact, the true apostles are those who get underneath, who go deeper, who lay a foundation underground that others can build upon as the kingdom of God increases from the bottom level upward.

I am also convinced that there are no experts in bringing healing or transformation to a community. The moment we think we know something about how God works, and reduce it to a formula or even a principle that by-passes the need for a personal relationship with God, we find that God will usually, if not always, surprise us. We find that He never works on two different occasions in the same way. He has a way of showing up outside of our box, or our mental understanding of things.

In facing new challenges, I personally find the need to abandon all sense of expertise, all reliance on past experience or human knowledge, and to cast myself upon the mercy of God yet another time. He tends to come only to those who are desperate for Him, and who admit that they don't know what to do.

God does His best work through kings like Jehoshaphat, who, in a time of crisis, simply cry out that "we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, neither do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You" (II Chronicles 20:12).

The reason why God works powerfully among the Inuit is not because they are a strong people, but because they are a weak people who in themselves have come to recognize their total inadequacy to overcome the challenges that they face. They are a broken people, who no longer have intellectual answers to satisfy the western way of thinking.

There are no words to express their deepest sense of need. They have been reduced to a cry, a groan, a sigh, a tear. They are beginning to release their heart cry for God which is deeper than words. God healing power is never more evident than when people acknowledge that they don't know what to do. God rarely shows up where people already have the answers for others.

That which prepares the way for the coming of the glory of the Lord is simply a cry, a prayer, a willingness to repent, a willingness to change, a humbling of oneself before the mighty hand of God. Many times I have been driven to my knees with a sense that I had nowhere else to go, and nothing to say except a cry that acknowledged that only God understood the deepest longings of my heart that only He could fulfill.

"Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear, the upward glancing of the eye when none but God is near!"

When things get desperate, we don't even know how to pray as we ought, no matter how much experience we may have had. We never become "experts" in God's Kingdom. If we think that we know how God will work or answer our prayers, we reduce God to our mindset, and then He will surprise us by working outside of our box.

In this picture, you see both a Jewish and an Inuit lady embracing and their hearts connecting. What is it that connects them? Why do they instantly feel drawn to one another when they had never met before? Is it because they know so much?

No, it is because both the Inuit and the Jewish people have been a broken people. They have known suffering, rejection, abandonment, exile, and dispossession of land. They share the same longings to be a free people in their own homeland.

God will use a people who are humble and have been broken to reach the nations far more than He can use people who see themselves as experts or practitioners who have the answers for others. The kingdom of God does not work that way. It is the humble who are exalted, and the meek who inherit the earth.

I recently read a powerful book by Tricia McCary Rhodes entitled, Intimate Intercession. In it, she writes, "People who read books on prayer are usually hoping to learn how to pray more effectively. If that describes you, you'll be eager for me to give you some handles on how to get started or move beyond the point you are at right now.

"Should you commit an hour a day to pray for others? Should you fast consistently or spend one night a week in prayer? Do you need to have some weekly plan that ensures every need is prayed for regularly?

"The answer for all these things, for now, is no. What I'm going to ask you to do instead is to set aside your expectations of what this journey is supposed to be like. Let go of all the 'should's' and 'ought to's' that come at you when you think of prayer.

"Resist the nagging voices that tell you if you would just work harder or learn more or become more spiritual, you'd finally get this whole intercession thing right.

"Andrew Murray wrote that, 'the sense of impotence is the soul of intercession.' Don't rush past this blessed truth. Do you feel powerless at times in intercession or even impotent to begin or persevere in prayer? Do you feel inadequate?

"Do you look at yourself and wonder what God is thinking of when He calls you an intercessor? Do you watch others further along the path and question whether you will ever get there?

"If your answer is yes to any one of these questions, then there is incredibly good news for you. The very thing that makes you doubt yourself is that which actually qualifies you to be an intercessor.

"Why? Because God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). The very foundation of humility is the ability to see our own need and impotence, our helplessness to do the things we want to do.

"This is the soul of intercession because it opens the door for us to receive God's grace, and 'grace is God's transforming power to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves.'"