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Usually I don’t write
blogs like this, but this one is intended specifically for Christians. It might
be a little confusing for those of you friends who don’t follow Jesus and don’t
know much about “church” culture.
I love the Church. With
all her mess and brokenness, I still believe that God’s chosen vehicle for taking
the message of Jesus into the world is His people, the Church.
However, one of the things
that break my heart is seeing Christians belittle themselves or others who express
their faith differently than them. It’s the same mistake that many first
century followers of Jesus made, which Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians 11. In my opinion, this
usually happens because of some key misunderstandings:
MISUNDERSTANDING #1: Projecting our gifts or
passions on others. Almost every
person with a strong gift or passion makes the mistake of judging others
through the lenses of their own strengths.
We think other Christians
should define their ministries in the same way we define ours. Here are some
examples of how Christians with specific spiritual gifts and passions project their gift on others and
expect them to define “true” ministry their way:
- Teaching-gifted people say: “ministry should be defined by Gospel-centric teaching”
- Evangelism-gifted people: “it’s all about reaching the lost”
- Tongues-gifted people: “it’s the sign that you really have the Holy Spirit”
- Healing-gifted people: “Jesus healed people, so that’s what we should all be doing”
- Deliverance-gifted people: “all believers must take authority over demons in order to do effective ministry”
- Leadership-gifted people: “the effectiveness of the Church rests in the hands of it’s leaders, so it’s all about leadership development”
- Apostle-gifted people: “Church planting is the most effective way to reach people, so we should all prioritize it.”
- Prophecy-gifted people: “the sign of spiritual maturity is hearing God and sharing that ‘word’ with others.”
- Mercy-gifted people: “Preach the Gospel, use words only when necessary. Being like Jesus is helping the poor and needy, so we should all be doing that.”
Most of those statements
above have truth in them. What’s bad is thinking others should be the same as
us. Even worse is diminishing other Christians who express their faith differently
than us. Why not thank God for His specific grace in our lives and appreciate
the difference in others?
I actually think it’s ok
for local churches and individuals to fulfill their mission of spreading the
Gospel in different ways. Some expand the Kingdom by being more evangelism
focused, others by being healing-focused, others by focusing on teaching deep biblical theology from the stage.
MISUNDERSTANDING #2: Interpreting passages of
Scriptures for the individual, when it’s meant for the body.
Many Christians diminish
others because they believe that ALL Christians have ALL gifts (spiritual
abilities). They quote verses like Mark 16:17 “And these signs will follow those who believe: they will be able to
cast out demons in My name, speak with tongues… and lay their hands on the sick
to heal them.”
It is true that the Church
(followers of Jesus) together has every spiritual ability that Jesus had on
Earth, but that does not apply to the individual (1 Corinthians 12:30). There
is no ONE person like Jesus on the Earth, but we TOGETHER are Christ’s body on
the Earth.
When a coach says to his
basketball team, “Go and dunk the ball, make threes, block shots, steal the
ball, and win this game”, he is not expecting every player to all those things.
He expects them to combine their unique abilities to accomplish their mission.
This is why Paul devoted
much of His teaching (1 Corinthians 12-14) to explain the way the body works.
Different gifts and strengths complementing each other to accomplish the
mission.
MISUNDERSTANDING #3: Assuming God’s will is always
to heal and keep us from pain and suffering.
I’m really grateful for
the rising emphasis on healing happening in some circles of Christianity. I
think it’s needed and it is part of the Holy Spirit’s work. However, we
Christians are often so bad at taking the pendulum farther than it’s meant to
go.
There’s a real problem in
my opinion with believing that God’s will on earth is always to keep us
safe, healed, and pain-free. That would mean that Jesus and all his apostles
were out of God's will most of their lives, since they were often in pain, in
oppression, and suffering.
Many in the
“healing-world” quote Jesus’ prayer to prove their theology: “may your will be done on earth as it is in
Heaven” (Luke 11), so they say, “is there sickness in Heaven? Nope, so
God’s will is for there to be no sickness or pain be on the earth also”.
Here are some problems
with that assumption:
- It communicates that human choices have no impact in God’s work or will. You can eat McDonalds everyday, drink crap, make bad decisions, & God’s will be to heal you.
- It’s hypocritical unless you say God will heal every leg cut off, every eye with glasses, every cavity in your teeth, etc.
- Also, when does it end with age? In Heaven you don’t age, so is that His will on the Earth? Wrong way to interpret the passage.
The assumption that God
always wants to heal can often sound faith-filled, but it can be hurtful and cause
deeper pain. The better approach is discernment.
- To some people healing and miracles do not propel them closer to God. Jesus himself did not do miracles when he discerned it wouldn’t help accomplish the mission of salvation.
