A Pound of Cure

Seriously though, today as we celebrate the Protestant Reformation, as powerful and influential, praise God, as it was, it was never meant to be a once and for all-time event. The Church as a whole and as individual parts of the Body should always be reforming. History teaches us that it is dangerous if we are not. 

As I study church history, I am continually blown away by just how wide-spread the Reformation actually was, over many countries and many years, through many saints of God from all walks of life. 

Officially beginning this day 506 years ago after Martin Luther pounded his 95 thesis into the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. ( Although some historians report he actually used glue; however, when I glue anything, I always still give the thing glued a firm pounding for good measure. ) 

The points listed in the thesis are the heartbeat of the Reformation; however, the arteries spread thickly around the entire world pumping lifeblood back into not only the Church, but all of humanity, giving the glorious Gospel back into the hands of the "common folk." 

Before this time people relied on church leaders to read and expound the Scriptures to them. Without a copy of the Bible, bishops and other church leaders could paraphrase the Scriptures and move them in any direction they chose, inflicting ungodly fear into hearts instead of the true gospel. 

"I defy the pope and his laws!" proclaimed William Tyndale to a church bishop who had informed him that it would be better for the people to have the pope's law than God's, "If God spares my life," Tyndale continued, "In a few years a plow boy shall know more of the Scriptures than you do." 

Praise God those word would ring true. 

Some think that what happened during the Reformation was a breaking away from the true church to start another religion - Protestantism. This could not be further from the truth. 

The church leaders had become caught up in immoral as well as financial scandals selling indulgences to people under the false teaching that their money would spring their loved ones out of a life of suffering in purgatory, that their money could buy forgiveness. 

"May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money."  ( Spoken by Peter in Acts 8:20 ) "Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." ( Romans 1:32 ) 

As Luther wrestled with his sin and guilt and the church's teachings on salvation, God broke through to him by the power of the Holy Spirit as he read the Gospel in the Book of Romans revealing to him the truth: Salvation is not grace plus the works you must add to it, your self-righteousness, your filthy rags, but salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. To add to Christ's salvation would be to take it away. 

The rest is history. The most important discovery that emerged from the Protestant Reformation was the rediscovery of the Bible - the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Luther reminds us when we have the integrity to wrestle with God and his Word, asking him our questions, refusing to give up, repenting of our sins, crying out to him, wonderful things are revealed. 

The Church leaders were not dividing the Holy Word of God rightly. They were obscuring the Gospel from the people, adding to it, not handling it with fear and trembling or reverence. They were not tending the Flock entrusted to them with truth and love. 

What else could the Church do but protest? 

Jesus said that he would build his Church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. We can look back through history and trace his handiwork. It was not a coincidence that the rediscovery of the Gospel coincided with the invention of the printing press. And those printers burned the midnight oil ( and ink in this case ) to keep up with all of Luther's tracks explaining and teaching the Gospel, justification by faith alone, and the Five Solas, Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, and glory to God alone. 

The printers produced thousands of copies of God's Holy Word. ( Now written in the people's language, and not Latin. ) Imagine the freedom the people felt as they read the Good News for themselves, or the many illiterate having family or friends read it to them as they sat and listened to the beautiful Story of God, his redemption through the sacrifice of his Son alone, walking out of spiritual darkness and into the Light as hearts were opened to the Truth. 

And yes, Protestants have also done and continue to do ungodly things in the name of God, and this is sinful and not what Jesus taught. Violence should never be a means of spreading the Gospel. And this is exactly why we can't allow ourselves to drift for a second, but always be about our spiritual disciplines, practicing the discerning of spirits, ever vigilant to see that we are dividing the Word rightly and proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth. 

We don't need to pound the Gospel over people's heads - but we must never stop pounding it on every church door. 

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." ( Romans 1:16 & 17 ) 

Happy Reformation Day! 💜

Bless Your Heart

"Blessed shall you be be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out." ( Deuteronomy 28:6 ) 

This Scripture was one of the first we learned at a church in Texas the Farmer and I attended in the mid 80s. I just recently contextualized it. 

I know it seems as if I have a chip on my shoulder over the word of faith/prosperity gospel, and perhaps I do, but it is because I have attended these churches. I know what they teach. Their teaching typically focuses on the blessings we have in God while avoiding the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. They journey people straight to a "Promised Land" of their own making bypassing the wilderness and ironically and sadly missing the true blessings and promises we joyfully and thankfully have in Christ Jesus. 

