You Were Born for This - Review

From a message by Pastor Randy Thornton

“You can know about God but not be a conduit of his power,” said the Rev. Randy Thornton, senior pastor of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., as he preached recently at the church. “If you don’t see the demonstration of the Holy Spirit in your life, how is all the knowledge helping?”

Thornton, 52, recently began a sermon series based on “You Were Born for This: Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles,” a book published in 2009 by Bruce Wilkinson, author of “The Prayer of Jabez.” (Six million copies of “The Prayer of Jabez” have been sold.)

Multnomah Press, publishers of “You Were Born for This,” says about the book: “Anyone can do a good deed, but some good works can only happen by an act of God. Around the world these acts are called miracles – not that even religious people expect to see one any time soon. But what would happen if millions of ordinary people walked out each morning expecting God to deliver a miracle through them to a person in need? “You Were Born for This” starts with the dramatic premise that everyone at all times is in need of a miracle, and that God is ready to meet those needs supernaturally through ordinary people who are willing to learn the “protocol of heaven”…Wilkinson describes how anyone can be a ‘Delivery Guy’ from heaven in such universally significant arenas of life as finances, practical help, relationships, purpose and spiritual growth.”

“Publisher's Weekly” says, “Peppered with stories of miracles in which he (Wilkinson) has participated or that he has observed, the book focuses on ways that people can intuit the leading of God to respond to the needs of others. The place to begin, Wilkinson recommends, is by believing that ‘everyone you encounter has an unmet need that God strongly desires to meet supernaturally through you.’ Critics of The Prayer of Jabez” will find similar problems with this book – the suggestion that God responds to prayer with instant results and more than a whiff of a packaged program. In this volume, however, Wilkinson responds to previous criticisms of a self-serving theology by concentrating on helping readers make miracles happen for other people rather than for themselves.”

Pastor Thornton endorses “You Were Born for This.” Here are some of his comments from a sermon, “Doing God’s Work by God’s Power,” he based on the book:

“You can be a believer and not operate in God’s power,” Thornton said. “Will you partner with God to deliver miracles?”

Most of us want God to deliver miracles for us, but as we “know God,” we’ll want Him to bring miracles to others, too, he said.

He referred to this passage: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:17-20).

“Every day, start out your life not living for ‘you,’” Thornton said. “The miracles that Jesus did were because of the relationship between him and God.”

“…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18).

“Do you believe God can use the words you say to change someone’s life?” Thornton asked. “Does God want to use you? The answer is ‘Yes!’”

Peter spoke confidently “in the flesh” about his dedication to Jesus, but he then denied Jesus three times. After he was filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter preached with confidence.

“Are you willing to be a conduit for the Holy Spirit?” Thornton asked. “Really, it’s quite the simple heart that says, ‘Here am I, Lord. Send me.’”