Last weekend, CHRISTINE CAINE opened FOPx’s IMPOSSIBLE Conference 2024 ​with a stirring message on faith.​​ The Australian evangelist preached on how an amazing faith stems from boldly following the God of the impossible and being unafraid to look foolish. We’ve adapted her message from the first Night Rally, below.

There are only two times (Mark 6:6, Luke 7:9) in the gospels that Jesus Christ was amazed. Now, what is amazing to me is that Jesus was ever amazed.

He’s God. He knows the beginning from the end. You wonder, what on earth could have amazed an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God?

But according to the text, there is a kind of faith that is available that causes the God of the universe to be amazed. There is a kind of faith that is available that causes God to stop and say, “I have not seen this kind of thing in all of Israel.” 

There is also a level of unbelief that causes the God of the universe not to do everything He could do in our midst. It says elsewhere in Mark 6:5-6 that Jesus didn’t do any miracles, except He healed a few people.

He left that town thinking, I could have done so much more if those people believed me. This Conference, church every Sunday… Jesus leaves every meeting utterly amazed. The issue is, is He amazed at our faith or unbelief?

Imagine if we the Church, the people of God, actually started to believe that Jesus is who He says He is — that He can do what His Word tells us He can do!

This generation is busy amazing one another

But see, what is happening in our generation is we are so busy trying to amaze each other, that we are no longer being amazing to God.

We are so busy, just wanting to make sure everyone thinks we’re amazing on social media, that we’re no longer amazing the God of the universe with our faith. We’re no longer causing God to say, “I haven’t seen that kind of faith in all of Singapore.”

When God is amazed, God does miracles. When God is amazed, children on the verge of death are brought back to life. When God is amazed, bodies are healed, souls are saved.

When God is amazed, He does amazing things. He’s the source of the amazement, not us. He is the source of the power and not us.

So, we have to stop trying to amaze each other and start amazing God with our faith, rather than being so familiar with Jesus and lazy in our faith, just going through the motions.

… we are so busy trying to amaze each other, that we are no longer being amazing to God.

But we don’t come with a posture of faith. We don’t have the belief that God is who He says He is.

We have got resurrection power living on the inside of us. We actually have a mission and a job to do, and we have a resurrected Saviour who empowers us to do it — but we’re not getting the job done.

We care more about how many are following us, than we care about how many are not following Jesus. We care more about how many are liking our posts, that we care about how much like Jesus we’re becoming.

And then we wonder why nothing’s happening on the earth.

We wonder why we’re bored in our faith. We wonder why there’s a disparity between what we read on these pages in the Bible and what we’re experiencing in our lives.

We actually pray theologically inaccurate prayers — because revival has come. Out of you, rivers of living water are supposed to flow. So every time you turn up, guess what? Revival should have turned up.

That’s when things will change. Rather than waiting for God to pull something out of the sky, know that He’s put the Holy Spirit inside of us and He’s sent us into the world to bring change and transformation.

We’re waiting for God to do what we should be doing. And if we did what we should be doing, then God would do what only God could do.

I’m dead, and my life is yours

I got saved before there was ever such a thing as the internet. My children cannot believe that I roamed the earth with the dinosaurs. But I did — that’s how old I am.

You don’t even know there was a time on the earth when there was no internet and there was no social media.

But here’s the good side of that: I could not spend my life scrolling through everybody else’s lives. So I lived the one and only life I had because I didn’t spend my life scrolling and swiping everyone else’s.

I had to get into a prayer closet and get on my knees and ask God what He wanted for my life. There was a time when you would go into a prayer closet, you would lock the door, you would get a download from heaven — and that’s how you knew what to do.

You didn’t just go online and do what looks good. You’d get into a closet and ask God, what do You want? Because I’m dead and my life is yours. And I’ll do whatever You call me to do and I’ll go wherever You want me to go.

When you’re schooled by martyrs and missionaries, you expect nothing but to die for the one you love. So you take up your cross every day and follow Him. You deny yourself every day and follow Him.

And the reason you can get to my age and still be following Him, decades later, is because I didn’t sign up for a career. I signed up to follow Jesus. I signed up to do what He wanted me to do.

“You do you”

You do you. Be the best you. You do you do, boo. That’s the dumbest thing anyone ever told anyone. Follow your heart? Don’t follow your heart! The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).

The biblical translation of “you do you do, boo” can be found in the book of Judges which says that everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

How’s that gone for the world? It’s never actually gone right when everyone does what seems right. The Bible says there’s a way that seems right to a person, but in the end — it leads to destruction.

What we’re seeing across the earth is people doing what seems right in their own eyes — calling evil good and good, evil. Calling truth lies and lies, truth.

What we need is a radical generation of young people that believe that God is who He says, and that His Word is true.

To have a kind of faith that will amaze God — it’s not cool. Christianity has never been cool. Not in any generation. In fact, people have died for it.

It’s not cool, but it’s true. It’s not cool, but Jesus is worth it.

Are you ready to look foolish?

Do you really believe that a dead man rose? Not metaphorically, but really? I do. Because that’s impossible. 

Who needs a god who can do what I can do? I need a God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond anything I could ever hope for or think — I don’t need a god who is created in my image.

The fact that it’s impossible is what makes Him God! If your god is only able to do what is limited by your intellectual reasoning or your understanding, what kind of small god are you serving?

