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.

Just before his departure to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven, Jesus gave his followers what has been called the Great Commission. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt.28:18-20). No church would say that command was only for the early church but would declare that command to be the church’s prime directive until his return.

Sadly, the contemporary church often only hears that command as the command to teach the world correct doctrine, live moral lives, love one another, and be kind to your neighbor. That is certainly part of the picture but Jesus taught and commanded his disciples to do much more than that. They were commanded to represent or re-present him to the world not only by preaching the gospel but also by presenting the Kingdom of Heaven with power. They were to do so by healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and casting out demons. That was the pattern of evangelism Jesus used and the pattern he commanded his disciples to use. It was also the pattern of evangelism in the early church as well.

Jesus commanded his apostles to teach every believer in every nation to obey everything that Jesus had commanded them to do. He didn’t tell them to teach some of what he had commanded or only the intellectually acceptable parts of the gospel or everything except the miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit that clearly demonstrate the victory over Satan that Jesus established by his resurrection. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will in heaven is health, joy, freedom, life, etc. for his children. If we cannot deliver his will on earth in concrete ways, then that prayer is only a sentiment not a reality.

The Holy Spirit gave spiritual gifts to the church so that the demonstration of the Kingdom of God on earth could continue after the ascension of Jesus and the death of the apostles. Miracles were never dependent on the presence of Jesus or the apostles but on the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus performed miracles only after he had been baptized by John at which time the Spirit descended from heaven and remained on him. Jesus commanded his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit because they could not be effective witnesses until they could operate in the power and authority of Jesus. The same is true for us. Jesus has left the earth and resides in heaven. The apostles have died and joined Jesus. The Holy Spirit, however, is still with us. If we cannot demonstrate authority over the dominion of darkness by the power of the Spirit, our testimony is lacking for all that the Spirit does points to Jesus.

The point of all this is that we cannot fulfill the great commission without demonstrating a gospel of power which was what Jesus commanded his disciples to deliver. Paul attempted an intellectual and somewhat “acceptable” approach to the gospel in Athens in Acts 17. He brought out his best rhetoric and his best classical arguments for one God and Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. The results were more than disappointing. His next stop was Corinth. By the time he reached the great metropolitan city and center of pagan worship he had totally revised his approach to evangelism. Paul confessed to the believers there, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

As you read his letter to the church in Corinth, it is clear that he not only demonstrated power from the Holy Spirit personally as an apostle, but imparted those same spiritual gifts of power to the church. Many in the church today point to abuses of spiritual gifts to discredit their existence or their authenticity.   To be sure, the church in Corinth abused the gifts, but Paul did not discredit the gifts or tell them to stop operating in the gifts. Rather he instructed them in the proper use and motivations for the gifts.

In the days of the early church, the effective preaching of the gospel required a demonstration of Kingdom power and authority. It still does. The Great Commission envisioned the full reproduction of the ministry of Christ not just a tame or partial version of that ministry. Until the church again embraces the power and full ministry of the Holy Spirit, we will not have been obedient to the Great Commission nor will we reap the full harvest of those Jesus died for. For those of us who embrace all that the Holy Spirit has to offer, our part is to exercise the gifts in love and according to Biblical principles. Our part is to offer thoughtful responses to the questions and concerns others have with no aroma of spiritual pride or we fall into the trap that the Corinthians had fallen into – exercising the gifts without the love or humility that also marks the presence of the Spirit. Pray that the church will come to embrace the gifts and leading of the Spirit so that we can be all that Jesus paid for. Blessings.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:15-19

The idea of being filled with the Spirit is an important and consistent theme throughout the New Testament. Apparently, it is not a steady state in the life of a believer or Paul would have no need to admonish the church to abstain from drunkenness and instead be filled with the Spirit. Although the Holy Spirit is always present within a believer, we are not always “filled with the Spirit.” Not only that, but since Paul commanded the church to be filled, we apparently have a part to play in that filling or refilling. So what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit and what is our part?

