Legalistic about the signs will lead to forfeiting the presence

1 Corinthians 1:21-23 (New International Version)

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²²Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

There has been something that I have noticed as I have spoken to people and seen on my travels around the world. It is something that is of concern to me. This scripture above has helped me to understand what it is.

There are many believers now who are becoming 'sign junkies'. They live to see the signs of God manifesting. Desiring to see signs is not the problem because signs will follow or accompany the preaching of the Gospel. The early church saw signs, and I myself have seen it many times while ministering. But desiring this signs at the expense of intimacy with Jesus and with the Father, this is a problem.

Like a drug addict these believes hang for a visual sign that pleases them, if no sign is seen the way they expect it to be seen, they leave disappointed. They run around from conference to conference, from speaker to speaker, as a drug addict would run from club to club or from dealer to dealer, looking for the next fix, that will satisfy until the craving starts again. They miss the one who can completely satisfy, Jesus.

According to the scripture above, the Jews ( religious, legalistic people ) where looking for a sign. Jesus wasn't enough for them. They were not satisfied with Him. They needed, in their religious minds, a sign to satisfy. They missed the very one, the giver of the signs. This is happening today, christians all over the world are forfeiting intimacy for a quick fix, pick me up. I have seen God move in a meeting, I have felt the weight of His glory, I have seen people change in the presence, yet many of these brothers leave unsatisfied as they did not get to see what they felt they should have seen. They missed the living God, by His Spirit, walking among us.

Lets use the Israelites as an example. They saw the plagues come upon the Egyptians, they saw the red sea open, they saw the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they saw manna from heaven and ate of it, they drank water from a rock ( water from a rock, what and amazing thing ), yet they still did not believe in the goodness of God.

Many will say, ' signs show that we have God's favor and that we are believers, they are proof of us being christians.' I would like to point out that no where in the bible does it say that this will be the distinction between non-believers and believers. In fact Jesus says in John 13: 33 - 36

³⁴"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

We see here that it is through our love for one another, our brotherly love, that the world will recognize that we are the disciples of Jesus.

In fact, God said to Moses that He would send an angel with the Israelites. How many believers today would be over excited about that. Think about it, we would have an angel with us, manifested for us and others to see. I would want that, and many times we have had angels appear in our meetings, one in our living room while we were in Dubai. We want more of that for sure. But that is not the issue. The issue is taking that instead of something far greater. Moses responded in an amazing way. He said (and I am paraphrasing ) Unless Your presence goes with us, we will not go. WOW. Now lets remember that no one was able to look at God or they would die. So Gods presence going with them meant that no one would actually see Him. They would feel Him, and know that He was there, but they would not see Him. They could have had the angel, and spoken about it and seen it and it would have told them what God wanted them to do, but, they wanted God's presence instead.

We can learn from this. You see it is not those things that we should be captivated with. The bible says that there will be false signs and wonders, so who knows. We want the real. We are to be captivated by Jesus, lost in His presence. When this happens I believe we will become mature, stewards of the glory, and we will see healing, deliverances, signs and wonders. This will be a natural overflow, not a strive, not an imbalanced lifestyle. And the fruit of the Spirit will be evidenced in our lives.

It saddens me at times, to see people in worship of the Father and of Jesus, and the presence and glory of God is in the room, and then I look around and see people looking at their hands for specks of gold or oil. They would leave a place of worship to look for something. Who cares if we are covered in gold, oil running from our hands, feathers falling all over, gems on the floor, if we are in a place of absolute worship of the lover of our soul, the ancient of days, the great I am, why does anything else matter. All else is just a by-product.

Please note, i am all for these amazing signs. I have seen them both through others ministering and through myself ministering, so how can I deny. I also desire to see an increase of these things. But we need to be seekers of the one who gives these things. We can't be junkies for them, conference junkies, looking for a fix. We see the sign and it should point us to the one who gives them. don't be satisfied with the signs, be satisfied with the presence.