We are currently discussing the promise of healing in the New Covenant. If, in fact, healing is promised in the covenant we have through Christ and he purchased healing for us as well as the forgiveness of our sins through his suffering, then healing and divine health are available and desirable for every believer. It is part of our inheritance in Christ so that we should believe as easily for healing as we do for forgiveness.

To underline this covenant aspect of healing, we need to look a little further into the past to see if health and healing were typically part of God’s covenants before the cross. When we look at the beginning of all things, health was obviously God’s will in the Garden of Eden. No one would suggest that illness or infirmity existed in the Garden. As long as Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life, they would live and apparently not be subject to disease or infirmity of any kind. I would say that disease did not exist in the Garden environment any more than it exists in heaven so that, in many ways, it was never to be part of the equation of life.

Many believers today hold the position that God is not willing to heal everyone because sickness or infirmity often draws people closer to God. They hold a theology that asserts that suffering often purifies us and makes us more spiritual. They say that when people suffer and maintain their faith, God is glorified. Since suffering draws us closer to God and often glorifies him, it is, therefore, God’s will for some believers to be sick or blind or paralyzed.   They would suggest that God sends disease and infirmity to make us better Christians. In that case, why did God not create Adam and Eve with some disabilities or cause them to suffer from some exotic disease in the Garden to mature them spiritually?Why do we never see Jesus laying hands on some person in order to impart disease so that the man or woman could draw closer to God or become more spiritually mature?

I am not saying that God can’t use suffering to mature us, but that is a different thing from wanting us to be sick or willing us to be sick. We must also acknowledge that sickness has often been part of some judgment that has come on God’s people when they have forsaken him. However, it was never what God wanted for his people and repentance brought healing or the cessation of some plague. God never sent disease, tragedy, or war on his people when they were serving him in order to upgrade their spirituality. In the Garden, health was his desire for his people.

Now, let’s go to the other end of the timeline. In John’s vision of the end, he sees a river of water flowing out to the nations from the throne of God. He says, “On each side of the river stood the Tree of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse” (Rev.22:2-3). In the beginning, God provided a Tree of Life to keep his people walking in divine health and at the end of time he does the same. My point is that God’s perfect will for his people is health. How many of us would believe that heaven is full of disease and paralyzed people? The very idea seems like a contradiction. Why? Because we know that disease and infirmity is not a blessing and that God does not want illness, birth defects, or disabilities for his children. Can he use it? Yes. Does he want it? No. Not only that, but we are to pray for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Since there is no illness in heaven, we are to pray against illness here.

When we look at the patriarchs, we see them sick and infirm at the end of their days, when they are greatly advanced in age, but never get a sense of them struggling with illness or infirmity before their appointed days had been fulfilled. Part of God’s blessing was health along with a fullness of days.

The fact that God’s blessings do not include illness or infirmity is very apparent in the covenant he made with Israel. To Moses, the Lord declared, “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span” (Ex.23”25-26).

A consistent expression of God’s love for his people has always been health. In another place he says, “If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The Lord will keep you free from every disease” (Dt.7:12-15).      In fact, God reveals that it is his very nature to heal those he loves. He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you” (Ex.15:26).

God’s blessings always include health. The curse of sin is alienation from God, eternal suffering, and disease and infirmity if anyone is not delivered from the curse by the blood of Jesus. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they became subject to death and those things that produce death. They were removed from the Garden of Eden so that they could no longer eat of the Tree of Life and walk in perpetual health. Sin changed all of that. As sin impacted the soul, illness impacted the body. Disease is a manifestation of sin in the human race.

Sin and a fallen nature became a gateway to disease and infirmity. It became the natural state of man….unless man entered into a covenant with God in which he promised to take away sickness and infirmity as part of his covenant blessings for his people. Under the Old Covenant, the presence of plague or disease that was not was not being healed, were both signs of rebellion and disobedience and a call to repentance. When repentance came from the heart, however, both forgiveness and healing followed. If that was true under the Old Covenant, how much more should it be true under a better covenant? If that was true under a covenant where the blood of bulls and goats opened the door to healing, how much wider should the door be under the blood of the Lamb?

More in my next blog about the healing found in the New Covenant.

Okay…so I grew up in the late 60’s and 70’s when Jesus freaks and the Jesus Movement were a part of the underground, hippy culture. There was a song called Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum – a kind of a one hit wonder. It sounds very new age with contemporary ears but the theology behind it was sound if you got a little explanation. One verse declared, “I’m not a sinner, no I’ve never sinned. I’ve got a friend in Jesus.”

To some that sounded arrogant or downright blasphemous. After all, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). But another verse confirms the theology. “Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb.10:14). On the one hand, we certainly have all sinned and continue to do so less that we did, but on the other hand, God does not count those sins against us. If you inspected the ledgers of heaven, you would find no record of sin – past, present, or future. As far as God is concerned, you’re not a sinner, no you’ve never sinned cause you have a friend in Jesus. We need to get that truth in our hearts.

