On the eve of Israel taking possession of the promised land, twelve spies were sent into Canaan to gather intel on the enemy. When they returned, ten of the twelve brought the following report: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan. Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”     But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud (Num.13:27-14:1).

The fear of ten men kept an entire nation and an entire generation from entering the inheritance God had given to them. Surely, Pharaoh and the Egyptian machine of conquest and enslavement had seemed impossible to overcome, but God had brought them out with miraculous plagues. Immediately they had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and seen the Egyptian army swept away by water. God had fed them and provided water in an impossible dessert. He had shaken Mount Sinai and given them the Commandments. Israel had done none of those things in their own strength. God had done it all. But, within a few weeks of the Red Sea crossing, no faith could be found in those ten men.

Check their focus. Their view was only on the natural and their assessment was based only on their own strength and resources. In their own strength, they could not overcome such an enemy with such great cities and, in their minds, God was never part of the equation. They acknowledged that God’s description of the land was accurate – a land flowing with milk and honey – but somehow, they did not envision him leading them to victories as he had done only weeks earlier.   In the mind of Caleb and Joshua, God was the primary part of the equation. The only other part was whether God delighted in them or not and that depended on their faithfulness.

I like what Graham Cooke has to say about the question of whether God will be with us or not. He says, “Joshua and Caleb manifested what God had put in them: courage and faith. They knew everything came down to one simple issue – “If the Lord delights in us.” That was the question they wrestled with. Is God pleased with us or not? If He is, nothing can stop us. I can answer that question for every believer. He is. God is very pleased with each and every one of us. Why? Because He only sees us in Jesus. He cannot see us separate from his Son. Why wouldn’t he be pleased with you?” (Graham Cooke, Manifesting Your Spirit, p.73; Brilliant Book House).

Of course, our flesh can come up with a dozen reasons that God would not be pleased with us and in that perspective our heart fails like the ten spies. We know our sins, our dark thoughts, and the weaknesses that we despise. We assume the Lord despises us because of those things and so we assume he will not go with us into battle. Whether we are battling enemies, poverty, disease, addictions, or loneliness, when we look at our condition and resources rather than the heart of God and his resources, fear will win the day.

John tells us “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn.1:7). Walking in the light does not mean sinlessness because in his letter, John is clear that we all sin. The idea is that as long as our face is turned toward God and we are moving in his direction – regardless of how slow the progress – then we are still in fellowship and the blood of Jesus covers our sin.

In the temple, the ark of covenant was the centerpiece of all things. It contained the Testimony or the Law of God, a golden pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that had bloomed confirming his priesthood. On the top of the ark were two golden cherubim surrounding the mercy seat, which represented the throne of God. Cherubim are fierce angels that are equivalent to the palace guard. Their job is to keep any enemy and any offense from the presence of the King. As they stretched out their wings over the ark, it was as if they gazed upon the Law inside of the ark so that anyone who had violated the law would be condemned and kept from God’s presence. On the Day of Atonement, however, the high priest carried sacrificial blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the ark. The symbolism, which pointed to Jesus, was that The Law was covered by the blood and it’s condemnation silenced. The cherubim could not see The Law for the blood. Any man represented by the blood could then continue in fellowship with the Lord.

As long as any believer still has his face or his heart pointed toward God, the blood keeps him in a state of perpetual purity. Therefore, God only sees the righteousness of Jesus when he looks at his children and, therefore, delights he in us. Because he delights in us, he is with us and will give us the victory. Like the ten spies, condemning, unbelieving, and critical voices can drown out our faith. Under the influence of those voices, we focus on ourselves and not the Lord and, by doing so, fail to enter his promises for us. He doesn’t keep us out; we simply won’t go in. The giants that we imagine and fear when we assess our own strength are like grasshoppers in the eyes of our Father – bugs to be stepped on.

As believers, we need to be aware of the voices we listen to. Fear and unbelief can be contagious. Find a few who are full of faith and focused on the Lord. They are the exceptions, so spend time with the exceptions not the crowd. Make sure you speak in faith and anticipation because of who God is, not because of who you are – except for who you are in Christ.

If the flesh does not agree with your declarations of faith and the goodness of God, don’t feel like a hypocrite. Paul himself experienced the conflict between his natural man and his spiritual man (Rom.7). Be led by your spiritual man and don’t count the natural man as who you are. Choose to focus on the character and capacity of God and you will not fall short of his promises. Faith is a gift and we need to guard it. We must watch our own words, our own reports and be aware of those being spoken around us. Seek out environments of faith and expectation, not doubt and unbelief. “For without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb.11:6).

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.          For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor.13:8-13)

The text above is the second half of the discussion on love that Paul sandwiched between his two chapters on spiritual gifts. In my last blog we discussed the need for all gifts to be governed and motivated by love. What is interesting is that this section is also a key passage that “cessationist theologians” use to demonstrate that miraculous gifts no longer operate. I thought it might bed helpful to discuss these verses in light of the question, “Do the supernatural gifts of the Spirit still operate?”

Many churches in the western world teach or operate on the assumption that God no longer intervenes in the world in miraculous ways as he once did. Their argument is that Jesus performed miracles in order to validate his claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God. The apostles exercised miraculous gifts in order to validate their leadership, their authority, and their writings as being inspired and established by God.