I don’t know that I fully understand everything having to do with being Spirit-filled. In fact, I’m certain that I don’t. But I would like to share some thoughts on the subject. First of all, I am led to think about the symbols of the Holy Spirit in scripture. He is likened most often to fire, to wind, to oil, and to water. We typically think about being on fire rather than being filled with fire. We think of being blown by the wind or overpowered by it rather than being filled with it. We think of oil being on us rather than in us. But Jesus likened the Spirit to streams of living water pouring out of us (Jn.7:38), so I think water may be the thing we think about when attempting to understand being filled.

Water is powerful, cleansing, refreshing, and life giving. No water, no life. No Spirit, no spiritual life. When filling a vessel, water intrudes into every nook and cranny of the vessel but does not truly fill it unless it is empty of everything else. For instance, we ordinarily speak of filling an aquarium with water but that language is inaccurate. The truth is that the aquarium can still be half full of gravel, plants, coral, and fish. Accurately, it is only half-filled with water. To be fully filled with water means that everything else has to be removed. Most of us, as believers, are only partially filled with the Holy Spirit while our container is still significantly filled with self, worldly desires, and sometimes an occasional demon or two. That, of course, is the average condition of most new believers. The idea is for a new believer to begin to let the Spirit displace and push out everything else so that we become Spirit-filled. In the New Testament, men and women who showed exceptional boldness or who operated in signs and wonders were said to be filled with the Spirit. It didn’t take years for that filling to occur. It only took faith and surrender and could happen in a few minutes if the heart was right.

That idea of being Spirit-filled is still somewhat vague so let’s define it in practical terms. Being filled with the Spirit is about the degree to which the Spirit manifests his character and power in us which ultimately depends on the level of control we turn over to him. When we are filled with the Spirit, the Spirit is leading and manifesting his presence so that the works of Jesus might continue through us. The more of our life we release to his direction, the more the old man and the demonic is displaced. Both the old man and the demonic are all about self-sufficiency. The lure of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the capacity to obtain wisdom without God and in doing so to become like God ourselves. To become God-sufficient removes self and Satan so that the fullness of the Holy Spirit can be expressed through us.

Jesus expressed this condition when he said that he could only do what he saw the Father doing and could only speak what he heard the Father saying. I believe he chose that condition daily. Jesus was so submitted the Spirit that he waited for the Spirit to initiate his actions, his words, and his decisions. When we willingly become an extension of the Holy Spirit he will fill us and then we will do the works of Jesus. So how do we move in that direction?

A great deal of the ground we take in our effort to be Spirit-filled will be gained through prayer. The first baptism or filling by the Spirit occurred at a prayer meeting on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). We can safely assume that those gathered together in prayer were surrendering their hearts and lives to Jesus not offering up a shopping list to satisfy the natural man.

First, we must maintain a sincere desire to be filled with the Spirit – to be fully directed by the Spirit and to manifest his character, his values, and his priorities. Inviting him to take the lead, to reveal our self-sufficient strongholds, to change our hearts, and to give us a sensitivity to his leading will likely need to be a daily prayer. Fasting will help break the power of the flesh and the Word will feed and shape the spiritual man.

Secondly, obedience to the directions and urgings of the Spirit will be paramount. Jesus said that if we love him we would keep his commandments. We simply exchange our agenda with his on a day-by-day basis. Sometimes we resist this kind of surrender because we fear that we will be lost in the process and no longer have any identity or significance. This surrender of control isn’t giving up who we are but rather discovering who we were meant to be.

Gifted athletes engage coaches and them give up control of their diets, workouts, and strategies to the coach so that he can help them to become everything they can be as an athlete. It is the coach who through an objective eye can see faults that the athlete himself could never detect. It is the coach who will push the athlete to run one more lap or do one more set of exercises that the flesh of his client would never be willing to do. By giving up control to the “expert,” the athlete will become much more than he could have ever become on his own. God has carefully and uniquely made each of us and does not want to erase us or our individuality, but rather to maximize who he made us to be in partnership with the Spirit. Our part is to fully cooperate in that enterprise.

When we willingly and consistently surrender to his leading, then the Spirit can radically transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. He can entrust gifts, spiritual power, and kingdom responsibilities to us that will be world-changing. When the Spirit is directing us we can walk in boldness knowing that we are on an assignment from God and that he will resource and protect us as we complete his assignments. When we begin to experience the fullness of the Spirit then revelation will flow our way because we will be living in intimacy and friendship with Jesus who will tell us all things because we have become friends and not just servants.