So many of us focus on our past, our sins, and our failures while God is focusing on our righteousness in Christ. It’s not that he doesn’t recognize our sins, but he does not define us by those sins. He defines us by the righteousness that is ours in Jesus. The passage above from Hebrews declares that by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. By the sacrifice of Jesus, you have been given a positional or legal status of sinlessness – forever – which extends both into the past and the future. God always relates to us on the basis of our position while he works on our condition. He is in the process of making us holy – matching our condition to our position – but he is not focused on our sin but, rather, who we are in His Son.

We would do well to so the same. Too many believers get focused on their sins, failures and spiritual shortcomings. Whatever we focus on becomes our identity. If we see ourselves and define ourselves as sinners in Christ, we will constantly live up to that expectation. If we see ourselves as righteous and holy in Christ that will become our identity and we will begin to live up to that set of expectations.

Many of us try to motivate ourselves to be more like Christ with criticism and name-calling. If we did that to our children we would be labeled as bad parents, maybe even verbally abusive. We recognize the power of self-image (identity) in our children and work to encourage and affirm them at every opportunity but often fail to recognize that principle in ourselves. Faith declares that what God says is true is true, even if it does not appear to be that way. By faith, we need to say what God says is true about us, so that God’s truth is deposited more deeply in our hearts and minds. It’s not arrogance; it is good theology that appreciates what the blood of Christ has done for us.

So…the next time the devil stirs up accusation and condemnation and tries to convince you of what a spiritual failure you are, just pull out a little Norman Greenbaum and sing in his face, “I’m not a sinner, no I’ve never sinned. I’ve got a friend in Jesus!” It’s good theology. Be blessed and sinless in Him today.

The problem with grace is that it seems unjust at one level and too good to be true at another. It is hard to receive at a personal level because we know we don’t deserve it and it is hard to extend to those who have wronged us or wronged society because we definitely know they don’t deserve it. Yet it is the cornerstone of our faith. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph.2:8-9).

If you are like me, the following parable challenges you. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.    He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.    Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ (Matt.20:1-16).

We tend to see ourselves as the men who worked all day in the heat of a middle-eastern sun. The idea that some slackers hung around the marketplace all day and worked for an hour in the cool of the evening and got paid the same as us seems remarkably unjust. And yet this parable is about grace. The owner was a generous man and sometimes he was so generous that it offends us.

When God extends his grace to a person we think well of, we celebrate. But how do we feel about grace for a monster? Then we grumble about the wages. In the 1990’s, one of the icons of “monsterdom” was Jeffrey Dahmer. As a mass murderer, he had abused, killed, and cannibalized seventeen young men. He was caught and imprisoned and eventually killed by an inmate. Just as you read that, something in your heart probably agreed that justice had been served. Toward the end of his days in prison, however, Dahmer declared that he had come to faith in Jesus. The prison chaplain confirmed that in his estimation, Dahmer’s repentance was genuine and that he had become one of the most faithful worshipers in the church behind bars.

The thought that God would forgive this man who had done such terrible things, simply because he said he was sorry, was unacceptable to most – even to many Christians. In fact, the idea that, in eternity, a Jeffery Dahmer could walk the streets of heaven in good standing was almost scandalous. What kind of a God would forgive that? The same God who is willing to forgive me, no matter what, when I trust in his grace. If we wanted God to “draw the line on grace” so that the urge for justice within me was satisfied, where would that line be drawn and how would I ever know if I had crossed that line?

Grace can’t be measured or it becomes law. It’s there for everyone or for no one. If Dahmer can’t be saved by grace then neither can I. I can almost live with the abstract nature of that because I never met Dahmer and knew none of his victims. But what about those who have betrayed and victimized us? Can we extend the grace of God to them that has come to us? The extension of that grace is called forgiveness. Grace is not about whether anyone deserves it or not, it is simply about the infinite love of God. Ultimately, I can do nothing to cause God to love me more nor can I do anything to make him love me less. Jesus on the cross is the full expression of that truth.

The good news is that his love comes that easily to me and if I meet the conditions of a little faith and true repentance, then forgiveness and salvation come to me as well – to me and the murders, rapists, ex-spouses, abusive fathers, and bullies in this world. And yet when I say that, I can still feel the offense of grace somewhere deep inside. That pushback tells me that grace is not natural because my natural man isn’t comfortable with it. It is supernatural and can only be received when the Spirit of God opens my heart to it.

The capacity to receive grace and to give grace comes by the revelation of God’s love in my own heart. When I have a revelation of that love then I can celebrate grace, forgive those who have wronged me, and even rejoice in the salvation of the Jeffrey Dahmers of the world. Think about the freedom of living in that grace. Think of all the fear, bitterness, resentment, and offense in your heart just melting away like snow on a warm day. That is God’s will for your life. If I struggle, I can pray for a greater revelation of that love and grace in my heart. It is the very thing the Father wants us to have. It is the ointment that heals all hearts. Grace and peace to you today in Jesus.

