Several good models for understanding the nature of emotional and spiritual wounds and their healing are based on the concept of needs and fears. The idea is that, as children, we have legitimate or perceived needs. When those needs go unmet or are perceived to go unmet, then we develop fears around those unmet needs. To protect ourselves, we develop emotional defense mechanisms that we believe will protect us from being hurt again.

For instance, if my need for security went unmet as a child and I experienced uncertainty and chaos in my family, I might develop a high need for control which makes me feel safe because my welfare is never placed in the hands of another. If I was constantly disappointed as a child, I might develop an outlook of hopelessness or cynicism. If I never expect good things to happen, then I won’t be disappointed when good things don’t happen. If I experienced some form of betrayal as a child, then I might develop a mindset of distrust so that I never let anyone get close enough to hurt me or betray me again. Objectively, we can look at these defense mechanisms and see that, ultimately, those mindsets still won’t keep us from being hurt by others but those who maintain them believe that they will.

On top of that, those defense mechanisms keep us from experiencing love, emotional connection, joy, optimism, adventure, and even faith because we typically extend those defense mechanisms even to our relationship with God. The needs/fears model also suggests that we primarily have our needs met by different positions or roles in the family. We primarily derive our identity, protection, and provision from our father or whoever our father figure is. We derive companionship and heart to heart communication from our siblings or close friends. We get our needs met for comfort, nurture, and teaching from our mothers. According to this model these needs and the family positions we look to for meeting our needs correspond to the Godhead. The father role is Father God. The siblings and friends role reflects Jesus and the mother’s role falls to the Holy Spirit.

If our earthly father failed to meet our needs, then we will probably have difficulty connecting to and trusting our heavenly Father. If we failed to connect with siblings or friends or were betrayed by friends, we may have difficulty connecting with or trusting Jesus. If our mother did not meet the needs that we would primarily derive from her, then we may have difficulty in receiving the love, comfort and leading of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think this is a perfect model because no model is perfect, but I think it offers a lot for us to consider.

Somewhere in the process, the wounded believer must discover the wounds that came from unmet needs, forgive those who did not meet their needs or who wounded them, and discover that the Godhead is not subject to the same failings and weaknesses that our biological families and friends are subject to. If these defense mechanisms are not dealt with, they will eventually be maintained or enforced by demons.  Ultimately, the solution for every problem in life is trust in God. If you think about it, underneath just about every story and miracle in scripture, God is calling out for his people to trust him. Faith is not just a belief that God exists, but that he exists and can also be completely trusted. Think about it. God offers protection, provision, companionship, comfort, healing, teaching, nurture, and heart-to-heart communication – even eternal life. He offers to meet every legitimate need that we have when those who are limited by the flesh fail us.

There are many ministry methodologies to help believers receive inner healing through Jesus. After all, he came to heal the brokenhearted. But we can start that process by beginning to pray for the Spirit to birth trust in us for the Father, Son, and Spirit. That is where the real battle is and where most of us need to give some attention. When we trust God to meet our needs, we no longer have to maintain our walls of protection. When they come down, life gets better, relationships are richer, and the sun shines a little brighter each day. Pray about it.

So why would anyone resist the idea the God still operates through his church with signs and wonders? Why would anyone resist the idea that God still intervenes in the lives of men and women with supernatural intervention? Jesus was known for his miracles. The marks of an apostle were miracles. Men like Phillip and Steven (non-apostles) operated in signs and wonders and the early church was fully gifted to do the same. Jesus clearly declared that those who would have faith in him would do what he had been doing and even more. So why do numerous churches and theologians continue to deny that God still works miracles through his church?

I know there are many reasons that these churches resist. First of all, it is the theology that they were taught and a theology that they have never questioned because they had so much respect for the men who taught them. If you never see miracles in your church, then you need to explain that absence in a way that doesn’t suggest that you are lacking faith or that something is missing in your relationship with God. But…once I “explain” why God no longer does miracles, then I quit asking for miracles and, as a result, will never see one. Once my “explanation” becomes the orthodox view of my slice of Christianity then any attempt to question the status quo smacks of heresy and I begin to view any reports of miracles as misguided emotionalism or fakery on the part of those who would manipulate the desperate for power of money. In essence, the primary argument against miracles in churches that reject them is that miracles are no longer needed. They were initially needed to validate Jesus and his followers, but once they had fulfilled their purpose, God took them off the menu. For these churches, the record of the miracles is enough for people to believe.

We could go on for a long time about why many of the faithful resist the notion of miracles and miraculous gifts in the church today, but lets take a different tact and talk about why miracles are actually necessary for the church to fulfill her commission on the earth. Lets talk about why miracles and miraculous gifts are still needed. There are numerous reasons but let me offer three of the most compelling.