Paul commands us to be filled with the Spirit because to give up control and dominion is an ongoing decision of the will. Being “filled” is a constant goal of every mature believer. In reality, the flesh works to erode our dependence on God and push us back toward self-sufficiency. Some days the flesh will win a few battles and we will have to retake that ground. However, if our heart is sincere in seeking and surrendering to the Spirit, then he will do marvelous things with us even when our “spiritual aquarium” still has some rocks, plants, and coral in it. As we persist in prayer and obedience to the Spirit, the debris in the aquarium will diminish year after year. Our goal is for only water to remain. When that occurs, then we will have truly become like Jesus.

Have you ever thought about what God uses as catalysts for radical change in men and women? Most of us would quickly say that we want to be more like Jesus and would welcome anything that would accelerate the process. If you asked the standard Christian how God changes us, he would probably respond that Bible study, prayer, and church attendance are the keys. Those are undoubtedly good things and even essential things in the life of believers, but what do we see in scripture as the most catalytic change agent in the lives of God’s people from Genesis to Revelation? That can be answered in one word – Encounter.

An encounter with the living God is the most remarkable catalyst for change in the Bible. The encounter can come in various packages – a voice from heaven, a burning bush, an angelic visitation, a dream or a vision, manna in the morning, healing, resurrection, miraculous deliverance from lions or fire, miraculous provision, victories over impossible odds or fire dancing on your head and strange languages coming out of your mouth. The Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, David, Daniel, Joseph, Saul of Tarsus, Peter, etc. were profoundly changed by personal encounters with God rather than increased time in the Torah. Even David who sings the praises of the Word of God throughout the Psalms apparently was able to experience God in the sanctuary as he “sought his face.” David’s emphasis on the amazing goodness of God’s Word and his commandments came from his experiences with God and the knowledge that keeping God’s word carefully aligned us for even more encounters.

By the time we get to the book of Acts, encountering God through the Holy Spirit became a daily event in the life of believers as they experienced unusual boldness in sharing the gospel, found themselves healing the sick, casting out demons, uttering prophecies, and learning to be led by the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Our standard catalysts of Bible study, prayer, and “church attendance” were never intended to be ends in themselves but are intended to lead us into regular encounters with God.

The Pharisees with whom Jesus had so many unpleasant conversations were men of prayer, men of Bible study who “searched the scriptures,” and men of the synagogue. But they were not changed. They could not recognize Jesus for who he was. As Jesus said, they were clean on the outside but rotten on the inside. There were, of course, a few truth seekers among them. Nicodemus was one. When he came to Jesus by night seeking some spiritual insight, Jesus told him that he needed to be born again – born of water and the Spirit. A better translation of “born again” might be “born from above.” In other words, Nicodemus needed a life-changing encounter with God through the Holy Spirit.

Three years with Jesus seemed to have had minimal effect on the disciples because they were encountering God through Jesus rather than having direct personal encounters. No doubt, some of the things they saw Jesus do rocked their world and opened their eyes to greater possibilities than they had ever been offered in synagogue but their direct encounter with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was the truly transformative moment for each of them that was a gateway for more encounters.

From the beginning, God did not want man to simply know about him but rather to have personal encounters with him. That is why he would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the evenings. He still desires that. If your spiritual life has simply been an effort to acquire more information about God, to know your Bible better, or to be certain of your doctrinal standings then you have missed the point. The point is to encounter God in a supernatural way. I am not trying to diminish the value of Bible study. It is essential, but it is not an end in itself. It is not just an ancient picture to be hung on the wall and admired, but a living map to lead us into life-changing encounters with the creator of the universe. Scripture says that if we seek God, with all of our hearts we will find him. Notice our goal is to find him, not just find out about him. May you encounter him today in a way that changes your life forever.

Many of us who pursue the Holy Spirit and the gifts he distributes are hungry for more.  We want increase. Jesus said that the Father gives the Spirit without limit, so it is legitimate as co-heirs of Jesus to want more and more. The question is how do we gain that increase of anointing? If you are like me, you have already been asking but, perhaps, have not seen significant increase.

