The goodness of God is an essential theological truth that affects everything we do and everything for which we pray. When we consider the goodness of God, however, it is hard not to keep shifting between the fearful God of the Old Testament and the God of grace revealed in the New Testament. When hardship comes and stays for a while, most of us immediately think that the judgment of God has landed on us because that is what we see in the Old Testament – you know…global flood, fire consuming Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt, Miriam being struck with leprosy, and so on. If we are not careful, we see God as a God of vengeance and wrath rather than a loving father, and when we see him that way, it is almost impossible to reconcile that view with the Heavenly Father that Jesus talks about who knows and cares if even one sparrow falls to the ground. When we see God that way we are uncertain that he always wants to bless us or we redefine blessing so that it can contain hardship, persecution, loss, death, and illness. If we believe that God may visit those kinds of things on us because they are good for us in the long run, we will not be able to pray against those things with much faith. If we are not clear on what constitutes the works of God and the works of the devil, we will not know how to pray. John defined the works of the devil as everything Jesus attacked in his ministry – sickness, premature death, demonic affliction, condemnation, hunger, shame, etc.

What we need to recognize is that the cross has made all the difference and that the cross was in the heart of God from the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). God’s revelation of himself and kingdom truths has always been a progressive revelation revealing some things now and some things later. Even Jesus told his disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (Jn.16:12-13).

In our own lives, we hear and understand the truths of the scriptures bit by bit rather than getting a full download the moment we come to faith in Jesus. Even to the apostles, the New Covenant was unlocked bit by bit. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on the church, the leaders were totally unaware that God was going to open the door to Gentile believers. According to scholars, it was nearly seven to ten years after Pentecost when Peter received a vision that God had accepted Gentiles into the church without the need to become proselyted Jews before they were saved (Acts 10). It was such a hidden part of the gospel that it took a major conference in Jerusalem to affirm that Gentiles were welcome in the church (Acts 15). That truth was embedded in scripture all along but no one read the texts with that understanding until the Holy Spirit granted them that understanding.

Since God works through progressive revelation, we need to understand that certain things were emphasized in the Old Testament in order to prepare God’s people for a the Messiah. It has been said that the Old Testament revealed the power of sin, while the New Testament reveals the power of righteousness. In the Old Testament, if a man touched a leper he became unclean. In the New Testament, when Jesus touched a leper, the leper was made clean.

Another way to view the progressive revelation of scripture is to see that the holiness of God was emphasized before the cross while the mercy and grace of God has been emphasized since the cross. God’s mercy, grace, and goodness were always there but holiness was center stage. His holiness and judgment is still there, but in Jesus his mercy and grace took center stage. As parents, we love our children from day one and go to great lengths to protect and provide for them. However, we also begin to discipline our children at an early age to teach them right from wrong and to instill in them a healthy respect for their parents. As children, we all learned to obey our parents first through fear of punishment and only later through love and trust. Children function best by rules (law), while adults live by principles (spiritual wisdom). In a sense, parents emphasize their holiness first before they begin to emphasize love and trust. Perhaps, that is what God had to do for the whole human race.

You might say that God went to unreasonable extremes to demonstrate his holiness before the cross – a global flood, entire cities or tribes being wiped out, etc. However, we forget that the thread of salvation that runs through the entire Bible includes the preservation of the bloodline what would finally bring the Savior into the world. We have no awareness of the level of spiritual warfare that went on through the cultures that God removed in an effort to insure the arrival of our Savior. All you need to do is to look at the efforts of Hitler and the Nazi’s to totally remove the Jewish nation from the face of the earth to know the extent that Satan would go through to prevent Messiah from being born. The allies had to “carpet bomb” Germany to overcome the demonic evil that drove Hitler. Tens of thousands of civilians, including women and children, died in those raids. It was the cost of overcoming evil and the consequences of Germany’s refusal to surrender. God faced the same evils in the past and was forced to pour out judgment himself on cities and tribes even though he would have preferred peace.

Another reality exists in the Old Testament as well as we consider the goodness of God. We often forget the lengths that God went to in order to avoid bringing judgment on those nations. Noah preached for 120 years before the flood came trying to get the world around him to repent. God agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if he could find just ten righteous men in the city. He sent his prophets time and again to turn not just Israel but other nations (Jonah and Nineveh, for instance) from evil before sending judgment. If you read the Old Testament carefully you will discover that pain and destruction has never been the heart of God for anyone. “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live (Ezek.18:23)?

However, the unrelenting wickedness of some men and nations requires judgment. Is a good that does not resist evil really good? Good must resist evil and if evil will not relent then good must destroy it. No one criticized the allies for standing up against Nazi Germany in World War II because evil, like cancer, has to be opposed. But men have sometimes been quick to judge God for the same opposition to unrelenting evil through the centuries.

