The New Testament has a great deal to say about who we are in Christ. As a result there are many declarations among Christian writers and teachers outlining our identity.  In our own ministry we encourage those to whom we are ministering to read a two-page declaration out loud each day that states who we are in Christ. We ask them to do that for sixty days.

We say sixty days because recent brain research has demonstrated that it takes about that long for new neural pathways to form in our brains that contain the thoughts we have been repeating and reinforcing with our verbal declarations.  There are other strategies to strengthen the process of getting God’s word into our mind as part of the renewal process Paul calls us to in Romans 12:2. Writing out the declaration, using different colors to do so, using the non-dominant hand, and listening to a recording of the declarations in your own voice are examples.

What we believe about ourselves is a reliable indicator of whether we will succeed or fail in life – not just in careers but also in relationships, health, and even spiritual matters. Our self-image or our identity sets us up for confidence or insecurity.  It determines whether we face new relationships with an expectation of acceptance or rejection.  It determines whether we face the future with hope or fear.  It determines whether we feel strong or woefully vulnerable. We could go on, but you know the concept.

Ultimately our identity or self-image boils down to whether we think we are reasonably capable, significant, valuable, and lovable or whether we believe that we are defective, incapable, insignificant, and unlovable.

Scripture tells us over and over that in Christ we are loved, we are very significant, we are highly capable, and that we matter so much that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners.  We are new creations, kings and priests, more than conquerors, sons and daughter of the Most High, God’s craftsmanship made for a divine purpose, totally forgiven, holy, and totally accepted by God.

When most believers read the things that God says about them, they discount the message and think that those things might be true for others but not for them.  Even after receiving salvation and the Holy Spirit, they continue to walk in their old identity – the old man -which we are commanded to put away. That image is typically negative. Sometimes the church has even wrapped a garment of acceptability around that negative self-image by calling it humility.

However, to discount or dilute the word of God on any topic is simply unbelief and unbelief invites the enemy and opens the door for him. We must always give God’s word more authority than our emotions, what our parents said, or what we have come to believe through past experiences. If we continue to walk in the shadow of a broken heart and a broken identity, we will never have faith that every one of God’s great promises are truly for us, and we will never face the enemy with confidence.

Whenever we minister deliverance, the standard thoughts pouring through the person’s mind to whom we are ministering are thoughts from the enemy such as:

• You belong to me and you will never be free.
• These people have no power over me.
• You will be alone and helpless without me.
• I don’t have to leave, I own you.
• And so forth.

His goal is to make God’s people feel helpless, weak and inadequate so that they back down from the confrontation. God has given us amazing promises.  He has told us that we have power and authority over the enemy.  We can resist the devil and he will flee from us.  We can join Jesus in destroying the works of the devil and we can do the works that Jesus did and even greater things by faith.  Believing that is the issue.

What I have discovered is that if we do not believe who we are, we will not believe what God is willing to do through us. In the face of Satan’s boasting and lies, we will wilt.  Faith is not just about what we believe about God, but about who we are in Christ as well. We have authority to cast out the enemy because of who we are in Christ.  We have strength to stand against his schemes because of who we are in Jesus.

As we disciple people, we should spend a great deal of time helping them know and believe what their position is in Jesus, because it is that position that gives them access to the throne room of God and the power and resources of heaven. Know one will truly know what their authority is in Christ until they know what their identity is in Christ as well. We should make a habit of not only declaring who God is on a daily basis, but also who we are in Christ on a daily basis as well.  When both of those things are settled in our hearts and minds, Satan has no chance.

In Acts 12, King Herod launched a season of persecution against the church.  He rounded up several of the leaders and James, the brother of John, was put to death. In the same sweep of church leaders, Peter was also arrested and placed in prison under heavy Roman guard. During the night, an angel awoke him and led him out of the prison and on to the streets. Peter thought he was having a vision or a dream but eventually decided that he actually had been delivered from his captives.  Once on the streets, the angel disappeared and Peter hurried to the house of John Mark’s mother where other believers were gathered in prayer on his behalf.  The story then takes a humorous turn as well as revealing something about us as believers.

The text says, “Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.’ When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’ ‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, ‘It must be his angel.’ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. (Acts 12:11-17).

The scene turns humorous when Peter, desperately wanting to get off the streets, knocked on the door and was left standing in the street as the servant girl ran to tell everyone that Peter was there.  It becomes a revealing scene when those praying for Peter’s release didn’t believe that he could possibly be at the door. How often do we pray with words of faith but without a heart of faith to match our words?  Undoubtedly, this little gathering of believers had verbalized some powerful prayers on Peter’s behalf.  Yet, when their prayer was supernaturally answered, they told the girl who had reported it that she must be of her mind.

One of the things I am learning to do is to check my faith for a prayer before I offer the prayer.  The good news is that God answered the prayer of those early believers in spite of their apparent lack of faith for what they were asking.  This falls in the category of aspirational beliefs rather than actual beliefs.  I aspire to have strong faith, so I say all the right words, but in actuality I don’t anticipate a powerful response from God.  I know that is my condition when I am skeptical about a report that my prayer was answered or when I am totally shocked to see God answer it.  In reality, many of us would honestly have to say when we pray, “Lord. I believe, help my unbelief.”  Again, God is good and often answers our less-than-faith-filled prayers anyway, but the goal is to pray with great confidence.

When I remember to do so, I find it helpful to rehearse in my mind all the times and ways that God has been faithful before.  I find it helpful to remind myself of his unchanging character and his faithfulness to his word.  I find it helpful to declare his promises related to what I am asking for and to remind myself that in Jesus all those promises are “yes” and “amen.” I also find it helpful to ask for the Spirit to give me a greater gift of faith for that moment and the moments to come.  At times, the Spirit may prompt me to repent of unbelief or to command a spirit of unbelief and doubt to be silent and leave. By going through that process, I am more able to align my heart with God’s word and so have more confidence in the outcome of my request. Then I can pray with more faith and, perhaps, even believe that the stranger knocking on the door is Peter.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold outthe word of life.  Philippians 2:14-16

I recently visited with a young woman who grew up in church, loves the Lord, hosts a small group Bible study in her home, but continues to struggle with overwhelming feelings of fear and condemnation. She lamented that the churches in her area were “powerless to help people like her.”  In many ways she had no more freedom in her life than the unsaved men and women of her community.

