What’s possible
Week four
The resurrection is proof that God punctuates historical reality with divine action. And it’s not an isolated incident. Weeks later, the Holy Spirit was given to the Church, and suddenly dead people were being brought back to life, ordinary people spoke in other languages, God’s persecutors became friends through direct encounter, and prophecies were made by the least and greatest.
Spiritual growth is so much about the daily, ordinary movement toward love in the depth of us, but it’s also about anticipating the impossible.
To look back and assume what’s been will always be, or to look forward without making room for the punctuating surprises of God, would be to live only half in the Kingdom. And so, we finish our journey by making room for expectation, for the pouring out of the Spirit, for prophetic imagination.
That looks different for each of us depending on the diverse gifts we’ve been given. For some,
it may be the imagining of physical healing for ourselves or people we know. For others, it may be dreams and visions or bringing the lost into the Kingdom.
It could also mean imagining the miracle of a peaceful household, a violence-free neighborhood, a restored marriage, or the ending of depression and anxiety.
Miracles come in all shapes and sizes; they’re unique to each of us and the needs of those around us. What’s important for us is to believe
that miracles are possible in God’s Kingdom and to expect a life full of God’s holy punctuations that allow heaven, and not earth, to determine what’s possible.
INHALE
Holy Spirit
EXHALE
Come
Reflection
Take a moment to joyfully reflect on the miracles God has done in Scripture, in your life, and in the stories of others. How does it feel to imagine God doing the same now in your life? How does it feel, in this moment, to sit in that joy again?
Think about your faith today. Is it alive and active or has it been worn down by unanswered prayer and the busyness of life? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to refresh and fill you, and for a new faith in his shocking and active presence in your life.
Thinking about the specific faith, grace, and gifts God has given you, what does it look like to live life from here, looking for miracles and putting yourself in the position to need and see them again?
Take a morning, afternoon, or day to wait on the Spirit, asking him to fill you afresh.
Holy Spirit, who has raised dead bodies, languaged the unlearned, healed all illnesses, and delivered the darkened, fill me with faith and love, with power and sensitivity, that I may make you known in my life and in this world ‘til Kingdom come.
Recommended Reading
If you, like us, love a good book to see you through your break time, we’ve curated a few of our favorites for you in a recommended reading list below.
Searching for and Maintaining Peace
by Jacques Philippe
Keeping the Sabbath Wholly
by Marva J. Dawn
Given: Poems
by Wendell Berry
Abundant Simplicity
by Jan Johnson
Stolen Focus
by Johann Hari
Soul Keeping
by John Ortberg
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
by John Mark Comer
Spiritual Health Reflection
If you would like to take a deeper, more comprehensive dive into where you’re at on your spiritual journey today, Practicing the Waqy has developed a tool to help you called the Spiritual Health Reflection. Our hope is that it can help name some of the places God is working in your life — where you see fruit — as well as spaces he’s inviting you to grow in.
To learn more, visit practicingtheway.org/reflection
Devotional created by Practicing the Way
To learn more, visit practicingtheway.org
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