Getting into the boat

I've been on a bit of a book binge recently. I've been preparing for tomorrows preach and generally stocking up on books about healing plus trying to get up to speed on the doctrine of the church for some teaching I'm doing in a few weeks time. I thought I'd list some of the healing books here in case you're interested (they are all great):

Authority to Heal by Ken Blue

Power healing by John Wimber

In pursuit of the Miraculous by Roy Todd

The nearly perfect crime by Frances Nutt

The five attributes of a church in revival by David Carr

Healing and Deliverance by John Woolmer

healing today by Mark Stibbe and Marc Dupont

The shifting Shadows of Supernatural Power by Julia Loren, Bill Johnson and Mahesh Chavda

Shaping history though prayer and fasting, by Derek Prince

Expecting Miracles by Heidi and Rolland Baker

God can do it again by Kathryn Kuhlman

Supernatural power of a transformed Mind by Bill Johnson

Smith Wigglesworth on Healing by Smith Wigglesworth

The fact that as I type pain is increasing in my arms shows that the possession and even reading of all these books in not enough! I hope though that in reading them and filling my mind with scripture and testimony of Gods healing power my faith will increase to see more people healed.

Faith is a mysterious thing but a real thing nonetheless. It is not a vague hope, but something solid, that sits in the soul and refuses to budge even when the rest of the world laughs. Experience can stretch it up or squash it down but the substance of it is grows from God's Word. The above books are really helpful but there is another in a category of its own that can do what no other book can. It is of course:

The bible by God

I was asked recently what one of my most significant transformational moment as a Christian was. It happened a few months ago when I realised that whoever wrote the Bible really wanted the reader to have a massive expectation of healing. Either that or they were grossly negligent in what they wrote. Since its God who caused every jot and tittle to be written down the only conclusion is that God wants me to have a massive expectation that he is going to heal people as I step out in faith.

That simple penny dropping hermeneutical moment changed everything for me. As the dust settled I found something new in me. Faith for healing.

It feels strange. Its as if having wobbled for a while with one foot on the bank and one in a rowing boat I am now sitting down in the boat clutching the sides as it drifts off from the bank. I don't know how to row, I'm still wobbling, but I am all in. It feels different to have water support you than solid ground. Suddenly there are forces upon you other than those you put in motion yourself with your legs. There are currents, there are waves, and there is wind. You have to start using different limbs to move and figure out how the ores work. Oh, and you go backwards. And you risk looking very silly if you fall over board. 

Tomorrow we I will have that feeling again as I step out of the natural into the supernatural and pray for people to be healed. If I've been a bit poetic with the boat thing, then perhaps Ken Blue explains it better:

"Christian healing is a mystery which cannot be controlled by applying some cause and effect formula. Those who pray for the sick entre an unseen world of spiritual forces which cannot be fully comprehended. It is at once fellowship with God in his work and warfare against the lawless destruction of evil. Those who risk entering this realm expose themselves and the ones they pray for to the possibility of humiliation and defeat without ever knowing why. This personal investment, which I label faith, is present in all healing ministries." Ken Blue, A to heal p123

 

Now I need to prune my preach so there’s time to pray for people at the end! 

You can change the laws of Physics!

One final thing that I wanted to share with the excellent guys at UEA CU when I went there yesterday was that we are encouraged to ask for the Holy Spirit. Not only is it nonsensical to imagine that the Holy Spirit comes quietly and secretly upon a person (as you read the accounts in Acts you almost have to put your fingers over your ears it was so noisy!)  it is also unhelpful to think we just get on with things until God so desires to pour out his Sprit on us. Now he might - he certainly did on Cornelius’ household but in most other cases people had an expectation built and hands laid on them. You may remember Jesus talking about asking and seeking and knocking. Well you may not know that he was talking about the Holy Spirit. The climactic application of his teaching on asking, seeking and knocking was this:

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:13

Over the last few months my expectation has been soaring. I have decided to take God at his word and believe what he says and go with the expectation his word builds in me. When I take breaks off its amazing how much faith God’s word builds. Blow it, I’m almost 40. I want the rest of my life to count. If there is power available then I’m going to ask for it. “More lord More!” Isn’t just a nice charismatic think to say. It’s the cry of a heart who desperately needs more of God.

