For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor.10:3-6)

This is the fourth and last segment on Weapons of War which has been a brief look at Paul’s words about divine weapons in 2 Corinthians.  Learning what these divine weapons are and how to use them is crucial in overcoming the enemy, ministering God’s healing grace to wounded people, and setting people free in the name of Jesus.  There are actually many “weapons” or tools that God activates through his people that create faith, heal broken hearts, declare things that God will not do until his people announce them, rebuild shattered identities, and free people from the oppression of the enemy.  That oppression can take the form of fear, condemnation, illness, demonization, curses, addictions, etc.  God has a solution for each of those and most often provides that solution in partnership with his people.

Gifts of the Spirit are at the heart of these divine weapons.  Gifts of faith, mercy, prophecy, healings, wisdom, tongues, words of knowledge, worship, intercession, etc. can all be used to break the power of the enemy in a person’s life.  Some reveal truth and set people free from lies that the enemy planted decades ago.  Some break the power of demons and send them away so that the individual is no longer oppressed or harassed. Some reveal the love of God to a person’s heart and heal wounds that have festered for decades.  Others exercise the authority of heaven on the earth and set things in motion that will eventually bring salvation to the lost and revival to nations. We don’t have time to list them all or discuss them all here.  That would take an entire book.

However, if you hunger for such weapons or such spiritual gifts, then Paul says to earnestly desire those gifts.  Jesus says to ask, seek, and knock.  Peter quotes Amos who told us to go after such things by seeking the Holy Spirit and his baptism.  If you want to these things from God then let me encourage you to do the following.

1. Pray – Ask God for the gifts and understanding of how to use the gifts.  Jesus sent the Spirit so ask him for more of the Spirit.  Ask Jesus to baptize you in his Spirit as he sees fit.

2.  Pursue – Do not just ask for these gifts or anointings, go after them.  Spend time with people who minister in the gift or the weapon you desire.  Ask them to mentor you.  Read books.  Go to conferences. Get equipped with teaching, modeling, and impartations of the gifts from those who operate in them.  If you want the gift of intercessory prayer, hang around intercessors. If you want healing gifts, hang around those who see healing when they pray.  If you want prophetic gifts, find some prophets.

3.  Practice – When you begin to understand how gifts operate or how to ask God for certain things, then begin to practice using your gift.  This is where most people fail.  They believe that a spiritual gift should just operate in its fullness as soon as you receive it.  When people pray for healing, ask for tongues, attempt deliverance and don’t see great things happen they often give up and assume God is not giving them the gift. Spiritual gifts are like other skills and talents.  They must be practiced and developed.  You must be willing to play a lot of rounds of poor gold before you can begin to play great rounds of golf.  Practice.  Risk.  Seek more mentoring as you go.

4.  Persevere – Stick to it as long as the desire is in your heart.  Pray for it as long as the desire is in your heart.  Ask God to show you if there is anything in your life that is blocking the exercise of that gift.  If you find any kinks in the hose, straighten them out.

Go after the gifts.  Learn to use them as divine weapons.  Be blessed and bless others.

We often idealize biblical figures so that we forget their humanity.  We remember David for taking down Goliath but forget his human frailties that surfaced with Bathsheba or his unwillingness to discipline or deal with Absalom.  We remember Elijah taking on the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel but forget that he caved into fear and depression immediately after his victory when Jezebel threatened him. We think of the Apostle Paul as the greatest of the apostles, immovable in faith and writing great chapters about love (1 Cor. 13), but forget that in an ungracious moment he refused to give John Mark a second chance and forever parted ways with Barnabas  – the man who had accepted him into the fellowship of believers after Paul came to Christ.

Being human does not disqualify us from greatness in the kingdom of God, it simply reminds us of our desperate dependence on God to keep those “human moments” to a minimum and to maintain perspectives of faith when we face hardships.  Paul tells us that we “know in part and we prophecy in part” so that we are also operating in the dark at times.  We don’t always have everything revealed to us nor do we always fully understand what has been revealed. Our faith ebbs and flows at times to our own dismay but that is our reality. In Matthew 11, we find John the Baptist in one of those moments.

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. (Mt.11:1-6).

I find it amazing that John the Baptist had a moment of doubt about Jesus being the promised Messiah. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a relative of Elizabeth, the mother of John.  Luke tells us that John was about six months older than Jesus. When Mary had become pregnant with Jesus she visited Elizabeth who was carrying John in her womb.  Luke tells us, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk.1:41).  Even in the womb John, by the Spirit, seemed to recognize who Jesus was.  Thirty years later, John was the one who declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God.  He was the one who had baptized Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus in the form of a dove. John declared that Jesus was the anointed one of God, and that his own ministry had to decrease so that Jesus would increase in the eyes of the Jewish people.

