When you read early Christian writings there is always a great deal of emphasis on Christ’s admonition to take up our cross daily in order to follow him. The theology of the cross is that God uses hardship to conform us to Jesus and to teach us to make him our source of strength and supply.  In America, where comfort and plenty have defined many lives, the idea of taking up our cross is rarely proclaimed and is even a bit offensive if we are honest. In some corners of the kingdom, a prosperity gospel has been preached which suggests that material abundance and ease are God’s will for his people on earth and proof of his favor. Preachers of that gospel tend to live on lavish estates and raise money for twenty-six passenger jets to fly around the globe preaching to the poor.

I’m not opposed to believers making a great living. It is believers with means whom God can use to fund the kingdom here on earth and actually care for the poor. What I question, even in my own life, is how much I have bought into the notion that sacrificial living is no longer an essential element in pleasing God and drawing close to him.  In fact, American believers tend to see hardship in our lives as proof that somehow God is displeased with us.  If that were the case, then Jesus and those who first followed him must have been very displeasing to God. I am reminded of David’s words when he said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offering that cost me nothing” (2 Sam.24:24).

Taking up our cross daily is not necessarily a call to poverty or persecution.  It is, however, a call to setting our personal agenda aside each day while we genuinely seek God’s agenda for us.  It is saying “No” to the natural man who demands to have his way, demands to be treated with respect, demands his rights, demands to be first, demands to be given the seat of honor, refuses to submit to anyone, and who is always self-focused and concerned about his comfort, his success, and his well-being.

The truth is that most of our pain and discomfort in life comes from our self-focus. It is that focus that measures every interaction to see if we were given due deference.  It notices every ache and pain in our body and keeps score in every relationship.  It takes offense, issues judgments, justifies our own shortcomings and rings the “victim” alarm every time we feel that life hasn’t been fair. Our self-focus keeps pulling the scab off of our own wounds as we constantly rehearse the scenes where those wounds were inflicted and keeps Jesus at bay because we feel such a need to protect ourselves by being in control.

Taking up our cross daily puts the focus on Jesus and others, rather than ourselves.  It actually reduces our pain even though we believe our pain would increase. It is something, I believe, that only the Holy Spirit can do in us, but won’t due without our constant permission. We all want to be filled with the Spirit but if we are filled with self, there is little room for the Spirit to move and work.

In a culture that promotes self-love, attending to our needs first, and entitlement it is difficult to take up our cross.  We would rather pay someone else to carry our cross for us. Unfortunately, that task cannot be outsourced.  The paradox, of course, is that the key to abundant living is dying to our own demands. The key to freedom is surrendering to Jesus…not just the parts we don’t care about but everything. I believe it is also a key to greater anointing and power because when we carry our cross, we will steward those things as Jesus would, rather than for our own affirmation. I need to consider this reality in my own life today.  You might need to as well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was browsing through the third chapter of John again this week.  It’s is one of those chapters that, no matter how many times you have studied it, you always know it contains so much more than you understand.  But one thing was evident to me as I read the words of Jesus again as he spoke to Nicodemus.  We should never underestimate the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and in the Kingdom of God.  When you say it, it sounds trite – as if everyone knows that.  My experience, however, is that most believers don’t know that because they treat the Spirit as a minor player in the Godhead.  He gets an honorable mention on Sundays as one who, perhaps, played a significant role 2000 years ago but since then has been rather tame.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  I am reminded of that when Jesus cuts to the chase with Nicodemus.  Nic was a Pharisee as well as a member of the Sanhedrin.  But to his credit he was a truth seeker, although he still cared a great deal about his position and what other members of the  “good old boys” club thought of him.  He came at night so that he would not be seen with this “questionable” Rabbi. He represented another group within the Pharisees or the ruling council who were not quite ready to condemn Jesus because Nicodemus said, “We know you are a teacher who has come from God…” He came with a list of questions representing this little group.

We must speculate on where he was going with his questions because Jesus sidetracked his dialogue and began to speak about his own agenda.  However,  I feel confident that Nic was going to ask a series of questions about the Messiah and about the nature of miracles and so forth. That would have been an amazing discussion to hear and a spiritual discussion at that.  However, Jesus knew it would have been a futile discussion because this brilliant theologian and descendant of Abraham would not get it.