The argument continues that once Jesus had performed enough miraculous signs to validate his position as Son of God and once the apostles had demonstrated their God-ordained apostleship which was validated by their miracles, there was no further need for miracles. In this view the sole function of miracles was to validate Jesus and the apostles or to provide direction (prophecy, words of knowledge, etc.,) until the New Testament was penned. Once validated and the New Testament was delivered, there was no further need for the miracles and so they ceased when all the apostles had died.

Jesus did say that his works validated his claims but in many settings, scripture says that he was moved by compassion to heal and deliver rather than a need to be validated. He often told many he healed to tell no one what he had done. If God no longer acts through miracles on behalf of his people, does that mean he is no longer is moved with compassion? Additionally, several books in the New Testament were written by men who were not apostles (Luke, Acts, James, Hebrews, for instance) and, as far as we know, performed no miracles. Does that mean their writings are subject to question? Many individuals in the New Testament who were also non-apostles and who wrote none of the New Testament performed miracles. If miracles were only for validation of Christ and the apostles why did these others operate in miraculous gifts?

As textual proof, those who hold that view offer the verse above that states, “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” The Greek word that is translated as “perfection” or “that which is perfect” is teleion. The word can mean “complete” so the idea is that when the inspired writings of the New Testament were completed and verified by the past miracles of those who wrote the New Testament, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit would cease.

They go on to argue that the so-called miraculous gifts of the Spirit today, do not meet the Biblical standards of miracles, so they are invalid. The biblical standards they offer are prophecies in which every word is proven true and healing gifts through which every person is healed. Since not all prophetic words today come to pass as spoken and since not all are healed, they declare that current “miracles” are psychosomatic emotionalism, at best, and satanic deception in other cases.

Let me respond to those claims. First of all, the word “teleion” typically means complete in the sense of mature, especially spiritually mature. Strong defines it as, “ a state of ideal wholeness or completion, in which any disabilities, shortcomings or defects that may have existed before have been eliminated or left behind. In secular Greek teleios means also: (i) adult, full-grown, as opposed to immature and infantile.” Paul often speaks of believers growing up into the fullness of Jesus – full in the sense of his spiritual maturity and holiness. 1 Corinthians 13, is an entire chapter that sets the standard for full maturity as love and a life that is expressed through love for God and others.

When “perfection comes” is most likely alluding to the coming of Jesus, who is spiritual maturity incarnate, or is talking about the time when our love will be perfected – when Jesus comes. Paul’s argument, in the context of 1 Corinthians, is that the believer’s goal should not be to surpass others in miraculous works and power but to surpass them in love.

He rests his argument on the idea that the spiritual gifts of the church are good, needful, and desirable, but not eternal. When Jesus establishes the fullness of his kingdom, miraculous gifts will not be needed. Gifts of healing will not be needed where no sickness exists. Deliverance will not be needed where no demons are present. Prophecies will not be needed, as God himself will be present to declare his word, and so forth. In eternity, love, not spiritual gifts, will define the kingdom.

Up to this point, the completion of the New Testament has obviously not yet provided everything the church needs to be spiritually mature or victorious. The power of the Holy Spirit along with divine weapons are still needed in a hostile world. The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are part of that heavenly arsenal.

The argument that the present day offering of miracles and healings does not meet biblical standards is also addressed in Paul’s three chapters on spiritual gifts in this letter. Gifts of prophecy are not the same as the office of prophet (Eph.4:11ff). Spiritual gifts under the new covenant are capacities that often begin as seeds and then grow to maturity. In the process, not every person with a gift of prophecy will hear God accurately or fully in the beginning. That is why Paul instructs the church to “weigh carefully” what has just been prophesied (1 Cor.14:29). He is not calling them to constantly be on the hunt for false prophets but to evaluate prophecies because there is room for error. Those who mature in prophecy and that may have an extraordinary anointing in the gift may then fill the office of a prophet and the standards for his accuracy will be higher.

The same is true in healings and deliverance. Not everyone is healed or delivered. Some of Jesus’ own disciples were not able to cast out a demon in Mark’s gospel (Mk.9:18). Paul spoke of some who were close to him who were dealing with sicknesses that apparently he had not been able to heal. Since spiritual gifts are for both the mature and immature and because they must be developed, a standard of perfection is unbiblical and does not invalidate the gifts.

Not only that, but cessationist churches take the text from I Corinthians that says tongues, prophecies, and knowledge will cease and extrapolate that to all miraculous gifts. Even if “that which is perfect” were the completed New Testament (which I do not believe it is), the apostle did not list healings, words of knowledge, miracles, and so forth as gifts that would cease. To take a few gifts as representative of all the gifts also would also eliminate gifts such as teaching, encouragement, mercy, hospitality, generosity, and so forth. The New Testament does not differentiate between those spiritual gifts and tongues, prophecy, etc. Each are supernatural gifts given by the Spirit to build up the body of Christ. To cherry-pick the gifts we are comfortable with and deny those that make us uncomfortable seems to lack integrity.

