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.

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. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  I Corinthians 13:8:13

The passage quoted above comes from 1 Corinthians 13 which is often referred to as the Love Chapter.  Paul’s description of love in this chapter has been read at countless weddings and other settings.  You know…. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud”…and so forth.  Interestingly, this chapter is sandwiched between two other chapters on the use spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, healings, miracles, administration, and so forth.

The reason the chapter exists is that the believers at Corinth had been given amazing gifts but were exercising those gifts in selfish ways rather than as God intended.  Paul begins his letter by declaring, “So now you aren’t lacking any spiritual gift” (1 Cor. 1:7), which is very impressive, but he goes on to say, “When I was with you, I found it impossible to speak to you as those who are spiritually mature people for you are still dominated by the mind-set of the flesh” (1 Cor. 3:1, Passion Translation).

Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church makes it clear that believers can possess and exercise impressive spiritual gifts while at the same time not having the spiritual character to operate in those gifts as God intended.  The church at Corinth was full of people who were self-promoting, self-focused believers who were using their gifts to exalt themselves and to establish some kind of pecking order for who was “greatest in the kingdom.”

It’s important to notice that Paul did not forbid the use of the gifts because they were being abused, but rather instructed them in how to exercise the gifts with a godly perspective and attitude.  So…he drops an entire chapter in the middle of the conversation telling them that if there use of the gifts was not governed by love, then what they thought was impressive was totally unimpressive to God.  By the way that is true for all things not just the exercise of spiritual gifts.  If preaching, evangelism, giving to the poor, leading worship, etc. is not done with a heart of love towards God and his people, it counts for nothing in the kingdom of heaven.

Paul was essentially saying to God’s people at Corinth that although they thought they were extremely mature, they were extremely immature.  God is love.  Therefore, he cannot do anything without love as his motive. Paul argues that we must reflect that same love in everything we do if what we do is going to be pleasing to the Father and if we want him to increase the anointing and favor in our lives.  It is not about earning his love or favor, because it is all by grace, but it is about demonstrating that we can be good stewards of what he gives us.  Remember the principle…he who is faithful in little will be made faithful in much.  Love seems to be a defining measure of what it means to be faithful.  To be faithful means that we live and use the resources God has given us just as God would use them.

So…in that chapter, Paul states, “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.”

Much has been made of this text by those who believe that God no longer distributes his miraculous gifts to the church.  They argue that the apostle clearly states that the gifts will cease and they will cease when “perfection” comes.  The word translated as “perfection” is teleion in Greek, which can mean complete.  So those who hold the Cessationist view (the gifts have ceased to operate) argue that perfection is the “completed word of God.”

The idea is that gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge were needed only until the New Testament canon was completed, and once the complete will of God was made known through the written word, all the gifts would cease in the church. That view holds that the gifts were only temporary and temporarily needed to reveal God’s will to his church because the New Testament was in the process of being revealed. Once all of the N.T. had been penned and compiled in what we think if as the New Testament, the miraculous would cease.

The word teleion can mean complete in the sense of “there is no more to do,” but it also means complete in the sense of full maturity.  Jesus used the word when he said, “Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). He was challenging his followers to have the mind and heart of God which is the definition of full spiritual maturity.   In Philippians 3:12, Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”  The word perfect in this verse is teleion again. Paul is simply saying that he his not yet Christ-like in every thing he says or does. In other words, he is not yet motivated by love in everything he does, says, or thinks.

In the context of 1 Corinthians, spiritual maturity is the goal, not a completed New Testament canon.  The idea of perfection is that when we are perfected in Christ, the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will no longer be needed.  When we are perfect, complete, and fully mature in our ability to love, then those three gifts (and, perhaps, the rest) will cease. Okay, so if the gifts are needed until we love like Jesus loves…then I think they are still greatly needed.  I believe that we will be perfected in love, only when Jesus returns and when we are with him face-to-face, and so I belief the gifts are for the church until Jesus returns.  Paul is simply highlighting the fact that love is superior to gifts because the time will comes when the gifts will not longer be needed but love is forever.

Paul underlines this emphasis on spiritual maturity when he says that we need to be transformed from children to spiritual adulthood…which is his theme throughout the letter.  His point is that if you want to truly be great in the kingdom, seek love over the gifts. Don’t be mistaken…Paul is big on the gifts and wants them to powerfully work in the church.  However, he insists that they must be motivated and directed by love.  Otherwise, they will do more harm than good.

