This week I’m attending a four-day conference at the King’s Park International Church in Durham, North Carolina entitled Healing the Human Soul. Most healing conferences offered by churches today are all about praying for physical healing. I love those conferences as well, but I would say that healing the soul is of greater importance and if the soul is healed, many times physical healing will follow. For a number of decades now, leaders in the field of medicine have estimated that 60 to 80 percent of all illnesses are emotionally rooted. When they say “emotionally rooted” they mean that chronic stress, worry, fear, bitterness, anger, etc. tend to compromise the immune system, increase blood pressure, rob people of sleep, create chemical imbalances, etc. and those conditions then give way to illness. Because of that, physical healing is often impossible or, at least, impossible to maintain without first healing the soul.

The prophet Isaiah recognized the great need of healing the soul when he spoke of the coming Messiah. He spoke for Messiah prophetically when he said, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isa.61;1). Because of sin, man is enslaved to a number of things: sin, addictions, demonization, self-centeredness, and illness. All of these create their own form of bondage for people – even God’s people. In Isaiah 61, the prophet suggests a chronology needed before each person can be fully released to become all that his/her Father in Heaven has decreed for them. First the gospel must be preached so that sins are forgiven in Christ. That releases us from the legal demands of sin on our lives. But secondly, Jesus came to bind up, heal, or minister to the brokenhearted. That is healing the soul. After that, captives and prisoners can be set free from whatever form bondage has taken in their lives.

Too often we try to heal the physical body or cast out a demon without addressing the brokenness in which a disease is rooted or to which a demon is attached. If the wound isn’t cleaned and healed properly, even if there is some temporary relief, the infection will return. Addictions are ways in which we attempt to medicate our broken souls. If the soul is not healed, a person may be set free from one addiction but will simply find another with which to medicate the wounds hidden deep in his or her soul. Believers often get stuck in their spiritual growth because they can’t get past their brokenness. The church over the last 200 years has been excellent at bringing people to forgiveness but is just now beginning to discover or rediscover how to heal the soul so that the sanctifying work of the Spirit can truly make us like Jesus.

As we minister to broken people, we too often think that problems are one-dimensional and need a one-dimensional solution. If a person is sick, command healing. If person is emotionally distressed or in bondage, cast out a demon. If a person is hopeless, preach Jesus. All of these are valid expressions of the kingdom of God and are extremely important. However, broken and enslaved people typically need all three of these elements to find healing and freedom.

God is interested in redeeming every part of us. Paul echoes that truth when he says, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess.5:3). In one sense, the idea of sanctification is for us to align ourselves perfectly with God’s will, his ways, and his purposes. He wants the body, soul, and spirit of every believer to be aligned with him. When that occurs healing is manifested, freedom is experienced, and the fruit of the Spirit can finally begin to flourish within the believer.

Most often this is a process, not just an event and discipleship is the ultimate solution so that these afflicting conditions don’t return. As Americans we are prone to look for the quick fix and often leave many things undone that manifest later. Taking our time to minister to body, soul, and spirit is a much more effective approach in the long run. The cost on the front end is time and effort – both on the part of the one who needs the healing and on the part of those administering the healing. Slowing down is a spiritual discipline that many, if not most, of us need to master. I’m at the front of that line.

Pastor Jim Laffoon from Nashville, Tennessee is leading this conference and is providing really interesting insights and thoughts about healing the soul. Much of his presentation is connecting what the Bible has told us for millennia about the impact of sin and righteousness in our lives and the lives of our children with current brain and genetic research. This research is revealing some of the “whys” for God’s commands and may suggest even more effective approaches to our use of the divine weapons that God has given us.   I will be sharing some of those insights in my next few blogs.

From time to time, having faith for healing is still a challenge to me. Sometimes my prayers for healing have the flavor of   “I hope this works” rather than “I fully expect God to heal this person.” My issue is continuing to believe for healing when I have not seen my prayers for healing answered on a regular basis. Much of the contemporary church has interpreted scripture through their own experiences rather than maintaining a commitment to bring our experiences up to the biblical standard. So…if a certain fellowship has not personally witnessed miraculous healing for a few decades, it is easier to declare that God no longer heals in such ways rather than asking what is wrong with us that we are not witnessing what we clearly see in scripture.