Having said all that, the cross has changed the landscape of heaven’s dealing with men. Whereas in the Old Testament, the holiness of God was emphasized, the cross now allows God to highlight his mercy and grace. Jesus came not only to save us but also to point out and demonstrate the goodness of God. Jesus was very clear that he was the revelation of the Father among us. Remember that Jesus is Emmanuel or God with us. Secondly, Jesus said that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father (Jn.14). Whenever we ask God to empower us to do what Jesus did, we don’t have to question whether it is God’s will or not. Whatever Jesus did, the Father wants to do all the time. In order for the church to be the church that God envisions, we must define good and evil as Jesus defined it. Bill Johnson says that our skewed definition of good when we say God is good, keeps us from pushing back against the devil. “Instead of creating doctrines that explain away our weakness and anemic faith, we’ll actually have to find out why ‘the greater works than these’ (Jn.14:12) have not been happening in and around us.”

His point is that our faith for doing the works that Jesus did has been so watered down that we have incorporated unhealed sickness, premature death, birth defects, gender confusion, natural disasters, etc. as part of God’s will that we accept and live with rather than seeing those things as works of the devil that we should triumph over by faith. Jesus said that whoever believed in him would not only do what he did but would do even greater things than he had done. The goodness of God was expressed through the works of Jesus and should still be expressed through those who follow Jesus. The goodness of God and our definition of that goodness guides our prayers and our actions. It is essential that we are clear that God wants to do good to his people and even to the lost and that the good he wants to do is not some strange theological definition that visits suffering on his children to purify the soul.

His love and goodness for us is like that of a loving father who always wants to bless and provide. A loving father never enjoys or is indifferent to the injuries or illnesses of his children. He would never give his child cancer to grow his or her faith. He would never inflict his child with a birth defect to make that child more dependent on him. The heart of a loving and wise parent comes from God. We can know what God wants for us by the things we want for our children. As redeemed people, we know our deepest longings for our children and we can have confidence that those longings reflect the Father’s will for all of his children. So…know today that God is good and he wants to bless you and meet every need in a way that blesses as well. Pray for good things (healing, provision, salvation, reconciled relationships, protection, success, etc.) with confidence because God wants to express his goodness through you and for you today.

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” 

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

In his gospel, Mark ties two supernatural events together that we often miss because they are separated by chapter breaks and so, in our minds, they are often viewed as unrelated incidents. But…let’s review. Toward the end of Chapter 4, Jesus told his disciples that he wanted to get in a boat and sail across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. He calls on them to make the journey in the evening so it will be night before reaching the other side. Being on a large body of water at night on a lake subject to sudden storms always presents some concerns. In the middle of this night we are told that a “furious squall” came up suddenly and threatened to swamp the boat. The disciples, afraid for their lives, woke Jesus with the question, “Don’t you care that we drown?” There may have been a bit of accusation present in the statement suggesting that Jesus should never have insisted on crossing Galilee in the night. Of course, you know the story. Jesus got up, verbally rebuked the storm, and the winds and waves immediately subsided. The response of his disciples is interesting. Mark says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’”

As frightened as they were of the storm, it seems that they were more upset by an encounter with the supernatural power of Jesus. They had already seen Jesus heal lepers, heal paralytics, cast our numerous demons, and raise the dead. Yet, at this moment they asked, “Who is this?”   As they tried to get their minds around what has just happened, they beached their boat in the area of the Gerasenes (Gadarenes) and immediately faced an even stranger situation.

Suddenly, out of the dark comes a man who is, by all definitions, demon possessed. Luke tells us he was naked (not the first thing you want to see after an already disturbing cruise); he came from a stretch of tombs that were probably carved into a bluff along the coast. He was a man who cut himself with stones and cried out in torment night and day. He was a violent man with pieces of broken chain swinging from his wrists and ankles and undoubtedly had the classic look of a madman with deranged hair and a ragged beard. He was most likely smeared with mud and smelled of everything dead or rotting.

It must have been disturbing enough to see this man in the distance, but in this case he ran straight at them. Just as they prepared themselves for a vicious attack, he fell on his knees before Jesus and began to shout at the top of his voice, “Want do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God. Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” How’s that for a greeting from a naked madman? Mark focuses our attention here on the demonized man but I would have loved to see the eyes of the disciples who must really be thinking now, “Who is this?” The wind and waves obey him and demons beg him not to torture them as they call him Son of the Most High God. Then the demon begins to bargain with Jesus. I’ve heard numerous demons speak and it’s never a nice, soothing, human voice but a hissing, growling, threatening or arrogant tone. But this time it is a fearful, pleading tone.

You know the rest of the story. Jesus allows the demons to leave this man and enter a herd of pigs nearby which immediately runs into the Sea of Galilee and drowns. That has to be another disturbing sight for these disciples – to hear the squealing of two hundred (just guessing) tormented hogs rushing to the water and then the thrashing of drowning swine and then their bodies floating out to sea. Witnesses to the event ran into town and told everyone what had happened. When they came out, they saw the man who had become an icon of demonization and insanity sitting with Jesus, clothed and perfectly sane. Luke tells us, “Then all the people of the region…asked Jesus to leave them because they were overcome with fear” (Lk.8:37).

From our perspective, the stilling of a storm and the deliverance of a severely demonized man would be good news and something to celebrate. But in the unrenewed mind, the evidence of the presence of God is a fearful thing. Perhaps, it is fearful because something unexplainable just occurred and we fear what we don’t understand. That was the normal response to God throughout the scriptures which called for the most frequent command in the Bible – “Don’t be afraid.”