If we are honest, many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addictions, shame, fear, anger, depression, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance, a very large number of believers feel and act just like the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressures to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward people in their past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection.

I’m not scolding these believers for not being “the Christians they should be,” because I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom, but in many cases have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom and healing that Jesus promises.

A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness but does not radically free us and change us so that we stand out in contrast to our culture is not the gospel that Jesus preached. Paul pointed to this truth in the text from Philippians quoted above.   Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness like the sun’s brilliant corona as it shines around a total eclipse. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness” or contrast to the unredeemed.

Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder or simply starting over with a clean sheet, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. Scripture tells us that before Jesus came into our lives we were dead in our trespasses and sins and living under the dominion of darkness. We were in bondage to sin whether we knew it or not.  Satan literally owned us. But in Christ, all things become new. Jesus declared that he came to heal broken hearts and set captives free.  Those promises are for this world not just the world to come. After all, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave operates within us.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul declared, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  These individuals had come to Jesus with a lifestyle of sin that was essentially their identity. But, as new crea4tions, they were no longer what they had been.  This was more than forgiveness, it was transformation.  And it was transformation that had not taken decades of professional counseling, drug therapies, or detox clinics. It was the truth, the love of Christ and his body, and the power of the Holy Spirit that made such dramatic transformation possible.  It is still possible today and I have seen it over and over.

The Spirit of God who has constant access to the mind of God lives within us and is willing to download the knowledge and creativity of heaven to those who ask for it.  Because we have “the mind of Christ,” we should be the smartest, most creative, most resourceful, and most optimistic people on the planet in very noticeable ways.

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, an incredible potential for radical change is released. The door to our prison cell is unlocked and opened wide.  The question is whether we will walk through that door into a radically new life or voluntarily stay in our familiar environment.  Many Christians stay because they are unaware of the open door because it is only perceived by faith.  They are also unaware of the destiny and power Christ offers them to set them free and transform their lives.

Satan’s first goal is to keep us from coming to Christ. If that fails, his second goal is to make us ineffective in Christ. One of the enemy’s most effective strategies is to convince a believer that he is the same person he always was and will always be, even after coming to Christ. We rarely rise above the view that we have of ourselves.  Satan peddles the lie that the only difference between the saved and unsaved person is that the saved person has his or her sins forgiven. Otherwise, we are still as powerless and broken as the unsaved around us.

I have heard that statement made in churches as an expression of humility and to push back against any tendency toward self-righteousness. The intent is honorable but the premise is false.  If he can’t keep us from accepting Jesus, the next best thing is to convince us that we will only experience the power, healing, authority, and blessings of heaven after our funeral.  Until then, we will simply struggle and do the best we can while our life plays out like a sad country song.  That is not what Jesus had in mind on the cross.  That is not the abundant life. That is not being more than a conqueror.

After coming to Christ, the essential difference between those with the Spirit of Christ living in them and those without the Spirit should soon become apparent, not as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us. The fact that so many believers blend in perfectly with the world around them reveals that something is amiss. Speaking of Jesus, John tells us, “In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).  There was a measure and quality of life in Jesus that was unmistakable.  It stood out and drew men to him.  With Christ in us, we should exude the same life.  That life comes through the power that heals and sets men free (Isa.61:1-4) and the power that transforms us into the image of Christ.  A forgiving but powerless gospel will not take us there.

Paul gave a stern warning to the church at Galatia regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He declared, “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal.1:6-8). Paul was concerned about a gospel that preached salvation by works, but an incomplete gospel also borders on being another gospel.To teach forgiveness only, without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, leaves believers vulnerable to the oppression and affliction of the enemy.

Whenever Jesus and his followers preached the gospel, they immediately healed the sick, cast out demons, cleansed lepers, and raised the dead. That power was not just a demonstration that they were speaking for God, but it was also necessary for those accepting Christ to be released to meet their full potential in Him. Much of the church is reclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit but that realization has not yet made it into the majority of churches or believers in America.  My hope is that a time will soon come in which no one will have to say that the churches in his or her area seem powerless to help, “for the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). I also hope that you will be a clear voice in the Kingdom of God for all that Jesus purchased on the cross for all those who follow him.

I’m reading through the Book of Acts once again and once again I am reminded that opposition to the gospel was more often posed by religious factions than by the state.  Certainly, Rome eventually became the great enemy of the church but in the first thirty years or so it was the Jewish religious institutions that set Rome against Jesus and that pursued their own persecution against the church. Saul of Tarsus was the epitome of that persecution before he became the Apostle Paul. The Book of Acts declares, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2). Saul, as an extension of the Sanhedrin, would hold the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death.

The Romans persecuted the church as a matter of political expediency but the Jews seemed to harbor a genuine hate for the followers of Jesus. Even in America today, it seems that denominations sometimes present more opposition to one another than atheists or anti-Christian government policies.  The truth is that if believers trusted one another and were united in our faith, the government would not be passing legislation that is opposed to Christian values. We have to ask what is there about religion that produces division, opposition, and even hatred at times towards others who also profess to be followers of Jesus?

In short, there is a spirit of religion that manifests as religious legalism and that legalism is the ever-present catalyst for division, accusation, and even persecution. Of course, there are times to “draw a line in the sand” between people who claim to follow Jesus yet whose doctrines vastly contradict what scripture says about Jesus.  Those who claim that Jesus was not truly God but a created being or that the he was not actually raised from the dead or that he is only one of several ways for men to be saved have to be opposed and scripture commands us to do so.  But, generally speaking, divisions in the church and prejudice against other believers has not stemmed from our views on Jesus, but everything else, such as forms of church governance, worship styles, beliefs about the activity of the Holy Spirit, and even in whose name(s) someone should be baptized.

Legalism is the belief that we attain salvation through our own efforts or our own good works.  I asked a friend who is part of a very legalistic fellowship what he did with the passages that say we are saved by grace and not through any works of our own (Eph. 2:8-10).  He quickly stated that we are saved by grace because it is by grace that God gives us the opportunity to earn our salvation through good works. Legalism always and quickly asserts that we are saved not just by doing the right things but also by believing the right things….not just about Jesus, but about church doctrine as well. Those who view scripture differently are seen as “worshipping God in error” and, therefore, their salvation is at risk.  Because of that, true believers should have little to do with those who are in error because their error might creep into the true doctrine of those who have correctly interpreted scripture.