- It makes people think they are faithless or doing something wrong, when often they are not. A mentor of mine lost his 7 year-old daughter to cancer and many told him she didn’t get her healing because of her lack of faith or sin in the family, which was untrue and hurtful.
Don’t misunderstand what
I’m saying. God hates seeing his children in pain. He hates sickness and
brokenness. God has given us authority and power to heal. I’ve seen him do it
in me and through me.
However, our ultimate
mission is to make disciples, not bring physical healing to people or keep
people from pain. Gifts, power, miracles, and healings are a vehicle or tool
for the mission of restoring others to their Creator. That’s why He would often
send his followers to places where He knew they would suffer, and they did. And
the Kingdom advanced. And they were right in the middle of God’s will.
Sometimes people will
heal, trust, and be saved more through watching us go through trials then be
healed from it. That’s the story of Paul’s life. Paul himself sometimes did not
receive a healing he hoped for (2 Cor. 12:8). God said His grace is enough. All
disciples ended up suffering and dying without healing.
That’s why SO MUCH of
Scripture is about enduring pain, persevering through trials, and
being persistent in our faith.
A BETTER APPROACH
#1 What if instead of projecting our spiritual
abilities and passions on others, we honestly learned to appreciate them, even
if they “seem weaker” and don’t possess our strengths?
“There
are many amazing working gifts in the church, but it is the same God who
energizes them all in all who have the
gifts. Each believer has received a gift that manifests the
Spirit’s power and presence.
That gift is given for the good of the whole community… You are the body of the
Anointed, the Liberating King; each and every one of you is a vital
member.” 1 Corinthian 12:6-7
“The members who seem to have the weaker functions
are necessary to keep the body moving; the body parts that seem less important
we treat as some of the most valuable… that way there should be no division in
the body; instead, all the parts mutually depend on and care for one another” 1
Corinthians 12:22-25 (The Voice)
#2 What if instead of reading the Scriptures
through the eyes of “individualism”, we began to read it through a “collective”
perspective?
The authority of Jesus was
given to the Church, the Body of Jesus on the earth. Without other Christians
you and I individually cannot be the full Jesus to the world, sorry.
"Because of
the grace allotted to me, I can respectfully tell
you not to think of yourselves as being more important than you are; devote
your minds to sound judgment since God has assigned to each of us a measure of
faith. For in the same way that one body has so many different
parts, each with different functions; we, too—the many—are different parts that form one body in
the Anointed One. Each one of us is
joined with one another, and we become
together what we could not be alone."
To some he assigns the
task of advancing God’s Kingdom by boldly evangelizing others they don’t know,
others do it by teaching with great wisdom, others by doing signs and wonders
through them, others do it by serving behind the scenes, others do it by living
with great compassion toward those in need. Together we are stronger, let’s stop comparing.
#3 What if instead of assuming God’s will is always
to heal and keep us safe, we learned to discern each situation through the lens
of our mission?
Jesus is more concerned
with our hearts being healed and restored to Him, then our bodies being
pain-free and safe. The internal matters more than the external. The promise of external prosperity of the Old
Testament was an illustration of the internal prosperity we would receive in
Jesus.
He can heal, deliver,
restore, save and he’ll often do it though our pain and suffering. Be God’s
voice, hands, and power in people’s lives, but do it within how you are built –
be happy with that, don’t belittle others, and know that together in our
differences we reflect Jesus to the world.
#4 What if we rejoiced over the eternal salvation of souls more than the temporary healing of bodies?
The Great Commission Jesus gave us was not to go into the world and heal it, but bring salvation to it. Healing and miracles can be a vehicle of salvation, but many rejoice over it more than they rejoice over lost souls finding eternal life.
In Luke 10:20 Jesus actually corrected his disciples who were more excited about the "supernatural" abilities they were experiencing, than they were at the fact that their names were registered in Heaven.
Let's define the "success" of our lives and ministry in the same way Jesus did. The sick who are healed will still die in this life. But the soul who finds Jesus lives forever - that's worth rejoicing over even more!
#4 What if we rejoiced over the eternal salvation of souls more than the temporary healing of bodies?
The Great Commission Jesus gave us was not to go into the world and heal it, but bring salvation to it. Healing and miracles can be a vehicle of salvation, but many rejoice over it more than they rejoice over lost souls finding eternal life.
In Luke 10:20 Jesus actually corrected his disciples who were more excited about the "supernatural" abilities they were experiencing, than they were at the fact that their names were registered in Heaven.
Let's define the "success" of our lives and ministry in the same way Jesus did. The sick who are healed will still die in this life. But the soul who finds Jesus lives forever - that's worth rejoicing over even more!
