Our church heard a good word from pastor Jim Laffoon last night. Jim made the point that God’s greatest challenge on this earth is not Satan nor broken cultures nor persecuting tyrants, but his broken church. That thought is worth some reflection.

The kingdom of God has significant challenges that stand in the way of establishing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. There is Satan. There are powerful, corrupt, and atheistic governments. There are defiled cultures that rival Sodom and Gomorrah. There are powerful tyrants that persecute the church and there is a powerful, godless media that shapes the mind of the world. And yet, the church is designed and empowered to overcome every one of those obstacles. Jesus said that even the very gates of hell would not prevail against his church. And yet the world, in many quarters, seems to be winning.

The problem is not that the world is bigger and badder than God anticipated. The problem is that the church is made up of a huge percentage of people who are broken and in bondage to all kinds of things and who are not walking in the freedom and power that God offers. The question then is why is such a large percentage of the church broken and in bondage? Jesus said that he had come to heal the broken hearted and to set captives free (see Isa.61 and Luke 4). So why isn’t he doing his job?

Obviously, the problem isn’t with Jesus. The problem exists on this end. To a large degree, the problem is that a large part of the church has rejected or limited the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his followers that when he left he would send another – the Holy Spirit – and as a result, they would be better equipped than if Jesus were physically present with them. He told them and us that the Spirit would come to be our counselor, our comforter, our teacher, our guide, and the transformer of our character (the fruit of the Spirit). He was also very clear that the Spirit would come to give us power for ministry.

In the beginning, Jesus commanded his followers to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1). He didn’t mean that the power of the Holy Spirit would help them do their best and be their best. He meant that the Spirit would operate in them with a supernatural power that would go beyond anything they were capable of even on their best day. Just fifty days earlier the apostles had shown what their “best” was. They ran away. Peter denied Christ three times. They had no comprehension of the resurrection and they simply hid from the authorities and some doubted even when Jesus appeared in the room with them. However, the moment after the Holy Spirit fell on them and imparted power to them, they stood in the temple courts and boldly preached that Jesus was Lord to the same crowd that had crucified him less than two months earlier. As they did so, they spoke in languages they had never learned.

That is a template for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Lord’s church and in the life of every believer. The anointing for personal transformation and power to change the world is found in the full ministry of the Holy Spirit. The supernatural move of the Spirit in us and through us is everything. And yet, much of the church has done its best to minimize the Spirit and in doing so we have minimized the church. The idea that the entire ministry of the Holy Spirit is to simply give us a little insight into scripture and to make us into a gathering of nice people is a real weapon of the enemy.

The theology that the Holy Spirit no longer operates in supernatural power through his people has effectively declawed the Lion of Judah. The church in America is full of demonic presence because she quit believing in the supernatural moves of God or even the supernatural moves of the devil. Recently, a believer from another church in our city went through our eight-week Free Indeed class and Freedom Weekend and was delivered from several spirits. That believer went back to his church and when praying and counseling with one of their members realized that a demonic spirit was manifesting so he cast it out. Not too long after that episode of freedom and supernatural ministry, one of their church leaders told them that they didn’t do that in their church. As a result, many members of that church will continue in brokenness and bondage and will never step into the destiny God has written for them.

The word Christ means “the anointed one.” Jesus Christ is the Anointed One of God. He declared in Luke 4 that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, release from darkness for the prisoners…(Isa:61:1). The very things Jesus did required the Spirit of the Lord to be upon him. The anointing was the Spirit of God operating supernaturally through him. John tells us that a spirit of anti-Christ is in the world. I believe that spirit not only denies that Jesus is Lord but works against the anointing of the church by the Spirit. I believe cessationism, the theology that God stopped working in miraculous ways at the end of the first century, is one of the doctrines of demons Paul, warned us about in 1 Timothy 4.

As long as we deny the continuing supernatural ministry of the Spirit in his church and through his church we will continue to be broken and in bondage. We will also leave the world in its brokenness and bondage. We will be an army so handicapped that we will win few battles and hold little ground. Jesus himself promised that those who believe in him would do even greater things than he did. I don’t think he was talking about huge buildings, well run programs, and worship productions that rival Vegas. I’m not against big churches, excellent programs, and powerful worship but Jesus was talking about the supernatural healing of broken hearts and transformed identities. He was talking about casting wheelchairs aside, emptying cancer wards, preaching in languages we have never learned, raising the dead, dismissing depression, and casting out devils in greater ways than he ever did.

The church is broken and the full, unleashed ministry of the Holy Spirit is the antidote. I see more and more churches beginning to recognize that truth but then I see them hesitate to actually embrace the power of the Spirit. My prayer is that God will fill his church and every believer with the fullness of his Spirit so that the world will know that Jesus is truly the Anointed One because his church walks in that anointing. That anointing is available to every believer so I also encourage you to ask for it daily as part of your “daily bread.”  May you be blessed today and represent your King with power and love.