For those who believe in God’s healing today, there are also two general camps. One camp says that God is still willing to heal through supernatural means occasionally. For that segment, sporadic healings are simply windows into heaven that let us know what life will eventually be like after Jesus returns. For them, illness can and does come from God as a means to build faith, purify a person spiritually, or to bring glory to himself through the person who, though suffering terribly, still praises God. If healing doesn’t occur it is either because there was not sufficient faith or that it is God’s continuing will for the person to be ill or disabled and that his ways are simply beyond understanding.

The second group of those who believe in God’s healing today will state that sickness never comes from God and that it is always God’s will to heal. If he doesn’t heal, it is simply because there is something in the spiritual realm that we don’t yet perceive or understand that is blocking the healing. The problem is on our end rather than His. This group points to Jesus who healed all who came to him as the standard form the church. Not only did he heal but he never visited sickness or disability on anyone to make that person more holy. Jesus said that if we have seen him then we have seen the Father. Therefore, what we see in Jesus is what we can expect from the Father as well.

For this group, the fact that Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven clearly implies that illness is never God’s primary will for man because there is no illness in heaven. This group will also point out that those who believe it is always God’s will to heal experience many more healings than the group that is never sure about whether or not God wants to heal the person they are praying. I know that observation is accurate.

The question, however, is not what we believe but what the Bible teaches. One of the things that helps my faith in God’s healing for today is to see what God’s will has always been in this area. Let me point out a few texts on this that are helpful to me. The more convinced I am that the Bible promises healing, the more faith I can bring to a prayer for healing.

First of all, I doubt if any of us believe that Adam and Eve had to deal with sickness and disability in the Garden of Eden. Part of God’s primary will for his children then was health. Sin and the curse it brought on the earth changed the environment but did not change God’s will for his children. I believe we can say that God always wants to bless his children. Our sin and rebellion may get in the way of that blessing but it is still what he wants to do. That was true even under the Old Testament and the Law of Moses. Notice the following verses:

If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you. Ex. 15:26

Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. Exodus 23:23-26.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases. Ps. 103:2-3

He brought them forth also with silver and gold: And there was not one feeble person

among their tribes. Psm. 105:37

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. Isa. 53:4-5. KJV

These verses and many more make it clear that healing and health are blessings that come from the Lord. God often calls for Israel to repent so that he can heal their wounds and bless them. Illness came into the world as a result of sin. It is always an expression of a world cursed by the actions of men. It is an expression of a curse not an expression of the blessing of God. It comes as a consequence of unrepented sin and rebellion but as soon as repentance comes, God wants to heal. Illness, under the Old Covenant, was a curse that came on the heels of persistent disobedience. A state of blessing always brought with it healing, health, and prosperity. This reality is consistent with the nature of God who reveals himself and “the God who heals you.”

Since God is the life-giver and illness wars against life, then it is the very nature of God to heal and to oppose illness. That will always be his first choice. From the scriptures above you can see his desire to heal if his people will let him. More than that, healing and health was a covenant promise under the Old Covenant. How much more should it be so under the New Covenant which is a better covenant?

The Isaiah 53 passage above highlights God’s intent for his people under the New Covenant. This is a Messianic Prophecy. Notice what the Messiah will do for those who have faith in him. This is the prophecy that declares what the suffering Messiah would bear on our behalf so that we would not have to. Of course we are aware that he died and took on our sins – our transgressions and iniquities. That is a familiar part of the gospel. But he also took on our infirmities and diseases. The same gospel that declares that Jesus took our sins away also affirms that he bore the curse of illness so that we would not have too. It is summarized in Psalm 103 where we are told he forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases.

So why do faithful Christians experience illness? To some degree we experience illness for the same reasons that we experience sin. We live in a fallen world with a fallen nature which also means our physical bodies come with defects. Sometimes we just get sick. In the New Testament we are not promised that we will never get sick but that if we do, healing is part of our covenant. “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (Ja.5:14-15).