It can be a bit confusing because there is an element of truth in their theology, but even that has been distorted. 

First off, we see before this blessing scripture that the children of Israel were promised to be blessed if they obeyed ALL of the law. 

"And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above the nations of the earth." ( Deuteronomy 28:1 )

And we know they did not. And neither do we. 

This is why Jesus couldn't just come to earth as a 33 year old man and die for us. In order for us to be saved from our sin and receive the blessings of God, Jesus had to live the life we should have lived. This is why he stepped down from heaven beginning life as a vulnerable embryo, born to poor parents in suspicious circumstances and livestock manure, announcing his arrival first to second class shepherds and experiencing rejection, ridicule, injustice, and finally crucifixion at the hands of his own creation. 

There is nothing wrong with being positive. God is a positive God, but he is also a genuine, mysterious, just God. 

And God does care very much about our physical needs. 

Look at the beautiful clothes he spun for the lilies in the field and look how he feeds the birds of the air and all of his creatures. "Are you not of more value than they?" Jesus asks. ( Matthew 6:25-34 ) He heals. He restores. He brings hope in the dry seasons. He never leaves us. He brings beauty from ashes. We don't need to worry over this Jesus told us. So we certainly don't need to build a doctrine around it. 

And let us pray for our suffering and the suffering of others to end; there is no shame in this. Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread. Pray for justice for the afflicted. Pray that God uses our pain and that our suffering is not wasted. 

When I am going through something painful, I want a saint to sit beside me, hold my hand, and walk me through it who has been up against the wilderness and lived to tell about it. Not because God removed the mountain, but because he didn't. Because he tunneled them through it; he opened up a way, building their faith and their character into the image of his Son in the midst of the turmoil. I don't hunger for cool whip, but a nourishing meal. I want meat to build and strengthen my bones of faith. Tell me your testimony! Tell me how you wrestled with God, and how he blessed you. 

Jesus did not die to give us a "good life" here on earth. You'll find that promise no where in the Scriptures. In fact God goes out of his way to tell us that there is a cost to discipleship. No matter how many times smiley face preachers on TV proclaim otherwise, followers of Jesus suffered all throughout the Scriptures and throughout church history. And they were better for it. Those are the cloud of witnesses cheering us on in our sufferings and our joys. ( Hebrews 12:1 ) 

If we follow these false teachings, instead of the Scriptures, emphasizing the goods without God, we are in danger of missing the true gospel. Do you see how superficial and shallow this teaching is? And how offensive it must be to God? Jesus is his only Son he sent for us, in whom he is well pleased. The "good life" will never fill the void in our souls. 

I've been there. I know what I'm talking about, and I want my friends and family to know the truth. It plagues many of our pulpits in the western church, and it needs to be constantly addressed because we are all so prone to believe the lie especially in this comfortable culture. And sadly, we have in many cases spread it to other nations instead of the true gospel. 

Although God cares about our physical needs, he cares more about our spiritual needs. It is the greater need Jesus told us. It is the message he commissioned us to share. ( Luke 5:17-26 ) ( Matthew 28:16-20 ) 

The truth is that what Jesus died to give us is exceedingly better than what prosperity preachers are promising. 

Jesus died to bring us back to God. ( Romans 5:8-11 ) ( 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 ) ( Colossians 1:19-20 ) 

God created us for his glory, to enjoy his presence, not the things of this world. Him. Although he gave all things for us to enjoy, he knows their enjoyment can only point to something greater. God is the only thing that will satisfy the human ache and the emptiness in our souls. After our first parents sinned in the Garden of Eden we lost the presence of God, banished from it, but God has sent his Son to cover our sins, as he covered Adam and Eve's naked bodies, their sin, shame and guilt with animal skins, the first sacrifice.  

He made a covenant with them that one day a sacrifice would be made, blood would be shed, by his only Son that would be the propitiation for our sins, returning us to God's holy presence once more. 

The true longing of the human heart is not an absence of suffering, but the presence of God. To simply be with God and nothing else. To want him for what he can give us or do for us, isn't love. We must check the motives of our wandering hearts always. 

"One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple." ( Psalm 27:4 ) 

If we could in fact eradicate the earth of suffering and bring only health and wealth into everyone's life, we would still come up empty and miserable.  

