A word spoken in season...

The right word at the right time is like precious gold set in silver." Prov 25:11

Have you ever had the moment where you receive life-changing revelation from God, and then when you look back over the past period of months or years and you realise that the same things have been said, but they didn’t cause the same impact? It’s a weird thing, yet not at the same time. It’s weird because I half think that it’s the word that brings revelation. That it shouldn’t matter what season it was given in – the word of God is powerful enough to override the season. But then that doesn’t line up with what Jesus revealed to us. And in my experience, and that of others I have heard, the season we are in as well as the 'soil' of our heart is usually inexplicably linked to the word given – or, to use Bible language, the seed.

Jesus used the parable of the sower to illustrate this. The type of soil the seed landed in had an obvious effect on the growth or sustenance of the seed. The word was the same, but the outcomes were different. Jesus also told many parables about fields and harvests, vines, branches and trees. Of course there is the fact that many of his gatherings were with farmers and workers and he used examples they would understand. But we can also see that our lives have seasons.

There are several aspects that will affect a seed’s germination and growth. Soil is one, but seasons are another. I am beginning to see the correlation in my life. When I hear something revelationary for the first time, if the soil of my heart is not ideal, well maybe it will spring up but die quickly, or be pecked up before it can take root. But equally, if the soil of my heart is good, but the season is not in line then I believe it can still take root, but it might take a bit longer to wait out the winter and get to the springtime.

Now this is my personal experience and musing – please don’t take this as gospel, because it’s not. Now, to expand this idea of seasons, I don’t even think it’s got to do with the season of our lives as much as the season of the word. I believe all those nuggets that we read in the Bible and hear from the Holy Spirit have their own gestational time and their own ideal planting season – and all of this is individual for each person! It sounds so obvious to me as I’m writing, but it’s only making sense as I am typing. Why is it we can often get discouraged when comparing ourselves to others? For me, I used to think that I had the same ‘qualifications’ as them. Sometimes I’d been a believer longer, or lived a more ‘holy’ life, or reading the same Bible as them... So why didn’t I experience God like they did? Why didn’t I get the same revelations as they did? I was always clued up to the ‘soil’ of the heart. I understood that, but I didn’t understand the seasons – the individual cycle that we’re all on with Christ.

Now I don’t want to make any boxes for the Holy Spirit. And it would be easy to try to fit God into what we know about seasons. To fit him in to our earthly knowledge. Trying to anticipate times and durations; assuming that there are cold, dark seasons and joyful, bright seasons. I would suggest that this type of thinking is a mistake. For starters, I don’t believe that Jesus died so that we would have cold, dark seasons. Some, if not all of us will go through times like this, but it would be a mistake to think that God ordained it. Instead, He is there with us in these times waiting for our invite for him to invade our world and make it bright again.

I’m not talking about those kinds of seasons. I mean something more abstract. Something we can’t box in or figure out. It’s more of an essence of time. A period of time. But it’s never the same. And it is unpredictable to us. But when we look back, it’s like we can see a list of events that have led to this time and in hindsight it looks obvious. We can then see the parameters of the season. We can see the growth that has taken place.

I have heard many people preaching on seasons and use the ‘winter’ equivalent as an opportunity to grow close to God. And this will bring us great comfort. But I don’t want anyone to think that welcoming the dark times so that they are motivated to move closer to God to think that that is the crux of closeness with our Father. I do not want people to get the wrong idea here and I know I am walking a fine line. Here’s another go. There is a difference between welcoming/inviting/expecting bad things in our lives so that we have a place in God’s arms to run and simply running to his arms if/when bad times come. Of course he is always our comforter in those times and will always pick us up – even when it’s self-inflicted. That’s the beauty of grace. But what I’m getting at, is that when our focus is on him in the normal times, when we run to him in the happy times, when we desire relationship with our Father when things are well, then we will be better placed and equipped for when those dark times come and we won’t have to spend so much time doing damage control alongside our Dad.

