Recently I encountered the phrase “normal Christianity.” That is not a phrase I am accustomed to hearing and so it caused me to pause
and consider the concept. One of my first thoughts was to try to define normal Christianity. If we were to take a survey of church-going
believers and ask them to define the phrase normal Christianity, I wonder what they would say. No doubt the first criteria most would be to
elude to whether or not the Christian attends church regularly. They would then mention a regular practice of prayer and maybe daily
Bible study as actions in which normal Christians would be involved. Finally, most would in some way discuss living a life that is consistent
with traditional Christian values like honesty, kindness, diligence, faithfulness, etc. After a day of surveying and receiving answers like
this, we would probably sit back and rejoice that the people of God know what normal Christianity is all about.
The longer I pondered the phrase normal Christianity the more convinced I became that we are not experiencing what the Bible would
define as normal Christianity. The reason I make this rather radical statement is that the Church as I see it in the Book of Acts does not
look at all like what we see today. Some of those people had actually seen Jesus and they certainly were privileged to be under the
ministries of elders who had walked with Jesus. That is why the first century Church is the model after which we are to design the Church
in the Twenty-first century and the standard by which we define normal Christianity.
The basic difference between the First century Church and the Twenty-first century is power. When I read the Book of Acts and see how
God demonstrated His power through these everyday folks, I almost turn green with envy. My cry to God is this: “Why don’t we see these
things happening today like they did back then?” Perhaps the answer to this question is not all that hard. Maybe the reason for the
regular demonstration of divine power was that these people expected it to happen. After those people had lived in an atmosphere of faith
day in and day out for weeks and months, they fully expected God to supernaturally manifest all the time. They expected the miraculous
to happen. We do not.
In some Church circles today miracles are totally dismissed as an historic fact but with no possibility of present-day occurrence. In other
churches miracles are preached about and believed in, but in reality there are few (if any) miracles that actually happen. It would seem
our idea of normal Christianity does not embrace the likelihood of God demonstrating His power to us or through us, which was what
normal was all about in the early Church. I think it goes without saying that we must return to that state of expectancy the early Church
had with regards to God demonstrating His power in our churches, our homes, and in our personal lives.
In this brief teaching we do not have the time to fully develop why the early Church lived in a miraculous state, but suffice it to say, their
normal days were quite different than ours. They lived to help others; they walked in a state of love toward their brothers and sisters in
Christ that few of us have ever witnessed. Their Christianity was a lifestyle not a once-a-week visit on Sunday morning to a place where
religious activities happen. Their lives were enveloped with the Word of God that was preached and taught by those who had walked with
Jesus, and they experienced His anointing that was on them. Believers nowadays spend a few brief moments quickly reading a verse or
two of Scripture and they tend to treat prayer as a ritual that must be done. Such shallow religious activities hardly equate to the
dedicated lives of those early Christians. So, the next time you read about those wonderful miracles in the Bible, consider that you too can
experience a life in which the supernatural power of God is common-place, all you have to do is to pattern your life after the followers of
Jesus who lived in the First century.
Remember the word EXPECTANCY. What you expect is what you will get. God will not do more than you expect nor will you see His power
at levels above your expectancy; actually your level of expectancy is what tells God how Big He can be to you. So the key to living in the
supernatural zone of God’s power is your expectancy – the Bible calls this expectancy faith. I encourage you to start right now expecting
God to be God on your behalf! Amen.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
II Corinthians 5:7