So…what do we do when the faithful fail? What do we do when we fail, when we slip back into a sin we thought we had left far behind, or when weakness overcomes our faith? There are many who would say that the cleansing of deep regret and overwhelming feelings of guilt are the right response to realign our hearts with the Father. Many of us believe that a sense of shame and guilt and the emotional pain of our failure will keep us from sliding into sin again. But there is an interesting passage in Nehemiah that raises a question about that course.

In the book of Nehemiah we find the prophet in exile. Jerusalem had been sacked and burned and the best and brightest of the Jews deported. When word reached Nehemiah that the city he loved was still devastated with the walls lying in heaps of rubble and the gates burned he cried out to God. God moved King Artaxerxes to allow Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and restore the city. After a remarkable restoration project, the wall and city gates were rebuilt. Nehemiah and the people were certain that all the things that had happened to Israel were because of their sins, so when the wall was completed Nehemiah called for a solemn assembly to re-consecrate the people and the city. Ezra the priest stood and read the Book of the Law to all the people.

The text says, “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.   Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh.8:8-10).

The natural response of the people to their sin and the righteous standards of their God was to weep as they felt the guilt and shame of their sins and the sins of their fathers. And yet, God instructed them not to weep but to celebrate. This is a clear picture of the difference between condemnation and conviction.

Condemnation is a tool of the enemy that he uses against us when we fail. Condemnation produces shame and shame pushes us away from the Father at the very moment that we need to be drawing close. Remember, Adam and Eve felt shame in the garden at the moment of their sin and the realization of their nakedness. That shame caused them to hide from the Father and to blame others for what they had chosen to do. Satan loves to come and condemn. In response to the enemy’s strategy, Paul declares that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:1).

Shame is the very thing that drives many of us to sin in an effort to cover or medicate our sense of unworthiness. Our unbearable feelings of insignificance, defectiveness, and inadequacy drive many to substance abuse, sexual addictions, comfort eating, and so forth. Condemnation simply increases our shame and our need to medicate so that we get caught in a destructive cycle. Condemnation convinces us that even God can’t love and that being the case … we are on our own. When we are on our own we are dangerous to ourselves and others.

Even in the face of their sins, Israel was commanded to celebrate rather than weep. The celebration was not a statement that their sins did not matter, but rather a recognition that God’s love and grace were greater than their sin. It was a celebration of God’s love and mercy that draws us back to him rather than driving us away.

In the Nehemiah passage, God calls on us to focus on his grace rather than on our failings. Bill Johnson speaks to this when he says, “The real problem is not in what we lack, but how we respond to what God has said. Focusing on our problems more than God’s answers should be a dead giveaway that we’re really dealing with condemnation not the Holy Spirit’s conviction. Focus on God’s answers – not your problems. When the Holy Spirit shows us where we are falling short. The bigger reality is not the areas where we’re not yet walking in our destiny, but the destiny itself…The conviction of the Holy Spirit is actually a call to turn our focus away from our sin and our limitations. He’s saying, ‘You’re made for more than this. Lift your head and set your sights higher’” (Bill Johnson, Strengthen Yourself in the Lord, p.136-137; Destiny Image).

There is a time for godly sorrow, but the sorrow should quickly turn from our self- focus on our weakness to God’s strength, from our unfaithfulness to his faithfulness, from our failures to his victory, and from our discouragement to his grace. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We will have greater victories over sin if we focus on Him rather than us. The constant goodness of God and his willingness to forgive any sin as soon as our heart turns to him is a reason to celebrate. It does no good for us to wallow in our self-loathing or despise ourselves as if beating ourselves emotionally will pay for our sins or convince God of our sorrow. Our sins are already paid for and the proof of repentance is not found in self-loathing but in loving God.

When we fail in our walk with the Lord, we should own it, confess it quickly, and then get on to celebrating God’s goodness and love. There is joy in that and in that joy we find strength for the next stage of our journey wherever we are. Blessings today as you celebrate the goodness and grace of your Savior.

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.         As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:13-17)

I’m always amazed at the impact Jesus had on ordinary men and women and especially “sinners”. In one sense, of course, we are all in that category but scripture often speaks of sinners and those who lived a sinful lifestyle and made no effort to cover it up or repent of it. Typically these people were social outcasts who were not welcome in the homes or synagogues of moral, religious people.

Levi (Matthew) was considered a sinner because he collaborated with the Romans and got rich by collecting taxes above and beyond what the Romans required of Jewish citizens. To the Jews, he seemed like a traitor who got rich off the sufferings and poverty of his own people. Tax collectors were hated. My guess is that Levi wasn’t welcome at the synagogue. His friends were those who shared the same reputation as he did. They essentially had no one else to socialize with. The Romans still saw them as inferior and backward because they were Jews and the Jews saw them as traitorous.

And yet, Jesus walked by and extended an invitation for Levi to be one of his disciples and Levi got up immediately and left his career behind. Not only that, but in celebration of his new found relationship with Rabbi Jesus, he threw a huge party at his house and invited followers of Jesus as well as all of his tax collector friends. The religious leaders of Israel were offended and questioned the righteousness of Jesus because he mingled with the unrighteous. We are not so different.

