When Jesus began His ministry on earth a man named Lazarus died in the Jewish town of Bethany in central Israel. Lazarus and his family were good friends with Jesus, and Jesus chose to demonstrate His power over death at that time. Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus and spoke with a loud voice "Lazarus Arise!" The Bible states Lazarus immediately rose from death. John 11: 44
When Jesus spoke to Lazarus to come forth from the dead there were many bodies nearby in other tombs. It has been suggested because of the efficacy and power of Christ’s commands that if Jesus did not call Lazarus by name all the dead entombed within the sound of His voice would have risen. No doubt many dead bodies nearby were named Lazarus. Lazarus was a very common Jewish family name passed down for generations as was custom in many Mediterranean countries to use common family names.
My sister married a Greek man and moved to Athens Greece, but went to be with Jesus a few years ago due to breast cancer. My sister's Greek husband continues to live in Greece. My brother-in-law's name is Yiorgos in Greek. Greeks pass the name Yiorgos, as most Greek names given after Saints of Greek Orthodoxy, down through families for generations. Yiorgos, formerly a merchant seaman, now works as a butcher and meat market barker.
Every weekday Yiorgos shows off his prize cuts of meat, shoving freshly cut slabs of lamb, pork and goat dripping with blood into the faces of passersby saying "This meat good! You buy this meat!" This goes on every weekday in a busy open-air market (agora) in the Mediterranean seaport town of Piraeus Greece where the heat can be stifling, and the flies roam free, if you know what I mean... What sounds repulsive to us is often considered "Fisika" (Natural) or loosely translated as organic...
Often I have called out to my brother-in-law Yiorgos at that agora with dozens of Greek men also named Yiorgos within earshot. Only my brother-in-law recognizes and responds to the sound of my voice. The other men named Yiorgos simply ignore my calls for attention as just another unfamiliar voice in the cacophony of voices calling for recognition as is common when so many men share the same name. Jesus said, “My sheep hear and recognize My voice”.
When Jesus called out to Lazarus to rise from the dead only Lazarus, the friend of Jesus recognized the voice of Christ as someone he knew and trusted. Lazarus responded to Christ's vocative imperative to "Arise" and obediently returned to earthly life. The others named Lazarus entombed nearby perhaps did not know Jesus and ignored His call to arise.
Some speculate that it cost Lazarus dearly to leave the paradise of Heaven to obey Christ's imperative. We have anecdotal reports from Born Again Christians who claim to have had near-death experiences and have been resuscitated, who describe returning to earthly life quite reluctantly and not usually by choice. We do have Biblical evidence when King Saul solicited a witch at Endor to conjure up the spirit of Samuel from the dead that indicated Samuel was none-too-happy about being disturbed (1 Samuel 28)... Not to mention such practices are condemned by the Bible. (Deuteronomy 18:10)
Jesus today through His Word and Spirit is still calling out to dead men to rise from the deadness of religion without relationship. There’s nothing more dead than religion without relationship, as Jesus called the religious elite of His day, Pharisees, “White Washed Tombs”. Those were the ones considered the spiritual elite of the time who attempted to manipulate God’s people with their interpretation of God’s Word biased clearly in their favor.
Many voices within Christianity today are very noisily calling for attention with what they often claim is the Gospel of Christ or some affectation thereof with Christ's Name invoked. Some "Christian Theme Promoters" produce show’s in which snake oil salesmen of the past would be proud. It's hard on the ears and is often rather bizarre.
Others attempt to persuade you that God will honor a gift of money to their ministry over another as they promote some new spin on Theology, dangling the promises of God like gold bobbles, suggesting God's Word is like a slot machine in Vegas where you merely plunk in enough money and it's a sure thing. Never mind that pandering to the struggles Christians all have with unresolved carnal desires is inviting trouble. Distractions to heart-relationship with Christ are everywhere. Human nature naturally bends towards the feel-good religious hype of any day. In today’s culture of instant gratification we look for a religion with instant solutions without any complications.
As long as we are in these Earthly bodies we will be susceptible to the vices of this world, and only a disciplined faith and lifestyle will protect us from the inherent slide backwards from Christ. Without first being delivered from inborn fleshly attractions to greed, and having hearts focused on Christ, the likelihood of being distracted with the things of this world is high. That’s why the Bible speaks to the importance of returning to our “First Love” in and for Christ.