Jesus simply said. “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Clearly, for Nicodemus, that must have seemed like a hard left turn that, perhaps, was leading to nowhere.  What an enigmatic statement that seemed to just come out of left field.  Nic tried to track with Jesus a bit and so protested that a man could not be born again when he is old. Then Jesus added to the confusion by saying that no one could even enter the kingdom unless he was born not only of water but of the Spirit. Here was a man who all his life had been taught that knowledge of the Torah, love for the word of God, and good works would gain him entrance into the kingdom. Jesus simply said that entrance was not based on anything we could do but solely on the basis of what the Spirit would do.

When Jesus said that a man could not see the kingdom,  he meant that a man could not understand, perceive, or experience the kingdom without being born again.  An equally valid translation would be that he could not see the kingdom unless he was “born from above.”  That birth from above was by the Holy Spirit.  In the same way that Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit coming on Mary, we can only be born again by the Holy Spirit coming on us and we cannot see, perceive, understand, or experience the kingdom without the work of the Holy Spirit. If our initial realization of the kingdom comes only by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, then all other experiences and insight into the kingdom can come only by the Spirit as well.

If we place limits on the Spirit, we place limits on our understanding and experience of the kingdom.  In an effort to make God understandable, we miss out on understanding.  In our efforts to keep the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts from being abused, we abuse our own experiences with God.  In order to enter the kingdom, we must be born from above.  In other words, it is not just an intellectual exercise of acknowledging who Jesus is, but God has to do something to us. A new creation (2 Cor.5:17) means that suddenly, we are different and distinctive from the rest of creation. I believe that someday science will be able to measure a shift in brain function, DNA, or genetics that occurs the moment someone is born again.

I do not believe that being born again, being born from above, or being born of the Spirit is simply a metaphor for us as we somehow take on a new philosophy of life. When the Spirit comes power is imparted.  Radical transformation is initiated. Positions shift in the heavenlies as we are seated with Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is rumbling around in us waiting to get out.  All of that begins with the Spirit of God and continues with him until the Spirit himself raises us from the dead. The Spirit is immeasurable power and wisdom and can only be capped or quenched by us.

In too many places, the church still quenches the Spirit in the name of doing everything “decently and in order.”  In my Bible, when the Holy Spirit showed up, fire erupted, people spoke in tongues, people went out and preached in the streets, buildings shook, everyone had a revelation or a tongue or a prophecy, people got healed, and demons got cast out. Some even dropped dead in church for lying to the Spirit.  All that doesn’t seem to fit our definition of  “decently and in order.” Many of our churches could benefit from a little disorder orchestrated by the Spirit.

We have even elevated intellect over spiritual gifts and spirituality.  If you don’t think so, check out the classifieds in a Christian journal where churches are looking for staff members and pastors. The qualifications are rarely based on spiritual gifts, spiritual maturity, intimacy with Jesus, or how many people a person has led to the Lord.  They are most often based on degrees earned in an accredited university or business experience in the corporate world. Jesus himself nor his apostles should even bother to apply. They would not meet the qualifications.

Although the Spirit points us to Jesus, Jesus points us to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God along with the Father and the Son.  We should pursue Him with as much passion as we do the other members of the Trinity.  If we fail to do so, we may enter the kingdom as a newborn, but we will remain in that same condition for years to come.  Our problem is not that we don’t know enough scripture, but that we haven’t experienced God enough.  That experience comes through the Holy Spirit.  Maybe we should make a real effort to get to know him.

In an instant, microwave culture, we often grow weary of prayers that have not been quickly answered and lay them aside believing that God has said “No” to our request. It is true that sometimes, our prayers will release almost instantaneous results. A person may be healed immediately or within hours. A check will come in the next day’s mail. A house will be sold in the afternoon when the prayer was offered in the morning, and so on.

But typically, like seeds, the words we have sown into the spiritual realm through prayer will seem to make no difference for a season. Like a woman who has just planted a garden, we will go out daily to see if anything is pushing up through the soil. Initially, there may be no evidence of God moving to establish what we have prayed. Like a master gardener, we will need to have faith, watch the soil, and continue to water with our prayers and declarations until we see the first green sprouts breaking through the soil.

Even after the first evidence of life, we will need to guard the initial progress with faith, diligence, and prayer. We will need to pray against the involvement of the enemy or command him to stay away in the same way that we would be vigilant to keep insects and “critters” from killing young plants. Eventually, we will witness a plant growing but that is still only the promise of a harvest. Then, after a season of growth, the harvest will come and there will be the full answer to our prayers.

Paul encourages us by saying, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9). The harvest comes if we do not give up. Undoubtedly, much of what God wants to do or is willing to do on the earth gets choked out because his people plant their seeds but do not continue to water them with prayer and other expressions of faith. After a short season, we too often decide that God is not going to answer our prayer or honor a prophetic word so we stop tending the plant and it is choked out by the enemy or by our own unbelief.