Look at the people who followed Jesus. Former tax collectors, at least one political terrorist, uneducated men, former demoniacs, perhaps a prostitute, and one swindler who would ultimately betray Jesus. These were not the names you would want to list as your board of directors for a new worldwide evangelistic association. If you think about it, Paul addressed the church in Corinth with a surprising reference to some of their past lifestyles. “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” (1 Cor.6:9-11).

The first century church seemed to be made up of a large number of formerly unsavory characters…the kind we Christians tend to avoid today and mark off as highly unlikely candidates for the gospel. In fact, very few of us would even have contact with the list of lifestyles Paul mentioned. It’s a rare church that would have former drug dealers, strippers, prostitutes, alcoholics, embezzlers, and gang members in their pews because most of us would never present the gospel to someone like that.

But Jesus seemed to move among that social strata with ease…more ease than with the Pharisees. Somehow, Jesus spent time with and developed relationships with these men and women without compromising his standards and without alienating them. In fact, they were much more responsive to the gospel that the moral people of his day.

Of course, reaching those blocks of broken people is not without its challenges. We would wonder if our children were safe around them. We would most likely hear words in our church buildings that might cause us to blush. The scent of alcohol on someone’s breath Sunday mornings would not be uncommon and the church might get to know a few more bail bondsmen that we would like. We would also have to struggle to know how to love homosexuals without approving of their lifestyle and would struggle to even know how to relate at all to transsexuals.

But those are exactly the people Jesus went after. Those were the people who found a home in the church. Those were also the lives that were drastically changed…many of whom died willingly in the face of Roman persecution without recanting their faith. Can you imagine what testimony nights were like in those churches?

I’m thankful that in my church I do know former drug addicts and former drug dealers. I know former prostitutes and former homosexuals. I know former pornography addicts and former criminals. These are the most passionate people I know in the Kingdom of God. These are the most fearless and spiritually gifted people I know and the most evangelistic. They would all tell you that a person who has been forgiven much, loves much (See Luke 7:47). Jesus knew that and he wants us to know it now. I’m going to pray for more opportunities to reach the social strata that Jesus seemed to have such a heart for. Perhaps, you might pray that as well.

Blessings in Him…the one who came slumming for each of us.

The Old Testament is full of types and shadows pointing to greater realities to come. The Passover Lamb of Exodus pointed ahead to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Moses, who mediated between God and Israel, pointed to Christ as the mediator between God and man. Egypt pictured sin and bondage. The Promise Land of Canaan was a type of salvation – the destination of God’s people and a land flowing with milk and honey which looked ahead to the abundant life that Jesus promises.

The Promise Land, as a foreshadowing of our salvation, is always instructive in the arena of spiritual warfare. Rodney Hogue, in a teaching on deliverance, pointed to the twenty-third chapter of Exodus for some of that instruction.

I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you.     Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. (Exodus 23:28-30)

Nearly every preacher I have ever heard invites the unbeliever to come to Jesus for peace, the abundant life, and the “easy yoke” of the Savior. These are, indeed, promises made by Jesus to those that would follow him but it is only part of the story. Many come to Jesus with an expectation that as soon as they climb out of the baptistery, life gets easy, blessings flow without measure, and tragedy is always on a far horizon. When “all hell” breaks loose, they wonder what is wrong and where Jesus and all of his peace and blessings went.

We sometimes pitch the Christian life like a 1981 recruiting ad for the Navy that said, “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure.” Of course, the add showed proud men in crisp, white uniforms standing in long lines, powerful ships launching gleaming fighter planes, and navy seals skirting across the open water in high-powered, high-tech assault vessels.   Everyone looked strong, happy, incredibly competent, and totally unafraid. There, of course, was truth in those images – but it was not all the truth. When those sailors were fighting 40 foot waves in frigid temperatures in mid-ocean and when those seals were cold, hungry, and hugging the ground as enemy fire lit up the night around them, the adventure was not so clean, crisp, or glamorous. The Christian life also launches us into war that is not always so clean, easy, or peaceful.

The account of Israel taking Canaan (the promised land) should alert us to that. First of all, like salvation, the land was given to them by God. It was theirs by grace. But one problem existed; the land was full of hostile tribes who were not ready to give up their parcel of ground. The land had been deeded to the Hebrews, but they had to go take it from enemy hands. God promised victory and promised that he would go ahead of Israel into each battle but they still had to face an enemy who knew how to use a sword and often who had much more battle experience than they did. According to the book of Joshua, it took years and dozens of battles to secure the land and enjoy all of its abundance.

That is a picture of sanctification – the process in which we become more and more like Jesus and walk in more and more of his promises. In one sense, salvation is experienced as an event – the moment a person truly surrenders his or her heart to Jesus. Sanctification, however, is a life long process that often includes some real battles.