As for the Garasenes, it seems that the wildly demonic had been with them so long that it had become the norm. Instead of being afraid of the destructive presence of Satan, they were terrified by the healing presence of God and essentially demanded that the Son of God leave them…even though they must have had their own sons and daughters in need of healing and deliverance.

Apparently, the only two men standing there that were not afraid was Jesus and the man who had just been delivered. The Gerasenes wanted Jesus as far away as possible. The former demoniac and nudist wanted to be as close to Jesus as possible.

Personal experience is often the catalyst for real paradigm shifts in the way we view reality. The apostles had seen Jesus heal and deliver others but had not experienced that themselves as far as we know. In all three gospels, the quieting of the storm and the deliverance of this radically demonized man occurred before Jesus sent the twelve out to heal and deliver on their own. After God worked powerfully through them on their mission trip, they too had a paradigm shift. They didn’t seem to be afraid of the presence of God anymore.

What this tells me is that personal experiences with God are catalysts for the renewed mind that Paul speaks of in Romans 12:1-2. Most believers have not had profound spiritual experiences with the Father, Son or Spirit. They believe they are saved by faith and do see the goodness of God and his blessings in ordinary ways in their lives. But if you asked them if he will heal them miraculously or raise a loved one from the dead they would not even entertain the possibility. They distrust spiritual experiences in general and shy away from them as a potential source of deception. They will live saved but powerless lives for the most part.

But a believer who has had a radical spiritual experience with God wants more. He or she does not fear it or avoid it but seeks it out. They run toward miracles, not away from them. Like the demonized man who was delivered, they want more. Those who have been insulated from those experiences will, like the disciples in Mark 4-5, typically feel fear as they see a supernatural move of God and move away from it.

The difference in believers can be marked. When the city folks asked Jesus to leave, the demonized man wanted nothing more that to follow Jesus wherever he went. But Jesus told him to stay in the area and simply tell people what God had done for him. When Jesus later returned to the area, crowds were waiting to hear his every word. The man with a God experience had done the job.

Supernatural encounters are good for the soul. When we begin to desire them rather than fear them because we know we can find more of Jesus there, we can know we are well on our way to a renewed mind. Paul says that when our mind has been renewed then we will be transformed. For some, even that prospect is fearful. They think that to be transformed is to lose yourself, yet the opposite is true. It is in transformation that we find the person we were always meant to be and experiencing a few weird nights or Sunday mornings is worth it to find the you that God intended.

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).

If, in fact, Christ has purchased healing for us as well as forgiveness under the New Covenant, then my next question might be, “Since I have been taught the opposite for years, how do I come to have faith in my heart for the healing that is mine?” Let me offer a few thoughts on that.

First of all, I need to study the word of God until I am convinced that scripture does indeed teach that Christ not only purchased forgiveness by his blood but also healing by his wounds for every believer. Until I am certain that this proposition is true, my faith will waiver in moments when I need to operate by faith rather than sight. I would recommend reading some books on healing. I have already recommended F.F. Bosworth’s classic book, Christ the Healer.

Secondly, I can ask for the faith to believe in my heart what I now believe in my head. Paul declares, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Rom.12:3). If my measure of faith is given to me, then I can ask for a greater measure. I will need to cooperate with God in the growth of my faith, but ultimately, faith comes by grace like anything else. In the same way that we can ask for more wisdom, more of the Spirit, etc., we can ask for an increase in faith for healing.

Thirdly, we need to consistently confess what we now believe to be true. This is a primary way tin which we cooperate with God for the increase of our faith. Paul speaks to this as well when he says, “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Rom.10:8-10).

This verse suggests a causative connection between confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart. Verbally declaring something consistently over time tends to write that truth on our heart. The declaration of God’s word has power. The writer of Hebrews says that God’s word is living and active (Heb.4:12). As we declare his word, it operates not only in the atmosphere around us but also on our hearts. The Holy Spirit can then take that and give our heart a revelation of that truth. As the Spirit uses our verbal declaration of God’s truth to bring revelation to our hearts, our faith increases. Our part then is to speak in ways that are consistent with God’s truth regarding his healing for us.

The fourth thing we must learn is to live by faith and not by sight. This means that when we begin to experience illness or pray for healing that does not come immediately, we still stand on the promises of God that he is in the process of healing us. Jesus 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. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (Jn.14:12-14). We know that healing is God’s will. We know that if we ask for anything that lines up with his will he will do it. Therefore, if we have asked with any faith, he will do it. Jesus reserved the timetable for himself, but we can say with certainty that he is in the process and our healing is in the pipeline.

Lastly, our faith is often undermined when we don’t see what we have asked for immediately. Sometimes, God is simply in the process and our answer has been ordained. However, we must also consider the possibility that something in the spiritual realm is in the way of our answer. We are told in 1 Corinthians 11, that some Christians were sick because they were defiling the Lord’s Supper by taking it when they did not love the brethren and were even abusing them.

In James 5, we are told that if any among us are sick, they should call the elders of the church to pray over them and their prayer of faith will raise them up and if they have sinned they will be forgiven. This tells us that although our own prayers can bring healing at times, some illness is to be overcome by the prayers of spiritual leaders. Again we are told that some illness lingers because we have unrepented sin in our lives that we have not confessed to others- – sin that needs to be forgiven before healing can manifest.   Hidden sins, unforgiveness, unbelief, bitterness, etc. that we have not confessed and dealt with through the cross can hinder our prayers and our healing.