Speaking though his prophet, God said, “I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass” (Isa. 48:3). In this passage we are told that God’s word had been issued long ago and then suddenly everything came to pass as it had been declared. From an earthly perspective, something incredible happened all at once. From a heavenly perspective, however, God’s word had been germinating; things had been lining up for years; and all the ingredients had been assembled. Then, suddenly, the harvest came.

Have you ever driven down a familiar highway or street and suddenly noticed a large building that you swear wasn’t there two weeks earlier when you last drove down that road? It just seemed to materialize, as if someone had delivered an inflatable office building during the night and pumped it full of air so that is was standing straight and tall when the sun came up. The truth is that someone had been planning that building for months or years. Land was acquired. Architects had drawn up detailed blueprints. Loans had been secured. The general contractor had been accumulating materials and lining up crews. Prefab walls had been assembled and shipped to the sight. Cranes were contracted to be on the property on a specific date to lift the walls. All the permits had been issued. Concrete trucks had been scheduled along ago and were waiting to deliver.

Suddenly, when the day came, the workers and the materials converged on the sight and, within a few days, an impressive building stood where a week before there was only a vacant lot. It might take months to do all the finish work but something incredibly substantial seemed to spring up overnight. The harvest came in a week but the seeds of that building had been germinating for months and, perhaps, years. God often stores things up in the spiritual realm to be released in a moment. Not growing weary in the process is the key. If we know something is the will of God, then continuing to pray, declare, and command until everything has been arranged and released from heaven brings the harvest.

Too often we look for immediate results to determine whether God is responding to our prayers or not. We should be careful to never judge what is going on in the spiritual realm by what we see in the natural. To do so is to live by sight rather than by faith. The biblical record does show that numerous healings and deliverances from demonic oppression or enemies seemed to happen suddenly with no long-term, expectant faith prompting the miracles.   But it is also full of answered prayers that had been lifted up for decades and even centuries before the time was right for the answers. Abram and Sarah prayed for a child for decades. The Hebrew people cried out for deliverance from Egypt for several hundred years. The Psalms are filled with laments asking God how long it will be before he responds to the cries of their hearts.

The principle of sowing and reaping is such a constant theme throughout the scriptures that we must always remember the lag time between placing a seed in the ground and the actual moment of harvest. Time, temperatures, soil condition, and water all determine when the harvest comes. Paul says that one plants while another waters as God gives the increase. That is all process. Process takes time and some plants only bloom once in a hundred years. When we begin to pray into a desire, a dream, or a prophetic word that God has given us, we must be prepared to persist and not give up.

If the desire persists in your heart and if it lines up with God’s heart as revealed in scripture, keep praying unless the Lord tells you clearly to stop. If you have laid a prayer aside because of weariness, you may want to pick it up again. Paul tells us in Galatians that God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap. Praying is sowing and the promise is that we will receive a harvest if we do not give up. Take heart. A harvest is promised and God is storing up all the elements of your harvest in heaven as you pray. If we continue in faith, the answer will suddenly appear and be all the sweeter because we have persisted.

One of the most intriguing accounts in the gospels is the account of the Gadarene demoniac. The story appears in Matthew 8, Mark 4, and Luke 8. Any account that shows up three times in the gospels should be given a closer look.

You know the story. The apostles and Jesus got into their small boat to cross the sea of Galilee at night. The area is subject to sudden storms and so during the crossing a severe squall came up, waves were washing over the boat, and the disciples were terrified. Jesus was asleep, they woke him, and he rebuked the storm. The wind and waves ceased immediately and they were astonished that Jesus could command even the storm. As if that weren’t “weird” enough, as soon as they arrived at their destination, a man who lived in a shoreline cemetery and was tormented by demons ran to Jesus. This was a man who was naked, scarred by him cutting himself with stones, dirty, manic, and who had displayed supernatural strength when townspeople had tried to bind him. He ran to Jesus and the demons within the man cried out for mercy. The commanding spirit identified himself as Legion because there were so many demons afflicting the man. They asked Jesus to allow them to enter into a nearby herd of swine. As they left the man and entered the pigs, the entire herd rushed down an embankment into the lake and were drowned.

The Gospel of Mark then states, “Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed” (Mark 5:14-21)

Notice that the “possessed” man was now dressed and in his right mind. The supernatural flavor of all that had happened frightened the people who lived nearby. The supernatural quieting of the storm on Galilee the night before had the same affect on the twelve. Now the people asked Jesus to leave their region. Predictably, the man who had just been set free from terrible torment did not want to be separated from the one who had freed him.