Of course, prayer with fasting is a tried and true way to receive more as well. When some of the apostles were unable to cast a demon out of a boy, Jesus did so easily. Later, when they wondered why they had been unsuccessful, Jesus answered, “This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17, Mk.9). Since Jesus did not ask the boy or his father to pray and fast before deliverance and because he did not pray before casting out the demon, we must assume that he was saying that a life of prayer and fasting carves out more authority in the spiritual realm than simply a life of prayer. That’s bad news for those of us who don’t enjoy fasting.

However, there is a third way to gain increase and, perhaps, this is the most significant of all for the time in which we live. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet was given a vision of the temple and fresh water that flowed out of the throne room of God and became a river. Ezekiel said, “As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this” (Ezek. 47:3-6)? As the vision progressed, the prophet was shown a number of trees growing along the river whose “leaves will not wither” and whose “fruit will not fall.” We are told that those leaves would be for the healing of the nations and their fruit would be for food.

The river, of course, represents the Holy Spirit moving out from the throne room of the Lord. In the gospel of John, Jesus declared, “’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (Jn.7:37-39). The Spirit gives life to us and that life is intended to flow out form us to the people around us. Notice that the further the river flowed, the deeper it became. This life-giving water did not pool around the temple but flowed down to the sea where its fresh water would mingle with salt water making it fresh also and creating and environment for abundant life. Very often in scripture “the sea” represents the nations.

The point is this. The further the river flowed from the temple the deeper it became. It was intended to pour into distant nations and become a source of healing and life as trees grew up along its banks. Increase in the gifts of the Spirit occurs as we move out from the church and into the lifeless places around us. We will see greater increase when we begins to exercise our gifts in the dark places of our communities that are distant from God, rather than keeping them in the safe confines of our church sanctuaries. It’s not that these gifts are not for the body of Christ – they are. But they are not only for the body. They are also for the lost and hurting who are far away from the throne and as we take the Holy Spirit to those places and those individuals, the river gets deeper – greater anointing is given.

If you go on mission trips, you have probably noticed that God worked through you in greater ways on the mission than when you came back home. That may be the “river principle” in action. The truth is, however, that we don’t have to go overseas to find those who are far from God. We may only need to go next door or to our closest “big box store” or Starbucks.

To go out in public and exercise the gifts of healing, prophecy, encouragement, deliverance, mercy, and miracles takes a willingness to risk. We always risk rejection and being thought of as weird. We also risk that moment when healing doesn’t occur, prophecy seems to have missed the mark by a mile, or when some spirit hangs on and for some reason we, like the apostles and the boy, can’t deliver. However, it is in that territory that the river gets deeper and if we want increase, we will need to move out from the sanctuary to the nations around us. How else can we be trees for healing and fresh water for life for those who are still far from God?

If we want increase, then we have to let God place us in situations where more is needed. The good news is that when we move away from the sanctuary God does not stay there, he goes with us and in the going we will experience the increase we have been asking for.

Most churches in America today still only give the Holy Spirit an honorable mention, even though he is an equal member of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Most believers know that the Holy Spirit lives inside them in some way but beyond that they have little knowledge of the Holy Spirit as God, as a person, and as the source of power for living out the commands and mandates of Jesus. It’s amazing that scripture puts so much emphasis on the Holy Spirit while the church, by and large, gives little attention to this third part of the Trinity. And yet without the Spirit, we can in no way live the life that Jesus has called us to live.

In fact, Jesus said that the best thing he could do for his followers was to leave them, return to the Father, and send the Holy Spirit (Jn. 16:7). To his disciples at that moment, that must have seemed like an empty promise. After all, who or what could replace the presence of Jesus? He was the teacher, the healer, and the provider. He could calm storms with a command, walk across lakes, feed thousands with a box lunch, and drive away demons. What could be better than that? However, Jesus kept insisting that he was leaving but, ultimately, his followers would be better off. Peter would become the proof of that pudding.

