What impudence!

Just had a great evening at the kings centre where Sam Poe was speaking to the prayer ministry team (those excellent people in the church who pray for others on a Sunday morning). He started by saying that he wasn’t going to tell us anything new or novel but would hopefully remind is of some things. Well, he spoke on Luke 11:8 and proceeded to bring some incite on it that I had never seen but which fitted in perfectly with what I had been feeling God say to me recently in the whole area of healing.

Basically Jesus tells a story of a man who has a friend come to stay late one night. He doesn’t have any bread so he goes to his neighbour to get some. He knocks on the door but his neighbour is in bed and doesn’t want to get up and give him any. The passage says “because of the mans boldness (the ESV has impudence) he will get up and give him as much as he needs”. So far nothing new.

Now here’s the new bit. The man doesn’t get out of be because his neighbour keeps knocking. He gets out of bed because he has too. Although he grumbles he has no choice and here’s why. In that part of the worlds if you have a guest come to stay and you do not welcome them and show them great hospitality then not only are you shamed but the whole village is shamed. If the man doesn’t get out of bed and give his friend what he needs to show hospitality he will find himself in the morning a very unpopular man and his life would become pretty miserable. The people hearing the parable, Sam suggested, would be chuckling to hear his grumbles. “tough luck mate” they would say, “grumble all you like but you have no choice!”. The impudence of the man is not in his persistence (as some translations put it) but in the fact that he turns up at all. You see just turning up is enough to guarantee him the bread as it puts his neighbour in a corner. He can’t be turned down!

Well now that’s exactly how I feel about healing. God has created a kingdom culture so charged with expectation for healing that if we are bold enough and even impudent enough to ask, God has to come through with an answer. Its not that we force God to do anything, its just that because of who he is he has set this culture of expectation up. And rather than grumble about our prayers and request, he invites and welcomes them. How much more should we expect an answer.

The evening was topped off when a friend came and prophesied over me saying “God wants you to have the passion to see people healed but not the responsibly”. That succinctly put into words exactly how I am feeling. I am sticking my neck out at the moment boldly proclaiming that God wants to and will heal the sick. I really really want to see people healed but I do not feel the slightest bit of pressure to make it happen. You see Gods neck has been stuck out further than mine. He will never be shown to be unfaithful or foolish so I’m in no danger either! Another friend prophesied that my faith is to come from Gods word and no where else. Another prophetic bull’s-eye! That’s exactly where my faith came from. I suddenly saw that Gods word was meant to produce in me an expectation for healing so instead of fighting it I went with it and low and behold a solid, enduring, faith appeared that’s here to stay.

Can’t wait till the elders and wives weekend for more great teaching and ministry.

something fishy

Its been so good to have Sam Poe here over the last few days. A great time of teaching and prophetic on sat night at mobilise in the east then on Sunday he gave a brilliant word about the Jesus and the loaves and fishes. Its a passage that in my ignorance I felt overly familiar with but he brought some great teaching out of in I terms of the supernatural. Jesus got the disciples involved in the miracle by i) getting them to tell the hungry people to get into groups ready to eat when there was clearly no food, and ii) dishing out the few bits that they did have only to discover that it didn’t get depleted. When they started organising people they stepped out into that risky arena that is the context for the supernatural. You can’t do the supernatural from behind a safety screen. You’ve got to make yourself vulnerable. Then they got their hands involved in the miracle by dishing out the bread. How great must that have felt when they saw what was happening before their very eyes and in their very own hands!

It was a great illustration of one of the few similarities across churches that see lots of people healed. People in those churches not only having a strong confidence that God wills to heal and a deep compassion for those who are sick, but are willing to step out and risk their reputation to take hold of a miracle.