First of all, miracles point us to a greater, unseen reality. We live in a material world. Many people are trained to trust only in what they can see and touch. Scripture asks them to believe in fantastic, unseen realities – a glorious, majestic, all-powerful God sitting on a huge white throne in heaven surrounded by seraphs with six wings declaring his holiness day and night while smoke surrounds him. We are asked to believe in great wars in spiritual realms between angels and demons, the dead being raised, and the blind given sight. We are asked to believe in a God who calls all nations to judgment and a great final resurrection of the dead. To those without faith, those visions seem fictional, like scenes from The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.

God created faith throughout scripture by miraculous works. The plagues on Egypt and the Red Sea crossing were not just to subdue the Egyptians but also to build faith in the Hebrews who had never known this God. Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, in which fire fell from heaven, called those Israelites who witnessed it back to faith. Many who saw the miracles of Jesus believed. In a material world and culture, something undeniably inexplicable must occur for people to experience a paradigm shift that allows for the possibility of another realm before they will start to consider biblical truth. When we fail to ask God for miracles or explain away miracles, we deny people a glimpse into a supernatural, spiritual realm that might open them up to believe.

Secondly, miracles reveal the nature and heart of God. Bill Johnson puts it this way. “A primary purpose of the miracle realm is to reveal the nature of God. The lack of miracles works like a thief, stealing special revelation that is within the grasp of every man, woman, and child. Our debt to mankind is to give them answers for the impossible and a personal encounter with God. And that encounter must include great power” ( Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth, p 119).

One of the great revelations of Jesus was the heart of the Father towards men. Jesus declared that when we have seen him we have seen the Father. The miracles of Jesus delivered people from illness and terrible disabilities, ended demonic torment, fed hungry people, raised the dead returning them to their grieving families, and restored relationships. For people who may only see God as the angry judge of all the earth, a touch of his love and compassion through a miracle is life altering and totally changes their view of God and their perception of his thoughts about them.

Thirdly, miracles continue to validate Jesus as the Son of God and Risen Lord and to validate his church as those who carry his Spirit and message. Those who deny miracles propose that stories of miracles that were reported two thousand years ago is sufficient to create faith in Jesus as Lord and the Bible as true now. If that were the case, everyone who read the bible would surrender their hearts to Jesus. Once the Holy Spirit resides within a person, faith based on two thousand year old stories is not a stretch but coming to faith often needs more than that..it needs an experience with God to create faith that then accepts the rest.

Even churches who deny miracles will talk about feeling the love of God, being overwhelmed by the peace of God,or sensing his leading. How are those experiences not miracles in which God has inserted himself into the natural order of things so that people experience something outside the natural realm? If people came to faith because they experienced God in those ways, what is the difference in people coming to faith because they experienced the love and power of God through healing, deliverance, a prophetic word, answered prayer, or some other kind of miracle?

When people, including believers, experience the power of God in their own lives, something shifts. God either becomes real or more real. Torment leaving in the name of Jesus or cancer disappearing in his name confirms by experience that Jesus does have all authority in heaven and on earth. Faith grows. Expectation increases. The reality of God is established and the church that does those things in his name gets instant credibility in they eyes of those Jesus has touched.

To deny miracles or to be indifferent toward s them robs the church and the world of life-altering glimpses into another reality. It robs the world of a revelation of the nature and heart of God. It robs the world and the church of faith. Saul of Tarsus knew the Torah and the miracles of the Old Testament. He had heard the stories of the miracles of Jesus and of the church he was persecuting. More stories would not have changed him but a personal power encounter (a miracle) with Jesus changed him and history in radical ways. The non-religious need miracles to begin to consider the reality of a spiritual realm and a world beyond this one. The religious need to be knocked off their feet to reconsider who Jesus really is and his heart for broken, imperfect people. Not only do miracles still happen today, but they are needed more than ever. We should not be shy in asking for them or pursuing them because they lead straight to Jesus.

I continue to find it odd or at least interesting that no physical description of Jesus was given by those who lived with him every day for three years, saw him crucified, and saw him resurrected. I have to believe that the Holy Spirit prohibited them from doing so because any biographer would have been almost compelled to do so in detail. In scripture there is hardly any reference to his physical appearance at all.

Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah and speaking of his physical appearance said, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isa.53:2). The post-resurrection accounts in the gospels would tell us that he still had holes in his hands and a tear in his side from Roman spikes and a spear. But other than that, we don’t know if he was short or tall, stocky or thin. We don’t know if he had a great smile or crooked teeth. We tend to assume he was muscular because he was a carpenter/stone mason but we do not know for sure.