My first years as a believer were spent in a fellowship that drew very tight lines around doctrine and although they proclaimed loudly that we are saved by grave, their actions revealed that they actually believed that we are saved by holding to correct doctrine in all things. Churches who varied, even within that fellowship, were held suspect and sometimes “marked” and fellowship was withheld by other churches in that denomination. In those circles, the mark of faithfulness was not so much a lifestyle that reflected Jesus, but a fierce defense of the doctrines of that fellowship.  Clearly, when the enemy has convinced us that salvation depends on correct interpretation of all things in the Bible, huge and passionate divisions will take place. In Romans 14, Paul warns us not to reject one another over “disputable matters,” which seems to include many things over which churches have divided.

Certainly, the Pharisees believed they alone correctly understood the demands of the Law and believed they were the only dispensers of truth.  How often did they judge Jesus as a false Messiah because he did not measure up to their understanding of the scriptures, even though his life was a life of undeniable miracles? Within the Pharisees there was an undeniable arrogance and disdain for the “unlearned.”  The “unlearned” were typically anyone who did not agree with them.

Again, their view was that knowing and understanding the written word of God correctly was their primary ticket to heaven. However, Jesus often told them that their quest to be doctrinally purehad gotten in the way of their relationship with the Father and blinded them to God’s interpretation of his own word.  An underlying belief that the first rung of salvation is the correct understanding of all scripture leads to the splitting of doctrinal hairs and a neglect of relationship over knowledge. What a great strategy of the enemy. He takes what is good and a godly desire to know and understand God’s word and perverts it to an end in itself, instead of a way to relationship.  Beware of anyone who believes they have the corner on all Biblical truth and who puts orthodoxy ahead of love and grace.  Paul, a former Pharisee himself, put it this way. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2).

I realize that what I have written may sound as if I think doctrine is unimportant.  Actually, I think it is very important and what we believe about Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross is truly a matter of salvation. I also believe that coming to a greater and greater understanding of all scripture is important and is pleasing to God.  It is pleasing, however, when the motivation behind the study is to discover more of who God is rather than just being able to defend my “rightness” and spiritual superiority more effectively.

It is not doctrine that is the issue as much as our attitude about doctrine and about those who are not in lock step with us. Family members disagree about many things but still view each other as family.  Couples disagree but have to find ways to still love and respect each other in spite of their differences.  The church should be the same.

In my formative years as a Christian, I was actually taught that those outside of our fellowship who did not share our view of scripture did not love the truth or were simply ignorant of the Bible…and most likely were lost.  We took the passage in 2 John 9-11, that said,”Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work,” and expanded that to all doctrine about anything biblically related. John’s letters were all about the Gnostic heresy that denied that Jesus was God, that he came in the flesh, actually died on the cross, and was actually resurrected. The issue was about who Jesus was and what he accomplished on the cross not about every other doctrinal issue in scripture.

In addition to this belief that correct doctrine is essential to salvation, there is also a psychological need to stay “one up” on other believers and people in general.  Think about it.  If you believe that you get to heaven on the basis of your own good works and correct beliefs, then somewhere there is a celestial bell curve with an unknown cut off point.  Those who have done enough or have been right enough, get in.  Those who haven’t are turned away.

If you get to heaven on the basis of your own righteousness, then you are invested in being more righteous than others and so you will always seek to at least portray yourself as more correct, more righteous, more favored, etc. than those around you. That was exactly what the Pharisees did.  So you will become the critical spirit, the judgmental person in the room, and the “holier than thou” pain-in-the-neck at every gathering.  You will work hard to point our every other person’s or every other church’s failings with a tinge of condemnation attached to each bullet point.

This religious spirit will always deny its legalism and proclaim its love, but actions and attitude will reveal where that spirit is operating. The mindset of a religious spirit is difficult to change because everything depends on being right.  It usually takes a dramatic experience to change their view of spiritual realities like Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.   If you have someone in your life in bondage to that spirit, you may want to pray for a dramatic encounter with Christ rather than continuing your efforts to persuade them with scripture.  It is also imperative that we scan our own hearts from time to time to make sure that spirit hasn’t settled in us somehow so that we feel just a little superior to those who don’t share our view of all things spiritual.  If you suspect that spirit has found its way into your heart, get rid of it.  Life is easier and Jesus is much more attractive when that spirit is absent.

In this blog, we will finish our discussion of Cessationism which teaches that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit and the miraculous intervention of God ended somewhere around the end of the first century because the “purpose for miracles” had been fulfilled.

One basic rule of biblical interpretation is that you take the natural meaning of a passage unless the context or contradictory passages elsewhere force you to look for another meaning. Any natural reading of the New Testament would never leave the reader with the impression that miracles only had a seventy-year shelf life and would then slip into history.  The natural expectation for most would be that the ongoing life in the church would look like the Book of Acts with miraculous healings, deliverance, angelic visitations, and the dramatic evangelization of new people groups.  However, we are told by Cessationists that the power flowing through the church we read about in the New Testament was soon to be withdrawn and the Holy Spirit was about to be muted.

Miracles that were recorded two thousand years ago, but that are not replicated today in the name of Jesus, simply have the flavor of mythology. However, if those miracles are replicated, then the message about Jesus is reconfirmed to every generation.  I and millions of other Christians believe that God still performs miracles in order to confirm the message preached about Jesus and because he is still a compassionate God who cares about the suffering of people.  Additionally, John tells us that the reason Jesus came was to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8) … which apparently were the lost condition of man, illness, infirmity, broken hearts (emotional wounding), demonic affliction, demonic storms, and even premature death because those are the things that Jesus dealt with in his ministry.   Was he only concerned about destroying those works for a few decades in the first century?  Was the church then left without power to oppose a powerful enemy for millennia?  When Jesus said that anyone who had faith in him would do not only the works he did, but even greater works (Jn.14:12), there was no suggestion of a time limit or a brief window of opportunity to do those things. How do we faithfully represent Jesus (which means to re-present) without doing what he did?