In the natural, long distance relationships often fail for lack of intimacy and communication. In the same way we must seek daily personal intimacy with our Lord. That clearly means business as usual is unacceptable in relationship with Christ now as it was when He was on Earth in bodily form.
I told someone recently I was not satisfied with simply living a Christian life, and that “Old Time Religion”, was NOT good enough for me. The reaction was predictable in calling me a “Fanatic”! Boy did that push my buttons! Jesus said, and it was prophesied, Passion for Thy House Consumes Me”, referring to the intensity of Christ’s desire for the Holiness of his Father and awe due Him in His temple.
In one sense that was a very high compliment towards me being called fanatical, yet on the other hand it exposes the great deal of complacency regarding the things of God most Christian leaders have. To portray intensity for the things of God as being an impairment, or “Mental” condition, is a VERY GREAT insult to a Holy God who is VERY passionate about us! And I dare say those mocking the passion of others for the things of God are playing with issues mocking the Holy Spirit who inhabits those sold-out to Christ.
Cultural Christianity today frequently puts great limitations regarding the expression of love for His Holiness. Sin is excused rather than repented of, and a great fear of the fanatical is elevated to the point it stifles true intimacy with God. It is a very great curse the leaders of Christianity today have burdened us with in restricting the expression of love for God to socially acceptable ways. Exclaiming negative examples of extremism prove only individual failure and does not suggest passion on the whole leads to negative manifestations.
Many Christians are satisfied with superficial relationships with Christ and place so much emphasis on the initial salvation experience that maintaining that freshness of relationship with Christ personally is so easily considered irrelevant to “Saving Souls”. I’ve got news for the Pharisee’s of today in that there’s something more important than saving souls for Christ!
That’s a pretty bold statement, but it is the truth so often overlooked. Jesus asked what the great commandment was that overrode all others. That was to love the Lord God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Now excuse me, but there is nothing about salvation in that great commandment! Not that is not a part of it nor why Christ was sent to Earth, the singular great commandment remains the same. If that primary mission is not fulfilled how can we expect the Lord to bless us for “Saving Souls”, when clearly we do not love God with all our hearts, only hope we will win favor by attempting to save souls.
The intentions are all sugar coated, but the reality remains in most cases that Christians simply are not passionately in Love with God and exercise many good things instead. There’s one thing I have learned after many years as a Christian is that God wants our love for Him as the number one priority.
Come on now, I know how this works… We want to believe we love God, and think going through the motions will win His approval. If we in stark and explicit honesty come before God and tell Him how we really feel, which He already knows anyway, we are afraid of rejection for expressing our true feelings…
We want to love and trust Him, but in most cases we hold a great deal of doubt and anger towards God for the things we secretly hold against Him. Things and questions we simply don’t understand and perceive as a mean God. We superficially try to convince ourselves these inconsistencies don’t bother us, but brought to the surface we are pretty angry at God.
Try something different, tell God EXACTLY how you feel! Tell Him flat out that you hold anger and resentment towards Him for the inexplicable injustices you have perceived He has done, or the things you feel He has failed to do! Do it in an attitude of honesty not in hate, but DO IT! He knows all about the secret anger we hold towards Him so we are merely deceiving ourselves. The common unspoken notion is that I dare not tell God how I really feel, because I’m supposed to clean up my bad attitude before coming to Him… Oh yeah? Where is that in the Bible? We are deluding ourselves if we believe we can use His grace as a magic stick, then come to Him showing how His grace has cleaned up your heart. That’s as insulting as it sounds, but we do it all the time!
If God is not an intimate part of an honest cleansing of the secret things of our heart we separate Him from us even further. Only He can cleanse us from the things He hates in us, and there is ONLY ONE WAY to do that! That is by confession! Just tell Him honestly you are struggling with doubts about His goodness and love.
I told that to someone once and they said they dare not tell God what they really think of Him! Yeah, like He doesn’t already know! Stop hiding behind fig leaves! God knows EXACTLY how you feel towards Him, and He’s waiting for you to admit it!
