Many Christians think that they would want more perception of the supernatural. It makes sense from a worldly point of view. We often confuse ethics with the supernatural, we are a very visual culture, and it sounds like a secret. So everyone wants to know about it.
My pastor once said that a person can know either too much or too little about the supernatural. Either way the devil is pleased. The world is a dangerous place. It would stand to reason in a bigger world, with more possibilities, it is actually more dangerous. Just like most sins, it appears fun at first, but it later produces depression and turns people into slaves to their addiction.
Christ was considered foolish in His generation. He appeared irrelevant and someone who just did not get us. He very much knows us better than we know ourselves, or even the devil knows us. We have a very romantic view of power and opportunity. We think if only we had more influence or money, we could solve the world’s problems.
Many Americans see our role in the world is to make other countries emulate our behavior. We then expect them to be able to have our wealth and the safety and comfort it allows us to have. We see the rest of the world as dangerous, with good reason, but we do not accept that the world is never fair.
The reason why much of the world is so poor compared to us is not because they are lazy. Our wealth comes at their expense. The only way everyone can get wealthier is to have the resources continue to expand, which are never limitless.
Part of this is geography, part is history, and another part is inertia. We were basically at the right place at the right time. You can never have equal distribution of wealth, unless you have communism. If everyone had the same amount, no one would agree to the system. We in America would have much less than we do now, in such a system.
So what we should focus on is not the flashy and fleeting race to get more stuff, whether material or spiritual. Instead, we should focus on the longer and harder road, to build ourselves into more ethical people and draw closer to God. It is like the difference between spending your time purchasing things, that will soon wear out, and learning skills, that are useful for making more money.
The relatively easy and obvious path will end in pain, for ourselves and everyone else. We see how how our ideas on how to run the world are not working out. There will never be enough energy, because the more we get, the more we want. Everything we want to do takes exponentially more power to run.
Solving every problem with ideology, technology, or laws does not work long term. This is because we are the root of our own problems. It is not just our world, where this happens. It has happened all throughout history.
China had a meritocracy and that almost destroyed everything. Salvaging their country required giving up their entire belief system to survive. Russia had their own utopia and they were victimized by their own police system. They ended up being a poorer and less effective version of the country that they hated most.
The Europeans went out to civilize the world and teach them science. Later they destroyed each other in two world wars and inspired and developed the technologies for modern terrorism. Now instead of multiple empires, they have to all join together as Europe to have any power.
Even all together they will do anything for oil or electronics, neither of which can they make for themselves. They actually invented the ideas of the modern world and most its technologies and yet they are easily surpassed, by one of their former colonies.
If Jesus came to America today, do you really think He would be pleased with our country? We can all agree to the answer to that question. The problems we think caused it are opposite things. This is part of the problem.
The bigger problem is trying to solve this, without taking the long and slow route of bringing people to God, one person at a time. The Church does not need more money, power, or popularity. What we need to do is to improve the lives of the people, who we are placed in proximity to.
We cannot deal with what is right in front of us, because we are so distracted by money and power. Having supernatural knowledge will not solve our problems, because, if it did, we would be given complete access by God at birth. Furthermore, we are motivated to follow God, because we are lacking in power and this helps illustrate why we need Him. Finally, faith is based on action with, the concept of limited knowledge.
If we knew much more, we would become proud and be distracted from God. We would be unable to find peace with Him. It is hard to be both humble and powerful.