And yet, after his imprisonment, he apparently began to wonder if Jesus were the Messiah or if another one was coming.  John was experiencing our humanity for he also “knew in part and prophesied in part.”  Apparently, John was beginning to doubt who Jesus was because things were not unfolding as he had anticipated.  Jesus frustrated many who believed that Messiah would come with overwhelming glory and power, moving quickly to overthrow Roman oppression and restore Israel to her greatness as in the days of David and Solomon.  But Jesus, although a great teacher and healer, seemed to be anything but a man pushing his way to the top to grab power and glory.  He seemed totally apolitical instead of being politically savvy.  He seemed to resist notoriety rather than embracing it.  He talked about loving enemies rather than destroying oppressors. He talked about turning the other cheek rather than organizing resistance against Rome.

As John languished in prison the “kingdom of God” wasn’t feeling so near or victorious.  And so he asked, “Are you really the one or did I miss it?”  Interestingly, Jesus didn’t send him a theological response or quote Old Testament prophecies that had been recently fulfilled in him.  He simply said, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” On several occasions, Jesus himself had said that you can know a prophet by his fruits.  Words are easy; actions are more definitive.

Jesus pointed to the miraculous works of heaven that were flowing through his ministry to authenticate who he was.  He also pointed to Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy that John must have known by heart. “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).  Jesus’ ministry of preaching, healing and deliverance fulfilled that prophetic word.  Messiah had come to bring heaven to earth.  The miraculous works of God confirmed that the kingdom had indeed come to earth and in doing so, confirmed that Jesus was and is the anointed one of God – the Christ.

Jesus often healed and delivered simply out of compassion. Many times he told those he had healed or delivered not to tell anyone who had done that for them.  But he also said that his miracles and the miracles of those who followed him were their credentials documenting their citizenship in heaven.  If John the Baptist needed that concrete evidence, then how much more will unbelievers need that evidence today in a world of empty promises and cynicism?  For the last few centuries, the church has offered theology and explanations of why God no longer acts like God rather than concrete experiences with the Creator. When people ask us if Jesus is really the Son of God and Savior of the world, we need to be able to respond as Jesus responded to John.  “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”  After people experience God we can give them a theology for that experience to stand on.

Experiencing God is not found only in healing or deliverance.  His presence can simply overwhelm people with love or peace. His voice can penetrate unbelief or fear.  Angels can pull people from burning vehicles or he can open up new realities through dreams or visions. Prophetic words can disarm the agnostic and miracles of provision can confirm his care to those who felt alone and helpless. But all of those things are experiences with God.  If God had sent Moses to Egypt with a nicely framed theology instead of demonstrations of power on behalf the Hebrews, the Jewish people would still be serving Egyptians today.

As we pray for people to come to faith, pray that God will arrange an encounter with heaven that they cannot deny. Then share Jesus, the source of every heavenly encounter, with them.  Be blessed today and expect miracles. They point to Jesus.

This past year, John MacArthur, a well-respected preacher in southern California, published a book entitled “Strange Fire” which essentially denies the validity of the charismatic movement and the current expression of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. It has stirred some controversy among churches in America and has invited division among “cessationist” churches and churches that believe in the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit through the manifestation of all the spiritual gifts.

I continue to be amazed that people would push back against healing gifts, prophetic gifts, deliverance, and other miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit in God’s church.  It’s one thing to say that there are abuses of these gifts and their expressions. I would agree with that.  There were abuses in the first century church.  It is another thing to deny their existence all together and to consider any expression of those gifts to be deception.

In his gospel, Matthew recounts a moment when Jesus cast out a number of demons from two demon-possessed men in the region of the Gadarenes.  These men were so demonized that they lived among the tombs and were essentially uncontrollable.  The demons, knowing that they were about to be dislodged from their “homes” begged Jesus to let them enter into a herd of pigs that was feeding nearby.  Jesus did so and the entire herd ran into the sea and drowned. We are told in Mark 5, where Mark emphasizes only one of the two men, that when the inhabitants of the nearby town went out to see what was going on they found the man (probably both) clothed and in his right mind.

