Are You Bargaining With Jesus?

Stop bargaining. Start trusting.

Have you ever found yourself trying to bargain with Jesus? Maybe you say it out loud, or maybe you don’t. You pray, then look around thinking, “Okay, what’s going to happen now?”

We come to Jesus expecting something quick. A miraculous sign or a sudden change. Just anything that lets us say, “Alright, Jesus, now I believe.” That’s a real human experience that we have all been through. We want faith to materialize on our own terms. But Jesus says faith doesn’t start when we can see it. Faith starts with this:

Jesus is alive right now.

Not “back then in the Bible days,” and not “some golden day way ahead in the distant future.” Right now in the present. He's closer than anybody else. And that’s hard for us to grasp as people, because we have this way of thinking of Jesus as a concept, or a Bible character. But Jesus is very alive and near. We can’t “figure” that out. We just believe.

That’s why the Biblical account of doubting Thomas is still relevant today. Thomas had to see Jesus and even went as far as to say, “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.” ([John 20:25, KJV]) He wanted proof there were nail scars before he reached out to take Jesus by the hand. And we know Jesus is always merciful and did meet him. But Jesus also made this point: blessings are not just for people who see Him first, but those who believe first are more blessed. “Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” ([John 20:29, KJV]) That’s where the tension is. Jesus clearly says to believe first. He calls people to draw near to Him in a still small voice, not weak, but kind and gentle. What a wonderful Savior.

Here’s the part people miss: Jesus being alive right now isn’t only a fact in Heaven. It becomes a reality in us.

When someone really says yes to that sweet invitation, something changes inside. Undoubtedly, there’s a transformation when the Holy Spirit of Jesus takes up residence in a person of faith. Priorities start to shift, and things start happening on a spiritual and material level because the spirit of that person is connected to the Spirit of Jesus. That’s the reason the Bible uses family language to describe the relationship. The Bible says the Spirit puts a real cry in our heart: “Abba, Father.” ([Galatians 4:6, KJV]) That’s profound in so many ways because it’s someone realizing, “I’m not alone anymore,” and, “This is more than just trying to do better, I’m different than I was before.” That’s faith starting to grow.

Dear reader, faith doesn’t stop there at the first yes. Why? Because Jesus is real, and Jesus is present inside the believer. Not way off in another galaxy. He’s actually, not figuratively, joined to the believer by His Holy Spirit in a very real way that human logic can’t explain. The Bible is direct about this. It calls the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of Christ.” Paul says if a person doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to Christ. ([Romans 8:9, KJV]) Plain and simple. You don’t need to be a Bible scholar to get the concept. Jesus made it crystal clear so everyone can understand.

And then the Bible says something that some of us never seem to recognize: “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” ([2 Corinthians 3:17, KJV]) Bold statement? Absolutely. And in that same chapter, the apostle Paul is saying that when you turn to the Lord, the veil comes off. That’s when you start to see Jesus. That’s when you start to change. And that change comes from Jesus through His indwelling Spirit. So what does that mean? It means Jesus is here among us, walking and talking through you and me. I know, it’s hard to realize on our own. Jesus is really present with us, doing real work inside of us. Right now.

So faith isn’t just agreeing that Jesus existed. No, faith is trusting Jesus, and then we start to realize just how alive He really is. He’s near enough to deal with our situations today. Close enough to the situations to convict us of our sins, comfort us in our trials, and lead us to change.

Do you remember the Biblical account of the faithful centurion? It’s worth a mention here because the centurion asked Jesus for a miracle with exactly the kind of faith that Jesus was looking for. The centurion wasn’t trying to come to Jesus with doubts or trying to control the narrative. He also didn’t ask Jesus to put on a big show. He asked Jesus for help, since his servant was in need of healing, and he believed that Jesus could do it from right where He was standing. Jesus was a long way from the centurion, and they were travelling on foot, if you recall, so the centurion sent his own messenger to go tell Jesus. The Scripture says, “Lord, trouble not Thyself: for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof… But say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority…” ([Luke 7:6–8, KJV])

That’s the example Jesus wants us to look at when He talks about great faith. The Bible says, “I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” ([Luke 7:9, KJV]) Jesus is often saying, “Your faith has healed you, go in peace,” throughout the Bible when He heals people and raises the dead. The centurion just trusted the Lord could do anything He wants. And He did.

Why is it that whenever we get nervous we start hiding behind logic? We want everything to make sense right now. We want Jesus in a neat little box with a label. But Jesus far surpasses all human understanding and will never be confined to human logic. Because God can do whatever He wants. He’s the only One that can carry an old rugged cross up to Calvary, take all the world’s sin and suffering, die on that rugged cross, then get back up and walk out of the grave on the third day. Glory to Jesus forever! He’s alive.

That’s why faith needs to be taken very seriously. Faith isn’t inspecting Jesus’ hand for nail prints before you grab a hold of it. You don’t need proof. You really only need faith. Because He is alive and has promised to baptize His faithful followers with fire. That fire baptism is the Holy Spirit baptism, not the water baptism. It’s real, and it gets misunderstood a lot because people like to make things philosophical and debatable. John said Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. ([Matthew 3:11, KJV]) Then, the book of Acts talks about the Spirit coming with something that looked like fire, and people got filled. ([Acts 2:3–4, KJV]) That picture is simple: God comes into the camp. Not just somewhere around you… in you!

That’s the point of everything. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not to be taken lightly. Likewise, it’s not some kind of bonus level for “super Christians.” It’s Jesus claiming a person from the inside by becoming one with the believer. Why did God choose to use fire as the analogy to describe the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of the sincere believer? Well, fire is the perfect word picture because you can’t fake fire. It cleans and strengthens. It exposes, spreads, and gives light. And it changes us from the inside.

The water baptism is important too. But the Bible still points to the inside washing and indwelling Spirit of Jesus as the main thing. The Bible wants to make sure we aren’t just content with washing the outside that everyone can see. God’s very interested in the transformation of the heart. Water baptism is commanded for believers, but without the fire baptism, we have missed the point. ([1 Peter 3:21, KJV])

In the book of Acts, we see believers receive the Holy Spirit first, and then the water baptism followed. ([Acts 10:47–48, KJV]) That Biblical order should make us think. What’s the main thing here? The answer is obvious: the fire of the Holy Spirit is central. It has nothing to do with a big public show or being charismatic by handling snakes. The focus is really the inner dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So we see, faith in Jesus can never be reduced to intellect. We will never fully grasp what Jesus can do until that day when He reveals everything. People can keep studying it forever and will never stop being completely shocked and amazed by what God can do. Why? Because the world wants us to trust what we can measure and control. We want things to pass our scrutiny tests first. But faith teaches us to trust Jesus because the measuring tools fail.

Here’s the point: Jesus is alive right now. That should change the way we pray, how we wait for answers, how we deal with silence, how we face our fears, and how we carry our burdens. Because we are not alone in this relationship with Christ. He’s here. So we can stop waiting for the perfect proof that He is alive. Just answer His voice. He’s the living Lord, who can do whatever He wants. And He wants to change us from the inside.

So the real question isn’t whether or not, “Can we explain Him?” We need to ask ourselves this one simple question: Will we reach out for His hand in faith and let the living Jesus do what only He can do in our lives?