Meditating on what seems to be a resurgence of the supernatural in our churches these days, gave me comfort that Christ rules over the entire spiritual realm.
The provoking thoughts: a pastor who schedules healing services; stories about healings of the body; the laying of hands in prayer; and witnessing to others.
A pastor shared with me recently that not only are they scheduling healing times for anyone to visit to recieve prayer and ministry (in particular words of prophesy and healings through the laying of hands) but they are also planning on going into the community in small groups to minister (in particular words of prophesy and healings through the laying of hands) to anyone who ‘the Lord brings along’. Interesting.
I wish they would focus on the Gospel.
A friend told me a story of when he who walked into a hardware store this past weekend. While he was there, he met an employee of the store. The employee didn’t seem right in his health. He admitted that he had a tremendous headache, a migraine. The man asked if he could pray for him. He did and instantly the headache left. Later in the conversation, he said he began to tell the man about Jesus. “He accepted Jesus with me there and said he would go to church this coming Sunday.”
No one can deny the power of prayer. Christ is alive and well. The Holy Spirit is at work, doing miracles every day around the world.
I hope there is follow-up with that healed man and that the cost of discipleship was explained. I pray he focuses on the the message and the God of the Gospel.
A woman who has been battling anxiety and illness was in pain this weekend. I dropped by to see her and her family. According to what I see in the Scriptures, I had no option but to pray for our dear sister. So, I went to her and laid my hands on her and prayed that ‘be it God’s will’ that she would be healed. I prayed that if He doesn’t heal her that she would continue to trust Him in perseverance and adversity.
I haven’t heard how she is now.
I pray that she would be able to see Him as a faithful God.
Then there is a story of a man who has been praying for his neighbor for months and months, if not years. They share a fence and his dog found a way through it. This prompted the neighbor to try to work with him to make sure that both of their yards prevent the dog(s) from escaping. The man asked the neighbor to go to the hardware store with him. As they drove, she told him how her girlfriend is leaving her. Since they live together that is significant for her. The man listened, and when there was a pause, he asked her who she thought Jesus is. She responded that he was only a man. The man explained that if he was only a man and not God then thousands of churches are idolatrous because they claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. She said, ‘that’s true’ and recognized that truth. He went on to tell her that she in her sin would go to Hell, but that the Son of God came to forgive sins and that if she placed her belief and trust in Him AND repented of her sin, that she could know Him and have eternal life. She said she had been watching his wife. “She is a woman of principle.” She noticed her life was stable, right and pure.
His focus was on the message of and the God of the Gospel. He showed both her sinfulness and gave her the truth about the Son of God.
Wow.
The letters that Paul wrote intrigue me. As I thought about the words that Paul wrote to the churches in Asia, I realize that not once does he explicitly use his conversion experience on the Damascus Road as a springboard to share about his credentials. In as much as Paul used the supernatural to validate his ministry, he never once shared in the pages of Scripture his conversion story.
If our model of a man who clearly experienced the supernatural power of God is to minimize the actual experience, what should our response be?
One trend in the church, especially in the charismatic, spirit-filled congregations is to exalt the supernatural. The emphasis on the experience, the thing that God did, the touch of God, the healing, the miracle, the … move of the Holy Spirit. Why is that?
We as humans tend to get bogged down in the mundane of life. My job is boring, my marriage has no spice, my children are all moved out, I am in debt so I won’t be able to take a vacation for a long while, and I have the same car I have had for years. We even say in the church: I have heard this message before, we sing the same songs, there has not been many new members, …
The mundane. The boredom. The foolishness of life.
But I thought that all my life was to glorify Christ!? What about in the mundane, the boredom? There too? YES. There too. God is not mundane, but walking with Him can be (if our focus is on this life or ourselves.)
We enjoy the emotions of the supernatural because we feel free from the mundane and the commonplace. Our human tendency is to begin turning toward those things that free us. Then when the experience comes, and they come more frequently our focus moves toward that more and more. The feelings of complacency move aside and the excitement and the new takes their place. Almost an adrenaline rush in our emotions.
(I wanted to post this incomplete as the thoughts grow … I will continue a bit later.)