Notice that James does not say that Christians only get sick when they sin but rather if one has sinned and opened himself up to illness, that person will be forgiven so that healing can occur. Persistent, unrepented sin can still open the door to illness coming in as a natural consequence of sin even for believers. It can also block healing if there is no repentance. Remember Psalm 103. He forgives our sins and heals our diseases. There is an order to the process. Sin opens the door to illness. Repentance opens the door to forgiveness. Forgiveness opens the door to healing. Sometimes the sin lies not in what we are doing but in what we are failing to do…like failing to forgive.

Sometimes we get sick because we ignore God’s directives for healthy living. We eat junk, fail to exercise, abuse our bodies with sugar and alcohol, etc. We can’t ignore God’s wisdom without consequence. God has given us bodies over which we are to exercise good stewardship. Poor stewardship invites disease.

Sometimes, illness comes as a result of demonic attack. Spirits of infirmity show up often in the gospels and deliverance was needed before healing could occur. If you are part of a fellowship that doesn’t believe in the demonic or in deliverance, you may go for years with symptoms that are never quite healed or diagnosed because the source is spiritual not physical.

Healing does not come for many because they have been taught that God no longer heals in supernatural ways. They receive the best the medical field has to offer and if that is not enough they simply resign themselves to death. James said that we have not because we ask not. I have been amazed at the number of believers I have known who have not asked because they were taught that there was no point in doing so. I have been more amazed at the number of elders I have seen come to pray for a quick and peaceful passing rather than the healing they are commanded to pray for. Unbelief never gets it done.

Regardless of the source of illness, God has provided for our healing because it is his desire for all of his children to walk in strength and health. Through Christ he has given us forgiveness, promises of healing, healing gifts in the church, deliverance and wisdom. All those things work toward our health and healing because Jesus has purchased our healing with his blood as well as our forgiveness.

Does that explain every incidence of illness and premature death for Christians? No. I must admit that there are still situations that puzzle me because it seems we did everything needed to open the door to God’s healing and still did not see it come. I then fall in with those who believe God heals and desires to heal but that there are some things in the spirit realm that still get in the way. Those things have not yet been revealed to us. It is certainly better to look at Jesus and his standard of healing (all those who came to him) and ask for a greater revelation of keys to healing than to assign unhealed illnesses to God’s will and resigning ourselves to whatever medicine can do.

Whatever is promised in scripture is God’s heart and will for his people. Healing is definitely promised. So as I sometimes struggle to have faith for healing, I go back to Word and see it all over again. When I know it is God’s desire for his people, part of my covenant with him, and my inheritance in Jesus … I can begin to pray with faith again.

I was previewing a DVD on parenting by Kara Powell a few days ago and I was struck by something she said. The DVD series is entitled Sticky Faith. It is a series about helping children maintain their faith after they leave home and go to school, the military, or the workplace.

She had interviewed a number of college students who had actively been part of their church’s youth group while growing up. Statistically, nearly half of all young adults who are active in their church will leave their faith after leaving home. Powell and her team were looking for answers to the “why?” of such an exodus. One thing really stood out to her from the interviews. When asked what Christianity meant to them, a very large percentage of those college students gave an answer that never once mentioned the name of Jesus. What the interviewers discovered was that many of the students defined their faith as a set of behaviors rather than as a relationship with God.

When they were thrust into a new setting where their Christian behaviors were not valued and in which their behaviors did not win them acceptance with the “in crowd,” they jettisoned those behaviors like taking off a vest and tossing it into the corner. More importantly, when they had pursued the behaviors of the world long enough to be broken and ashamed by what they had done, they did not know how to come back to Jesus.

They didn’t know how to come back to Jesus because they didn’t know who Jesus was or what his heart was toward them. They had been immersed in rules growing up but not in relationship. They thought the behaviors were there to buy them acceptance and to please their parents. When acceptance didn’t come and when parents weren’t around, then the reason for the behaviors was gone. They didn’t know about the love of Jesus and did not have an overriding desire in their hearts to please their heavenly Father above men.