We still live under the New Covenant and part of that covenant is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the release of spiritual gifts to the body. That covenant has not changed and has not been diminished. Every spiritual gift listed in the New Testament is still available to be distributed by the Holy Spirit as he determines. Even gifts not listed (worship, creativity, writing, etc.) are evidently given and anointed by the Spirit. The key is to desire the gifts out of a hunger to exercise them as an expression of God’s love and compassion to others. When we operate out of love, God will gladly give us his gifts and give us even more as we continue to love. When all is said and done, faith, hope, and love will remain but the greatest of those is love. Blessings in Him.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

In the middle of the apostle Paul’s extensive discussion of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14, he inserts a chapter on love. As you read the entire letter to the church at Corinth, the need for such a chapter becomes painfully obvious. The church was not a very loving church. In fact, early in the letter he scolded the believers there for being carnal or fleshly instead of spiritual. As you read through the entire letter you discover divisions in the church, jealousies, pride, quarrels, taking one another to court, open immorality, and the use of spiritual gifts for personal gratification to establish a “spiritual pecking order” within the church. The good news is that they were still loved by God and were still the church of God at Corinth. They did, however, need to grow significantly in their spiritual lives.

In this letter, we discover some very interesting realities about imperfect believers and spiritual gifts that are worth considering. First of all, spiritual giftedness is not always a sign of maturity. In the opening to his letter, Paul asserts, “You do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (1 Cor.1:7). In chapters 12-14 he lists a plethora of spiritual gifts including healings, miracles, tongues, prophecy, interpretation, discerning of spirits, words of knowledge, and so forth. That is an impressive list of gifts that we may assume were being exercised in the church there. And yet, Paul admonished them by saying, “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly” (1 Cor.3:1-3). In Corinth, their “giftedness” ran far ahead of their spiritual maturity.

It makes you wonder why God would entrust such impressive spiritual gifts to the spiritually immature. I have two thoughts on that. One is that our gifts have the capacity to help us mature as we experience the Lord himself through the exercise of gifts. For instance, praying in tongues has the side effect of building us up spiritually as the Holy Spirit prays through us ( Jude 20). Prophecy is intended to build up the body of Christ and is expressed primarily to strengthen, encourage, and comfort people (1 Cor.14:3). Speaking the love and destiny of God over other people should also establish those things in our own hearts which produces spiritual growth.

Spiritual gifts are also God’s tools for building up the body of Christ, in general, so that a brand new church, planted in one of the most pagan cities in the world, would still need those gifts to grow even though there would be very few mature believers in that church. Perhaps, the immature expression of gifts is still less damaging than the absence of gifts altogether.

I also have another thought about Corinth. If you read the book of Acts, you discover that Paul experience a great disappointment in Athens just before he arrived at Corinth. He had gone to Mars Hill, the place where all the Greek and Roman philosophers gathered to discuss ideas. Paul presented his best, most rational, and most compelling arguments for the truth of the gospel. To his dismay, only a few responded. He left there feeling as if he had failed and he recalibrated his approach to evangelism.

We Paul arrived at  Corinth, he preached only Jesus Christ and him crucified and then demonstrated the kingdom through displays of the power of the Spirit. It is possible, that Paul imparted many of the gifts to a young church as a tool for evangelism only to learn another lesson about when to impart those gifts. Later, he would tell Timothy to refrain from laying hands on any man quickly (1 Tim.5:22). The idea was not to appoint a man to leadership or to impart a spiritual gift until he had a read on the man’s maturity and character.

The issue of free will always comes into play in God’s dealing with man. God gives good gifts with the opportunity to use them well, but man always has the option to use them for selfish purposes. At any rate, there were many believers at Corinth who exercised impressive gifts that were not always Spirit-led. That is why Paul told them to test all prophecies to see if they were from God (consistent with his will and confirmed by the Spirit in the hearts of other believers).

An important take away from this letter is that because some believers abuse spiritual gifts, it does not mean that the gifts are invalid or that they do not bring tremendous value to the church.

Ultimately, the safe guard against abuse is not forbidding the exercise of gifts but using them in the context of love. Spiritual gifts are an expression of God’s love for his body delivered through his people. When someone is healed by a gift of healing, it is simply God’s love being delivered through the hands or commands of one of his children. When a gift of encouragement is exercised, it is the encouragement of God flowing through a believer. When hospitality is exercised, it is God making strangers feel warm and welcome.

Every gift reflects a facet of the nature and character of God and should be governed by love. Even with the extreme abuse of spiritual gifts in Corinth, Paul did not shut down their exercise but taught them how to use the gifts as they were intended. The church should respond to any abuses or misrepresentations of spiritual gifts in the same way today. (More from I Corinthians 13 in my next blog).

Anyone who believes in the present day ministry of miracles will quote John 14:12, eventually and probably often. “He who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these, because I go to the Father.”   We often quote this verse but rarely take time to break it down, so lets take a closer look.

Jesus begins by defining who would do the works he did. He did not say, “my apostles, those who have been following me for three years, a few super-Christians,” etc. He simply says, “He who believes in me.” The NIV translates the phrase as, “Anyone who has faith in me…” The potential for doing what Jesus did, and even greater things, rests in every believer. The potential rests there because the Holy Spirit indwells there. Jesus said that his promise was true because he was going to his Father.

The promised event that would occur as Jesus returned to the Father was the sending of his Spirit and the power that would attend the Spirit. In John 16, Jesus told his disciples, “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn.16:7). After his resurrection and ascension back to the Father, Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power after the Spirit had fallen on them. After the power of the Spirit was released, miracles began to happen.

Anyone who has the Spirit of Christ has the potential to do the works of Christ. What were the works? Preaching the Kingdom, healing, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, calming storms, walking on water, feeding the multitudes, etc. The works of Jesus were the very things that destroyed or reversed the works of the devil, which is the very thing Jesus came to do (1 Jn.3:8). It’s important to notice what Jesus did not say in John 14:12. Jesus did not say that those who believe could do the works he did, but that they would do the works he did. Jesus has an expectation that those who have faith in Him will do the very things he did while he was on the earth – and even greater things.