The interesting thing about the passage from Exodus 23 is that it points to a “principle of occupation.” God only frees us in areas that we are ready and willing to occupy. Those of us, who are involved in spiritual warfare and deliverance, typically want to free a person from every stronghold and every demon in one sitting. But we also know that driving out a demon may not always be in the best interest of that person and that sometimes, even when we try, we just don’t get it done.

Jesus tells a parable of a man who was demonized and received deliverance (Mt.12:43-45, Luke 11:24-26). The demon stayed away for a bit, but then returned to inspect his former dwelling place. Jesus said that the demon found the “house” clean and in order and so returned and brought seven other demons with him that were even more wicked than the first. The point of the story seems to be that any unoccupied house or territory invites tenants, and the new tenants may be much worse that the former.

In Exodus 23, God promised that he would go before Israel and give them victories over their enemies but would not do all at once. He said that to clear the land that Israel could not occupy and develop would simply turn agricultural fields into wild thickets, where wild animals would take up residence and become too numerous for Israel to manage. As Israel became stronger and more adept at war, God would then give them more of the territory he had promised. In our terms, God may not set us free and give us spiritual territory within us that we are not willing or able to occupy – to fight for, to maintain, and to develop. Hogue pointed out that the grace of God might keep us where we are until we are truly ready to hold onto our freedom or healing.

It is counter-intuitive, but not everyone wants to be healed or set free from sin and demonic oppression. Sometimes, when praying for people, praying over people, or in commanding spirits, the will of the individual is a greater obstacle than the spirit, the sickness, or the situation. Many want to be freed from the painful consequences of sin, but not the sin itself. Others have had their lives defined by an illness or brokenness so long that they have organized their lives around those things. To be healed or set free may be more frightening than inviting to those individuals because it represents the unknown. Israel was enslaved in Egypt, but their lives had become predictable and in some degree manageable. They thought they wanted freedom, but as soon as they faced the unknowns of the wilderness they wanted to go back to what they knew. They were not yet ready to occupy the new territory of freedom.

As we pray for people and minister to them, we may want to take measure of how ready they are to occupy – fight for and maintain – any new territory the Lord gives them. Some simply do not know how to fight and must be taught how to fight and cultivate the new ground that has been given to them. Others may not be sure they want it. We may need to ask the Holy Spirit if that is the situation and what to do about it. We may want to help them explore their hearts and their will in the matter.

I am certain we need to teach people how to fight and maintain freedom before casting out demons, because that demon will eventually return or others will drop be to see if there is unoccupied territory in the heart of a person. That space must be occupied by the things of God and the individual must be willing to fight to guard those things when the day comes. God is willing fight with us and he assures the victory, but we must take up a sword and fight. Let’s be sure that we know how to do that and teach others to do so as well. As Paul said, we have to fight the good fight. After all, it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure!

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.  (2 Tim. 1:6-7)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:15)

Timothy was a young man who had a pastor’s heart but, at times, was plagued with self-doubt and fear. If you read Paul’s letters to Timothy you will see him encouraging Timothy to step up to his calling and ministry without allowing others to intimidate him. Fear is Satan’s primary weapon against God’s people. Fear comes in many forms but it keeps us from stepping out and stepping up.

Many of us were wounded in our childhood by anger, rejection, neglect, or abuse that came from authority figures or even strangers in our lives. Each time we experienced one of those actions or attitudes we felt ashamed and experienced profound pain in our hearts. We felt helpless and victimized at the hands of hurtful people and finally felt as if something were wrong with us that invited that response from people who should have loved us. As adults, the fear of being wounded again or of being abandoned again still haunts us and keeps us from stepping into the full destiny that God has for us.

The fear of man hinders most of us. For many it is simply the fear of rejection experienced as criticism, a snub, a loss of reputation, and so forth. Most of us do not carry a healthy sense of significance and worthiness within us. We think we need the acceptance or approval of others as validation that we matter, that we are competent, or that we are worthy of love. When we experience disapproval in its many forms, we are taken back to our childhood years. We re-experience the fear that there is something wrong with us that keeps others from approving, valuing, or extending love to us. The pain comes from our fear that we are not okay or that we are inalterably defective and we choose to avoid circumstances that might affirm our fear. Satan loves to fuel that fire and to stoke the fear that comes with it.

Think about it. What keeps us from sharing the gospel with others? What keeps us from praying for a lame man at Starbucks? What keeps us from writing the book that’s been on our heart for years or from leading a ministry for which we have a passion? For most of us, it is fear of failure or a fear of disapproval that keeps our mouths shut. Why should that even matter, especially, coming from people we will probably never see again? It only matters if the response of other people is what sets our sense of being valuable, acceptable, or significant. Our deepest fear is that we will have our belief confirmed that we are not okay and not acceptable.

We should know that we will never meet out full potential in Christ if the fear of man and his or her response to us continues to shackle us. So how do we overcome that natural fear? We simply do it by changing reference points.   Paul says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). John chimes in with this theme when he says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love” (I Jn.4:18).