In Daniel 10, we also see that demonic spirits can hinder the answers to our prayers as well. Generational curses from our “fathers” and sin curses or word curses from our own actions or from our own mouths can also get in the way if they are not dealt with through the cross. Before we start declaring the healing power of Jesus over ourselves, we should take a spiritual inventory to see if something in our present or our past may be hindering that grace from operating in our lives. James underlines this necessity of repentance and confession when he tells us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we may be healed (Ja.5:16).

As we conclude this short series, my hope is that the Holy Spirit has borne witness with your spirit that the in heritance of every believer in Christ is healing. The ultimate expression of that is to walk in divine health but we are not promised that we will never get sick. However, we are promised that Christ bore our sins, sicknesses, and infirmities on the cross and that healing is available to every believer who can receive it by faith. As we think this truth, speak this truth, pray this truth, and teach this truth we are sowing seeds from which we will eventually reap a harvest of faith and healing. If you are ill now or struggling with some infirmity, may Jesus impart healing even now for the sickness he has already carried away.

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.

The gift, the gifts, and the fruit of the Spirit seem to create confusion from time to time. What do these terms refer to?

The gift of the Spirit is spoken of in several places. One of those texts occurs in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. We are told, “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38). The gift of the Spirit is the Spirit himself taking up residence within each believer, quickening our spirits, teaching us, leading us, counseling us, enlightening us, and transforming us.

But in other places, the gifts of the Spirit are referred to. “God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (Heb.2:4). The gifts of the Spirit are the charismata or spiritual gifts discussed and listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, and other texts. These are the gifts, abilities, or capacities given by the Spirit to each believer that enables him or her to be effective witnesses for Jesus. These spiritual gifts include prophecy, teaching, healings, miracles, tongues, mercy, encouragement, administration, generosity, hospitality, service, and so forth.

The fruit of the Spirit is listed by Paul in his letter to Galatia. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal.5:22-23). These are character traits and qualities of Jesus that also belong to the Spirit. He wants to impart those qualities to God’s people. We see all of these in Jesus. The Spirit himself descended and remained on Jesus at his baptism. Then we see Jesus operating in power through healings, miracles, teaching, discernment, casting out demons, and so forth. But, we also see in him the qualities of love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, etc. God’s desire is for each of us to be like Jesus – filled with the Spirit, reflecting the Spirit’s character, and administering God’s grace in the form of spiritual gifts to the people whose lives we touch in his name.

In these last days, God is restoring everything to the church. The offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher, and pastor are being restored in remarkable ways. The Spirit is distributing all his gifts again in unprecedented measure and in unprecedented numbers. Legitimate, world-wide ministries of healing, prophesy, evangelism, demon-busting, miracles, raising the dead, and so forth are abounding. More than that, the gifts are being given not just to a few “leading lights” in the church or a few spiritual superstars, but are being distributed to the rank and file of God’s people. I love seeing that. It’s exciting. I want to be part of that.

It’s easy to love the gifts. Who doesn’t want a priceless prophetic word? Who doesn’t want to be able to pray over a loved one or a stranger racked with cancer and see him or her walk out of the hospital cancer free? Who doesn’t want to see angels in the sanctuary or raise a dead child at the scene of an accident and hand her back to her distraught mother? Who doesn’t want to feel the Spirit speaking through us in tongues or watch hundreds or thousands come forward in response to a gift of evangelism? Who doesn’t want to minister in music in a way that takes God’s people into the very throne room of the King?

We love the gifts, and yet the character of the Spirit is of even greater value. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul dedicates an entire chapter to love. The chapter rests in between two chapters entirely about spiritual gifts in an effort to curtail their abuse. Paul tells us early in his letter to the church at Corinth that they lacked no spiritual gift (1 Cor.1:7). Authentic spiritual gifts were rampant there, but so was the misuse of these gifts for personal glory and status in the church. The gifts, in large part, were being exercised for personal exaltation and feelings of “super-spirituality.” A kind of spiritual pecking order was being established there. Paul corrected the situation, not by telling them to curtail the gifts, but by telling them to be motivated by love to use the gifts for the benefit of others rather than themselves. In order to emphasize the importance of the fruit of the Spirit over the gifts of the Spirit, Paul told them that the time would come when gifts would cease to operate but that faith, hope, and love – the fruit of the Spirit – would always remain.

Sometimes men and women are given impressive spiritual gifts. At the same time, they are expected to grow in the fruit of the Spirit because only when the gifts are directed by the character of Jesus in our hearts, will they bear the true and lasting fruit that Jesus desires. Not all of them live up to that expectation. History records a number of men who moved in the power of the Spirit in remarkable ways but whose ministries and lives came to miserable ends because they allowed their gifts to run ahead of their character. They became proud and arrogant and even immoral, believing that their gifts demonstrated God’s approval of their actions. Speaking to the church at Corinth that was abounding with impressive spiritual gifts, Paul said, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (1 Cor.3:1-3).