In some ways, this omission in scripture may have a downside. It leaves us the freedom to make Jesus in our own image – to imagine him as we think a Messiah should be…often with a worldly slant. Philip Yancey discussed this phenomenon in his book The Jesus I Never Knew. He says, “The first semi-real portraits of Jesus did not come until the fifth century, and these were pure speculation. Until then, the Greeks had portrayed him as a young, beardless figure resembling the God Apollo.” He goes on to say. “I once showed to a class several dozen art slides portraying Jesus in a variety of forms – African, Korean, Chinese – and then asked the class to describe what they thought Jesus looked like. Virtually everyone suggested he was tall (unlikely for a first-century Jew), most said handsome, and no one said overweight…We prefer a tall, handsome, and above all, slender Jesus.” Some ancient traditions suggest that Jesus was hunchbacked or had leprosy. If you are like me, you may find the notion of Jesus as a hunchback or leper somehow offensive…unless you are a hunchback or leper. In that case you would find it comforting. Until some recent Christian films, Hollywood had always portrayed him as the tall, muscular, slender, very handsome Jesus with perfect diction, perfect teeth, a straight nose, and, at times, with blond hair and blue eyes (really unlikely).

The problem with casting Jesus in our own image is that we may also cast his motives, his values, his perspectives, and his character in our own image as well. That could be dangerous because then our standard of comparison will simply be between us and someone just a little more moral than us. Jesus was much and is much more than that.

So why did the Holy Spirit choose to leave out an accurate and detailed physical description of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Why did Jesus appear differently to many of his followers after the resurrection? I’m sure there are layers of reasons for this but I can certainly think of one – our penchant for obsessing over the outward appearance of things and people. When God sent Samuel in search of a replacement for King Saul, he first observed David’s brothers and felt certain that the tall, handsome, muscular brother was surely the next king. After all, he looked so “presidential.” But God gently admonished Samuel and reminded him that God does not look at the appearance of a man but at his heart. David was his choice. Surely God wants us to take on the same perspective.

In John 10, when Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd, he said that his sheep would recognize his voice not his face. Jesus said in another place that out of the mouth comes the abundance of the heart. In other words, my words – especially in unguarded moments – reveal my heart. The voice or the words of the Shepherd give us a much better take on who he really is than his appearance.

I mentioned to a friend one time how interesting it was to me that God so often chose extreme people in whom to deposit amazing spiritual gifts. Some were not just extreme in commitment but sometimes in appearance. She wisely responded that she thought God did so intentionally to see if we loved truth enough to look past the external appearance of the one delivering it. Maybe that is why Jesus, according to Isaiah, was neither handsome nor presidential in appearance so that it was the content of the man rather than the packaging that drew multitudes to him.

When I was in college, I worked at a publishing company. All kinds of people worked there and of course, as a college student, I was always surveying the new female hires to see if they were pretty and single. One day a new girl came on the floor. She was married but she was also one of the most homely girls I had ever seen. She was tall, very thin with knot knees, stringy hair, crooked teeth, and a long slender neck and slightly drooping shoulders. She wore little to no makeup and I actually felt sorry for her the first time I met her. I was amazed that she was married and had children.   However, as I spent time around her at work, her personality was amazing. She was genuine, positive, totally uncritical, always had a good word for everyone, laughed easily and yet showed genuine compassion for others. In a few months time, I no longer felt sorry for her but actually began to envy her husband. Her inner beauty truly overcame her outward appearance to the point that her physical qualities meant very little to those who knew her. In some small way, I think she and others like her show us the power of Jesus. The gospels don’t give us the physical description because it doesn’t matter.

Look how we worship celebrities and fawn over their appearance – their clothes, their hair, their skin, their teeth, their bodies, their mansions, etc. – ignoring the spoiled, shallow, arrogant, demanding person that is often on the inside. Appearance can and does get in the way of what’s most important. That is a lesson we all need to learn better.

The other stunning thing about Jesus was that not only did he have an amazing heart but always looked at the heart of others rather than their appearance. He was never swayed by fine clothes, palaces, or power. Neither was he put off by a bad reputation, poverty, weakness, brokenness, disease, demons or even leprosy. That, I think, was his power to draw others. If we are to reach people for Jesus we must learn to love them and to love them we must learn to look past the externals. We must see their hearts and minister to their hearts. It is there that Jesus wants to do his work and make his home. May Jesus give each of us the capacity to ignore the wrapping and look diligently to discover what is inside the box.

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

I visited with a sweet lady last night who grew up in church, loves the Lord, hosts a house church in her home, but was still struggling with overwhelming feelings of fear and condemnation as she tries to serve the Lord. She lamented that the churches in her area were “powerless to help people like her.” In many ways she had no more freedom in her life than the unsaved men and women in her community.

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

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

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

Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder or simply starting over with a clean sheet, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. Scripture tells us that before Jesus came into our lives we were dead in our trespasses and sins and living under the dominion of darkness. We were in bondage to sin whether we knew it or not. Satan literally owned us. But in Christ, all things become new.

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

One of Satan’s favorite strategies is to convince a believer that he or she is the same person they always were and will always be even after coming to Christ. If he can’t keep us from accepting Jesus then the next best thing is to convince us that we will only experience the power and blessings of heaven after our funeral. Until then, we will simply struggle and do the best we can while out life plays out like a sad country song. That is not what Jesus had in mind on the cross.