Many evangelicals have cast this verse as a promise of extensive evangelism. They say that the verse will be fulfilled when we have reached more people than Jesus was able to reach while he was on the earth. In their version, the “greater works, ” would simply be more evangelism. There is no doubt that Jesus has called us to reach more people, but that alone does not constitute the works that Jesus had been doing. The miraculous works of Jesus accompanied and facilitated evangelism, but were not simply the preaching of the good news alone.

In addition, the idea of doing “greater works” is not just quantitative in nature. It is not just doing more of what Jesus did. The word translated as “greater” in the text is mizon. It is used numerous times in the New Testament and always carries the idea of quality vs. quantity. Jesus didn’t say that believers would do more things than he did; he said that they would do even greater things than he did.

If Jesus had that expectation, then we should also carry that expectation. I said earlier in this blog that every believer has the potential to do greater works. The potential for all things in the kingdom is released not only through faith that God can do something but also through expectation that God will do something. Most believers have no doubt that God can do anything, but have been taught not to expect God to do those things. That is why the potential has not been released in many or most believers in the western world.

It is a simple verse. It is straightforward. If we take Jesus at this word, believers should be doing what he did and doing even greater works. Whenever the works of Jesus are not occurring, something is wrong or incomplete in those who believe. The problem is that much of the church believes that when the works of Jesus are occurring, there is something wrong.

Let me encourage you to not only believe that God can do miracles, but to ask the Holy Spirit to give you an expectation that he will. The needed transformation in the church will probably not come from the pulpits down, but from the pews up. In other words, most pastors will continue to preach what they were trained to believe in seminary. If they begin to preach something else, they will most likely be asked to step down. When the ordinary believer begins to walk with the expectation of miracles, God will honor that expectation and as those who sit in the pews on Sunday, begin to move in the power of God, leadership may be changed by their testimony.

Regardless of leadership’s expectation, we must honor the Savior’s expectation for his people and his expectation is for every one of us to be doing the works he did. Be blessed today and expect!

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”          Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.    The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.    But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:1-11)

There are some who take offense at the move of the Holy Spirit and the miracles of God. They immediately reject what God is doing when the Spirit moves in ways not specifically seen in the Bible, or when He moves in ways that do not fit an individual’s theology, or when he moves at all. That individual would admit that God once worked in those ways but would assert that God no longer does such things. Each of these individuals would claim scriptural authority for his or her view. How we approach scripture makes a huge difference in our faith. Luke’s account is instructive in our approach to scripture.

The Pharisees were great students of the Torah. They had memorized most, if not all, of the Old Testament – certainly the first five books. They spent their days dissecting and debating the texts, trying to determine all things lawful and unlawful. They viewed scripture as a rulebook. Their approach was simply to determine what was permitted and what was prohibited in life and assign every nuance of life to one of those categories. When there was an infraction, their job was to throw and flag and assess a penalty.

The Torah said that man should do no work on the Sabbath. God, however, deleted the footnote that defined what constituted “work.” So the Pharisees and other religious leaders took on the task of defining the word for Him. Their scholars produced a definitive list of activities that constituted work and over time their definitions carried as much weight as scripture. Of the hundreds of activities prohibited, harvesting grain and healing on the Sabbath made the “prohibited” list. Jesus violated the list! In their minds, that marked Jesus as a sinner.

That would have been an easy label to hang on Jesus except for the fact that he performed numerous certifiable miracles that were far beyond the reach of any ordinary man. In fact, they seemed to be the marks of a true prophet in the order of Elijah or Elisha. But, by their definition of sin, Jesus was a sinner. So they simply declared his miracles to be works of the devil designed to deceive.

Their mistake was in their view of scripture. They knew the two greatest commandments: Love God and love your neighbor. What they didn’t understand was that God’s love had to be reflected in the interpretation of the scriptures. What they didn’t understand was that God was revealing himself in the scriptures as not only a holy God, but also a loving and merciful God who wanted to show them his goodness and kindness at every turn.

Even on Sinai, as God was giving the Law, Moses asked to see God’s glory. The Lord replied that he would cause all of his “goodness” to pass in front of Moses and that he would proclaim his name to the prophet (Ex.33:19). The first thing God wanted to reveal was his goodness so that the Law would be understood through that filter. The “Thou shalt not’s” of the Law were not laws to restrict the blessings or even the freedom of man, but rather warning signs to avoid danger. They were safety signs and doors to blessings from a loving God rather than a set of rules from a harsh judge.

Jesus, who came to show us the Father, understood that. When man was hungry, even on the Sabbath, God blessed him to find food. When a man was crippled, even on the Sabbath, God healed the man. Both of those acts reveal the nature and goodness of God. The Pharisees thought that man was made to serve the Law and the Sabbath. Jesus showed us that the Sabbath and the Law were made to serve man. How much more are the gospel and the New Covenant made to serve and bless us?

When someone today objects to miraculous moves of the Spirit, they end up objecting to men and women being healed, tormenting spirits being cast out of suffering individuals, the dead being raised, the blind receiving their sight and so forth.   If you ask them why they object, they will refer to scripture and argue that in the last days there will be counterfeit miracles and that God no longer operates in that way. My response would be, “So God no longer cares about the suffering of people enough to act supernaturally on their behalf? What about the goodness of God?” They might say that they don’t see the Spirit falling on people in scripture and making them laugh or cry or fall backwards and lie on the ground and convulse for hours. When Jesus came he acted in ways that Pharisees had never seen before. He associated with sinners, let harlots rub perfume on his feet, touched unclean lepers, walked on water, commanded storms, returned sanity to the demonized, and raised the dead over and over.