When the Father, truly becomes our reference point for whether we are significant, acceptable, worthy of love, competent, etc. then we lose the fear of man because the opinion of man does not set our value. Besides, I’ve got news for you. If you are in Christ and serving Christ, most people will not approve of you anyway because most people belong to the world. The world disapproved of Jesus and it will disapprove of those who remind them of Jesus. Jesus himself said, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (Jn.15:19).

To a great extent, the church has lots its power and authority because of compromise with the world. We have taken soft stands or no stands on vital issues so that we can be friends with those outside the church – so that we can fit in with society. In other words, we have tried to win both the approval of God and the approval of man. I’m not saying we should intentionally alienate the world, but as we stand for godly values we will inevitably be labeled as judgmental, homophobic, Islamophobic, self-righteous, intolerant, etc.

Those words sting and suggest that there is something wrong with our views or our hearts so we back down or try to meet the world halfway. When we do, we have chosen the praise of men over the praise of God. When we do that, God’s power and authority will decrease in the church. When we do that as individuals, his power and authority will decrease in our own lives and ministries.

The only antidote for this fear is the love of the Father and love for the Father. To know who He is and who we are in Christ is all that will take away our fear of rejection because we will know our significance, our worth, and our competence in Him. Then we will be confident as we seek the approval of heaven and not the citizens of this world. Don’t get me wrong. We are to do good in this world and sometimes that brings praise even from the world. Mother Theresa has become iconic for sacrifice and her work among the poor in India. The world approves. When the church responds to natural disasters or world hunger the world approves. When the church ministers to AIDS victims the world approves.

But notice, that the world approves when we try to alleviate the pain associated with the consequences of sin in the world…and we should as an expression of God’s mercy. But when we stand against the sin itself, the world quickly turns on us. Eventually, we will have to stand against sin in the world or an individual’s life if we are truly interested in his or her salvation and ultimate healing. Even to alleviate many of the consequences of sin, we will need to invoke the name of Jesus for healing or deliverance. That will draw many to Christ but will offend others. If we fear the offense, we will not be able to minister the grace of God, which comes only through Jesus.

The love of the Father is the key. When we know how much he loves us then we can be secure and confident in who we are and in our significance. After all, we are sons and daughters of the Most High, ambassadors of Heaven on this earth, carriers of the Holy Spirit, those who will judge angels, and those who direct the power of Heaven by our prayers and declarations. We are more than conquerors and destined for eternal glory. We can do all things through Christ and awesome angels serve us. It doesn’t get more significant than that. If we get that truth in our hearts, the fear of man will fade away.

Continually ask God continually for a greater revelation of who you are in Christ. When you get it in your heart, everything changes. Seek the applause of one and not of many and be blessed in your significance today.

Shame is a powerful weapon of the enemy. I was part of a group a few evenings ago in which four or five believers were prayed for and received deliverance. In nearly every case, a spirit of shame was one of the tormentors in the life of those being ministered to.   Guilt is the sense or the feeling that I have done something wrong. Shame is the sense or feeling that there is something wrong with me that ultimately makes me unlovable and unacceptable.

Many of us carry a sense of shame from our childhood where we too often heard phrases such as: Shame on you!   What is the matter with you? What’s wrong with you? You little piece of trash! Etc. If we hear those kinds of words often enough we begin to feel as if something is broken and defective that makes us unacceptable. We also feel that the defectiveness is unalterable. Our self-image plummets and we are unable to carry a sense of goodness, worth, or acceptability around with us. The devil loves to move into those wounds and reinforce them with internal whispers of rejection, condemnation, and accusation.

When we carry shame or a sense of unworthiness we tend to believe that if anyone really knew us they wouldn’t love us. Authenticity and transparency are too risky for that individual who is always anticipating the next experience of rejection. On a spiritual level, those of us who carry shame doubt that even God can love us. We doubt his blessings and we doubt that he pays much attention to our prayers. As a result, we live with little expectation of good things coming our way and pray more with vague hope than with faith.

One of the women we ministered to this week asked for prayer because she didn’t feel welcome in the presence of God and believed that her prayers were not being heard. She had a checkered past and felt in her heart that her past failures disqualified her for the blessings and the privileges of the kingdom. The shame she carried from past mistakes was being reinforced daily by demons that had been assigned to her. After we cast our several demons (one being the spirit of shame, another rejection, and so forth) she said there was an instant shift in her heart. Before she felt that all she could do was stand outside the throne room of God and peek around the corner from time to time. After shame was driven out, she felt herself standing directly before the throne and being fully accepted by the Father.

She, of course, already knew what the Bible says about her forgiveness and the Father’s total acceptance of her but shame kept her from receiving that truth in her heart. If we don’t believe in our hearts that God loves us, delights in us, and quickly forgives our past failures we will never live up to the destiny God has ordained for us in Christ. What we believe about God’s response to our failings is very important.