One of the most difficult things we can do is act honestly in relationship with God! It’s culturally rare, and there’s an unspoken understanding that we suppress our bad thoughts from God as a part of being Holy! How ridiculous! We can’t use God’s grace apart from God’s intimacy, but that’s what most of us do every day! Believe me! You won’t be struck dead for honesty before God! You may be struck dead for attempting to deceive God and yourself!
I have seen spiritual giants brought down instantly because they are so hung up on the “God can do no harm” Theology… God the Father did not merely turn a deaf ear to those crucifying His Son, but the Bible states He “Took Pleasure” in His Son’s torture. In most cultures taking pleasure in the torture of another human being is considered perverse! But as Christ noted, God did forsake Him for a brief moment. Isaiah spoke of the reality of this, but we gloss over it with flippant expressions that God can do no harm to the innocent. Well He did do harm and took pleasure in it! We have to get over this and express our lack of understanding in these matters to Him openly!
There is clearly something we as humans cannot reconcile in our human understanding regarding the nature of God’s holiness. We MUST sacrifice our “Need to understand” this paradox and confess to the Father we don’t understand and have doubts about His loving nature!
It works exactly opposite what one would expect in the natural! Instead of being punished for expressing doubts and fears, we are rewarded for honesty. Honesty is so rare that God values it above the many attempts to bypass His grace!
Some evangelical Christians come across to many worldly folks as manic high-pressure used car salesmen, who "Perform" a hyper-aroused act of witnessing like over-wound cuckoo clocks crowing out terse and obscure phrases in your face. "Sinner repent!", "Praise the Lord" and "Jesus saves". Afterwards I have too often seen these "Jack-in-the-boxes' " sit back in the shadows to smoke a cigarette or pop open a beer, as if they have purged their conscience so now they can relax. Seriously I had a guy witness to me on an airplane like his pants were on fire, and then when he found out I already was a Christian he looked disappointed and ordered a beer from the Flight Attendant. Living a Christian life, and sharing our hope in Christ's love, should not be so nervous or bizarre. There was clearly no love, just a robotic and bi-polar, extreme highs or lows of emotion in a fleshly effort to “Score” souls!
It takes REAL Power to raise dead bodies from the grave as Jesus did. I'm not impressed with glitz and glamour of many modern forms of Christianity with lots of promises but little of substance. I look for real manifestations of the Power of God as described in the Bible because my expectations are from a living and active God who is unchanging. The Power displayed and expressed in the Bible, though often over-hyped and appearing strangely elusive in today's world is not as rare or as improbable as many have suggested.
Where exactly is the Power of Christ's voice in those who claim to represent Him today in like manner as demonstrated in the Bible? Never mind the showmanship and highly subjective promises so liberally titillated in front of the desperate, mocking the true meaning of God's promises.
The Old Testament Bible speaks of a common man named Amos, living an honest life humble before God. Amos apparently was simply an ordinary man during his time but God had given a message to him for the nation of Israel that was burning inside him. Amos said of himself "I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but a grower of sycamore figs and a herdsman of sheep" (Amos 7:14). God used this simple and down to earth man to restore clarity to the laws of God that the nation of Israel had fudged so badly and chose to deem irrelevant to their lives.
Gee, that wouldn't be like a modern Christian church calling sin good and putting leaders in place that lie, cheat, bear false witness, steal, hurt others, and are self-serving? Solomon said it best... "There is nothing new under the sun". (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
So let's get this straight... Some fig picker from the country no one recognized as an authority in Theology or possessing religious heritage, with no apparent formal education, gets this Anointing from God, during a time in which there was no apparent Biblical precedent for a lay-person to be endowed with God's Anointing in which he clearly articulates the specific violations of God's law the nation of Israel violated, and God's punishment, but with an option for mercy. And this fig picking sheepherder spoke with Divine authority virtually nullifying anything the religious leaders of the time were saying. This during a time when the spiritual elite were doing whatever the spiritual elite do (Mainly preaching complacently towards the power of God's promises and instead promoting their own agenda in God's name). They'd had God's people lower their expectations of the effectiveness of praying, (As an excuse for their lack of faith), and make lame excuses like "If it's God's will you may experience God's manifestation of power and healings". Have I got that right?