Why? 

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."  ( Psalm 16:11 ) 

It simply can not be found anywhere else other than the presence of God. Nothing else in this broken world can be substituted to fill the longing in our souls, no matter how glitzy it seems to sparkle, nothing will quench the thirst like returning to our true identity we lost in Eden, our purpose, our meaning, our satisfaction, our hope, and yes, a way to deal with our suffering until Christ's return. 

You see, God really has graciously and mercifully supplied every need we have in Jesus. Maybe the real problem is that we don't understand our own hearts or our own needs. Thank God, he does.  

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think......" ( Ephesians 3:20 )  

Sorry, I can get a little fired up, but please don't buy the tempting, prosperity lie the enemy is peddling. 

Listen to the Apostle Paul's words of exhortation written to the church in Colossae through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "and Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." ( Colossians 2: 1-3 ) 

This morning I come to my Father sinful, broken, empty, and weak, but I also come with the greatest gift I could possibly be given: Because of Jesus, I come as God's beloved daughter. I am confident and trust as I bow before him that he will not hesitate to extend his scepter out toward me, meeting every one of my needs, known and unknown, in his perfect way, in his impeccable timing. 

To God be the glory. Soli Deo Gloria. 

💜

Digging up the Truth

"For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." ( 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 CSB ) 

Jackie Hill Perry says in her new devotional, "Suffering creates an interpretive lens. Either refining the suffer's vision of God or blurring it." 

I've found this to be exceedingly true. For some it makes them hate God or gives them a reason to deny him, saying that if there is a God, he would not allow suffering. For others, it makes them concoct all sorts of false doctrines like believers aren't suppose to suffer, twisting Scriptures to fit their fancy. 

If we give ourselves over to truly studying the Bible, having the integrity to read it and let it speak to us, not explaining away the difficult verses, but reading the entire counsel of Scripture for what it is, in there, and there only, lies the story and hope we are so desperately hungering for in our hearts. 

For those willing to do this, we not only find some semblance of sense in suffering, but we find a Savior who lowered himself into ours feeling every inch of our pain and infinitely more, crying out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" ( Matthew 27:46 ) 

Why? Why did God forsake his own Son? 

So he wouldn't have to forsake us. 

That truth is worth us digging into. 

The Truth about Fairytales

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." ( John 15:13 ) 

Many years ago now, I went with the Farmer to this party way out in the country at a dilapidated, old farmhouse. I didn't know any of the people there. By the time we arrived, things were already out of hand. Everyone was drinking and cursing and smoking weed and probably other illegal substances, some were laughing hysterically, others were falling down, one group was fighting, but I was in love, so whatever.  

All the shenanigans got to be too much even for the Farmer to deal with so he took my hand and led me out the front door and over to the porch swing. I think we would have left, but our ride was drunk as a skunk and so we were sort of stuck. I definitely was no angel; I was drinking a bottle of cheap, sweet wine the Farmer had picked up for me at a local convenience store on the way. 

As we began to swing together, we heard a loud voice above all the others yell, "Out Devil - Get Out! I mean it, Devil, get out!" I said, "Oh great, now they're casting out demons." I'm not making this up. Then all of a sudden this huge, black lab came running out of the door. The Farmer and I both burst out laughing. To this day, we still tell the story of the dog named Devil. 

After Devil came out, I began to pet him and this music starts playing. We peep through the grimy window beside the swing and some of the partiers now had banjos and guitars and were singing gospel songs. Through slurred speech and missed notes they started with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and then proceeded to desecrate a whole host of gospel music's greatest hits. 

I wasn't sure what to do with that. I know it may sound judgmental, but back then, I didn't feel worthy to sing a hymn in the middle of my mess. I knew I wasn't living the way I should be, and I felt like a hypocrite. 

And I want to be clear that I'm not saying alcohol in and of itself is a sin, but the abuse of it carries with it a dread that is heavy, deceiving, and dark. The abuse of any good or bad thing, especially people, is a sin. I don't drink alcohol, not mainly because of my history of addiction, but because of God's mercy in delivering me. I can't pay him back, but I can honor him with my whole, sober life for all he has done for me. It's my personal conviction concerning alcohol that I do not place on anyone else. 

