Most of us will come to a season of life when we feel overwhelmed by the unknown that lies before us. The death of a spouse, the loss of a child, a bitter divorce, unexpected unemployment, or a bad diagnosis of a life threatening disease can make us feel as if every anchor in our life has broken and we are adrift in an unfamiliar sea with storm clouds on the horizon.

We feel secure when life has been manageable and predictable. When we can believe that tomorrow will be like today and next year will be like this year, we may not be excited but we’re okay. But take away the predictability; stir in some dire possibilities; and life suddenly feels out of control, overwhelming, and fearful. The questions are no longer, “Where do we eat?” or “Where do you want to go next summer?” The questions become: “Will I always be alone?” “Will we lose the house and how will I feed my wife and kids?” Will I survive the cancer and how painful will it be?” “What will this divorce do to my children and will I ever stop feeling this pain?”

I’ve been in those places and I probably will be there again at some point. During those seasons I have and will live in the Psalms. David’s heart often cries out as a man whose circumstances seen contradictory to the promises of God and whose life seems uncertain. Think of it. One day David was watching the sheep, minding his own business, and sitting on a rock tossing stones into a brook as teenagers do. Suddenly, he was called to his father’s house and Samuel the prophet poured oil on him an announced that David was destined to be king over Israel. All that “good news” became a calamitous disruption for his life.

If you read between the lines, his older brothers seemed to resent him now that he was going to be somebody. David took on Goliath for the armies of Israel and his brothers accused him of being cocky and conceited. Through that encounter, King Saul became aware of David and took him into the palace to serve. Surely David thought, “Great, now I will be interned to be king.” When it was all said and done, Saul’s jealousy drove David from the palace and away from his family. He became a hunted man living in the wilderness with the whole Israeli army hunting him down. So where was the promise? Where were the blessings attached to that prophecy? Why was God letting a disobedient king live and continue to hunt down David? Would he even survive? What was going on?

Confusion, frustration, and fear began to mark his life from time to time but a thread of faith always remained. How did David navigate that season (which many scholars believe was a seven to eight year period) of running and hiding, sleeping in caves, and wondering where his and his men’s next meal was coming from? David’s psalms vacillate between hope and despair, answered prayers and sleepless nights when God seemed absent, along with assurance and uncertainty.

We find some clues in David’s life to help us in our own season of confusion and desperation. First of all, David was honest with the Lord about his feelings. He didn’t feign great faith on days when it had leaked out during the night. Honesty is unsettling sometimes but healthy. Some days I’m sure he had to borrow a little faith from a friend.

Secondly, David had a history with God and saw the clear touch of God’s hand in his past. If God had delivered him from the lion, the bear, and from a giant, surely he had plans for his life beyond this season of running and hiding. We can’t overstate the recognition of God’s hand, purposes, and faithfulness in our past that suggests he still has more for us. Interestingly we often notice his hand more when we are running from God than when we are serving him. It seems that he is more apparent when he is chasing us than when he is refining us.

David also had a promise that had come in the form of a prophecy. Graham Cooke says that a prophetic word is a powerful tool. He suggests that when running toward Goliath, he might have been thinking that it was impossible for him to die because God had declared that he would be king someday. The assurance of God’s promise in his life launched him toward the giant but also sustained him during the years that Saul was hunting him. When David was discouraged and despairing, he held on to the promise. We all need a promise that we can hold onto when life or our future is uncertain. If you have a prophetic word, hold on to it. If you don’t have a prophetic word, find a promise in scripture that resonates with your spirit and hold on to that. God keeps his promises.

Most importantly, although David wasn’t sure about how his future would unfold, he was certain about the character of God – his faithfulness, his enduring love, his mercy, and his willingness to forgive our failings. He was also certain that God would not abandon his own – if for nothing else, to make sure his reputation was not sullied by his failure to protect his own when they were among the faithful. “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Ps. 23), etc. God cannot violate his own nature. He is who he is and although his timing is rarely to our liking, his character will eventually show up in his response to our prayers.

Finally, when we have to wait on the Lord, it is not because we are not pleasing to him. The enemy always attacks when God delays his answers by suggesting that we have not seen our rescue yet because God is displeased with us or, perhaps, doesn’t love us like we hoped. Abraham waited 25 years for his promised son. Moses waited 40 years for his life in Egypt and his years as a shepherd to make sense. Joseph did jail time. David spent eight years in hiding. Noah preached 125 years without one conversion. My point is that waiting with uncertainty is part of the believer’s life. Most often, God is preparing us to steward the answers to our prayers.

When you are in the emotional chaos of uncertainty be honest about your struggles, look for the evidence of God’s hand in your past because it points to the future. Find a promise or a prophetic word to hold on to. Depend on the character of God to bring you out of the pit. It’s what he does because it’s who he is. Know that his delay is preparing you for your promises and know that you are loved. Waiting, in the face of uncertainty, is part of the life of the faithful and you are in very good company.

