Once upon a time, when I was many years younger and many pounds lighter, I had some talent for track and loved the sport.  One of my minor heroes in life has been an Englishman named Roger Bannister. When Roger was young, he was severely burned in a fire. Doctors told his parents that he would probably never walk again. Not only did he walk but he also began to run. Not only did he run, but also he became a world-class runner in college. Bannister competed  during an era when running a mile in under four-minutes was a dream that seemed impossible. In fact, doctors and scientists believed that the human body was not capable of such speed over that distance and believed that anyone who actually broke the mark would suffer irreparable damage to his body. Fortunately, Bannister did not “follow the science” in the matter.

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister did what most believed was impossible. He ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.   Within three years, sixteen other individuals had broken the four-minute barrier. So what happened? Did mankind suddenly make a spontaneous, evolutionary jump? No, a change in perception made the difference. When one man broke the barrier, others suddenly believed that they could do so as well. Through the centuries, psychological barriers have proven to be more formidable that physical barriers.

Jesus said, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours^” (Mk. 11:2-24).

Often, we believe that great changes are made when large numbers of people begin to act or think in certain ways. But every movement has been given impetus by one person who did what others  believed they could not do. God is looking for those individuals, men and women, who will step out and do what others have believed to be impossible. When they do, other believers will follow.

There have been seasons in the church when miracles were the norm.  Certainly in the first century church, the gifts of the Spirit propelled the church into great seasons of revival.  Some of the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14 were, of course, prophecy, healings, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, words of knowledge, etc.  On top  of that, dreams and visions seem to have been standard fare in the church.

There have been others seasons when God healed in amazing sways through revivalists in the 1800’s and 1900’s in England and America.  Each time a season of the miraculous sprang up, atheists and agnostics along with “educated and dignified” believers were quick to write off such happenings as foolishness, superstition, and emotionalism.  The Pharisees in the first century did the same and even went as far as to credit the devil with the miracles, instead of God.

Over the last 300 years, the American and European church has, for the most part, denied the miraculous intervention of God and called those who claimed to heal and prophecy frauds and con men.

However, In the past 50 years, a new generation of believers has embraced the supernatural once again and claims healings, prophecies, tongues, miracles, dreams, visions, and even the raising of the dead.  Of course, orthodox believers and intellectuals in the church still deny the reality of such things other than as a deception from the enemy.

But, I am convinced that  in the heart of every believer is a secret longing to see God do now what he did throughout the scriptures.  We long to see the glory of God demonstrated in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Many believers long to see it, but are afraid to believe because the paragons of their faith  have told them that God no longer works in those ways.

I believe God wants an army of spiritual Roger Bannisters who will believe that God is the same today as he has always been and, as he was always willing to display his power on behalf of his people, he still is.  I know that in many churches, if just one they knew were too break the miracle barrier, others would believe it possible and soon would break the barrier with him or her

Of course, there is risk in standing up for the supernatural move of God.  You might be distrusted.  You might be ridiculed.  You might be strongly encouraged not to “mislead the faithful” with such ideas.  On the other hand, you might just break the four minute barrier and open the door to an amazing move of God in your own circle  of influence.

For those of us who want to believe God for miracles, the challenge is typically not whether we believe he can do such things, but that he will.  I met a man a couple of years ago that had moved away to become part of a church where a great number of miracles were reported on a regular basis.  After being there a year or two, he moved back to our area.  I asked him how the experience had changed him.  He said the real change for him was that he now expected God to move in miraculous ways, rather than just hoping he would.

If we need that transformation in our own lives, we don’t have to move away but we may need to take some trips to actually see men and women “breaking the four minute mile” so that our own barriers of unbelief can be shattered.

In the track world, a four minute mile is no longer considered impossible, but is simply a measure of any “decent runner.”  Wouldn’t it be amazing, if the church no longer considered the miraculous move of God to be impossible, but simply considered it to the the measure of any “decent church?”

The story of David illustrates the principle. As y of course, ou recall, Israel and Philistia had gone to war. Each army encamped along the hillsides on either side of a valley. Each day, a nine foot “giant” named Goliath would come out to challenge the army of Israel calling for someone to step out and face him man to man. Every day for forty days, Goliath issued the challenge. Not one man would take him up on his dare. Clearly, the entire army of Israel believed that defeating Goliath was impossible.

Then one afternoon, David was sent by his father Jessie to check on his brothers and to see how the battle was going. David witnessed Goliath’s taunts and offered to face the giant himself. He offered because he believed that God makes all things possible. Although the experienced soldiers in the army of Israel tried to convince David that he could not win against such an imposing figure, David ignored them and the rest is history. David charged Goliath was a sling and dropped the giant with one stone. He then proceeded to take Goliath’s own sword and cut off his head for good measure. Suddenly, the entire Israeli army that had shown no taste for battle for forty days charged the Philistine army and won a great victory. When one man, by faith, broke a spiritual barrier others had considered impossible, they suddenly had faith for their own victory.

Later, David gathered a number of men around him that were referred to as David’s mighty men. These thirty or so men accomplished great, almost impossible deeds on their own including one of them killing a large Egyptian about the size of Goliath (See 2 Sam. 23, 1 Chron.11-12). I suspect that David’s faith and his willingness to do what others would not do inspired those who followed him.

I believe, God is looking for “Davids” and “spiritual Roger Bannisters” in every generation who, by faith, will do what Jesus did and even greater things. When one does, others will suddenly have the faith and a whole generation will follow. We should ask God to make us that person for our family, our church, our fellowship and the kingdom of God. Faith is about breaking psychological barriers that reason against what God says is true and possible. Jesus walked on water by faith. He stilled storms by faith. He healed the sick raised the dead in the same way. He asks us to believe that through him we can shatter barriers. When by faith and tenacity one believer breaks the barrier, others will quickly follow. So what is your four-minute mile? What spiritual barrier will you overcome so that others will follow? Ask God to show you.