You would have thought that there would have been a great celebration and that revival would have broken out in the presence of Jesus, the great healer and deliverer of his people.  However, just the opposite occurred.  All the people begged Jesus to leave their region immediately. Of course, its possible that they were upset about the pigs and someone’s lost investment in these “unclean” animals, but I think they were responding to a supernatural moment outside of their experience that essentially scared them.

That’s not unusual and even people of faith can be frightened when God intrudes into the ordinary business of life.  In most biblical accounts, every time an angel showed up his first words had to be, “Don’t be afraid.” When God descended on Sinai the response of most of the Hebrew people was great fear.  When Jesus called up a great catch of fish for Peter and his partners, Peter was afraid. When Jesus silenced the storm on Galilee, his apostles were stunned and I think felt that same sense of panic that all men feel when they first encounter the supernatural.

I believe that is a large part of the “push back” against the miraculous move of the Spirit in the 21^st Century.   Men hunger for the supernatural but when it shows up they often panic. What draws men to “haunted houses” or fuels “reality shows” about the paranormal?  Graham Cooke points out that a hunger for the supernatural is part of our DNA which was attached to us when we were made in the image of God. Although the DNA has been fragmented by sin, we still hunger after the spiritual and something that takes us beyond the natural. It a way, that hunger points us home to heaven.

It seems that we hunger for the miraculous or the “supernatural” while fearing it at the same time.  When demons are cast out, some believers invite those who do such things to leave their church right away.  The biblical record is that whenever God showed up in unusual ways, people “freaked.”  That feeling might be evidence of a true encounter with the living God rather than something to be avoided.

That’s not to say that anything goes.  We are to test the spirits and to test prophecies and even the miraculous gifts of the Spirit are to be exercised in an orderly way.  But what is orderly to God may not be orderly to the religious among us who want no surprises in their interaction with God. The response of the Pharisees was first to deny that miracles happened and that those who thought they had seen something had been tricked or deceived.  When they could not deny that a miracle had occurred they simply declared that it was the work of Satan because Jesus or his disciples had not worked in a prescribed manner that fit their theology.  Religion wants to control life and even control God with rules and boundaries that leave no room for the miraculous intrusion of God into life or a church service.

Again, the biblical record shows us that the nature of God is to intrude into the natural order of things in unprecedented and unexpected ways.  “Let’s just march around Jericho seven times and blow trumpets.  Let’s turn the Nile to blood. Let’s have the leper go dip in the Jordan River seven times. Let’s feed five thousand men plus women and children with a few loaves and fish.  Let’s walk on water. Let’s call this guy out who has been dead for four days.” God chose to intervene in amazing ways in the life of his people with moments that were unanticipated, made no earthly sense, and that scared many of the people who witnessed the invasion of earth by the powers of heaven.  Why would he not continue to do so today?

If a hunger for the supernatural is part of our DNA, then when we block the miraculous ministry of the Spirit in our churches, we force God’s people to satisfy that hunger in other places. I’m not saying that we should seek miracles for the sake of miracles but that we should invite the Father, the Son and the Spirit to show up and intrude in the natural order of our lives and church services in any way they choose. At times, it will be unusual and should be unusual because that is how God has always operated.  For those who have never experienced God in those ways, it might even be a little scary.  Seeing demons manifest for the first time and seeing them driven out for the first time can be eye opening. But God is eye opening.

My hope is that in 2014, we will see the miraculous move of God more and more in our lives and churches, but unlike the Gadarenes, we will not beg Jesus to leave but rather to stay. If we want more of God then we will have to invite God in as he is, not as we want him to be.  And…if there is not “eyebrow raising” going on, then Jesus is probably not present because wherever he went, he surprised people and on occasion, even frightened them a little. Be blessed this year and invite Jesus to do the unexpected in your life and even in your church!

According to Bible scholars, the gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels in its emphasis on certain things and its style.  The gospel begins with a genealogy tracing the lineage of Jesus from Abraham through David to the earthly parents of Jesus establishing Jesus as a member of the tribe of Judah from which Messiah would come.  Matthew is the one to tell us of the visit of the Magi and the eventual death of innocent Jewish boys in Bethlehem at the hands of Herod. He tells us how Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness fasting and praying in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets and about his showdown with Satan at the end of the forty days.  In Matthew, Jesus calls his disciples to “come and follow” him in the tradition of the Rabbis and his “Sermon on the Mount” is, in many ways, a commentary on the interpretation of Old Testament law by the Pharisees.  In Chapter 4, Matthew tells us in general terms of the healing ministry of Jesus but gives his first specific healing story in Chapter 8 – the healing of a leper.