I’m afraid that many adult believers suffer from the same perception of their faith – that it is a set of behaviors that makes them acceptable to those around them rather than a life long relationship that takes priority over every other relationship they will ever have. When those behaviors don’t win them acceptance and approval at work, they compartmentalize and live out one set of values and behaviors at work and another set at church. They have the feeling that “Jesus doesn’t work for them” in the market place, at school, or in politics. When our prayers aren’t answered as we outlined them, we assume it is about behaviors or not doing enough to get God to give us our reward for good behavior. When we feel like we have been “doing all the right things” and God doesn’t “pay off” with our hearts desire, we feel betrayed. When we focus primarily on a set of behaviors rather than on a living, breathing relationship with Jesus, we will never know him because we only see him as the scorekeeper or an employer rather than a friend or father who always wants what is best for us.

It’s easy and very human to fall into the trap of viewing our faith as a set of behaviors, a list of do’s and don’ts, or rituals that we carry out to earn the approval and favor of God. When we slip into that mode we begin to slip into the school of the Pharisees who had a “form of godliness but missed the power” of a relationship with the creator of the universe. If we have a love relationship with the God who is love, then nothing is out of our reach – not because of our performance, but because of His desire to bless those he cares for. Our confidence in his love rather than our performance is the foundation of faith for all things.

So… if we ever start feeling distant from our God or catch ourselves feeling resentment because we think God hasn’t given us what we have earned by all our prayer, sacrifice, or moral living, then we have probably slipped into the “behavior’s mindset” rather than a relationship. If our children leave home thinking that their faith is a set of behaviors, they will probably wander away. If we teach them nothing else, we must teach them that Christianity is an eternal relationship with the Father through his Son Jesus Christ with both of them residing in our hearts through the Spirit.

Are there behavioral standards in that relationship? Of course there are, just as in any family or marriage. The standards exist to bless the relationship but are not the relationships in themselves. The relationship began in love and endures through love. We live up the Father’s standards because of love not to earn the love. We desperately need to teach our children that truth and we may need to remember it as well from time to time.

Our spiritual life is governed by our view of God. It is important that we have an accurate view of his heart and his character. Isaiah is a fascinating book filled with prophetic declarations and insights into the heart of God. As you read through it you find a rhythm of withering judgments coming against wickedness alternating with prophecies full of hope and God’s kindness for the future.

In Isaiah 30, we find a prophetic warning issued to a rebellious Israel. You find phrases such as “’Woe to the obstinate children,’ declares the Lord, ‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; … these are rebellious people, deceitful children,, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction’” (Isa.30:1, 9). Isaiah paints a picture of a nation that was redeemed by God, brought out of slavery into a rich land and into a singular covenant with the God of Creation. This nation that was loved and redeemed had totally broken faith with their God, had ignored his prophets, and had made alliances with nations that served demons. Severe judgments were in the pipeline and headed their way – judgments by sword, plague, and famine. Isaiah and other prophets had warned them and yet they were ignored. This had gone on for decades. The holy wrath of God had been aroused and the God of Israel had made his case as to why his wrath was not only just but necessary.

Yet, in the middle of all that, we find the heart of God. Isaiah says, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. (Isa. 30:18). The idea that God longs to be gracious, yearns to forgive, and deeply desires to restore his relationship with his people is the opposite view of God that many hold.

Even many believers see God as angry, vengeful and just waiting to pull the rug out from under them. They see him as the angry, abusive Father that is quick to hand out punishment and who must be begged in order to receive a blessing. When we hold that view of God, we cannot pray with faith that always anticipates good gifts. We cannot draw near because we believe that being near to God is an unsafe place. We cannot believe his promises because we think he will search to find something against us so that he can withhold his blessings.

Yet, that is not God’s heart even toward the wicked. ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel” (Jer.33:11)? Those verses and many more like them were written under the Old Covenant. How much more is this true under a covenant established by the blood of Christ?