Operating in spiritual power without spiritual maturity is like a sixteen year old being given a shiny new Lamborghini with a top speed of 201 miles per hour. The combination of the two represents lots of possibilities – most of them disastrous. As we love the gifts that are being liberally distributed by the Spirit, we should remember to love the giver more than the gifts and to seek character ahead of power and influence. Even with amazing gifts of preaching, healing, prophecy and so on, the rule still applies that God exalts the humble and humbles those who exalt themselves.

In the Kingdom, greater gifts are always given to the man who has been a good steward of the gifts already entrusted to him.   According to Paul, good stewardship of anything is not so much about ability as it is diligence, faith, faithfulness, and love. As you pray for the gifts (and you should), be sure to pray first for the fruit of the Spirit that will make you an effective steward of what God entrusts to you. Simon the Sorcerer saw the gifts of the apostles and became enamored with them (Acts 8).   He was so affected by the miracles he saw that he wanted to buy them. Peter rebuked him strongly and told him that his heart was captive to sin. In these days of increasing miracles, we would be wise to guard our own hearts in this matter. Paul instructs us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. We should do so, but always with a heart for blessing others and glorifying God rather than feeling the rush of the gift or glorifying ourselves. May we have wisdom to always place his presence and his character before his gifts. Blessings in Him.

When I came to you brothers…My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 1 Corinthians 2:1, 4-5

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 1 Corinthians 1:4-7

When Paul arrived at Corinth, he arrived feeling defeated. He had just come from Athens where he had gathered with the cream of the Greek philosophers and had offered his best arguments on behalf of Christ. Paul was a brilliant man who had studied at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel and had undoubtedly memorized most of the Old Testament and studied its theology thoroughly along with a critique of Greek intellectualism. Now he was presenting sound, intellectual arguments for Christ. For the most part, the philosophers of Athens thought the beliefs he presented were strange and foolish. To his dismay, only a few responded. By the time Paul arrived at Corinth – a center of commerce and pagan religion – he had reconsidered his strategy.

You will notice that he no longer wanted the faith of believers to rest on the wisdom of men, but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit. There is an old saying that goes, “A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.” If my faith is based on information only, then more information or contrary information can turn my thinking, introduce doubt, and undermine my faith. That is what happens to many Christian college students who have grown up being taught the basic truths of the faith without any significant experience with Jesus. When they arrive in a university classroom with a professor who throws out well-articulated arguments for atheism and quotes numerous “unverified facts” in contradiction to the Bible, these students become victims of men’s wisdom – their own and the professor’s.

In any number of American churches, the underlying theology of their leadership is that spiritual experiences cannot be trusted. Spiritual experiences, they say, open the door to demonic deception. Therefore, an intellectual approach to faith is best. However, the New Testament record seems to speak against that approach.

Imagine, any first century Christian trying to convert Saul of Tarsus with “better arguments” from the Torah. If that had been the best approach to Saul’s conversion, God would have sent a man like Apollos, a brilliant believer from Alexandria who was a powerful teacher of biblical truth. God, however, had something else in mind. He arranged an experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus, three days of blindness, and a moment of healing at the hands of a believer whom Paul would have arrested 72 hours earlier. An experience, rather than arguments brought Saul of Tarsus into the fold.

Then there was Peter. If you read all the gospel accounts of Jesus calling the twelve, you will sense that Peter had heard Jesus preach on several occasions. In fact, in Luke 5, Jesus had just preached a sermon from Peter’s boat when he coaxed Peter to put out into deeper water and let down his nets after a long night of fruitless fishing. When the nets were filled to the breaking point with fish, Peter fell on his knees and proclaimed, “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.” After that, Jesus told Peter he would teach him to catch men and Peter left all that he had to follow Jesus. An experience with Jesus was needed, even after the sermon, to get Peter to fully surrender his life to Jesus. Later, it took a rooftop vision and witnessing the Holy Spirit falling on the household of Cornelius (Acts 10) for Peter to be convinced that Gentiles had been accepted into the kingdom.

Mary Magdalene was one of the faithful followers of Jesus in his early ministry. We are told that Jesus cast seven demons out of her. I am persuaded that the experience of deliverance and the ensuing freedom she felt was what compelled her to follow Jesus. We could go on and on. I’m not saying that preaching and teaching are not important. They are essential. Both provide the framework for understanding God and understanding our experiences with God. Experiences, however, also help us to understand the scriptures in a deeper way Experience is what solidifies what has been learned, so that man’s arguments cannot shake the faith of those who follow Jesus. There are two primary words for knowledge or for knowing in Greek. One means to have information about or to know about something or someone. The other means to have experiential knowledge of something or someone. The one used most often regarding our knowledge of the Father denotes experiential knowledge.

Notice what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. He said that his preaching or testimony about Christ had been confirmed in them so that they lacked no spiritual gifts. The implication is that the spiritual gifts experienced by the church at Corinth had confirmed who Jesus was for them and had confirmed the presence of God’s Spirit in them.

It’s one thing to be told that the Spirit of Christ now lives in you because you have believed in Jesus. It’s another thing to begin to operate in healing, deliverance, prophecy, words of knowledge, teaching, encouragement, speaking in tongues, etc.  The experience of doing something that you know you could not do without the Spirit of God working in you, confirms your faith like nothing else. It also confirms the faith of those to whom you minister. Paul was very clear that spiritual gifts are given to build up the body of Christ and he urged those at Corinth to eagerly desire those gifts.