Where have we seen that before? That wouldn't be like when Jesus began His earthly ministry and pointed out that the mother of the demon possessed girl from the land of Canaan had faith no one else in the land of Israel at the time (Matthew 15:22). Israel, God's chosen land had not showed such faith even when the prophets were alive. So what's changed? God's Word hasn't changed. His Faithfulness hasn't changed. Today we are now grafted in as the Body of Christ (Romans 11:17) and we don't often see the Power as demonstrated by Christ and His disciples as commonplace, and we dismiss this perceived lack of mass salvations, gifts of the Spirit and physical manifestations of the miraculous as obsolete.
So help me out here... Do we need to dismiss the Biblical examples of faith, optimism, and expectation in God's Word as Jesus clearly instructed us to expect contingent upon our faith? Nothing ever changes... Unbelief is just as pervasive now, as when Jesus was physically on earth, as when the prophets of God were alive and why is it so hard to believe nothing has changed in God's Word or sadly, human nature? So do we go with the status quo and elevate some lame excuses for the lack of Biblical examples of Power today as being more spiritual? Do we associate Biblical examples of power only with bug-eyed Pentecostal freaks? Well, perhaps those infamous cases of bizarre behavior of many modern healing evangelists are intentional stumbling blocks to those hell-bent not to believe in the miraculous. I would hope God’s answer to our prays would not be an answer with a curse for unbelief like the Father of John the Baptist who apparently didn’t believe his own prayers and was made mute for a season.
Ya know, I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I can recognize a pattern... Jesus pointed out there were no miracles in Israel in general in the past or present because of lack of faith, and pointed out that Namaan the Syrian received a miracle (Luke 4:27), and then a Canaanite woman received her miracle while Jesus was marveling at her faith (Matthew 15:21-28) ... As it goes history repeats itself... And it should be no surprise that when God's Word clearly mandates faith and the miraculous as a timeless element based solely on an individual's faith in Christ that the spiritual elite of our day are unable to demonstrate the faith of a child Jesus so clearly articulated. If you accept a negative as normal then tell that to someone long enough they'll actually believe it! Never mind it has no basis in reality or truth! Our enemy Satan doesn't have to do a thing, as we have convinced ourselves that revivals with power, healings, signs and wonders are a thing of the past. And our unbelief is quick to dismiss those signs and wonders that are real as the work of fruitcakes! We do Satan's work for him so he doesn't have to lift a finger!
Have you ever tried to put something like a swing-set together that the manufacturer claims is so simple a child could do it? Well, where's a child when you need one, I always say... Well, us macho men don't need directions, we believe we could engineer the whole thing ourselves, so why waste time reading the directions? Faith is like that! Without the shedding of our natural understandings and abilities, dismissing conventional thought and reason and actually paying attention to the simple directions, we waste a great deal of time and generate a lot of frustration.
So, what has Christ been speaking to us from before the foundation of the world in this timeless state of His sacrifice and redemption of man? The same thing the prophets tried to preach, the same thing Jesus tried to evoke, the same thing His Word screams from the pages of the Bible! "Whatsoever you ask in prayer believing you shall receive" (Matthew 21:22). The only two conditions have always been the same!!! And they are praying and believing!
Amos, in addition to pointing out to the nation of Israel that they had forsaken God and the simplicity of following His laws, plus abused His grace by excusing sin with the flippant presumptions presumably such as "My animal sacrifice excuses me", or today's equivalent "My sin is covered by the Blood of Jesus", with no intention of changing one's behavior.
Amos delivered his firestorm of words given to him by the Lord he then afterwards blessed the nation of Israel under the Anointing, or divine blessing of supernatural power of God and interceded for Israel's condition. Some old walls of unbelief had to be torn down and re-plumbed to build their faith straight as Amos pointed out (Amos 7:7). This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" _ "A plumb line," I replied. _ Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
In other words, Amos was conveying God's Word to get back to His standards of truth He clearly established in His Word! Now we hold a great deal of nostalgia for many of our walls of our attempts at faith, but if they were not set properly according to God's Word, they have to come down! God's Word was plumbed straight, but things like nostalgia will send you to Hell if you elevate it beyond the truth of God's Word. Many people hold to a form of Godliness but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). Only Jesus Christ, not a building, not a ministry, not a career of preaching, NOTHING but Christ Jesus will save your soul!
