Once in Royal David's City

I'll continue blogging about lesser known Advent and Christmas hymns, turning to one of my favorites: "Once in Royal David's City." You can listen to a beautiful version from King's College, Cambridge by clicking here. The music was composed by Henry Gauntlett in 1858, and the lyrics by Cecil Alexander in 1848 (also the author of the lyrics to the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful").

Here are the lyrics to this wonderful hymn:

Once in royal Davids city,

Stood a lowly cattle shed,

Where a mother laid her Baby,

In a manger for His bed:

Mary was that mother mild,

Jesus Christ, her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven,

Who is God and Lord of all,

And His shelter was a stable,

And His cradle was a stall:

With the poor, and mean, and lowly,

Lived on earth our Savior holy.

For He is our childhood's pattern;

Day by day, like us, He grew;

He was little, weak, and helpless,

Tears and smiles, like us He knew;

And He feels for all our sadness,

And he shares in all our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,

Through His own redeeming love;

For that Child so dear and gentle,

Is our Lord in heaven above:

And He leads His children on,

To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor lowly stable

With the oxen standing by

We shall see Him, but in heaven,

Set at God's right hand on high:

There His children gather round

Bright like stars, with glory crowned.

What I love about this hymn, besides the music (which is beautiful and stirring, without being sentimental), is the simple way in which the humanity and deity of Christ are put together. Christmas hymns usually emphasize one of these aspects of Christ

Notice in the second verse: "He comes down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all" emphasizing His pre-incarnate divinity. Yet the rest of that verse goes like this: "And his shelter was a stable, and His cradle was a stall. With the poor and meek and lowly, Lived on earth our Savior holy."*

The juxtaposition of His divinity and humanity continues in the next two verses (3 & 4), one beautifully emphasizes His humanity, the other His divinity. Verse 3 notes (among other things) that He was "little, weak, and helpless." We more often prefer to reflect on Jesus' power and strength, His majesty and authority - all of which He certainly has! But there was a time when He became very little, very weak, and completely helpless. Philippians 2:6-7 emphasizes this point, which sends some Christian thinkers and theologians squirming for reinterpretation. How can this be!

Yet if He became one of us, truly one of us, He had to grow up "Day by day, like us..." He had to learn to speak, to eat, to dress Himself, to take care of His bodily needs. Even at 12, when He was at least beginning to understand something about Who He was, He was still growing in favor with God and people (Luke 2:52 - the Greek imperfect tense emphasizes that His growing up took place over time).

Did He shed tears and did He smile? Yes He did! In Luke 10:21 we read that Jesus was "full of joy through the Holy Spirit." This joy was noticed by those who reported it to Luke. It's likely that His facial expression was much more than a mild grin! He wasn't just happy, He was "full of joy!" He also shed tears next to the grave of His friend Lazarus. The shortest verse in the Bible records that "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Unlike the perhaps sentimentalistic "No crying He makes" of Silent Night, Jesus probably cried as an infant too. How else does an infant let its mother know that its hungry, or needing a diaper change, or needs to be burped, or is in some other way in need of something?

Do I even need to mention Hebrews 4:15-16?

That third verse needs to be set along side the fourth, where this same dear and gentle Jesus is now our Lord in heaven above. For those who prefer their Jesus merely human, Mrs. Alexander re-emphasizes His divinity. She reminds us that this very same Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, and will return to take us there (John 14:2-3).

The last verse (lamentably absent in some versions of this hymn), points us to the whole purpose of the incarnation: the family reunion of God the Father with His children. Not only that, but God's intention and plan is that we will be crowned with a never fading glory (1Peter 5:4). Like the prodigal son returning home to be a slave, the Father will greet us with joy, welcome us as His children, clothe us with righteousness and crown us with glory and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:6)!

He came down and became one of us, to lift us up to be with Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit, and all the heavenly hosts in never ending bliss and glory!

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*For the purposes of this blog, I'll disregard the likely inaccuracy of a cattle shed, a stable and stall (verse 2). He was laid in a manger, but there is no other indication that this birth took place in anything we would recognize as a barn or cattle shed (regardless of the traditional manger scenes so familiar this time of year). It's very unlikely that it was a "shed," since wood is very scarce in the region. Most homes were built of stone (limestone, basalt, and similar indigenous material). Even the manger was likely hewn from a block of limestone, rather than built of wood (many of these mangers, dating from even before this time, have been excavated in the holy land). Certainly the Biblical account does emphasize the poverty into which Jesus was born and these cultural reinterpretations certainly don't damage that important part of the message.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

I'd like to reflect on another Christmas hymn that isn't full of smiles and denials. Okay. I'm not trying to say anything negative about joyful Christmas hymns. Really. I love them and enjoy singing them. My only problem with the hymns we usually sing, is that what they evoke from our hearts and our spirits is pretty much the same thing: joy, happiness, and other up-beat sorts of emotions and attitudes. I'm not objecting to that per se, Only to the monotone happy-clappy expectations and experiences of the Advent and Christmas seasons, which too often become a mask for those emotions and attitudes not quite so welcome this time of year.

So here's another hymn that draws out other parts of us as we contemplate the amazing event of the incarnation of Jesus.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly minded,
for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

That's a little different than Joy to the World, or Go Tell it on the Mountain, isn't it? Remember: I've got nothing against those songs and hope we all sing them with gusto! But notice how different it is: keep silence, stand with fear and trembling, stop thinking as earthly minded... As we sing it, the hymn pulls out of things we didn't know we wanted to say until we sang them.

Here's a version of this sung by Fernando Ortega: Click here.

Hymn History

This Christmas hymn wasn't originally a Christmas hymn at all. The lyrics were translated from an ancient Greek and Syrian Orthodox liturgy that traces possibly as far back as James the Lesser, bishop of Jerusalem. The Greek text could be as old as the 2nd Century, though some date it as late as the 5th. Either way, it's a very old song!* Originally, the words were chanted as part of the Eucharist (Lord's Supper) liturgy, and as far as I know, still are in parts of the Orthodox world. This connection is evident in the second stanza (see below).

In 1864 the words were translated (paraphrased really) into English and set to poetic meter (8.7.8.7.8.7), by Gerard Moultrie, It was more than 40 years later that Ralph Vaughan-Williams connected the lyrics of Moultrie with the French tune "Picardy" in 1906, revising the harmony of that tune in the beautiful way we have it today.

Comments on the Hymn

The opening line takes it's cue from Habakkuk 2:20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” The connection to the birth of Jesus is in the fact that when Jesus became incarnate, his body was the temple (John 2:21). He was the place where the presence of God was among His people. 

The fact of the incarnation is such an astounding doctrine, that it would be blasphemy to suggest it, if Scripture did not reveal it to be true. Imagine this: God is born. This truth is so astounding, theologies have been developed which avoided the mind-whirling truth it proclaims. Very early, some began to suggest that Jesus wasn't born Divine, but became Divine through his obedience. Others suggested he wasn't really in the flesh at all, but only seemed to be. Both of those doctrines were challenged and declared heresy by the early church. 

We accept the truth of the incarnation (God made flesh) without pondering it much. Which is one of the reasons I love this hymn: ponder nothing earthly minded as we stand before our incarnate God. Ponder heavenly things. 

Ponder the truth of God made flesh. A God who could be seen with human eyes, be touched with human hands, be heard with human ears (1John 1:1-4). The same God who created the universe (John 1:1-3) emptied himself and took on human form (John 1:14; Philippians 2:6-8). 

John 1:14 hints at something our English versions tend to gloss over in their translations. The first part of that verse literally says "The Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us." If we wanted to use an Old Testament term, we could translate that verse this way "The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us." 

That's right. When Jesus was walking around on this planet, he was the tabernacle of God: the place where the presence of God dwelt with His people.

Let me give you the other verses:

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Let me comment briefly on the Biblical background for these verses:

In the second verse we remember that Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 58), who as incarnate, will give himself for us ultimately on the cross. The third and fourth verses take their cue not only from Luke 2, but also from Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, the actual throne-room of God. There angels surround the throne, attend the King of kings and sing constantly in His presence.

We also see in these verses that one of the reasons Jesus came is to destroy the powers of hell (1John 3:8), as the light overcomes the darkness (John 1:5).

The song begins in contemplative silence and ends in  joy-filled, angelic praise! But as it does so, it draws that praise out of us from a deeper place than we often find it. The hymn also pairs joy and adoration in a way rarely found in any hymn, or other song of worship.

I don't know what the wind is blowing through your life during this Advent and Christmas season. Maybe it's the sort of stuff that makes joy easy to find. Maybe not. Either way, stop. Quiet yourself to contemplate until you gasp at the staggering truth of the incarnation: God made flesh. Because when we find our joy in Him, in Who He is and what He has done, rather than our always changing life circumstances, that joy can never be taken from us.

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*If you're interested, the original opening line in Greek is this: Σιγησάτω πᾶσα σάρξ βροτεία (literally: "Let keep silent all flesh mortal").

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

In all the razzle and dazzle of the North American Christmas season--with the lights, the songs on the radio, the red and green decorations, the shopping, a large man with a white beard and funny clothes., etc.--it's not hard to see how the Christ of Christmas often gets forgotten, or simply assigned an important seat among many.

I don't want to be a Scrooge or a Grinch, and I'm not calling for a ban on Christmas, as the Puritans did. Although it could be argued that the secularized Christmas they objected to, isn't all that different from the secularized Christmas observed in our day.

What I do want to do is call to mind that Christmas isn't all about nice feelings, family and presents. It's not even simply about Christ being born. It's also about our need for Christ to be born--our need for a Savior.

Somewhere around or before 1100 A.D. an anonymous poet created a metrical version of an even older song, which was later set to the tune we now know as "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." Strangely, this hymn, more than any other, is subject to a great amount of variation. I've not yet found two hymn books that agree on the lyrics! Searching the internet finds multiple versions that include different verses, or variations on verses. Still there is one common theme in all of them: Come, O Come Emmanuel, because things are really bad without You, and You are our only hope.

Maybe you missed that about this familiar hymn (if it is familiar to you). You can listen to a traditional choral version of this here. Here are the lyrics (at least one version of them) to the verses:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Desire of nations, bind

In one the hearts of all mankind;

Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,

And be Thyself our King of Peace.

