“How do You know me?” Nathanael had good reason to be perplexed; he’d never seen this guy before! Yet Jesus’s unexpected greeting indicated He not only knew Nathanael’s name, but also his character. When Jesus replied to his question with a supernatural word of knowledge, Nathanael responded in awe, “You are the Son of God!” Jesus seemed amused at his believing with such ease, essentially telling Him, “You haven’t seen anything yet!” (John 1:45-51).
Jesus was a teacher, yes, but He did much more than simply teach. He demonstrated the kingdom of God through a great number of signs and wonders, many of which are not even recorded in the Bible (John 21:25). Not everyone responded favorably to Jesus’s departure from the normal and customary, just as people had varied reactions to angelic pronouncements in years past.
We have a choice how to act when we hear or encounter God. Three possibilities strike me from scripture: skepticism, fear, or faith. Abraham believed God when the angel announced he and his wife would be parents in old age; Sarah laughed at the idea. Elderly Zachariah was skeptical at Gabriel’s promise that he would have a son, but Mary believed the same angel—who told her she’d bear a child as a virgin.
The supernatural multiplied dramatically when Jesus started His ministry and later launched the church. The religious keepers of convention were unbelieving and skeptical. They saw the very same miracles that caused others to wonder and to glorify God, but the Jewish elite responded with hard hearts, picking at technicalities like Jesus healing on the Sabbath. When the Gerasenes saw a wild demon-possessed man set free by Jesus, they responded in fear and asked Him to leave! Peter, also in fear, initially asked Jesus to depart from him when he encountered His miracle-working power with an impossible catch of fish. But Peter then chose to believe Jesus in spite of his discomfort, paving the way for his salvation.
I once took a college student out with me to pray for people for healing in a shopping mall one afternoon. We had just prayed for a young man, resulting in a remarkable and undeniable increase in his injured knee’s range of motion. We asked if we could pray again for it to be fully restored, and surprisingly the man said, “No.” Sensing fear, I asked, “Are you a little freaked out by this?” And he said, “Yes.” We politely backed off and left him to contemplate what had just happened.
How do you respond when you encounter God, whether through an unusual circumstance, through someone He sends, by His speaking to your heart, or through promises you read in His Word? Do you harden your heart in skepticism? Do you withdraw in fear and try to ignore it? Or do you respond in faith?
Revelation 3:20 indicates God is always knocking. He wants a deeper relationship with you, so open the door to Him! As you respond with a heart of faith, believing Him and surrendering to whatever He wants to do in you, for you, and through you, untold wonders may unfold.