To believe God’s promises we must believe that he is good and good all the time. We must believe that he is merciful and grace-filled as well as faithful.  Anything less puts us on doubtful ground.  If God is not good then we cannot expect him to fulfill his promises or at best to be arbitrary in doing so. If he does not operate out of grace and mercy then we are left to earn his favor or obligate him to give us what we are asking for.  As soon as we step on that ground we are back to earning our own salvation by meritorious works which we know flies in the face of the gospel.

To have faith in God’s response to our needs and our prayers we must have confidence that he loves us, that he is always faithful to his promises, that he is consistent in answering our prayers, and that he is willing and ready to bless, heal, save, provide for and protect his children every day as any good father is ready to do.

So why is it hard to believe? Often, it is simply that His kind of heart and trustworthiness is simply outside the realm of our personal experience with relationships in this world.  It takes a while to begin to understand that our heavenly Father is not like our earthly father and friends

I think part of our struggle to believe is found in a misunderstanding of God as he is portrayed in the Old Testament.  Let’s face it, in the O.T. God often seems rigid, harsh, and punishing. We see entire tribes being destroyed at his command and seemingly well-meaning folks touching the Ark of the Covenant or making a mistake in rituals and dying for their trouble.  We often feel like the Hebrews who cried out to Moses that they didn’t want any part of the presence of God … he was too terrifying for them.

And yet, scripture tells us that both the Father and the Son and, by implication, the Holy Spirit are unchanging – the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  So how do we understand this God of the O.T. in light of the words of Jesus who clearly said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”  If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

We can’t look at every event in the Old Testament to see if we can view Jehovah through different eyes but maybe looking at some broad strokes of the brush can help us develop a different perspective on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

First of all, lets hear God speak about some of those things.

Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’(Ezek.33:11)

You have been concerned about this vine though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  But Nineveh has more that a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle as well.  Should I not be concerned about that great city? (Jonah 4:10-11)

Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12-13)

These verses reveal that the Lord’s heart was never glad to send destruction or judgment on a nation, even the enemies of Israel. The grace of God established restraints against sin from the very beginning, because without restraints sin itself would destroy the world. The restraints were judgments that would come in the face of persistent, rebellious, unrepented sin. God spelled out to Israel the consequences of rebellion and the blessings of obedience before Israel entered into a covenant with him. They were very clear about what their decisions would produce.

Without restraints (judgment, disasters, etc.) the fallen nature of man would destroy everything so we must see the judgments of God as not only a response of holiness but also of love and mercy.  How often did God send prophets to warn these nations and call them to repentance before judgment was released? At some point, even though is was not his desire, God was forced by the rebellious spirit of man to release the consequences and the judgments that he had held back until he was forced to honor the choices of men and nations.

Secondly, God had to protect the bloodline of the Messiah for the sake of the entire world. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” But to give his Son, the nation of Israel and the bloodline of Judah had to survive in the face of nations who were committed to wiping out all of Israel. Those nations are still bent on doing so.   The voice of Islam and especially nations such as Iran (ancient Persia) and organizations such as the PLO are still sworn to carry out the absolute destruction of Israel.

Before the cross, there was no remedy for the depraved heart set on destroying the bloodline that would deliver the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Those nations were under the dominion of Satan and there was as yet no payment for sin and no Holy Spirit to grant men a new heart.   For the sake of the world, then, some nations or cities had to be totally destroyed so that they could not be Satan’s weapons to extinguish the salvation of all men.

I believe the Flood that destroyed all but eight souls on Noah’s ark was the same expression of mercy for the thousands of generations to come. Genesis tells us that before the flood, every imagination of men had become wicked all the time. Noah preached repentance for 120 years without one response and, before wicked men either corrupted Noah and his family or murdered him and with him the bloodline of Messiah, judgment had to finally be released.

The coming of Messiah, the sacrifice for the sins of the world, and the coming of the Holy Spirit has given the Father more options for restraining sin in the world.  The bloodline no longer has to be protected at all costs; the gospel of God’s love and the Holy Spirit can enable men and nations to be born again; and the church has been given a clear mandate and power to make disciples of all nations.

This God is the same God yesterday, today and forever and he is good – all the time.  His heart is always to bless, to heal, to protect, and to provide.  He is long suffering and full of grace.  He is still holy and there are still limits that must trigger the restraints to sin God established long ago. But know that if you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father.  Pray with confidence. Pray with expectation. Destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus.  Don’t doubt it.  Your God is ready and willing to deliver, heal and set free.  He has always been willing.