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

Last night we ministered the baptism of the Spirit to the lady I had visited with. We cast out spirits of fear and condemnation in the name of Jesus. For the first time in a very long time she felt totally at peace and the thoughts of condemnation were silent. I am confident that radical transformation for her is in her near future.

Whenever Jesus and his followers preached the gospel, they immediately healed the sick, cast our demons, cleansed the lepers, and so forth. That power was not just a demonstration that they were speaking for God, but it was also necessary for those accepting Christ to be released to meet their full potential in Him. Much of the church is reclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit but that realization has not made it to every church or every believer. My hope is that a time will come soon in which no one will have to say that the churches in his or her town seem powerless to help, “for the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa.53:3-5).

The text above is one of the most important scriptures in the Bible related to our healing and forgiveness. It is one of the most familiar Messianic prophecies in scripture that prophesies what Christ would accomplish for us at the cross. Notice that Isaiah points to the Messiah as a solution for two categories of issues in our lives. The prophet says that Messiah will take up our infirmities and sorrows (NIV) and our transgressions and iniquities. We understand transgressions and iniquities. These speak of sin and violations of the Law. But what about infirmities and sorrows? That category is a little vague.

Unfortunately, it has been poorly translated in most modern versions. The poor translation is most likely due to a theological mindset that healing is not for today. There are two important Hebrew words in this passage that we must take note of. The first is choli which means “sickness” and the other is makob which means “pains.” In most modern translations they are translated as grief or infirmities and sorrows.

Let me quote from F.F. Bosworth regarding this passage. “All who have taken the time to examine the original text have found what is universally acknowledged everywhere. These two words mean, respectively, “sicknesses” and “pains” everywhere else throughout the Old Testament. The word choli is interpreted “disease” and “sickness” in Dt. 7:15, 28:61; 1 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 1:2, 8:8; 2 Chr. 16:12, 21:15; and other texts. The word makob is rendered “pain” in Job 14:22, 33:19, etc. Therefore, the prophet is saying, in this fourth verse, ‘Surely, he hath borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.’… Isaiah 53:4 cannot refer to disease of the soul, and neither of the words translated “sickness” and “pain” have any reference to spiritual matters but to bodily sickness alone. This is proven by Matthew 8:16-17: ‘…and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, ‘Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses’” (F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, p.34-35).

The point is that Matthew quoted Isaiah 53:4 and clearly applied it to Christ as he was healing sickness and disabilities or physical infirmities.  So…when we are told that by his wounds we are healed, he means “healed from sickness and physical disabilities.” We tend to doubt these promises because as westerners affected by Greek thought, we somehow believe that God is only interested in our spirits and not our bodies. Yet, in every covenant, God provided for both. Forgiveness is for our spirits and souls. Healing is for our bodies. God is concerned with all three.

Isaiah is echoing what David wrote in Psalm 103 – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Sin separates us from God. Separation from God because of sin opens us up to the curse of the Law, which includes disease. Leaf through the curses and blessings of Deuteronomy 28 and you will have a feel for the curse of the Law. Under law, sin still stands against us and gives the enemy a legal right to afflict us. When sin is taken away, the curse of the Law loses it power. Health and healing are then within reach. Healing can be received by those with faith and also administered by those with faith.

Remember the paralytic man in Matthew 9. Jesus declared, “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees, of course, began to whisper that no man had the right to forgive sins. Jesus then said, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home” (Mt.9:5-7). Jesus demonstrated that the forgiveness of sin makes healing available to us. At the cross, Jesus not only bore our sins but also our sicknesses. Through the cross, God intends to heal the whole man – body, soul, and spirit.

Those in Christ walk in forgiveness and have been freed from the curse of the Law. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal.3:13). Therefore, healing is our inheritance in Christ. Like many blessings in Christ, the blessing is available to each of us but must be received by faith. As we reflect again on the Lord’s Supper, the blood represented by the cup symbolizes the forgiveness of our sins. The bread, which represents the broken body of Christ (his wounds), symbolizes the healing that is available to us as well. Both forgiveness and healing come by faith. Both are readily available to the children of God. We are quick to receive forgiveness, but most believers still doubt God’s healing for them – at least in their hearts. Most of us fall in the category of knowing that he can but not being certain that he will. On many days I tend to slip into that category as well. That uncertainty keeps healing from many of us who need it.

So then…how do we move from doubt to faith in the area of healing? We will discuss that in my next blog, Both Forgiveness and Healing – Part 4.

On Monday morning, pastor Donnell Jones shared some essential thoughts with our staff on overcoming that moment when life and ministry seem overwhelming. I want to share the gist of his message along with some of my own thoughts but wanted to make sure that you knew Donnell was the primary source and that his thoughts were seriously worth sharing with you.

In his gospel, Matthew tells us, “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matt.26:36-39).