Our expectations for the Christian life matter and those expectations tend to create a gulf in the body of Christ. On the one hand, a major stream of theological thought holds that Jesus came, lived a life of miracles to prove that he was the Son of God, and purchased the forgiveness of our sins through his sacrifice on the cross.  His intent for us is that we come to faith in Him and his completed work on the cross, live a moral life, teach others the tenants of our faith, and do good to the people around us.  The expectations of these believers keep them from ever seeking more.

A second stream of thought is that Jesus came and lived a life of miracles to not only demonstrate that he was the Son of God but also that the Kingdom of God had come with power. His intent is not only that we would come to faith in Him but that we would also continue to demonstrate his reality and the power of the kingdom of heaven by doing the miracles he did as we lead others to Christ while doing good to those around us.

Perhaps, it seems like a small difference but in practice it is not.  The first stream of thought believes in the historic miracles of Jesus and the early church but holds that the historic record is sufficient for belief.  No current miracles are necessary to bring others to Christ and, therefore, the Holy Spirit no longer distributes gifts of prophecy, tongues, healings, miracles, and so forth.  Moral living, loving others, and preaching the gospel are the defining marks of the church.

The second stream of thought would echo moral living, loving others and doing good but would add the element of miracles not only for the purpose of evangelism but also as an ongoing expression of the love and compassion of God for hurting people.  Jesus did public miracles in order to establish who he was but he also did many in private telling the person who was healed to tell no one.  His motivation for healing as much out of compassion as it was to prove that he was the Son of God.  He is still compassionate.

There are all kinds of religions and religious groups who claim to have revelation from God concerning salvation.  They also point people to living a moral life, loving others, and doing good.  They nearly all have some form of historic miracles on which their doctrines and stories stand.  So…how will a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Scientologist, or a Satanist determine that Jesus is the real God versus the one they have been taught to worship since birth?

Moses seems instructive in this matter.  Remember when he had his showdown with Pharaoh and the false gods of Egypt (Ex. 7-12).  Pharaoh called on his magicians to match the miracles of Jehovah….and they did….for a while.  Moses had Aaron throw down his staff and his staff turned into a snake, but so did theirs by “secret arts”.  The snake from Aaron’s rod ate the snakes of the magicians, but both displayed impressive power.

Moses then commanded the waters of Egypt to turn to blood.  Pharaoh’s magicians did the same by their “secret arts”.  Moses called up a plague of frogs. The sorcerers of Egypt matched that as well.  However, Jehovah through his servant Moses continued to display his power and when a plague of gnats was called out, the magicians could not match it nor any of the plagues that followed. Then those same magicians declared to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

There came a point when the works of darkness could not compete with the works of God and those who saw the miracles began to believe.    Since our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12), we need to understand that miracles were not just to impress men, but also to demonstrate the superiority of the Kingdom of Heaven over the kingdom of darkness.  Jehovah declared that his plagues were not just judgments on the men who had enslaved his people but also were judgments on all the gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12).  In most parts of the world, men still do not need to be convinced that a spiritual realm exists.  Their question is not whether there is a god but only whether the God we serve is more powerful than the god they serve.  That can only be demonstrated by the miraculous hand of God.

Jesus reflected that same reality when he said to the Pharisees,  “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Luke 11:20). A demonstration of power was always at the center of Christ’s ministry as well as those he sent out.  When he sent out the twelve and the seventy he gave them power and authority to heal and cast out demons. When he gifted the church, he gave gifts that demonstrated the power of the Kingdom of God through prophecy, healing, miracles and so forth.

Throughout the book of Acts we see the supernatural move of God through miracles, angelic activity, and moves of the Holy Spirit.  That is the model of evangelism and church growth that we see in the New Testament. Interestingly, many of the churches that reject the miraculous move of the Holy Spirit today claim to model themselves after the New Testament church and yet omit the very things that demonstrated the reality of Jesus over the demonic spirits that were being worshipped throughout the New Testament world.

Jesus made an interesting comment about John the Baptist in the gospel of Luke.  He declared, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk.7:28). How could a brand new Christian or even a mature Christian be greater than John the Baptist?  Certainly, he would not be greater than John in character and faith but he would be greater in capacity because the baptism of the Holy Spirit makes a lifestyle available that not even John had access to.

By Old Covenant standards, John was the culmination of the prophets although we have no record of him doing any miracles.  But Jesus said that the least New Covenant follower would be greater than John. He said that because he was going to send the Spirit for all of his followers after he returned to the Father. Why would Jesus give us such capacity for power through the Holy Spirit, but not want us to exercise that power just as he did?  After all, he promised that anyone who had faith in him would do the works he had been doing and even greater things (John 14:12).  That sounds like an expectation for all who have faith and he did not put an expiration date on that promise.

In a world where no one knows who to believe or what to believe, it will take authentic demonstrations of the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven and the finger of God to convince the world that Jesus is who he says he is. Living a moral life and doing good is praiseworthy but it does not set us apart from others who claim to have God’s seal of approval and who live relatively moral lives and do good. Even Satan appears as an angel of light.  It will take miracles that outstrip what others can produce even by their secret arts just as in the days of Moses so that the truth of God’s word and the reality of Jesus become undeniable. My hope then and my prayer is that the church in America and each of us will begin to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit in order to duplicate the ministry of Jesus that will once again turn the world upside down.  The apostle Paul summed it up when he said, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20).  The question for each if us then is, “How is that power being displayed in our lives or our churches?”