I think we can conclude from this section, that if we want an increase in gifts and anointing in our own lives and in our churches, we should pray first for the capacity to love as Jesus loves.  Our desire for the gifts must be based on a hunger to bless others rather than to exalt ourselves.  Paul counsels us to “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy” (1 Cor.14:1).  Notice that he puts love before the gifts in this verse.

Perhaps, our daily prayer then should be, “Lord, I earnestly desire your spiritual gifts and your anointing in greater measure, but more than that, I want to love as Jesus loves. Give me that heart first, and then the gifts I desire because then I will use them as you desire.”

Blessings in Him

As we continue to consider the nature of the demonic realm through the lens of Mark’s gospel, one of the more interesting moments is when the demons enter the herd of swine and they all rush into the water and drown. Mark tells us that after Jesus commanded the demons to leave, they began to plead for mercy. Demons don’t always leave at our first command and some will try to talk you out of the deliverance. Typically they are feigning boldness but are actually terrified of losing their place. Once given permission to enter the herd, destruction quickly followed. If demons look for some kind of body to inhabit, then destroying their hosts seems counter productive because they would be left to wander through arid places again. This suggests what we already know…it is the nature of Satan and his demons to kill, steal, and destroy. They can’t help themselves even if it means looking for another residence.  If you expect anything else from them, you will be mistaken.

They may feign friendship for a while, but in the end they will destroy you.  Demons are glad to bide their time and slowly but progressively take over more of a person’s life.  They often pretend friendship in the beginning and even provide what the host would consider a blessing and a path to happiness – the relationship he or she wanted, financial gain, fame, healing, the promotion, or even the removal of an enemy.  Those who follow demons or worship them as false God’s would not continue to do so unless there were some payoffs in that relationship. Ultimately, however, those spirits will come to collect on the bill and destruction will follow.

The next thing revealed in the account is the immediate change in the man who had been tormented.  Suddenly – within minutes – he is clothed and in his right mind. His problem was not mental illness, but demonic infestation.  All the therapy and drugs in the world would not have set him free.  I’m not saying that all mental illness is demonic but much is and will not bow except to divine weapons.  By the way, where did they get the clothes for the formerly naked demoniac. Some commentators believed that Jesus brought them with him as he already knew the man’s needs.  Mark records that while they were terrified of the storm as they crossed Galilee, Jesus was asleep resting on a pillow or a cushion.  It is possible that the pillow was simply a bag full of clothing that he was carrying for the man that would soon be set free.  Jesus knows every need and can meet every need when suddenly we are separated from the demonic who sometimes has been our provider.

Next we see the response of the people to the healing and restoration of the man. We might have expected them to be excited for the man whose sanity had been restored or to beg Jesus to stay. Surely they had their share of sick and demonized people who needed his touch. Instead, they asked in a demanding way for Jesus to leave immediately.

People fear what they don’t understand and that fear makes them blind to the good they are witnessing.  If you are not used to supernatural moves of God, your response may be fear rather than wonder.  Some people get excited when they see a miracle while others simply get very uncomfortable. They may even ask (or insist) that those who brought the supernatural goodness of God into their midst leave or even declare that the healings or deliverance they are witnessing are of the devil rather than God. That was the response of the Pharisees.

Religious people tend to define what God can do or not do based on their understanding of scripture so that anything outside the fences they have erected is distrusted and dismissed. God certainly will not contradict his word but he doesn’t mind contradicting our understanding of his word. Freedom ministries are not wide spread because they tend to be planted outside of traditional denominational fences even though healing and deliverance helped define the very ministry of Jesus. Our “God in a box” mentality has kept much of the church in bondage for centuries.  I wonder what God will have to say  to those who so zealously protected their box while his sheep remained in bondage?

Finally, as you would expect, the man who had been freed from his bondage by Jesus did not want to leave his side.  I don’t blame him.  I would have been afraid that the former tenants would be looking to return at their first opportunity and I would have assumed that only the presence of Jesus could have kept me free.  Jesus, however, would not let the man get in the boat but simply told him to go and tell others what God had done for him.  We discover the power of testimony in this story.