Churches that distrust the exercise of spiritual gifts deny their people many experiences that would build faith and intimacy with Jesus. When believers are not hungry for spiritual gifts they deny the body of Christ the strength and life that their gifts would lend to the church. A great number of churches today would not miss a beat in their ministries and worship if the Holy Spirit withdrew tomorrow because they operate in their own gifts, strength, and talents rather than in the gifts of the Spirit.

Of course, many churches will affirm that they believe in spiritual gifts, but they actually believe in only a partial inventory of the gifts. Mercy, encouragement, hospitality, administration, creative gifts and so forth all seem safe enough and carry little risk in their exercise. Those gifts are welcome and have little spiritual aura around them. Healing, prophecy, deliverance, words of knowledge, miracles, and tongues are not so safe and are usually rejected as gifts that “no longer operate” and, yet, those are the very gifts that demonstrate the presence of the Spirit in the most indisputable ways.

I served in churches for many years that limited the current ministry of the Holy Spirit and I have served the last 13 years in churches that pursue and value every gift. Where the gifts operate life happens more abundantly, extreme life change is the norm rather than the exception, and faith grows with every miracle. Paul understood the principle and he would want us to understand that principle as well. “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts…” (1 Cor.14:1).

Last night, in a study I was leading about demonic spirits and deliverance, a standard question came up. I think it’s a good question and one that comes up frequently. I didn’t have time last night to answer it adequately, so I thought I would try to do a better job in a this and one more blog. The question was, “Why do most churches avoid teaching about demons and deliverance today when demons and deliverance are so prevalent in the pages of the New Testament?”

The answer to this question goes beyond discussions of demons and deliverance to the very heart of any supernatural or miraculous events in the Bible…including the resurrection. The 18^th century ushered in what has been labeled, The Age of Reason. Much had happened in previous decades to upset the established order of Western Europe. Abuses in the Catholic Church had prompted Martin Luther to protest and the ensuing Protestant Reformation undermined the dogma and political hold of the Catholic Church. As the Catholic Church came under fire, so did the biblical theology on which Rome stood. What was dangerous to question before, was suddenly fair game for European intellectuals. Not only was the Catholic interpretation of scripture challenged, but scripture itself became a target.

At the same time, science and medicine were making great strides.
Reason and logical deduction became the new bywords of “modern society.” In the cultural atmosphere of Western Europe and the United States, science and reason became the new gods. In the context of “the Age of Reason,” science and medicine became the proclaimed hope of mankind.

This 18^th century perspective invaded universities and the schools of theology within those universities. Suddenly, the scientific method was deemed the only valid way to discover truth. Reality only consisted of those things that could be observed, measured, and reproduced in a laboratory. Undoubtedly, there had been some dark days of superstition and inquisition in the centuries before the Age of Reason, but, instead of the pendulum swinging to a balanced middle position, it swung to the far side and a movement began to deny not only Biblical revelation as a source of truth, but also to deny the existence of God altogether.

The big fizz about Darwin’s theory of evolution was that if offered a natural mechanism that seemed to make God unnecessary.  Of course, the fossil record and numerous other scientific discoveries have left the theory untenable, but even the brightest minds of today doggedly hold on to it as a way to deny God and any personal accountability to a God. The intellectuals of the 18^th century, including theologians in major universities, began to “reason away” the supernatural aspects of our faith as events recorded through the lens of superstitious and backward people. Many began a movement to “demythologize” the scriptures and give naturalistic explanations to the miracles recorded in God’s word. Miracles simply weren’t scientific.

That thinking affected even Bible believing Christians and preachers who were not willing to throw out the miracles of the Bible but found an intellectually respectable middle ground. Their position was that the miraculous accounts of scripture were indeed true, but were limited to “Bible times.” Their view was that although God intervened in the lives of his people in miraculous ways throughout the Bible, he curtailed those supernatural activities somewhere around the end of the first century and has not been in the miracle business since. In today’s world, God still acts on behalf of his people, but only through natural means. This position is called cessationism and is the most prevalent view in American churches today.

This view is based on the assumption that the only reason Jesus and the apostles performed miracles was to validate who they were: Jesus as the Son of God and the apostles as his inspired representatives. Once the New Testament church was established and the Bible was completed and confirmed through first-century miracles, there was no longer any need for such supernatural events and, therefore, God has only worked through natural means for the past 2000 years. Any claim to the contrary, they say, is misguided at best and heretical or deceptive in worst cases.

As a result, when churches pray for the sick today, they rarely pray for supernatural healing but rather for God to guide the doctor’s hands. When a person is tormented by mental or emotional anguish, the church does not consider demonic affliction but simply turns God’s people over to the medical community (many of whom are unbelievers) and over to medications. When cancer is diagnosed, our first call will likely be to M.D. Anderson rather than to the elders of the church to come and pray for healing (see James 5:14-16). You can see that in the American church, we trust God to forgive our sins but we trust science, medicine, and government for the rest.

More on this in my next blog.  