Blessings in Him.

Most mainline churches in America today still seem to fear an over-emphasis on the Holy Spirit. They certainly believe in the Holy Spirit as that part of God or that part of the Trinity that resides in God’s children, gives life to the spirit of man, and who shapes our character as Christians (fruit of the Spirit). However, the idea of power, revelation, prophetic words, words of knowledge, gifts of healing, visions, dreams, etc. are not on the menu in these churches. They seem to believe that if Christians pursue these supernatural manifestations of the Spirit, they will be led astray by the enemy into all kinds of deception and a faith focused on miracles rather than Jesus.

At the same time, there is a frustration in these churches, or at least among some of the people and leaders, that what we have in our faith is insufficient to truly meet the needs and challenges of the day. What do you do when your members suffer for years with depression, anxiety, fear, suicidal thoughts, addictions, doubts, gender confusion, or vaguely diagnosed illnesses and your prayers and Bible study only seem to give them temporary relief but no real victory?

Typically, churches that do not operate in the “supernatural” gifts of the Spirit, either conclude that these people have insufficient faith to be set free or send them out to secular doctors and psychologist for treatment. Even if they go to Christian counselors or therapists, most of them have been trained in secular approaches to treatment…so our people only get what the world offers with the simple addition of a prayer and a scripture. A theology then arises from our inability to help our people that declares that it is God’s will for his people to suffer in this fallen world, just as those who have no faith but the promised healing and freedom will come as we enter the presence of Jesus in heaven.

At the same time, we have the presence of Jesus within us already here on earth. Why shouldn’t that presence (the Holy Spirit) provide healing and freedom here as well as in heaven? In addition, Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 10, that we are not to wage war as the world wages war, but are to use divine weapons to pull down strongholds. He states this need for divine weapons because he also declares that our real struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers in heavenly realms. What doesn’t touch the spiritual realm will not set us free, if there is a spiritual component to our physical illness or emotional torment. And Paul suggests that most of the time, there is a spiritual component. Churches who don’t want to “over-emphasize” the Holy Spirit leave their people in the grasp of dark spiritual forces because secular treatment doesn’t touch the spiritual realm.

Of course, all churches pray for the healing of physical illnesses and emotional torment. Typically, however, the prayer is more of a wish than an expectation because if God doesn’t operate supernaturally in his church any more, then we can’t really expect more than secular doctors, science, and therapy can deliver. More than that, if God has provided solutions for infirmity and emotional distress through supernatural gifts of the Spirit, then he expects us to exercise those gifts as his primary source of healing and freedom and not just keep calling on him to do what he has equipped his church to do.

Sometimes we act like a policeman who has graduated from the academy and has been given authority and power to go make arrests and bring criminals to justice, but every time he sees a crime in progress, he calls the chief of police to come and do something. The chief will say, “ You have authority and power. You make the arrest. That is your job. If you can’t, then resign from the force.” If we keep calling on God to do what he has anointed and appointed us to do, then much will go undone. A heavy and healthy emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the church that stays consistent with biblical guidelines is the answer.

Before you push back, think about what an emphasis the first century church placed on the Holy Spirit beginning with Jesus himself. Jesus declared that the Holy Spirit would live in us, counsel us, teach us, lead us into all truth, reveal the heart and mind of God to us, heal us, free us, shape us, and give us power for ministry…to do what he had been doing. He didn’t tell the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit shaped their character or delivered sound doctrine so they could be effective witnesses. He commanded them to wait for power, which immediately manifested in tongues, revelation, and boldness. Can “supernatural” spiritual gifts be abused? Sure. They were widely abused in Corinth. Paul, however, did not tell them to quit exercising the gifts but to exercise them with love and a sense of order. When the church was looking for qualified leaders, they did not search for seminary graduates or successful businessmen, but looked for those who were full of the Spirit…which also manifested in miraculous works. The church was ordered to be filled with the Spirit at all times and to pray in the Spirit at all times. They were to earnestly desire spiritual gifts and to bear the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. When Ananias and Sapphira were disciplined unto death in Acts 5, it was because they had lied to the Holy Spirit. That suggests the prominence the Holy Spirit held in the church.

We could go on, but it would be heard to emphasize the Spirit more than the early church did or the New Testament does. I believe there is more danger in under-emphasizing the Spirit rather than over-emphasizing him. The truth is that the church needs much more of the Spirit rather than less if we are to fulfill our mandate of discipling nations and bringing heaven to earth.

The New Testament has a great deal to say about who we are in Christ. As a result there are many declarations among Christian writers and teachers outlining our identity.  In our own ministry we encourage those to whom we are ministering to read a two-page declaration out loud each day that states who we are in Christ. We ask them to do that for sixty days.

We say sixty days because recent brain research has demonstrated that it takes about that long for new neural pathways to form in our brains that contain the thoughts we have been repeating and reinforcing with our verbal declarations.  There are other strategies to strengthen the process of getting God’s word into our mind as part of the renewal process Paul calls us to in Romans 12:2. Writing out the declaration, using different colors to do so, using the non-dominant hand, and listening to a recording of the declarations in your own voice are examples.

What we believe about ourselves is a reliable indicator of whether we will succeed or fail in life – not just in careers but also in relationships, health, and even spiritual matters. Our self-image or our identity sets us up for confidence or insecurity.  It determines whether we face new relationships with an expectation of acceptance or rejection.  It determines whether we face the future with hope or fear.  It determines whether we feel strong or woefully vulnerable. We could go on, but you know the concept.

Ultimately our identity or self-image boils down to whether we think we are reasonably capable, significant, valuable, and lovable or whether we believe that we are defective, incapable, insignificant, and unlovable.

