Gathering Disciples: Surprised by the Supernatural

By Andrea Jones

As we plan and forge ahead to gather disciples, be encouraged. Supernatural experiences are happening already in the lives of the unbelievers around you — just like they were in the early church.

When Jesus asks us to gather disciples, we can expect people will already be getting supernaturally showered with God’s graces. Our call as Christ’s disciples is to open our lives enough to allow the supernatural witness of Christ to flow through us. Just as the 72 were joyfully surprised in Luke 10:17 when they proclaimed, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name,” expect to be surprised by the fertilizer the Holy Spirit has already turned into the soil for you.

Jesus didn’t just show up and tell His disciples to “follow Me” and then keep walking endlessly with no apparent purpose. He didn’t ask them to trudge on silently behind Him until they were utterly worn out from following. Jesus invited them into first experiencing miracles and then to be a part of performing those miracles for themselves. He invited them to experience God early on in their following. The crazy “cast your net to the other side” ministry approach of Jesus is how God still chooses to work.

God loves to surprise us with the supernatural. As we stumble along with our very human plans, procedures and systems, which all have their place, God sweetens the fruit of our labor with His love poured out through miracles. In your gathering of disciples, be relieved to know that you’ve merely been following the manna trail left for you by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has already been doing works in the heart and lives of those individuals who have managed to walk through the door of your house, barn, community center, or meeting in a public space. Find comfort in the fact that the supernatural is there, moving, speaking, transforming a person’s heart, and softening the ground before you have even come into the picture.

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“Carol learned of God’s goodness to her, felt His touch in her life, before she knew the name of her Healer.”

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Carol, Cancer, and a New Church

A few months into our first church plant, we heard the full testimony of how one of Pillar Church’s new believers came to know God. We knew Carol had come to know the Lord over many long months. We knew she had also been healed from cancer and was daily working out her salvation … very vocally and trying to “figure God out.” Sometimes in the middle of our Bible studies, Carol, with a mouth that would make a sailor blush, would leak out pieces of her past life. We had seen her go from boldly proclaiming the Bible to be a “load of bleepin’, bleepin’, rubbish” to “Did you all know we need to let our Muslim friends know the truth of God’s Word?” How did God take this very intelligent, independent, sassy middle-aged, dedicated, atheist woman and light her on fire for Him?

The first time we met Carol, she was sitting at the back of a community hall we had rented for our “Launch Day.” Like all good church planters, we had done our due diligence and been meeting for months in our house praying and building our core team. Then came the day we went out two by two. We dropped church flyers, letting every house and car in our area know the name, place, and time Pillar Church was going to meet.

The morning of Pillar’s first service, Carol showed up. We had the normal awkward small talk with her about the weather and asked her, “How did you hear about us?” She told us she lived in the area and got our flyer dropped at her house, so she decided to come to check us out. By the end of the service, before the last song played, Carol was gone. We could tell as the service went on, Carol seemed to get more and more agitated. The message was on “The Man Born Blind” — a man who had been healed, but when asked by the Pharisees who healed him, the man kept repeating, “I don’t know who healed me! I was blind! All I know is I’m healed; I was blind and now I can see.” We assumed the sermon somehow upset her and were sad to think we would probably never see her again.

The next Sunday as we set up for church, two women approached us. They were Carol’s co-workers and were dog sitting for Carol while she was away on vacation. After knowing Carol for years, they confessed only feeling bold enough to witness to her a few months ago when Carol had been diagnosed with cancer and given three to six months to live. Feeling guilty they had been too intimidated by her to talk to her about God, they decided to go to the hospital together and pray specifically for God to heal Carol. Then they left.

When they next saw Carol at work, she told them her cancer was gone. Just gone. The doctors had no explanation for it, but Carol knew what her co-workers had prayed, and she knew her cancer was gone. She just didn’t know who it was who healed her. After her second clear scan, she went home and sat on her couch and prayed for the first time: “Whoever You are that healed me — He, She, It … let me know who You are.” At that instant, Carol told her friends, a flyer for Pillar Church came in through her mailbox on her door and landed in her front hallway. This was the Saturday before we met Carol at church.

Carol then came to this church in Wales only to find an American preacher preaching on a man who was blind getting healed. Carol’s friends told us that she was so freaked out she had to leave. She said that she was sitting in church hearing her own story, except in the story the preacher was teaching, the man was blind, so he couldn’t see that it was Jesus who had healed him. Carol told her friends she felt so exposed, so spiritually vulnerable. It was like the preacher at the church had somehow been told to tell her Jesus was the one who healed her. She asked them if they knew this new church, and they told her they had never heard of it before. It was brand-new.

Early Grace and Supernatural Witness

Long before we ever got on our knees and prayed for our community, before we knew where our first Sunday as a church was going to be, or where and when we would hand out our church flyers, God was showering a middle-aged, hellion of a woman with His early grace. Carol learned of God’s goodness to her, felt His touch in her life, before she knew the name of her Healer. There was a softening of her heart through a quiet, healing touch. She would soon become one of God’s most vibrant evangelists in that community.

There is always a supernatural witness preceding our gatherings. Miracles and the supernatural are early grace poured out on seekers where they get a chance to experience God’s love themselves. Jesus said, “You do not believe my words? Believe the miracles, for they testify of the words I’m saying…”

There was no need for Carol’s co-workers to be salesy in their evangelism techniques — no need for them to guilt her or condemn her or her lifestyle. Instead, they came to her in her time of need, prayed for God to heal her, and let the Holy Spirit do the speaking. Then God did the healing of Carol’s soul as well as her body. Friends, as we obey our call as Christ’s disciples and open our lives enough to allow the supernatural witness of Christ to flow through us, we will see the blessing of many more Carols in our congregations.

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