What must it be like to pray, to finish, and then have the ground shake? What must it be like to have so much integrity in the expression of your faith that those who accuse you don’t know what to do with you? They know they disagree with you, they think you might be quite dangerous even, but they are at a loss, unable to completely deny the truth of what you are saying?Wouldn’t it be great to have a faith like that, a life like that? Wouldn;’t it be astonishingly exciting to be the kind of person who is so open to the Spirit of God that you can quiet a fevered room with the loving wisdom and authority of the prophetic voice God has given you? I think it would certainly be intriguing!
Before he had such experiences and such a voice, Peter didn’t think much of himself, as we’ve discussed previously. He was an “average” bloke, something of a failure. He was someone God called, called in much the same way as many people are today. He was someone who was willing to trust and obey, to the best of his ability, even when it meant reaching the limits of his ability and getting things, seemingly, disastrously wrong.
Are we willing to put ourselves in a similar position to Peter where rather than relying on ourselves, or constantly berating ourselves over failure and weakness, we instead make ourselves available? God loves us all the same way He loved Peter. He wants a relationship with us all the same way He did with Peter, pursuing him constantly throughout his life, and He longs for us to be willing and available so that we might live in such a way as the ground might shake when we pray.