The fact is, to have a faith that amazes God and causes Him to do miracles through life — you have to be so willing to look foolish in your generation.

And foolish, not just to nonbelievers, but to very reasonable believers who will try to talk you out of the fact that we serve a supernatural God. 

You know, I’m 57. There is less ahead of me than there is behind me. And that means I’m running harder, I’m running faster — I’m fixing my eyes on Jesus.

You’ve got to stay in faith and be willing to look foolish. I was foolish when I was in my 20s; my family didn’t speak to me for years because I converted and became a follower of Jesus.

I looked foolish in my 30s; that’s not kind of how you should “do” married life, on the road. And then we looked foolish in our 40s, when we started a global anti-trafficking organisation.

And I had just had a second kid — when you pop out a kid at 40, you’re not looking to start a new ministry!

At the time, I was standing at the baggage claim in Thessaloniki, Greece. And I saw these posters of missing women and children. And I literally just had my second baby.

I was looking at the posters and because I read Greek, I saw they just said missing, missing, missing, missing.

I could not understand why there were so many missing women and children. And as I looked at one of the names on the poster, it read “Sofia”. It was a little girl called Sofia, and I had just birthed my Sophia.

And I remember, at that moment, I went from looking at someone else’s missing child, to seeing what could have been my own daughter. And when you look, you can look away. But when you see, you can never can unsee.

Right then, I sensed the Lord saying to me: “I want you to do something.” I don’t know anything about this! But, God, I can’t do this. But God, I can’t do this. That’s what I was thinking.

But then I thought of Exodus 3, where Moses is having that similar conversation with God; there’s a burning bush and the Lord is speaking to him through it.

God says, “Moses, I want to use you. I’m going to set my people free”. And Moses is like, “But God, I cannot speak. I am not eloquent.”

And the Lord’s like, “You know what, Moses? That was going to be the deal-breaker on my capacity to part the Red Sea — your eloquence. Oh, if you could just speak better, I could really do my job as God.”

As if on our best day, we could help God! Because it sounds so pious, doesn’t it? It sounds so holy. But it’s not holy. The root of that is not humility. The root of that kind of response is pride. 

Because what we are actually saying to God is that my limitations are greater than Your supernatural ability to do something through my life. 

The issue isn’t whether we have the capacity to do it. In our very reasonable world, we want to reduce God to our ability or our intellect.

But if you’re going to do anything that’s going to really count for the glory of God, you’re gonna have to be willing to look foolish. You’d have to be willing to be like the Roman Centurion.

Because faith is predicated on trust, not understanding. And we are trying to understand our way into faith, and it doesn’t work. You’ve got to trust the character and nature of God.

… if you’re going to do anything that’s going to really count for the glory of God, you’re gonna have to be willing to look foolish.

Many of us think faith is a personality type. Faith isn’t a personality type, it’s a blood type. It’s the blood of Jesus.

But you need to trust that He is good, and He does good. And then He will work all things together for good.

But if you try to be reasonable and understanding, then you’re not going to step out in faith. And you’re certainly not going to be willing to look foolish in your generation.

Foolish for God

Throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, anybody who did anything significant for God looked foolish.

Think how foolish Noah looked when he was building the Ark. Imagine how Moses looked: he’s got the Red Sea in front of him and he’s got the Egyptian army behind him — and a million Israelites.

Everyone’s going, “Moses, what are we gonna do?” And Moses is like, “I don’t know — I’ve got a stick!” How ridiculous would he have looked?

Think how foolish Sarah looked. All her friends are like, “Sarah, what are you doing? Sarah, your eggs are dried up. There’s no way you could do that.” She looked foolish.

How foolish did David look with his little slingshot? How foolish did Mary look when she went to Joseph and said, “There was an angel?”

How foolish did Paul and Silas look as they were singing, in chains, in a prison cell? How foolish did the woman with the issue of blood look when she grabbed Jesus’ garment? How foolish did the little boy look, with his five loaves and two fish?

And I’ll tell you who looked more foolish than everyone. As Jesus hung on that cross, naked, everyone’s like: “That’s him? You are staking your eternity on that? That’s your king? That’s your saviour?” They’re saying the same thing today.

But can I just tell you what happened because they were willing to look foolish in their generation?

Because Noah was willing to look foolish, he and his family were rescued from the Flood. Because Moses was willing to look foolish, the Red Sea parted. Because Sarah was willing to look foolish, Isaac was born.

Because David was willing to look foolish, Goliath did come down. And because Mary was willing to look foolish, she did give birth to Jesus. And because that woman with the issue of blood was willing to look foolish, she was healed.

And because that little boy was willing to look foolish with that lunch, it fed everyone on that mountain. And because Paul and Silas were willing to worship when it seemed like they were in chains, they did get set free from prison.

And because Jesus Christ was willing to go to that cross — which is foolishness to those that are perishing — He got off that cross. He defeated hell and He defeated death!

The same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, lives on the inside of you.

This is what I want you to hear: because the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives on the inside of us, Singapore, we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.

Do not settle for a familiar Christianity that is void of faith and power because you’re unwilling to look foolish in your generation.

Don’t bring God down to your level of understanding, but step out in faith and believe that God can take you and use you in your generation to do something that’s never been done before.

Behold, He’s doing a new thing on the earth right now. Do you not see it?

But it’s gonna take people with a foolish faith. It’s going to take people with a foolish faith.