O come, Thou Branch of Jesse's stem

Unto Thine own and rescue them!

From depths of hell Thy people save,

And give them vict'ry o'er the grave.

There's also a chorus, but let's consider the verses on their own for a moment. Do you see the words: captive, mourns and lonely in the first verse? How about gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadow in the second? Now take a look at the other verses. What do you see there?

Now, there are other, less mournful verses sometimes associated with this song, but did you ever notice the desperate pleading in this hymn before (assuming you've heard it)?

One of the reasons I love this old hymn is that it reminds us of how much we need a Savior: our situation actually is overwhelming; we cannot save ourselves; without a Savior, we are doomed. Few Christmas hymns capture that desperation, let alone celebrate it!

But we do have a Savior and He has come to us and He will come again!

Here is the chorus to that same hymn (to be sung after each verse):

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

These days, it's becoming more popular in some circles to once again embrace the Biblical concept of lament. We find Psalms of lament (Psalm 5, 102, for example), and poems of lament in some of the prophets (the whole book of Lamentations, for example). In lament we give voice to our pain, our loss, our desperation and neediness. Lament is entirely proper.

Yet, I would argue that lament that doesn't resolve to or point toward hope at some point, isn't Christian lament. Lament that merely wallows in self-pity is ultimately a self-centered lament; it is the selfishness of Jacob losing Joseph and refusing to be comforted (Genesis 37:35). Christian lament must yield to faith and trust in God, it must go beyond experience to the Truth that puts experience in its proper place. 

This hymn captures that well. Even while Israel is captive, mourning and lonely, even when the gloomy clouds of night feel like death's dark shadow, even while our sad divisions are not ceasing, or when hell and the grave seem to claim more victories than they ought, even then "Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee...!"

This is what faith in a good God looks like when things aren't good. We rejoice, knowing--knowing!--that Emmanuel (God with us) shall come to us. He will! Standing in faith, we re-align our emotions with the Truth of Who God is. Truth, that first piece of the armor of God--the belt that is placed over our guts (where we feel emotion!). We turn our face from our pain, our loss, our desperation, and our neediness, toward the One Who heals, Who blesses, Who comforts, and Who is Emmanuel, God with us.

During this advent season, my wife is going through chemotherapy. It's not all razzle-dazzle, blinking lights and happy songs in our house. But there is rejoicing. Emmanuel has come! Emmanuel is with us now! Emmanuel will come again! Of this we have no doubt.

Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!

Lessons from a Little One

Last week Marcia and I visited our first grandchild and his parents. Joshua Conrad DeRuiter is about a month old and doing very well.

Joshua Conrad DeRuiter

Of course it was wonderful meeting him, taking care of him and being with his parents, Jon and Laura in West Olive, Michigan. We convinced them to leave a couple of times so we could have grandparent time with just him (they thought we were being altruistic). Most of the time we had with him was marvelous and amazing.

And Then Again...

Little ones come to young parents for a reason, I think. They aren't all coos and wonder. Sometimes they have needs, or wants, or discomforts, or hurts, or combinations of the above and you're not sure what to do. Infants aren't very good at taking other people's needs into consideration either; they're high maintenance creatures.

Jon and I both reflected on this, as pastors/preachers (my son Jon is also an ordained minister in the CRC). The little guy sometimes knows he needs something, but he's not even sure what it is he needs, or what will take care of that need. In fact, sometimes he gets so upset that he will reject the thing will actually take care of the need (feeding or sleep) - though with some insistence he'll eventually calm down enough to give it a try.

Typical.

How often do we do the same?

Joshua is older and more mature in relation to his father and grandfather--by percentage--than we are in relation to the Everlasting God. Think about it. How old is God compared to us? How much more does He know, by experience alone! Yet we think we know our needs and how to meet them, or just as arrogantly: how God should meet them. And when God gives us what we actually do need, how often do we slap it out of His loving hand as irrelevant?

I don't mean that we should accept everything that comes our way. No! Some things come to us from our and God's enemies: the world, the flesh and the devil. If it comes to steal, kill or destroy, it comes from the thief (John 10:10) and we should resist it with all we have (even though God can turn every one of those attacks to our advantage - Rom. 8:28).

However, sometimes an opportunity comes our way, or a friend, or a spiritual gift, or something else that seems to come unexpectedly and in a season when we're asking God to help us through some struggle. At first glance we might pass over what comes because it doesn't seem relevant to what God is doing, or what we want and are asking Him to do. Yet, it comes as God's gift to meet the actual need of our heart.

I don't know about you, but sometimes, just like little Joshua, I'm not sure what I need. I think about it and decide what I need is a new job, or a certain spiritual gift, or someone to co-write songs with. What He gives doesn't seem (at first) to fit: I get changed, He changes my thinking and experience with spiritual gifts and He builds a worship band that takes what I write to a whole other level.

I know. I know. We can get good things or opportunities for them, that are actually distractions from God's actual calling on us (in fact, they come all the time). It sometimes takes careful discernment (usually in the context of community) to know what is from God and what isn't. On the other hand, when skepticism (or unexamined optimism) begins to substitute for discernment, we get into trouble: we reject a genuine gift from God, or accept what God isn't giving in exchange for what He has given, or is giving.

Returning to Trust

At some point, even when we know we cannot be 100% certain about how well we discern, we have to trust our Father in heaven. He knows our imperfections; He knows we sometimes miss it; He knows us and yet He gives knowing what we need. He knows what we need before we even ask (Matthew 6:8). He knows our hearts and the actual needs of our hearts, even if we, like little Joshua, don't know how to express those needs, or even get it wrong! Joshua has no word for pain or tummy, so if he has gas pains he just cries (very loudly!). We may not know that the need of our heart is for intimacy with Him, and so we cry out for recognition by our peers. We may not know that the need of our heart is to be genuinely loved in the community of God's people, and so we cry out for the sort of companionship (or whatever) that can never satisfy.

At some point, we need to cry out in faith, and then wait in faith for God's response. When we need to cry out, we need to cry out trusting that a loving, responsive and all-powerful Father is listening. A "cry-baby" might cry out to manipulate his/her parents, and there are those who would cry out to God that way. That's dumb. You can't put God on a guilt trip; He never goes down that road. But we don't need to manipulate an all-powerful Father Who is both loving and responsive. He will meet the need of our heart, even if we don't know what it is, or if we get it wrong. That's what God is like.

Unlike human parents (and grandparents), God doesn't need to guess and use trial and error to figure out how to meet our needs. He knows our hearts. He knows them better than we do. And He knows how to meet those needs.

Do you believe that?

Changing the Way We Think

I want to do some reflecting on this passage (and a few others) today:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2 - NIV)  

Here's the same passage in the New Living Translation:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  

The Power of our Cultural Worlds

Each of us live in a world. I don't mean merely on a planet, but in a world of thoughts, ideas, assumptions, customs and perspectives. We do certain things the way we do them, because "everyone knows" that's how they're supposed to be done. For example, in the United States, when we meet someone it is customary to shake hands. In parts of Asia, in meeting someone it is customary to bow. In parts of Europe and Latin America in meeting someone it is customary to kiss the cheek (or the "air" next to the cheek). In all of these worlds, "everyone knows" the most polite way to meet someone.

The same is true of how we understand the world works. In parts of India one is born into a caste, and that determines the limits and opportunities of one's entire life. One is not expected, and in some places not allowed, to break out of one's caste. In the U.S. we celebrate individuals who rise from poverty to success in business, medicine, or politics and see the circumstances of one's birth as challenges to overcome, not the assignments of fate.

Further, nearly everyone who grows up into their world, believes their world's ways of doing things are the "right" ways--the best ways. I could go on, and talk about how we understand punctuality, marriage and family, economics, individuality and family/cultural duty, and more, but I hope you get the point. Sociologists call this system of values and behaviors "culture." It is impossible to grow up in this world and not learn a culture. We do this as naturally as we learn the language we consider our mother tongue.

Those who have lived in more than one culture understand this in ways that those who haven't cannot. Am I right?

Adopting Heaven's Culture

I was first exposed to the concept of a culture of Heaven at a conference at Bethel church in Redding, California. I don't know why I'd never thought of it this way before. Without going into the content of that conference, I'd like to talk a bit about how that concept intersects with our verse above.

The "pattern of this world" (NIV) or the "behavior and customs of this world" (NLT) is a direct reference to what we would call "culture." While we could (and must!) say that each culture contains within it elements of the culture of Heaven, we cannot say that any culture fully expresses the culture of heaven. In fact, as we speak of individuals being fallen image-bearers of God, so we must speak of cultures as fallen as well.

To adopt Heaven's culture, we must change the way we think. In fact, we must change the very framework within which we think. We need to change our paradigms of thought. As our text above puts it we must be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds (NIV). This does not mean to think better so much as to think differently.

In Western culture one of the ways we are captive to our culture is the pervasive "scientific" and "naturalistic" mind-set that leaves no room for God, a spiritual realm, or the miraculous. Everything must have a "scientific" explanation (meaning: an explanation that doesn't need God or spiritual beings to work). The Bible does not have that mindset. Neither does Heaven. (I wrote about some of this before here.)

The culture of Heaven is a set of values and behaviors that actually does shape reality (and not merely our perception of it)! But what are they and how do we find out?

Probably the best way to begin to understand the culture of Heaven is to look at Jesus. In the gospel of John Jesus says “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does" (Jn 5:19). At least in terms of behaviors, we can learn something of the culture of Heaven by looking at Jesus. We can also learn something of the values of Heaven by interpreting why and how He did the things He did. As we do, we see in Scripture that a huge motivating factor for in the life of Christ is love. In fact, love explains the entire enterprise (John 3:16). 

However, I don't think we can get there from here without some serious help! We cannot transform our own minds. We don't have the power, nor the "raw materials" to do it. 

David, when confronted by his sin with Bathsheba composed Psalm 51, in which he writes Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10). Just a little later he adds: grant me a willing spirit to sustain me (Psalm 51:12b). David realized that he didn't just need to try harder, he needed to be changed from within. He needed more than an adjustment, or a remodeling, he needed a remake. 