If I had been that man, I would have been terrified that those same spirits who had made my life a living hell would return and take possession again once Jesus was out of sight. Jesus, however, told the man that he could not go with him but should simply go and tell people what God had done for him. A close friend recently pointed out that the story raises several questions. First of all, Matthew records that there were two demon-possessed men who were living in the tombs who ran to Jesus, but the gospels quickly focus on only one. Why? What happened to the second man? Secondly, what prevented the man from being “repossessed” after Jesus left? He did not have the Spirit of God living in him because the Spirit had not yet been given. He apparently was not part of a great “spirit-filled” synagogue where he was prayed over and discipled. He, in fact, knew very little about the man who had just set him free.

What we do know about this man is that he immediately became a Christ-follower and was obedient to Christ. Jesus told him to go and tell his family what God had done for him. Mark tells us, “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed” (Mk.5:20-21). We have to speculate, but perhaps the second man left as soon as he was delivered to go back to the life he had known before his demonization. The other stayed close to the one who had set him free. His heart was turned to Jesus because of what Jesus had just done for him.

As his heart was turned to Jesus, he was willing to do what Jesus asked him to do. In this case, it was to go and tell others. Jesus said, If you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jn.14:15). Those who love Jesus are known and remembered in heaven. He was remembered in three gospels while the other man simply disappeared. Love and obedience also garner heaven’s protection and provision. I believe that is why the man was not lost again to the enemy. We can’t be sure about his friend.

There is a maxim among those who minister in spiritual warfare. “The first battle is to get free. The second battle is to stay free.” The Gadarene demonstrates that the second battle is won by loving Jesus and walking in obedience. A life of love and obedience provides no open doors for the enemy. We have delivered hundreds of people from demons. Those who draw close to Jesus afterward with a heart to obey, stay free. Those who drift back to old lifestyles and sinful relationships, find themselves worse off than in the beginning. Some of them, like the second man, have simply disappeared from the life of the church. Jesus give a stern warning in Matthew 12 when he said that if a man is freed from a demon, and does not fill the vacancy with the Spirit of God and the things of God, that spirit will return and bring others with him. Then the man will be worse of than before. I think the two Gadarenes may be an illustration of that truth.

In our own lives and ministries, we need to be very aware of that principle and keep ourselves close to Jesus, in love with him, and obedient. We must also warn those to whom we minister, of the spiritual risks involved if they receive healing or freedom from Jesus and then go their own way. The fruit of the Gadarene’s obedience is that when Jesus returned to the area, after first being asked to leave, multitudes were waiting to hear him. Sometimes, we don’t need a sermon of even a great deal of theology, we simply needs to share our own story to bring others to Jesus.

The shooting in Sutherland Springs has once again ignited the debate over how to prevent such tragedies from occurring again. There are those who want tighter gun control or even confiscation of all firearms. There are those who blame a shortage of mental health facilities. Others are pointing the finger to failed communications between the military and law enforcement or to the negative impact of our president. Ultimately, you cannot legislate morality or pass enough laws to prevent someone bent on destruction from taking lives. It can be done with guns, rental trucks, explosives, poisons, biological weapons, knives, arson, and agricultural supplies.

The apostle Paul was familiar with the violence of men. In his day there had been any number of mini-revolutions quelled without mercy by the unflinching sword of Rome. There were political terrorists who murdered dignitaries in the shadows. There was the brutality of dictatorships that beat, murdered, and imprisoned men for no just cause. There was bigotry, discrimination, and slavery on a scale that dwarfed the American expression of that injustice in the early years of the republic. Paul had seen the roads of Rome lined with the victims of crucifixion and impalement on stakes and had seen corruption raised to an art form by government officials.

In the midst of that, he did not cry out for more laws, more medications, more government intervention, or more mental health hospitals. Ultimately, he pointed to another realm that had to be dealt with before the violence and brutality of planet earth could be diminished. He declared, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph.6:12).

His point here and in other scriptures is that the horror we see in this world is a symptom of a deeper cause. The cause is sin and brokenness enflamed and animated by the demonic realm and the fallen nature of man. Ultimately, three things have to happen to prevent tragedies like Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs. The gospel must be shared with millions not hundreds, broken hearts must be healed, and those in bondage to sin, mental illness, bitterness, addictions, and demonic spirits must be set free.

