Divine Healing Made Simple: Simplifying the supernatural to make healing & miracles a part of your everyday life (The Kingdom of God Made Simple Book 1) (22 page)

If God is present then it must be that to be seated with Christ in heavenly places is to be properly oriented to God in Christ as the representative man, the second Adam. We share in the obedience of Jesus Christ who is now at the right hand of God and in us at the same time by the Spirit. Because He is at the right hand of God, we have also gone behind the veil into the holy of holies, because we are in Him.

When Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, He was not primarily referencing the spiritual realm, nor was He specifically referencing the realm of God’s presence, where He dwells, where the angels are, where He has prepared mansions for us. When He said the kingdom of God is within you, it is best understood as ‘among’ you. The kingdom first is represented to the disciples as the person of Jesus. He is the King and the one in whom they saw the kingdom. Then as the disciples were called and followed Him, and as the multitudes followed Him, the kingdom grew.

The disciples were given power and authority because they entered the kingdom and became representatives of the king. They have been given authority to do what Jesus did as part of the ongoing ministry of expanding the kingdom until the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. We are each called, commissioned, tasked and empowered to do the same things until He returns.

There seems to be confusion in the body of Christ over what preaching the gospel of the kingdom should look like. This confusion is partly due to the differences in how Jesus and the apostle Paul presented the gospel of the kingdom. One area that is perhaps not spoken of enough is how the Jewish people understood the gospel as Jesus related it. His preaching of the gospel was couched in the language and imagery of the Messianic promises to Israel. The gospel as Paul preached it was a continuation of that but it was couched in terms that explained it for Gentiles.

The major emphasis of the good news of the kingdom of God concerns salvation from sin and reconciliation to God. Salvation as Jesus taught and as Paul taught are not in conflict, but are emphasizing different aspects of it, ultimately bringing the same result. That result was to bring people into recognition of Jesus as the Son of God, Messiah and Savior; to bring them into putting their faith in Him; and to enter into the grace of God, which produces eternal life in Christ.

Both Jesus and Paul performed miracles as signs and as expressions of the reality of the kingdom of God and as expressions of the love and goodness of God. Both pointed out the absolute necessity of believing in Christ. Both called people to repent. Both called for radical transformation of the individual and society. Both healed, cast out demons and raised the dead.

In the gospel of John, Jesus talked about His signs in several ways. He pointed to them so that people would believe in Him. He expected them to believe and when they didn’t, He rebuked them. In all of that the clear mission of His coming was to be the Savior of all. The benefits of the kingdom, which tie Jesus to the Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament reveal the heart of God for people now, not just in eternity, and demonstrate that Jesus is the Son of God who is able to do those things as part of God’s testimony to Him.

How we proclaim the gospel of the kingdom depends on the dynamic of each situation. We relate to people according to the truth of Christ, who we are in Him, the reality of the Kingdom of God and who they are, their needs and what the situation presents. There really is no formula for proclaiming the gospel. Man-made formulas for evangelism exist because we have failed to love others as Christ did. Love implies relationship and making disciples requires authentic ones. The Holy Spirit should direct the way in which we present the good news.

Jon and I have discussed the kingdom of God often. His perspective has helped me understand my place and function as one of God’s representatives. My personal experiences with proclaiming the kingdom have varied greatly. Many times I have simply told the person who was healed, “The kingdom of God has come near you.” Sometimes I’ve said, “God healed you, because He loves you.” Other times I’ve asked what they thought about God after being healed, which can lead to a longer discussion. Each situation is different. Following formulas is problematic, if only because of time constraints. When you have two minutes to tell a stranger about the kingdom, you’ll have to use a different strategy than if you have 30 minutes.

I don’t endorse the use of formulas like the “Romans road,” or asking people to pray the “sinners prayer.” While many people like these approaches, the disciples didn’t use them. Having said this, I have at times employed one of these methods, but not because it was a habit. It just seemed like the approach God wanted to use with that person.

One day I responded on an emergency call for a woman who was suicidal. After living for years as a prostitute, she didn’t want to go on. Depressed, discouraged and hopeless, she cut her wrists in a feeble attempt to end her life. I was called to transport her to the hospital.

As I walked near her, I felt the Holy Spirit’s presence come over me powerfully. I knew that He wanted me to minister to her in some way. During the ambulance ride to the hospital I told her she could have a completely new life. This was the good news she had been waiting for. I led her in a prayer to accept Jesus into her heart, to receive forgiveness of her sins and to be made into the new creation that God promised. She wept tears of joy as we rolled her into the emergency room. When we returned an hour later with another patient, we walked by her hallway bed. She reached out, took my hand and thanked me for telling her about God and showing her the path to a new life.

To finish this chapter, I’d like to share something written by my Facebook friend, Roger Webb:

As you read my miracles testimonies that I post, what you do not hear or read is the ministry of the Word. God confirms His Word with signs following. Years ago while I was conducting revival meetings, I was in my motel room waiting for the night’s service. I heard a car door slam in the parking lot and it caught my attention. I looked out the window and saw a man getting out of his car, walk to the back and open the trunk. Being on the top floor I could see the man very clearly. I watched as he lifted something out of the trunk. It was a wheelchair. He unfolded it and wheeled it to the passenger side. I could not see who was on that side of the car. All I could see was the roof. I watched as the man open the door then I saw him bend over and reach in and struggle for a bit. Then I saw that he held a woman in his arms. He put her in the wheelchair.