Paul has a similar lament in Romans 7 (verses 7,ff). His way out of the dilemma is not to redouble his efforts and "do better next time" (how many of us have tried that!). The solution for him is the Holy Spirit: The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6). Literally that verse says (my translation from the Greek text): The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. I wouldn't argue about control or governance here, but I would point out that the difference is not merely control, but of substance. The mind of flesh doesn't need a mere adjustment; it doesn't need to be run better; it needs to be changed into something that it is not. It needs to become the mind of the Spirit, sometimes called the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2:16).

Our western world tells us that with hard work we can become whatever we want. Without thinking, we assume that if we have not become spiritual enough, or moral enough, or do not exhibit the fruit of the Spirit enough, that the solution is to try harder. But no matter how hard we pull on our bootstraps, we cannot lift ourselves out of the mud! We need help! In fact we need a transformation. Our mind needs to be remade in order to align it with the culture of Heaven.

So What Do We Do?

If we can't do it and the Spirit must, what must we do so that the Spirit will do what only He can do? 

The answer to that, I'm convinced is simple, but not easy. We must submit our minds to the Spirit, and we must pray, asking the Spirit to transform our minds. These are really not two separate things, but two aspects of one thing. Feel free to reverse the order, if it helps.

Submitting our minds to the Spirit includes laying down all of our assumptions and letting Him speak Truth into us. When Jesus said You will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32), He was talking about holding to (literally remaining/continuing in) His his message (see Jn 8:31). By "truth" here John doesn't mean simply that which is not false, but that which conforms to the culture of Heaven--that which is most truly true. In contrast to half-truths, or partial truths, or even things that are mostly true, that which is fully true. Jesus described that truth this way "I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence" (John 8:38a)

We need the Truth of Heaven, not only because it can fill our minds, but because it transforms our minds, it changes them. The Truth of Heaven is not only the content of that Truth , but the shape of it (its paradigms) as well. Yet we can only appropriate that truth and hold onto it as true as empowered by the Spirit to do so. Only the Holy Spirit can transform our minds so that we can begin to think the way Heaven thinks.

Sometimes we try to behave our way into the Kingdom (change from the outside, in). But what we hear the Scriptures saying is that we can't do it that way. We need our hearts and minds changed (change from the inside, out). The changed heart will do the things Jesus asks because the changed heart is designed to do so--it prefers to obey: Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires (Romans 8:5).

Pray with me:

Create in me a pure heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Give me a willing spirit to sustain me. 

I submit my mind, my heart, my will, my thoughts and the very way I think to You. Holy Spirit lead me in the way of Truth. I choose to let go of the pattern of my world, with it's behaviors and customs and hold on instead to the culture of Heaven. Renew me by the transformation of my mind. Give me the mind of Christ. Conform me to the image of your Son.

 I pray this believing that You desire to answer this prayer even more than I desire that You do. I pray this believing as You answer this prayer, it will bring glory to the Name of Jesus.

(Un)Dignity in Worship

Carrying the Presence

Historical Background:

David had it in his heart to take the ark up from Kiriath-Jearim (see 1Samuel 6:21-7:1), where it had been since the Philistines returned it (see 1Sam. 5-6), and before Saul was anointed King (1Sam. 10:1). We read about his first failed attempt and second successful attempt in 2Samuel 6. This is some time after David has been king, conquered Jerusalem, and is beginning to enjoy a time of relative stability.

Excessive or Expressive?

What I want us to notice today is in both the failed and successful attempts to bring up the ark, the worship appears to be excessive and noisy (at least by Reformed standards of worship!). The first time we read this: "David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals" (2Sam. 6:5).  During the second time the worship seems even louder: "Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets" (2Sam. 6:14–15).

Now, for those champions of decorum in worship, we might have expected a less expressive, a less noisy and more dignified worship after a failed attempt. After all, didn't the first attempt fail because of the lack of respect Uzzah had for the ark (2Sam.6:7), what the Bible describes as "his irreverent act"? After all, isn't all this noise and hullabaloo also wildly irreverent too?

The Regulative Principle 

There's this really weird thing in Reformed theology called the Regulative Principle. The intent of this is right: God should only be worshiped in the way Scripture prescribes that He should be worshiped. It was created during the Reformation, ostensibly to get rid of a lot of superstition that had crept into the Church during the Middle Ages (or perhaps just to be "not Roman Catholic").

The weird thing about this principle is that it is so unevenly applied. Certain things are accepted as prescribed in Scripture, other expressions of worship found in Scripture are not understood this way. I believe this is because the principle has come to be filtered through cultural assumptions. For example, although Psalm 150:4 says "Praise Him with timbrel and dancing," Some object when someone actually plays a timbrel (tambourine?) and certainly if they would dance in a worship service. Or how about "Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth" (Psalm 100:1)? How do we Reformed types feel about shouting for joy during a worship service? Although these things are actually commanded in Scripture (they are in the imperative voice), we somehow believe that these things are not valid for us. Where is the principle?

Dignity and Humility in Worship

 As David brings up the ark to Jerusalem, he dances with all his might, stripping down to his undergarments (possibly to be able to move more freely - or maybe he just got hot). His wife Michal, daughter of Saul, despises David for his wild dancing (2Sam. 6:16); she objects to all this as a vulgar display (2Sam.6:20). In other words, David is not acting as a king should act. He is not behaving with the dignity with which a king should act before his subjects.

David's response is meant to teach her and us about worship: "It was before the Lord..." he says. While Michal's concern is the people, David's focus is the Lord. Often in worship people will or won't do certain things because "what will other people think?" Or, if someone seems to cross some imaginary culture boundary of propriety, they will judge that person as acting in an improper way (and may even talk to the pastor about it!). This is a Michal-like response. Michal, by the way, isn't worshiping God at all, she's just watching--and judging.

To further turn on its head the way Reformed Regulative Principle is often understood and applied, David says "I will celebrate before the Lord! I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes," (from 2Sam.6:21-22). In other words, David is saying that in his celebration before the Lord, he is only beginning to explore the bounds of expressive celebration. He doesn't care one wit about his dignity. He doesn't care what other people think about him, or even what he thinks about himself! Personal dignity in worship is not the issue!

In this chapter, the phrase "before the Lord" occurs six times. Michal missed it; she missed the significance of this event and even more importantly she missed the Lord's presence among His people! Her focus was completely wrong, and therefore so was her assessment of David's expression of celebration before God.

I would never suggest that exorbitant celebration is the only proper form of worship. Of course not! It's also important to be quiet before the Lord (Psalm 46:10; Habakkuk 2:20, for example). But silence isn't the only form of worship. There is a time for quietness and a time for loud celebration.

All the Colors of Worship

Worship has many forms, many shapes, many colors, many sounds. It may be in a minor key, or a major one, Dorian or Mixolidian. It may be blue or yellow, gray or red. It may find the shape of high liturgy, or the freedom of total spontaneity. It may be all of those and blends of all of those. 

One thing worship is not is monotone, or monochromatic. Reading the Psalms, the worship book of the Bible, we find a very wide variety of expression. It's hard to think of an emotion that can't be found in the Psalms in some form or other, as all our emotions belong to God in worship.

I suppose there may be such a thing as excess in worship among some groups. I suppose that there are people who get so carried away that they actually are more interested in their wildness and freedom in worship than the One they claim to be worshiping. I don't think that's an issue among us Reformed types. If anything, we're more inclined to hold back too much. We take "decently and in order" out of its context: "do all things" (including speaking in tongues and prophesying in worship - 1Corinthians 14). I suspect the Reformed understanding of "decently and in order" is not the same as God's.

As David shows in this passage, and throughout the psalms that he wrote, God's greatness requires everything in us that can praise Him. This includes singing, playing musical and rhythm instruments, shouting, blowing trumpets, dancing, as well as tears, quietness, peace. It includes the type of joy that that's noisy and the type of joy that's at rest. 

God deserves our worship in all of its colors. Let's not outlaw certain of them because they don't fit our assumptions. Let's recapture the regulative principle and turn it on it's head: if it's in the Bible and it's not condemned there, it's okay for us too!

The Table That the Crumbs Fall From

...even the dogs...

In one of the most unusual stories of Jesus in the New Testament, a gentile woman comes to Jesus on behalf of her demonized young daughter. Jesus seems to at first ignore her (Matt. 15:23), and then rebuff her (Matt. 15:24), and finally insult her by comparing her to a dog (Matt. 15:26). At this time dogs were not so much pets as they were scavengers. Dogs are always depicted in a negative light in Scripture. Dogs eat what humans discard. To compare her and all gentiles to dogs is a sharp insult, one that echoes the attitudes of most Jews of Jesus' day--especially the Pharisees.

This doesn't sound like Jesus, does it? Yes, he insulted the members of the religious establishment, but He never once rebuffed anyone coming to Him for help, let alone insult them for trying. Yet, here...

Let's let the dissonance settle in for a bit. Jesus seems to go along with the Jewish assumptions about their superiority. His response to this woman seems to suggest that He also thought that the Jews were not only God's chosen, they deserved to be! Or, at least, the gentiles deserved it less.

But... But... That doesn't sound like Jesus, does it?!

I don't take it that way either. This story comes immediately after challenging some deeply held Jewish beliefs about what makes a person clean or unclean (in both Matthew and Mark's telling of the story). The very context makes us question the assumption that Jesus is playing the Jewish race card here, as racial purity was just as significant as dietary purity for the Jews at this time.

Let's suppose Jesus has already decided what He's going to do in the end--that He's going to grant this woman's request. Let's also suppose that He sees this as a teaching moment. Both assumptions seem to me to fit the way Jesus often responds to new situations. When He was told about Lazarus being sick, He deliberately stayed two more days, in order to teach His disciples about the power of God over death. It was a set up then. I read the "offensive" part of this story as a setup too.

By echoing the assumptions of His day, Jesus exposes these assumptions for what they are: assumptions that fail to reflect the character of God. When He accedes to the woman's statement "Even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table," He confirms her assessment as correct theology: we do not receive from the hand of God because we are deserving, but because His table is bountiful.