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18

Okay…so I grew up in the late 60’s and 70’s when Jesus freaks and the Jesus Movement were a part of the underground, hippy culture. There was a song called Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum – a kind of a one hit wonder. It sounds very new age with contemporary ears but the theology behind it was sound if you got a little explanation. One verse declared, “I’m not a sinner, no I’ve never sinned. I’ve got a friend in Jesus.”

To some that sounded arrogant or downright blasphemous. After all, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). But another verse confirms the theology. “Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb.10:14). On the one hand, we certainly have all sinned and continue to do so less that we did, but on the other hand, God does not count those sins against us. If you inspected the ledgers of heaven, you would find no record of sin – past, present, or future. As far as God is concerned, you’re not a sinner, no you’ve never sinned cause you have a friend in Jesus. We need to get that truth in our hearts.

So many of us focus on our past, our sins, and our failures while God is focusing on our righteousness in Christ. It’s not that he doesn’t recognize our sins, but he does not define us by those sins. He defines us by the righteousness that is ours in Jesus. The passage above from Hebrews declares that by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. By the sacrifice of Jesus, you have been given a positional or legal status of sinlessness – forever – which extends both into the past and the future. God always relates to us on the basis of our position while he works on our condition. He is in the process of making us holy – matching our condition to our position – but he is not focused on our sin but, rather, who we are in His Son.

We would do well to so the same. Too many believers get focused on their sins, failures and spiritual shortcomings. Whatever we focus on becomes our identity. If we see ourselves and define ourselves as sinners in Christ, we will constantly live up to that expectation. If we see ourselves as righteous and holy in Christ that will become our identity and we will begin to live up to that set of expectations.

Many of us try to motivate ourselves to be more like Christ with criticism and name-calling. If we did that to our children we would be labeled as bad parents, maybe even verbally abusive. We recognize the power of self-image (identity) in our children and work to encourage and affirm them at every opportunity but often fail to recognize that principle in ourselves. Faith declares that what God says is true is true, even if it does not appear to be that way. By faith, we need to say what God says is true about us, so that God’s truth is deposited more deeply in our hearts and minds. It’s not arrogance; it is good theology that appreciates what the blood of Christ has done for us.

So…the next time the devil stirs up accusation and condemnation and tries to convince you of what a spiritual failure you are, just pull out a little Norman Greenbaum and sing in his face, “I’m not a sinner, no I’ve never sinned. I’ve got a friend in Jesus!” It’s good theology. Be blessed and sinless in Him today.

The problem with grace is that it seems unjust at one level and too good to be true at another. It is hard to receive at a personal level because we know we don’t deserve it and it is hard to extend to those who have wronged us or wronged society because we definitely know they don’t deserve it. Yet it is the cornerstone of our faith. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph.2:8-9).

If you are like me, the following parable challenges you. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.    He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.    Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ (Matt.20:1-16).

We tend to see ourselves as the men who worked all day in the heat of a middle-eastern sun. The idea that some slackers hung around the marketplace all day and worked for an hour in the cool of the evening and got paid the same as us seems remarkably unjust. And yet this parable is about grace. The owner was a generous man and sometimes he was so generous that it offends us.

When God extends his grace to a person we think well of, we celebrate. But how do we feel about grace for a monster? Then we grumble about the wages. In the 1990’s, one of the icons of “monsterdom” was Jeffrey Dahmer. As a mass murderer, he had abused, killed, and cannibalized seventeen young men. He was caught and imprisoned and eventually killed by an inmate. Just as you read that, something in your heart probably agreed that justice had been served. Toward the end of his days in prison, however, Dahmer declared that he had come to faith in Jesus. The prison chaplain confirmed that in his estimation, Dahmer’s repentance was genuine and that he had become one of the most faithful worshipers in the church behind bars.

The thought that God would forgive this man who had done such terrible things, simply because he said he was sorry, was unacceptable to most – even to many Christians. In fact, the idea that, in eternity, a Jeffery Dahmer could walk the streets of heaven in good standing was almost scandalous. What kind of a God would forgive that? The same God who is willing to forgive me, no matter what, when I trust in his grace. If we wanted God to “draw the line on grace” so that the urge for justice within me was satisfied, where would that line be drawn and how would I ever know if I had crossed that line?

Grace can’t be measured or it becomes law. It’s there for everyone or for no one. If Dahmer can’t be saved by grace then neither can I. I can almost live with the abstract nature of that because I never met Dahmer and knew none of his victims. But what about those who have betrayed and victimized us? Can we extend the grace of God to them that has come to us? The extension of that grace is called forgiveness. Grace is not about whether anyone deserves it or not, it is simply about the infinite love of God. Ultimately, I can do nothing to cause God to love me more nor can I do anything to make him love me less. Jesus on the cross is the full expression of that truth.

The good news is that his love comes that easily to me and if I meet the conditions of a little faith and true repentance, then forgiveness and salvation come to me as well – to me and the murders, rapists, ex-spouses, abusive fathers, and bullies in this world. And yet when I say that, I can still feel the offense of grace somewhere deep inside. That pushback tells me that grace is not natural because my natural man isn’t comfortable with it. It is supernatural and can only be received when the Spirit of God opens my heart to it.