There is an illustrative list of spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, and a list of offices in Ephesian 4:11.  Among those spiritual gifts are mercy, encouragement, administration, wisdom, faith, serving, giving, and leadership.  If these are spiritual gifts, then they were imparted supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.  Spiritual gifts do not come from the natural realm.  They are anointed supernaturally to bear spiritual fruit and to overcome the power of the enemy. If the supernatural gifts of healings, prophecy, miracles, etc. passed away at the end of the first century, then the remainder of the spiritual gifts should have ceased as well because Paul does not differentiate between one kind of gift and another.  To him they are all spiritual gifts (not natural bents or abilities) given by the Spirit to build up the body of Christ. Cessationists believe in the present-day gifts that don’t have such a supernatural flare such as mercy, giving, leadership, etc. but carve out those that demonstrate power and authority over the enemy and claim that God is done with those.  That seems very inconsistent to me. Theologians have created categories of gifts, but Paul never mentioned those categories.

Concerning the 1 Corinthians 13 passage that speaks of certain gifts ceasing, Paul was writing an entire chapter on love.  His premise was that even the most amazing gifts that were not motivated by love, fell short of God’s purposes.  He then said that love never fails but where there are prophecies they will eventually cease, tongues will eventually be stilled, and knowledge will eventually pass away.  He said that we know in part and prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect (complete, mature) shall come, what is in part will disappear. And we will know even as we are known. The Cessationists’ claim is that the “complete” or “perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is the finished New Testament.  According to this view, once the New Testament was written and compiled, there was no longer any need for miracles or miraculous gifts to validate Jesus or the apostles. I have already addressed that part of the argument.

In the context of his chapter on love, Paul is more likely to be talking about the full maturation of love in the body of Christ or the return of Jesus who himself is perfection and completeness.  I haven’t noticed that the completion of the New Testament has given us full knowledge of everything we didn’t know then. Simply having something in writing does not mean I understand it. Three semesters of calculus in college demonstrates that point.  I had it all in writing, but never really understood it or its applications. If the completed New Testament were the key to full understanding and knowing as we are known, we would all be united in the faith rather than divided over so many points of doctrine.  We would be certain about end-times, which we are not. We would be agreed on spiritual gifts, which we are not.

Ephesians 4:11-16, is an interesting parallel to this passage.  There Paul says that Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to the church in order to equip the saints for works of service.  Those works are to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature.  Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine that blows through the church.

It is likely that Paul is saying the same thing in Ephesians 4 that he did in 1 Corinthians 13.  Notice the parallels:

• We have all been given spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ (1 Cor. 13)
• We have been given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for works of service that build up the body of Christ (Eph.4).
• The gifts are needed until that which is perfect, complete, or mature has come (1 Cor.13).
• The offices are given until we reach unity in the faith and become mature, attaining to the measure of fullness in Christ (Eph.4).
• As we mature, we need to put away childish things (1 Cor.13).
• As we mature, we will no longer be infants (Eph.4).

The gifts and the offices are needed until we are all unified in Christ and totally mature in him so that all we do is motivated by love.  It seems most likely that which is perfect, mature, or complete is spiritual maturity, unity, and fullness in Christ.  I don’t think we are there yet.  In addition, even if the completed New Testament were the perfect thingto come, Paul said that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge would pass away, but he did not mention the other gifts.  The remaining gifts include healings, miracles, spiritual discernment, as well as the other “more comfortable gifts.” It is a big leap to include all of the miraculous gifts and to pronounce them to be nullified without a direct word from the apostle.

Finally, the pattern of evangelism that Jesus practiced and commanded his followers to use was to preach the good news and then demonstrate the kingdom through signs and wonders as well as compassionate healings, the restoration of life, and deliverance from demonic affliction.  To dismiss the miraculous gifts of the Spirit is to dismiss the demonstration of the kingdom. Jesus commanded his followers to evangelize the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe (or practice) everything he had taught his apostles (Mt.28:18-20).  He taught them to preach the kingdom and them demonstrate it with power.  We are commanded to do the same. Without all the gifts of the Spirit and the miraculous intervention of God, we cannot do what Jesus commanded us to do.

Although Cessationism takes power away from the church, it is in some ways an easier way to live.  You never have to wrestle with the question of why God did not heal a person you prayed for with faith because you don’t expect God to intervene in that way. You feel no responsibility to confront demons because the demonic is not on your radar. You never have to press in trying to hear God because you believe he only speaks through his word. You never have to question why you have not yet received the gift of tongues because you would never ask for that gift in a million years!  On the other hand, you must watch people remain in the grip of addiction, depression, anxiety, and homosexuality for years, only hoping that the secular world of psychology, science, and medicine can cure what Jesus has no apparent cure for.

A belief in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit through all of his gifts and a belief in the miraculous moves of God places more responsibility on us than we sometimes want, but it also enables us to join Jesus in pushing back the borders of darkness and liberating people from every form of bondage.  Yes, it makes the Christian life challenging but also exciting.  It does bring the Book of Acts to life and allows you to experience and see dramatic transformations in the lives of men and women in a few days or weeks rather than in years or decades. And honestly, witnessing the miraculous makes Jesus more real than he could ever be without the miracles.  When we see a miracle, we experience God not just hear about him and experience is the great transformer.  I hope you will be encouraged to pursue a life of miracles because it is biblical and it is the life God has always intended for you.

Blessings in Him.

In my last blog, I stated the primary reasons that Cessationists believe that God no longer performs “miracles” in his church, especially through the gifts of the Spirit.  I want to begin to respond to those reasons in this blog.

First of all, let me address the idea that God no longer works miracles.  A Cessationist believes that God answers prayers but works within the natural order of things rather than doing what is impossible according to natural law. For instance, when a person prays for the perfect job and gets that job, that is not a “miracle,” because God worked within ordinary laws of nature and society to facilitate the answer to that prayer.  However, Jesus walking on water is a miracle because it defies the laws of nature.  Cessationsist don’t believe that God operates in that way anymore and so accept the “ordinary” spiritual gifts of mercy, faith, encouragement, leadership, service, administration etc. but reject the “miraculous” gifts of prophecy, miracles, healings, tongues and so forth because they operate outside the natural order of things.