I am reminded of the Starship Enterprise battling it out with a Klingon battle cruiser. Their shields are almost gone and they are seconds away form being blown to smithereens. Captain Kirk desperately calls down to Scottie in the engine room for more power. Scottie replies as he always does “I can ney do it cap’n shes gan’ flat oot already!”. But of course there is always more power and somehow Scottie does the impossible, there is a surge of power and the Enterprise wins another battle. I want to be like Captain Kirk, knowing there has to be more power, calling out for it, and winning yet another battle for God. Unlike Scottie God is saying to us “Ask me for more, there is more power! Heal the sick, raise the dead!”.  He can and does “change the laws of physics!”. “More Lord, More!”

We are all special people with a special task!

On the day of Pentecost when the disciples spoke about the Holy Spirit coming upon people they where not talking about something unheard of. The Spirit had come on David, Saul, Balaam, Sampson, Othniel, Jephthah, Gideon, Moses, Amasai chief of the Thirty, Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, Joshua, Elisha, Elijah and probably some more I’ve missed out (I think there are a couple of guys that built the temple who had Gods Sprit on them). These were special people with special tasks. They won victories in battle, prophesied, lead, blew trumpets, ripped lions apart, killed hundreds with a donkeys jaw bone, healed people, and did all sorts of amazing miracles.

If someone if offering the Holy Spirit to people who know their Old testaments then they had better be aware of the expectations they are raising. But could it be true? The Spirit poured out on everyone? Yes! The prophets looked forward to this day. Joel, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel. And Jesus spoke a lot about it too. It turns out that now we are all special people with a special task, to boldly take the gospel where it has not gone before. That could be next door or half way round the globe. It can’t be done in the way God wants it to be done without the Holy Sprit. The Christian life is to be lived with power and the batteries come with the gift of forgiveness. 

Batteries not included

Do you remember how disappointing it was as a child on Christmas day when you unwrapped a toy only to discover that it needed batteries. Your parents had obviously not read those all important words on the back of the box “batteries not included”. Doh! Your present looks good, it was very kindly given, but it just isn’t going to be much fun until it can do all the things it was deigned to do. (Recently I’ve had that experience as a parent and had to frantically search the house in the hope of finding half a dozen AA batteries for various newly unwrapped presents.)

Well the gospel is a present that comes with “batteries included” and that was the title of my talk to the UEA CU. I spoke on Acts 2:38,39

repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - all who call on the name of the Lord"  Acts 2:38,39

My point was that that sometimes we truncate the gospel. We give people the present without the power. Jesus told his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t enough that they knew him, that they believed in him, that they had seen him rise from the dead. If they were to take the gospel out to the ends of the earth they would need to be filled with/baptised with/receive (the terms are used interchangeably) the Holy Sprit.

It’s the same with us but now we don’t have to wait. The disciples told the crowd that what had just been given to them could be theirs as well. The Holy Spirit is available to all God’s people. We repent, we get forgiven, we put our trust in Jesus (initially in the way he told us to by being baptised) and then we get the power we need to live our lives for him. 

Fond memories

Yesterday evening I went to the UEA to speak at the CU. It was so good to be back there again after all these years and it brought back some great memories. Three years spent researching, designing and programming computer graphics effects for fire and explosions. Cool! It was great to have so much time and freedom to pursue my interests but that wasn’t the best thing about being at the UEA nor was it memories of late nights hunched in front of a computer screen that filled my mind. You see, towards the end of my time at the UEA I became a Christian.

I was invited by a really great guy in my lab to an event in the CU mission’s week and to cut a long story short, at the end of the talk I put my hand up and said “yes I want to trust in Jesus Christ”. No single decision has changed my life as much as that one and yet after I had given my life to Christ I felt no different. The next morning I kind of wished I’d not been so hasty (although I had been looking into it for over 7 years). A friend came round and we dumped a load of unhelpful stuff I had accumulated in a nearby skip. In the days that followed I began to experience a change form the inside out. Changes of desires and joy and peace. A little while later I was baptised in water and then a short time after that I was filled with the Holy Spirit (it wasn’t all as simple as it sounds but I’ll leave that for another time). And here I was again, wanting so much to encourage these guys and serve them as best I could. And they had given me a great passage to do just that. Acts chapter 2!

Acts 2 is a key chapter in an amazing book. It is I believe one of the most important chapters in the whole bible, second of course to the ones about Jesus’ death and resurrection but of unique significance to us and God’s purposes in the world. If it wasn’t for the events described in this chapter, mission would have misfired, I would not have heard the gospel, I would not have been saved and I dread to think what life would have been like.