This Got Me Thinking

What if she is right on another level? What if she not only recognizes that God will give her what she needs because of Who He is, rather than who she is, but that what she is asking for is trivial? What if she recognizes and Jesus affirms that healing and deliverance are crumbs that fall from the table and not bread eaten at the table?

For one involved in power ministry, especially coming out of a functional cessationism*, it is quite easy to see healing ministry, or the power gifts as the bread, compared to the crumbs of trying to live out of mere theological truths.  It's pretty cool when someone gets healed in front of your eyes, or their life is set free from years of demonic oppression. It really is! It's amazing! I wouldn't trade it for anything and I'll never go back to trying to do Christianity that has no demonstrable power in it.

But what if this woman is right: that compared to eating the bread of the Master's table, healing and deliverance are like crumbs that fall? What if the greater thing actually is eating at the table, in fellowship, as part of God's family?

I don't mean to diminish the importance of the miraculous, the importance of showing God's love for His children demonstrated in healing, deliverance and the like. As I said above, I don't want to ever live without that anymore, and I don't believe for a second that God wants us to!

On the other hand, I've been a part of healing ministry, where someone got healed and then returned to their same lifestyle as before--even doing the things that required them to come for healing! I've seen people delivered in amazing ways, only to return to bitterness and envy. It's crazy! Or is it? Maybe it's just that "crumbs" aren't enough. Maybe we should stop trying to understand crumbs as bread. Maybe we should stop trying to confuse a demonstration of the love of God with an encounter with the love of God.

The Bread At the Table

There is a bread for the children of God that feeds and fills. This bread is more than crumbs that fall from God's table. This bread is bread that is eaten at the table.

If the crumbs that fall are demonstrations of God's power and love, then the bread is that powerful love.

When we consider ourselves outsiders, undeserving ones, anything other than God's real children, we can find ourselves content with crumbs. We deserve no more--and apart from what Jesus has won for us, that's true. But what Jesus has won for us is this: Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).

In Christ, our proper place is at the table, not fighting for the scraps that fall from it, nor being satisfied with crumbs. Our proper place, our rightful place is as children at the table.

Jesus' purpose for us was to make a way to the Father (John 14:6), and to receive the Father's love (John 14:21, 23). Yet for so many of us, whether within our outside of the charismatic camp, we live our Christian lives expecting no more than crumbs. We live with the assumption that we are dirty dogs, scavenging for crumbs. Yet our proper place is at the table, in loving fellowship with the Triune God. Our proper food is bread loaves, and not merely bread crumbs.

How do we do this? What does this look like to eat bread rather than crumbs? Mostly this is a matter of understanding who we are in Christ, and coming to believe that what Jesus accomplished for us actually applies to us and has been applied to us.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Rom. 8:14–16)  

 

It's a done deal. It's accomplished. And while there is more to come, we are sons and daughters now. When we were born again, God became our true Father; we were born into His family. That's not a metaphor, that's the new reality.

As God's children, His sons and daughters, we sit at the table as if we belong, because we do. We go to Him in prayer knowing He'll hear us as our Father. We go out doing what He asks because we trust that as Father He asks us to do what is good, and that He will be with us. We minister to His children knowing He loves them more than we do and wants to show them His love. We spread the Good News so that all God's children can find their proper place at the table too. So much more than getting our head on straight, bodies healed, people delivered, and even sins forgiven, we invite people into their place in God's family.

I hope these musings make sense. I've not said everything that could be said on this story, nor on this topic. I'm pondering what this might all mean, but I know that Abba loves me. Do you?

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*Cessationism is the belief that all so-called power ministry (healing, deliverance, miracles, even speaking in tongues) ceased when the Bible was assembled in the form we have it today (that is, when the canon was closed). A "functional cessationism" doesn't hold to this assumption as theology, so much as simply does not function in any of the so-called "power gifts."

The Spiritual Power of Worship

David playing before Saul

King Saul had lost the kingdom due to his disobedience coupled with a lack of confession and repentance. As we read his story in 1Samuel, especially in comparison to David, we will easily conclude that Saul was a man after the people's heart. Like David he disobeyed the Lord. Unlike David he did not pursue forgiveness, but merely justified his actions as reasonable.

So the Lord took His Spirit from him and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him (1Samuel 16:14). This is  rather startling: an evil spirit from the Lord? I'll just treat that briefly here, since it's not the point I'm trying to develop, though it is related. We need to understand a couple of things here for this to make sense with the rest of Scripture.

Side Point: an evil spirit from the Lord?

First, "evil" does not necessarily mean "moral evil." This Hebrew term can mean anything bad, anything that is harmful or that injures. In Saul's case, the symptoms were severe mood swings, depression and rage. Whatever was going on, his attendants could tell it was an evil spirit and not just Saul (see 1Sam 16:15-16, for example).

Second, "from the Lord" does not necessarily mean that it was sent by the Lord. If you know the story of Job, then you know that Satan strutted into God's presence, challenged Job's devotion to God and went out from the presence of the Lord (Job 1:12) to do some harm. In the same way here, we should understand that an evil spirit went out from the Lord (as Satan does in Job), but this is not necessarily God's agenda for Saul.

What we are to understand here is that this evil spirit is still under God's control and will only serve God's purposes. The fact that this spirit left when David played the lyre suggests it was a demon and not an angel - but I'll explain that below. I could say more here, but this blog post is not intended to discuss all the fine points of demonology.

Back to David Playing before Saul

As a musician and worship leader, I find it extremely interesting that Saul's attendants believed that playing a musical instrument would be beneficial to Saul when the evil spirit tormented him (1Samuel 16:16). What's even more interesting is that when David played the evil spirit left Saul! The attendants thought that music might make Saul feel better, but when David played much more happened: the evil spirit left!

As far as I know this is the only exorcism in the Old Testament; the only time when a someone is set free of demonic oppression. What's so amazing about this is that it happens through music, or more likely: through worship.

When the Spirit of the Lord left Saul, He came to rest in power on David (1Sam 16:13). Some time had elapsed between the anointing of David as king in 1Samuel 16:1-13, and David being asked to play before Saul. After his anointing he apparently went back to tending sheep (see 1Sam 16:19). The Spirit came upon David in power so he could watch the sheep eat grass? There's a lesson there for all of us that anointing for ministry is not the same as release for ministry, but I'll let you ponder that on your own for now.

It's likely that during this time David learned to lead people in the power of the Spirit, by leading sheep in the power of the Spirit. He learned to stand in the power of the Spirit against the enemies of the people of God, by standing against the lion and bear (1Sam 17:34) in the power of the Spirit. It's also likely that during this period of preparation, when things were quiet, he picked up his lyre and began to play music and worship in the power of the Spirit. One cannot help but wonder whether Psalm 23 was composed during this time.

Whatever was going on, by the time the attendants suggested music therapy for Saul, David had already gained a reputation as a musician. His reputation extended from Bethlehem to Gibeah (where Saul lived), nearly 10 miles away. Of all the shepherds and other musicians in the region, David's abilities stood out. Though I couldn't prove it to you, I believe that it was the Spirit of God upon him that anointed his abilities and his music.

There's something unique about music, isn't there? Most religions include music in their religious practices. The Bible is full of songs. We are encouraged to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19). Across the ages Christians have sung songs as a part of our worship practices. Of all the things God created, music is one of the most beautiful. Music seems to touch us deeply in ways that simple speech does not.

I have a theory that I can't prove Biblically, or in any other way, but I'd like to share it as my theory. I think music speaks the language of the human spirit. If we think of people as body, soul and spirit, where our bodies are our physical selves, our souls are our emotional/psycholgical selves and our spirits are our deepest, truest selves (our essence, if you will), music has the power to give voice to our spiritual self. It's true that music can be merely emotional, merely play psychological games with us (as does most pop-music, and some of those "sugary sweet" worship songs). But there's another power in music that seems to help us express what we didn't even know we wanted to say. To me, that's the dimension of music that speaks the language of the human spirit. I believe that's why music is so important to the spiritual lives of believers. But I can't prove any of this theologically, Biblically, or any other way. Take it for what it is: personal pondering.

In 2Kings 2:15 Elisha, when asked to prophesy, also asked for a musician, and while the musician played God gave Elisha what he wanted him to say. The way the story is told, we wonder whether it was common practice for Elisha to wait for a word from the Lord while listening to music. Perhaps, this is some support for my theory above that music touches our spirits and perhaps the spiritual world itself.

When David plays, and probably also sings (though that's not stated), the evil spirit leaves Saul. Why?

Notice that David is playing when Saul is raving. It's when Saul is manifesting an evil spirit that David plays his lyre. That takes skill, focus and a belief that what he's doing will make a difference. But I digress.

When David plays, the Spirit of God is upon him. We know that because 1Samuel 16:13 says that the Spirit came upon David in power from that day on. The Spirit remained upon Him for the rest of His life. (This is not the typical pattern of how the Spirit worked in the Old Testament, but I won't go into that here.) When David played music in the power of the Spirit of God, that music it becomes something more than sounds organized into melodies and harmonies. It had power in it. The result of the evil spirit leaving Saul tells us that Spirit-empowered music has spiritual power.

If the evil spirit was in God's service, would it leave when the Spirit-empowered David played music? Are not all beings in service to God attracted to what the Spirit is doing? Yet this one was repelled by it. This must mean that the evil spirit was not in God's direct employ, but only acting within the boundaries God had established for it (as he did with Satan and Job--see above).

In Psalm 8:2, perhaps reflecting on this experience David writes that the praise God ordains to come from children and infants (David was quite young at this time) is there because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. If we assume that David's Spirit-empowered music was actually praise and worship (which is difficult not to assume), this connection becomes clearer.

We have the Holy Spirit within us all the time. As we worship authentically (not just going through the motions, beyond just singing the songs), we should understand that worship has the same spiritual power now as it did in David's time. Authentic worship invites and hosts God's presence. In Psalm 22:3 in some versions we read that God is enthroned on the praises of Israel. Maybe a better and more theologically careful way to understand it is this way: when we worship we become more aware that the ever-present God is with us as we worship.