The capacity to receive grace and to give grace comes by the revelation of God’s love in my own heart. When I have a revelation of that love then I can celebrate grace, forgive those who have wronged me, and even rejoice in the salvation of the Jeffrey Dahmers of the world. Think about the freedom of living in that grace. Think of all the fear, bitterness, resentment, and offense in your heart just melting away like snow on a warm day. That is God’s will for your life. If I struggle, I can pray for a greater revelation of that love and grace in my heart. It is the very thing the Father wants us to have. It is the ointment that heals all hearts. Grace and peace to you today in Jesus.

As a pastor, I constantly deal with the disappointment of believers who have experienced some tragedy or a when a deep desire of someone’s heart has not yet been met in prayer. The question in their heart, whether spoken or not, is whether God really cares about their pain and did he have some hand in what happened? Sometimes you can’t improve on what another person says. I want to share an extended quote from Bill Johnson this morning that speaks to that question. Bill is a pastor on the west coast who has a world-wide ministry of healing. His church has seen countless people with cancer healed by the power of God, but his own father died of cancer.

“In spite of our many breakthroughs with others, I arrived at my own Valley of Baca when my dad died of cancer following a six-month battle. It was as though I pushed against a thousand-pound rock for six months; it never budged. Spiritual disease can set in when any of us has disappointment that is not brought into the open for God’s healing touch. ‘Hope deferred, makes the heart sick’ (Pov.13:12). I knew that allowing disappointment to dominate my heart would cause a blindness of my eyes to the hand of God working in me.

Strengthening myself in the Lord helped me to stay away from anxiety long enough to make an important discovery: next to the thousand-pound rock is a five hundred-pound rock that I couldn’t have moved before the battle for my dad’s life. Pushing against the rock that never moved actually strengthened me by reinforcing my resolve to live in divine purpose and to establish the backbone of perseverance. By refusing to change my focus, I discovered that I can now move the five hundred-pound rock that I couldn’t have moved before the battle. To keep myself from the sickness of heart warned about in Proverbs 13:12, I monitored the attitude of my heart. This was one way of turning my valley of weeping into springs of refreshing, for it is from the heart that all the issues of life flow (Prov.4:23).

I can’t afford to have thoughts in my head that aren’t in God’s. It’s a great misconception that God gives cancer – He doesn’t have it to give. I refuse to blame God for my dad’s cancer or any other calamity in life, for that matter. We simply live in a world of conflict and sin. Bad stuff happens. While I may not understand why, I do understand that neither God nor his covenant is deficient.

While God is big enough to use every situation for his glory, it doesn’t mean that the given problem was his will. Not everything that happens in life is God’s will. We must stop blaming him. The cornerstone of our theology is the fact that God is always good and is the giver of only good gifts…there is no evil or darkness in him.

His goodness and faithfulness become the focus of my praise. I celebrate those aspects of his nature during what sometimes appear to be contradictory circumstances. After my dad’s death, I discovered the privilege of giving God a sacrificial offering of praise that I will never be able to give him in eternity. My offering was given in the midst of sadness, disappointment, and confusion – none of which I will ever experience in Heaven. Only in this life will we be able to give an offering with that kind of fragrance” (Bill Johnson, Strengthening Yourself in the Lord, p.151-152, DestinyImage).

I felt someone my need that good word this morning. Be blessed today in the One who only gives good gifts.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.          For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor.13:8-13)

The text above is the second half of the discussion on love that Paul sandwiched between his two chapters on spiritual gifts. In my last blog we discussed the need for all gifts to be governed and motivated by love. What is interesting is that this section is also a key passage that “cessationist theologians” use to demonstrate that miraculous gifts no longer operate. I thought it might bed helpful to discuss these verses in light of the question, “Do the supernatural gifts of the Spirit still operate?”

Many churches in the western world teach or operate on the assumption that God no longer intervenes in the world in miraculous ways as he once did. Their argument is that Jesus performed miracles in order to validate his claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God. The apostles exercised miraculous gifts in order to validate their leadership, their authority, and their writings as being inspired and established by God.

The argument continues that once Jesus had performed enough miraculous signs to validate his position as Son of God and once the apostles had demonstrated their God-ordained apostleship which was validated by their miracles, there was no further need for miracles. In this view the sole function of miracles was to validate Jesus and the apostles or to provide direction (prophecy, words of knowledge, etc.,) until the New Testament was penned. Once validated and the New Testament was delivered, there was no further need for the miracles and so they ceased when all the apostles had died.

Jesus did say that his works validated his claims but in many settings, scripture says that he was moved by compassion to heal and deliver rather than a need to be validated. He often told many he healed to tell no one what he had done. If God no longer acts through miracles on behalf of his people, does that mean he is no longer is moved with compassion? Additionally, several books in the New Testament were written by men who were not apostles (Luke, Acts, James, Hebrews, for instance) and, as far as we know, performed no miracles. Does that mean their writings are subject to question? Many individuals in the New Testament who were also non-apostles and who wrote none of the New Testament performed miracles. If miracles were only for validation of Christ and the apostles why did these others operate in miraculous gifts?