This seems so simple but apparently it isn’t. I continue to see men and women who have been Christians for decades still doubt the love of God and the goodness of God for them. They still assign the most hurtful moments of their lives to some act that God perpetrated against them as if child abuse, rape, the death of an infant, or a car wreck that took five family members were all moments that God orchestrated without any thought to the devastation that loss or trauma would visit on them for a lifetime.   We often shroud such sentiments in the cover of mystery. We say that we will only understand why God did such a thing when we get to heaven.

Many of us still have an inaccurate understanding of the sovereignty of God. We believe that because he is sovereign everything that happens in this world was his will and was caused by him. It is clear from scripture, that in his sovereignty he determined to limit the control he would exercise over this planet. He gave us free will and in doing so he took his hands off the steering wheel and put us in the drivers seat. His desire is for us to stay on the road and to drive safely and sensibly. But we can choose to ignore his urgings and drive recklessly. We can, by our own choices, end up in the ditch or injure others by our reckless driving. We can all be guilty of driving under the influence of sin. Not only that but once God handed the planet over to Adam and Eve to rule, their sin and rebellion released a curse on the world they ruled. That curse introduced death, disease, birth defects, war, addictions, etc. that create the pain we so often must endure. God is there to walk us through the pain but to eliminate the pain is this world would require the removal of our free will.

One of Christ’s primary purposes for his visitation of planet earth was to show us an accurate picture of the Father. John recorded a conversation between Jesus and Philip who had just asked Jesus to give him and the other apostles a revelation of the Father. “Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me’” (Jn.14:9-11).

When we look at Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we cannot imagine him taking a child from a single mother by killing the child. What we do see is him giving a child back to a single mother by raising that child from the dead. We can’t imagine him laying hands on someone and imparting advanced leprosy to a mother or a father of three small children. What we do see is him healing lepers and giving them back to their families. We can’t imagine him calling down fire from heaven to obliterate a rebellious village. What we do see is Jesus rebuking James and John for volunteering to call down fire on a Samaritan village for their unbelief.

In essence, Jesus told Philip that whatever he had seen Jesus doing for poor, hurting, broken, rejected, and demon-possessed people was exactly what the Father himself willed to do for them. However Jesus responded to prostitutes, crooked tax collectors, grieving widows, or thieves was exactly how the Father responded to them as well. Jesus simply put flesh and blood on the desires of the Father. Many of us need to receive that revelation as well as Philip. When we see Jesus as being one way and the Father being another, we have a schizophrenic view of the Godhead that we are trying to serve. How confusing can that be?

As you read through the Old Testament and see the judgments of God being released, you need to remember that those judgments were never God’s first choice. His heart was always for men to repent and live. His heart always longed to be gracious even to those who had been walking in wickedness and rebellion. Now that the holy wrath of God has been satisfied by the cross, we can certainly rest assured that the Father’s heart for each of us is always to redeem, to forgive, to bless, and to be gracious….even if we have been on a prodigal’s journey.

When we pray we need to have our minds fixed on the goodness of God and his desire to bless his children. That accurate view of God gives us faith for the answers to our prayers. The Godhead is not debating over whether to love us or be angry with us but is in total agreement that we are loved and that blessing and eternal redemption is the motive behind every response to our prayers. I freely admit that there are mysteries as to why some of our prayers seem to go unanswered. But it helps me to live with the mystery if I know God’s heart for me is the heart of a loving father who always wants the best for his son or daughter. If you still see God as the angry Father keeping score and eager to punish your every mistake, live in Christ will have no joy and little faith. Reconsider God. Ask the Spirit to give you a full revelation of the Father knowing that you can see him perfectly in Jesus. It will make all the difference.

I was brought to the Lord through a “cessationsist church” that did not believe in the miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit in our time. What was interesting is that the fellowship that brought me to Christ and in which I ministered for 20 years was a church that valued and promoted the restoration of the practices and structure of the early church. They found a pattern of weekly communion in the first century church and so insisted on corporate communion each week. They found a primary emphasis on evangelism in the early church and so evangelism was promoted from the pulpits at every opportunity. They found a strong emphasis on baptism in the early church and so baptism was emphasized to the extent that those who were unbaptized were in jeopardy of missing heaven.