However, I would assert that if you pray, you believe in miracles. I believe that a miracle occurs anytime God intervenes in the natural order of things.  If you pray at all, asking for protection, provision, favor, etc., you are asking God to intervene in the ways things would pan out if left to themselves.  Otherwise, why would you pray?  You probably don’t pray for the sun to rise in the east in the morning because you anticipate that it will rise in the east without your prayers. You don’t pray for the lights to come on in your house each time to touch a switch because, in the natural order of things, the lights always come on.  So if you pray, you have begun to sense that if left to themselves, the natural order of things is going to bring harm or disappointment to you or your loved ones.

Many of God’s greatest miracles worked within the realm of natural law.  Great catches of fish on Galilee employed only boats, men, nets, and fish which all function in the natural realm.  The timing and location of the fish marked the catch as a miracle.  If you don’t believe in miracles, you would mark it only as a coincidence or a unique, spontaneous convergence of natural forces that prompted the outcome.  A stone hitting an exceptionally large Philistine warrior in the one square inch that would kill him employed only a young man, an ordinary slingshot, and a common stone from a creek bed.  All of that operated within the realm of natural law.  Did God miraculously guide the stone or was it simply dumb luck? God fed his people in the wilderness with quail.  The miracle was that so many quail arrived at the camp at the same time. Was it a miracle or a migratory phenomenon of some sort?  The Bible would call it a miracle.  So…even when we ask God to work within the natural order of things to manipulate time, circumstances, decisions, job availability, favor, a doctor’s performance, etc. we are asking for a miracle. God still performs miracles on behalf of his people on a daily basis but only faith knows the difference between an intervention by God and a curious coincidence.  I believe the scriptures call any intervention by God a miracle.

Now, there are definitely acts of God throughout scripture that defy natural law…the healing of leprosy by a touch, blind eyes spontaneously gaining sight, withered hands growing out in a moment, walking on water, the Red Sea parting, a dead man being raised after four days in the tomb, etc. But those miracles are no harder for God than directing quail, fish, or a stone.  If he does miracles, he does miracles…yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  If he intervenes for his people so that the natural order of things is disrupted or reordered, then a miracle has occurred.

Now, the first argument by Cessationists is that they have never seen an authentic miracle such as we see in the gospels.  Therefore, in their view, miracles no longer occur.  These same believers have never seen an angel or Jesus face-to-face, but would not deny their reality.  So, is it not possible that authentic miracles still occur even if we haven’t seen one personally?  Secondly, I would venture that God has performed miracles in their sight but they filtered them through their unbelief and pronounced them as frauds or natural coincidences. Remember, I served in Cessationsist churches for over 20 years. I remember men and women on several occasions telling our staff and elders of amazing healings.  Tumors disappeared with proof on x-rays and children that had been declared to have severe birth defects by every scientific standard were born whole and healthy. We simply wrote those off as faulty equipment or a poor diagnosis rather than seeing the miraculous hand of God.  Even when we couldn’t deny what we saw, we never announced the healing to the church knowing that there was simply some unknown natural explanation for what had happened.

Part of the reason, these churches have not seen miracles is that they only pray for the ordinary and get what they pray for. I remember when a good Christian doctor asked me to pray that he would do his best work. I told him I believed he would do his best work even if I didn’t pray, but I would pray that God would enable him to do even more than he was capable of on his own.  Even when you see miracles outside the realm of natural law, it takes faith to acknowledge them or, at least, the source. The Pharisees saw much, but discounted the miracles as fraud or as the work of Satan. I suspect that some Cessationists have done the same.

The second argument made on behalf of Cessationism is that Jesus only performed miracles to demonstrate that he was the Messiah, the Son of God.  It is true that the miracles of Jesus testified that he was the Son of God, but he performed many miracles simply out of compassion rather than a need to demonstrate who he was (Mt.9:35-36, 15:32, 20:34; Mark 1:41, etc.). The writers of the gospels seem to go out of their way on numerous occasions to mention that the motive of Jesus for healing individuals or the crowd was compassion rather than publicity.  You would think that same unchanging compassion would still prompt him to relieve the suffering of his people – even through miracles.

In addition, he told many that he healed not to tell anyone about their healing.  Those commands are contrary to the purpose of miracles if we restrict their purpose to evidence that he was the Son of God. If that were the only purpose for miracles, surely he would have told those people to go and tell everyone they could find.   After he returned to the Father, the miracles done by his followers were done in the name of Jesus, which means “by his authority.” Those miracles, performed after his ascension, still demonstrated that Jesus was who he said he was. Present day miracles do the same.

The third argument is that God empowered the apostles to do miracles simply to confirm that they were men approved of God in order to establish their authority in the church and so that their writings would be seen as writings inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Certainly that was part of it, but why give spiritual gifts of healings, prophecy, miracles, tongues, deliverance, discerning of spirits, words of knowledge, etc. to the ordinary members of the church and to those who did not write any of the New Testament such as Philip and Stephen?

In addition, Luke wrote his gospel and the Book of Acts.  Yet, he was not an apostle nor do we have any record of him performing any miracles to demonstrate the inspired authenticity of his writings.  Therefore, miracles were not given only for the purpose of marking Jesus or the apostles as men approved of God because “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given…” (1 Cor.12:7).

I want to reiterate that believers who attend Cessationsist churches along with their leaders are good people who love Jesus. They were taught or indoctrinated in this theology from birth or as new Christians.  I was in such awe of the men who taught me that I simply accepted their teachings, believing that the parts that didn’t make sense to me then would make sense later as I learned more Bible.  I’m sure they learned this theology in the same way.  The problem is not with the people but with the theology that robs the church of power and leaves people in the grip of Satan.

We will finish our discussion of Cessationism in my next blog.

We are continuing to discuss the theology of Cessationism that has been prevalent among most evangelical, mainstream churches in America and Western Europe for the past 500 years.  Those influenced by this theology hold the position that God worked miracles through men during certain historic seasons of the Old Testament and during the first century, but that miracles ceased to occur toward the end of the first century because they had fulfilled their purpose in establishing the church.  The idea that God has ceased to perform miracles for and through his people is where the term Cessationsist comes from. Its not that God does not answer prayer, but that he works within natural laws and natural processes as he answers prayer.  He no longer speaks to his people directly by his Spirit but only through his written word. He heals through doctors as he helps them to do their best, but does not heal supernaturally or raise the dead. He may quicken a man’s mind so that he learns a foreign language more quickly than others but he doesn’t supernaturally reveal the language as he did to the apostles on Pentecost with the gift of tongues.