First, his testimony prepared the soil for Jesus to return at a later time.  On his return to Decapolis months later, crowds would be waiting for him.  The former demoniac did not have a degree in theology but he had a testimony.  But even more than that, the testimony of the man seamed to seal his deliverance. For those set free from Satan, his first attack is nearly always an attempt to persuade the individual that nothing really changed and that the freedom he or she “thought” they had experienced was a deception. If Satan can convince the newly freed believer that he or she is still under his power, then that person will quickly relapse into believing the lies of the enemy and be oppressed again. Testimony not only honors God, but establishes faith in those who hear the testimony as well as in the one who is giving the testimony.

Many churches have a few individuals or couples who minister deliverance in their home or a back room of the church, but their ministry is not mentioned from the pulpit.  Indeed, when is the last time you heard a sermon on demons and deliverance? I know we want to avoid looking weird but the demonic realm, the need for deliverance, and the power of Jesus is not weird…it is a reality that needs to be talked about and testimonies given. Otherwise, thousands of God’s children will never know the freedom Jesus purchased for them.

The question is often asked as to whether we should deliver unbelievers from the power of Satan.  After all, there is some risk involved if the person delivered does not give his life to Jesus.  Remember that Jesus said a demon that had been cast out would return to see if the house (the host) was vacant.  If so, he would return and bring seven others with him more wicked than he was. (Jesus’ words reveal that there are not only levels of authority among demons, but also degrees of wickedness.) This question is probably best decided on a case-by-case basis and the leading of the Spirit.  Not everyone who is delivered will become a follower.  Matthew’s gospel says that there were two demoniacs that Jesus encountered after the storm, but the other gospels mention only one.  I believe that only one was mentioned in the other gospels because that one was known by the church.  He had become a follower of Jesus while the other did not become a follower and simply disappeared into history.  It might be fair to share the benefits and risks of deliverance to an unbeliever before ministering freedom and let him or her decide. Even believers need to be warned to fill up the space left after deliverance with the Spirit of God or they also may be subject to the return of the enemy.

Hopefully, our walk through this account has given you some additional insights into deliverance and the demonic realm or confirmed some things you were already thinking. Dealing with the demonic should be an everyday event in the life of every church as it was with Jesus.  We do not want to become obsessed with the enemy because our obsession should be Jesus.  However, we do need to know his schemes and know how to deal with him as he afflicts those around us.

When you read early Christian writings there is always a great deal of emphasis on Christ’s admonition to take up our cross daily in order to follow him. The theology of the cross is that God uses hardship to conform us to Jesus and to teach us to make him our source of strength and supply.  In America, where comfort and plenty have defined many lives, the idea of taking up our cross is rarely proclaimed and is even a bit offensive if we are honest. In some corners of the kingdom, a prosperity gospel has been preached which suggests that material abundance and ease are God’s will for his people on earth and proof of his favor. Preachers of that gospel tend to live on lavish estates and raise money for twenty-six passenger jets to fly around the globe preaching to the poor.

I’m not opposed to believers making a great living. It is believers with means whom God can use to fund the kingdom here on earth and actually care for the poor. What I question, even in my own life, is how much I have bought into the notion that sacrificial living is no longer an essential element in pleasing God and drawing close to him.  In fact, American believers tend to see hardship in our lives as proof that somehow God is displeased with us.  If that were the case, then Jesus and those who first followed him must have been very displeasing to God. I am reminded of David’s words when he said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offering that cost me nothing” (2 Sam.24:24).

Taking up our cross daily is not necessarily a call to poverty or persecution.  It is, however, a call to setting our personal agenda aside each day while we genuinely seek God’s agenda for us.  It is saying “No” to the natural man who demands to have his way, demands to be treated with respect, demands his rights, demands to be first, demands to be given the seat of honor, refuses to submit to anyone, and who is always self-focused and concerned about his comfort, his success, and his well-being.

The truth is that most of our pain and discomfort in life comes from our self-focus. It is that focus that measures every interaction to see if we were given due deference.  It notices every ache and pain in our body and keeps score in every relationship.  It takes offense, issues judgments, justifies our own shortcomings and rings the “victim” alarm every time we feel that life hasn’t been fair. Our self-focus keeps pulling the scab off of our own wounds as we constantly rehearse the scenes where those wounds were inflicted and keeps Jesus at bay because we feel such a need to protect ourselves by being in control.

