DiscipleWhomJesusLoves said:
In a sense that is true.
I was watching Liardon's video collection on God's Generals. Quite a number of them started well, but didn't finish well -- either died young, quit and disappeared or went into doctrinal error.
But despite all their weaknesses, God still used them and empowered them.
And perhaps He used them because they were the only willing and able vessels at the time.
But don't you think that if he had his "druthers," God would like to give his power to someone who will truly be able to handle it?
Don't you think that this would tickle God pink?
If I may quote from Lord Acton, the former Member of Britain's House of Lords, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
We see this in human nature all the time, in other aspects of life. In politics, relationships, money... you name it! If you give someone absolute power, they will eventually abuse it.
Look at police officers. Have you ever seen a police officer drive down the expressway going ten or twenty miles above the speed limit---even though his lights are not flashing? Of course you have! And why have you? Because the cop knows that no one is going to give him a speeding ticket. He has no immediate accountability.
If this holds true with the lesser powers of man, why would it not be true with the greater powers of God in the hands of mortal man?
Truly, I think this phenomena is why Book of Acts miracles are relatively few and far between.
I lived in Tulsa, the charismatic WOF Jerusalem for three years. I worked forty hours per week at a very prominent international charismatic ministry. What social life I had was centered around the church or people who were associated with the WoF movement (except for two political campaigns I participated in, and even then WoF people were prevailent.) My wife worked either as a prayer minister and as a teacher at a WoF school throughout our period in this city.
Yet, in all of our time at Tulsa, with all of the time we spent doing WoF things, I could probably count on one hand the number of supernatural miracles I witnessed. Moreover, I could likewise count on one hand---if there were that many--the number of people I knew who had witnessed miracles (with their own eyes) during that same period of time.
Admittedly, my experiences are anecdotal; they may or may not be representative of what every other person saw or experienced during this period. Nevertheless, to the extent that one person could have relatively unfettered access to the heart of the WoF movement, I certainly had this access. Therefore, if miracles were prevailent, if anybody would have found them, I would have.
(Please note that I am not being critical of any ministry. Nor am I saying that miracles don't happen. Nor am I disparaging anything that I did see. I am simply saying that, for all the talk of miracles, I saw very few while I lived in the faith capital of the United States. My comments relate only to the scarcity of miracles, not to their existence.)
Now if miracles are scarce in the very place where more people believe in miracles, per capita, than in any other place, then there must be a reason that transcends the basic questions of faith and unbelief.
I have read it several times.
