I’ve been walking with the Lord for 30 years, and it occurs to me that one thing I’ve never seen is a miraculous healing or move of God at a Christian entertainment venue…like at a church where the pastor’s singing voice, pulpit style and tailored attire are just as important as ‘telling the story.’ Churches with James Brown preachers and Jerry Lee Lewis musicians. (A’ight, don’t hate or palpitate, just appreciate the weight of the truth I’m about to levitate!)

Christian entertainment speaks to the flesh & will chase the spirit of prophesy & the anointing for the miraculous immediately, because it establishes a ‘culture of dishonor’ for the spirit. That’s why miracles and entertainment don’t mix! The very point of entertainment precludes the environment for miracles: attention. Entertainment, by definition, is the capturing of the attention and the disconnection of Spirit-led thought. It’s all about amusement, the very absence of thought. That really makes the term ‘Christian entertainment’ an oxymoron, because anything that’s Christ-honoring focuses all the attention on Jesus.

Am I saying that all entertainment is bad or wrong? No! Absolutely not. In fact, one could argue that Jesus supplied and engaged in an atmosphere of entertainment at the Wedding of Cana. But once the bubbly is flowing and attention is turned to pleasure, the possibility for miracles is lost. Entertainment isn’t wrong. It just has no place in an environment where miracles are sought or expected.

Neither Jesus nor any of the miracle-working apostles ever did engage in ‘Christian’ entertainment while ministering. They never tried to get people’s attention for the miraculous by appealing to their flesh. The Holy Spirit was always honored above the flesh. There are no empirical or anecdotal confirmations of miracles in an entertainment environment. The music used, especially in a meeting that invites the Holy Spirit to enter and minister, must honor the Spirit, rather than appeal to the flesh, for the culture of miracles to be birthed.

Have you ever yawned at one of God’s miracles?

I have.

Sounds sacreligious? Dangerous even? Like lightning-bolt-enducing dangerous? Well, it’s a lot more common than you might think. And it’s actually very easy to do. In fact, many biblical characters have done it. Including those we consider spiritual giants: Moses (Exodus 3 & 4). Yup. The entire nation of Israel (Exodus 32). David (2 Samuel 11 & 12). That’s right. Peter, too (Luke 4:38,39). I could go on and on, till the break o’ dawn!

What did all these veritable sleepy heads have in common? When God did something super dee duper, something that doesn’t happen every day, or ever, for that matter, all these knuckle heads did was look at it, and keep on going. No pause for celebration. No monument to the moment. No declaration of a special, annual day of observation. No holiday. Not even a plaque. They just moved on and let the moment pass, in violation of the very purpose of the moment: to be remembered by people forever (Psalm 111:4).

As amazing as God is, it’s easy to begin to take all that miracle working power for granted. When we begin to expect the spectacular, after a while the spectacular becomes routine. And the routine gets taken for granted. And our response to the routine becomes condensed, perfunctory. We save the fireworks and the band for something really outstanding, and yawn at the amazing-spectacular-routine stuff. Amazing-spectacular-routine stuff like getting healed of that headache-ulcer-disease-cancer, or getting the money to pay that bill-note-mortgage-hospital, or having the door blasted open on that opportunity-internship-job-career-presidency. Man, it’s a tough gig being God.

I’m tired of yawning at miracles. I’ve decided that I’ll make myself praise God for every wonderful, amazing, spectacular, routine act. When my flesh wants me to yawn at the mighty acts of God, I will stir up my spirit to praise God for what God has done. The flesh is harder to amaze than the spirit. The flesh will yawn in God’s face the way Phaoroh’s magicians did after Moses’ first three miracles (Exodus 7 & 8). We must rise above our flesh through our spirit and praise God with full band and fireworks for every wonderful act! And if I catch you yawning, I’m gonna stick a spoon in your mouth! 😉