Some forms of spiritual warfare focus on overcoming the power of hell. What David singing before Saul shows us is that worship can overcome the power of hell too. In spiritual warfare we can either war against hell or bring in heaven, we can either pray out hell, or pray in heaven. Let me suggest that snuffing out darkness is a lot easier when we bring in the light, as David did with Saul. Yes the evil spirit returned, but an Saul's unrepentant heart left a door open for that.

Authentic, Spirit-empowered worship still has power in the spiritual world! But that's not why we worship. We worship because God is worthy of our worship. The defeat of the enemy is a side-effect of declaring and standing in that truth.

Tenacity and Prayer

It was almost two weeks ago when we go the diagnosis. My wife Marcia has a slow growing type of breast cancer.

Okay. Now what?

The Journey So Far:

Looking in the mirror, she had noticed something different and decided to get it checked out. Her sister died from inflammatory breast cancer, and so this journey has been filled with anxiety for her. When her doctor recommended and immediate mammogram and ultrasound, she began to panic. She wanted to hear that her concerns were nothing to worry about, but the doctor didn't give her that option.

The mammogram was scheduled for 5 days from the day of the doctor's appointment, which seemed like a very long time for Marcia. She prayed about that date, asking for an earlier one. She got in the next day. That's right the day after her doctor's appointment.

She made me go along with her to the mammogram. Well, she would have, if I hadn't agreed so eagerly. I wanted to be with her as she--no--as we went through this. Waiting for over an hour in the reception area wasn't my idea of being with her, but it was a close as I could be, given the state of undress in the mammogram area.

While she was there, praying and trying to keep fear under control, she noticed two things: angels and God's voice. The angels she saw where hovering near the ceiling of the room, just watching what was going on. When she asked if they were there for her comfort, they seemed to say no, not by their words, but by their attitude. They were there for another reason. She also heard God's voice say to her something like "It's not cancer until the biopsy says it is." I don't know that that's literally true, and I'm not sure it was meant to be. But what it did for Marcia was allow her to relax and let go of all the ways this could go--including the direction of inflammatory breast cancer that took her sister in just a matter of months.

I was able to be in the (private) room where the ultrasound was done, and it showed something that would require a pathologist to resolve one way or the other.

Once again, as an answer to prayer, the date for the biopsy was earlier than expected and I accompanied her to the appointment. 

Between the mammogram and biopsy, Marcia called together a group of folks she knows and trusts to pray with her and for her. We gathered for a little over an hour and talked and prayed. The word from the Lord everyone heard was that this is not anything there to worry about, that it's already taken care of.

The procedure went well, Marcia, who prayed throughout the procedure, was at peace the whole time, and except for being a little sore, she was fine. This was a Tuesday and we were told we would get the results on Friday at the earliest.

On Wednesday through Saturday we were scheduled to be at a leadership training event led by PRMI staff. They call it "Exousia" which is the Greek word for "authority." Most of the people there we knew and it was a great place to be while we were waiting for the pathology report.

Thursday afternoon Marcia got a phone call and left the session. I followed her out, as did another woman who is a close friend. It was a day earlier than the earliest day we could expect results, but this had been how things had been going. The pathology report did show cancer, a slow growing type of cancer in the ducts of the breast.

When Marcia returned to the room she was surrounded in prayer. It was a wonderful time for her to receive from people she knows and trusts. It was as if God had orchestrated the timing of all this just so she could receive prayer from these people, many of whom have healing gifts as well as the gift of encouragement. A couple of the people there had been healed of cancer and both encouraged her that healing is possible and imparted whatever healing they had received to her.

The Frustrating Middle

The next steps are: an appointment with a surgeon who will remove the cancer, and an appointment with an oncologist (cancer doctor) for post surgery treatment (such as chemotherapy).

But the insurance company had been dragging their feet, making setting up an appointment impossible.

So, once again Marcia gets pro-active and begins making phone calls, talking to the folks at the insurance company and politely pushes them to do their job as quickly as they can. She also decides that she's going to get a copy of the pathology report into the doctors' hands as quickly as possible so that they can begin to consider her situation and begin planning even before official authorization has come through.

On her way to get the pathology report, she began declaring out loud "My Daddy loves me. He is my healer and my provider. He cares about my life, He cares about my healing, He cares about my anxiety, and He cares about my frustration. My Daddy loves me!" Within minutes, while still on the road, she got a phone call from the insurance company saying that we were authorized to go forward with the surgeon!

About an hour later, Marcia got a call from her primary care physician. They were working on getting the referral to the insurance insurance company so that they could authorize the oncologist. After helping them find the oncologist she wanted (they were looking in the wrong county), Marcia asked them to put "expedite" on their request to the insurance company. Marcia got a call in about 10 minutes saying that her visits with the oncologist would also be authorized!

So now it's time to schedule an appointment with the surgeon. With everything in place now, we hoped this would be quite soon. However the surgeon's secretary told her that the earliest she could get in for an initial visit would be September 25 (about 3 weeks after getting the authorization). Further the surgeon would be out of the office until the following Tuesday (the day I'm writing this, actually). Marcia, who knows this surgeon from working with him in the hospital as a part of her job, asked the secretary to ask him as a personal favor, to see if she could get in earlier. For the next 40 minutes she went about her job praying a declaring "My Daddy loves me. He cares about my anxiety, He cares about my health. My Daddy loves me." Although the surgeon was out of the office, she got a call back about 40 minutes later with an appointment date 11 days earlier (September 14). We have an appointment with the oncologist the next day.

Lessons Learned So Far:

The first lesson learned is that fear can often be bigger than we think it should. Nor does it respond well to logic. Fear about a multi-variable unknown can be overwhelming. At the same time, God's presence and assurance can make it disappear with a peace that goes way beyond what the understanding could ever do. Still, hearing and being open to God's voice and God's presence means taking our eyes off of the problem long enough to see the Problem Solver.

The next lesson is that tenacity pays. Marcia never settled for the hand she was dealt. She didn't accept anything as her 'fate' or Christianize fate as 'providence' (which is a terrible way to blame God for stuff He didn't do!). Like the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8), she kept pounding on the door of the decision-makers until she got a better decision. Like Ruth (at Naomi's urging), Marcia put herself in the path of her destiny for healing.

This is like prayer in many ways. We can pray in a way that aligns us with an unwanted fate, or we can, in prayer, resist an unwanted fate and push against it until it bends to God's will to bless. We don't want to partner with a curse in some perverted sense of nobility under hardship. No! We resist the devil and we resist the curse--defy the curse if necessary, clinging to God Who promises to "never stop doing good to [us]" (Jeremiah 32:40). We don't deny hardship; we defy it. That's what those declarations were all about: defying "reality" and ordering it to come into alignment with the Truth.

A third lesson learned. Well meaning people sometimes do hurtful things. In the prayer we received at the Exousia event, one of the prayers was that we would be able to gracefully handle all the unsolicited advice we would likely receive. So far we've gotten some, but not as much as we thought might happen. This is in part because we've gotten ahead of this by asking that all advice be filtered through me or one of Marcia's prayer team members. I think some people just have a need to rescue, or to make their own reactions go away by telling someone of a sure "cure" or treatment plan outside of modern medicine, or a prayer strategy that is guaranteed to work (after all [whatever they're suggesting] worked for [friend, relative, someone I read about]). Marcia doesn't want to be anyone's project, nor the relief valve for someone else's anxiety. So I stand between her and that stuff. Anything worth passing along, I'll pass along.

This includes setting boundaries on who "gets" to engage in prayer ministry with her (lay hands on, take her aside, etc.). Anyone who's been around charismatics and Pentecostals knows that there's just too much weirdness out there to have no boundaries about this. Further, too many, even with a better theology of prayer, are still driven more by anxiety, or a need to be needed as they pray. We don't want to deal with those dynamics right now.

I hope this all makes sense.

The Transformed Will

A Compromise with Powerlessness

Somehow along the way, as I grew up in a conservative Reformed church,  I picked up that I could never be perfect, but that I should always try. I could never be perfect because my will was completely corrupted. I would never be free from the power of sin in my life until I died and the old self (my sinful nature) died with it.

So, as I sat there, on one of those unpadded, wooden pews, I thought to myself: "So, if I can't do it, why try?" It wasn't a question born out of rebellion, as much as hopelessness. Somehow I knew that I had either learned wrong, something was mispoken, or the preacher was just plain wrong.

I could write a great deal more about how I had come to accept the concept of the irreparably corrupted will, but it would be a long story with a simple conclusion: I believed that when it came to victory over sin, on this side of glory, we still "couldn't get there from here."

A Biblical Challenge to This Powerlessness

Fast forward to 2015.

In the last year and especially the last few months, I've been hearing a response to the teaching I grew up with. It's been coming relentlessly and it has forced me to reexamine my assumptions and perhaps those of my theological heritage. Here's the challenge: according to Romans 6, our old self is dead.

Without making a quick jump to Romans 7:7,ff or 1John 1:8-10, in order to explain away this passage in the light of the others, Romans 6 certainly teaches that our old self was crucified with Him . . . that we should no longer be slaves to sin (Rom.6:6). And in Galatians 2:20 Paul says "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." This looks like a direct challenge to my assumptions.

I suspect that in an attempt to refute a doctrine of perfectionism, we may have overstated our case. We have ignored the tension and paradox of Romans 6 alongside Romans 7, basically explaining away one chapter in favor of the other (which is what the perfectionists do, except in reverse!). However, we should never create a theology of non-perfectionism that makes sin in a believer 'normal.' We should never create such a theology that gets a response like "...then why try?" We should never articulate a theology of the sinfulness of the believer that makes us so comfortable with sin that we shrug at it and refer to it as "only human, after all."

Grace Empowered Freedom

I have yet to meet a genuine believer that actually was comfortable with his/her sin. Some have given up fighting against it, others fight but have little hope, many carry tremendous guilt for failing yet again. I have been all of those people. But if there is any way to find victory over sin, I and other believers wanted it, and still do!

I find something helpful in Titus that I'd like to reflect on for the rest of this blog entry:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, (Titus 2:11–12)  

The first thing to notice about this passage is that God's grace is here to bring not only salvation, but also to bring us some training. That word "teach" (Greek: paideuo), means to train someone (often a child) in the art of living well. The nature of the word already suggests that this is a process, not an event (like being born again). I'll get back to the tension of training as a process, and dying/rising with Christ as event below.