As textual proof, those who hold that view offer the verse above that states, “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” The Greek word that is translated as “perfection” or “that which is perfect” is teleion. The word can mean “complete” so the idea is that when the inspired writings of the New Testament were completed and verified by the past miracles of those who wrote the New Testament, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit would cease.

They go on to argue that the so-called miraculous gifts of the Spirit today, do not meet the Biblical standards of miracles, so they are invalid. The biblical standards they offer are prophecies in which every word is proven true and healing gifts through which every person is healed. Since not all prophetic words today come to pass as spoken and since not all are healed, they declare that current “miracles” are psychosomatic emotionalism, at best, and satanic deception in other cases.

Let me respond to those claims. First of all, the word “teleion” typically means complete in the sense of mature, especially spiritually mature. Strong defines it as, “ a state of ideal wholeness or completion, in which any disabilities, shortcomings or defects that may have existed before have been eliminated or left behind. In secular Greek teleios means also: (i) adult, full-grown, as opposed to immature and infantile.” Paul often speaks of believers growing up into the fullness of Jesus – full in the sense of his spiritual maturity and holiness. 1 Corinthians 13, is an entire chapter that sets the standard for full maturity as love and a life that is expressed through love for God and others.

When “perfection comes” is most likely alluding to the coming of Jesus, who is spiritual maturity incarnate, or is talking about the time when our love will be perfected – when Jesus comes. Paul’s argument, in the context of 1 Corinthians, is that the believer’s goal should not be to surpass others in miraculous works and power but to surpass them in love.

He rests his argument on the idea that the spiritual gifts of the church are good, needful, and desirable, but not eternal. When Jesus establishes the fullness of his kingdom, miraculous gifts will not be needed. Gifts of healing will not be needed where no sickness exists. Deliverance will not be needed where no demons are present. Prophecies will not be needed, as God himself will be present to declare his word, and so forth. In eternity, love, not spiritual gifts, will define the kingdom.

Up to this point, the completion of the New Testament has obviously not yet provided everything the church needs to be spiritually mature or victorious. The power of the Holy Spirit along with divine weapons are still needed in a hostile world. The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are part of that heavenly arsenal.

The argument that the present day offering of miracles and healings does not meet biblical standards is also addressed in Paul’s three chapters on spiritual gifts in this letter. Gifts of prophecy are not the same as the office of prophet (Eph.4:11ff). Spiritual gifts under the new covenant are capacities that often begin as seeds and then grow to maturity. In the process, not every person with a gift of prophecy will hear God accurately or fully in the beginning. That is why Paul instructs the church to “weigh carefully” what has just been prophesied (1 Cor.14:29). He is not calling them to constantly be on the hunt for false prophets but to evaluate prophecies because there is room for error. Those who mature in prophecy and that may have an extraordinary anointing in the gift may then fill the office of a prophet and the standards for his accuracy will be higher.

The same is true in healings and deliverance. Not everyone is healed or delivered. Some of Jesus’ own disciples were not able to cast out a demon in Mark’s gospel (Mk.9:18). Paul spoke of some who were close to him who were dealing with sicknesses that apparently he had not been able to heal. Since spiritual gifts are for both the mature and immature and because they must be developed, a standard of perfection is unbiblical and does not invalidate the gifts.

Not only that, but cessationist churches take the text from I Corinthians that says tongues, prophecies, and knowledge will cease and extrapolate that to all miraculous gifts. Even if “that which is perfect” were the completed New Testament (which I do not believe it is), the apostle did not list healings, words of knowledge, miracles, and so forth as gifts that would cease. To take a few gifts as representative of all the gifts also would also eliminate gifts such as teaching, encouragement, mercy, hospitality, generosity, and so forth. The New Testament does not differentiate between those spiritual gifts and tongues, prophecy, etc. Each are supernatural gifts given by the Spirit to build up the body of Christ. To cherry-pick the gifts we are comfortable with and deny those that make us uncomfortable seems to lack integrity.

We still live under the New Covenant and part of that covenant is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the release of spiritual gifts to the body. That covenant has not changed and has not been diminished. Every spiritual gift listed in the New Testament is still available to be distributed by the Holy Spirit as he determines. Even gifts not listed (worship, creativity, writing, etc.) are evidently given and anointed by the Spirit. The key is to desire the gifts out of a hunger to exercise them as an expression of God’s love and compassion to others. When we operate out of love, God will gladly give us his gifts and give us even more as we continue to love. When all is said and done, faith, hope, and love will remain but the greatest of those is love. Blessings in Him.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

In the middle of the apostle Paul’s extensive discussion of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14, he inserts a chapter on love. As you read the entire letter to the church at Corinth, the need for such a chapter becomes painfully obvious. The church was not a very loving church. In fact, early in the letter he scolded the believers there for being carnal or fleshly instead of spiritual. As you read through the entire letter you discover divisions in the church, jealousies, pride, quarrels, taking one another to court, open immorality, and the use of spiritual gifts for personal gratification to establish a “spiritual pecking order” within the church. The good news is that they were still loved by God and were still the church of God at Corinth. They did, however, need to grow significantly in their spiritual lives.