Anyway, back then I might not have sang gospel songs in the midst of my broken life, but I would read a few Bible verses in the morning and attend church to make myself feel half-way like a Christian. But isn't that how we are before we come to Jesus? We want to come on our own terms. We want to decide which parts of our lives we give to Jesus and which ones we keep to ourselves.

Sometimes when we see someone engaging in sinful behavior, we might hear someone say that that person needs to get "a little bit of Jesus." 

But as C.S. Lewis so bluntly put it: "He ( Jesus ) has not left that open to us." 

With Jesus it's all or nothing. He's either Lord or lunatic. There's no middle ground. 

Cold or hot. "Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." ( Revelation 3:15 -16 ) Those are Jesus's words to the church in Laodicea. Yeah, he's speaking to the church. 

Jesus lived a perfect life and died a criminal's death for us. In our place. When we just grab a little bit of Jesus to make us feel good in our sin, I imagine it saddens him greatly. Like when he lamented over Jerusalem longing to tuck the people under him like a hen gathers in her chicks. ( Matthew 23:37 ) 

We've seen in TV shows, movies, and books these scenarios where someone saves someone else's life, and then the one who was rescued gives their very own life over to the hero. They say that they owe them their lives now that they saved them. 

I believe we see this depicted so much in film and all genre of literature, especially fairy stories and fantasy tales, because it's a longing deep inside the human soul. We want someone to love us so much that they are willing to search the world over to find us, then give their lives to save ours so that we then can become theirs forever. 

And we have that! That is exactly what we have in Jesus! 

When the truth of this gracious and merciful knowledge makes its way to the bottom of our broken hearts, the response is always: "I'm yours forever, Jesus! You own every part of my life!" 

This gratitude springs up and out into praise to God and a willingness to go where ever he sends us, to love all those he places before us, to serve him with gladness, and to surrender to him every square inch of our sinful lives so he can begin our metamorphosis into his glorious image that pleases our heavenly Father. Not to try and save ourselves, but because he has saved us! 

A few weekends ago I thought about this long ago memory as I sat swinging on the front porch at Josh's house with my grandchildren. I was overcome with emotion because in our rebellion, God had grace and mercy on me and the Farmer. We didn't deserve it. No one does. If we deserved it, it wouldn't be grace. And if we weren't guilty, it wouldn't be mercy. If we thanked God for eternity, it wouldn't be enough.

But I'm prepared to try. 

I look forward to it. 

Thank God for his indescribable gift and give your heart and entire life to Christ if you haven't already. The King has come for you. 💜

It was a treat to share a movie experience with my oldest man child near his home in Atlanta. ( Wow, the seats were recliners! ) I really need to get out more.  

Jonah and the Well ( of mercy )

Many of my friends this morning are suffering in various ways. Sometimes life seems to bring on these seasons of pain, grief, and fear in tidal waves but not without the mercies of God relentlessly swimming within them. 

My childhood friend Jerry is facing open heart surgery right at this moment. Another friend is in unending, excruciating agony in both of her shoulders with little pain management available. Another is fighting blood cancer. Still another is battling M.S. There are others. 

Maybe you are thinking that is all good and fine, that you can believe God will intervene and help these dire and needy situations. But what about the one who caused their own pain? Does God help them? Surely they knew how to get themselves into this mess, and God now standing with his hands on his hips, wagging his finger, will not get them out. 

What about Jonah?

Jonah, a prophet of the people of God, no less, who should have known better, was flat out disobedient to God's command in his job description. "Go preach to Nineveh." God wanted to show mercy on the wicked city. However, Jonah ran away from God the text tells us; he went in the opposite direction. 

We could say Jonah caused his own pain. 

Pastor Bryan, the teaching pastor at the Summit Church, in his recent series on Jonah pointed out something I had never seen before in the epic story. 

"God has more mercy than we have mess."

In Jonah's rebellion, God was still hounding him to heaven. When Jonah refused mercy to Nineveh, God still showed mercy to him. 

Astounding, isn't it? 

Another thing Pastor Bryan pointed out was that as Jonah continued in his disobedience, God sent the storm that rocked the sea and the boat. God sent the fishermen, who threw Jonah overboard. And God sent the whale that swallowed him alive. 

God sent these things to Jonah out of his mercy. Pastor Bryan hopes that he has shattered our image of a Santa Claus god. 

When we are in a pit simply because we live in a broken world or in a pit of our own making and rebellion, either way, we do not have the strength or the power to get ourselves out. We don't "got this" I'm sorry, but I don't like that saying. We don't got nothing. 