He then gave the same power and authority to others and declared that anyone who had faith in him would do even greater things. I’m certain that if the Pharisees had seen him walk on water or command storms they would have branded him a sorcerer. Why? Because they didn’t have a clear command or precedent in the Torah for such things. He was acting in new ways, just as the Spirit is acting in new ways today.

Does that mean anything goes? No, it doesn’t. We must still test the spirits. We need to ask if something actually violates a clear scripture (rather than a “reasoned argument” from men) or if it violates the nature of God and the Spirit of Christ. Healing does not violate the spirit of Christ, but opposing healing does. The Spirit falling on men with power does not violate scripture or the nature of God but denying the power of the Spirit does. Miracles of all kinds do not violate scripture or the nature of God, but assigning those miracles to demonic activity does.

Unfortunately, we still have the spirit of the Pharisees operating through men in our churches today. For the sake of their reasoned understanding of scripture, these men would forbid healing services, would be outraged if someone commanded the dead to rise at a funeral home, and would never allow anyone to minister deliverance to a member of their congregation.

Do they know that Jesus is Lord? Probably. Do they know Jesus? Probably not. When we approach scripture, we should see it through the lens of God’s goodness and his relentless desire to bless people rather than a rulebook that looks to penalize every infraction. We need to enjoy God and expect expressions of his goodness and power as we go through the day. Those who walked with Jesus, experienced that day by day and we walk with him now! So enjoy.

Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew 16:12

In Matthew 16, Jesus had a familiar encounter with Pharisees and the Sadducees who were demanding a sign from him to confirm his authority as a prophet and, perhaps, as the Messiah. After the encounter, he and the twelve shoved off in a boat for another location. Somewhere on their short voyage the disciples discovered that no one had brought bread. As they discovered their dilemma, Jesus said, “Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

The twelve thought he was somehow discussing their dilemma and the fact that they had pushed off on a journey without provisions. After some discussion, they discerned that he had not been talking about the properties of a great loaf of bread but rather he had been talking about the teaching of the religious leaders of Israel. Their teaching was a well-developed theology of rules and laws for serving God. It was legalism in its fullest sense. It defined every aspect of the believer’s life and declared what was and was not acceptable to God.

I really like what Graham Cooke says about this in his little book, Qualities of a Spiritual Warrior. He says, “Part of His (Jesus) ministry was to take a stand against religiosity in church leadership. ‘Woe’ is a primary exclamation of grief and also denunciation. In Matthew 23:13-29, He used it on eight occasions. He called church leaders hypocrites, blind men, blind guides, and whited sepulchers. His foremost accusation was that they shut off the Kingdom of Heaven from people because they had no experience of it themselves.

In mentoring the disciples, He was developing a church leadership that could carry the message and lifestyle of the kingdom in themselves. He taught them how to believe God, how to move in the supernatural, how to have power over the enemy, and how to love people and release them into a lifestyle of blessing and favor…

He stood against a religious system that had captured people in a legalistic environment that prevented them from being loved fully by God. When the system defines the experience we can have with God, then we have no freedom. Jesus came to set us free from an organized religious experience that teaches us how to think, speak and act before God. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, not for man to program them. Jesus came to overthrow a system that does not allow us the joy of exposure to his fullness, anointing, and glory” (p.133-134).

The power of the Kingdom of God cannot flourish in a legalistic system of rules and regulations that place God in a well-defined box. Does that mean that “anything goes?” Of course not. Paul gives some healthy and biblical boundaries for the expression of the things of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12-14. However, he does not restrict their expression but only regulates them so that their expression always reflects love. It also does not mean that those individuals who want a greater experience of Jesus through his Spirit are to ignore the rules of the house set by its leaders. A great deal of harm has been done by well-meaning people who have gone off to a conference on miracles and decided to come home and “blow the roof off” their conservative congregation. Submission to leadership is an important principle in the kingdom. Finding a greater expression of the Kingdom may mean going to another environment where it is welcomed rather than “trying to shake things up” where you are. Encouraging leadership to be more open is one thing, rebelling against their boundaries us another.

We often think of legalism in terms of churches that do not accept the full ministry of the Holy Spirit but that is not always the case. There are non-charismatic churches that are full of grace but have not yet come into the miraculous measures of the Holy Spirit. They are open but have not yet arrived. There are also “charismatic” churches that are just as guilty of legalism as cessationsist churches. Some of those churches have strictly defined dress codes, hairstyles, prohibitions on makeup, and so forth that regulate the life of believers. Legalism can creep into any theology like leaven in a loaf of bread and change the very nature of faith and freedom.

Even on a personal level, we can begin to judge other believers on the basis of them worshipping God or serving him in ways contrary to our own preferences. Some of our preferences can morph into “laws” that define how God works in people and churches. There is a place for testing spirits and judging prophecies etc. but that testing must be led by the Spirit not produced by flesh or our intellect. Before declaring that God does not work in certain ways or accept certain things we need to be very careful and diligently seek the Lord.