I have recently been getting doused with the message of Grace that Jesus brought to Earth. It’s phenomenal. It’s life changing. It’s mind renewing. And I don’t understand how it’s taken so long for the church to start figuring it out. I guess it’s part of the multidimensional seasons that make up our existence. We each have seasons; then there are seasons in our families; seasons in our own churches; seasons in our workplaces; seasons in our countries; and seasons of the world. And all of these are cycling, invisible to us unless we choose to partner with the Holy One in bringing Heaven to Earth.

“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor 2:11)

But this is the most exciting part!!

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1 Cor 2:12)

And to cap it all off!

“’Who has known the mind of the Lord as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:16) (Bold is mine)

Wow! We can have access to what God is already doing in Heaven for Earth and partner with him to make it a reality!! This is definitely good news! This is something that causes me to be excited about dying to myself and taking up the life Christ paid for on the cross.

It’s a Miracle!!!

As many of you may already know, I was blessed to be able to serve in a rural island of Indonesia for 11 months from 2011-2012. I was teaching in a new school over there, but living on a base with many other Indonesians and a family of Australians. The main mission on the base was always medical – providing healthcare to people who are too poor to use the local hospital system. The people who lived on the base full time were a mixture of healthcare workers, orphans and various other families who were serving in healthcare or administration. There were also several people who had received healthcare from the organisation and had decided to stay on to serve God is this avenue.

This story starts from when I first arrived. I met this woman, Winda (who would become one of my best friends over there) and her quality of life was extremely poor due to the scarring effects of tuberculosis (TB). Winda was studying at the time she contracted TB and had put off seeing a doctor because she had no money, and didn’t want to miss out on any uni classes. She pushed through for almost 2 years before she was not able to do anything at all without extreme difficulty. I found out when she shared her testimony that she actually came so close to death that the death bells were ringing in her village and she heard people outside talking to each other, “Who is dead?”  “Winda is dead, poor thing.” She had asked God not to let her die, and she grew strong enough to live and get treatment at this clinic where I was. She received her dose of TB medicine and was clear of the disease, but the damage was already done. Her lungs were so scarred that she could only walk at the pace of a new toddler and even at that pace, a distance of 20m was difficult.

When I had been at the base for a month or so, I was able to hear about Winda and her illness (her English is great!) I felt very strongly in my heart to pray for her and felt God tell me that she was going to be healed. Now, I’d been waiting for such a moment for most of my Christian life – hearing testimonies about healings over many years, but not actually brave enough to step out in faith and believe for something so big. I asked Winda if I could pray for her and she was happy for that, so I prayed with everything I knew – commanding healing, rebuking the scarring, inviting the Holy Spirit… and, of course, using the name of Jesus as only I knew how at that stage. After I prayed, that was that, I did it, then we carried on the day. No obvious change. The next day – the same, and the next day too… I was so disappointed. I KNEW God spoke to me. It was so clear. He said she was going to be healed. I also knew that God is not the one holding back healing because Jesus paid for out healing on the cross. It’s already been released. So if that was the case, then it was up to us somehow. I just didn’t know then what I know now. I never got ‘down’ about it. But I did withdraw from praying for people. Well – in terms of radical healing anyway…

Seven or so months went by. Over these last few months I had started reading a few of Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton’s books and had been listening to their podcasts. At their church they have been witnessing amazing healings – frequently – over the past 30 years, and from listening to their stories and testimonies my faith had deepened. One book that really touched my heart was “The Essential Guide to Healing” by Randy Clarke and Bill Johnson. It outlined their basic methodology. Now don’t tune out here. It’s hard to put into only a few words. Of course there’s no ‘formula’ or magic phrase that will release healing, but this is a basic structure that will help you be sensitive to the whisper of the Holy Spirit in this situation. Basically it goes like this.

·      Ask the person what the issue is. Now don’t roll your eyes – this part is key. There can be a difference between an injury caused by an accident, a genetic illness, cancer, unhealthy living (diabetes, STDs), psychosomatic causes… It’s actually important to know so you know how to pray for these things.