Peter had been part of the Lord’s inner circle for three years. He had heard every sermon, seen every miracle, and been taught how to pray by the Son of God himself. For three years, he had Jesus himself as a personal mentor and role model. What could be better? But Jesus in the flesh had limitations. He could teach like no man had ever taught but his influence was from the outside in. Now he was going to send a teacher and a counselor whose influence would be from the inside out. The difference is stunning,

With all the teaching, the training, the mentoring, and Jesus as his personal life coach, Peter still stumbled along. Although he got a few things right, there was still such a shortfall. Even on the night of Jesus’ arrest, Peter was arguing with James and John about who was the greatest disciple. A few hours after that, Jesus was arrested and Peter, along with the others, scattered into the night. Although Peter followed from a distance, he still denied even knowing Jesus three times in the courtyard of the high priest. After discovering the empty tomb, Peter still did not believe Mary’s testimony that she had seen the risen Jesus until Jesus made a personal appearance with his disciples. Where was the teaching, the training, the modeling, the prayer, and the effect of seeing hundreds of miracles then?

Fifty days later, Jesus fulfilled his promise. He returned to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to his followers. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were in an upper room adjacent to the Temple courts and the Holy Spirit fell on them, filled them, and overwhelmed them. Suddenly the inner influence and power of the Spirit took Peter into the Temple courts where he declared the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness, revelation, and power. What Jesus could not do in Peter’s heart in three years, the Holy Spirit did in a few hours. Jesus was right. It was better for him to go so that he could work from the inside out of those who follow him through his Spirit.

Something else shifted with the internal presence of God in each believer as well. Early in the gospels, Jesus gave power and authority to his twelve apostles and then later to seventy-two other disciples. These men went ahead of Jesus preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons. Their demonstration of the kingdom was to point to Jesus. Both groups came back “blown away” by what they had been able to do in the name of Jesus. And yet, that power and authority seemed only temporary. We have no record of the apostles or other disciples operating in that kind of power after that season of ministry. However, after his resurrection, Jesus instructed his followers to wait in Jerusalem until he sent the Spirit to empower them as well as transform them. After Pentecost, the gifts of the Spirit defined the ministry of the church. These gifts which included healings, miracles, prophecy, etc. were not just for a brief season but for a lifetime. We are told that Peter walked in such an anointing that even his shadow would heal those it touched.

Jesus was right. It was better for us that he returned to the Father and sent the Spirit so that the presence of God could live within each of us. We are called the Temple of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. The word for “temple” does not refer to the larger complex and courts of the temple but the “naos” which was the Holy Place and Holy of Holies where the glory of God rested. As a result of Jesus leaving and sending his Spirit, we are each the Holy of Holies.

The Father sent the Son, the Son returned to the Father, and the Son sent the Spirit. Jim Cymbala points out that the Holy Spirit is God’s current agent on the earth and wonders why the church has neglected the Spirit of God in its teachings to the point that few believers know much about the ministry and gifts of the eternal Spirit. Since just about everything in the kingdom is received and activated by faith, our ignorance of the Spirit keeps us from receiving and walking in most of what he has for us. There are empty church buildings all over America that attest to the absence of the Spirit rather than his presence. Jesus made it clear that his followers could not be effective witnesses of his reality until they received power on that Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. For us to be effective witnesses who live lives that point to Jesus, we too must have the fullness of the Spirit.

A life that is not plugged into the power and resources of the Holy Spirit, even if a person believes in Jesus, will look minimally different from those who don’t even know him. That is not an effective witness. It simply takes the power of the Spirit to overcome the flesh, facedown the enemy, and demonstrate the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

On the other side of the equation, there are churches that make the Holy Spirit and his gifts the central emphasis of all they do. Jesus clearly stated that the Spirit would bring glory to Jesus, not himself (Jn.16:14). We must always keep our eyes on the giver of the gift not just on the gift itself. But the giver also expects us to love the gift, enjoy the gift, and use the gift to its fullness. It his case, the gift is the Holy Spirit who brings the presence of God to us. Certainly there are excesses in some churches regarding the Holy Spirit, but that should not deter us from experiencing the Spirit as Jesus intended. I remember Bill Johnson saying that he feared lack more than excess when it came to the Spirit. I would agree with that.

Jesus told us that the Father gives the Spirit without limit (Jn. 3:34) so we may assume that he wants us to receive the Spirit without limit. May we and the church be open to everything God wants us to have via the Holy Spirit so that we can be effective witnesses for Jesus and be a people that stand out from the world rather than blending in. Ask for it all.