In this letter, we discover some very interesting realities about imperfect believers and spiritual gifts that are worth considering. First of all, spiritual giftedness is not always a sign of maturity. In the opening to his letter, Paul asserts, “You do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (1 Cor.1:7). In chapters 12-14 he lists a plethora of spiritual gifts including healings, miracles, tongues, prophecy, interpretation, discerning of spirits, words of knowledge, and so forth. That is an impressive list of gifts that we may assume were being exercised in the church there. And yet, Paul admonished them by saying, “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly” (1 Cor.3:1-3). In Corinth, their “giftedness” ran far ahead of their spiritual maturity.

It makes you wonder why God would entrust such impressive spiritual gifts to the spiritually immature. I have two thoughts on that. One is that our gifts have the capacity to help us mature as we experience the Lord himself through the exercise of gifts. For instance, praying in tongues has the side effect of building us up spiritually as the Holy Spirit prays through us ( Jude 20). Prophecy is intended to build up the body of Christ and is expressed primarily to strengthen, encourage, and comfort people (1 Cor.14:3). Speaking the love and destiny of God over other people should also establish those things in our own hearts which produces spiritual growth.

Spiritual gifts are also God’s tools for building up the body of Christ, in general, so that a brand new church, planted in one of the most pagan cities in the world, would still need those gifts to grow even though there would be very few mature believers in that church. Perhaps, the immature expression of gifts is still less damaging than the absence of gifts altogether.

I also have another thought about Corinth. If you read the book of Acts, you discover that Paul experience a great disappointment in Athens just before he arrived at Corinth. He had gone to Mars Hill, the place where all the Greek and Roman philosophers gathered to discuss ideas. Paul presented his best, most rational, and most compelling arguments for the truth of the gospel. To his dismay, only a few responded. He left there feeling as if he had failed and he recalibrated his approach to evangelism.

We Paul arrived at  Corinth, he preached only Jesus Christ and him crucified and then demonstrated the kingdom through displays of the power of the Spirit. It is possible, that Paul imparted many of the gifts to a young church as a tool for evangelism only to learn another lesson about when to impart those gifts. Later, he would tell Timothy to refrain from laying hands on any man quickly (1 Tim.5:22). The idea was not to appoint a man to leadership or to impart a spiritual gift until he had a read on the man’s maturity and character.

The issue of free will always comes into play in God’s dealing with man. God gives good gifts with the opportunity to use them well, but man always has the option to use them for selfish purposes. At any rate, there were many believers at Corinth who exercised impressive gifts that were not always Spirit-led. That is why Paul told them to test all prophecies to see if they were from God (consistent with his will and confirmed by the Spirit in the hearts of other believers).

An important take away from this letter is that because some believers abuse spiritual gifts, it does not mean that the gifts are invalid or that they do not bring tremendous value to the church.

Ultimately, the safe guard against abuse is not forbidding the exercise of gifts but using them in the context of love. Spiritual gifts are an expression of God’s love for his body delivered through his people. When someone is healed by a gift of healing, it is simply God’s love being delivered through the hands or commands of one of his children. When a gift of encouragement is exercised, it is the encouragement of God flowing through a believer. When hospitality is exercised, it is God making strangers feel warm and welcome.

Every gift reflects a facet of the nature and character of God and should be governed by love. Even with the extreme abuse of spiritual gifts in Corinth, Paul did not shut down their exercise but taught them how to use the gifts as they were intended. The church should respond to any abuses or misrepresentations of spiritual gifts in the same way today. (More from I Corinthians 13 in my next blog).

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. (Luke 11:17-20)

The gospel of Luke gives us insight into the mindset of the Pharisees regarding Jesus. Jesus did not match their preconception of what the Messiah would look like. Jesus was not raised in a noble family; he was not educated at the feet of great Rabbi’s; he had not presented himself to the Sanhedrin or the Pharisees asking for their seal of approval; and he did not covet their favor at all. In fact, rather than courting their support he had confronted them on numerous occasions about their religious hypocrisy. As a result, they rejected him as the Messiah. They did have a major problem, however, in their attempts to discredit Jesus. His miracles were extreme, public, numerous, and undeniable.

Their final ploy was simply to ascribe his miraculous works to the power of Satan. They were most clear about their accusations when Jesus was casting out demons. Jesus’ response was simple. Why would Satan (Beelzebub) cast out his own minions who were doing his work? Wouldn’t that kind of contradiction undermine the kingdom of darkness? And…if demons are only cast out by the power of Satan, then how did they explain their own exorcists who cast out demons?