Why didn't God just snap His fingers and make all that Amos had to say happen? Because it is through obedience and the humility of faith and prayer that God is moved! God uses humble men and women to show that it's not about the messenger, but the message! It is the simplicity and humbleness of faith, not arrogant proclamations of faith. And certainly not Highbrow Theologians with some whacked-out gyration of the game of Twister! "Put your right foot on the devil, and your left hand on God's Word, then move your left elbow three times chanting "There is no problem, there is no problem, there is no problem" until you work yourself into an altered state of denial. Leave me out of those faith games!
Today, so-called prophets are expected to blow nothing but sunshine up our shorts, otherwise they are run out of town on a rail... I don't see any prosperity prophets in the Bible, in fact it seemed like people ended up dead or bloody wherever God's prophets went. Nathan the prophet had boldness as big as church-bells to come up the David the King of Israel and tell him he's done wrong with his sin and even though David repented, he still paid a very heavy price! (2 Samuel 12). Today's liberal Theologians would have us recite some weak prayer for our sin and send us on our way like the sin never happened! When actually there's Hell to pay, and someone is going to pay it, usually the innocent victims of the sin! God is not mocked! (Galatians 6: 7-9)
Christ promises us freedom from sin, not freedom too sin! Though the remarkable cleansing grace and power of Christ is awesome, and total, we may have to face some collateral consequences. For example if what you did was illegal you may have to go to jail, or pay restitution as the Bible says (Luke 19:8). If you fathered a child you would need to pay child support for the next 18 years, not to mention the moral obligations of raising a child. Just as in the natural, there are spiritual consequences to our sin... Hezekiah begged the Lord to extend his life, and though the Lord granted his request, his kingdom and people fell into great oppression and captivity (Isaiah 38-39). Personally I believe this was an answer to Hezekiah's unbelief in God's Eternal kingdom and fear of death, and the consequences of that sin of fear affected many people. And again, the father of John the Baptist, though actively praying for a son, did not believe the Word from the Angel of the Lord that he would have a son, and was made mute until John was born! (Luke 1:5-60)
Many have risked their lives to speak the truth as Amos did. Queen Ester risked her life to come before the king unannounced with some pretty hard facts about Haman (Esther 1-10). Peter was loaded with some of that prophetic judgment when Ananias and Sapphira attempted to deceive the Holy Sprit and they drop dead one after another (Acts 5:1-10). Now that's kinda heavy should someone operate in the gifts of Prophesy as Peter did today! That would sober up a modern church REALLY quick today!
Even Jesus Himself expressed the dark realities quite vividly so as to expose those who deluded themselves... No one in the Bible taught anything but getting closer to God and loving others as the primary teaching of Christ. And there were clear consequences for mingling Godliness with sin. We are so obsessed with sacrificing truth for a form of peace in the name of love, that we forget God's Word to us warning us not to take lightly the discipline of the Lord. The Bible states that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling... That would be REAL fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), as we lay prostrate before a HOLY God!!!
What happened during the time of Amos to the appointed priests trained in Theology, and prophets of God supposedly sensitive to the heart of God? Perhaps they were out arranging the ancient equivalent of bingo games and ice cream socials, or human rights marches, or even devising new get-rich-quick schemes in God's Name instead of interceding on their knees in prayer for the needs of lost souls. Others no doubt denied the truth of Scriptures and reinforced many doubts of God's timeless active work in numerous lives. Many lived like Hell, and spoke like Heaven with no relationship with God, only the accoutrements of such.
No doubt many of the leaders of Israel at the time of Amos were sitting on their laurels and pointed to the lack of a clearly appointed prophet at that time as "Proof" of their suggestion that God did not communicate with power at that time, or such expectations were out of context with the promises in God's Word for their generation. Common sense is hijacked, reason is pulled like Salt Water Taffy and logic is shattered as a truckload of windows in a bad wreck!
These leaders chose a negative reassignment of the meaning of Scriptural promises of timeless hope rather than a proper attitude of optimism, present tense expectation and faith. Instead of honestly expressing that their lack of faith failed to provide the manifest power of God experienced in the past as demonstrated through the Bible, they had redefined failure to mean they had entered a "New Dispensation" or era in time that the act of "giving up" can be labeled faith. Is accepting failure to receive God's promises really the proper mindset than pursuing active faith with physical manifestations plus signs and wonders as demonstrated all through the Bible?