But God has everything. 

And we learn this when we come face to face with the darkness, fear, and pain of a pit, whatever it may be. We learn to call on the God who has everything and depend on him. 

We learn that God has more mercy than we have mess. 

He sends storms, fishermen, and whales to "fish" us out of the pit. 

Some people want to just trash the God of the Old Testament and accuse him of "cosmic child abuse" and all sorts of atrocities, but they are missing the overarching theme of the entire Bible narrative: We are the ones that got ourselves in the mess! We are the guilty, rebellious party. We are born sinners, and we add to our sin account daily. Against God who is Holy, Holy, Holy. 

And "while we were sinners, Christ died for us." ( Romans 5:8 ) 

Because God has more mercy than we have mess. 

I just pray that we have eyes to see and ears to hear. 

"Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Hebrews 3:15 

Cry out to him. 

"I cried out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice....The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me.... yet you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God...... Salvation belongs to the LORD!" 💜 ( Jonah 2:1,5,6,9 )

The Farmer with the late great Atlas and his grand pup Aslan 

T.G.I.M.

Today as we move out into our spheres of influence, into our work spaces and into the new week, I pray we take the lessons of Sunday with us. Yesterday at my church Harvest Ministries, we devoted the service to praising the Lord and to prayer for our pastors, staff, each other, for Israel and for the nations. It wasn't planned by us, but by the Spirit. 

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." ( John 6:63 ) 

So we cried out to God. It was a time of humbly serving each other and seeking the face of God which acknowledges our dependence upon him and not on ourselves. It puts us in a right posture for the rest of the week. It's that "upside-down kingdom" thing again where in God's Kingdom the way up is down. 

It is in this same servant spirit that we must move out into our Monday. What does that look like? Instead of thinking we have to begin some "big" work of God, like we so often do in this country, where fame, flashy, and fruitful seem to be emphasized, even from the pulpit at times, I think it simply means this:

"Do what's in front of you."

Now, good fruit is biblical to be sure. We are called to bear much healthy fruit. In fact, the Scriptures tell us that good fruitfulness is assurance that we are children of God and that we are growing. 

But I don't believe our eyes should become too focused on the fruit we are producing. Maybe we should glance at it from time to time, do an occasional fruit inspection, but if our eyes and heart are concentrating on how much fruit we think we are creating, we will miss what's in front of us. 

And God is more concerned with our faithfulness than our fruitfulness. 

Are we being faithful with what's in front of us? 

For one thing, we can't produce the fruit anyway. 

In 1 Corinthians 2:5  Paul writes to the immature, jealous church members, "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each." 

"Servants" Paul says that he and Apollos are "servants." 

"I planted. Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." 

Let's focus on being faithful then with what's in front of us and leave the fruit production up to God. 

"For even the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." ( Mark 10:45 ) 

People were hungry. Jesus fed them. People were sinful. Jesus forgave them. People were lost. Jesus found them. People were ignorant. Jesus taught them. People were dirty. Jesus washed them. 

Make your family breakfast. Forgive your friend. Send the missionary. Teach your child to pray. Wash away bitterness and envy from your relationships. Have patience with the slow driver in the left hand lane. ( Welcome to the Farmer's world. ) Invite your co-worker to church. Attend the counseling session with your spouse. Linger a bit longer and with more intensity as you listen. Care for the poor and for aging parents. Influence your grandchildren for the gospel. Consider others better than yourself. 

When we die and stand before our Father, we will not hear the words, "Well done good and "fruitful" servant." 

No, what do we long to hear?  

"Well done, good and "faithful" servant.

You have been faithful over a little; 

I will set you over much. 

Enter into the joy of your master." ( Matthew 25:21 ) 

T.G.I.M. 

D.W.I.F.O.Y.

Happy Monday! 

Healing is a Gift

Healing Brook Farm was named to help me and others find healing after praying for a healing that never materialized into a healing. It's complicated. And God has been slowly untwisting the knot for me ever since.  

In a sense, physical healing in our bodies seems unnatural to me. 

I am not a medical person, but like all of us, I've watched the cuts and bruises heal seemingly miraculously from my body. When I go for my yearly check-up, one of the questions the nurse always asked is have I fallen in the last six months. Yes, I tell her that I have a farm, and I have fallen many times in the last six months. She always looks a bit alarmed. That's why I walk with my prod in one hand, and my other on the back of a big white dog, mostly to sturdy my aging body when it attempts to trek down muddy hillsides. Praise God for working dogs. Amen and amen. 