As we read the gospels, we always see Jesus unafraid, in control, and the master of every situation. But the night before the cross, he confesses something that must have stunned his inner circle of Peter, James, and John. In the darkness of the Garden, he confesses that his soul is overwhelmed with sorrow or heaviness to such a degree that he needs them to watch and pray with him. They have always needed him, but now he desperately needs them. The idea of Jesus being overwhelmed is disconcerting. Yet we have to remember that Jesus faced the cross as a man, not as God.

Secondly, we need to note that his soul was overwhelmed, not his spirit. Our soul is not our spirit. Our soul is comprised of our will, our mind, and our emotions. Our spirit is the eternal part of us that the Holy Spirit quickened and renewed when he took up residence within us. It is that part of us through which the Spirit leads us, reveals God’s will to us, and through which he renews and transforms our thoughts, emotions, and will. But that is a process. The soul is a kind of middle ground or even battleground between the spirit and our fallen nature or “the flesh.”

When the enemy attacks us, he either attacks us through the flesh with infirmity or disease or attacks our soul where he fills our minds with thoughts contrary to the will of God and with thoughts that stir up the negative emotions of fear, hopelessness, shame, lust, anger, and so forth. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the enemy was attacking Jesus with fear, heaviness, and maybe even doubt that what he was about to do was even worth the suffering that lay ahead.

In his soul, Jesus was tormented and overwhelmed. When we feel overwhelmed by life, it is our soul that is overwhelmed. As Graham Cooke says, “ Our circumstances are not the problem. Our perspective of our circumstances is the problem.” When our soul looses sight of the Father, his goodness, his resources, and his vast, unconditional love for us, we can feel overwhelmed and sorrowful unto death. Those who contemplate suicide are in that position. That is where Jesus found himself that night, just minutes before his arrest and a few hours before the beatings would begin.

In that moment, Jesus asked, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”   At that moment, Jesus only wanted out. His soul saw no way to face what lay ahead. And yet, as he confessed his fears and sought God, his prayer changed. “He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matt.26:42). Before, Jesus prayed, “If it is possible….” Now he prays, “If it is not possible…” The word “if” can often be translated “since.” Jesus could have been saying, “Since it is not possible to take this cup away….” Something has shifted from his soul not being able to see his way through the next few hours to seeing that the Father would walk with him through the suffering he saw ahead, no matter how hard. His soul was no longer so overwhelmed because he had poured his heart out to the Father and had received strength from the Spirit. We are told by Luke that an angel came and ministered to him in that moment and strengthened his resolve. His third prayer was the same as his second.

When our souls are overwhelmed by sorrow, loss, difficulty, or even responsibility, we often look elsewhere for comfort rather than going to the Holy Spirit who is the Comforter. We go to friends, food, therapists, medications, and assorted addictions to get us through, rather than to the Spirit who is our friend, our counselor, and our guide. Friends are good. Therapists are fine. Food is essential. But only the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are enough. When Jesus went to the Father three times, he was engaging with the Spirit and heaven responded with a ministering angel. His soul began to receive hope and strength and the feeling of being overwhelmed with sorrow unto death began to lift.

We should take heart from Jesus who is our model. First of all, even those who have great faith and an intimate relationship with the Father can come to a place where his or her soul feels overwhelmed by life. That is not sin…or Jesus sinned. Jesus did not suppress those feelings but shared them with those he was close to for prayer and encouragement. But more than that he cried out to the Father and asked for strength, hope, and encouragement from the throne of heaven. He pressed in until the Spirit ministered to his spirit which then ministered to his soul. His perspective changed. Light could be seen in the darkness.

The goodness, love, and power of God became anchor points for the soul and Jesus was able to move ahead. He is our model. When life feels overwhelming we should follow in his steps. At some point, Jesus was given or given back a supernatural perspective that looked beyond the cross to all that his suffering would accomplish. The writer of Hebrews spoke of that when he said, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb.12:2).

In the midst of feeling overwhelmed, Jesus was given an eternal perspective by the Spirit that everything he was enduring was worth it…even to the point of joy. There are times when we need that perspective. That is why Paul counseled us, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9). In every circumstance, God has a purpose for our good. He does not always create the circumstance but he will always use it for our benefit. Sometimes, we need a glimpse of his purpose. Like Jesus, we can ask for it and when we receive the eternal view of what we are going through, our soul will be strengthened.  And remember, it is your soul that is overwhelmed, not your spirit – so tune into what the Spirit is saying to your spirit. In that moment, even your prayers will change.

The importance of the seventy-two disciples that Jesus sent out in the gospel of Luke cannot be overstated. It is their testimony that opens the door for all believers to do what Jesus did. They were the first, beyond the apostles, to minister in the power and authority of Jesus.

