Moving to Wordpress

Hi all,

I moved the website to a Wordpress platform. The URL is the same: http://theJesusMethod.com .

Please note that the new website has a new Subscription button. Google's Feedburner is way better than Google Groups. If you have the time, please go there and subscribe to the new format. Or click here. I apologize for the inconvenience, but my hope is that the reading will be easier.

Also, I'm still waiting for some graphics here... so if anyone can help in that area, it'd be greatly appreciated!

With love!

Stop Praying for the Sick

I was reading this passage today, and something jumped out and hit me:

"When the days drew near for him [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village." Luke 9:51-56

There's something very interesting about the nature of authority in this passage. Read the disciples' question again, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

This occurs soon after Jesus gave the apostles "power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases" in Luke 9:1, and then sent them out to "proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal" Luke 9:2. In his commissioning speech, Jesus tells them "Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgement for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town [any town that rejects their message]" Matt 10:15. And what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? Consumed with fire.

So, a little sanctified imagination here: the apostles have been with Jesus from near the beginning. They have now seen Jesus heal the sick, cast demons out of folks, curse fig trees, calm storms and raise the dead. Often times he performed these awesome miracles with simple commands, "Child, arise" Luke 8:54, "Peace! Be still" Mark 4:39, "Stretch out your hand" Luke 6:10, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again" Mark 11:14, "Be opened!" Mark 7:34, and "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" Mark 5:8.

The disciples have seen the power of God in Jesus Christ. They have witnessed his authority. They were there for the miracles of their Rabbi - the one whom they longed to be like. And then the day comes: Jesus gives them authority and power and turns'm loose. What do you think happened the first time they encountered a blind man in a village? What do you think they said? How do you think they went about healing him? How do you think they prayed? Could you even call it prayer?

Now, back to our original passage:

"Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

Now, let me ask you: where in the world did James and John get the idea they could tell fire to come down from heaven and consume a village? It's clear that they got the idea that rejection of their message was punishable by fire from Jesus in Matt 10:15. But where did they get the idea they themselves could just, well, tell fire come down and consume a village? I mean, these guys didn't have any intention to ask God to send the fire down. They weren't going to ask Jesus to do it for them, either. And they certainly weren't going to ask the fire itself if it would come down. No, they were going to tell it to come down themselves.

Do you see it now? What do you think that would have sounded like? Maybe something like, "Fire, come down here and consume these people!" Look, I know Jesus rebuked them for their attitudes here. I'm not condoning any kind of destructive behavior by any means. Rather, I want you to learn something very important about our authority.

You don't have to pray. You don't have to ask God to do it. Jesus didn't, and it's clear that the disciples didn't either. Jesus didn't tell his disciples to go out and pray for the sick. He told them to go heal the sick. There's a difference.

This might seem like a little thing, but it's not. Prayer involves communication. It's a two-way street. Healing the sick doesn't. The only communication involved is a horizontal communication: you telling the sickness to get lost. It's a resident authority based on your relationship with Jesus Christ.

So, what's the point? The point is: You don't have to pray to God and ask him to heal the sick, because he's given you authority to do it yourself! What an exciting privilege we have! God has given us everything we need to co-labor with him and build the Kingdom!

Praise the Lord!

RP: A 21st Century Reformation: Recover the Supernatural

An article by Hwa Yung:

A 21st Century Reformation: Recover the Supernatural
Leaders from Malaysia, Argentina, Nigeria, and the United States share their dreams for major changes in the global church.

To facilitate a truly global conversation, we ask Christian leaders from around the world to respond to the Global Conversation's lead articles. These points of view do not necessarily represent Christianity Today magazine or the Lausanne Movement. They are designed to stimulate discussion from all points of the compass and from different segments of the Christian community. Please add your perspective by posting a comment so that we can learn and grow together in the unity of the Spirit.

The Reformation of the 16th century was a revolution of mythic proportions. Scholars and pastors with fresh scriptural insights took advantage of revolutionary changes in the arts, science, humanities, politics, travel, and commerce to turn the Western world upside down. It marked both a return to biblical roots and a leap into the future. In the 21st century, what major changes in the church should Christians be hoping and working for? In the final installment of the Global Conversation, four key leaders from four continents reveal their hopes.

One big surprise of the 20th century was the dramatic growth of churches in the non-Western world. A bigger surprise was that the fastest-growing churches were strongly supernaturally oriented. "In this thought world, prophecy is an everyday reality, while faith healing, exorcism, and dream visions are all basic components of religious sensibility," religion historian Philip Jenkins has noted. This is true of African Initiated Churches, Pentecostal churches in Latin America, house churches in China and India, and numerous others.