Only Jesus can do that and he will do it only though his church. I’m not naïve enough to believe that every person on earth can be saved and healed and that all violence will be eliminated this side of the return of Jesus. I know that will not happen because scripture tells us that not all men will be saved. On the other hand, the prophets do speak of a day when nations will stream to the church for wisdom and answers to the world’s most perplexing problems. I also know that the kingdom of God is meant to expand across the globe and as that kingdom is planted in the hearts of individuals they will change, which in turn will change families, which in turn will change communities, which in turn will change nations. We have been given an assignment to make disciples of all nations (not just a few people in each nation) , therefore, it can be done.

As we grieve over these tragedies that are becoming common place and as the world looks for answers, the church needs to find a voice and creative, empowered ways to touch, love, heal, and change the very individuals who might otherwise take a gun to church or a concert. We should know better than to look to government for answers. We should know better than to attempt to fight evil with the weapons of the world. We should begin to look to Christ for individual, community, national, and global answers for war, poverty, mental illness and violence.

When the church looks to the world for solutions rather than the world looking to the church, then we have failed to recognize who we are, whose we are, and the power and brilliance that resides in each of us through the Holy Spirit. I’m not yet sure what those solutions are, but I am sure that our God knows exactly how to establish large patches of heaven on earth that will grow and influence more and more territory like leaven in a lump of bread.

Not only does he know what to do, but he has already commanded us to do it and the resources for the mission are already stored in heaven waiting to be used. Let’s think bigger and more strategically. Huge corporations that influence the globe like Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook didn’t become richer than most nations by force or legislation, but by identifying the needs and desires of the world and offering solutions. How much more should the people of God be doing so? It’s time to expand our vision of the church, to leave our buildings, and to take our place in the world as the appointed dispensers of the grace and glory of God and his solutions to the world’s most overwhelming problems.

We need to live with the understanding that as followers of Christ our primary role in the kingdom is to represent Him. Paul declared that we are ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor.5:20).  We represent heaven on earth and speak for our king. The key to understanding our role as representatives is simply to understand the word. We are to re-present Jesus. We are to fully present him again to the world by doing what he did, saying what he would say, and displaying the same heart he displayed when he was on the earth. We are to live and serve in such a way that people see him accurately in each of us.

Jesus represented the Father when he walked the earth. In the Gospel of John he says, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say” (Jn.12:44-50).

Notice the phrases taken from the text. “When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me…For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it…So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” These words echo what Jesus told Phillip shortly afterwards when he said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn.14:9) and “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work” (Jn.14:10).

Jesus came to show us the Father. He did what the Father would do if he were physically present on the earth. He said what the Father would say in the way he would say it. That is representation. When Jesus left the earth, there should have been no question about what the Father was like. If you wanted to know the Father, you simply had to look at the Son.

We are to represent Jesus by living in the same way he modeled life for us. That doesn’t mean we all become itinerant preachers – although he may call some to do that. It means that we display Him in whatever context we are in. He lives in us by his Spirit just as the Father lived in him. The Holy Spirit is present within us to lead us, remind us of his words, empower us for miracles, and reproduce the heart of Jesus in us so that we can accurately re-present him to the people around us.

Representing Jesus is the function of the church. We cannot display only a part of Jesus and accurately re-present him to the world. If we preach the gospel but do not heal the sick we have not done what he did. If we heal the sick and cast out demons but do not love the broken and the sinful, we have not fully displayed Jesus. If we do not confront legalism and hypocrisy in religious leaders we have not duplicated him or his ministry. If we do not live and love sacrificially, then people cannot see Jesus in us.

I know that is a tall order but that is the goal and it cannot be done in our own strength but only by the power of the Spirit. If our heart is to fully represent Jesus in every setting, the Holy Spirit will certainly empower us to do so because that is the heart of the Spirit as well. He came that he might show Jesus to the world and is quite willing and even excited to do that through us.

Just a few years ago, the fad in Christian circles was WWJD – what would Jesus do? It was on bracelets, tee shirts, coffee mugs, etc. I haven’t heard that so much lately but it truly is the heart of the mission and should be written on our hearts not just on our coffee cups. When that truly becomes our heart’s desire, then I believe we will see the power and the impact of Jesus like never before. As “charismatic” we talk a lot about being “Spirit-filled.” Too often we think of that as simply being filled with the power of the Spirit to fuel our spiritual gifts.  But to be Spirit-filled would actually be a life  filled with Jesus and to be fully like him in every way.