Ultimately, his response came down to a declaration regarding the kingdom of God. The Jewish leaders were very keen on the Messianic kingdom being established in their own day. They anticipated that it would be a kingdom of politics and military might backed up by the power of God. They had thought that they would all be given positions of power and influence in that kingdom. Jesus’ disdain for them and his disinterest in a political or military solution did not “fit their theology.”

Jesus, however, made a definitive statement about the nature of the kingdom of God as proof that he was a bona fide representative of that kingdom. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Lk.11:20). A mark of the true kingdom was to be supernatural power. It was not power to be used politically or militarily but to destroy the works of the devil. The mark of kingdom would be the preaching of the good news, healing, casting out demons, raising the dead, etc. It still is.

Jesus declared that the kingdom the Pharisees would have ushered in was not the kingdom of God but rather another earthly kingdom devised by men. The question arises – does any view of the kingdom of God that does not claim and demonstrate supernatural power correctly represent God’s kingdom? In his letter to the Galatians, Paul expressed a great concern about the so-called gospel that was being preached. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned” (Gal.1:6-8)!

Paul’s primary concern in this text was a gospel that included works for salvation and not grace alone. But the warning is not to change or pervert the gospel that was declared by Jesus and taught by the apostles. Throughout his letters, Paul frequently talked about the power of the kingdom of God and demonstrated it time and again. Is a gospel without power, a true gospel at all? Is a miracle drug that is eventually dispensed with only part of the formula, still the solution that was promised or is it something else? The gospel is not only the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus but also the promises attached to what Jesus did. Without those promises the gospel is no good news at all. The forgiveness of sin, rebirth into God’s family, the indwelling Holy Spirit and the power of the Spirit in our lives is all part of the package. To leave out any of those components makes the gospel less than it is meant to be.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms” (Eph.1:17-20).

Wisdom, revelation, spiritual eyes, hope, inheritance, and incomparable power are key words that he prayed over and over again for the church in Ephesus. Without a demonstration of power, Christianity will be viewed, by most, as just another philosophy of life. But…we teach peace and love. So do Eastern religions. The historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection sets us apart but the power of the gospel is what confirms that resurrection. The psalmist declares that God forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103). When Jesus was questioned about his authority to forgive sins on the earth, he simply healed the man as proof that the man’s sins were forgiven. Matthew records the moment when Jesus said, “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic—‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home’” (Mt.9:5-6). A demonstration of power, governed by love, confirmed the reality of forgiveness.

We need those same demonstrations today. A gospel that preaches forgiveness without demonstrating the goodness of God through the supernatural intervention of his Spirit falls short. The charisms or supernatural, spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit are not just power but expressions of God’s love for people. That is why Paul devoted a whole chapter to love in the middle of his discussion on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

I am still frustrated that so many Christian churches today continue to deny, teach against, and even forbid the exercise of spiritual gifts such as healing, deliverance, prophecy, tongues, and so forth. Like the Pharisees, many still argue that the exercise of those gifts is satanic deceptions. The real deception is found in the prohibition of their exercise. Paul declared, “Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues” (1 Cor.14:39). He also charged, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt” (1 Thess.5:19-20).

I am not saying that the churches that deny the full ministry of the Holy Spirit do not love Jesus. I’m not saying that they do not do good. I am saying that they operate with an incomplete gospel because the promises attached to his good news are incomplete. Trying to push back the powers of darkness without the manifest power of the Holy Spirit is like hunting with a gun that is not loaded. That was never the Lord’s intent. Regardless of where you attend church, I hope that you will pursue everything the Spirit promises because those promises validate the resurrection of Jesus and the presence of his kingdom. They are continuing expressions of God’s love in a dark world. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Luke 11:17-20). Be blessed.

For this reason, the most effective life of prayer to which God has called us is not a life of throwing up prayer requests and hoping that one will bring an answer. The prayer of faith that always gets results is the kind we pray because we have drawn close to his heart and heard him talk about what he wants to do. Then we can stand in the place of delegated authority as a co-laborer and declare what he has said over circumstances (Bill Johnson, Strengthen Yourself in the Lord, p. 87; Destiny Image).

I was browsing through an older book by Bill Johnson, looking at the passages I had previously marked, and noticed the above paragraph again. If it is true, most believers are not being very effective in prayer because they have been taught that God doesn’t speak directly to his people anymore but communicates only through his written word. It’s important to know if the above statement is true or not. If it is, we need to get busy hearing God. If it is not, we can continue to toss up to heaven those things that are important to us.

Let’s look at one passage in the book of James as a reference point. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (Ja.5:16-18).

This is a cornerstone verse for powerful and effective prayer. In the days of Elijah, Ahab, an incredibly wicked king, ruled. As a judgment on Ahab and the nation, God had determined to send a severe drought and not one drop of rain or even a cloud appeared over Israel for three and a half years. Three and a half years later, the Lord told Elijah, “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land” (1 Kings 18:1). Elijah did as the Lord instructed and told Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of heavy rain” (1 Kings 18:41).