I grew up in a thought world where ancestral spirits, demonic powers, "gods," and miracles of all kinds abounded. Modern education, the most powerful force behind secularization, almost succeeded in getting me to toss out everything as superstition. Some of these supernatural elements clearly are, but not all. A careful reading of the Bible and the sheer weight of empirical evidence eventually brought me back to a supernatural Christianity. In this, I found myself out of sync with much of Western theology. Here liberals were at least consistent, but not evangelicals. Most liberals denied the supernatural both in the Bible and in the present; evangelicals fought tooth and nail to defend the miraculous in the Bible, but rarely could cope with it in real life.

It is now recognized that much of Western thought has been domesticated by modernity, with its roots in Enlightenment thought. The autonomous rationalism initiated by Descartes and the narrow empiricism pioneered by Hume have so emasculated the modern worldview that a mechanistic universe is all that remains. The resultant denial of the supernatural has crippled much of theology, leading to at least two serious consequences.

First, most present-day Western systematic and pastoral theologies fail to address the demonic at both the personal and cosmic levels. Many scholars deny or ignore the whole subject, explaining away numerous related biblical passages: Paul's references to "principalities and powers" are reduced to sociological structures; sin and evil are discussed without reference to the demonic. Such theologies sit well with modernity, but they provide no help for evangelists and pastors ministering to people who are under spiritual bondage. If these issues are not properly addressed, many non-Westerners will find the gospel impotent and irrelevant.

The other consequence is that Western Christians often fail to fit the "signs and wonders" of the Holy Spirit into their theological framework. Up until recently, they have treated classic Pentecostalism as some form of aberrant religion, along with various versions of non-Western indigenous Christianity that also take the New Testament teaching on spiritual gifts and miracles seriously. But today, with Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement increasingly accepted in the West, and most of the dynamic non-Western churches taking the miraculous seriously, it increasingly looks as if the real aberration is "mainline" Western Christianity.

A 21st-century reformation will demand reinserting the supernatural into the heart of Christianity. This will result not only in a sounder biblical theology but also a more powerful missional church. The world will then understand what Jesus meant when he said, "But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matt. 12:28, ESV).

It's exciting to me that even in intellectual circles the supernatural trademark of Christianity is gaining prominence. The reality of modern day signs and wonders are being discussed, written about, and debated. Fortunately, there's not much skeptics can do about the tidal wave of miracles sweeping the globe. Soon, it will be on their very doorsteps.

Just in recent months, there has been a surge of interest in healing and the miraculous. Multiple blogs, YouTube Channels, and websites have started. Oftentimes the founders are normal, everyday believers like you or I, living in America. In fact, your reading one of those blogs right now.

In my opinion, one of the sad consequences of naturalism, at least as it relates to Western Christianity, is that there are many pastors, and Christians, who themselves suffer or have loved ones who suffer from demonic influence, attack, and sickness and disease. All the while they had the authority and power of Jesus Christ at their disposal to set them free, heal them, and together live a victorious Christian life.

Things are changing though, and the future is promising. Let's go get'm! Praise God!

Good video!

Interesting Thoughts About Raising the Dead

Pretty much an awesome article by a friend of mine named Jonathan:

Thoughts on raising the dead

A few weeks ago, some friends and I tried to raise the dead. I’m amazed even as I write this. What audacity we had in thinking we could raise the dead. I mean, just thinking about this was totally out of my paradigm a few months back, let alone actually going for it. And yet this group of foolish believers desire to take God at His Word and believe that Matthew 10:8′s call to “raise the dead” is something that applies to us. Curry Blake has got to take a large part of the blame for such foolish thoughts and actions on our part, since his teachings have challenged us to obey the plain meaning of Scripture and believe that we too are called to raise the dead.

Here’s the story. I got to know this person (A) through my blog about two months ago. We met for the first time at Mike Reyes’ meeting, after which three friends and I went to A’s place to pray for a family member who was in a bad state – cancer, tumor, etc. We prayed for about 30 minutes and saw improvement. Some of us came back 2 other times to pray for him but soon the person suddenly died. Having also been influenced by Curry’s teachings, A called us to raise the dead. Some of us went and prayed to raise the dead for about 3-4 hours on the day of the death and 1-2 hours the next day. We still continued to believe even as we went to the wake and the service.