If you are in a church that does not pray for supernatural healings, does not minister deliverance, and would never have someone stand in front of the church to prophesy, your pastor or church leaders have more than likely been indoctrinated with this view since they came to faith and were taught by men for whom they had great respect.  For them it is not just a theological position that some hold, but it is doctrinal truth.

Those who hold to this theology deny that God still intervenes in the natural order of things through miracles and especially deny that the Holy Spirit still distributes the “miraculous gifts” of prophecy, healings, tongues, miracles, words of knowledge, etc. I remember attending a meeting several years ago where mainline churches in our city had gathered together to pray for revival.  The second or third night of the meeting, one of the leaders of a large evangelical church came to the microphone with a prayer request.  He reported that a young woman in their church who was widely known and widely loved was in a hospital in Dallas, Texas where she was suffering from end-stage heart disease and had only days left to live without God’s intervention.  He asked if he could pray on her behalf.  I expected a prayer asking for God to heal her heart, but instead the prayer was for God to provide a heart for a heart transplant.  In other words, we prayed for someone to die so she could receive the heart and live. We prayed for God to manipulate the natural order of things so that they swung in her favor, but it never seemed to occur to the pastor to pray for direct, supernatural healing because God “doesn’t do that anymore.”  I’m not at all opposed to heart transplants, but it seems we should always pray for God’s supernatural and perfect healing first.  That is an example of Cessationsist theology.

Their argument for the end of miracles is based on several assumptions.

1. They have never seen an “authentic” miracle, like we see in the pages of the New Testament, therefore, they know that God no longer performs miracles, especially through men operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
2. God performed miracles through Jesus to confirm that he was the Son of God.After his resurrection and ascension, the miracles he performed had fulfilled their purpose.
3. God performed miracles through the apostles, in order to confirm that they were approved by God and that their teachings and writings were, therefore, inspired.
4. Once the historical record of the miracles of Jesus and the apostles was compiled, the purpose for miracles was fulfilled and miracles ceased.
5. The primary proof text for this position is found in 1 Corinthians. “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” (1 Cor. 13:8-10). The argument is that the perfect thingor perfection is the completed New Testament.  Once the inspired scriptures were penned, there was no further need for the miracles because the Biblical record is sufficient to produce faith that leads to salvation.

There are, of course, other layers of the argument, but these are the main pillars on which this theology rests.  Once you have been taught and convinced of this theology, you are rarely open to any other possibility.  Those who claim to operate in the miraculous gifts are viewed as misled or charlatans ripping off ignorant people in tent meetings or on television. Anything that might hint of an authentic healing is written off as a psychosomatic condition that was relieved by the power of suggestion rather than a true disease being cured. Those who prophesy or speak in tongues are viewed as agents of the devil trying to mislead God’s people and anyone who would teach that the Holy Spirit still operates as he did in the Book of Acts is tagged as a teacher of false doctrine.

In my experience, there are many church leaders and pastors in Cessationist churches who long for more or suspect that God may still do something supernatural and outrageous from time to time, but they are uncertain of their view and keep their thoughts to themselves for the most part rather than risking being labeled as theologically suspect. I served in Cessationist churches for over 20 years and never saw an authentic miracle like you see on the pages of the New Testament (although I have seen many since becoming part of a charismatic or Continuistchurch).  I certainly saw abuses of the gifts of the Spirit and charlatans who were taking the money of desperate people.  Because of my theology, I tended to view all claims of the miraculous through that filter. I rarely traveled outside my own fellowship so I never encountered people I respected who held the view that the Holy Spirit still moves in power among his people.

Since we had no faith for the miraculous we neither asked for miracles nor expected them, so we saw none.  All of these things functioned in a way that only confirmed what we already believed.  Its not that the believers in these churches don’t love God or think he could do mighty works, they simply believe he chooses to no longer act in those ways.  As a result, good people who love God tend to live out a rather  powerless faith because they have no access to the powerful gifts of the Spirit meant to bless the church, evangelize the world, and set people free from all forms of bondage and torment served up by the enemy. Interestingly. in these churches the subject of demons and demonization rarely surfaces.  It may be because they have no answer if they don’t have the power of the Spirit operating today but when someone declares that God no longer works in supernatural ways, he or she tends to dismiss or minimize the supernatural in all forms.  As a result, demons often act without consequence and without opposition in these fellowships.

In my next blog, I will respond to the basic tenants of Cessationism and hopefully help some who read this blog step toward the full ministry of the Holy Spirit knowing that  they are on solid biblical ground when they do so.

A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of about thirty believers from various fellowships in our area who came together to hear a woman teach about her experiences with deliverance.  Most of these people attend churches where deliverance is not practiced and, in some cases, not permitted.  My sense was that most assumed that their churches did not exercise all the gifts of the spirit nor consider deliverance from demons to be needed or legitimate because they simply had no experience in those spiritual arenas.  To some degree that is true, but it actually goes much deeper than that.

What many believers in mainline evangelical churches (Baptist, Church of Christ, Bible Church, Methodists, Nazarenes, Christian Church, etc.) don’t understand is that there is a formal theology that flatly rejects the notion that God still performs miracles, speaks to men directly, and operates through all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  That theology is called Cessationism, which holds that the miraculous works of God and especially the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to operate somewhere around the end of the 1^stCentury. Most of their pastors will have been trained in that theology in their seminaries.  Not only were they taught that this view of scripture is the truthbut there is also a great deal of pressure in denominational circles to maintain that “orthodoxy” in the churches they lead.

I think it might be helpful for many believers who read this blog to be given a thumbnail sketch of this theology and a biblical response to it, so I want to do that in this blog and, one or two to follow.

Let me start with some historical context. This theology began to immerge around the time of Martin Luther and the Reformation (1500 -1600).  This was a time when many felt that the Catholic Church was abusing its power, which was immense throughout Europe.  Nations and individuals were beginning to push back against the church’s control and break away from it.  As an individual and priest in the Catholic Church, Martin Luther led the way.