Scripture tells us over and over that in Christ we are loved, we are very significant, we are highly capable, and that we matter so much that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners.  We are new creations, kings and priests, more than conquerors, sons and daughter of the Most High, God’s craftsmanship made for a divine purpose, totally forgiven, holy, and totally accepted by God.

When most believers read the things that God says about them, they discount the message and think that those things might be true for others but not for them.  Even after receiving salvation and the Holy Spirit, they continue to walk in their old identity – the old man -which we are commanded to put away. That image is typically negative. Sometimes the church has even wrapped a garment of acceptability around that negative self-image by calling it humility.

However, to discount or dilute the word of God on any topic is simply unbelief and unbelief invites the enemy and opens the door for him. We must always give God’s word more authority than our emotions, what our parents said, or what we have come to believe through past experiences. If we continue to walk in the shadow of a broken heart and a broken identity, we will never have faith that every one of God’s great promises are truly for us, and we will never face the enemy with confidence.

Whenever we minister deliverance, the standard thoughts pouring through the person’s mind to whom we are ministering are thoughts from the enemy such as:

• You belong to me and you will never be free.
• These people have no power over me.
• You will be alone and helpless without me.
• I don’t have to leave, I own you.
• And so forth.

His goal is to make God’s people feel helpless, weak and inadequate so that they back down from the confrontation. God has given us amazing promises.  He has told us that we have power and authority over the enemy.  We can resist the devil and he will flee from us.  We can join Jesus in destroying the works of the devil and we can do the works that Jesus did and even greater things by faith.  Believing that is the issue.

What I have discovered is that if we do not believe who we are, we will not believe what God is willing to do through us. In the face of Satan’s boasting and lies, we will wilt.  Faith is not just about what we believe about God, but about who we are in Christ as well. We have authority to cast out the enemy because of who we are in Christ.  We have strength to stand against his schemes because of who we are in Jesus.

As we disciple people, we should spend a great deal of time helping them know and believe what their position is in Jesus, because it is that position that gives them access to the throne room of God and the power and resources of heaven. Know one will truly know what their authority is in Christ until they know what their identity is in Christ as well. We should make a habit of not only declaring who God is on a daily basis, but also who we are in Christ on a daily basis as well.  When both of those things are settled in our hearts and minds, Satan has no chance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In this blog, we will finish our discussion of Cessationism which teaches that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit and the miraculous intervention of God ended somewhere around the end of the first century because the “purpose for miracles” had been fulfilled.

One basic rule of biblical interpretation is that you take the natural meaning of a passage unless the context or contradictory passages elsewhere force you to look for another meaning. Any natural reading of the New Testament would never leave the reader with the impression that miracles only had a seventy-year shelf life and would then slip into history.  The natural expectation for most would be that the ongoing life in the church would look like the Book of Acts with miraculous healings, deliverance, angelic visitations, and the dramatic evangelization of new people groups.  However, we are told by Cessationists that the power flowing through the church we read about in the New Testament was soon to be withdrawn and the Holy Spirit was about to be muted.

Miracles that were recorded two thousand years ago, but that are not replicated today in the name of Jesus, simply have the flavor of mythology. However, if those miracles are replicated, then the message about Jesus is reconfirmed to every generation.  I and millions of other Christians believe that God still performs miracles in order to confirm the message preached about Jesus and because he is still a compassionate God who cares about the suffering of people.  Additionally, John tells us that the reason Jesus came was to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8) … which apparently were the lost condition of man, illness, infirmity, broken hearts (emotional wounding), demonic affliction, demonic storms, and even premature death because those are the things that Jesus dealt with in his ministry.   Was he only concerned about destroying those works for a few decades in the first century?  Was the church then left without power to oppose a powerful enemy for millennia?  When Jesus said that anyone who had faith in him would do not only the works he did, but even greater works (Jn.14:12), there was no suggestion of a time limit or a brief window of opportunity to do those things. How do we faithfully represent Jesus (which means to re-present) without doing what he did?

There is an illustrative list of spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, and a list of offices in Ephesian 4:11.  Among those spiritual gifts are mercy, encouragement, administration, wisdom, faith, serving, giving, and leadership.  If these are spiritual gifts, then they were imparted supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.  Spiritual gifts do not come from the natural realm.  They are anointed supernaturally to bear spiritual fruit and to overcome the power of the enemy. If the supernatural gifts of healings, prophecy, miracles, etc. passed away at the end of the first century, then the remainder of the spiritual gifts should have ceased as well because Paul does not differentiate between one kind of gift and another.  To him they are all spiritual gifts (not natural bents or abilities) given by the Spirit to build up the body of Christ. Cessationists believe in the present-day gifts that don’t have such a supernatural flare such as mercy, giving, leadership, etc. but carve out those that demonstrate power and authority over the enemy and claim that God is done with those.  That seems very inconsistent to me. Theologians have created categories of gifts, but Paul never mentioned those categories.

Concerning the 1 Corinthians 13 passage that speaks of certain gifts ceasing, Paul was writing an entire chapter on love.  His premise was that even the most amazing gifts that were not motivated by love, fell short of God’s purposes.  He then said that love never fails but where there are prophecies they will eventually cease, tongues will eventually be stilled, and knowledge will eventually pass away.  He said that we know in part and prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect (complete, mature) shall come, what is in part will disappear. And we will know even as we are known. The Cessationists’ claim is that the “complete” or “perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is the finished New Testament.  According to this view, once the New Testament was written and compiled, there was no longer any need for miracles or miraculous gifts to validate Jesus or the apostles. I have already addressed that part of the argument.