How exactly did we pray to raise the dead? What exactly did we do and say for the many hours? Well, none of us had ever done this before and maybe what we did wasn’t correct, but we did what we would do with a sick person. I’m still pondering over short faith-filled prayers vs. continued long prayers and the tension between aggressiveness and rest. For example, do we just pray a short prayer of faith and believe that the person will be healed or raised from the dead eventually, or do we continue to pray until the person is healed on the spot and the person rises from the dead there and then? If we pray for a long time, is that an expression of a lack of faith and trying to “work” for the healing (thus not “resting” in the finished work), or is praying a long time good because it expresses the aggressiveness needed to see the healing (raising from the dead) manifest?

Anyway, we declared the truth of God over the person, we sang and worshiped God, we spoke to the person to wake up and arise as Jesus did in Scriptures and we laid hands on the body and imparted life. When the casket guy was on the way to pick up the body, the body had already been dead for about 24 hours by then. He told us that the body should normally be taken away for embalming within a few hours of death and because it’s been such a long time after death, we had to be careful of bacteria from decomposition of the body. Well, that advice came a bit too late because we had already laid hands on the body for many hours. Laying hands on a dead body can be a bit freaky but we believed Romans 8:2 like John G. Lake – not only that nothing would harm us but also that the Spirit in us that gives life would be imparted to the dead body as we laid hands.

When we first decided to raise the dead, we actually faced some difficulty dealing with the Christian casket services. We needed a registered doctor to certify the death so that the police would leave the place and we could get some time to pray to raise the dead. As Curry mentioned, never allow the body to be taken to the mortuary because then you don’t get to pray much there. Anyway, the casket services normally provide both the doctor certifying the death and the rest of the arrangements needed (coffin, wake, funeral, etc.). When I helped to call a Christian casket service to ask if we could just get them to send the doctor to certify the death because we believed that we would not need the other services (why would you need the other services if the dead is raised?), they couldn’t understand me at all and continued speaking to me as if I were talking nonsense. I got so frustrated with trying to explain that we’re Christians and we believe in raising the dead because they responded pretty much ignoring what I’d said. Yes, a pretty foreign concept it is, raising the dead. You can’t blame them because that would have been a foreign concept to me too a few months back. The fact that raising the dead is a foreign concept for almost all Christians today shows how far we’ve fallen from the norm of the Bible and early Christianity.

Well, the person didn’t wake up despite hours of prayers but even during the wake service, we would still hold on to him being raised. When the Christian minister mentioned that this person was called to the Lord and acted as if it was over, we would just quietly reject that. When we viewed the body, we spoke to the person to wake up and arise, as Jesus did. Why accept defeat when it’s not over yet? Be it unto us according to our faith.

So what happened in the end? The dead person did not rise up. Why not? I dunno. Our lack of faith or our unbelief? Most probably. What I do know is that even as I laid hands on a dead person for hours, smelling the stench of death, I knew it’s not God’s will that a person dies this way. It brings no glory to God and it’s sickening. Sickness and death through sickness is sickening and I hate it. And I know God hates it too. Yes, we all have to die if the Lord tarries, but not this way.

I know thinking this way is pretty radical. Thinking we should be raising the dead is radical. Thinking that no Christian should die of sickness is radical. But I believe the only reason it’s radical is because of our Christian traditions based on a form of powerless Christianity. I can’t believe that if I so hate sickness and death, Daddy up there thinks any differently. The compassion for the sick and the hatred towards sickness did not originate from you or me, as if we’re somehow more compassionate than God. It’s the Christ in us who so hates sickness and disease and who has compassion for those facing it. It’s the mind of Christ in me that cannot accept all this.

“Yes, God hates sickness and disease but that’s only going to be fully eradicated only when Jesus returns again”, some may argue. Yes, total eradication will occur then but the only reason why the sick are not being healed and the dead are not being raised now regularly is because we’re not doing it – not because God doesn’t want to do it through us. Our prayer and desire ought to be that God’s Kingdom come on this earth. That’s God’s desire too. And I believe we’ll see more and more dead being raised over the next few decades before Jesus returns. And I’m going to be part of raising the dead. I have absolutely no doubt about that…

P.S.: I’m getting in touch with The Dead Raising Team to see what they can teach us.

RP: Norway: Keys for multiplication of simple churches

Some really good insights on planting house churches in a Western context:

http://simplechurch.eu/index.php/stories/full/norway-how-a-simple-church-network-multiplied/

Some things I picked up:

• The church planting was intentional and involved strategy
• Asking God for and finding a person of peace opened doors for new church plants (Luke 10)
• Abundant gospel sowing resulted in speedy growth
• Healing the sick played a vital role in advancing the gospel (go figure!)