Two apostles denied directly Christ on the night of his arrest. Judas denied him by betraying his location to the High Priest and Peter denied him verbally three times to witnesses who asked if he had been with Jesus. Both were overcome with shame. Both wept bitterly. One believed God would never release him from his failure and so he hung himself. The other clung to the little band of believers and the Lord in spite of his shame about what he had done. He returned to the Lord with some reason to hope that he would be forgiven because he had seen the love of the Father expressed in Jesus for the past three years.

God is not interested in shaming his children. Of course, he wants us to take responsibility for our failures, confess them, and then align our hearts with his, but then he wants to forgive our failures and forget them. Before his conversion, the apostle Paul made a career if blaspheming Jesus and arresting his followers, He put some to death. In his letter to the Roman church, Paul says confidently “those who trust in Jesus will never be put to shame” (Rom.10:11). I believe Paul leaned on that truth from time to time when Satan would remind him of his past. Paul also tells us that love keeps no record of wrongs (1 Cor13). Since God is love, he keeps no record of the failings in our lives that produced our shame and sent Jesus to heal broken hearts that have been shattered by shame. When God looks at us, he doesn’t see past failings; he sees future potential. He doesn’t see us as broken, defective unchangeable human beings but rather as born-again new creations in Christ.

The heart of God is revealed in Peter’s life in such clear ways. Other than Judas, Peter was the only apostle who directly denied his relationship with Jesus – not once but three times. And yet, less than two months later, the Holy Spirit chose Peter to deliver the very first gospel message on the day of Pentecost to launch the church of Jesus on the earth. He was enabled by the Spirit to preach that sermon to the same people before whom he had denied Christ. Jesus came to take away our shame and grant each of us a place of purpose and honor in the kingdom. Shame has no place in the kingdom because in Christ we are all loved, all worthy, and all significant. Any whisper to the contrary is a lie.

For those of us who struggle with a lingering sense of shame and unworthiness, we must choose daily to agree with God and say what he says about us while we reject the lies and taunts of the enemy. Remember….”Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom.8:1); “Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb.10:14); and… “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6). If you are in Christ, there is no shame. When the whispers come call them lies. Let the enemy know who you are in Christ and send him on his way. In Jesus, you have no past – not even yesterday – and you are glorious! Be blessed today.

We often talk about the power of words. God spoke and his very words carried the power to create a universe – something out of nothing. He also declares that when his words go forth they always fulfill his purpose. We are made in his image and although that image has been diminished by sin our words still have power. “The tongue has the power of life and death…” (Prov.18:21)

Jesus challenges us. He came as a man, not as God, and by his words the lame walked, the blind gained their sight, the deaf heard, the mute spoke, the dead were raised, and demons were dismissed. Jesus spoke and heaven empowered his words – usually blessings but at least one fig tree felt the sting of a curse and died. Then Jesus said that those who believed in him would do the things that he had done and, in fact, would do even greater things. Our words also carry authority and direct power in the spiritual realm.

In one sense, we have no power and authority other than that which comes from Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Some would say that our words have no power or authority at all unless Jesus agrees with what we say each time we say it. If we command demons then it is really Jesus who is standing next to us and commanding. That picture is like a little boy who sees a bully suddenly run away thinking that he has intimidated the bully when, in fact, big brother had just walked up behind him and the bully was actually afraid of him not the little brother.   There is some truth in that view. We operate in the authority of Jesus not our own, but we carry His authority to be exercised at our discretion.

Just before healing the lame man, 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 3:6). Notice that Peter did not say, “I’ll pray and ask Jesus to see whether he will choose to heal you or not.” He said. “What I have, I give you.” What he had or possessed was power and authority to heal. It was delegated by Jesus and empowered by heaven but that power was released at Peter’s discretion. The words of a believer have power because we have delegated authority and are released at our discretion. Sometimes we get a direct word from the Lord to speak something but most of the time we are using our own discretion.

Because of that, James warns that our mouths should be sources of blessings and not curses because our words matter. Jesus tells us to bless even our enemies and Paul commands the church to bless those who persecute us…bless and not curse. God’s people should be constant sources of blessings because blessings release good into the world and the world certainly needs more good.

Think about it. By your words today, you can release health, peace, prosperity, life and healing into a world of darkness. You can direct the very blessings of heaven by your words and at your discretion. I like what John Ortberg has to say about blessing as he quotes
Dallas Willard. “ There are two great words in the Bible…that describe the postures of our soul toward other people. One is to bless. The other is to curse. We are people with wills and in every encounter with other people we will what is good for them or we fail to do so: we will what is bad. We cannot help ourselves. Blessing is not just a word. Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another. We must think it, and feel it, and will it” (Ortberg, Soul Keeping, p.153).

Ortberg goes on to say that true blessing is done by the soul. True blessing that carries weight and authority is not a phrase thrown out when someone sneezes – God bless you! It is something that comes from deep within us with heart and conviction. Then we release the power of heaven for blessing. The power to bless is to be stewarded like the King’s money. It is to be used for the good of people with intentionality not just tossed around in the streets for anyone to pickup. True blessing is an expression of God’s grace which every soul on earth craves.