Taking up our cross daily puts the focus on Jesus and others, rather than ourselves.  It actually reduces our pain even though we believe our pain would increase. It is something, I believe, that only the Holy Spirit can do in us, but won’t due without our constant permission. We all want to be filled with the Spirit but if we are filled with self, there is little room for the Spirit to move and work.

In a culture that promotes self-love, attending to our needs first, and entitlement it is difficult to take up our cross.  We would rather pay someone else to carry our cross for us. Unfortunately, that task cannot be outsourced.  The paradox, of course, is that the key to abundant living is dying to our own demands. The key to freedom is surrendering to Jesus…not just the parts we don’t care about but everything. I believe it is also a key to greater anointing and power because when we carry our cross, we will steward those things as Jesus would, rather than for our own affirmation. I need to consider this reality in my own life today.  You might need to as well.

I’m reading through the Book of Acts once again and once again I am reminded that opposition to the gospel was more often posed by religious factions than by the state.  Certainly, Rome eventually became the great enemy of the church but in the first thirty years or so it was the Jewish religious institutions that set Rome against Jesus and that pursued their own persecution against the church. Saul of Tarsus was the epitome of that persecution before he became the Apostle Paul. The Book of Acts declares, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2). Saul, as an extension of the Sanhedrin, would hold the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death.

The Romans persecuted the church as a matter of political expediency but the Jews seemed to harbor a genuine hate for the followers of Jesus. Even in America today, it seems that denominations sometimes present more opposition to one another than atheists or anti-Christian government policies.  The truth is that if believers trusted one another and were united in our faith, the government would not be passing legislation that is opposed to Christian values. We have to ask what is there about religion that produces division, opposition, and even hatred at times towards others who also profess to be followers of Jesus?

In short, there is a spirit of religion that manifests as religious legalism and that legalism is the ever-present catalyst for division, accusation, and even persecution. Of course, there are times to “draw a line in the sand” between people who claim to follow Jesus yet whose doctrines vastly contradict what scripture says about Jesus.  Those who claim that Jesus was not truly God but a created being or that the he was not actually raised from the dead or that he is only one of several ways for men to be saved have to be opposed and scripture commands us to do so.  But, generally speaking, divisions in the church and prejudice against other believers has not stemmed from our views on Jesus, but everything else, such as forms of church governance, worship styles, beliefs about the activity of the Holy Spirit, and even in whose name(s) someone should be baptized.

Legalism is the belief that we attain salvation through our own efforts or our own good works.  I asked a friend who is part of a very legalistic fellowship what he did with the passages that say we are saved by grace and not through any works of our own (Eph. 2:8-10).  He quickly stated that we are saved by grace because it is by grace that God gives us the opportunity to earn our salvation through good works. Legalism always and quickly asserts that we are saved not just by doing the right things but also by believing the right things….not just about Jesus, but about church doctrine as well. Those who view scripture differently are seen as “worshipping God in error” and, therefore, their salvation is at risk.  Because of that, true believers should have little to do with those who are in error because their error might creep into the true doctrine of those who have correctly interpreted scripture.

My first years as a believer were spent in a fellowship that drew very tight lines around doctrine and although they proclaimed loudly that we are saved by grave, their actions revealed that they actually believed that we are saved by holding to correct doctrine in all things. Churches who varied, even within that fellowship, were held suspect and sometimes “marked” and fellowship was withheld by other churches in that denomination. In those circles, the mark of faithfulness was not so much a lifestyle that reflected Jesus, but a fierce defense of the doctrines of that fellowship.  Clearly, when the enemy has convinced us that salvation depends on correct interpretation of all things in the Bible, huge and passionate divisions will take place. In Romans 14, Paul warns us not to reject one another over “disputable matters,” which seems to include many things over which churches have divided.

Certainly, the Pharisees believed they alone correctly understood the demands of the Law and believed they were the only dispensers of truth.  How often did they judge Jesus as a false Messiah because he did not measure up to their understanding of the scriptures, even though his life was a life of undeniable miracles? Within the Pharisees there was an undeniable arrogance and disdain for the “unlearned.”  The “unlearned” were typically anyone who did not agree with them.