Leprosy was not only medically significant but socially and spiritually significant as well in Jewish faith and culture. Full-blown leprosy was an infectious disease so that the individual who was affected was marked as “unclean.”  He was to be socially isolated so that no one could touch him and he was not allowed to enter into the temple to worship.  In some cases, it was a death sentence as the disease progressed.  To many Jews, leprosy was seen as punishment for sin – either the sins of the parents or of the individual who had it.  That view probably stemmed from God’s punishment on Miriam in Numbers 12 when she began to rebel against Moses’ leadership.  In that moment God struck her with leprosy and then healed her later at Moses’ request.  David also pronounced a curse on Joab’s house for murdering an innocent man (2 Samuel 3) that included the curse of leprosy.

In the first century, those with leprosy were considered unclean, sinful, loathsome, and under a death sentence from God.  They were isolated and had to walk the streets crying “unclean” so that others would stay away from them.  Any truly religious person would stay far away from a leper because to contact the leper made that person unclean as well so that they could not come into the presence of God in the temple.

In the midst of that cultural environment, an unnamed leper came and kneeled before Jesus asking to be healed. In that moment, Jesus was very counter-cultural.  He actually touched the man which was forbidden by law.  Not only did he touch the man but healed him completely. I like what Bill Johnson says about that kind of healing.  He says that the Old Testament displays the power of sin because if you touched a leper you were made unclean.  The New Testament displays the power of Christ’s righteousness because when he touched a leper he was not made unclean but rather the leper was healed. The righteousness of Christ overcomes both sin and disease in these gospel accounts and in New Testament theology.  Looking ahead to the New Covenant, David said, “ Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Ps.103:3).

I believe this leper was the first detailed account of healing in Matthew’s gospel because it was so significant for the Jews.  Lepers were written off as a lost cause, untouchable, and incurable.  Many thought that their disease was a judgment from God and so felt little pity for the lepers.  And yet Jesus reversed all of that in a moment with a touch and a word.  In that moment the love and the grace of God totally cleansed the man with the implication that he was also totally forgiven.

In the very next chapter of Matthew, Jesus healed a paralytic but began by saying, “Take heart son, your sins are forgiven” (Mt.9:2).  The Pharisees objected to the notion that Jesus could grant forgiveness since only God in heaven could do so.  To their objection, Jesus replied, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?         But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home”  (Mt.9:5-7).

The theology runs something like this.  Disease afflicts man because of sin – sometimes his own sin but more often because of Adam’s sin that makes every man subject to death and disease.  If a man is healed it is because the power of sin has been overcome by the cross of Christ.  Healing is manifest evidence of God’s grace and Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice through which God forgives all of our sins and heals all of our diseases.  Miraculous healing, then, is evidence of God’s grace and the power of the cross to deliver men from sin. Without such demonstrations, the truth of the gospel is not manifested as God intends. Miraculous healing does not always create faith but it always demonstrates the power of the cross and the love of God for sinful men which opens the door for faith.

Healing and other miraculous moves of the Spirit are not ends in themselves but demonstrations of even greater realities – the love and grace of God and the all sufficiency of the blood of Christ. If God is good all the time; if the cross has broken the power of the enemy in my life; and if the blood of the Lamb open the doors of heaven to me now and later – then sign me up.

Those truths are manifested over time in the life of every believer but are manifested in the moment that the gospel is preached or shared when the power of heaven is released through the gifts of the Spirit. Because of that we should earnestly desire spiritual gifts and pursue them as the will of God for his church today.  When we begin to touch the lepers of our day – AIDS victims, drug addicts, late-stage cancer victims, children with birth defects, etc. with the compassion and power of heaven, then we will present Jesus in all his glory to the world and the world will come to him.  Be blessed today.  Ask for miracles and expect them.  It is God’s will.

The church today is hungry for more.  God’s people not only want to hear about God but to experience him as well. God is moving in unprecedented power around the globe and great numbers of believers in American churches are hungering to be part of that move. Conferences and books about healing and prophecy and other “power gifts” of the Spirit are multiplying. Many of those conferences are turning people away because registration takes them beyond seating capacity weeks before the conference begins.

For some, this growing emphasis on the Holy Spirit and miraculous gifts is alarming. Many of us who grew up in mainline denominations in America were taught that “spiritual experiences” were dangerous, deceptive, and should be avoided. We were taught that faith comes from more and more Bible knowledge rather than through supernatural experiences with Jesus.