Acts 15 is a perfect example.   The Jerusalem church came together to decide whether God was actually accepting the Gentiles and working among them. Fifteen hundred years of religion and tradition had planted deep convictions that only Jews or Gentiles that had converted to Judaism and all of its laws were acceptable to God. But God had been doing crazy things among the Gentiles who had not been circumcised, did not keep the Sabbath, and who ignored the feast days. Peter himself had to give an account of why he even entered into the home of Gentiles and why he then baptized them. The feeling in the Jerusalem church was that “God doesn’t work that way.” But, he did… and after seeking the mind of the Spirit on the matter, the leaders of the church determined that God had accepted the Gentiles without them coming under the traditions of the Jews.

Legalism, the leaven of the Pharisees, quenches the Spirit whether in churches or in our own hearts. It is actually the default setting for our fallen nature trying to work our way to heaven so we all have to guard against it. We would do well to ask the Spirit, on a regular basis, to highlight areas where we are slipping into a religious or legalistic mode because it is hard to recognize. A critical or judgmental spirit in us is a sure sign that we are slipping in that direction. For all of us then who want to enjoy the fullness of God, we need to guard against that leaven. Be blessed today. Enjoy your freedom in Christ and let others do so as well.

One of the gifts I am praying about and trying to develop is the gift of discerning spirits. I believe this gift, if well developed, would make me more effective in the ministry areas the Father has called me to. I also believe that this is a gift for all of God’s children and that he wants us to live with a greater awareness of the spiritual realm than even the natural realm. The Bible is full of accounts in which men and women saw and heard in the spiritual realm. Those moments are described as dreams or visions and sometimes are simply described as experiences. Let me catalogue of few of those incidents to jog our memories.

Remember Jacob dreaming of angels ascending and descending on a ladder from heaven? Remember Moses perceiving God on Mt. Sinai? And then there was Gideon’s encounter with the supernatural. “The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared” (Judges 6:20-21). Elisha prayed and God opened the eyes of his servant to see the hills surrounding Dothan filled with chariots of fire that were already in place in the spiritual realm. Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah all saw things in the spiritual realm that were realities or that became realities. Balaam found himself talking to his donkey and then seeing an angel of the Lord standing in his path (Num.22). David saw an angel of the Lord standing over Jerusalem with a drawn sword. In the New Testament both Mary and Joseph had angelic visitations. The apostles had angels lead them from prison and Paul had a conversation with an angel one night as he stood on the deck of a storm tossed ship.

At times, God spoke out of the spiritual realm. Some heard his voice while others only heard thunder. Others felt things from the spiritual realm even though they could not see what was there. Daniel reported, “ On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold round his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightening, his eyes like flaming torches…the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves” (Dan.10:4-7). All of these experiences and many more recorded in scripture reveal that God wants to show his people things in the spiritual realm for faith, understanding, and direction.

But isn’t that just for a few or for the super-spiritual? I used to think that but now I believe it is the Father’s will for all his children. The reason I believe that is because God has equipped each of us to hear, see, feel, and more in the spiritual realm.

We are all to be led by the Holy Spirit and we are all directed to hear God. Therefore, we all have spiritual ears that, at least, have the potential to hear the Spirit as he leads us and to receive a rhema (fresh word) from God. Paul prayed that God would enlighten (open) the eyes of the hearts of the believers in Ephesus. He did not pray that God would give them spiritual eyes but that he would open the eyes they had (Eph.1:15-18). In addition, we are also promised that the pure in heart will see God (Mt.5:8).

How often did Jesus or the prophets declare that God’s people had eyes to see and ears to hear but neither saw nor heard? I believe he was speaking about spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear so that we might receive things from the spiritual realm. I believe that just as we have five physical senses to discern things in our natural environment we also have five spiritual senses with the potential to see, hear, smell, touch (feel), and taste in our spiritual environment. The capacity is there, be we have to believe in that capacity by faith and then begin to exercise those senses. We do so by paying attention to our own spirit and the Holy Spirit rather than filtering out what we could otherwise perceive or attributing the sensations we are having to natural or psychological phenomena rather that spiritual realities.

I believe all humans have these senses, not just believers, and that the devil uses them in some who distort them and operate in them as psychics, mediums, witches, etc. We are probably attuned to these spiritual senses as children although we many not be able to interpret what we are seeing. The “monster under the bed” may be simple imagination or the awareness of something evil in the room that parents could easily take care of with the authority of Jesus. Children who just “saw an angel” may have just seen an angel. As the adults in our lives discount these childhood experiences we may learn to filter out the input from these senses.

Think about it. If the idea of being born with spiritual senses as well as natural senses resonates with you, then you may want to start praying that the Father would open your spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear in the spiritual realm as a beginning place. Then start to pay attention to all your senses not just those you tune into in the natural realm. Of course, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth as you tune in. He must govern all of spiritual experiences to keep us from wandering off, but if our lives, as children of God, are to be anchored in the spiritual realm more than the natural, it seems we must have spiritual senses along with wisdom that every believer needs to develop.

But solid food belongs to those who are full of age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Heb.5:14, NKJV).

I grew up in Amarillo, Texas. When I was twenty-three years old I started dating a girl who went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night. She finally talked me into attending church with her on Wednesday nights. When I was younger I had attended a Baptist church with my family for a few years but after my mother and father divorced I had not been in a church. The people were friendly, the preaching was fairly entertaining, and the music was what I expected.