One of the cornerstone texts for baptism in this fellowship has always been, “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mk.16:16). The emphasis was on baptism and, of course, if you disbelieved, then you would not be baptized and condemnation was waiting in the wings. This text was quoted more often than just about any other scripture in the Bible with the insistence that if the early church put such a premium on baptism then we should not and could not waiver from that emphasis.

I certainly think communion, evangelism and baptism are hallmarks of the church and should all carry a great deal of weight in our practices. However, the rest of the verse so often quoted from Mark 16 was typically ignored altogether. “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover” (Mk. 16:17-18). The early church had a strong and undeniable pattern of those practices also along with communion, evangelism, and baptism. It is inconsistent to adopt some primary patterns of the first century church and ignore or explain away others.

I like what Kris Vallotton has to say about this omission of New Testament practices. “Jesus never meant for miracles to be an end in themselves, but rather an invitation into a superior Kingdom – a catalyst to cultural transformation fueled by revival…When people experience the supernatural manifestations of the kingdom of God – when, for instance, the dead are raised, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and people are delivered from demons – they witness two kingdoms in contrast. This juxtaposition provides them with an opportunity to repent. A church that does not demonstrate the miraculous works of Christ has failed to give the world this opportunity and, thus, has no right to judge people for their lack of response. Without miracles the kingdom of God is reduced to words, concepts, and good works. Perceived through this paradigm, the Lions, the Rotary and Moose clubs would be the ones contending for first place” (Kris Vallotton, How Heaven Invades Earth, p.18-19).

A great question for every church is, “If the Holy Spirit left your church today, what could you no longer do that you have been doing?” What are you doing that is clearly beyond the scope of what man can do in his own strength and in his own intellect? Are you stirring the hearts of people with amazing worship? There are any number of performers and stage shows in Vegas that stir the hearts of people and even inspire. Are you providing riveting preaching. There are any number of motivational speakers in the world that hold the audience in the palm of their hands. Are you doing great works in the community? As Vollotton pointed out, so are any number of social service organizations. Some hold marathons that raise millions every year for cancer research or children’s hospitals while the name of Jesus is never mentioned.

I’m not saying that worship and preaching and even good works don’t have an anointing from the Spirit. They can and they should but from an outsider’s view, it would seem no different than what the Masonic Lodge and Shriners do or the Rotary Club. However, raise the dead, read someone’s mail with a prophetic word, heal stage four cancer in a moment, grow an eye where there was no eye, and drive out fear, depression, and self-loathing with a command and suddenly the Name of Jesus stands apart.

I would go as far as to say that miracles are more necessary now, in a culture of science and technology, than they were even in the first century. In our culture we are taught that everything has a rational explanation and that eventually science, medicine, and technology will give us what backwards people thought God could give them. Miracles challenge that paradigm and demonstrate a present reality that is superior to science and medicine. Let’s face it, most Christians in America seek physical and emotional healing from the world before they ever go to Jesus. When their marriages or kids are in trouble they run first to secular psychologists for answers. They start to pray for miracles as a last resort because they have little or no belief that God will deliver one. They have little or no belief because the church has taught them that God is no longer in the business. And yet, the only times throughout scripture in which we see God withhold miracles from his people were the times in which they were in utter rebellion and unbelief. Otherwise, miracles are what dot the landscape of the Old Testament stories and absolutely flood the pages of the New Testament.

Jesus said that his miracles testified of him. The miracles of the church also testified of Jesus by pointing to him as all things supernatural were done in his name. Why would we not need that testimony today as much as ever? When the church as a whole begins to pursue and embrace the supernatural power of God again, then his supernatural power will be released in a way that changes the world. Isaiah speaks numerous times of a season when the kings of the earth will come to God’s people for blessing, for wisdom, and to be taught God’s ways. That will not happen as long as we are simply trying to match the Shriners in good will and good works. Instead of building children’s hospitals we should be emptying them out with the healing power of Jesus Christ. Then the world will have a clear choice between kings and kingdoms. Then Jesus will be lifted up again that all men might come to him. Miracles – they’re a good thing.