If I’m honest, there are too many times when I am wanting Jesus to represent my agenda rather than me representing his. I am wanting him to make me look good rather that me making him shine. When my motive is me, then I will never see Jesus nor his power manifested in me as he desires and as I desire in my best moments. May the Spirit of God enable us all to re-present the risen Lord in every way and in every circumstance in which we find ourselves. Be blessed in serving Him today.

I live in a world where spiritual warfare is considered a normative part of the Christian life. I believe that is a very biblical perspective. After all, Paul clearly believed that our struggle is push back against the reign of God. He also believed in divine weapons that were essentially not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers and principalities that different from the weapons of the world and that are laced with supernatural power.

Because of that reality, the church was granted gifts that display power in the spiritual realm – gifts of healing, prophecy, words of knowledge, miracles, and so forth that have the capacity to dismiss demons, declare God’s will and authority over situations, heal the sick, and even raise the dead.

All of these gifts and the authority that goes with them are amazing and – let’s say it – they are fun and exciting. They get the adrenalin pumping and open our eyes to a realm we can typically only see by faith. Once you experience these gifts you become hungry for more because they display the heart and power of God. Suddenly we are drawn to books and conferences that promise growth in these gifts and areas of spiritual warfare – prophecy, healing, deliverance, hearing God, baptism in the Spirit, and so forth. I’m all for these conferences and I will certainly attend some. However, I have also noticed that in the rush to grow in the gifts and experience more, we sometimes neglect the essentials that actually support and nurture the gifts.

One of those areas is the essential practice of prayer and spending extended times with the Father. Maybe this is my personal struggle but I find that pursuing the gifts is exhilarating as well as getting in the trenches with deliverance and praying for healing. But those are also sporadic. Like football, the intensity of game time comes around once a week. It’s fun. It’s intense. It produces great stories and we get to see God do his stuff. The practice that prepares us for the game is daily and sometimes tedious. It doesn’t get the hype of the game but without practice, games are lost.

Our American lifestyles compete with this need to spend time with God because our lifestyles are comprised of getting up early to begin our ridiculously busy schedules and going all day until we fall into bed. We try to pray on the run. We listen to a sermon in rush hour traffic. We grab a YouTube sermon somewhere and hope that we are somehow spiritually nourished. The truth is that to be filled with the Spirit and operating in “the gifts” as we want to requires more. Great athletes don’t train on fast food. They are intentional and consistent with their diets and exercise. Fast food is okay once in a while, but if that is the norm, their performance will suffer. No gold medalist that I know of trains exclusively on Big Macs.

Somehow, in the midst of our busy-ness, we must find consistent time with God in prayer and meditation on his Word. These are the essentials that support game days. I’ve always been amazed at Jesus. He had only three years to save the world – three years to demonstrate his credentials as Son of God, to establish his mission, and to train those who would carry out his mission after his departure. Preaching, healing, training, confronting. Day after day that was his schedule and he had to do it all through personal appearances. The future of the world hung on those three years and yet he never seemed hurried or frantic. He found time for it all and found time for private, extended periods with the Father. He found time for it all because he first found time for the Father. We all want to be Spirit-filled, but we get filled by spending time Him. We all want to be empowered, but we receive power by spending time with Him as well. We all want to hear God more clearly but we learn that by spending extended, consistent time with him in prayer, meditation, and listening.

Bill Hybels wrote a book a few years go entitled Too Busy Not to Pray. It’s a good read but his point was that we often forgo prayer because we think we have too much to get done and yet, when we do take time to pray, God orders our days so that we get much more done. He makes the case that the busier your are, the more imperative it is to take an hour with the Father or you will never get it done and your stress levels will stay redlined. I have found that to be true.

So…while we are chasing a greater anointing in the Spirit and while we are basking in the glow of supernatural breakthroughs, we need to maintain the essential practices that got us there in the first place. We need to discipline ourselves to the relationship and not just the bi-products of the relationship. Renee York, the wife of our former senior pastor at Mid-Cities and a friend of mine, once summed up our prevailing attitude in the church. We were talking about prophetic gifts and growing in those and she said, “Hey, I don’t want to have to work for this, I just want an impartation.” We laughed, but underneath it all, I think we all want that. That’s why conferences that offer impartations do so well. The problem with an impartation is that I may get the gift before I have the relationship to sustain it.

We all look forward to game days, but without practicing the essentials on a day-to-day basis, we will fall short in the heat of competition. We will not have the strength or the stamina to finish the game nor the instincts to defeat the opposition unless we have done the homework. I’m writing this as much as a reminder to me as for anyone else, but in case you have slipped into the mode of pursuing the gifts more than the giver, I just wanted to remind us all. Without constant contact with the giver of the gifts, these gifts will fade or morph into something unintended. So…be blessed and find the time.