Many Christians are still being taught that the miracles of the New Testament were confined to Jesus and his twelve apostles as confirmation of Christ’s deity and of the apostle’s inspiration and authority for writing the New Testament. The argument goes that once Jesus and the apostles were confirmed by signs and wonders, there was no need for miracles and so the age of miracles faded away. This is not an old argument but one that still carries great weight in many evangelical churches and seminaries.

In Luke 9, Jesus sent out his twelve apostles on a mission. Luke tells us that Jesus gave the twelve power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases while they preached the kingdom of God. This fits the “confirmation theory” for these twelve men would be given leadership over the church that would be birthed at Pentecost and would write much of the New Testament. However, one (Judas) fell away and most of the New Testament was not written by one of the twelve apostles at all: the gospel of Luke, the book of Acts, the epistle of James (written by the Lord’s brother who was not a follower until after the resurrection), Hebrews, Jude, and all of the letters written by Paul. Paul was an apostle, but was not one of the original twelve.

In Luke 10, Jesus appointed seventy-two, no-name disciples and sent them out to preach in towns where Jesus was about to go. This “advance team” was not just putting up posters announcing upcoming healing services. In his directives to the team, Jesus said, “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you’” (Lk.10:8-9). When the advance team returned, the text says, “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!” Jesus replied, “ I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the enemy: nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that spirits submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Lk. 10:18-20).

Jesus had given the same power and authority to the seventy-two, non-apostles that he had given to the twelve so that each of them could preach the kingdom of God and then demonstrate it. At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus commissioned his church to go into all of the world and preach the gospel, making disciples of all nations. He began “the Great Commission” by emphasizing his authority. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me” (Mt.28:18). He ends the commission by declaring that he will be with his disciples always – to the very end of the age. If Jesus is with is and he has all authority, then his authority is with us as well.

Paul sums up the issue when he declares, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor.4:20). Any gospel that does not convey not only forgiveness but also power is not the gospel Jesus preached, nor the twelve, nor the seventy-two, nor Paul.

Power comes through the Holy Spirit whom Jesus has sent to every believer. He equips us for ministry as Jesus modeled it. In fact, the disciples of Jesus had received the Spirit before Pentecost. In John 20, Jesus appeared to the disciples (not just the apostles) and said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn.20:21-22). But a few days later, he told the same group to wait in Jerusalem until they were further equipped for the mission he had given them. “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised…in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:4-8).

Luke is clear that the power of the Spirit did not just fall on the twelve, but on all the believers who were gathered in Jerusalem – about 120 of them (Acts1:15). This entire group had begun to meet together in Jerusalem for prayer (Acts 1:14) and was still together on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit appeared like fire and rested on each of them (Acts 2:1-3). They all were filled with the Spirit and began to speak in tongues (Acts 2:4). From that point on, the church began to move in power through the authority of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, manifested in spiritual gifts.

When Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you,” he implied that we should do the things that he had done – preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and cleanse lepers. He highlighted this future ministry of the church when he said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father” (Jn.14:12). “Anyone” takes it out of the hands of a few and grants that potential to every believer since the days of Jesus.

The present day evidence that Jesus rose from the grave and ascended to the Father is found in the power of the Holy Spirit expressed through spiritual gifts in the church. Jesus kept telling his followers that when he took his place by the Father’s side, he would send the Spirit who then would give us power for ministry (See Jn.14 and 16). Power confirms the presence of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Holy Spirit confirms the presence of Jesus at the right hand of the Father. No power, no confirmation.

The need for power in the church is greater today than ever. The world is in bondage to sin and to Satan. The Jews have the Torah, the Muslims have the Koran, and we have the New Testament which testifies of Christ. Stories about what happened two thousand years ago are not convincing to those who study from another book. However, when the works of Jesus are done today in the name of Jesus, Jews and Muslims are convinced as well as pagans of all stripes.

No matter what your church background, let me encourage you not to settle for anything less than a gospel of both of grace and power. Jesus modeled it, Jesus commanded it, and Jesus purchased it with his blood. We cannot represent Jesus (re-present) on the earth without the power he himself displayed.

Additionally, most of the deliverance and the healings referenced in the gospels were expressions of God’s compassion for the plight of men rather than an attempt on the part of Jesus to prove who he was. How often did he tell someone he had just healed not to tell anyone? To fail in the exercise of power today is to crimp the compassion that Jesus still wants to express through his church. When we do not pursue all the gifts of the Spirit and the power of the kingdom of heaven, we not only fail ourselves but also Jesus and those who need his transforming touch. Not just words, but power. Blessings in Him today.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom.8:35-39)

Paul finishes this section of his letter, which translators have dubbed Romans 8, with a theological volley. It reveals the mindset of a spiritual warrior and a mindset that we must all adopt as we move into a probable season of persecution in the world and our nation. There is definitely a war on Christianity and Judaism unfolding all around the globe and we would be naïve to think we will escape it. The spirit of Anti-Christ is certainly on the move.