Again, their view was that knowing and understanding the written word of God correctly was their primary ticket to heaven. However, Jesus often told them that their quest to be doctrinally purehad gotten in the way of their relationship with the Father and blinded them to God’s interpretation of his own word.  An underlying belief that the first rung of salvation is the correct understanding of all scripture leads to the splitting of doctrinal hairs and a neglect of relationship over knowledge. What a great strategy of the enemy. He takes what is good and a godly desire to know and understand God’s word and perverts it to an end in itself, instead of a way to relationship.  Beware of anyone who believes they have the corner on all Biblical truth and who puts orthodoxy ahead of love and grace.  Paul, a former Pharisee himself, put it this way. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2).

I realize that what I have written may sound as if I think doctrine is unimportant.  Actually, I think it is very important and what we believe about Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross is truly a matter of salvation. I also believe that coming to a greater and greater understanding of all scripture is important and is pleasing to God.  It is pleasing, however, when the motivation behind the study is to discover more of who God is rather than just being able to defend my “rightness” and spiritual superiority more effectively.

It is not doctrine that is the issue as much as our attitude about doctrine and about those who are not in lock step with us. Family members disagree about many things but still view each other as family.  Couples disagree but have to find ways to still love and respect each other in spite of their differences.  The church should be the same.

In my formative years as a Christian, I was actually taught that those outside of our fellowship who did not share our view of scripture did not love the truth or were simply ignorant of the Bible…and most likely were lost.  We took the passage in 2 John 9-11, that said,”Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work,” and expanded that to all doctrine about anything biblically related. John’s letters were all about the Gnostic heresy that denied that Jesus was God, that he came in the flesh, actually died on the cross, and was actually resurrected. The issue was about who Jesus was and what he accomplished on the cross not about every other doctrinal issue in scripture.

In addition to this belief that correct doctrine is essential to salvation, there is also a psychological need to stay “one up” on other believers and people in general.  Think about it.  If you believe that you get to heaven on the basis of your own good works and correct beliefs, then somewhere there is a celestial bell curve with an unknown cut off point.  Those who have done enough or have been right enough, get in.  Those who haven’t are turned away.

If you get to heaven on the basis of your own righteousness, then you are invested in being more righteous than others and so you will always seek to at least portray yourself as more correct, more righteous, more favored, etc. than those around you. That was exactly what the Pharisees did.  So you will become the critical spirit, the judgmental person in the room, and the “holier than thou” pain-in-the-neck at every gathering.  You will work hard to point our every other person’s or every other church’s failings with a tinge of condemnation attached to each bullet point.

This religious spirit will always deny its legalism and proclaim its love, but actions and attitude will reveal where that spirit is operating. The mindset of a religious spirit is difficult to change because everything depends on being right.  It usually takes a dramatic experience to change their view of spiritual realities like Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.   If you have someone in your life in bondage to that spirit, you may want to pray for a dramatic encounter with Christ rather than continuing your efforts to persuade them with scripture.  It is also imperative that we scan our own hearts from time to time to make sure that spirit hasn’t settled in us somehow so that we feel just a little superior to those who don’t share our view of all things spiritual.  If you suspect that spirit has found its way into your heart, get rid of it.  Life is easier and Jesus is much more attractive when that spirit is absent.

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.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Discontent  seems to be the prevailing emotional tenor of our day.  A great many people (at least on television and in the social media) seem angry all the time.  They feel as if life has treated them badly. They feel as if they have been cheated and are looking for someone to blame. Something is missing that they can’t quite put their finger on but it leaves them restless and unfulfilled.

Back in the “80’s and 90’s , a major theme of psychology and counseling was the idea of self-actualization.  Broadly, that term referred to a process in which men and women would discover who they were and what life was about for them.  Their goal was to become all that they could be and, in doing so, to find fulfillment in life. Predictably, since this was a concept derived from the world, it was very self-focused and placed personal happiness as the highest priority in the life of any person.  Even if that self-actualization meant the abandonment of marriage and family and other commitments, that could be justified if those responsibilities were getting in the way of the individual’s pursuit of fulfillment.