When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. (Matt.8:1-4)

I know many people who read through the entire Bible every year. That is a great way to grasp the amazing scope of God’s story but when we read huge sections of scripture we often miss the depth of truths that the Holy Spirit can pack into just a few verses when we take time to read and reflect. A few years ago, John Ortberg wrote a book and recorded a DVD series entitled Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. In the section on the discipline of reading the word he made a very strong argument that real transformation comes not so much from reading huge sections of scripture each day but from reading only a few verses and meditating thoroughly on the truths embedded in those verses throughout the day.

The little section above is a prime example of the many levels of God’s truth that can be mined from just a little sample from God’s storehouse. In the context of Matthew’s story, Jesus has just completed his “Sermon on the Mount.” In that sermon he spoke of many things including humility, caring for the needy, laying up treasures in heaven, and refraining from judging others.

As he descended the mountain, he encountered a leper. Leprosy could include any number of skin disorders bur each one rendered the person “unclean” and contact with any leper was forbidden and would make the person who touched the leper “unclean.” Those with the leprosy we think of were forbidden to enter any city and were usually confined to a hermit’s life or a life with other lepers. Jews believed that leprosy was a judgment by God against the sinner and lepers were to be avoided by a distance of no less than twelve feet and, if the wind were blowing and a person was down wind from the leper, they were to maintain a distance of at least one hundred feet. Lepers who came too close were often driven away by stones. Lepers were considered to be “dead” and were treated as such – first of all because of the possibility of contagion but also because they were seen as gross sinners bearing the judgment of God. They were “cut off” from the people.

Lepers lived with the possibility of being healed but only directly by God for no physician or priest could touch them. Their plight was to “repent” of whatever sin had brought on the “judgment of God” and then to desperately pray to God for healing. If they were healed, they were to find their way to a priest who would verify the healing and then apply cleansing rituals before they could return to the community. It seems that this healing was a theological possibility but rarely, if ever, seen in the worse cases.

In this scene in the gospel of Matthew both the leper and Jesus violate the Law of Moses in the sight of the crowds. In the mind of Christ, the needs of men were always greater than the demands of ritual law. Like healing on the Sabbath, the needs of this desperate man superseded even the Law of Moses. In the Kingdom of God, love and mercy always trump the rules of religion. The man himself risked the panicked response of a crowd and, perhaps, stiff rejection from the Teacher who might have reminded him that he was afflicted because of the depth of his sin and who might has sent him away.

As in many other settings, we are reminded that Jesus never turns away the desperate. Not only that, but the leper came to a man for healing when everyone knew that God was his only alternative. Perhaps, he sensed somehow that he was coming to God for healing. In the first seconds of this brief and hurried encounter he expressed his faith by declaring, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus then expressed the heart of God toward even lepers when he said, “I am willing.” No judgment. No rehearsal of the past. Only grace and love for a desperate man asking for that grace. When Jesus responded with “Be clean,” he was not only announcing the healing of the man’s skin but also the forgiveness of sin and the cleansing of his soul. Once again we are reminded that healing is available to all whose sins have been forgiven. “Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Ps.103:3).

Then the moment that shocked the faithful occurred. The young rabbi Jesus not only spoke to the leper but actually touched him. By every measure of Jewish Law, Jesus had just become unclean and should have been cut off from the people himself. But something else happened that no one in the crowd had ever seen. The leper was spontaneously healed by the touch of another man. Bill Johnson says that the Old Testament reveals the power of sin while the New Testament reveals the power of righteousness. Under the Law, any man touching a leper would become unclean. Under the mantle of God’s grace, the man touching the leper made the leper clean. The cross changed everything. Here is the equation. A helpless and hopeless man risks coming to Jesus to plead for grace on the basis of a little faith. Jesus responds with a huge “Yes” and the man becomes a new creation cleansed of every vestige of his past. In essence, the crowd witnesses the gospel in all of its fullness.

Interestingly, Jesus then instructed the healed leper to tell no one. On several other occasions he said the same thing to those he had just healed. If the miracles of Jesus testified that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, then it would seem he would want them to tell everyone what he had done for them. Why the silence? One interesting thought suggests that he was keeping them from facing the doubts and questions of others that might undermine their faith in the healing they had just received. After a few days of walking in healing, they might be confident that what Jesus had done was not just a fleeting taste of healing or a 24-hour miracle that faded away.