I'm going to assume that what Paul is talking about is that the Holy Spirit within us by an act of God's grace, is the One doing the training (cf. John 16:13). Abstract concepts are not always good trainers! So, we have available to us, God's Spirit living in us training us, to do what?

First mention is that this grace (the Holy Spirit) trains us to say "No" (literally to refuse, disdain, deny, repudiate, disown, disregard, renounce). I want us to notice two things about this: first, we are being trained in radical refusal of sin; second, we're the ones who are to do the refusing!

What we are to "say No" to is specifically ungodliness and worldly passions. Briefly, ungodliness is a casual, disdainful, or otherwise sinful attitude toward God, and worldly passions are those temptations that come to us from those around us, tempting us to join in all other forms of human sinfulness. Basically it's about saying "No" to all forms of sinfulness.

So let's just set aside any notion of accepting a bit of sin in one's life as "normal." The norm for a grace-filled, Spirit-filled believer is "learning to say 'No'."

But what a gift! I can't do it on my own, I can't win over sin by myself, but I can be trained by the best teacher I could have, and One Who lives within me besides!

The Teacher/Trainer not only teaches me what not to do, but also what I'm supposed to do: live a self-controlled, upright and godly [life] in this present age. I'm being trained for that by the best!

Cooperation Required!

Notice that I'm being trained, but I'm the one who still has to say "No." I'm the one who in being trained now needs to live the new life. It doesn't just happen. The Holy Spirit doesn't just zap me and make me holy. He trains me to be holy.

This means that the Holy Spirit does not have a pessimistic attitude about the will of a born-again believer. If our will can be trained to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, then it must be possible for us. If we think that even our best are nothing more than filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), then it's not possible. But that verse is about apostate Israel (see Isaiah 64:7), not about faithful Israel, nor about God's faithful New Testament believers.

The only question that remains is this one: is the Holy Spirit able to train me? I trust that the answer to this question doesn't rest on the Holy Spirit's ability but on my willingness.

I can watch all the weight training videos in the world, but if I don't lift weights, I won't get any stronger. I can read all the books there are on running, but if I don't run I won't get faster. I can read all the advice on the internet about losing weight, but if I don't implement any plan, I won't get thinner. If I don't put into practice what I'm being trained to do, I won't get trained, and I'll be weak, and slow and fat.

For me to learn to say "No" I'll need to start saying "No." When I stumble, I'll need to ask for help. It's a clever demonic lie that I first have to get my act together, before asking God to help me get my act together. What if our Trainer is ready to help us even when the temptation's pull is strong, even when we've begun to slide into yielding to it, and even when we have yielded? Guess what? Our sin doesn't push Him out. If we want help, He's always available. And He's not afraid of our sin.

Let me ask you this question: Is the sin in you stronger than the Holy Spirit in you? Is your sin just too much for Him? I hope you know Who is stronger. And I hope you know that He is always available to help train you.

A Process that Assures Progress

If we cooperate with the Spirit, if we allow ourselves to be trained in the art of living well (by Kingdom standards), we can be assured that we will make progress. That there will be improvement. Unless we believe that the Spirit is a poor trainer, or that sin is always able to trump His training, we can know that we can make progress that we can see and that others will (eventually?) notice.

We are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:6). Which means that we are no longer under the control of sin, nor required by our nature or anything else to yield to it.

As we progress our will is transformed into something more pleasing to God each day.

Then Do Believers Still Sin? Why?

Yes, sadly, believers still sometimes sin. Why? I think there are two reasons: deception and habit. Sometimes we sin because we don't believe we're free from sin, or we don't believe we have help in resisting it, or because we simply believe that this thing we're doing isn't really that bad and isn't worth fighting, or... supply your own favorite lie about why we sin. After the Civil War, the slaves were freed, but some slaves remained slaves because no one told them they were free.

We also sin out of habit. I have a friend whose foot was healed. He still limped after it was healed and it took conscious effort to not limp. It's said that when an elephant is tied to a stake when young, will not pull out the stake when it's grown up, even though it can--it just doesn't know it can because it has been habituated to the power of a stake that no longer has actual power over it!

But lies can be exposed and habits can be changed: both by training.

When believers sin, we're acting out of character. This is why Paul says "it is no longer I who do it, but sin living in me that does it." That's not a cop-out, that's a realization from Paul that when he sins, that's not the real Paul--it's a left-over habit that doesn't belong (at least that's how I take it).

God Oriented Living

The key to all of this, in both experience and in my reading of the New Testament, is to turn one's attention away from one's own sin and sinfulness and just keep them on Father, Son & Holy Spirit. We are to consider ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11), so stop staring at what's already dead! A sin oriented life quickly fills with despair, even if one is combating that sin (we always have to look at what we're fighting!), because sin is often bigger than us! But it's not bigger than God.

When we're driving our in a car, we need to pay attention to where we're going, not what's going on in the back seat, or keep our eyes exclusively on the rear-view mirror, or on anything else but on the road ahead. Anything else can quickly lead to disaster. (BTW, don't text and drive!)

So to, in the Christian life, as we keep our focus ahead, on where we're going, on the One in whose likeness we are predestined to be conformed to (Rom 8:29), we can stay on track.

Perhaps a key to understanding Romans 7 in light of Romans 6 is to see Romans 7 as what happens when one is "law oriented" versus "Jesus oriented" (Romans 7:25) or "Spirit oriented" (see Romans 8).

This simple key (stay God focused) has been extremely helpful to me. Don't pay sin much, if any attention at all--not even negative attention. Keep your eye on the prize, keep looking to Jesus. Set your minds on things above (Colossians 3:2).

What is Our Scope of Belief

Today I'm going to write a response to a quote from the book Dreaming with God, by Bill Johnson -found here on Amazon, and here on Vyrso (Vyrso resources also works in Logos).

Here's the quote:

"...one of my greatest concerns for the church in the Western world [is] the prevalence of unbelief. It has masqueraded long enough as wisdom and must be exposed for being the great sin that it is. Unbelief has the outward appearance of a conservative approach to life, but works to subject God Himself to the mind and control of people. It feeds off the opinion of others, all the while stroking itself for not falling into extremes that others have stumbled into. What is seldom realized by those who live in such a religious trap is that the unbelieving mind-set is completely unable to represent Jesus in His power and glory.
     "It is troubling to me that so many Christians need me to prove that God actually does what I say I've seen Him do--as though the Scriptures were not enough proof. What is even more astonishing is that when the miracles happen before their eyes, they still want doctor's reports, x-rays, etc. before they will give God any praise." (pp.68-69).

I know these people. I was one of these people! At the time I wouldn't have called it "unbelief," I would have called it "being careful." Taken out of context, this quote might lead someone to conclude that Bill is saying that if you don't believe in miracles today, you aren't saved. He's not saying that. What he is saying is that when the scope of our belief excludes belief in the miraculous today, we are not believing the entire scope of Who God is and what He is doing in our world. To believe in a God who saves us from hell, but not from tonsillitis, is belief in a God that is too small, or too distant, or too unconcerned about us, or too powerless, or too uncaring, or ... [fill in the blank].

The Pull of the Scientific/Emperical Worldview

Part of the Western church's context for unbelief is our scientific, or empirical worldview (mindset). An empirical mindset trusts only what is observable and verifiable through testing. Such a view deals with the material (physical) world only, considering any other reality as either non-existent, irrelevant, or secondary. Such a worldview has no grid for anything affecting the material world that is not material. Any material effect must have a material cause. The idea that there is a spiritual world that can have a direct effect on the material world seems nonsensical to such folks. This mindset is so pervasive, and so insidious in our culture, it has penetrated the church too, mostly unnoticed. 

I know of a case where a healing happened during a church service, where afterward in responding to the miracle someone said, "So pastor, what do you think really happened?" What was going on here is that someone with a scientific/empirical mindset wanted to understand the material cause of the material effect. That person's concept of reality had no grid for a spiritual cause for a material effect.

The television documentaries that attempt to find a "natural" (that is material) explanation for the 10 plagues in Egypt, for example, is born out of this fundamental and unexamined assumption that a material effect must have a material cause. I'm not suggesting that such explanations cannot be how God did what He did in Egypt, I'm saying that our need for such an explanation betrays a worldview that is not satisfied with the simpler explanation of Scripture: God did it.

As one who grew up in this culture, I also feel the pull of the scientific/emperical worldview. There is in me an innate skepticism about the miraculous, that tends to lean me more toward slight-of-hand, or the power of persuasion, or self-deception, or almost any other explanation, than that a miracle is an act of God. Even when they happen in front of my eyes, I sometimes have to consciously resist the pull of finding another explanation.

Such a mindset is based on a lie.

The Pull of Deism

What is Deism? Deism is the belief that God exists, but does not interact directly with His creation. He just lets things run their course. The analogy often used is that of a cosmic clock that God created and wound up: now it's running (until the alarm goes off!). 

I know it may sound crazy to suggest that Deism has any following in our day, but when one looks at how folks talk and act, it seems Deism is alive and well in the church. Folks believe in God, but in a God who is "the Man upstairs" who never comes downstairs. He watches, He observes humans, but He doesn't really do anything to intervene. He left us a book; if we want to know anything about Him or what we're supposed to do, look at His book. He remains distant. Occasionally such a God answers prayers, but not very often. Mostly we're on our own. Oh, we should pray, God tells us to, but don't expect much. 

The belief in an absent God fosters an orphan mindset that is interested in self-sufficiency and mere survival. It's a mindset that produces either selfishness, or stoic resolve. Such folks either are consumed with getting their needs met, or in living noble lives in a cruel world in which they will always be ultimately alone.

Such folks reinterpret Jesus promise "Surely I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20) to mean that either this promise was limited to those present to hear it, or to be a promise that means only He is always around somewhere, though actually unavailable to us. With such a mindset the Holy Spirit may indeed live in us, but He always does His work in utter silence never drawing attention to Himself. Somehow, for these folks, the Holy Spirit is at work in us, though we rarely see any actual evidence that He is.

Such a mindset is based on a lie.