Sounds like the method Jesus used... hmm...

Another healing, Jesus is supreme!

Two good reports:

First, Kundan (who I wrote about here), came into our room some time back and had some kind of stye-type-of-thing in his eye. Ashley raised her hand (without touching him) and prayed. Kundan said that something was happening, and to keep praying.

Since that time, and since Kundan is a believer now, he has been praying to Jesus and commanding the pain to leave his eye on his own. He said that his roommates think he's nuts, but he's getting results. Not 100% (yet) but still, the pain is leaving. On top of that, Kundan has been reading the Gospel of John, and learning about Jesus on his own. This is so exciting for me, because Kundan is seeking all of this out himself!

Secondly, I called to order some food at the hotel, and at the end of the call I asked the man on the other end of the line to send a sick person to my room because I wanted to pray for them. He said that his wrist hurt, so he'd come. I love it :)

He came, I put my hand on his arm, commanded the pain to go and it took off. Jesus is King!

Look, believers will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. If you're a believer, just put your hand on somebody! It's that easy!

What would Jesus do?

posted by Kurt Steele on Facebook:

Our Call to Abortion Clinic - Be like Jesus and Trust the Holy Spirit

I have made a decision to be like Jesus. This entry is dedicated to my brothers and sisters from The Call and IHOP. I say this with such love in my heart. I gave up my life and my posessions to build a House of Prayer. My heart flames for Jesus more than any other time. Open your heart to an experience I had yesterday. For any readers who do not know, The Call and IHOP leaders have called our people to do silent seiges which is walking around abortion clinics to pray with red tape across the mouth that says LIFE. As I have been studying the Life of Christ, I measure everything on this principle, "WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?" I do not see Jesus wearing red tape over His mouth instead I see Him minister to the people at the clinic with LOVE! I have even began to preach against doing this but had not yet done this which is take the tape off, love and pray for people. Well yesterday, I was trying to get to an appointment and got lost. In front of me was a large Planned Parenthood Facility, I had no excuse. I was scared but perfect love casts out fear. There was noone walking in or out. I prayed, "Lord I will give this 15 minutes..." Then a lady walked out with a cane and I approached her and asked her if I could pray for her (ALL FEAR LEFT)...she immediately lashed out and said, "Are you a christian...are you here to protest..." She was angry and bitter. I replied, " I am here to LOVE people and pray for them. I noticed that you have a cane, can I pray for your pain. WAlls began to crumble before my very eyes! I could see breakthrough! My eyes began to water. I did not see a "baby murderer", I saw a soul who needed Jesus! She said, "What the heck, why not." She allowed me to take her hand and I commanded pain to go and restoration of the knee and leg to come NOW in Jesus name! I felt a surge of intense love and I thought this is John 4, the Samirtan Woman. I KNEW THAT THIS IS WHAT JESUS WOULD DO. She declared that she was 100% healed. Her parting words with a smile made me joyful and pierced my heart through. She said, "Thank you (with a smile), I HAVE NEVER MET A CHRISTIAN LIKE YOU!" Christians, wake up!!! Get the red tape off of your mouth! This is REVIVAL! I trust the Holy Spirit to do the rest in her heart! Please hear my heart...I love that 20,000 youth were fired up anough in Jesus to go to The Call, but can you imagine if all those kids went out and prayed for people in hospitals, Planned Parenthood, parks, malls, etc...THIS IS REVIVAL!!!

Defeating the Fear of Man

In my experience, there's one thing that will keep you from stepping out and laying hands on the sick more anything else: the fear of man.

Healing is easy. It really is. Unfortunately, the reason most Christians have never experienced God working through them in this way is because they've never actually tried. Their powerlessness has nothing to do with a lack of anointing, impartation, or spiritual gift. Every believer has authority to heal the sick and do the works of Jesus (Matt 10:1, Luke 9:1, Luke 10:19, John 14:12). Rather, it's the fear of man keeps believers from stepping out in obedience, trusting God, and seeing the Kingdom of Heaven crush through the gates of hell. This very thing kept me in bondage for two years, and there are still times when I struggle with it.

Mark 12:14 says, "And they came and said to him, 'Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God." The actual greek says, "you do not look at people's faces."

Obviously, I think Jesus looked at people's faces. Rather, the greek here implies that Jesus did not take the reactions and opinions of man into consideration. He didn't let other's thoughts and feelings about Him sway Him from the truth and obedience to God. Jesus was a free man.

So, what did Jesus know that we don't? How can we renew our minds and break out of these prison bars of fear?