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. Isaiah 61:3

In Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the Messiah, he refers to the people Jesus would someday heal and set free as mean and women who become “oaks of righteousness.” The figure brings to mind tall, powerful, and stately oaks that stand the test of time and withstand the strongest storms.   We all want to be that kind of believer.

This morning, in a men’s group I am part of, we began to discuss the concept of spiritual fruit in the kingdom and how certain trees and vines grow to produce more fruit. One of our men, who owns and operates his own landscape business, told us that certain trees, after germination, grow root systems for up to two years before the trunk begins to appear above the ground. Nutrients and stability come from the root system and without strength there, the tree will eventually fail. As a result, the tree gives all of its energy to growing down before it gives energy to growing up.

As a church that believes in the operation of all the spiritual gifts, it is not unusual to see new believers or believers who have just begun to experience the power of God get very excited and very focused on operating in those gifts. After all, there is nothing like being part of a miracle that God has just released into another person’s life. I think it is appropriate that new believers are hungry for the manifestations of God and want to experience more and more of his Spirit and his supernatural ways.

However, there is one caution that needs to be extended regarding the pursuit of such gifts or even the pursuit of bearing a great deal of fruit in the kingdom of God. The caution is that before we start operating abundantly in the gifts and before we start wanting to bear abundant fruit, we need to make sure that our roots go deep into the soil. Otherwise, the fruit that is produced quickly will wither just as quickly or the weight of the gifts will pull us over and uproot us in the midst of a strong storm.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he was quick to point out that they operated, as a church, in all the gifts of the Spirit. In Chapters 12-14, he began to mention those gifts specifically: prophecy, healings, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, words of knowledge, supernatural wisdom, and so forth. That’s pretty heady stuff for a young church.

The real problem for Corinth is stated in Chapter 3. “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men (1 Cor.3:1-3)?

Although the church at Corinth was producing impressive fruit above ground, the root systems were still extremely shallow. The weight of their fruit or gifts was more than their foundation could support. As a result, there were jealousies, divisions, cliques, arrogance, self-promotion, and confusion in the ranks. The tree was unhealthy and beginning to topple. Ultimately, Paul pointed out in Chapter 13 that the evidence of true spirituality was not to be found first in the exercise of spiritual gifts, but in the exercise of love.

If the analogy is true, then the question becomes, how do I develop a deep root system that provides both nourishment and stability. In practical terms, digging into the Word of God each day and hearing from him is crucial. Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We need to personally dig into the Word itself, not just books by our favorite author about the Word.

Secondly, we need to be familiar with the whole counsel of God, not just one thin slice of that pie. It’s easy to get excited about prophecy, end-times, healing, leadership, worship, or any other facet of God’s word and pursue only that, listen to sermons about only that, and hang out with others who talk about only that. The problem is that we can develop tunnel vision and stay ignorant about God’s will in all the other areas of life. We can be filled with knowledge about one narrow slice of our faith and have no wisdom, perspective, or character for the remainder of our Christian living. It’s like taking tons of vitamin C but never getting adequate amounts of all the other vitamins and minerals that you need for life. Get in the Word daily, chew on it, talk about it, and ask God about it as you read through entire books discovering God’s directives for a multitude of things.

In addition, putting down roots depends on staying in one place for a while – plugging into a church, serving there, getting to know people, and letting them speak into your life. Too many believers these days shop around…for years. They are spiritual drifters who never stay anywhere long enough to develop meaningful relationships with others. John goes so far as to tell us that if we don’t love the brothers, we can’t love God. If we don’t stay put, we can’t love the brothers – at least not in any substantial ways.

Ultimately, our roots have to go down in a relationship with Jesus. Prayer and obedience facilitate that relationship. Regular times in prayer, praise, and doing what he directs us to do – being doers of the word and not hearers only – deepens that relationship so that when the wind blows, we stand on solid ground rather than shifting sands.

My point in all this is to encourage you to seek the gifts but even more than that and before that, seek to be rooted deeply in the whole counsel of God and in a relationship to Jesus. I am convinced that God is even more concerned about the character and heart of Christ being formed in us than he is in us doing miracles in his name. There is no doubt that God desires fruit, but years of fruit bearing is only possible if your roots grow deep. Be blessed today and put energy into going deeper even before growing taller.

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. (1 Cor.1:4-7)

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul finds himself writing to a rapidly growing church, but one that is lacking in spiritual maturity. In the beginning paragraphs of his letter, he reminds them of his time with them and how they came to know Jesus. As he does so, he also affirms the work and presence of God in the church at Corinth. In the text quoted above, Paul declared that his testimony about Christ had been confirmed in the believers there. Our testimony about Christ includes who he is, what he did, and what he will do in us and through us. Remember the words of Jesus himself that those who believe on him will do even greater things than he did.

The most vulnerable Christian is the one who has an intellectual knowledge of the truths about Jesus but no personal experience with him. Paul’s testimony about Jesus was undoubtedly confirmed by the presence of faith in the church and, most likely, through life change that these believers had seen in one another. However, the confirmation that Paul points to in this context is the experience of spiritual gifts. The reality of Jesus and his Spirit living in us is often confirmed by the power of his Spirit working though us.