Many today point to hucksters of the Gospel, and purveyors of miraculous healings as obvious frauds, claiming this proves miracles are a thing of the past. It is erroneous logic that associates individual crime, with the truth.
So Jesus was just speaking a metaphorical style of parable when He was telling the story of Naaman the Syrian and his slave girl who told him of a prophet that commanded God's healing power and believed it (Matthew 15: 21-28), or was that just some cutesy folktale to tell the kiddies about around the fire? Ya know, I BELIEVE God's Word as TRUTH in the form of a "PRESENT PERFECT TENSE" (Occurred in the past, present and future), not a book of fiction, or mamby pamby "Feel Good" stories.
I must have missed something... Just so we are clear here... The notion of a modern time of Christian living without the manifested power of Christ clearly demonstrated by Christ and the disciples, is more spiritual than taking Christ at His Word? I'm not from Kentucky, I just live there, but I "get" the simplicity of taking one person's word at face value, and trusting what he says as good as money in the bank... Now if Jesus promises "We shall do greater works than these" and we don't do those works, then it stands to reason there must be something wrong with my faith, or the lack thereof! No excuses! Jesus was pretty clear about putting the burden of faith back on us personally!!! Faith is our PERSONAL responsibility, when our leaders fail us!
So what kind of faith is that which can't express itself with honesty and genuine need and expect direct relief in the PRESENT PERFECT TENSE as demonstrated in the New Testament by Christ and His disciples? How is it that Jesus again and again pointed out that it's our unbelief that prevents the accomplishment of His power in our lives, and we feel a need to calculate some elaborate excuse? There are some basic rules in nature, physics and psychology that essentially state that the simplest answer likely is the answer! We complicate things with our reasoning. Golly that sounds a lot like the words of Jesus "That unless you become as a child, you won't even enter the kingdom of God".
Perhaps the ministers of Amos's time were going around claiming the age of miracles has ceased and God no longer interceded in the affairs of church and men with power. Perhaps others insisted that only their creed or religious group was God's religious expression, or church of choice and that they alone, not the Bible, could explain away failure of faith. Many sing the song in church "Give me that old time religion, as it's good enough for me"? I wonder what Christ would say? I know what He would say! "I wish you were either hot or cold, but since you are lukewarm I will spew you out of My mouth!"
Not found in the Bible, the phrase, "God helps those who help themselves", has been unofficially canonized (elevated to Holy Scripture-like importance) in modern times by many who use twisted and distorted interpretations of the Bible suited for their desires to control and manipulate people. Many others grasp the Word of God and force their own definition in a sort of Holy Spirit orgy, or spiritual "free-for-all" where nearly anything goes as truth, abandoning all reason for impulse.
Many say, "If it feels all warm and tingly, it must be the Lord". Is this the proper expectation we should have from the Lord? In reality it has been made apparent to many that God helps those who recognize they cannot simply help themselves, rather we must trust in Him with a balance of humility, reason, and spiritual intuition. God used a fig-picker to point this out to the Jewish nation of old. Why can't He use us today?
Amos didn't perform any miracles, nor raise the dead, nor walk on water... But Amos did, by the power of the Anointing of the Holy Spirit, prick the hearts of God's people who had become complacent, indifferent, and had such low expectations of God's Word that it effectively was meaningless. What an insult to the Holy Gospel God's Word, and His living Holy Spirit! What a profound effect the Power of the Holy Spirit can have on those around us if we allow Him to rule our lives instead of excluding Him from our lives for fear of the fanatical!
Certain persons, often with the title of minister, have attempted to redefine the hope, timelessness, simplicity and purity of child-like faith so clearly spelled out in Scripture. The same stiff attitude, spirit of resistance and self-serving distortion of Scriptures displayed by the Pharisees during New Testament times is present within many of our Christian churches today.
Modern Pharisees capitalize on the natural unbelief of us all and excuse the suggested small quantity of the miraculous as proof of its nonexistence. This faulty reasoning proves only a bias in many of our leaders beliefs, and cowardice in not believing Christ for the miraculous. We can shuffle the pages of the Bible like an Ouija board and presto, a new interpretation to the Bible! Having said that we must be loyal to those in authority over us even if they are in error! We must receive release from the Lord in order to move on or breakaway from those holding us back. There is a certain order to the spiritual influences in our lives. If we do not first seek God's face and pray for those in authority over us we may be burdened with a rebellious spirit.