The initial idea was not to break away from the Catholic Church but to reform some of its practices.  However, the Catholics were unbending so that men and nations, such as England, began to break away. At the same time, it was an age of exploration, discovery, and invention.  Science was beginning to make its mark and the intellect of man was beginning to be exalted. By the 1700’s, the “Age of Reason” or “Enlightenment” was in full bloom. Reason and logic, were the foundations of science and began to be seen as the hope and salvation of mankind. Some began to believe that science was the new Savior and that scientific truth was the only real truth that could direct the affairs of men.

You need to remember that in that age, nearly every university in the western world was established to educate pastors and church leaders and to take the gospel into the entire world.  The earliest scientists and philosophers were intellectuals in those seminaries.  Whatever influenced those university leaders would eventually influence the church because they trained and ordained those who would lead their churches.

In that cultural, intellectual environment, many men began to question the miraculous events of the Bible that did not seem reasonable or scientifically plausible,as if God could not or would not act outside of his own created natural laws. Some historians believe that Luther and others denied that God still manifested himself in miraculous ways because the Catholic Church claimed to be stewards of the miracles of God. If miracles were authentic, then God was with the Catholic Church and breaking from the Catholics would seem to be the same as abandoning God.

More than likely, the greatest impulse behind a denial that God still works miracles among men was the fact that the most influential men of that age had not personally seen any miracles.  If you are a church leader, and you have not seen or experienced any of the miracles recorded all over the pages of the Bible, you have a dilemma.  If God is still in the business of doing miracles and you aren’t seeing any…there may be something wrong with you or your doctrine or your denomination that displeases God.

In an age where being scientific and rational was more culturally applauded than having faith in the impossible, the leading religious scholars of the day, opted to find a theology that declared that God was no longer in the business of miracles. They simply declared that the Age of Miracles had ceased, because God’s purposes for his miracles had been fulfilled.  That same theology has been passed down to most mainline churches in the 21^stCentury.

In my next blog, we will discuss the purposes the Cessationists have assigned to God’s miracles in the New Testament and why they say miracles or miraculous gifts are no longer needed by the church today. Then we will talk about that!  By the way, I was trained and ordained in a Cessationist fellowship and held those positions for a number of years before God led me to a church that embraces the supernatural works of God.

If you minister to Christians who have been emotionally wounded and demonically oppressed, it doesn’t take long to discover that very few Christians know how to fight in the spiritual realm. Many don’t know how to fight because they have been taught by their churches that there is actually no spiritual realm here on the earth or they have been taught nothing and so come to that unconscious conclusion. For many, there is only earth, heaven, and hell.  In their view, we live on the earth the best life we know how and then we die and go to either heaven or hell which are thought of as spiritual locations far away that ouch us only after death.  Although these churches acknowledge temptation and, perhaps, some angelic activity, they don’t seem to connect the dots that point them to an active, spiritual realm right here on earth.

The spiritual realm on earth is a dimension that is separated from the natural realm by only a thin membrane rather than a location far, far away. When spiritual activity does occur around these believers, they don’t recognize it for what it is and, therefore, the spiritual realm, demons, angels, and moves of the Holy Spirit go unnoticed even though they may be greatly affected by it.  The devil does his best work when he is not recognized like the invisible man moving through a crowd picking pockets while never being seen.

There are many other Christians who definitely believe in the spiritual realm and are very aware of demons and angels. It is amazing how many people see demonic manifestations in their homes. They are often seen as dark shadows and sometimes appear as more terrifying figures. Children see the spiritual realm readily because they haven/t yet been taught to ignore what they see and write it off as imagination. But although they experience demons and recognize them for what they are, they still don’t know how to fight and many don’t even know that they can fight.  They live with fear and anger and sometimes the experience of being choked on their beds with a resignation that there is nothing they can do about it.  Often they are embarrassed to tell anyone for fear that others will think they are crazy.

Many spiritually oppressed people have come to believe that they have no power against the enemy.  Satan loves to intimidate and make claims that no one can deliver a person from his hand.  As we do deliverance, we usually instruct the oppressed individual to command the spirit to leave.  They often beg the spirit to leave or tearfully ask the spirit to leave – which is not at all commanding.  They clearly still believe that the devil has the upper hand and cannot be forced to leave, so they plead with a demon to leave who will never leave unless sternly commanded by the authority of Christ.  When a demon begins to manifest, in that individual, they rarely resist as if they have no power to refuse to cooperate with the unclean spirit.  Again, these believers have never been taught who they are in Christ and how to fight. After a season of ineffective resistance to a spirit, they simply give in to the torment. I have seen this over and over in God’s people.

Knowing how to fight with divine weapons in the spiritual realm should be a part of every believer’s basic discipleship.  Paul tells the church at Ephesus, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,”  (Eph.6:10-12).

According to Paul, the devil schemes against us and our real struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual authorities in heavenly realms. If we do not disciple our people in the realm of spiritual warfare they will be helpless against these enemies and, for the most part, that is what we see in the church. Many believe that prayer is the answer. So they pray for God to take away the torment but it continues. Because it continues, they give up.

I am not minimizing prayer because it is essential to everything we are and do as believers and is a significant part of spiritual warfare.  But the apostles and the early church were not taught to simply pray for God to remove the enemy, but to confront the enemy in the name of Jesus and command him to come out. God is not helpless to remove the torment but has chosen another way.

God did not instruct the Israelites to sit on the banks of the Jordon River and pray until he drove the enemies of Israel out of the Promise Land.  He told them to cross the Jordan and engage in battle.  His promise was to give them victory but they were to take sword in hand and confront the enemy.  We are to do the same. That is why prayer alone does not always bring freedom. That is why God has given us spiritual armor, the sword of the Spirit, which is his Word, and authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy (Lk.10:17).  We are to resist (oppose, take a stand against, push back) the devil and he will flee from us. And we are to exercise divine weapons to pull down strongholds or fortified places (2 Cor. 10:4).