1. Know that the stakes are high - set your mind on the things of God!
   We're talking about life or death, heaven or hell. This isn't about your inner-comfort and reputation, this is about the King getting what He paid for. This is about souls being snatched from the fires of hell. Your obedience or disobedience could mean heaven for somebody, it could mean life. On the flip-side, your failure to overcome the fear of man might mean an early death and Christ-less eternity for someone. I know this isn't easy to hear, but it's the truth. What we do or don't do makes a difference in where people spend eternity (including ourselves - Matt 25:31-47).
   
   Jesus knew that enduring the cross meant an eternity spent with those who loved Him. He set His mind on the "things of God" (Matt 16:23, Col 3:1-4). This allowed Him to "set face towards Jerusalem" (Luke 9:53) and gladly enter into suffering. Hebrews 12:1-2: "...let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
   
   
   In 1 John 3:8, it says "the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." And in John 17:4, Jesus says "I glorified You on earth [God], having accomplished the work You gave me to do." Then, in John 20:21, Jesus says "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." And Eph 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
   
   
   Here's what I'm getting at: Jesus glorified the Father by accomplishing the works the Father gave Him to do. Then, Eph 2:10 says that God has prepared good works for us that we should walk in them. These two verses imply that one of the ways we glorify God is by completing the works He has given us to do. If the fear of man in your life is causing you to leave the works God has prepared for you incomplete, then God is being robbed of His glory!
   
   
2. Fear of man is an attack from the enemy - a defeated enemy!
   I had a friend tell me once that if we didn't see the fear of man as an attack from the enemy, then it would be more difficult to overcome. The truth is, "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Tim 1:7). If God didn't give us a spirit of fear, then where is the fear of man coming from? There's only two other sources: you, and the devil. I'm betting on the latter. Either way, it's an attack, and it's not from God. It's standing in the way of your obedience and that means it has to die.
   
   Okay, let me ask you a question: who in the world is scared of a defeated enemy?! Answer: Christians!
   
   Guys, let's get real:
   "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him." (Col 2:15)
   
   "...that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil..." (Heb 2:14)
   
   "...and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Eph 1:20-23)
   
   If the above two points are true, here's the situation: people are dying and some are going to hell for eternity because a defeated enemy has imprisoned you with fear, and this is keeping God from being glorified in your life.
   
   
3. Time for a jailbreak - declare war on the enemy!
   That last bit wasn't to guilt trip you, it was to get you fed up. If you're not fed up yet, you need to get fed up. The fear of man is idolatry. My suggestion is that you repent right now, and declare war on the fear of man. You must see it as an enemy! Set your heart right now to be a doer of the Word, to seek first the Kingdom of God, and make a commitment to share and demonstrate the good news of Jesus with every person you encounter who needs to know the love and power of the King. And if the fear of man rises up in your heart, take authority over that work of the enemy and command that thing to BE GONE! in Jesus' Name! If it doesn't leave, show that devil you're serious by busting out of those prison doors, approaching that person and openly destroying the work of the devil in their life. I guarantee you it will feel good to glorify God and show the devil what's up.

To summarize: 1) Know what's at stake, set your mind on the things of God and see the big picture. 2) Realize that the fear of man is an attack from an already defeated enemy. 3) Declare war and repent by openly launching an attack against this thing. Step out in faith and overcome the enemy!

I encourage you as you go about life today to take a risk of faith, and watch how God shows up and meets you. Then, please, share your experience in a comment below.

Sickness Healed!

It's been a while since I've posted. Part of this is that I've been busier at work, and another part of this is that opportunities to pray for the sick have been passed up (grr!) and not as frequent.

However, that doesn't mean that nothing has happened!

Remember Bhaghat? I wrote about him here. His son was sick (waking up with a fever and bad congestion), and he asked us to come to his home and pray for him. We did, however, his son's sickness continued. I told him we'd pray for his son every day until he was better. So we set up a plan: he was going to call me every night when he got home, and I'd pray over the phone. We did this once, and his son was totally better! Thank You, Jesus!

Then, earlier this week, one of our driver's told me that his wrist and his back hurt. When he dropped me off, I commanded the pain to go in his wrist, and then God grew his leg out. He was totally healed.

Jesus is amazing!

Unfortunately, the rest of this week has been a struggle. Most of the sick or injured people I've seen have been at work (I did pray for one person, but did not see results :/ ). I work in a corporate setting, and I'm sure that some of you know how difficult it can be to pray for your coworkers. Regardless of that, this fear of man thing has to die. Jesus is my Master all the time, and there's no off button in the Jesus-life.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Matt 6:33