In the face of his own battles with this spirit, we should notice Paul’s emphasis in this section. It is not so much on power as it is on love. His great hope is the love of Christ and the devil’s inability to sever us from that love. As you look at this part of Paul’s letter, you realize that this love is a sustaining love. If you don’t watch the context, you might assume that Christ’s love keeps us from trouble in this world and just moves us from blessing to blessing as we live the good life above the fray. The context does not suggest that and Jesus never promised that either. In fact, what he did promise was persecution and trouble (see Matt.5:10-12 and John 16:33). He also promised great reward for those who did not abandon their faith in the midst of that trouble.

I have noticed an essential difference between our brothers and sisters in places like China and the Middle East and American believers. Those coming to Christ in “non-Christian” countries expect and even invite persecution and hardship for the sake of Jesus. They pray for strength to endure while we in America pray for God to deliver us from any hardships and almost take offense when they come.

Paul makes no promise that God’s umbrella of protection will keep us from struggles. To the contrary he uses words like hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death and slaughter to describe the potential Christian experience in this world. Paul’s hope is not in a life of ease and blessing in this world but in the love of Christ sustaining him in seasons of hardship as he presses toward the next life.

Many believers see hardship as evidence of God’s indifference or abandonment. Paul saw hardship as the normal course of the believer’s life while we push back against the dominion of darkness. But in the midst of that he experienced the love and faithfulness of the risen Lord. In fact, it is in the midst of battle and struggle that we truly discover the goodness and faithfulness of God. Because of that he saw himself as more than a conqueror. The Greek word means to “completely prevail” and is actually a verb declaring that we live in a state of absolute triumph. The “indicative mood” of the verb makes it clear that Paul sees this state as an actual rather than a potential or figurative view of the believer’s life. The paradox is that we truly are more than conquerors even while sitting in a “Chi-com” cell in a re-education camp outside of Beijing or in a hospital room watching a loved one fight a losing battle with cancer. Only an eternal and relational view of our faith makes that possible.

Ultimately, for our faith to endure we must believe that God is, that God is always good, and that God is always motivated by his love toward us. We must also believe that the “norm” is this world is hardship at some level. We live in fallen world. We still live in enemy territory. We still have bodies subject to aging and our own bad choices in diet and exercise. Hardship comes in the form of persecution, broken relationships, damaged genes, internal struggles against temptation, demonic attack, and more. (Don’t think about it or you won’t want to get out of bed in the morning.) It is the rare believer and, probably, the one who keeps a low profile on the devil’s radar that doesn’t encounter significant battles in this world.

The victory comes in knowing the ultimate outcome of every struggle and every encounter with the enemy. The victory is often apparent in this world but at other times it won’t seem so apparent except that the “big win” is always being with Jesus. In the movie, Saving Private Ryan, Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) told his men that his primary objective in the war was to get home to his wife. Our primary objective must also be to get home and our primary mindset must be that this world is not our home. How often do we find believers who are angry at God because some saintly person they knew died. If our primary goal for ourselves and others is to be with Jesus then we should not be angry when those we love reach that goal – maybe envious but not angry.

Paul’s celebration was not about “the good life” on earth but that no person, no demon, and no circumstance can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. No doubt there will be seasons of blessing in this life but there will also be seasons of battle. In all of that, the love and grace of God is assured and we can take heart in that. We will never be alone and his grace will also be sufficient. Knowing that, we can live without fear as those whose ultimate triumph is absolute and absolutely assured. Be of good courage.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Rom.8:9-14)

As we continue dissecting Romans 8, it is clear that the Holy Spirit is essential for living up to the calling that we have received in Jesus. Paul makes a bold statement when he says, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Rom.8:9). I believe that Paul’s statement here speaks to the potential of the Spirit controlling believers because he has just said in Romans 7 that the flesh wars against the Spirit and he says in other places in Romans that we must choose to serve the Spirit rather than the flesh – it is not automatic because our free will is always in play. But our goal should be complete surrender to the leading of the Spirit.

Interestingly, Paul lifts up the Spirit within us as the mark of belonging to Jesus even more than moral living, Bible knowledge, church attendance or correct doctrines. All of those things are important but the one thing that sets a believer apart from all other people in the world is the Spirit of Christ living in us. Since the Spirit living in us is the great divide among the saved and the unsaved there should also be evidence of the Spirit within us. Paul warns us not to quench the Spirit (I Thess.5:19) or grieve the Spirit (Eph.4:30), but rather instructs us to be filled with the Spirit (Eph.5:18). The fruit of the Spirit (character) and the power of the Spirit (spiritual gifts) are the primary evidences of his presence and should increase as we mature in Christ and mark us as being different from all other people on the planet.