In the context of his chapter on love, Paul is more likely to be talking about the full maturation of love in the body of Christ or the return of Jesus who himself is perfection and completeness.  I haven’t noticed that the completion of the New Testament has given us full knowledge of everything we didn’t know then. Simply having something in writing does not mean I understand it. Three semesters of calculus in college demonstrates that point.  I had it all in writing, but never really understood it or its applications. If the completed New Testament were the key to full understanding and knowing as we are known, we would all be united in the faith rather than divided over so many points of doctrine.  We would be certain about end-times, which we are not. We would be agreed on spiritual gifts, which we are not.

Ephesians 4:11-16, is an interesting parallel to this passage.  There Paul says that Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to the church in order to equip the saints for works of service.  Those works are to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature.  Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine that blows through the church.

It is likely that Paul is saying the same thing in Ephesians 4 that he did in 1 Corinthians 13.  Notice the parallels:

• We have all been given spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ (1 Cor. 13)
• We have been given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for works of service that build up the body of Christ (Eph.4).
• The gifts are needed until that which is perfect, complete, or mature has come (1 Cor.13).
• The offices are given until we reach unity in the faith and become mature, attaining to the measure of fullness in Christ (Eph.4).
• As we mature, we need to put away childish things (1 Cor.13).
• As we mature, we will no longer be infants (Eph.4).

The gifts and the offices are needed until we are all unified in Christ and totally mature in him so that all we do is motivated by love.  It seems most likely that which is perfect, mature, or complete is spiritual maturity, unity, and fullness in Christ.  I don’t think we are there yet.  In addition, even if the completed New Testament were the perfect thingto come, Paul said that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge would pass away, but he did not mention the other gifts.  The remaining gifts include healings, miracles, spiritual discernment, as well as the other “more comfortable gifts.” It is a big leap to include all of the miraculous gifts and to pronounce them to be nullified without a direct word from the apostle.

Finally, the pattern of evangelism that Jesus practiced and commanded his followers to use was to preach the good news and then demonstrate the kingdom through signs and wonders as well as compassionate healings, the restoration of life, and deliverance from demonic affliction.  To dismiss the miraculous gifts of the Spirit is to dismiss the demonstration of the kingdom. Jesus commanded his followers to evangelize the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe (or practice) everything he had taught his apostles (Mt.28:18-20).  He taught them to preach the kingdom and them demonstrate it with power.  We are commanded to do the same. Without all the gifts of the Spirit and the miraculous intervention of God, we cannot do what Jesus commanded us to do.

Although Cessationism takes power away from the church, it is in some ways an easier way to live.  You never have to wrestle with the question of why God did not heal a person you prayed for with faith because you don’t expect God to intervene in that way. You feel no responsibility to confront demons because the demonic is not on your radar. You never have to press in trying to hear God because you believe he only speaks through his word. You never have to question why you have not yet received the gift of tongues because you would never ask for that gift in a million years!  On the other hand, you must watch people remain in the grip of addiction, depression, anxiety, and homosexuality for years, only hoping that the secular world of psychology, science, and medicine can cure what Jesus has no apparent cure for.

A belief in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit through all of his gifts and a belief in the miraculous moves of God places more responsibility on us than we sometimes want, but it also enables us to join Jesus in pushing back the borders of darkness and liberating people from every form of bondage.  Yes, it makes the Christian life challenging but also exciting.  It does bring the Book of Acts to life and allows you to experience and see dramatic transformations in the lives of men and women in a few days or weeks rather than in years or decades. And honestly, witnessing the miraculous makes Jesus more real than he could ever be without the miracles.  When we see a miracle, we experience God not just hear about him and experience is the great transformer.  I hope you will be encouraged to pursue a life of miracles because it is biblical and it is the life God has always intended for you.

Blessings in Him.

In my last blog, I stated the primary reasons that Cessationists believe that God no longer performs “miracles” in his church, especially through the gifts of the Spirit.  I want to begin to respond to those reasons in this blog.

First of all, let me address the idea that God no longer works miracles.  A Cessationist believes that God answers prayers but works within the natural order of things rather than doing what is impossible according to natural law. For instance, when a person prays for the perfect job and gets that job, that is not a “miracle,” because God worked within ordinary laws of nature and society to facilitate the answer to that prayer.  However, Jesus walking on water is a miracle because it defies the laws of nature.  Cessationsist don’t believe that God operates in that way anymore and so accept the “ordinary” spiritual gifts of mercy, faith, encouragement, leadership, service, administration etc. but reject the “miraculous” gifts of prophecy, miracles, healings, tongues and so forth because they operate outside the natural order of things.

However, I would assert that if you pray, you believe in miracles. I believe that a miracle occurs anytime God intervenes in the natural order of things.  If you pray at all, asking for protection, provision, favor, etc., you are asking God to intervene in the ways things would pan out if left to themselves.  Otherwise, why would you pray?  You probably don’t pray for the sun to rise in the east in the morning because you anticipate that it will rise in the east without your prayers. You don’t pray for the lights to come on in your house each time to touch a switch because, in the natural order of things, the lights always come on.  So if you pray, you have begun to sense that if left to themselves, the natural order of things is going to bring harm or disappointment to you or your loved ones.

