Renounce the Spirit of Tame Christianity

All of humanity was created by God to both touch and be touched by the mystery of God.

You have been created to be touched by that which is trans-rational. In fact, there is an irrepressible spirituality within human nature that cannot be denied; it’s a mystery. This mystery lies at the heart of prophetic evangelism. If we want to win souls through prophetic words and actions, we need to learn how to embrace the mystery of God.

“Mystery” in the Greek is muestérion, which is derived from muo (to shut the mouth). The word indicates something is silent or secret, hidden to another’s understanding. God wants to manifest His presence—which is hidden—with signs and wonders in a way that will make skeptics gasp. Their questions and debates cease when they see the mystery of God.

In our day, Christians have tried to do away with this mystery by making the gospel political and palatable. But in doing so, we’ve watered down the truth. Intervarsity author Rick Richardson says, “Mystery is very attractive to people today. People want an experience more than an explanation.” We’ve thought that a generation wants answers, but I believe what they really need in this hour are mysteries.

We have a generation raised on supernatural-centered TV shows, movies, social media, and books. Many have had supernatural experiences with the demonic, whether through reading horoscopes, visiting psychics, or playing with Ouija boards. This generation is not looking for the same ol’ religiosity. They don’t want the normal—they want something beyond.

The Greek word for “manifest” is phaneroó, which means “to make manifest or visible or known what has been hidden or unknown, to manifest, whether by words, or deeds, or in any other way.”

Now let’s put it all together. To manifest the mystery is to make known what has been unknown and hidden, whether by words or deeds, something that will shut a person’s mouth. We often share TED Talks when we should be showing “Jesus walks”!

This is exactly what God is calling us to. Right now, the Church is attempting to normalize Christianity, to make it so normal that everyone can swallow it. With the same efforts, we try to make God tame and explainable. But God’s ways are past finding out. His ways are above our ways, and His thoughts are above our thoughts (see Isa. 55:8).

That’s the God this generation secretly desires. They don’t want a domesticated Jesus. They want an authentic, unleashed Jesus who can be more than anything their finite minds can fathom. This is a good thing because that’s exactly what God wants to give us. God wants our faith to be experientially based on more than what we can figure out. Paul said, “Our gospel didn’t come to you with wise and persuasive words but with the demonstration of the Holy Ghost and power” (see 1 Cor. 2:4-5). Biblical faith rests upon the power of God.

You were born from above to walk in this mystery, and the sooner you embrace it, the sooner you’ll be able to manifest it to the world.

And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables” (Mark 4:11).

God wants you to know the mystery. What I mean by mystery is that, by our own human ability, we cannot figure it out because it is moving in a revelatory flow of gifts. But God can give us a revelation of the mystery. You and I are supposed to know the mystery because if we know it, we can be conduits for His power and influence.

Denouncing Our Domestication

Years ago, the Lord spoke to me about mystery in a way that transformed the way I look at evangelism and our day-to-day walk with Jesus. I was at a Leaders Advance conference at Bethel, Redding, and while Bethel Senior Pastor Bill Johnson was speaking on the kingdom, I heard the voice of the Lord in my spirit so strongly that it was almost audible.

The Lord said to me, “Sean, you’ve become domesticated.”

I then did something I don’t recommend doing when God puts His finger on something in your life—I tried to defend myself.

“I’m not becoming domesticated,” I said. “I preach open air, I’ve witnessed to psychics, and I’ve given words of knowledge to total strangers! How is that domesticated?”

The Lord challenged me, saying, “Yeah, but you’ve done all that before. That was edgy for you at one time. But now it’s relatively normal for you to do that. I’m calling you to step out and explore new edges and new frontiers.”

God continued to show me how the Christian walk is about forever exploring new adventures with Him. We have to push against our nature to be creatures of habit so we can follow the Pioneer of our faith (see Heb. 12:2). As we do this, God stretches our faith and takes us to new levels with Him.

When Peter walked on the water with Jesus, it stretched his faith. He learned something about how crucial it was to keep his eyes on Jesus to do the impossible. Imagine if Peter walked on the water with Jesus every day. It would become pretty common to him, wouldn’t it? Soon, he would lose that desperate sense of keeping his eyes laser-locked on Jesus.

We can’t let that happen in our lives. We need to continually pursue the mystery. Instead of settling into evangelistic habits that are comfortable for us, we need to take it a step further, try something new, and practice the next impossible thing.

Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1).

We have to embrace the mystery before we can manifest the mystery. We must be regarded by humanity as conduits of servanthood and stewards of the mysteries of God. The prophetic is all about being able to embrace and employ mystery.

I remember one time I was ministering at an altar and a young man came up looking a little puzzled. He just seemed intellectually bound. He said to me, “Would you pray for me, because my mind won’t let my heart go free.” That sums up the battle so many of us have with embracing the mystery of God, and that’s exactly the box that God wants to break us out of. So often, our mind in its desire to understand won’t let our heart feed on the mystery of God.

When the whole of our Christianity becomes predictable or the majority of our witness becomes predictable, something is majorly wrong. We will never win souls this way. We need to let go of predictability and embrace the discomfort of mystery. We must let the Holy Spirit call a “quarterback play-altering audible” in our midst. It should influence our evangelism and even our everyday lives. Instead of trying to live by reason, we should live captivated by and invested in God’s mystery 24/7, like a book we couldn’t put down if we tried. Trust me, living out God’s mystery is much more interesting—and much more effective at winning souls.