Excerpt from the Lord Calls Sinners by David Benson Kiehn
"Tate Branham was my neighbor for
5 years. He is an extremely special
young man. He is full of joy and
laughter. He brings his parents tremendous delight, however, Tate is also faced
with tremendous obstacles. He is blind
and autistic and suffers from cerebral palsy.
For years his father would pray that Tate would speak five words in his
lifetime. All he wanted was to hear five
words, but Tate was mute.
Because of his various issues,
Tate was required by his doctors to take a lot medication. When Tate turned ten years old, his mother
felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit to remove Tate from all of his medication. Over a period of six months, the conviction
was consistent and steady. She finally
took Tate off of all his medication. A
few months later, Tate was in school and, seemingly out of nowhere, said,
“Momma. Momma.”
He had never spoke a single word
in eleven years until that day. The
Spirit of Christ lead his mother to remove him from all his medication, and God
started to answer the prayers of his father. The power of Jesus Christ was
communicated through Tate Branham.
The power of Jesus Christ is still
working in the lives of his people. Do
you believe in the power of Jesus Christ?
Do you believe that God can still do miraculous things?
Paul writes in Romans 1:16, “For
I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for all who believe.” The gospel communicates the power of Christ
in our lives. When people are confronted
with the gospel, its power is for all who believe. Believing in Jesus Christ is
the foundation of experiencing His power.
Throughout the life of Jesus, people were confronted with His power and
were forced to make a choice. Is this Jesus Lord, or is He something else?
C.S. Lewis explains, based on the biblical
testimony, that Jesus Christ either is Lord, a Liar or a Lunatic. He is either Lord because He is God or He is
a liar because He knows He is not God, but tells people He that He is God or He
is a lunatic because He believes He is God, but is not God. So when approaching Christ, Lewis says you
are confronted with a choice. He is the
Lord, a Liar or a Lunatic. The question for us is, when we see the power of
Christ, who do you believe Jesus Christ to be?
Is Jesus Christ Lord or not? We
must choose, for the power of Christ commands a response."