Elijah’s declaration to Ahab was spoken by faith because when he spoke of the sound of rain there were still no clouds in the sky. The text goes on to say, “So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Mt. Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. ‘Go and look toward the sea,’ he told his servant. And he went up and looked. ‘There is nothing there,’ he said. Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.’ The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.’… Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel” (1 Kings 18:41-46).

By the way, the distance from Mt. Carmel to Jezreel is about 25 miles – almost a marathon – but the old prophet outran a chariot trying to get there ahead of a heavy rain. There had not been a drop of rain or dew for 42 months and there was not a cloud in the sky when Elijah began to pray. There was no immediate evidence of answered prayer but he kept praying. Seven times he asked his servant to look for evidence of rain before he saw any. What prompted him to keep praying? He prayed for rain with faith and intensity because he had already heard from the Lord that it was God’s appointed time to break the drought.

There are many things, perhaps most things, that God chooses to do only after his people have prayed for them to happen. Elijah’s prayer was powerful and effective because he was certain his prayer was God’s will. When we hear from the Lord that he wants to do something, then we can have absolute faith for the answer because God has already revealed that it is his will – he wants to do the very thing we are praying for. We can even persevere if there is no immediate manifestation of his will because we have his word.

When he has spoken to us, our prayers send forth his word. Isaiah tells us, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa.55:11). When we pray his specific will, we have certainty for the answer.

Jesus was clear that he only did what he saw the Father doing and only said what he heard the Father saying. He prayed what he heard from the Father. He is our model for the spiritual life. When we hear from the Lord, then our prayers are simply releasing the will of God on the earth and our prayers will come to pass as prophecies come to pass because God’s word and will have already established the outcomes. There are certain things in scripture that we can always pray for because we no it is always God’s will – salvations, holiness, wisdom for those in authority, etc. but those are general guidelines. Hearing more specifically what to pray and how to pray for one of those outcomes is still much more effective than just asking for something categorically.

Can we pray for something that God has not spoken about to us? Yes, of course, but we will not have the same assurance of his answer that we will when we have heard from him. Let’s face it; we often assume that our will is his will. When we pray out of that posture, we probably pray for some things that ultimately would not be in our best interest. When God does not answer those prayers, we begin to have less faith that God answers our prayers. We then begin to pray with more “hope” than expectation. If a desire is on our heart, it may well be that God has placed it there, but we may want to ask if that is his will for us before we start praying into that desire.

From time to time, I need to be reminded to ask God what he wants me to be praying for rather than just jumping into my laundry list of requests. Maybe you need that reminder as well. Be blessed today and consider asking the Father what is on his mind before telling him everything that is on yours.

Having an internal frame of reference means that in any given situation we do not take our truth from external circumstances. The world always gives us negative information. We ask the Father for his perspective. We never ask, “Why?” It is the wrong question. It is an invalid question that makes us invalid. It is a victim question, and the Father never makes us victims. He trains us to fight, to overcome, and to be more than conquerors in Christ. If the Father has never been overwhelmed, and Jesus is undefeated, then the Holy Spirit can only lead us in triumph (Graham Cooke, Manifesting Your Spirit, p. 12, Brilliant Book House).

That’s a good word from Mr. Cooke. Think about it. If we are in Christ and he is in us, then we never need to be in any position other than the one Jesus is in in any situation. Instead, we often view ourselves as separated from Christ and all alone in our dilemmas. We feel as if he has withdrawn and left us to fend for ourselves. We then feel helpless and slip into Satan’s trap of feeling like victims. As soon as we take on the identity of a victim, we deny every scripture that declares God’s care for us and his promise that he will never leave us or forsake us.

As Cooke stated above, the question is not “Why?” but rather, “What do you want me to discover in this circumstance?” David had plenty of opportunity to ask “Why?” when he spent s years in the wilderness running from Saul. After all, he had been anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel and God had already announced that he was removing Saul’s throne, so why was Saul still king and trying desperately to take David’s life? It would have been easy for David to believe that God had gone back on his promises or that Samuel had given a prophetic word in error. There are, in fact, moments in scripture where David did feel those things but he quickly found his way back to faith and the promises of God – back to an internal perspective.

We often feel abandoned and victimized because God does not give us quick or clear answers to our prayers or because he answered them in ways that we did not outline for him. Certainly, David’s prayers immediately after his anointing by Samuel were not for God to place his life in peril and to allow him to live in caves for seven years. And yet, God had great purposes in the delay. Saul was given his kingship almost overnight. Solomon said that the earth shutters when a slave becomes king. I believe what he meant by that is that when someone suddenly becomes king who has not been trained in leadership, who has not been trained to wear power well, or whose heart has not been trained to follow God’s leading, then trouble is in the cards for everyone.

Saul was quickly made king because he looked presidential. He had the appearance of a leader but not the character. As the pressures of the office mounted he became insanely insecure. He operated out of fear rather than faith and was often disobedient to clear directions from the Lord.

