People and governments are increasingly not just immoral, but amoral, without any sense of right or wrong. Even in churches, many pastors believe righteousness is a means to financial gain – to the extent that I cannot even bear the sight of so many on TV – posturing and being so theatrical, having the form, but lacking the power.

However, we have confidence and foreknowledge in that Paul warned us of what would occur in the last days, as in these words in 2 Timothy 3;

” 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

As we see the evil become more evil, the insatiable greed of corporations and their managers; and the growing secularity of nations, it should encourage us that Christ is coming soon. It should also inspire us towards good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do. The time is short.

God is not impressed by the nations that rage and the people who plot in vain. In fact He laughs and scoffs at them (Psalm 2) and soon will rule them with an iron scepter, dashing them to pieces like pottery.

I’ve been focusing too much on the world these days, terrorism, wickedness, impunity, corruption, greed, and too little on what God is doing. That must change. I will instead, focus on what God is doing and what He is calling me too. I will fix my heart and thoughts on things above, where Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand. That is the wisest course. When the dust settles over His creation, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Then we will see that it was the best decision to serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling and take refuge in Him. May you be similarly encouraged in Jesus. Amen.

I recognize that some ministries today are moving in power, but there is much from that era that I believe we lack. I recall an account from John Lake , who while ministering in South Africa, went through an extended period where every person he prayed for and laid hands on was healed – every single person!

It is easy to think that as your local or national church goes, so goes the whole church globally. Many of us see little and thus become discouraged.  However, remember that we only ever see a small part of the fabric.  Even here in the USA, there are pockets of miracles, faith, healings and deliverances.  All over, from Kansas to California (go IHOP and Bethel!), Pennsylvania to Florida.

This is not even to speak of Chinese teens raising the dead in rural China and blind eyes being opened in Mozambique.  We must keep in mind that as in Isaiah 9:7,

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

I encourage everyone involved in the ministry of healing to read about the likes of Lake, Wigglesworth, Kathryn Kuhlman, Jack Coe, Aimee Semple-Macpherson, John Wimber, and others used mightily in faith and healing.  Their life stories will encourage you, motivate you and mobilize you in moving more effectively and determinedly in the ministry of healing.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The idea is to make people self-reliant, so we don’t have to give them aid over and over again. It is a good principle, often used in the context of aid to poor countries – teaching them to farm, to provide for themselves, so they don’t become dependent on aid.

There can even be a spiritual analogy, where we teach people how to pray for themselves or minister to others independently, so they can do so without their teacher or instructor.  Again, this is a great idea that makes us self-reliant and productive.

There is a danger though, in stretching the spiritual analogy too far.  God taught Israel in the desert, not so they could become independent, but so they would learn to depend on Him.  When He told them to go and possess the land, they balked, but later decided to go on in their own strength.  The results were predictable—defeat.

Time after time, after God gave both victories and peace, Israel would begin to believe in themselves and trust in their own strength.  Then they would face defeat again and have to repent and restore fellowship with God.  God gave Israel manna and quail not to teach them how to grow manna and trap quail, but to teach them to depend on Him for everything.

Remember the 120 in the Upper Room?  They had to wait until the Holy Spirit came on them in power and then rely on Him everyday in preaching to the ends of the earth.  Their strength was not a requirement; in fact it was an obstacle.  Paul himself says, in speaking to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:4),

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

It is always better to go in God’s power.  That’s why He tells us in Ephesians 6:10,

“Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power”

Paul also states in 2 Corinthians 1:7-9:

8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Since even the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength, why would I want to go in my own strength anyway? There is no area of greater reliance on God than in the ministry of healing. In so many areas of ministry, you can ‘wing it’ without it being evident that you lack a reliance of God. Powerful prayers, great-exhortation, erudite preaching can all take place in man’s strength.

However, in healing ministry, it is immediately apparent if we have reached a place of dependence on God or not. When we do, there are healings, when we don’t, a lot of nothing will be happening.

Does this mean that dependence on God always brings healing? Sadly, no. what I mean is that, dependence on Him in he ministry of healing is necessary, but not sufficient. While simple, healing is also quite multifaceted, leading us to remember the scripture in 2 Timothy 2:15 that says:

“study to show yourselves approved of God, a work man who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth”

What this means is that the Word and the Spirit are essential for healing.  The Holy Spirit will always break yokes and heal, but without the Word, we cannot understand fully what He says.  We need to know the Word on Healing.

So, in closing, God teaches us, not become self-sufficient, but to depend on Him even more – on His Word and His Spirit.  No matter how mature we are and how much we know, we must rely on Him more and more in the ministry of miracles.  May we learn to do this.