The Pull of the Religious Mindset

The so-called "religious" mindset, comes from a worldview that assumes that what God wants are that certain things are done in a certain way, and that only if they are done such a way, will God be pleased (or at least less angry with us). So we need to say certain things in certain ways when we pray, we need to sing certain songs, and follow a certain liturgy, or order of service. Anything that deviates from our understanding of how God is to be approached is considered "strange fire" even if our practices have little direct precedent in Scripture, or if the 'other' practice does have some.

This is the mindset Bill most directly addresses in the quote above.

Ultimately the religious mindset wants to stay in control of our relationship with God by following the rules and proper procedure. It can be seen in every stream (Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, Arminian, Baptist, Pentecostal, Liberal, Fundamentalist, etc.). It's mostly based on the fear that if we don't do things "just right" God will not be happy with us, if not actually punish us.

Sometimes this mindset pushes people into mere traditionalism, where God isn't even as important as doing the "churchy" things that make me feel like we did "church," where "church" is a synonym for spiritual nostalgia. 

In the New Testament, it was the highly religious Pharisees that doubted the miracles of Jesus, or else attributed them to the demonic. One of the main reasons the Pharisees didn't believe in Jesus' miracles, was that He didn't agree with their theology or their religious practices. In our day, religious conservatives do the same. 

Such a mindset is based on a lie.

Toward Adopting a Biblical Worldview

Without question, the worldview we find in the Bible has no trouble finding a non-material cause for a material effect. Just the first few chapters of Genesis establishes that: "God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light." God speaks and the world comes into being. From the beginning and throughout the pages of Scripture the spiritual world of God, angels and demons frequently have a direct impact with physical effects on the material world. There is no question about this. There is no hesitation on the part of the Biblical writers to explain the Sodom & Gomorrah stories as something other than God's direct judgment (no mention of volcanic eruption or a meteor shower), nor the star in the east, which settled over the place where Jesus was as a comet, a convergence of planets, or some other known astronomical phenomenon--it was God guiding them. When Jesus heals the sick, there's no indication that "what really happened" was something explainable and repeatable by modern medicine.

Throughout Scripture, from beginning to end, God intervenes, protecting His people and moving history toward it's ultimate destiny. The promises in Matthew 28:20 is not something true only theologically or mystically, but also practically true. Jesus is with us and available to us (through His Holy Spirit, Who lives in us--His temple). God is continuously and directly involved with His people.

When a miracle happens and God is praised for it (by others), which way do we lean, and which way should we lean? Should we lean toward doubt or belief? Skepticism or praise?

Let me suggest that a believing believer defaults to belief, rather than doubt or skepticism. As long as God is getting the praise (not the human instrument through which God is doing things), why not join in? Why not praise God along with the one getting healed and the one(s) through whom the healing comes (e.g.)?

I heard Eric Johnson (Bill Johnson's son) say that he would rather be gullible, and attribute a work to God that wasn't and praise Him for it, than be skeptical and miss it when it is. I think that's a healthy attitude and default. Besides, if God gets praised for the devils work, God still gets praised! That's a no-lose situation!

If we believe in a God who not only can, but actually does the miraculous in our day, then we need to confront our own hesitation, skepticism and unbelief as improper. There isn't some middle ground on this one. Either God is healing people of cancer, broken bones, mental illness, chronic back pain, etc. and must be praised for it, or it's all a sham, if not demonic. The scope of our belief must grow beyond trusting in Jesus for our ultimate destiny, while denying the rest of His work in our day!

Believe or don't. Pick one.

If the message of God is supposed to rest on demonstrations of the Spirit's power, and not on human wisdom or eloquence (1Corinthians 2:1-5), then not only will our belief system have to change, but so will the way we do ministry, and what we "allow" to be done! If we don't change something we won't be able to fully "represent Jesus in His power and glory."

Healing School Ponderings

Last week May 18-22, Marcia and I, along with 7 others (3 more from our church, and 4 other Dunamis folks), attended the week long Healing School at Bethel church in Redding, CA. I took some notes and wanted to reflect on them personally, and share those thoughts with anyone who is interested.

General Observations

I've already had a lot of teaching on Divine healing, including teaching from the Dunamis project (I've actually taught some of those lessons), several books, miscellaneous teaching at other conferences and seminars, and attending the Randy Clark school last year in Redding. So, in many ways, there weren't a lot of surprises or completely new ideas here. Most of the teaching we received reinforced what we already knew. But that's a good thing, because there are a lot of challenges and frustrations when one engages in healing ministry of any kind. Most of these reminders I'll include below in my other remarks.

That said, I'm very glad I went, and for many reasons. Going with our church and Dunamis friends helps us carry back some of the nuances from the Bethel culture that bring wholeness to our church and our Dunamis team. The culture of honor alone (cf. Romans 12:10b), is one that turns any silly notions of competition, or validation through ministry on it's pointy little head. The culture of dwelling in the Presence (e.g. John 15:4-7) is just simply the only atmosphere, not to mention prerequisite, for any real and fruitful ministry, and yet we can so easily get distracted by the very people and the very needs we minister to that we step out of His presence in order to do them. Other Bethel "Culture of Heaven" values are: grace, generosity, joy, faith, revelation, healing, and worship. Since cultures are more caught than taught, it was good to be there and watch their culture in action.

Basic Teaching on Healing

Teaching on healing from Bethel (and Randy Clark, and many others) begins with this: Jesus healed everyone who came to Him for healing. He never turned anyone down because of their lifestyle, their lack of faith, or because they "weren't ready yet," or needed to learn a lesson. While it's true that Jesus didn't heal everyone he saw (cf. John 5:3-9), there's not a single record of Him turning down anyone who came asking. Put that together with Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and you have to come to an inescapable conclusion: we can expect healing today.

Another basic teaching is that it is always God's will to heal. This one is a trip-hazard for some of us--especially us Calvinists who believe everything that happens is in God's will, and some people are sick and remain so after we pray. But remember that it's also God's will that all people will be saved (1Timothy 2:4), and yet not all will be saved. To explain this apparent contradiction we talk about the active will and permissive will of God: God permits things to happen (sin, for example), though He is not the direct cause of those things. While God turns all that happens to us to our good, He does not directly cause everything thing that happens to us. We know this is true, because it is the thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy, not Jesus; Jesus comes that we may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). It's important not to attribute the devil's work to God. (There's much more that could be said on this, but I'm not writing this blog entry on the nuances of the will of God.)

If it's always God's will to heal, why doesn't everyone get healed? I'll deal with that important question below.

A Sort of Random Look at My Notes with Some Further Reflections

Confession: I'm not very good at taking notes. I tend to focus on what the speaker is saying and taking notes sometimes makes me lose the next thing the speaker says. So I tend to only write down things that really catch me in some way that I want to make sure I don't forget.

(I'll put my note in bold and my reflection/thoughts in regular type face.)

Faith looks to Jesus, not inward to one's heart. This was from Chris Gore on the first night. Chris was talking about how we assess our level of faith. Faith is a pretty big deal, since without it, it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). When we turn inward to our own hearts to assess our own faith, we turn away from Jesus and to ourselves. This is a good way to get depressed, since we can quickly become aware of all those things that compete with faith in our hearts. As we turn toward Jesus in faith, our faith grows and is encouraged. Introspection is not always helpful, and habitual introspection is self-centeredness, plain and simple. It's not about us. Not even our faith is about us. Instead Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith... (Hebrews 12:2, NIV84).

To have the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7) means I need to give up my right to understand. There are mysteries in God and in what God does in us and for us that we may never understand in this life, and maybe not even the next. If we limit what we allow into our lives based on what we understand, we have created a barrier between us and anything in God that is beyond the capacities of the human mind. The longer I live this Christian life, the more I'm convinced that understanding is overrated. Lining up all the little truths in a sensible pattern, satisfies the rational mind, but rarely is worth the effort, judging by the actual fruit in ministry such projects produce. One can dance around the mysteries of the Trinity for pages and pages, and still come to the same conclusion: it's beyond human understanding (or else fall into heresy). Understanding is highly valued in Reformed and Calvinistic circles, and by the modern mind. Many things in Scripture are clearly understandable, including the basic Gospel message! But God is much bigger than our human capacity to understand, and often our attempts to understand these mysteries is merely a fool's errand, a wild goose chase, or as the Bible sometimes puts it a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:17).

If it's our burden, it's our glory; if it's not our glory, it's not our burden. Here Chris was speaking about what we feel when we pray for healing and nothing seems to happen. If we are not the one's doing the healing, we cannot take the glory, but neither can we take the blame. If we do take the blame, we're believing that it's really up to us to heal, and we should be taking the glory when someone does get healed. Of course some people do find a perverse validation when they pray for the sick and they get healed, but that's just wrong and we all know it. But if healing is what Jesus does, then it's not up to us, and we have no business taking the blame for it. This isn't to deny that we may be out of step with the Spirit at that point, but then our assignment isn't to do better at healing, but get back in step! Also, if God could use Samson, even while he was a moral failure, He can use us, even when our faith or our walk isn't what it should be.

If the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17), then if we're not living in joy, we've relocated ourselves outside the Kingdom of God. Joy is an essential attitude in the Kingdom, it's the second thing listed in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Joy is one of those things we find in the Presence (Psalm 16:11; 21:6). Jesus even prayed that, among other things, his disciples would have the full measure of my joy within them (John 17:13b). Believers should be happy people--the happiest people on earth! Let's put an end to this knuckle-dragging, 'what a worm am I' false piety and get into the Kingdom where there is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

This should not be interpreted to mean that we should never be sad, or never grieve the loss of a loved one. That may be where we are for a season. But our lifestyle should be one of joy.

Laughter is the best form of prayer, because joy releases the Kingdom. God laughs at the schemes of the enemy (Psalm 2:4). Chris Gore reminded us that Psalm 2 does not say God laughed, but God laughs (present tense--ongoing action). When we laugh at what the enemy intends as stealing, killing and destroying, we put him in his proper place. He has no authority, because Jesus has all authority. When we laugh at the enemy, because we know and believe that Jesus has all authority and that all the enemy's schemes against us are doomed, or will be turned to our favor (Romans 8:28), we bring in the Kingdom we are laughing from. When we get anxious and fearful, we succumb to the lie that the enemy can actually harm us, but that's a lie. The one within us is greater than the one in the world (1John 4:4) every time, all the time.