David, however, learned to depend totally on God in his wilderness years. He learned to lead men by sacrifice and love rather than by threats. He discovered that God was present in every circumstance and had a solution already prepared for every problem. He learned humility and trust and the value of keeping God’s directives even when they seemed to put you at a disadvantage. On several occasions David could have easily taken Saul’s life and no one would have blamed him. David, however, refused because he had learned that the throne had to be given by God, not taken by his own cunning. The delay, the cold nights, the threatening circumstances, the years that passed, the multiple rescues from Saul’s hand, provision in the wilderness, etc. all trained David’s heart to be king. In fact, it trained David to be “a man after God’s own heart.”

Faith is an internal perspective that sees present circumstances through the promises of God. It does not receive the condemnation of the world or the hopeless reports of those who do not know Jesus. It is never hopeless because Christ is our hope. It does not despair because even if physical life slips away, eternal life is waiting for us. Even if we die, when we die in faith we have run our race and won a crown. We are in Christ and he is in us.

Paul declares that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8), therefore, we are never separate from his love. We are never victims. We are only conquerors waiting to see the victory God has planned come to pass. Never ask “Why?” but ask “What do you have for me in this circumstance?” There are no losers in Christ, but only winners if we know what and who is ours. Blessings in the one who never makes his children victims.

And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. (Mk.15:20-21)

In three of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) we find almost a footnote to the crucifixion. Each of the three writers mentions a man named Simon from Cyrene who was apparently not previously known to the disciples of Jesus. He was most likely entering Jerusalem for the Passover. The gospels simply say that he was coming in from the country and found himself caught up in the drama of the crucifixion of the Christ.   Because Jesus had been so brutalized by flogging and beating, he was struggling to carry his cross (probably the cross member only). The Romans, not out of compassion but in a hurry to get this done, compelled a man in the crowd to carry the cross for Jesus.

That is all we are told and yet Simon shows up in three gospels and his sons are mentioned in Mark. These gospels were written decades after the crucifixion so why would they remember this obscure man’s name or the names of his sons? The only answer seems to be that Simon and his family became believers that day and became faithful members of the Christian community where they were well known to the writers of the gospels.

It is possible that Simon had some knowledge of Jesus. Perhaps, he had heard him teach in the countryside or in some village. Perhaps, he had never heard of Jesus before that day. But something turned his heart to Jesus on the day of his suffering and death. My sense is that Simon stayed for a bit after delivering the cross. Sometimes when we are part of a tragedy – praying for someone who is dying, assisting at the scene of an accident, helping a stranger pickup debris after a tornado – our souls are somehow knit to theirs. I think Simon experienced that connection with Jesus and lingered by the cross. Perhaps, he asked a few people questions about this man who had been brutalized and sentenced to death. Maybe Mary had briefly thanked him for helping her son.

I’m guessing the demeanor of Jesus, even in death, seemed out of place. Surely a man whipped, beaten, and on his way to be spiked to a cross was a murderer or a terrorist. But he heard no cursing from Jesus and no threats. What he heard was concern for his mother and forgiveness for those who were doing this to him. Jesus probably spoke a few words to him on the way to Golgatha and certainly made eye contact, which always communicates volumes in the midst of tragedy.

The culmination of the experience, I believe, connected Simon to the other disciples in Jerusalem and the resurrection of Christ followed by Pentecost made Simon and his family strong believers. I think this demonstrates a couple of truths that we need to remember.

First of all, God is always working in the hearts of men for redemption and that work often occurs in the midst of injustice and tragedy. God doesn’t cause the injustice or tragedy but he uses it. In the midst of the suffering and death of his Only Begotten, the Father was still mindful of Simon and was working on his heart that day.

Secondly, how we handle suffering and hardship influences people for good or for bad. The way Jesus suffered with grace and with love drew this man to him and to the Father. The same can be true for us. How we handle personal injustice communicates to those around us who are seemingly detached and on the sidelines. Injustice at the office, bad calls on the basketball court, slander, rejection, etc. are moments when people are watching and listening. Grace, forgiveness, and love can touch the observers. How we deal with sickness, death, injuries and so forth have the same effect. Our testimony shines brightest when things are against us.

Finally, connection with other believers is crucial in transformative moments. People are most open to the gospel in seasons of transition and crisis in their own lives. To witness and touch something as horrendous as Christ’s crucifixion – the brutality, the smell of death and suffering, the stark indifference of Roman soldiers, the darkness that shrouded the day, the wailing of those close to the crucified – had to be traumatic for Simon and his sons.

That day must have raised deep questions for him. Other believers had to answer those questions. I am convinced that God connected Simon to some of Jesus’s disciples that day – maybe even the women who stood at the foot of the cross or John who was there as well. Perhaps, in astonishment he lingered and encountered Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who came to take the body off the cross. But a few of the disciples reached out to him that day and their attitudes and actions did not cancel out what he had seen in Jesus.

Those relationships, forged in the midst of tragedy, drew him into the family of God where he and his children were well known even decades later. God uses everything for redemption. In the midst of crisis, injustice, or suffering don’t forget those who seem to be standing on the sidelines. They are still watching and what we do and say makes an impression that may draw them to Jesus just as Simon was drawn.