Modern skeptics of supernatural power and the miraculous have attempted to excuse away generations of unbelief in Christian churches, and proclaim today a "New Era of Faith" but without direct and tangible power. Faith in the minds of many has become a tolerance of sickness and problems rather than a heart-felt cry to Christ for help. For illustration sake, you can see yourself with a serious toothache in the dentist's chair. The dentist tells you there is no need for pain control because pain is a natural part of life and you should focus instead on remaining calm. You naturally trust your dentist because he should know what he is talking about and you believe he has your best interest in mind. What is the most natural thing for you to do in such a case?
There is nothing natural about pain except it is a message that something is wrong and you must do something to correct it. Well, I don't know about you, but I'd be flying out of that chair screaming in pain the second the drill hit my teeth. Somehow we are supposed to believe we are the ones with the attitude problem and we should thank them for pointing our problem out to us.
Frustrated by an oft perceived lack of effectiveness of prayer, and relying more in tangible physical action than supernatural intervention, we and our leaders often demote and relegate prayer as a last resort to the weak. Saying "I will pray about it" is too often used as an excuse to avoid direct and sensitive questions more often than a genuine desire for supernatural assistance.
Prayer has been too often stereotyped as the work of old women with nothing better to do. Acknowledged weakness of spirit is what God is seeking. Prayers of confessed inability centered on Christ's faithfulness, mercy and greatness have been proven to many as the greatest force any human has.
One thing we must ask ourselves as we seek the healing power of Christ, are we consumed with the faithfulness of Christ, or our ability to grasp the promises of God? Do our prayers reflect an honest communication with Christ, or are we of the attitude we must prepare a cleaned-up image to Him? Is our attitude one of, "Here's what I did with the tools you gave me", or better, "look what you have done in my life with the tools you gave me"? Not a game of semantics but rather a nuance of attitude.
In this day and age we have an expression that is a bit overused, but reflects the truth nonetheless, "Attitude Is Everything!" A total sacrificial posture of humility and emptiness lain out before the throne of God is what He is looking for. Isaiah fell prostrate before the Lord in a totally submissive posture of awe and humility. God allowed Isaiah to witness the future prophetically and lay out God's plan of salvation centuries before it actually occurred. We know from Scripture that Christ died before the foundation of the world... Now this is either some Philosophical mind bender, Techno-Babel from Star Trek, or a REAL reality we are simply going to have to accept in which eternity is a timeless state of existence, and God knows our beginnings from our endings.
Just because God knows what we will do does not change the fact we have free will's and must take care in what we do. It does mean however that we are accountable for what we do because we are indeed accompanied by a "Cloud of Witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1-3) who we may assume do not know what is going to happen play by play... If we are aware that God knows everything we do and will do, and others are watching, we should be more careful with what we do for the kingdom of God! But we are just fig pickers right? You can believe that if you want! Or you can receive through faith God's promises! Our Sonship qualifies us for loaves of bread (Matthew 7:9), not rocks.
Abraham was an insignificant nomad that became the father of God's Holy people. Though Abraham's father was an idol worshiper, Abraham had an inkling stirring within himself that believed there was a single God of all creation. God met those notions with dreams and visions.
Abraham could have dismissed those internal notions, but chose to believe them. No doubt it was a struggle for Abraham to set aside his father's training and idolatry. But God gave Abraham clarity of thought and wisdom to see beyond the temporal values of those around him. Abraham had an encounter with God and "believed" the heart-felt impressions God had given him. (Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.)
Many people Jesus made note of in the annals of significant faith were just ordinary people. Before we put them on ivory towers, let's think about lifting Jesus up instead... So again, what kind of faith is that which can't express itself with honesty and genuine need and expect direct relief as demonstrated in the Old and New Testament by Christ and His disciples? That doesn't sound like faith to me, it sounds like an excuse for lack of faith!
