Doin' the Stuff

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Movement, used to coin all kinds of helpful sayings that captured the essence of a larger concept. One of my favorites is "Doin' the stuff."

He used to talk about his first experiences of going to church. As an unchurched new believer, he would read the Bible and hear about the incredible healings and miracles performed by Jesus and the early disciples. At church he would ask an elder, "Where do we do the stuff?"

"What stuff?"

"You know, the stuff in the Bible."

"Oh, we don't actually DO the stuff. We study about it, but we don't actually do it."

As we've started to go through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings, Luke's opening description of his writings to Theophilus really struck me again. In his Gospel and in Acts, he was describing all that Jesus "began to DO and to teach."

Jesus wasn't merely a great teacher--although He was one, and the greatest one who ever lived.

Jesus was also a DOER of what He taught. The works of Jesus were just as important as the words of Jesus. They went hand-in-hand.

And so it is with us, his disciples. If we are to be true followers of Jesus, we will not only teach about the Kingdom, but we will demonstrate the presence of the Kingdom by our Spirit-empowered works.

In the book of Hebrews, the writer tells us that God Himself confirmed the message of salvation through "signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will" (Heb. 2: 4).

Do you hunger, like me, to be a disciple of Jesus in both words and works? Let's get filled and equipped for ministry and then take the risks necessary to actually do the stuff.