In this section of Romans 8, it is clear that the idea of Christ living in us and the Spirit living in us are the same. Christ lives in us through his Spirit so as we are led by the Spirit we are led by Christ. As we honor the Spirit we honor Christ. As we hear the Spirit we hear Christ.   The Spirit within us is also the Spirit of the Living God whose ultimate purpose for us is the resurrection of the body and eternal life with the Him as our Father. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will do the same for us and fit us with bodies suited for eternity and for the presence of God. In our glorified bodies there will be no fallen or sinful nature. We will have no rebellious impulse that pushes back against the Father’s will. We will carry no shame, no fear, and no sense of condemnation. We will be fully alive in an atmosphere of peace, joy, and love.

In view of that hope, Paul counsels us to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh by the power of the Spirit. He would say to us, “Ignore the impulses of the flesh. Be clear that you have no obligation to honor its demands. It leads to death rather than life – not just in the world to come but in this world as well.” We all reap what we sow. If we give into the impulses and demands of the sinful nature, disaster and destruction will follow at some point. But if we surrender our hearts, our thoughts, and our actions to the Spirit there will be a harvest of life-giving outcomes.” Paul would also tell us that the true sons and daughters of God are marked by evidence of the Spirit in their lives. They are marked by goodness and life. Both the fruit of the Spirit and his power mark them. The more Spirit-led we are, the more power he is willing to entrust to us.

We are all interested in the return on our investments. We wonder what the payoff will be for our time and effort. Many of us watch interest rates and the stock market daily to see what’s happening to our investments because we are investing for the future. Paul’s counsel is to be even more concerned about our spiritual investments because there will be an inescapable payoff some day for good or for pain. The sure investment is always to lay up treasure in heaven and our sensitivity and surrender to the Spirit will be directly proportional to our deposits there. To be all that God wants us to be we must pursue the Spirit of God and all that he offers because what he offers has already been purchased by the blood of the Son.

God keeps bringing me back to our great need to understand who we are in Christ. I have been involved in pastoral counseling for over thirty years and with few exceptions every problem I have seen (including my own) can be reduced to broken identity and shattered self-esteem. Notice Adam and Eve’s response to a loving Father once they had broken the covenant by eating from the tree. Overcome with a never-before-experienced sense of shame, they both hid themselves and tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. In response to the Father’s questions they immediately began to blame God and one another for what had happened.

Shame was the driving factor for Adam and Eve. Guilt is the sense that we have done something wrong. Shame is the unrelenting sense that there is something wrong with us that makes us unacceptable and unworthy. Once Adam and Eve had been overrun by that feeling, their assumption was that the Father would no longer love them and would abandon them to a hostile world.   So they hid, covered up, and tried to shift responsibility to everyone else in the Garden. Most of us live with our own sense of defectiveness and do the same things as our forefathers. Additionally, we creatively find a number of ways to medicate our own self-loathing and fear of rejection – drugs, alcohol, sexual addictions, serial romances, affairs, power, fame, money, etc.

We could go on but you know the issues that flow out of that empty hole in our soul and all the ways that man has attempted to fill it. God understands our dilemma and so has gone to great lengths to restore our identity – our sense of self – and has placed us in a process of once again becoming who we were meant to be. Paul declared, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor.3:17-18). God made us in his image. Sin distorted that image but, in Christ, we are in the process of having that image restored.

God’s goal is to reclaim his children not just in a legal sense but to make us again into his glorious representatives on this planet. When the Logos entered this world through the womb of a virgin, he became Jesus, the Son of Man. He came to represent man as he was meant to be. In Jesus, we see not only the Father but also Adam before sin distanced man from God. As a believer, God has placed his divine nature within you through his Holy Spirit and his Spirit is now transforming you into the image of Jesus Christ.

As a child of God, born again as a new creation, you are no longer the person you used to be. Whoever you were before Christ you are no longer that person. You are now an adopted child of your heavenly Father, an ambassador of Christ, a royal priest in the household of God, the temple of the Creator of the universe, the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the carrier of God’s divine presence as a living Ark of the Covenant, the righteousness of God, one who tramples on snakes and scorpions, the beloved of the Father, and the bride of Christ. (That’s just a start)

God speaks those truths to his children day after day but the enemy hurries to snatch up the seed before it can take root and form our new identity within us. Too often we listen to the enemy and the world and reject God’s truth for us and go on unchanged by the power of God because we have little faith that his truth is for us. Jude encourages us to “contend earnestly for the faith.” To contend is to fight, to battle, and to go to war for the faith. That not only includes doctrines but truths that we must claim for ourselves and plant in our hearts.

Beyond the gospel, our identity in Christ is the most transformative truth I know. When we and the rest of the church understand who we are and the glory and authority that rests on us in Christ, the gates of hell will certainly not prevail against us. Meditate on who you are in Christ, memorize who you are in Christ, pray that the Holy Spirit will give you a deep revelation of that truth in your heart and begin to relentlessly say about yourself the things that God says about you. Contend for that truth and it will change your world by changing you. Don’t contend occasionally or for a few days but commit to contend for the truth of who you are until it is unquestionably in your heart!