After I had begun attending on a regular basis, the girl I was dating asked me if I might be interested in a Bible study with a married couple at the church. Dinner would be included. I thought it over and agreed. I wondered who the couple might be. I assumed it would be a young, successful professional couple in a nice home with small children.   On the evening of the Bible study I was surprised. We drove to a low-income area of town and pulled up in front of a small clapboard house with a neat lawn, sparse flowerbeds and a few small trees. When we knocked on the door, a woman answered who was old enough to be my mother plus a few years. Her name was Mary. She invited us in and explained that her husband Joe and just gotten home from work. He was a mailman who walked a route everyday putting mail in boxes neatly mounted next to the front door of every house on his route.

Mary introduced me to Joe and during a simple meal I discovered that he not only was a “letter carrier” but also preached at a small country church a few miles from Amarillo on most Sunday mornings. He was paid in produce and eggs by the farmers who attended the church. We were eating some of his “pay check” that evening. Joe and Mary had raised two boys who were married and raising children of their own. After dinner, Joe pulled out a small projector and a filmstrip that was advanced manually after each slide would come up with a scripture and a brief explanation of some Biblical truth. We talked and I asked a few questions and then the evening was over. Joe and Mary asked if would come back the next week at the same time for another meal and more Bible study. I agreed and so it went for several weeks. Eventually, Joe asked if I wanted to give my life to Christ and be baptized and after some thought I said yes.

What I wanted to tell you was that the Bible study was academic and boring and not in the least compelling. What was compelling, however, was the love I felt in Joe and Mary’s home. Coming out of a very disengaged family of divorce, the genuine warmth and love extended to me along with the genuine warmth and adoration I saw exchanged between Joe and Mary was almost mesmerizing. The first time Mary opened the door you could almost feel the love in the home as if it had substance and was drifting out into the street. The Bible study explained Jesus but did not draw me to him. But the love I saw in the lives of two people who followed him did. I remember thinking that if that kind of love was found in Jesus then I wanted Jesus.

About five years later, I got word that Joe had died of a massive heart attack while delivering the mail. His funeral was scheduled mid-week and was to be held at a large church in Amarillo. I don’t remember if I had ever attended a funeral before but I was compelled to attend Joe’s. I ran a little late getting to the church and when I arrived I discovered that there was not even standing room left in the sanctuary so I had to stand outside and listen through open doors.

This was not a funeral for a preacher of a mega-church, a dignitary, or a pop-culture celebrity. It was the funeral of a letter carrier and country church preacher. Joe was, however, a celebrity in heaven. I’m certain of that. People were there because he and his wife Mary had touched so many with the genuine love of Christ. Every human being on the planet is starving for love. When someone genuinely touches that need, they remember. Even in the kingdom of heaven, faith, hope and love endure but the greatest is love.

As we search for more of Jesus, more of the Spirit, greater gifts, etc. we cannot forget love. Love is outward focused. All other things can look good – even spiritual – but can be self-focused. Jesus was outward. He came to serve rather than to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many. In his recent book, Soul Keeping, John Ortberg reports a quote from Dallas Willard who said in a response to Ortberg’s question about successful ministry, “What matters is not the accomplishments you achieve; what matters is the person you become” (p.49). The measure in heaven apparently is not how many people you bring to Jesus, the number of people you heal, or the number of demons you cast out but the number of people you love as Jesus loved. Joe knew that. Now I need to remember it.

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:1-6).

Most of the Christians I know have longed for the gift of healing at one time or another. The idea of imparting supernatural healing to someone who is suffering or dying stirs something in us because Jesus is in us and healing is his nature. Paul tells us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts so it is a good thing to desire that gift and others because it is through those gifts that God wants to manifest his love and grace – both to the church and to the world. So, let’s draw some lessons from this account.

Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, opens the curtain as Peter and John are going up to the temple to pray. In this account we discover that the Jews had set times of prayer throughout the day. In Daniel 6:13, we are told that the prophet regularly prayed three times a day. Peter and John were men of prayer and apparently had a discipline of prayer in their lives which is one major key to receiving spiritual treasures from the Lord. They were going up to the temple at 3:00 which was designated as a time of prayer for the Jews. That time also coincides with the time Jesus died on the cross. You can make your own connection.

On their way, they were accosted by a beggar who strategically had his friends or family bring him to the temple gates just before this designated time of prayer. It was strategic because anyone entering to pray would want to enter the temple in the good graces of God and giving to the poor might just set them up for a blessing. Peter and John lived under a blessing so I’m certain that their motive for healing the man was not that.

Notice that the two apostles were going up for a designated time of prayer. I’m sure they were focused on things they wanted to bring before the Father, getting into the temple on time, and maybe even finding a place in the shade. It is almost certain that there were many other beggars and disabled men and women who had strategically staked out the same area, but the lame man caught Peter and John’s attention. Although these two were set on a mission of their own, they were alert to the possibility that God might want to do something else while they were on their way. I believe that as they learned to be sensitive to God, God would direct them to speak, pray, heal, preach, etc. as he directed. Jesus told us that he only did what he saw the Father doing (Jn.5:19) which is a sensitivity I believe God wants every follower to develop.

I believe many of us (myself certainly included) do not experience what we hope to experience when sharing our faith or praying for healing because we are planting seeds in ground that has not been prepared. We are planting in places where God has not already been working. It’s not wrong to plant in those places, its just not always productive. Jesus sensed God’s leading and involved himself where God had already been working. Peter and John were doing the same thing I believe and sensed that God was directing them to a certain man. When we know God has directed us, we can have faith for a miracle.