But many have come to realize that knowing more and more about God without experiencing him does not really build a relationship any more than just reading everything you can about a famous person makes you his/her best friend.  Obviously reading God’s word is essential and a life of lifting up prayers to God is praiseworthy.  And yet, unless we hear God speak to us in response to our prayers, see him answer our prayers in powerful ways, or experience him working through us in ways we could not have imagined the relationship will never be what it could be  – for us or for God.

People are seeking more of God and more of his Spirit.  They are pursuing spiritual gifts and no longer want to be a people who merely explain God to others but who connect others to God through the exercise of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit.  That is, in fact, the New Testament pattern. Three thousand were added to the church on Pentecost through the preaching of the gospel but they were prepared to receive the gospel through the miraculous manifestation of tongues where every man heard the proclamation of God and his good news in his own language. Throughout the gospels, the book of Acts and the epistles, mighty works were being done in the name of Jesus and people were praising God and coming to faith in the anointed one of God.  God’s Spirit is moving in the same ways now.

Will this most recent move of the Spirit be abused and will some be led astray?  Of course.  Satan twists and counterfeits every authentic move of God.  The gifts were abused in Corinth but Paul continued to exhort them to earnestly desire those spiritual gifts rather than making an effort to shut them down. The Lord’s Supper was abused in Corinth as well but no one objects to churches participating in the body and blood of Christ because it might lead to strange doctrines and deception. Instead of minimizing the spiritual gifts or warning people about them, Paul simply taught them how to exercise the gifts, test the prophecies, and to make sure that their motive for exercising the gifts was love rather than power or personal notoriety.

In Acts 17, Paul learned a powerful lesson regarding knowledge about God without experiencing God.  In that chapter, Paul made a stop in Athens.  Being a first-rate scholar he checked out the philosophical debates being aired in the Areopagus and gave his best, most scholarly presentation of the gospel and the resurrection.  If you read the chapter, you will discover that the Athenian philosophers found his “new teaching” very interesting but were not convinced.  Only a few expressed faith in Jesus and Paul was extremely disappointed.  His next stop was Corinth.  In his first letter to the Corinthian church Paul recounted his revised approach to sharing the gospel with them. “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 man’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4-5).

Paul had used wise and persuasive words in Athens with little to show for it. He decided that a demonstration of the Spirit’s power would be a much better strategy.  In a sense, men didn’t need more information about God but needed to experience the reality of God for real faith to be established.  How many of us have talked to an unbelieving loved one over and over again with nothing to show for the effort. We keep thinking that one more argument or a few more facts will push them over the threshold of faith.  But they don’t need more information about God, they need to experience him.  The exercise of a spiritual gift (a word of knowledge, a prophetic word, healing, etc.) possessed by some believer could provide that experience.

I’m not saying that experience without the Word of God is the way to faith.  All experience must be grounded on the Word of God and must be consistent with the revelation of that Word. What I am saying is that God never intended for us to have only an academic understanding of who he is but an experiential understanding as well.  The gifts of the Spirit are primary pathways for that experience.

That is what the church is hungering for today – not just to hear about God but to hear God, to see him, and to feel him as well.  Under the Old Covenant, God revealed himself to men in ways they could experience with both their physical and their spiritual senses.  God revealed himself to his people through angelic visitations, direct words, fie and smoke on the top of Sinai, in the pillar of fire and the cloud that directed Israel in the wilderness, through the Shekinah glory that would descend on the tent of meeting and later the tabernacle, through daily provision of manna and water bursting forth from rocks. We live under an even better covenant with the Spirit of God himself living in us.  How much more should we expect to experience our Father than the people of the Old Testament?

I believe God is creating a hunger for more in his people today that they might seek him and his Spirit more. Spiritual gifts are an expression of God’s love for people.  Healing is a grace.  A prophetic word that strengthens, comforts and encourages is a grace. Deliverance from demons is a grace.  All these gifts and more are ways that God loves his church and the lost through the manifestation of his goodness with these gifts.  Churches that push back against these gifts of the Spirit also push back against the Spirit. As they quench the Spirit they quench the outpouring of God’s love. I know that is not their intent, but it is the unintended outcome.

