Living Word Family, there is SO much on my mind that I could write a book to you right now. Trying to make sense of this whole coronavirus/CoViD19 mess is literally a full time job for many people, but many of us feel like we have to make sense of it in our free time. We, as a church, have aspects of this thing to consider that the world doesn’t. In my post-Easter message, I said some things about the limits of our authority as believers, and I want to use my space here to clarify some things.
First of all, I have received no “push-back” on this message. I know many of you listen to or are connected with, to one degree or another, ministers who have advocated for agreement in cursing this disease out of existence. I, myself, got fired up about this very thing early on. But as I taught last Sunday (as of this writing), I don’t think that’s the scriptural way to go about it. If you haven’t heard that message, please go listen to it; I’m not going to write it out here, but it is important to know what I was talking about in order
to understand what I AM writing here.
As I understand scripture, we cannot curse disease out of existence any more than we can curse poverty or death out of existence. We cannot control or dictate circumstances out of existence. The authority of the believer is limited to the believer’s sphere of influence, and when it comes to disease, that means we can lay hands on the sick and they will recover. It
means we can speak in agreement with the word of God along with someone who is sick and also believes the word of God.
We are limited for now, by government mandates, to how we can go about this. But no government mandate can stop us from praying, and there is nothing wrong, as far as I can see, with asking God for wisdom, protection, and a solution to this problem. I am personally convinced that until Jesus returns, the world at large will be dealing with poverty, sickness, and death, which are the outworkings of the curse. Meanwhile, I am thankful to God for the wisdom that has been imparted to people down through the years
that has enabled us to eradicate certain diseases, feed more people, lift people out of poverty, and extend life. But all these things are but a TASTE of the world to come.
A question I have asked fellow ministers lately is simply this: “Can we experience Heaven on Earth?” A surprising number have answered in the affirmative, with the most convincing case being that Jesus Himself taught us to pray “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” If that were not possible, why would He teach us to pray that way? But we have to balance that against Jesus also saying “the poor you will always have with you” and “in this world you will have trouble.” Is there poverty in Heaven? Is there trouble in Heaven?
The key to understanding this is that there has always been a difference between God’s people and NOT God’s people. Israel and the nations. The believers and the world. WE, the body of Christ, the family of God, are meant to walk in perfect peace, protection, supply, and healing. We are supposed to be the light of the world, and that light shines most brightly in the darkest times.
His will should indeed be done in OUR lives; that means we should be walking according to His commandments, and it means that we should be living in His blessings. The word of God goes to great lengths to show us just how far we have fallen from God’s created ideal. Some of the Old Testament stories are horrifying in their details. Even the “good guys” seem savage at times. Remember when Lot tried to pacify the men who wanted to “know” the strangers that came to rescue him by offering them his daughters? Remember the Levite offering his concubine to the mob? Remember the polygamy of David??
All these things and many more are examples NOT of what God approved of, but of how depraved humanity was and is, and of how God works right in the midst of all of it. Even we, redeemed as we are, can only imagine the tiniest fraction of how different and glorious Heaven will be. We imagine the best thing, the best stuff, the best life we can conceive of here and now, and conclude that Heaven must be like that.
But Jesus talked about how a kernel of grain has to die in order to become a new plant. As different as the plant is from the grain, so our heavenly bodies must be different from our earthly ones. Why, then, is it so hard to believe that we will be satisfied with entirely different things? I get excited about a comfortable bed with soft sheets and a certain kind of pillow. But what value does that have for a body that needs no sleep? I cannot tell you what Heaven will be like. I CAN tell you that you will not be disappointed!
And yes, our Heavenly Father loves His children, and delights in blessing us. There have been extremes and abuses of the message of the Word of Faith, but the God of the Bible does indeed delight in our prosperity, has indeed purchased our healing, and promises protection. All of these things are ours for the claiming, because God Himself has named them. But even when we are walking in the manifestation of God’s best in our lives, we are still experiencing all these blessings in the midst of a sin-sick world. As long as we are in this world, we will continue to see trouble in the form of poverty, sickness and death. Those are things you and I have been redeemed from; we must confess that redemption, speak it over ourselves. But we cannot speak them out of existence.
And…we will indeed suffer persecution. We can’t confess that away, either. Life in Christ is rich, exciting, fulfilling, and wonderful in so many ways, but it is NOT always easy. It is not always fun. There will be battles, and battles aren’t fun, even when the victory is ours. All of this to say that, YES, we, as children of the King of Heaven should enjoy life, LIVE life, and impart life to our world. But as Paul wrote, “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”
Our healing is a taste of the life that awaits us, where there IS no sickness. Our supply is a taste of Heaven, where there is no lack. Our protection is a taste of a world where there is no danger. What is going to be truly Heavenly about Heaven is the constant, manifest presence of God. And we can have a taste of that, too. Read your Bible! Pray! And please, please, don’t neglect Praise and Worship. I know it can be tough to do at home, but nothing will do more to put you in a position to be moved, changed, and shaped for His glory and service.
Remember that, too. Even in the middle of all this craziness, our mission is not simply to survive, or even thrive, but to serve and minister to one another and the world around us. We still have a job to do, and we still have everything necessary to get the job done. Our mindset should not be “let’s hurry up and get back to normal”, or even just “God, get us out of here!” We should be keenly aware that He could come for us any time, and therefore we have only limited time to do what He has called us to do. “Here comes the boss; look busy” is a funny joke and meme. But let’s don’t LOOK busy. Let’s BE busy with the work of the kingdom. I can hardly wait to be busy together again.
Blessings,
