Rule # 1: Check Your Power Cord

Any good adventurer knows that treasure is not stumbled upon through haphazard exploration but discovered through calculate decisions and hard lessons learned. Indiana Jones didn't just come across the Ark of the Covenant one day; he outran massive boulders, dodged poison darts, faced his fear of snakes, was tied up by Nazis, outwitted by evil-minded antagonists, etc. but at every turn he somehow managed to elude certain doom with his intellect, charm, and a fair amount of luck.

I always tell my son, it's not a big deal to make a mistake, what matters is how you handle it when you do.  No doubt Indi learned a lesson or two - "tricks of the trade", if you will - in his many preposterously perilous predicaments.

That is exactly what this blog article is about. Lessons I've learned, some of them hard and deeply personal, through my adventures as a follower of Christ. Turns out Jesus doesn't take the beaten path.  He takes this straight and narrow one that takes you up and down mountains, through raging waters, skirting precipices, and all kind of treacherous terrain. Not the popular route by any means but, the glorious sights and experiences it leads you to are a thousand times more worth it than the fleeting challenges you'll face.

I deemed these rules "Kyle's Rules" because they very relevant to my life. There are only four of them currently as I like to keep things simple. These are rules that I continually remind myself of in my relationship with God; rules that keep me out of religious Pharisee territory (which almost seems like a contradiction since Pharisees were all about rules); and, perhaps most compelling, rules that have resulted from my interactions with God.

God, thank you for being a patient teacher with us slow and stubborn learners.

Rule # 1: Check Your Power Cord

It's Computer Troubleshooting 101. Always check if something is plugged in before proceeding. It's just embarrassing, not to mention a waste of time, to have a PC tower dissected into mess of screws and components only to realize the thing didn't have power.

The same goes for operating as a child of God. Before you get your knickers all twisted up about the most recent and inevitable drama that's surfaced in your life, check your power source. Make sure you are plugged in and connected with the One who sees everything and can make it all work out.

A while back I was in a season of life where I had this insatiable desire to see miracles happen around me but they just weren't happening the way I expected. I was doing everything I thought was right - I was praying for people, I was stepping out in faith, I was even reading a Smith Wigglesworth book - but still no immediate results.

This went on for quite some time - weeks, maybe months - and then, one day, I was praying and asked God what I was missing. That's when He dropped this revelation in my lap: I was more concerned about seeing a miracle happen than I was about seeing someone healed.

Now, that might seem like a redundancy to you but it made a world of sense to me. It was a classic tunnel-vision mistake. I had lost sight of the big picture: God's heart. God doesn't just want to heal peoples' physical ailments, He wants to see them completely and entirely restored in mind, body, and soul and turn to Him.

Jesus didn't just heal the paralytic that was lowered through the roof, he forgave his sins (Mark 2:8). He didn't just heal the man who had been sick for 38 years at the pool of Bethesda, he told him to get off his keister and pick up his own mat (John 5:8). He didn't flaunt his super powers, he washed his disciples feet and taught them humility and honor (John 13:5).

Isn't that so like God? He bypasses our behavioral issues and cuts right to our heart condition. I could have probably saved myself a whole lot of time by making sure my power cord was plugged in and concerning myself with God's heart for people.

Shortly after the realization of this, I shifted my mindset from miracle-mode to care-about-people-mode and as a result, God allowed me to be a vessel for several really cool experiences. I prayed for someone's back pain and afterwards asked them to test it out and they were able to touch the ground by just bending over, which is impressive without the miracle in my book, but was also something that would have caused sharp pain before. My wife and I also saw a woman walking with a limp and asked if we could pray for her. Again, after we finished, we asked her to test it out. She started walking as if to favor the pain but gradually smoothed out realizing she didn't need to.  So. Cool.  Praise God, the finisher of our faith.

As an aside, when you pray to see miracles in your life, be careful; you just might end up being the one needing one.

My advice to you when you seem to have run into a road block in your life: check your power cord. Are you even plugged in to the power source or are you trying to do the impossible all on your own?

How?

Pray. Ask God to reveal that which is holding you back from the good things he has for you. James 1:17 says "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." Philippians 1:6 says "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Stand on those scriptures, set your eyes on hope, seek out peace, and wait on God, who knows what is best for His children.

Another thing that really helps is, well, my Rule # 2: Keep it Real. But you'll have to stay tuned because I don't have it written out yet.  More to come!