If we fear deception and want to keep people from error then perhaps we should adopt Paul’s tact. Rather than suppressing or denying the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, we should instruct our people on how to use those gifts in biblical ways with biblical motives to produce biblical outcomes.  If God’s people are hungering for more, then perhaps we should feed them. The church’s fear of the miraculous and heightened suspicion of unusual manifestations of God today may cause many to miss him altogether. My hope is that God’s church in America will choose to embrace all that God has for his children and be open to receiving from God in ways we have not experienced before. God loves to do new things. Be blessed.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland… to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. (Isa.43:18-21)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (Dt.6:5-6)

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.  (Dt.10:12)

He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and first commandment.  (Mt.22:37-38)

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mk.12:30)

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. (Lk.10:27)

Most of the verses above are very familiar.  If you have been in Christian churches for any length of time you have heard them quoted.  I want you to notice something about these verses, however, that is almost counter-cultural to the American evangelical church. In every one of these verses we are told to love God with our hearts before we love him with our minds. The pattern is consistent throughout the Bible.

There are two ways to understand “the heart” is these passages.  One way is to understand that our emotions and affections, which flow from the heart, are to be turned toward God.  That would certainly be the way many of us would understand the passage.

The second way to understand the passage is that the heart is the place where revelation is given to us by the Holy Spirit and that love for God is going to be released in us by the Spirit through an act of revelation. In his letter to the Ephesian church, Paul writes, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.            I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Eph.1:17-19)

Those of us who believe that salvation comes by grace believe that we could not even respond to the gospel without the Spirit giving us an understanding of spiritual things. Paul clearly states that the man without the Spirit cannot understand spiritual things but considers them to be foolishness (see 1 Cor. 2:14). To love God with all of our heart then means that we are to love God based on the revelation that is constantly released into our heart by the Holy Spirit.  You may have had that conversation about your faith and the  “insight” or “understanding” the Lord has given you about something.  That is a great definition of “revelation.”

But here is the counter-cultural part.  I was always taught to love God with my mind before loving him with my heart.  In the fellowship where I was first taught the word of God, the heart was considered to be the seat of our emotions and those emotions could lead us to deception.  I was taught that the mind (our intellect) was to be the guardian of truth in my spiritual life.  And yet biblically, the Holy Spirit is the guardian of truth for believers as he “leads us into all truth.” We are to love God with our hearts and even our soul before the mind is mentioned.  Most of us, however, are trained to develop our minds rather than our hearts. We are trained to think with our intellect rather than to hear and understand God first within our hearts. Paul also tells us that we if we confess Jesus with our mouth and believe in our hearts that he are Lord we shall be saved (Rom.10:9-10).  We are to accept and understand a truth in our hearts even before we understand it intellectually.

When God speaks about changing people he speaks about giving them a new heart rather than a new mind as the first step to transformation. Undoubtedly the mind is to be renewed but not by intellectual arguments.  It is to be renewed by revelation that comes from God’s Spirit to our spirit and then to our hearts and then to our minds. This chronology of belief is important because many pastors have been taught in seminaries to take a strictly intellectual approach to scripture and to discount the notion that God still speaks a fresh word to his people by his Spirit.  The result has been the rejection of many biblical truths by intellectuals because the intellect that is unsubmitted to the Spirit argues against the miraculous moves of God which seem irrational and illogical in the natural.

My point is not to throw out our intellect because we are to love God with our minds as well as our hearts.  But I want to encourage us to begin to focus even more on developing a heart that has eyes that have been opened to the move and the voice of God.  It is in our hearts that we will behold God and fix our eyes on Jesus. The heart trained by God to perceive and believe will then train the intellect to align itself with God rather than argue against what it cannot fully understand or control.

There has been a recent surge of criticism and warnings against the idea that the Holy Spirit still expresses himself through miraculous gifts and revelation.  Those who criticize the  “charasmatics” are brilliant men who love God with all their minds.  But without the revelation of God being fresh in their hearts, they will not know the Lord as Paul prayed for the Ephesians to know him.  Let me encourage you to constantly pray for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and for the eyes of your heart to be opened so that you may know God better and know the riches that are yours in Jesus Christ.  Let’s be as diligent in developing our spiritual hearts as we have been in developing our intellect.  Be blessed.

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus healed on the Sabbath?  In John 9, Jesus healed a man that was born blind.  He had been a beggar and was apparently a fairly well known figure in part of the city.  Jesus spit on the ground, made mud with his saliva and put it on the man’s eyes.  He then instructed the beggar to go the pool of Siloam and wash.  The man was obedient to the command and left the pool seeing for the first time.

Imagine how amazing sight would be for the first time. Suddenly, this man saw only what he had felt and heard all his life.  He had felt water on his skin but as soon as he washed the mud from his eyes he saw water rippling with sunlight sparkling across the surface of the pool.  He saw the faces of familiar voices he had only heard each day as he begged.  He was struck with the endless colors of clothing the crowds were wearing. He suddenly put form and color to the animals he had heard and touched in Jerusalem since childhood. Add to that the shape and colors of buildings, trees, grass, the sky, the sun, and the clouds. The immense amount of new images filling his mind must have been almost overwhelming.  It makes me wonder if part of the miracle was a download of understanding that was imparted to the beggars mind to make sense of what he was seeing.