What are these evidences? They are important issues that will resonate in the lives of some who will read them. They are ‘markers’, if you like, that can be used to measure Christian character and maturity. I personally don’t gravitate to “lists” normally, as some of my friends know, but when they are given, I’ll write. That’s the way it should be: when God says “Jump!” the correct answer is not “How high?” the correct answer is to jump with all your might.

Some of the great men of faith amuse me. Read Moses’ burning bush account in Exodus 3 again and you’ll be incredulous. God says, “I’m sending you to get my people released”… Moses says, “They won’t believe me”…God says, “Here’s a stick that turns into a snake and your hand will turn leprous when you put it into your cloak”…Moses responds: “I can’t speak well”…God replies: “Aaron will go with you and speak…” Know what Moses eventually says? “I just don’t wanna go!” Hmmm… that’s not a shining example of obedience, just in case you were wondering. Moses eventually went and did great things in God, but the burning bush episode was not a high point in his life.

OK, what are these “Nine Evidences”?

• The Tongue: It has the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). James declares that fresh and salt water cannot come from the same spring (James 3:11). Today, more than ever, we are too loose with our words, we are coarse, we are obscene, we say things that we don’t mean, we think lying is just being “nuanced”. Words conquer thoughts, don’t you know? What do I mean? I mean, if you have bad thoughts, the way to deal with them is to begin to speak faith-filled words. You cannot think certain thoughts while speaking different words. You remember paper-rock-scissors? Well, thoughts are paper and words are scissors. Who is the Rock? Jesus, of course… Just remember, the solution to ‘uncontrollable’ thoughts is words – His Words.
• Thought Life: This follows from the first evidence. Paul says if anything is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think on it (Philippians 4:8). If not, don’t. A mature believer has his/her thought life more under control than an immature one. The way to achieve this is to control what you see and hear. I don’t mean just avoiding stuff—that’s only half the battle. The other, more important half is filling your mind with the Word. That includes the Bible and good, faith-filled Bible teaching. Doing one without the other is no real use.
• Relationships: are they real, genuine, or disposable? You don’t need a million Christian relationships, but you need at least a few genuine ones. And yes, it could be your wife, husband, children, parents, cousins and of course, friends. You need people to be accountable to and people who will sharpen you. Proverbs 27:7 states that “Iron sharpens iron”. Healing is also a lonely endeavor – you need people around you who will encourage you to forge on through the good times and challenging times.

OK, these are just the first three of the nine – I shall continue in my next post…

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

From my earlier post about righteousness, it is not surprising that much of the church’s interpretation of this passage is negative i.e., “Paul had a thorn (sickness) so I’m in good company if I have one too.” It is interesting that Christians seek the most negative interpretations of scripture even when these interpretations do not square up with the rest of the Word.  Let’s look at a few scriptures again:

Joshua 23:13 … “then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.”

Numbers 33:55…” ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.”

Matthew 7:3  “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

When Joshua talked about the ‘thorns in your sides’ and Jesus warned about the ‘plank in your eye’, we took them all to be metaphorical, not literal.  Joshua did not mean the physical, literal side of your body or your eyes.  Neither did Jesus mean a real plank in your actual eye.  These are metaphors, aren’t they?  But to give the worst possible interpretation, we have mixed the literal with the metaphorical.  So when Paul says:

there was given me a thorn in my flesh,

we translate ‘thorn’ as a metaphor for sickness but keep flesh as our actual, physical body.  Wrong! Completely inappropriate.  Jesus, in speaking of a plank in the eye meant this as a complete metaphor and so did Paul here.  He meant harassment, just as Israel was harassed, as Joshua predicted.

Why we seek out the most negative in the church is still a mystery to me.  I once thought it was our past programming from the world, but now I doubt it. Some of the most naturally optimistic people I have met have been non-Christians. As I mentioned in a previous post, the world will hold telethons to “fight the enemy, cancer” and “fight the killer, malaria“.  Many Christians, on the other hand, will wax lyrical about how God is teaching them something or blessing them by “giving them” a disease.  We have created church myth to satisfy false humility.

I’m not asking that you misinterpret the Bible to “be positive”.  The Bible is positive enough.  ‘Gospel’ actually means “good news”, not bad. Just read the gospels again and see how positive Jesus was – he healed everyone who came to Him.

I now think that much of what we believe in evangelical and even pentecostal circles is church myth or tradition – things that are just not so. May we interpret the Word correctly to see the great hope to which He has called us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.