“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” Ephesians 3:20

I have served as an associate pastor in conservative, Bible-believing churches for over forty years. Much of my ministry has been devoted to counseling individuals and married couples from my congregation and community. In the first twenty years of ministry, I consistently struggled with two issues in the life of my church and my own life: the level of brokenness in the Body of Christ, even among longtime believers, and the powerlessness I felt on too many occasions to truly help. In counseling sessions, I could accurately identify the issues and give people insights into their struggles, but I had no tools or techniques to reachthe deeply wounded places from which all their destructive behaviors continued to spring. Many of the people I worked with were sincere believers who had been in and out of counselors’ offices for years but had never truly gained victory over their “issues.” Even the Word and prayer could not seem to overcome the brokenness in these individuals, which eventually seeped like toxic waste into their relationships…especially marriages.

Deep inside, I sensed a huge disconnect between what I saw on the pages of the New Testament and what I witnessed in my church. What I saw in Scripture were radically changed lives. I saw the Apostle Paul, miraculously transformed himself, writing to once profoundly broken people in Corinth who then seemed to have been truly set free to grow in Christ.

There was no mention of professional counselors or even “trained therapists” in the church or any expectation that people would need to “manage their issues” over decades. There was no suggestion that addictions required residential programs in mental health facilities followed by years of support group involvement. There was no hint that homosexuals were hopelessly locked into an identity shaped by genetics or that a myriad of psychological and emotional struggles could only be managed with drug therapies. What I saw in Scripture was the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit doing life together and people being truly set free and transformed.

Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9–10).

Here Paul lists the same issues that torment us today: sexual immorality, gender confusion, substance abuse, perversions, materialism, criminality, and more. But he declares that through Christ, lives had been changed and identities transformed. Brokenness was relegated to the past, and those believers now walked in newness of life. They were, indeed, new creations. Ragtag fishermen stood before governors as ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven, sleazy tax collectors became radical philanthropists overnight, and the Mary Magdalenes, once demon-possessed, were now fully possessed by God.

For me, there was a great gulf between what I read and what I saw. In my heart, there was always a longing for more. But I had been trained not to expect “more” and if I did see “more,” I was taught to be suspicious. My church’s theology presented a gospel in which God, in an orderly universe, had ceased dispensing miracles and radical-life-change long ago. The pages of the New Testament were full of promises and stories that truly did happen, but only in the days of Jesus and the apostles. I sensed, however, that if you jettison the miracles, you also jettison the power and in doing so, you quench the Holy Spirit and neuter His ministry. I needed that power in my own life just as much as the wounded people I served.

Eventually, God called me out of that fellowship of believers.  These were good people who loved Jesus and loved his word.  But they had essentially been taught to love God, lead a moral life, and do the best they could until Jesus called them home.  But in many cases, they were in bondage to something they couldn’t shake and yearned for “more,” but were not certain what that was.  Numbers of good people left that fellowship as well looking for whatever the “more” was.

I found “the more” when I found the supernatural power of Jesus displayed through his Spirit. I saw people transformed in a few weeks or even in a few hours – truly set free from whatever bondage they had been shackled to…anger, pornography, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and more.  What’s more is that they did not relapse into their old conditions as many do after secular counseling.

Scripture is clear that there is a supernatural realm surrounding us that intersects with our lives every day.  That realm operates on power and authority. Paul declared emphatically that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12).  The gospels illustrate encounters not only with angels but also demons.  These unclean spirits torment people in all kinds of ways.  Scripture names many…a spirit of fear, a spirit of heaviness (depression), a spirit of divination (witchcraft), deaf and dumb spirits, spirits of sexual immorality, a spirit of bondage, and more.

Many churches send their members to secular counselors or counselors who are Christians but who have not been trained to deal with the spiritual realm in their counseling.  If an issue has a spiritual root but they do not deal with the spiritual forces of evil, the best they can do is help people manage or cope with their issues, but they will never get real freedom.  I have counseled several believers who were once members of witch’s covens.  When I asked them what drew them to witchcraft, they said their lives were out of control and the church could not help them…so they were drawn to the power they saw in witchcraft.  If they had seen Christ’s power in the church, they would not have run to Satan.

Many believers are looking for “more” in their walk with Jesus.  They don’t know what it is, but they sense something critical is missing.  That missing component is the power and authority of Jesus displayed through his people! Paul said, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power (1 Cor. 4:20).  In these end times, Satan is and will be ramping up his activities in ways we have never seen before.  Believers who try to withstand the enemy without the power of the Holy Spirit and divine weapons for spiritual warfare, may well be overwhelmed.  If you are looking for “more,” let me encourage you to find a church that believes in and walks in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Be sure there is a good balance of Word and Spirit.  Word without the Spirit is powerless and Spirit without the Word tends to get weird.  But pray and ask God to lead you to that church.  You are going to need it.