Of course, as the word of this notable miracle spread, the Pharisees showed up like investigative reporters snooping out a story for the National Inquirer. They remind us that religion devoid of relationship with the Father can be a dangerous thing.  Once again, the Pharisees did not deny the miracle but missed everything about it because it had occurred on the Sabbath. Their response to a blind man who now saw each of their faces was to state that, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

Some questioned the miracle and so his parents were brought forth to confirm that this was their son and that he had indeed been born blind. After doing so, the questions were not about the amazing healing and how it had touched the blind man’s heart and soul, but only were designed to discover whom the man was that had broken the Sabbath by healing someone.  To the formerly blind beggar they said, “Give glory to God, we know this man is a sinner.” His reply, of course, was on target.  “Whether he is a sinner or not I don’t know. One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see.”  This blind beggar went on to state some fairly sound theology. “Now this is remarkable.  You don’t know where he comes from yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinner.  He listens to the godly man who does his will.  Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”  The Pharisees responded with their usual grace and scholarship – “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.”

Miracles are signs.  They are realities that point to even greater realities.  A road sign pointing you to Interstate 20 is a reality but it points to something greater and more useful. The sign won’t take you where you want to go, it only points you to that which will.  Miracles are amazing things, but they point you to an even greater reality. Jesus himself said that his miracles testified to his identity as the Son of God and his identity as the Anointed One. The giver of the miracle is always a greater reality than the miracle itself. As we seek the gifts of the Spirit and the supernatural power of God, we should never see those things as an end in themselves but rather road signs that point us to the giver of the gifts which should always be out true pursuit.

Having said that, how did the Pharisees miss the point of the healings time after time?  These were learned men who had memorized the first five books of the Bible as a beginning step.  They discussed and debated the Torah over and over. These were men of prayer who had devoted themselves to the knowledge of God.  Jesus himself acknowledged that they searched the scriptures diligently but they missed him.  The scriptures were signs pointing to the greater reality but they missed the reality. Somehow they never grasped the onramp to a personal relationship with God the Father.

God is pouring out a great measure of power and miracles on his church today.  These miracles can again become a divide just as they were in the days of Jesus. The problem will not be in the miracles but in the hearts of those who witness the miracles or who refuse to witness the miracles.  Miracles will come because God is a God of miracles who is still pointing to his Son. He is also a God of compassion and his miracles for healing, freedom and provision still flow out of a heart that is burdened for the brokenness and suffering of his people.

As in the days of Jesus, there will be different responses to the miracles. The best, of course, is belief in Jesus as the one true Son of God.  Some will see the signs and understand the destination. They will absolutely know that Jesus is the singular road to the Father.  Others will get caught up in the gifts themselves and never conform to the image of Jesus Christ in spirit or character.  These men may abuse the gifts or use them for their own ends.  They will tend to discredit the faith.

Still others will deny the reality of the miracles or declare, as the Pharisees declared, that these contemporary miracles are deceptions from the enemy. I believe Jesus healed often on the Sabbath because the Sabbath laws had become a stronghold of religion.  Men had taken it on themselves to closely define the things that constituted “work” on the Sabbath and in doing so violated the spirit of the Sabbath all together.  Jesus declared that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  The very thing that God had given to bless man with rest and a focus on the love and faithfulness of God became an instrument of victimization.  To deny healing and deliverance on the Sabbath was to deny the powerful expression of God’s love on the Sabbath. In doing so, God was viewed as a God of rules rather than relationship.

Some will do the same today.  In the name of orthodoxy and biblical scholarship, some will deny the heart of God by denying that he still wants to intervene in the suffering of his people and the lost condition of men through displays of power. In the name of scholarship and intellect, men will declare that the signs that once pointed men to Jesus now point men to the devil.  Won’t there be counterfeit signs and wonders in the last days?  Yes, there will be the counterfeit but there will also be the authentic.  Those with the Spirit of Christ who ask the Spirit to lead them into all truth will know the difference.

As Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.”  If miracles draw people to Jesus, promote righteousness, heal broken hearts and set captives free, they are from God by every biblical standard.  Those who deny that God still works in power and miracles will simply forfeit the field to the enemy.  People hunger for the miraculous because they hunger for heaven where the miracles of God flood the atmosphere.