When my leaders tell me something I believe them. But pain in my life is arguing against them. Do I submit to their interpretation of the meaning of the pain and allow them to do what appears to merely bandage the problem? Or do I respond to the intuitively heard voice of the Holy Spirit, who I can hear so clearly, saying to me that this is not right? So now I have to reevaluate my commitment to my leaders because they choose not to believe in the present and active power of Christ? What an awkward position my leaders have put me in. First they betray my trust in their leadership, and then they portray me as the one with the "problem". In addition, I am now looking for a way to get out of this oppressive leadership without developing an attitude of rebellion. My God, why has this grown to such a serious and confrontational life-changing decision? I just want to be a lamb in the arms of Jesus, in a posture of rest, trust, and satisfaction.
Why would anyone not want healing? Why would some ministers actually preach against modern day healings and Biblical expressions of faith with the same expectations persons had described in the Bible? Why do some people today get a morbid sort of pleasure from negative news? Why do so many people have a devilish grin of satisfaction when "alleged healings" are too often proved hoaxes?
Many religious teachers create a socially comfortable Theology, devoid of challenges to faith and reason. Others go off the deep end with hybrid and mutilated mixtures of Biblical Christian precepts and strange caldrons of doctrinal brew. The extreme behavior of other Christians is no excuse to deny the Power of God. Exposing fakes and fraud only proves individual failure, but is used to implicate the reality of healing as the work of Fruitcakes! God works by the promises in His Word not the "Fruits" filled with His Spirit... Did I say that? Yes, there are many nutty Christians, but God's Word is our standard of truth!
Perhaps many seek-out other's failures to pacify their guilt of personal failures in the areas of faith, and doubts of self worth? The "See, I told you so" is a tired and childish effort to prove the faults of others. It is easy to fall back on the tangible nature of failures.
Victory requires much more effort at times, if for no other reason, merely to navigate past the doubts of others that influence your own expectations. If Bible truth is incapable of the miraculous in modern times, then we do not have to deal with our frequent inability to practice effective Christianity as the early Disciples of Christ did. Failure, taken personally, either sharpens and intensifies prayer or causes us to give up. What we do with those perceived failures has a profound impact on our life.
Can you visualize the woman with the issue of blood, described in the New Testament (Matthew (9:20-21) , who believed she would be healed if she merely touched the hem of Christ's garment, be approached by a modern Biblical scholar; "Excuse me lady, but the day of miracles is over and you have no hope of healing". Or even say "Miracles are a thing of the past and it would be really spiritual if you just suffered in silence". Or they may tell her "It is really important that you focus on "saving souls" than seeking personal needs because you are seeking things you should allow God to take care of. And if He chooses to keep you sick, that's "His choice". What they're really saying is "I don't believe in the power of Christ's healing and if you were healed it would make me look like the fool I really am".
Suggestions of the miraculous challenge our beliefs and creates a struggle between that which is easy and seemingly natural to believe, and that which is humbling to our intellect. Jesus thanked His Father for hiding these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealing them to babes. The uneasiness many feel at the suggestion of the miraculous is not righteous anger, rather our consciences feeling guilty about not practicing Christianity as the Disciples of Christ did.
The gospel of Christ is "Jesus sitting by the well within us" (John 4) revealing our heart, giving us choices as He describes springs of Living Water that shall well up from within us. This story is a portrayal of the Person of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised would reside within us if we simply believe in Christ. Jesus went out of His way to point out that we must have the faith of a child to enter the kingdom of God. Children cannot grasp difficult Theology or doctrinal nuances.
The gospel is a relationship with the person Jesus Christ, alive and active in our heart, by the power and person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit awakens our need for the tenderness and simplicity of the saving gospel message of Christ. When Jesus saw need He met it. It is a matter of "Being in Love" with Christ. Not merely an emotional state, but rather a lifestyle. Those hardened of heart are not able to comprehend the experience of salvation; they merely exercise the many sterile forms of religion.
"Seed Faith" has been "Carnalized", (Changed from a Holy truth to one pandering to Carnal desires), from the feverish heat of greed, turning a truth to feed your soul into one that rots your spiritual teeth so you can't feed on the virility of God's Word any longer! It’s like trying to live on a diet of pure sugar! You’ll have lots of energy for a while, but you will soon crash from exhaustion and lack of a balanced diet. Any original meaning the Bible alluded to when referring to the "Faith of a mustard seed" (Matthew 17.20), is turned into a circus-like trick that leaves one's wallet and faith empty should you follow this lust for gain without having a heart that seeks God first.