Many of God’s greatest miracles worked within the realm of natural law.  Great catches of fish on Galilee employed only boats, men, nets, and fish which all function in the natural realm.  The timing and location of the fish marked the catch as a miracle.  If you don’t believe in miracles, you would mark it only as a coincidence or a unique, spontaneous convergence of natural forces that prompted the outcome.  A stone hitting an exceptionally large Philistine warrior in the one square inch that would kill him employed only a young man, an ordinary slingshot, and a common stone from a creek bed.  All of that operated within the realm of natural law.  Did God miraculously guide the stone or was it simply dumb luck? God fed his people in the wilderness with quail.  The miracle was that so many quail arrived at the camp at the same time. Was it a miracle or a migratory phenomenon of some sort?  The Bible would call it a miracle.  So…even when we ask God to work within the natural order of things to manipulate time, circumstances, decisions, job availability, favor, a doctor’s performance, etc. we are asking for a miracle. God still performs miracles on behalf of his people on a daily basis but only faith knows the difference between an intervention by God and a curious coincidence.  I believe the scriptures call any intervention by God a miracle.

Now, there are definitely acts of God throughout scripture that defy natural law…the healing of leprosy by a touch, blind eyes spontaneously gaining sight, withered hands growing out in a moment, walking on water, the Red Sea parting, a dead man being raised after four days in the tomb, etc. But those miracles are no harder for God than directing quail, fish, or a stone.  If he does miracles, he does miracles…yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  If he intervenes for his people so that the natural order of things is disrupted or reordered, then a miracle has occurred.

Now, the first argument by Cessationists is that they have never seen an authentic miracle such as we see in the gospels.  Therefore, in their view, miracles no longer occur.  These same believers have never seen an angel or Jesus face-to-face, but would not deny their reality.  So, is it not possible that authentic miracles still occur even if we haven’t seen one personally?  Secondly, I would venture that God has performed miracles in their sight but they filtered them through their unbelief and pronounced them as frauds or natural coincidences. Remember, I served in Cessationsist churches for over 20 years. I remember men and women on several occasions telling our staff and elders of amazing healings.  Tumors disappeared with proof on x-rays and children that had been declared to have severe birth defects by every scientific standard were born whole and healthy. We simply wrote those off as faulty equipment or a poor diagnosis rather than seeing the miraculous hand of God.  Even when we couldn’t deny what we saw, we never announced the healing to the church knowing that there was simply some unknown natural explanation for what had happened.

Part of the reason, these churches have not seen miracles is that they only pray for the ordinary and get what they pray for. I remember when a good Christian doctor asked me to pray that he would do his best work. I told him I believed he would do his best work even if I didn’t pray, but I would pray that God would enable him to do even more than he was capable of on his own.  Even when you see miracles outside the realm of natural law, it takes faith to acknowledge them or, at least, the source. The Pharisees saw much, but discounted the miracles as fraud or as the work of Satan. I suspect that some Cessationists have done the same.

The second argument made on behalf of Cessationism is that Jesus only performed miracles to demonstrate that he was the Messiah, the Son of God.  It is true that the miracles of Jesus testified that he was the Son of God, but he performed many miracles simply out of compassion rather than a need to demonstrate who he was (Mt.9:35-36, 15:32, 20:34; Mark 1:41, etc.). The writers of the gospels seem to go out of their way on numerous occasions to mention that the motive of Jesus for healing individuals or the crowd was compassion rather than publicity.  You would think that same unchanging compassion would still prompt him to relieve the suffering of his people – even through miracles.

In addition, he told many that he healed not to tell anyone about their healing.  Those commands are contrary to the purpose of miracles if we restrict their purpose to evidence that he was the Son of God. If that were the only purpose for miracles, surely he would have told those people to go and tell everyone they could find.   After he returned to the Father, the miracles done by his followers were done in the name of Jesus, which means “by his authority.” Those miracles, performed after his ascension, still demonstrated that Jesus was who he said he was. Present day miracles do the same.

The third argument is that God empowered the apostles to do miracles simply to confirm that they were men approved of God in order to establish their authority in the church and so that their writings would be seen as writings inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Certainly that was part of it, but why give spiritual gifts of healings, prophecy, miracles, tongues, deliverance, discerning of spirits, words of knowledge, etc. to the ordinary members of the church and to those who did not write any of the New Testament such as Philip and Stephen?

In addition, Luke wrote his gospel and the Book of Acts.  Yet, he was not an apostle nor do we have any record of him performing any miracles to demonstrate the inspired authenticity of his writings.  Therefore, miracles were not given only for the purpose of marking Jesus or the apostles as men approved of God because “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given…” (1 Cor.12:7).

I want to reiterate that believers who attend Cessationsist churches along with their leaders are good people who love Jesus. They were taught or indoctrinated in this theology from birth or as new Christians.  I was in such awe of the men who taught me that I simply accepted their teachings, believing that the parts that didn’t make sense to me then would make sense later as I learned more Bible.  I’m sure they learned this theology in the same way.  The problem is not with the people but with the theology that robs the church of power and leaves people in the grip of Satan.

We will finish our discussion of Cessationism in my next blog.

We are continuing to discuss the theology of Cessationism that has been prevalent among most evangelical, mainstream churches in America and Western Europe for the past 500 years.  Those influenced by this theology hold the position that God worked miracles through men during certain historic seasons of the Old Testament and during the first century, but that miracles ceased to occur toward the end of the first century because they had fulfilled their purpose in establishing the church.  The idea that God has ceased to perform miracles for and through his people is where the term Cessationsist comes from. Its not that God does not answer prayer, but that he works within natural laws and natural processes as he answers prayer.  He no longer speaks to his people directly by his Spirit but only through his written word. He heals through doctors as he helps them to do their best, but does not heal supernaturally or raise the dead. He may quicken a man’s mind so that he learns a foreign language more quickly than others but he doesn’t supernaturally reveal the language as he did to the apostles on Pentecost with the gift of tongues.

If you are in a church that does not pray for supernatural healings, does not minister deliverance, and would never have someone stand in front of the church to prophesy, your pastor or church leaders have more than likely been indoctrinated with this view since they came to faith and were taught by men for whom they had great respect.  For them it is not just a theological position that some hold, but it is doctrinal truth.

