The Jerk

​Matthew 18:3….instructs  me  to change and  be like a little child. And it says that unless I do  that, I will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Wow!  So guess what?  I am making an exchange to change. Today I am throwing my theologies, out the door, my perceptions, out the door,  my handbooks, doctrine manuals and even some best sellers, all out the door!  Give me the primer!  See God work, see God move.  God said go Sabrina, go.  God said stop.  God loves you, God loves me….   I come as child with no perceived formalities.  Maybe that is the position we need to get back to.  The primal position.  Let’s go back to the beginning and learn it all over again  Our American alphabet is the basis of our communication as well as comprehension of how to live.  Imagine if we treated the bible that.   Except you be a little child…. Wow this really go me thinking.  My mind went back to when I  had just gotten saved and witnessed the aftermath of the death of a small child.  The child had gotten hit by a car and his lifeless body was lying in the street.  It was an emotional scene for both the mother and the young woman who had hit the child.  I was with my then, mentor at the time.  We were both in college, but she was more “mature” in the Lord than I and for all accounts many of us on campus looked up to her and tried to model after  her walk as well as seek her for Godly wisdom.  As I saw the child laying in the street, I can still remember the clothes he had on.   I looked at my mentor, grabbed her hand  and said,    “ Let’s go pray for HIM”. However, she sternly jerked me back as I had already taken about two steps ahead of her.  I was told "NO", with no explanation and so it was at that moment that I now became a spectator like everyone else.  Was this child like faith?  Well at this point all I knew was that Jesus raised the dead and that He was a healer, so….Why not?!!  I did not know about protocols, getting approvals or fear of failing.  I wanted to do it, but  instead I got jerked back.  I know now that my mentor did it for what she thought was right and she probably wanted to protect my reputation.  After all, I was a neophyte to all of this and I had to be taught not be so zealous and to wait on the guidance from the Holy Spirit. But was this the correct thing to do? However, I believe that this  jerk... this jerk,  jerked more than my hand.  It jerked me into the world of “Religious Order and Protocols”.  What if it had been the Holy Spirit pulling me to pray for that child?  Had his spirit not returned back to into his body, I would have not thought any less of God being a healer.  I would not have had one iota of embarrassment.    My logic would have been that “ I am going to keep going and believing until the miracle comes”.  Like the lepers.  Maybe we all begin with this great child like faith, but it gets tainted by religious adult faith, which in turn diminishes the formation of miracle movements. We get programmed into thinking that only certain elites within the church can ever attempt certain acts,  religion tells us that we are not spiritual enough, that we don’t pray enough, fast enough, read the bible enough, it tells us that we have not reached  our maturity in the Lord to attempt to do such things, religion says that that I must be close to being perfect or have a title.    Religion tells us “One day, when I get a hold of God I am going to raise the dead”, while Kingdom says, “Now is the time to raise the dead.”  This jerk has held me for years and it has been nurtured by many other occasions.    After 30 years of salvation I still felt the jerk.  It had become apparent while I was standing in the hospital room of one of my dearest friends.  She had just died.  There were about twenty people in this room.  The family,  pastors, leaders, prophets, ministers; probably all of the fivefold ministry times two stood around my friend in a semi circle.   We joined hands, we prayed and we cried.  But I must admit to you today, that my tears were not for the lost of my friend, my tears were because as I looked at all of the power standing in that room, no one… not a one suggested that we pray her back to life. Maybe it crossed the minds of a couple of us in there, I just know that I I was disgusted with myself for being such a coward and not saying anything.  I felt that we had let her down per say.  Amazing how we will pull on the medical experts to try every last thing in the book to prolong life, yet some of us are so slow to pray for healing, to pray for life.   But again, it is a stronghold of the mind.  I remember having a conversation about a well known  pastor who had died and a few of the younger congregants were attempting to find his body and pray for his resurrection.  There was a whole lot of jerking going on as well as some rebukes toward those ironically “young saints”  were rallying for a miracle.   Mentees were forced to “Have a talk with them”, leaders had to quickly squash this movement before it got out of hand.  In this instance, the strength of our strong hold/ mindset prevailed, whereas to a child, to pray with expectation would have been the norm. 
I was told that years ago in a remote village in Africa,  of a people who  were walking on water!  When asked about how and why;  all they knew to say was, “Because Jesus did“.  . I remember when the discussion was going on about the pastor who had died, someone made a statement that they thought would seal the deal so to speak. “Well his body has been embalmed now so there is no way he can be raised from the dead”.  This statement coming from a well seasoned saint took me back for a moment.  I remember looking at her and could literally see that she had her faith within a border.  I wanted to say to her “ Do you really think that Formaldehyde, which God made anyway can keep the resurrection power of Jesus from raising the dead?” I remained silent.   My thoughts were simple….”Are we ready for this?” If he were to be raised from the dead, are we ready for the  repercussions of media frenzy, religious groupies , monuments, pilgrimages, character defamation, accusations and life changes  that would surface because of a another “Lazarus”  miracle?  My opinion is this: The adult religious mature in Christ sect  is not ready to handle  such an event.  But guess who is?  Those as little children who have entered the Kingdom of God, knowing their citizenship, authority and King, these children can handle it.  They can handle it because in the Kingdom, such is a expected and always anticipated. All that they know is what  God says. The system of the world does not apply to them and when they hear the  language of religion, doubt, fear and excuses, just like a visitor in a foreign land, they do not understand. They have a  simple powerful faith and trust in the great God Almighty.  They will break away from the jerk.