As I watched the man struggling to lift her, my heart broke. That dear man had to lift her in such an awkward position. I know the man was damaging his back lifting that way, but there was no other way to get her out. Then on top of that, when I saw the dear woman in his arms, my heart broke even more. This dear woman was totally dependent on him helping her.

By this time I was crying my eyes out. What I just witnessed simply broke my heart. As I was crying, I was praying and asking the Lord to release to me power to see miracles that will cause the cripples to walk.

As soon as I prayed that I heard the Lord say something that sank deep into my heart. He said, “Preach something that I can work with. Preach messages that I can confirm with signs following and I will work miracles.” I knew exactly what He was telling me. Preach Jesus and lift Him up and He will work miracles that will set the captives free. From that day forward I have strived to keep the messages aimed directly at Jesus and God has done His part. The lame walked, the dead are raised, the deaf hear. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!

A
FTER
H
E WAS RAISED FROM
the dead, Jesus appeared to the disciples and gave them what is commonly known as the great commission:

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”
MT. 28:18-20

I became involved in a discussion on Facebook with a group of leaders from the street healing movement. Brandon Lee, one of movement’s visionaries asked how we might go about making disciples after seeing people healed. Most of us had seen hundreds of people healed on the streets. Some were led to a profession of faith, but few of them were walking in the power and knowledge of God as we had hoped. The question we all wrestled with was, “How do we make disciples?”

Many church leaders don’t question the process of making disciples. They lead congregations that meet regularly. They invite non-believers to attend weekend services and occasionally hold community outreach events. They teach the Bible and have small group meetings during the week. The process may have a few more components, but this is a standard model for making disciples.

These activities may bring people to God; getting people to make a profession of faith isn’t difficult. But keeping them in a relationship with God afterward is more problematic. Church polls reveal that many new converts leave the church or lose faith in God shortly after meeting the pastor or evangelist. These short-lived conversions don’t translate into life-long discipleship. Some church leaders have recognized that present models of evangelism and discipleship aren’t working.

One problem is the model where a congregation meets in a building once a week to hear one person speak. This model lends itself well to certain things. It’s effective for teaching in the broader sense where a message can be heard by thousands of people. But practical application is a different matter. Putting instruction into practical use can’t be accomplished in large groups, particularly if feedback is needed. Application must be done in smaller groups to allow for personalization and time for questions to be answered. Congregations that meet once a week have no time for practical application of the principles that are taught. Some churches have developed small groups that meet during the week for this reason.

The commission Jesus gave is extremely practical. It’s full of things that need to be done more than once a week. It was the custom of the early church to meet in the homes of believers often. Having frequent contact with others is one key to success in mentoring. The more often you have contact, the more opportunities there are to reinforce the things needed for growth. And making disciples is a growth process.

The leaders of the street healing movement have identified some problems with the present church model and have proposed some changes. This has put them at odds with leaders who have no desire for change. Many of the leaders of the street healing movement are young and on fire for God, which accounts for their extreme enthusiasm and willingness to scrap traditional practices. They’ve rejected the broken paradigm of their fathers in favor of a new model for their generation.

They’ve seen the effects of powerless preaching and the weakness of a Church body sitting in a pew on Sunday lulled to sleep by sermons. They have a vision of a Church that’s different – a vibrant, spirit-filled, demon-casting, sickness-destroying, dead-raising army of disciples who do the things Jesus did. They know that this vision will never become a reality without leaders to point the way, train people, and encourage them on this path. This vision requires leaders who have a different mindset.

They’ve seen that one of the main problems is church leadership structure. Looking at how leaders function, they’ve identified a system that establishes different levels of authority. This hierarchical model is present in nearly all of Christendom. As much as Protestants complain about the papal structure of the Catholic Church, most protestant denominations have a structure that looks no different, where priests, bishops and cardinals are replaced by worship pastors, youth pastors and senior pastors.

This structure emphasizes and draws from the gifting of one or two people who lead the congregation. It rarely allows for the development of the gifting of the congregation itself. Among fellowships where gifting of the congregation is developed, it seldom deviates from the gifting of leaders and is seldom allowed to surpass it.

This structure facilitates certain things that the Church needs to accomplish, but it’s not effective for making real disciples. And it’s this issue that leaders of the street healing movement are most concerned with.

The kingdom of God is transformational. It breaks mindsets that are opposed to the righteousness of God. It frees people from bondage to sin and empowers them to release the miraculous into the lives of others.

The kingdom is not a set of precepts we agree to, it is the transformational power of God working in the lives of believers, changing them into the image of Christ. In a span of three years, Jesus took uneducated men and transformed their lives by using frequent demonstration and teachings on the kingdom. When the process had done its work their lives replicated the life of their teacher. This is the goal of making disciples; it’s the replication of the kingdom of God in the lives of others.

One of the problems of our Christian culture is that it’s easy to live as a part-time Christian. Many of us have little interaction with other believers outside of Sunday church services. We tend to compartmentalize our Christianity, bringing it out only when it’s convenient. On Sunday we put on Jesus, but He remains hidden the rest of the week.

The spiritual growth necessary to be transformed into a disciple is an ongoing process. It happens little by little through daily renewing of the mind. As we meditate on new revelation from God and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, our perceptions, beliefs and actions take on new directions. As we get together with other disciples and operate in the power of God, faith for the miraculous grows.

After becoming a Christian, I attended a Bible-teaching church for seven years that had a congregation of almost 1,000 people. I’m a social person, but in all those years I never really got to know one person in this Church. I learned the Bible backward and forward, but I was spiritually dead and knew nothing about how to operate in the kingdom of God. I’m a textbook example of how the Church is great at making converts, but often fails at making disciples of Christ.