Blessing can be conveyed not just with words but even with actions and gestures. You know when you have been loved and you know when you have been rejected. You know when you have been affirmed and you know when you have been disrespected. In other words, you know when you have been blessed and cursed by someone else’s soul. Dallas Willard said that we are so sensitive to words and actions because our souls were made to be blessed and cannot survive without it. Broken people reflect broken souls and broken hearts. Jesus made us vessels of blessing to facilitate the healing of both. Lets remember who we are today and what one of our primary directives for living is…bless and not curse. Make a decision today to speak some kind of blessing today into the life of every person you meet and when you say it, mean it. And for starters, let me bless you….

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

As we continue to look at events in the life of Hezekiah, I am drawn to an event that reveals the true heart of God. As I mentioned in my last blog, after being installed as king at the age of 25, Hezekiah’s first order of business was to restore Solomon’s temple and true worship to Israel. “So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly” (2 Chr.29:35-36). When God’s people have a heart to do something and his hand is with them, amazing things can be accomplished in a short time. How we view God determines to a great extent whether are hearts will be turned towards him in anticipation of love and grace or away from him in anticipation of harsh judgment.

We often have a view of God in the Old Testament as a harsh judge ready to punish every violation of his Law – large or small. Regarding the Law of Moses, many believe that if things were not always done in exact accordance with the letter of that Law, then those things were unacceptable to God and, on a bad day, fire might come out from the altar and destroy whoever made a mistake in protocol no matter how well intentioned. That notion probably first arose from the account of Nadab and Abihu. The Old Testament says, “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev.10:1-2). Yikes! Many have interpreted “unauthorized fire” as a mistake in the protocol or contents of the incense they offered. That understanding presents God as an unbending tyrant who demands perfection in our service to him.

From this account, many have assumed that God would strike down even well meaning people if they missed one point of the Law or stumbled over a recipe for incense. But if we read a few more verses we discover the real issue. “Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Lev.10:9). The problem was not a failure to interpret and perform every law exactly as it had been commanded, but rather a heart of disdain for the holiness of God because these two men had entered the Holy Place drunk.

In the days of Hezekiah, another violation of the Law of Moses took place. As temple worship had been outlawed by Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, all the feast days commanded by God had also faded from practice. After restoring the temple and its worship, Hezekiah decided that Israel should once again celebrate Passover. The Passover had very clear and specific commands attached to it. God had commanded Moses to keep the Passover on the tenth day of the first month (Ex.12:2). However, Hezekiah determined to celebrate Passover in the second month with out the people being sufficiently purified. Sounds like risky business but here is what we read in 2 Chronicles. “Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written (emphasis added). But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.’ And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (2 Chr. 30:18-20).

In our life with God, the condition of the heart – a heart set on seeking God – can make up for a lack of doctrinal correctness. Let me be clear, this is not an invitation to be careless with our beliefs or our teaching just as long as we are sincere. A sincere heart always wants to live in obedience and do all things as God would have us do them. However, sometimes we are serving God to the best of our understanding rather than with perfect understanding. Sometimes we are serving God in the best way that circumstances permit. That was Hezekiah’s dilemma and so he trusted in the heart of God to extend grace where doing everything according to the letter of the Law seemed to keep them from obeying the spirit of the Law which called on them to remember and celebrate what God had done for them in the past.

Our Chinese brothers and sisters typically believe that the Bible teaches immersion as the proper form of water baptism. However, as men and women come to Christ in the “re-education camps” of China, there are no places to immerse anyone so they baptize in showers. Does God accept their “baptism” since their hearts are seeking God? I have heard some church leaders say that their baptism was invalid but I think this passage from the life of Hezekiah confirms that God indeed accepts those baptisms.

In the same vein, David is described in scripture as a man after God’s own heart. Yet, at least twice in his life David violated the Law without a rebuke from the Lord. Once he and his men, starving and on the run from Saul, ate the tabernacle showbread which symbolically sat in the Holy Place and was to be eaten only by priests. Another time he put on priestly garments to lead a procession when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem. David was not a priest. He was from the tribe of Judah while only those from the tribe of Levi could serve in the temple. However, because of circumstance (the showbread) and his passionate heart for the Lord, God extended grace to those violations of the Law. Remember that Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees who were meticulous keepers of the Law because their hearts were far from God.

Again, Hezekiah shows us that God is more concerned about our hearts than demands for doctrinal correctness. That should encourage us when we are concerned that we may not fully know or understand his will on something or when we have acted believing that we have heard from God and then later determined that we had not. Our primary goal should be to seek God with all of our hearts and if we do, his grace will cover us while we are still learning his ways. God is and never has been an angry God just waiting for us to violate one word of the Law. Rather, the Law was given to teach us right from wrong and to lead us to Christ while, all along, God has simply been trying to draw us into a loving relationship with him. Hezekiah reminds us of that truth once again.