The Gospel is not a prisoner exchange program (Danny Silk). Simply put, we were not taken out of bondage to sin and the devil, just to be put in another bondage to "Christian" legalism. We are not under the Old Covenant laws. We are called into the freedom (e.g., John 8:36, 2Corinthians 3:17) of a Father/child relationship (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:6-7; 1John 3:1).

Sin: Whatever violates love. The only law the New Testament believer is under is the law of love (Romans 13:8-10; 2 John 6). Sin is no longer fixed to the myriad of rules found in the Old Covenant, but in the simple rule that we love each other, and love God above all.

Manage your love, not your sin. Following up on the previous two, Danny suggests that our focus be outward (toward others & God) rather than inward. Like Chris, when talking about faith, Danny stresses the importance of turning our efforts outward. Managing sin, puts the focus in the wrong place: on us. Sin management usually looks like trying really hard not to do something and then punishing ourselves when we do. But the more introspective and self-focused we are, the more we cut ourselves off from our source of strength: God (1John 4:7-8). When we live a life of love, the management of the inner life sorts itself out, or rather gets put into alignment by the One we're following. If love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10b), then let's be about loving people.

Do we think we are better parents than God? When our kids break the rules, what do we do? One thing we don't do is kick our children to the curb for every single infraction until they get their life sorted out. We don't disown them for a moment of selfishness, or foolishness, or even defiance. They're our kids! We love them even when they mess up. Even when they really, really mess up. We don't think we're better parents than God, do we? Really? In fact, Jesus said the best fathers are evil compared to our Father in heaven (Matthew 7:9-11; Luke 11:11-13).

There are two rules for us: love and believe. Yes, I know earlier I said there was just one: love, but we are also commanded to believe, which actually is the context for our love relationship with God.

If fear wasn't controlling you, what would you do? (Dawna DeSilva, I think) Something to ponder. We are no longer slaves living in fear (cf. Romans 8:15). So, if fear wasn't an issue, if you weren't afraid of what might happen, or might not happen, what would you do? Fear is often rooted in a belief that something is bigger than God. Can we laugh at that?

A thought to prayerfully ponder.

Five aspects of a healing ministry (Chris Gore):
1. Words of Knowledge & Prophecy. Moving in healing ministry is often accompanied by receiving specific information from God about parts of the body that need healing. This comes to the healing minister in many ways: the 'still, small voice,' sympathetic pain (pain felt in one's body that signals pain in another person), a picture, or perhaps some other way. When a word of knowledge comes, God intends to do something.

2. Laughter. Laughter is good for the soul and good medicine for the body (Proverbs 17:22). As discussed above, laughter also characterizes and so brings the Kingdom as well.

3. Thanksgiving. Simply being thankful for what one has, for the healing one has received (no matter how small), often releases more healing. Instead of being frustrated that pain diminished only 10% (for example), be thankful for a 10% reduction of pain! If nothing seems to be happening, be thankful for what God has done in the past. Gratitude is also an essential Kingdom attitude.

4. Declaration. For those who aren't familiar with this term, a declaration is a prophetic act that creates a new reality by declaring it. In Ezekiel 37:4, Ezekiel is told: "Prophecy to these bones and say to them 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!'" He spoke the words God gave him and created a new reality. God spoke the universe into existence and then made us in His image. Our words have power. (Maybe I should write a blog on this topic; it's much bigger than I can treat fully now.)

When Jesus and the Apostles healed people, they didn't pray for healing they declared healing. They said things like "Get up!" or "In the name of Jesus, get up!" It's interesting to study how Jesus healed (He never seemed to do it the same way twice!). Sometimes he did stuff with spit and mud, but most often He just spoke the new reality into existence.

5. Testimony. When there is a report of God healing someone of X, the sharing of that testimony often carries with it the potential to release the healing of X in others. Maybe this is because testimonies release both faith and expectation.

6. Prophetic Action. This is a bit strange, but sometimes a simple act of stepping over an imaginary line, or stepping forward, or taking hold of something in the air can release healing in a person (I've seen it happen!). This is one of those things that can offend the understanding, but I talked about the limits of the understanding above. Understanding is overrated, and actual healing is much better!

Don't focus on the problem; focus on the Problem Solver! This is so critical, it's hard to overstate. Often healing ministries struggle and even fail because we pay too much attention to the sickness, the injury, or whatever. The more we look at a problem, the bigger it seems to get. Before long the problem starts to look bigger than God (Who by this time has faded into the background, if not sunk beyond the horizon!).

Don't focus on the missing leg, focus on the leg that's missing. Obviously related to the above statement. Heaven already has what we need. We don't bring earth up to heaven; instead "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven." That is, our task is to bring heaven to earth; along with all that's in heaven for us. Don't focus on the illness, but on the health, not on the injury but the restored body. While we're at it, don't focus on the darkness, just bring the light.

Bring life where there's death (Eric Johnson). I was so interested in Eric's talk I hardly took any notes. But this stuck out as significant. The believer's task is primarily to bring life where death reigns. Jesus said His role was to bring life to the full. As His followers, that's what we do too. We don't merely bring the truth of the Gospel, we bring life from the God Who has given us new life. This should break off from us the impoverished idea that the Gospel is primarily about getting different thoughts in our heads. We need more than better thoughts, we need a new life! We have new life in Christ (not just new truth). It's true that lies can rob us of life (and usually do!), but the point of the Truth is to give us life. We carry that life in us, and can carry it into places where death has gotten a foothold. When we do, we should remember that the life we have has already defeated death, so there's no need for anxiety.

What happens when I pray and the person doesn't get healed?

I already discussed above that we shouldn't take the burden, if we won't take the glory. But that's not a complete response to this question.

Our track record in healing is not directly related to our theology or spiritual maturity, since Jesus sent out the 12 and the 72 long before they even understood Who He was. So let's stop blaming ourselves. 

Nor should we blame the one we're praying for! It's not their lack of faith, sin in their lives, or bad theology. When Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, he later found him and said, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:14). Apparently the man was not morally perfect--but then who is? And who has perfect faith, or perfect theology?

One thing we should never do is to try to make the Bible fit our experience. If the two don't agree, which one is wrong? Obviously, it's our experience that needs to change, not the Scriptures. There was healing in the New Testament church by the Apostles and other believers (if the gift list in 1Corinthians 12, is any indication). This has not changed. There is healing for us to do too.

When we try to understand Scripture in the light of our experience, rather than the other way around, we run into all sorts of problems. Yet it's been pretty much a standard to make God into some sort of abusive parent, teaching His children lessons by making them sick, or injuring them. If that happened in your house, you'd be arrested, and rightly so! Imagine: "Son, you're getting kind of proud of your athletic abilities, so I'll need to break your arm, but it's only because I love you." Or how about this one: "You've been misbehaving quite a bit lately, so I'm going to give you an injection of cancer cells and hope you can straighten out your life before you die." What?!! You would never stand for that with a human father, how can we project that onto God?! Besides, God is smart enough to know how to teach us what we need to know without having to hurt us, or make us sick. It's the thief that comes to steal and kill and destroy, not Jesus (who is a perfect representation of the Father).

Of course God can use a broken arm, or cancer, or anything else to teach us what we need to know. But that's more like a father helping his child learn from his or her mistakes, or learn how to be positive even when things go badly. The father didn't control the child into making the mistake, or deliberately bring bad things into his child's life. He just helps his child grow because of them. So too with God. The worst that can happen to us, God turns to our advantage.

When healing doesn't happen, we may have to resist the temptation to try to understand, and simply seek the Lord for His counsel or consolation. I have books that deal with this topic in a chapter or two, and I can barely summarize all the thoughts here. I think I've summarized what I heard last week from the Bethel teachers.

Let me add one more thought, not one I've heard from Bethel, though. In Daniel 10:12-13, Daniel had been praying and the answer to his prayer was delayed in coming because of what appears to be a spiritual battle between the Prince of Persia and the archangel Michael. Daniel didn't know this until the battle was over and Michael succeeded. I think that sometimes there is a spiritual battle going on for someone's sickness that we don't know about. Elijah, when he knew God was sending rain, still had to pray for it 7 times before it rained (1Kings 18:41-44). Our job is to persist in pursuing healing until it comes, even if it takes a long time. I don't mean 24/7 prayer (unless God says to do that), but persistence, not giving up, like the woman and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8).

There's more of course!

Yesterday, a friend of ours let us know she wouldn't be going to class with us because she was sick. We prayed for and released healing, Marcia called and talked about some of the things we had learned and she was healed and made it to class after all, and was deeply blessed by both the healing she received and the content of the class last night.

We carry the Holy Spirit within us, and with Him the presence of Jesus. So wherever we go, we change the atmosphere. The God of healing isn't just "up there somewhere," He lives within us. We don't have to call Him down, He's already here. When we prayed for healing for our friend yesterday, I was most conscious of simply releasing the power of Jesus in me toward her. I don't have a junior Holy Spirit, or a weak Jesus in me, nor does any believer. We need to get over the idea that somehow we are weak and worthless, and remember that we have been clothed with power from on high (cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8), and God loves us enough to have sent His Son to restore us to our rightful place as His children. If God values us, we're not worthless, no matter what our self-evaluation tries to tell us.

One of the other things we had reinforced for us is the perspective of praying heaven in, rather than praying hell out. There's a tendency among some intercessors to be focused more on praying out the enemy, than praying in the Presence. I've heard them wailing in 'travail' as they 'wrestle in prayer' against the spiritual forces of darkness. There's no need for that. Whenever the enemy shows up, we need to remember that he's already defeated (e.g. Colossians 2:15; 1Peter 3:22). It's a whole lot easier to turn on a light, than to chase darkness out of a room. This is also true spiritually. Besides, spiritually speaking, we don't just want a demon-free environment, we want an environment saturated with God's presence. A demon-free environment may still be dominated by an atmosphere of the world, or the flesh -- a merely human atmosphere. But that's shooting too low. Our target is and should always be God's presence when we pray for a person or a nation (or anything in between).

I may do some more reflecting as I continue to process what we learned. It was a lot!