When believers who have been oppressed by the enemy, finally discover who they are in Christ and discover the authority he has given them to drive out the enemy, they are transformed.  Their faith grows.  Their view of God grows. Their view of Satan shrinks and they are ready to free other captives in the name of Jesus. If you have not been trained in spiritual warfare, find someone to train you.  If you have been trained, then train others.  It is not for a few specialists in the church but for every believer so that they can defend themselves, their families, and push back the borders of darkness as soldiers of the Lord.  We have his authority, we have his power and we have an assignment to establish God’s kingdom on the earth.  The enemy will not go quietly or at our request.  It will take God’s people engaged in spiritual warfare on every front to clear the land. The victory is assured, but only when we confront the enemy in faith, with God going before us.

So how do we overcome fear, anxiety and insecurity?  As I mentioned in Part 1, we are surrounded by fear and those who promote it.  Each day we hear that the polar caps are melting, Iran is developing nukes, and another great depression is just around the corner. We hear about super bugs , identity theft, terrorist cells, China, North Korea, giant asteroids, and a million other things that threaten our safety and security according to every news broadcast and talk show.  Some of those threats are real.  Some are only perceived.  The truth is that I can hardly affect any of those sources of fear. They are out of my control and the real truth about each of those circumstances seems unknowable. The realization of that only increases the fear of many because so much we cannot control could affect us. What I need is to have someone in my life who cares for me deeply and who is bigger, more powerful, and more resourced than any of those issues.

The truth is that every follower of Jesus already has that person in his/her life.  The answer to fear, however, is not the fact of that reality but a genuine belief that it is true for us personally.  That is faith and faith unlocks the resources of heaven.  Faith makes heaven’s peace accessible to us.  Since the answer to anxiety is peace and since peace comes by faith, how then, do we grow in that faith?

First of all, we must believe that God exists. If there is no God, then we are certainly on our own in a dangerous and random universe.  However, if you are a follower of Jesus, you should have already crossed that bridge. The next step, then,  is to believe that God is more than willing to be intimately involved in your life. The key to peace in a world of threats is to believe that God is willing to be involved in your life as much as he was in the lives of Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, and Paul. We tend to think that God did great things for his extraordinary people back then, but is not so willing to be involved in our lives because we are ordinary people and really not all that spiritual.

What we forget is that God got involved in the lives of his extraordinary people long before they were any of that. Abraham put Sarah at risk twice because he didn’t believe God could protect him from minor kings through whose land he was passing.  Moses resisted God’s call to greatness at the burning bush episode so much that God became angry.  David was just a red-faced kid tending sheep when he was anointed to be king.  Jacob was a cheater and deceiver when God renamed him Israel.  Rahab was a idolatrous hooker when God called her to be a woman of faith.  Mary Magdalene had seven demons before becoming a notable figure in the little group that followed Jesus around and the twelve were made up of uneducated fishermen, crooked tax collectors, and political terrorists. One gave up Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and they all ran off into the night when Jesus was arrested.

My point is that God got very involved in each of the lives of these unremarkable people before they ever became remarkable. If you have responded to the gospel, then God has already demonstrated his personal involvement in your life. So much so that he lives within you. So get over the idea that he is not willing to be there for you, because he already has been.

Secondly, we need biblical expectations of God’s involvement in our lives. I have talked to many believers who have taken offense at God because they feel he betrayed them at some point in their past.  They felt betrayed because something bad happened to them as a child or as an adult – sickness, death, divorce, abuse, etc. They believed that God had promised to keep bad things from happening to them because they were Christians and so he broke his promise when tragedy hit. Therefore, they don’t expect him to be there for them when the next tragedy strikes.   They still feel as if they are on their own in a very dangerous world.

Some preacher or well meaning evangelist may have told them that once you come to Jesus all your troubles are over, but the Bible never says that.  God never says he will keep you from trouble. What he does say is that he will join you in the midst of your trouble and walk you through it.

Paul declared, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor.1:3-4).  Notice that the promise is not that God will keep us from trouble but that he will comfort us in our troubles so we can comfort other believers in their troubles. In John 16:33, Jesus said that in this world, we will have trouble. In the 23rd Psalm David wrote that we may well have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  He said that God prepares a table for him…but,  in the midst of his enemies.  David faced death on many occasions and was often surrounded by his enemies.  His faith was that God would sustain him as he went through those trials rather than believing that God would keep him from the trials.  Every person of faith in the Bible went through hard times and faced personal tragedies,  but found God in a greater way through those hard times.  Our offense with God is often misplaced.

Thirdly, we must focus on what God has done for us rather than on what we believe he has not done. When David was about to face Goliath, he recounted how God had delivered him from the lion and the bear in the past and so he concluded that God would not fail him in the coming challenge. The scriptures are full of commands to remember what God had done. The command is not a fascination with history but the idea is that whatever God has done in the past, he is willing to do again. Having faith for that is a key to overcoming anxiety.

The next objection is always, “Yes, but…..God didn’t save my marriage or my child died anyway or he didn’t keep my father from molesting me…”  Those are serious and tragic events.  They are part of the trouble we will have in this world.  Where there is free will,there is also the ability to hurt others. According to Isaiah 61, Jesus came to heal broken hearts, set captives free, rebuild ruined lives, etc.  God knows damage has been done. It is the cost of sin in a fallen world, but the promise is that God will take what the enemy has damaged or destroyed and rebuild, restore, and heal.  That knowledge certainty brings peace even in the face of ruin.

Again…I think the big fear is that we are ultimately alone in a hostile world.  Ask the Lord to take you on a tour of your past and show you the evidence of his hand and his grace even in the midst of tragedy and ask him to even show you the grace he extended that you turned down because you were hurt or angry.  If you are a follower of Jesus, know that he has been following you as well. Perhaps, he has been standing in the shadows at times but he has been there to catch you, stand you up again,and to deflect the arrows of the enemy more times than you can know. Ask for a revelation of that truth and a gift of faith.  Ask for the peace of Jesus Christ that surpasses understanding.

Finally, we must be willing to live with mystery at times when things didn’t work out the way we prayed or the way we desperately wanted.  The cross is ultimately the answer because it declares that God is good and that God is love. We must choose that view of
God at times when we can’t understand why something has or hasn’t happened.  At those times, we  must choose to believe that the God who died for me still cares for me – not for people in general, but for me.  Then make his promise that “I will never leave you or forsake you” your answer to every fear the devil sends you way.