God is not opposed to us becoming all that we can be.  He is not opposed to us feeling fulfilled in life.  He is not opposed to us seeking excellence or finding great contentment in what we do. The difference is that God is wise enough to know that true fulfillment is never found in a self-focused pursuit of happiness that rejects our responsibilities towards others.  Remember that the two greatest commandments are love God and love others. It was not love yourself above all.

I think Paul’s words in Ephesians gives us some insight into the reality of fulfillment. He begins by saying that we are God’s workmanship.  The word translated as workmanship carry’s with it the idea that you are God’s creative work.  He had a direct hand in determining who you are, how you are wired, and what talents and gifts you possess.  He even had a direct hand in determining your destiny. That thought echoes Psalm 139 where David declared that we are fearfully and wonderfully madebecause God created our inmost being and knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. Knitting suggests design and purpose. I have a daughter who knits. She never just starts knitting yarn randomly without any thought to form or function.  She always has the end in mind at the beginning.  That is how you are made – with God’s purposes for you in mind.

Paul goes on to say that we are created in Christ Jesus.  The purposes God has for every individual will never be fully realized outside of Christ. God’s intent was for every man and every woman to be redeemed through his Son.  The potential for God’s purposes lies dormant within every human until sparked by the Holy Spirit.  Because man is made in God’s image, humans can do amazing things in their own strength and intellect.  But the truth is, they could be even more amazing in Christ where the Holy Spirit takes the natural and upgrades it to supernatural.

In addition, God designed us to do good workswhich he has prepared in advance for us to do.  Good works are any endeavor that reflects the goodness of God, the intellect of God, the redemptive purposes of God, and that draws men closer to their creator.  Those things include achievements in science, the arts, education, business, agriculture, and government, as well as in building great churches and evangelistic ministries. We too often think of the Kingdom of Heaven as something that is expressed on earth only within the confines of church buildings.  But God wants us to disciple nations.  To do so, the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit must be expressed in every part of society.

Who knows better how to heal the body than the one who created it.  Who better to reveal scientific breakthroughs to eliminate cancer and a thousand other things that kill people prematurely every day. God loves to do miracles but he also loves to work through his people to bring breakthroughs in the natural realm for feeding the hungry, eliminating war, educating the impoverished, providing energy to third world nations, and so forth.  God has created us in Christ with those things in mind.  Our prayer is that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. There is no sickness in heaven, no hunger, no war, no orphans, no dirty water, and so forth. That is God’s will and he wants his people to produce that environment of earth.  Of course, it will never be fully that way until Jesus returns, but we can make deep inroads in correcting the damage that sin and Satan have done on this earth before then.Those things, those opportunities, those good works have been prepared in advance for God’s people to engage in and discover.  They are all potentials waiting for us to embrace and produce by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  God has placed within his people the answers the world is crying out for.

And here is the kicker.  Men and women will never be all they can be until they find God’s purposes for them. Self-actualization only occurs through God-actualization.  Real fulfillment only comes when we run tin he lane God has assigned us.  We are each uniquely designed for his purposes and there will always be something missing until we are in concert with our design.

One of my favorite moves of all time is Chariots of Fire, which was the true story of two English Olympians of the 1920’s.  One was a Presbyterian minister who competed to bring glory to God.  The other was a man looking for self-actualization – fame, money, accomplishment.  The sister of the minister thought his track career was a distraction from his ministry and a total waste of time.  Finally, in frustration, she asked him why he ran. He said something like, “I run because God made me fast.  And when I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”  That is self-actualization.  That is fulfillment. That is knowing your purpose for that particular season of your life.

When we find God’s design for our lives, we are running in our lane and will feel the pleasure of God.  The world is in desperate search of that feeling. Countless men and women have given up on finding that place and now use all kinds of things to medicate the emptiness.  Solomon said that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men.  He has placed heaven there and it is a longing for such a place that drives men.  What they don’t know, is that there is only one door to heaven and that is Jesus. Purpose, belonging, fulfillment, and feeling the pleasure of a Father is on the other side of that door.

Unfortunately, many believers do not yet know that truth either.  They are in Christ but still think their fulfillment is to be found in the things of the world rather than in the full embrace of God’s purposes for their lives. They are still trying to run in the lanes assigned to others rather than the one assigned to them before the foundation of the world. As the old T.V. sitcom says, “Father Knows Best.” When the world and the church discover that truth, whole nations will become disciples.