Those who hold to this theology deny that God still intervenes in the natural order of things through miracles and especially deny that the Holy Spirit still distributes the “miraculous gifts” of prophecy, healings, tongues, miracles, words of knowledge, etc. I remember attending a meeting several years ago where mainline churches in our city had gathered together to pray for revival.  The second or third night of the meeting, one of the leaders of a large evangelical church came to the microphone with a prayer request.  He reported that a young woman in their church who was widely known and widely loved was in a hospital in Dallas, Texas where she was suffering from end-stage heart disease and had only days left to live without God’s intervention.  He asked if he could pray on her behalf.  I expected a prayer asking for God to heal her heart, but instead the prayer was for God to provide a heart for a heart transplant.  In other words, we prayed for someone to die so she could receive the heart and live. We prayed for God to manipulate the natural order of things so that they swung in her favor, but it never seemed to occur to the pastor to pray for direct, supernatural healing because God “doesn’t do that anymore.”  I’m not at all opposed to heart transplants, but it seems we should always pray for God’s supernatural and perfect healing first.  That is an example of Cessationsist theology.

Their argument for the end of miracles is based on several assumptions.

1. They have never seen an “authentic” miracle, like we see in the pages of the New Testament, therefore, they know that God no longer performs miracles, especially through men operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
2. God performed miracles through Jesus to confirm that he was the Son of God.After his resurrection and ascension, the miracles he performed had fulfilled their purpose.
3. God performed miracles through the apostles, in order to confirm that they were approved by God and that their teachings and writings were, therefore, inspired.
4. Once the historical record of the miracles of Jesus and the apostles was compiled, the purpose for miracles was fulfilled and miracles ceased.
5. The primary proof text for this position is found in 1 Corinthians. “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears” (1 Cor. 13:8-10). The argument is that the perfect thingor perfection is the completed New Testament.  Once the inspired scriptures were penned, there was no further need for the miracles because the Biblical record is sufficient to produce faith that leads to salvation.

There are, of course, other layers of the argument, but these are the main pillars on which this theology rests.  Once you have been taught and convinced of this theology, you are rarely open to any other possibility.  Those who claim to operate in the miraculous gifts are viewed as misled or charlatans ripping off ignorant people in tent meetings or on television. Anything that might hint of an authentic healing is written off as a psychosomatic condition that was relieved by the power of suggestion rather than a true disease being cured. Those who prophesy or speak in tongues are viewed as agents of the devil trying to mislead God’s people and anyone who would teach that the Holy Spirit still operates as he did in the Book of Acts is tagged as a teacher of false doctrine.

In my experience, there are many church leaders and pastors in Cessationist churches who long for more or suspect that God may still do something supernatural and outrageous from time to time, but they are uncertain of their view and keep their thoughts to themselves for the most part rather than risking being labeled as theologically suspect. I served in Cessationist churches for over 20 years and never saw an authentic miracle like you see on the pages of the New Testament (although I have seen many since becoming part of a charismatic or Continuistchurch).  I certainly saw abuses of the gifts of the Spirit and charlatans who were taking the money of desperate people.  Because of my theology, I tended to view all claims of the miraculous through that filter. I rarely traveled outside my own fellowship so I never encountered people I respected who held the view that the Holy Spirit still moves in power among his people.

Since we had no faith for the miraculous we neither asked for miracles nor expected them, so we saw none.  All of these things functioned in a way that only confirmed what we already believed.  Its not that the believers in these churches don’t love God or think he could do mighty works, they simply believe he chooses to no longer act in those ways.  As a result, good people who love God tend to live out a rather  powerless faith because they have no access to the powerful gifts of the Spirit meant to bless the church, evangelize the world, and set people free from all forms of bondage and torment served up by the enemy. Interestingly. in these churches the subject of demons and demonization rarely surfaces.  It may be because they have no answer if they don’t have the power of the Spirit operating today but when someone declares that God no longer works in supernatural ways, he or she tends to dismiss or minimize the supernatural in all forms.  As a result, demons often act without consequence and without opposition in these fellowships.

In my next blog, I will respond to the basic tenants of Cessationism and hopefully help some who read this blog step toward the full ministry of the Holy Spirit knowing that  they are on solid biblical ground when they do so.

A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of about thirty believers from various fellowships in our area who came together to hear a woman teach about her experiences with deliverance.  Most of these people attend churches where deliverance is not practiced and, in some cases, not permitted.  My sense was that most assumed that their churches did not exercise all the gifts of the spirit nor consider deliverance from demons to be needed or legitimate because they simply had no experience in those spiritual arenas.  To some degree that is true, but it actually goes much deeper than that.

What many believers in mainline evangelical churches (Baptist, Church of Christ, Bible Church, Methodists, Nazarenes, Christian Church, etc.) don’t understand is that there is a formal theology that flatly rejects the notion that God still performs miracles, speaks to men directly, and operates through all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  That theology is called Cessationism, which holds that the miraculous works of God and especially the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to operate somewhere around the end of the 1^stCentury. Most of their pastors will have been trained in that theology in their seminaries.  Not only were they taught that this view of scripture is the truthbut there is also a great deal of pressure in denominational circles to maintain that “orthodoxy” in the churches they lead.

I think it might be helpful for many believers who read this blog to be given a thumbnail sketch of this theology and a biblical response to it, so I want to do that in this blog and, one or two to follow.

Let me start with some historical context. This theology began to immerge around the time of Martin Luther and the Reformation (1500 -1600).  This was a time when many felt that the Catholic Church was abusing its power, which was immense throughout Europe.  Nations and individuals were beginning to push back against the church’s control and break away from it.  As an individual and priest in the Catholic Church, Martin Luther led the way.