Bones fuse together, new cells divide to replace the ones that die, scraps and abrasions form into hard, crusty scabs that somehow dissolve into pink flesh. 

Healing is a gift. 

I remember two years ago when the Farmer and I were battling the COVID virus. It was as if my body had been restrained to the bed with the iron fetters of fatigue, forced to endure the vertigo that tormented my head. By day ten, I became exasperated and started to really cry. The Farmer who was much sicker than me with double pneumonia offered comforting words through his worrisome cough and breathing machine, exhorting me to hang in there. 

My battle was extra heavy and layered because I thought he might die. I felt like that old couple in the Titanic movie who just curled up together in their bed and went down with the ship. 

Through my tears I prayed in that bed of affliction. I felt the weight of sickness upon our lives and upon the animals and the land. I felt the tension and stress daily upon our sons who called and worried constantly for our well-being. I asked God to please heal us as I laid one hand on myself and one on the Farmer. 

God works in mysterious ways to our finite minds, but never to himself. Our symptoms did not immediately disappear, but for the first time in my life I became keenly aware of my breathing. I felt my chest going up and down in a rhythmic motion as if it were in perfect harmony with the beat of my heart. 

I could tell God was moving in me, doing something. I wasn't sure what. This was when I first began to recognize and come to know God as the true Life-giver in a more profound way and that healing is a gift from the Life-giver's hand. ( Jeremiah 33:6 ) ( Job 5:18 ) 

I realized that healing doesn't come because you deserve it or earn it or because you follow the word of faith formula. If that were true Jesus wouldn't have healed the crippled man lying at the pool called Bethesda in John 5 because faith is never mentioned in this passage. In fact, when Jesus asked the lame man if he wants to be healed, he doesn't even say yes. Maybe he's tired of being let down. Maybe he doesn't want to get his hopes up, but in any case, he makes excuses. 

And Jesus heals him anyway. 

Up to that point after Kathy died, I had developed a very cynical belief system about healing and so called faith healers and even the gift of healing in the Bible. In allowing my sister's death to consume my hope, I was left with a distorted view of the gift and had closed myself off to the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life. As I grieved for her, I believe now that I was also grieving, even outraging, the Holy Spirit with my sin. I also had lost my gratitude for healing. ( Psalm 41:4 ) ( Matthew 13:58 ) 

But God is so patient and merciful, abounding in such loving-kindness for his sons and daughters. 

Time and time again the Farmer would be healed of all sorts of issues, but it was like I was blind to them. I was beginning to get caught in an echo chamber of "fine sounding arguments" that denied gifts God meant for us to enjoy. Gifts he wanted us to experience for his glory through the Holy Spirit. I had swung from the health and wealth, prosperity doctrine all the way over to the belief that maybe some of the spiritual gifts really did pass away. 

That day God began to bring healing of a spiritual kind to my wounded heart. I knew this farm had the right name. 

Since gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, they are given as he wills and in his ways. Not in mine. Honestly, I think a part of it was that I didn't want to get hurt again, maybe like the paralyzed man at the pool, I didn't let myself believe. Maybe you're doing that too. God wants to untangle and free you from being paralyzed with fear to embrace his gift of healing for your life, in whatever way you may need healing. ( 1 Corinthians 12:11 ) 

I had to repent from one end of the healing spectrum to the other. From thinking it was always God's will to heal and that somehow my faith and performance were in control of the situation and that I could manipulate God's hand. Some movements within the church have reduced healing to a mechanical means, at times making it into a spectacle that only the holier than thou can obtain. The gift of healing is plugged and played. 

This belief system misses the beauty and richness of God's grace and mercy that lies at the heart of healing. 

I also repented of thinking the gift of healing was not for today, and for the times I had started to repeat the rhetorical argument that if it was for today, why aren't people just running up and down the hospital wards healing all the sick. To be clear, the cessationist camp does believe God still heals, just not through the gift of healing. Which I know, that sounds confusing. I've grown to see that we're the ones that have complicated healing, not God. 

At any rate, I believe both of these views display a misunderstanding of the gift of healing.  