There is wisdom in that for us. Sometimes when individuals have just received healing or deliverance from the Lord they should surround themselves with people of faith until their faith in what God has just done for them is established. Surrounding ourselves with doubters and cynics right after a work of God in our lives is a circumstance Satan uses to steal our faith so that we lose what we have been given. The doubt of others can erode our faith.

After healing the man and telling him not to disclose the source of his healing, Jesus sent him to the priests so that his healing would be confirmed. That confirmation would solidify the faith of man that he had indeed been healed but also opened the door for the man to return to his family and his community. The only thing worse than leprosy was the complete isolation it imposed on the carrier. How many people in our society still feel isolated because something in their past has convinced them that they are unacceptable and unlovable (unclean)?   Forgiveness of their past and the open arms of Christ’s community is also where these will find healing and life again. In many places the church fears contamination by sinners. Instead of sending them off to live in colonies, we isolate ourselves and live in colonies. Remember, under this new covenant, we are not made unclean by our contact with unbelievers but they are healed by the touch of Jesus through his people. May we be open to the “lepers” around us be willing to touch them as Jesus did.

Deliverance is a powerful tool for setting people free from the grip of the enemy. Not only is it powerful but it is essential. However, at times we may tend to overemphasize deliverance in the process of spiritual transformation. That is understandable because many of us have seen radical and dramatic transformation in believers in a very short time as a result of deliverance. It becomes problematic, however, when we begin to see deliverance as the cure-all for every issue. In some ways we begin to think of it as the quick-fix for people who are stuck or loosing ground in their spiritual progress, but demonization is only one barrier in an array of barriers that can stall out the process of discipleship and transformation.

Deliverance will not make a person spiritually mature but will remove the resistance so that individuals can then begin to grow spiritually as they should. At the end of Free Indeed, our ministry for healing and freedom, we always remind our participants that completing the eight weeks of study and the weekend of activation is not the end but rather the beginning of their growth and maturity.

Discipleship is the process of becoming like Jesus. It is a lifelong endeavor that can be punctuated by significant events where huge growth spurts occur but then we must always settle back into the process. In transformation, there is always a price to be paid by the individual who wants to be changed. That price is a consistent lifestyle of coming into the presence of God through multiple expressions of ancient spiritual disciplines: daily time in the word, prayer, meditation, confession, repentance, thanksgiving, worship, service, listening to God, solitude, memorization, journaling, authenticity, and so forth. We often say that getting free is the first battle. Staying free is the second. The implementation of these spiritual disciplines is what keeps us free.

We are such an instant society that we have come to expect instant spiritual maturity through a weekend conference, an impartation, deliverance, a prophetic word, and so forth. I think all of those things are amazing and I will be the first in line for an impartation, but they can’t replace the work of partnering with God on a daily basis in the change we desire.

Too often we pray for inner healing or cast out a demon without making sure the person we have ministered to is pursuing the Lord on a daily basis and filling themselves with the things of the Spirit. Sometimes we don’t even make sure that the person has repented of the very sin the demon was attached to or has forgiven hurtful people in his/her past. In our hurry to help, we may be setting them up for a worse condition because we haven’t helped them lay the foundation that they will need to maintain their freedom and grow in the Lord.

Paul commands us, “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” (Eph. 5:17-18). The verb tense of the word translated as “filled” is progressive which means to be continually filled with the Spirit. When you are filled with the Spirit there is not much room for the devil. A great deal of being Spirit-filled is about being filled with the things of the Spirit which are to be found in spiritual disciplines. It is by “doing the work” that we get in spiritual shape. The work brings us into the presence of God and the transforming power of the Spirit. The work lays new neural pathways that are in agreement with God and diminish the old pathways that agreed with Satan so that our brains are renewed while our minds are being renewed spiritually.

So, as you minister healing and deliverance or give impartations and prophetic words, remember that the person you are ministering to will need to pay a price for continued freedom and spiritual growth. If they are not willing to pay the price of drawing close to God daily, they will most likely lose the ground they have gained and maybe end up worse than they were before their freedom. As those who minister in this arena it is essential that we too pay the cost of freedom in our lives each day.

Philip Yancey once said that the real temptation presented to Jesus in the wilderness by Satan, was the temptation of gaining a crown without the cross. Satan offered Jesus shortcuts without suffering to establish his kingdom on the earth once more. Ultimately, there are no shortcuts. It was true for Jesus and it is true for his people. Crucifying the flesh is a daily demand if we are to be consistent with our spiritual disciplines. Neither the flesh nor the enemy want us spending time with God. But for those who reject the “shortcuts” there is certainly a crown after the cross.