The initial idea was not to break away from the Catholic Church but to reform some of its practices.  However, the Catholics were unbending so that men and nations, such as England, began to break away. At the same time, it was an age of exploration, discovery, and invention.  Science was beginning to make its mark and the intellect of man was beginning to be exalted. By the 1700’s, the “Age of Reason” or “Enlightenment” was in full bloom. Reason and logic, were the foundations of science and began to be seen as the hope and salvation of mankind. Some began to believe that science was the new Savior and that scientific truth was the only real truth that could direct the affairs of men.

You need to remember that in that age, nearly every university in the western world was established to educate pastors and church leaders and to take the gospel into the entire world.  The earliest scientists and philosophers were intellectuals in those seminaries.  Whatever influenced those university leaders would eventually influence the church because they trained and ordained those who would lead their churches.

In that cultural, intellectual environment, many men began to question the miraculous events of the Bible that did not seem reasonable or scientifically plausible,as if God could not or would not act outside of his own created natural laws. Some historians believe that Luther and others denied that God still manifested himself in miraculous ways because the Catholic Church claimed to be stewards of the miracles of God. If miracles were authentic, then God was with the Catholic Church and breaking from the Catholics would seem to be the same as abandoning God.

More than likely, the greatest impulse behind a denial that God still works miracles among men was the fact that the most influential men of that age had not personally seen any miracles.  If you are a church leader, and you have not seen or experienced any of the miracles recorded all over the pages of the Bible, you have a dilemma.  If God is still in the business of doing miracles and you aren’t seeing any…there may be something wrong with you or your doctrine or your denomination that displeases God.

In an age where being scientific and rational was more culturally applauded than having faith in the impossible, the leading religious scholars of the day, opted to find a theology that declared that God was no longer in the business of miracles. They simply declared that the Age of Miracles had ceased, because God’s purposes for his miracles had been fulfilled.  That same theology has been passed down to most mainline churches in the 21^stCentury.

In my next blog, we will discuss the purposes the Cessationists have assigned to God’s miracles in the New Testament and why they say miracles or miraculous gifts are no longer needed by the church today. Then we will talk about that!  By the way, I was trained and ordained in a Cessationist fellowship and held those positions for a number of years before God led me to a church that embraces the supernatural works of God.

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed  (Jn.4:46-53).

This is a familiar story from the Gospel of John.  Jesus had grown up in Nazareth as the son of a carpenter.  Nazareth and was less than 20 miles from the Sea of Galilee and less than four miles from Cana. He performed hundreds of miracles in the region of Galilee, the northern province of Israel in which the Sea of Galilee rests.  Many of those were in Capernaum, a small city on the northwest shore of Galilee. Two notable miracles were seen in Cana. The story above describes the second notable miracle in Cana where Jesus had earlier turned water into wine.

The background is important here because in Mark 6 we are told that Jesus had returned to Nazareth after performing a number of miracles in Jerusalem and other towns in the region.  Even though they had heard about his miracles, we are told that he could do none in Nazareth because of their unbelief.  Familiarity was their problem.  They had watched Jesus grow up in the shop of his father Joseph and could not see him as a prophet or the Messiah, but only as the carpenter’s son. In their minds he could never be more than that.  Sometimes we need to get away from our old friends and family for us to take on our new identity in Christ because their inability to see us as a different person sometimes gets in the way of our ability to see ourselves as a different person.

In contrast, John tells us about a royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum and near death some 16 miles from Cana. Jesus had already performed miracles in Capernaum so we can assume that when the official’s son became gravely ill, hearing that Jesus was back in Galilee, he  went after Jesus.  Perhaps, he went on horseback or walked, but his mission was to find Jesus and take him back to Capernaum to heal his son.

After finding Jesus and pleading with him to return to Capernaum to heal his son. Jesus simply told him “You may go.  Your son will live.”  The remarkable statement in John is, “The man took Jesus at his word and departed.” That is the core of faith.  Faith is taking God as Father, Son, or Spirit at his word and acting on it. Too many of us, myself included, tend to analyze the words of Jesus and then add our own “except when” or “except for me.”  We tend to add footnotes that add qualifications to his words or his promises when he simply wants us to take him at his word.  The minute we qualify his statement or add a disclaimer, the enemy has won.

I’m not saying that we should not be honest about our struggles to believe. Most of us believe Jesus totally in some areas of our lives but in other areas we are the man who cried out, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” Perhaps, the dividing line is defined by those promises on which we take action and those on which we want to give it some more thought. The royal official didn’t continue to coax Jesus to come with him. When Jesus told him his son would live, he headed home.  The remaining question seemed to be whether Jesus was given a revelation as a prophet that his son would eventually overcome his illness or whether Jesus had the power and authority to direct healing from a distance. When the official heard that the fever left his son at the same time Jesus had declared that he would live, the question was answered.  Surely Jesus was more than a prophet because even the great prophets of the Old Testament had to be present for healing to occur.

What promises do we say we believe but hesitate to take action on?  Which promises do we believe for others, but not ourselves?  What promises do we say we believe but then add qualifiers for when the promise might be true?  Those are the questions we need to ask ourselves so we can address those areas of our lives for which we need more faith.   Then we can mediate more on the promise, pray for a greater gift of faith from the Holy Spirit, listen to the testimony of others, and choose to take action on the promise even while a small cloud of uncertainty may still hover above our heads. Our goal is to bring our requests to Jesus, take Jesus at his word when we receive a promise, and then depart believing that it is done. That is the faith that moves mountains.