When a holy church operates in the true power of God for healing and freedom, then there is a standard against which the counterfeit signs and wonders of the enemy can be measured. Without that, he will be fielding the only team.  The church must seek the gifts but seek the giver even more. Signs are important but point to a greater reality and although signs may be misread, it’s hard to find the interstate without them.  Be blessed.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (Jn.1:13-10).

Another section from the first chapter of John’s gospel gives us another insight into Jesus and our response to him. John begins with an amazing thought.  The very creator of the world walked across the face of his creation unrecognized by the very people made in his image.  This is even more amazing when you think of who and what did recognize him.

In a sense, the natural world recognized him because it responded to his commands.  Water, trees, wind, withered hands, and fish darting about in the Sea of Galilee all bowed to his commands.  Even the demons ran to him calling his name and begging for mercy.  Satan himself acknowledged who he was by the very temptations he offered in the wilderness.  And yet man, the one made in the image of God and the one for whom Christ came to give himself as a sacrifice, was blind to his identity. Even “his own”- the Jews who searched the Torah for every fleeting clue about Messiah and who longed for his coming – missed him.  They not only missed him but also eventually killed him.

How could that be? How could they miss the one who taught with authority and performed one undeniable miracle after another? For the most part, I believe they missed him because of their preconceived notions about what he would do and what he would look like. They made the mistake of assuming that God was like them and that Messiah would come as they imagined.

In their world, Messiah would come on a notable day – a feast day or a high Sabbath full of symbolic significance.  Undoubtedly he would be born into a family of high standing with wealth, education and influence. Reputable Rabbi’s probably wondered which of them would have the privilege of schooling the young Messiah in their advanced understanding of the Torah.  Without question he would give honor to the religious elite of Israel, the Sanhedrin, and, perhaps, ask for their seal of approval as he began to reveal himself publically. Of course, he also would be political as they were and beat the Romans at their own game of governmental intrigues and, eventually, military might to overthrow the oppressors.  As this new “reign of David” was established, these honored leaders of Israel would be given influential cabinet posts and governorships. I’m fairly certain they looked for all of those things as signs of the true Messiah in addition to his miracles. They waited for a Messiah made in their image and when he did not fit their mold they were blind to his presence.

Jesus disappointed them.  He came into the world as an unknown, born in a stable rather than a noble house.  Instead of a family of standing he came questionably into the world from the womb of a backwater girl swearing she had never been with a man. He studied at the feet of some nameless Rabbi and never once asked the Sanhedrin for it’s blessing.  He was apolitical and never attempted to raise an army.  He didn’t gather Jewish nobility around him but coarse fisherman and former tax collectors.  He even let women follow him around including one former prostitute.  He didn’t seek wealth or honor the wealthy.  Instead, he warned of the toxic dangers of wealth. When they demanded signs to prove who he was, he shrugged them off.  In the mind of the Sanhedrin, the High Priest, and the Pharisees, Jesus was no Messiah.  He was a scandal.

It is easy to criticize them on this side of the cross and, perhaps, we should.  After all, not all were blind, not all missed him.  Many did believe and became born- again sons and daughters of God.  And yet how often do we miss God because we already have him all figured out?  How often do we miss his answers to our prayers because we are looking for him to respond as we would respond if we had his power?  How often do we ascribe new moves and manifestations of the Spirit to the devil because we have never seen God work that way before?

If we learn anything from John it should be that God can move among his own while his own totally miss what he is doing.  I’m certainly not saying that everything that manifests in the church or that claims to be from God is from God. We must test the spirits.  But I am saying that we should be open to God doing new things, even greater things than we have ever seen him do and not to dismiss these things quickly because they don’t fit out preconceptions.  I’m saying this because in these last days I believe God will do some amazing things not recorded on the pages of the gospels. They won’t be out of character for God, they will just be new.  Prayer, discernment, and the evaluation of the fruit of a thing will be needed. It takes a while to see the fruit.  Sometimes it takes a while to hear from God.  We should not be gullible but neither should we be hasty.

In our own lives we should be open to God’s creativity and fresh ways of showing himself to us. Even God must get tired of routine.  Look at the miracles of Messiah – no formulas there.  A little mud here, some spit there, and a finger in the ear.  Maybe God likes variety as much as we do.  Whenever he comes or however he moves, we don’t want to miss him.  We want to receive everything he has for his people. Be open today and see if you experience the Father in fresh and surprising ways. Then be open again tomorrow.