In several accounts of men and women coming to faith in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit “fell on” or “filled” new believers. The normative experience of many of them was the spontaneous experience of speaking in tongues or prophesying. For others it was an uncharacteristic boldness in proclaiming the gospel, the spontaneous healing of someone they just prayed for, or the experience of driving a demon out of someone who has been afflicted. All of these are manifestations of spiritual gifts. The response of the seventy-two that Jesus sent out to preach was similar. “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Lk.10:17-20).

Jesus had preached many sermons about the kingdom of heaven and the power of that kingdom. He had demonstrated that power through miracles on numerous occasions. He had appointed twelve to be apostles but then chose seventy-two “ordinary” followers and sent them out to do what he had been doing. Imagine being one of those seventy-two who suddenly was given a directive by the Lord to go preach and to do what he had been doing – all by yourself. It would be one thing to believe that Jesus was uniquely anointed by the Father for such things; it would be quite another thing to believe that you, an ordinary follower full of questions and imperfections, could ever do the same. And yet, Jesus’ own testimony about himself was that the Father had given him authority to both exercise personally and delegate to others. I have no doubt that when those seventy-two walked away from Jesus, many carried doubt that what he had commanded them to do could be done.

And yet, they still went out with imperfect faith and risked doing what they had seen him do. I’m sure they tried to recall his words as some formula for healing or casting out a demon. I’m sure that was their initial approach because we all do the same thing as we make our first attempts at healing, deliverance, prophecy, or even evangelism. And let’s face it, we say the words more with a sense of hope than any firm expectation. And yet, Jesus came through for them. They came back rejoicing and full of faith.

In the same way, when the person standing before us is healed or set free from some spirit, something very significant happens within. Suddenly, we believe more that ever that Jesus is who he says he is, that he actually does have power and authority over the enemy, and that he is truly willing to do his supernatural work through us. At that moment, a bit of hope begins to turn into a firm expectation because the testimony we had heard many times about Jesus is suddenly confirmed through a personal experience not just an intellectual position.

In Acts 17, Paul tried the intellectual approach in Athens. He stood on Mars Hill and offered his best intellectual explanations of the gospel and the resurrection of Jesus. At the end of the day, we are told that a few men believed. His next evangelistic effort was at Corinth. Between Athens and Corinth he decided on a very different approach to evangelism. He decided that he would dispense with great intellectual arguments and oratory. He would simply preach the gospel and then demonstrate it.

After preaching, he apparently did what Jesus had always done. He talked about God’s love in Christ and the power of the cross and then confirmed his sermon by healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and casting out unclean spirits. He wasn’t just showing off or validating his apostleship, he was touching hurting people with God’s love and power. Many who had been touched by a spiritual gift received their own and through their gifts they confirmed who Jesus was for others and continued to confirm who he was for themselves. Experience is a powerful teacher.

I used to get in a hurry when I was attempting some do-it-yourself projects around the house. One night, I hurriedly and carelessly pulled a power miter saw down on my thumb. Now, if I ever get in a hurry or begin to act carelessly around a power tool that experience comes to mind and I quickly repent. I knew all the intellectual arguments for taking my time and making safety a priority. I had read the manuals and watched the DIY programs on television religiously. However, I still ignored those commandments. On the other hand, one brief, personal experience made me a lifetime believer who now rarely wanders from the truth about power miter saws. Experiences with Jesus, through the exercise of spiritual gifts, can have the same powerful effect on our belief.

In churches, where spiritual gifts are denied or minimized, faith tends to be an intellectual exercise. The testimony about Jesus will stand until a more persuasive argument against Jesus is offered or until something happens that doesn’t fit into the “crafted” understanding a person has of Jesus. I think that crisis of faith occurs for many young believers who lose their faith in college. What they were taught at home seems to be trumped by more persuasive arguments offered by impressive, unbelieving professors at the university. One intellectual argument falls to another.

However, if that same student was ever miraculously healed by Jesus, saw his mother’s cancer disappear at a prayer meeting, or his father’s drunken rage turn to love and gentleness, an intellectual argument may challenge him but will not destroy his faith because he has experienced the reality of Jesus, not just heard about it. I’m certain that no intellectual argument about the scriptures would have ever swayed Saul of Tarsus, but a supernatural experience with Jesus changed everything in a matter of minutes.

In spite of the biblical model, many churches still push back against teachings that the Holy Spirit still gives supernatural gifts that often are expressions of power – healing, deliverance, prophetic words, words of knowledge, wisdom, tongues, and so forth. When questioned, they will quickly point to the abuse of such gifts or the potential of deception in the exercise of those gifts. In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul acknowledged that some abuse and deception was being practiced in the church there. However, rather than shutting down the exercise of such gifts or denying their validity, he taught them the mature exercise of such gifts and instructed them to pray for even more.

The very nature of Christ is expressed through spiritual gifts so that who he is and what he promises is confirmed through those gifts. To deny them or minimize them robs the church of that confirmation through personal, life-changing experiences with Jesus. It prevents unbelievers from having those personal encounters as well. In I Corinthians 12-14, Paul tells the church three times to eagerly or earnestly desire spiritual gifts. It seems that we should also eagerly desire the gifts since they build up the church and strengthen our faith and relationship with Jesus as well. If you hunger for a spiritual gift – go for it. Ask the Father for it. He loves to give good gifts to his children!