In this story, the man was expecting a little financial blessing but God had a greater blessing in mind. Directed by the Spirit, Peter declared healing over the man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Peter was very specific about the name as if to leave no doubt about the source and authority for the healing. As people began to respond to the miracle, Peter and John were again careful to take no credit for the healing but to point everyone to Jesus. That is also a key to walking in power. As a result of their faith, their prayer life, their sensitivity to God’s leading, their willingness to have their plans disrupted, and their willingness to point others to Jesus through the miracle, God was able to entrust a greater measure of the miraculous gift of healing to them.

Interestingly, they didn’t pray for Jesus to come and heal the lame man as we probably would. Instead, Peter said, “What I have (possess) I give to you. In the name of Jesus….walk.” Peter possessed a gift of healing that resided with him. After all, Jesus told his followers to go, preach, heal, and cast out demons. He told them to do so because he had given them power and authority to do so. That same power and authority is still available to those who have the Spirit of Christ within them today.

I do believe that there are those who have a gift of healing and, like Peter, the gift resides with them. The rest of us can offer prayers of faith for healing at any time. In that moment we might ask for Jesus to come and heal but I also believe that many times the Spirit releases a gift for a given moment that does not reside with us. Many of us get a prophetic word, a word of knowledge, or a spike of faith on occasion that doesn’t seem to be available most of the time. I believe healing can be the same but when it is released for a specific moment, we can command healing just as Peter did. When we occasionally in a gift, it is also likely that we have the gift in seed form that can develop into a gift we can frequently call on if we nurture the gift and risk exercising it as it develops.

If you hunger for a gift or if God has put a desire for a gift on your heart, remember the lessons of Peter and John – a discipline of prayer, a growing sensitivity to the direction of the Lord, a willingness to be detoured or inconvenienced, a willingness to point all eyes to Jesus, and the faith to exercise the gift when you feel directed by God – even if healing does not always occur or a prophetic word is not always on target. We grow in these gifts as we grow in all parts of life. When desiring a gift we should do three simple things: pray, pursue, and practice. If you hunger for a gift, then go for it. See what God does.

But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow. (Exodus 8:22-23).

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor.6:14-18)

In Exodus 8, as God was in the process of delivering Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, he declared a distinction between his people and all others. Goshen was the region of Egypt where Jacob and his family had settled after they were invited to stay in Egypt because of Joseph’s service to Pharaoh. It was a fertile area of approximately 900 square miles on which one to two million Hebrews lived – first as farmers and ranchers and later as slaves. In the text above, God told Moses that from that point on, the plagues that were impacting Egypt would not touch Goshen nor his people living there. There were several reasons why God would treat them differently from all other tribes and nations. First of all, he chose Israel as a man would choose his bride. A man may treat women, in general, with kindness but he should do more for his wife and do it sooner than for anyone else. That is how God relates to his chosen people.

In the same vein, God treats his people differently because he has a unique relationship with them that is described by words such as bride, household, priesthood, sons and daughters, family, saints, chosen, and even friends. Those are words that describe intimate and even covenant relationships. In a sense, God may know all people, but he is not intimate with them nor does he consider them sons and daughters. In addition, God says that he will make a distinction between his people and all others because he is with them. God is with his people and his presence makes a difference. As they say…membership has privileges and we are members of Christ.

It is clear throughout the Bible that God makes a distinction between his people and all others but scripture also reminds us that we are to make a distinction as well. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians quoted above, he emphasizes the distinction again and draws a contrast between those who belong to the Father through Jesus and all others. Those distinctions are: righteousness vs. wickedness; light vs. darkness; Christ vs. Belial (Satan or a high ranking demon); believer vs. unbeliever; and the temple of God vs. idols. According to Paul, God still calls us to “come out from among them and be separate. Touch no unclean thing.”

In my experience, many Christians don’t see themselves as chosen and distinct from all other people. They don’t see themselves as different nor do they make much of an attempt to be different other than church attendance. God is not calling us to withdraw from society, move into the desert, and form monastic societies. He is not calling us to some form of ritual cleanliness.  What he is doing is calling us to be distinct – first in our own minds and, secondly, in our ways.

What we need is the “salmon anointing” (not a biblical term) that makes us a people who are always willing to swim against the current and the culture of the world rather than embracing it or compromising our faith in order to “fit in.” God has not commanded us to fit in but to be different – as different as night and day. Jesus said we should be “in the world” but not “of the world.”

Sometimes we want God to do supernatural stuff in our lives. But if we want God to “act like God” in our lives with miracles and blessings then we must “act like his people” and as sold out citizens of heaven rather than comfortable citizens of this world. How many “unclean” things do we touch in a day by choice – especially with our eyes and our ears? How often do we compromise our faith “just a little” at school or at the office in order to gain membership or standing with those who don’t know or don’t care about the Lord? How often do we forget that God is with us when we swim with the culture rather than against it?

A church that has forgotten who she is will be a powerless church. If we desire to see the power of God we must remember that power is not given until it is needed. It is not needed as long as we are “going with the flow.” When we remember who we are; when we see ourselves as distinct from all other people; when we push back against the world; when we get busy destroying the works of the devil; ands when we choose to swim upstream toward the source – then, power will be needed. When it is needed it will be released. So…let’s go for the salmon anointing. Let’s swim as hard we can against the current, reproduce ourselves, and encourage as many as possible to swim with us. Then he will be our God and we will be his people. Then we will be distinct from all other people.