The gift of healing isn't like a superpower someone can invoke on demand. The gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, and he uses them as he sees fit. A gift by definition is something we receive with thanksgiving, not something we attach strings upon that connect to our agendas, erroneous theologies, or "righteous" behavior.   

I pray that the church has the integrity to look deeper into the gift of healing and all that the Bible teaches us about it before we repeat rhetoric we've heard from our particular camp. Shouldn't we do that in all areas as a matter of fact? 

And anyway, is me demanding or manipulating something or giving God the silent treatment really how a parent / child relationship develops into a glorious bond? I don't think so. 

The Scriptures tell us that we are to have faith in Jesus, in his ability to heal, to save, to change our lives, to order the universe. In Jesus alone. It doesn't say to have faith that he heals everyone, every time. It says to have faith in Jesus. Not faith in my faith. Faith in Jesus. ( Acts 3:16 ) 

And if Jesus wants to heal someone who doesn't exhibit a lick of faith, he can do that. I'm not recommending it because without faith the Scriptures tell us that we can not please God; I'm just saying God operates out of his own purposes for his own glory. Not ours. ( Hebrews 11:16 ) ( Isaiah 43:7 ) 

He doesn't need our help, but he does desire it. On his terms. 

When sin and death entered the world in Eden, one of the consequences was the deterioration of our physical bodies. Sin and death are powerful, so, I don't think our bodies were suppose to heal. I don't believe they could after the fall because of the curse that resulted from our sin. However, God's grace abounds, and for a time, in many instances and situations, he allows our bodies to heal. 

Why?

Signs and wonders. To display his glory. To be his witnesses. ( Act 1: 7-9 ) 

At regeneration, the Holy Spirit unites us to the finished work of Jesus and empowers us for ministry, to be his bold witnesses. Jesus said that apart from him we can do nothing, so he sends the promised Holy Spirit to be with us forever.  ( John 15:5 ) ( John 14-16 ) 

Jesus also promises to build his church by using his people, that's right, his people equipped for ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit, building and edifying through the gifts. ( Matthew 16:18 ) 

When I prayed for our healing that day, in that time and space, God granted to me the gift of healing in my body and my spirit. The Farmer and I both turned a corner and recovered. Others were praying as well from a distance. The gift of healing came down and rested upon us. 

I'm not a faith healer, whatever that means anyway. I'm a believer in Jesus. I've learned that the Holy Spirit gives the gift of healing in many various ways. Of course he does, God is not boring. Sometimes it's immediate. Many times he brings it through human means by medicine, therapy, or by the laying on of our humble hands. However, it still all proceeds from his great, sovereign hand. 

Often times healing is slow because God is lovingly concerned about more than our broken bodies. He's also the lover of our souls. And yes, sometimes physical and mental healing does not materialize in this life. This pain carries with it the potential to bring us into a place in our relationship with God we could only have dreamt of. He alone holds each piece of our fragmented hearts and knows what it will take to make them whole again and more like his Son. 

Paul tells us plainly in 1 Corinthians 13 that when the perfect comes, that's Jesus, all spiritual gifts will cease. Until that time they remain as gifts to the church to help proclaim his name through signs and wonders and to spread his wholeness to a broken world. 

As Paul reminded us, one day healing will not be needed. Until then, I'm going to pray for healing for everyone, every chance I get. 

And that brings me back to the revelation I had that day on my sick bed. 

One fine day, the Scriptures tell us, that because Jesus resurrected from the dead on the third day, he will also give life to our mortal bodies. By the power of the Holy Spirit, our broken bodies will too be resurrected like our Savior's.  ( Romans 8:11 ) ( 1 Corinthians 15 )  

"For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting?'" ( 1 Corinthians 15:53-55 ) 

I believe possibly another reason for all of the different gifts of healing in this life is to give us a foretaste of the life to come. A glorious day when these bodies will be raised with the same power that raised Christ from the dead. 

Each time the smallest paper cut heals or the scab disappears or the throbbing headache takes a hike, or the virus turns a corner, or stage 4 cancer is eaten up alive, we experience a bit of the perfect gift of healing to come. When the Perfect comes. 

Because healing is a gift. 

And in the process of wrestling with all of this healing stuff and refusing to let go until we come to a better understanding of it all, as the Holy Spirit administers knowledge to us over time and through heartache, we grow closer to our Father. 

And this too is a gift. 💜