·      Then listen to the Holy Spirit. What’s he telling you? What’s he showing you?

·      Pray like you are doing business on behalf of Jesus himself. Take authority.

·      Check what’s happening with the person. What’s God doing in their body/mind/Spirit?

·      If nothing seems to be happening – then listen and wait and pray and keep checking in with the person. (Obviously it's more detailed than this, but for time's sake I've kept it brief.)

Now – prior to this understanding, I only ever did steps 1 and 2… maybe. I usually had a bit of an idea about asking the person – otherwise you wouldn’t know what to pray for! Obviously I always prayed for them. But, to be honest with you, I barely ever checked with them afterwards because I was too scared that they would have to say they didn’t get healed, and everyone would lose faith and it would be my fault because my faith wasn’t high enough… And the cycle would continue. What I understand now is that there is ‘no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus’ (Rom 8:1) and that what I was doing wasn’t the problem – it was what I wasn’t doing that was blocking the healing.

With this new understanding of healing the sick, I finally got up the guts to ask Winda if I could pray with her again. I had been feeling to pray for her again many times over those months, but at that stage I couldn’t bare the possible disappointment again. One thing I learned under the Bethel Church pastors is that it’s not up to us to make excuses for the apparent lack of healing, but our job is to be obedient. Whatever happens after that is God’s business and all we have to do is stay open to his leading. So, Winda and I went into one of the smaller rooms and sat down. I felt the Holy Spirit ask me to ask her if she felt like God had given her this disease. She, like many others I met, was of the opinion that God gives and/or allows these afflictions to come on us to draw us closer to him. (Now I’m not discussing the human nature to draw closer to Him in affliction – I’m addressing the nature of God in terms of him giving or encouraging affliction.) One thing I have learned over the past few months is that we can’t give what we don’t have. God, too, can’t give what he doesn’t have. I shared this with Winda and I could see that she was struggling to accept this truth, because it was so different to what she’d been taught her whole life. She said that she didn’t understand why Jesus raised her from her deathbed if she was only going to live this half-life. There was no future for her of marrying; having children, even walking was a problem. She went on to say that she would ask God to make her well, but then she’d feel guilty for asking him, and for doubting that she would be healed in God’s time – when she had learned all she could from having this disease.

Immediately the Holy Spirit highlighted these issues with condemnation and gave me a word of knowledge into her affliction. I shared with her that if she believed that God still wanted her sick, then she would not fully let go of the illness – even when people are rebuking it out of her life. I said to her that I thought it was essential that she fully understand that God doesn’t want her sick – Jesus came to give her a FULL life. I could see that she was still struggling to accept this – like it was too good to be true, but at the same time realising how deceived she and many others had been. I suggested that she pray on her own and ask God what he was saying about all of this. She bowed her head and prayed. A few moments later she lifted her head, looked me in the eyes and said, “I don’t think God wants me sick anymore.” My heart rejoiced and I was so excited. I knew this was it. I asked her what she was feeling/sensing. She told me she was hot all over her upper back! I got even more excited! I burst out, “You’re getting healed! The Holy Spirit’s healing you! That’s what the hotness means! It’s happening!” I was the most excited I’d ever been. She started crying and I thought that even though she’s being healed, it’s still good to pray. So I prayed as I knew how – bringing Heaven to Earth, reaching up in to Heaven and grabbing a new pair of lungs (she needed new ones because her old ones were too scarred to work properly.) I thanked Jesus for what he did, and the Holy Spirit for what he was doing, and God for loving us and then checked with Winda again. She said she was all hot over her chest, and she saw a picture of a man putting new lungs into her chest. WOW!! I said, let’s praise God for your healing. She was still crying and I think I was a little too, and then I asked her if she wanted to do something she couldn’t do before. She said, “Let’s go for a walk!” So we walked! Not at toddler speed. Not a slow pace, but a regular Australian walking pace! (That will only mean something to people who have walked with Indonesians!) We walked all the way from her house, past the base house, down the driveway (which involved a downwards hill and up the other side too) where we turned the corner and were about to go down the hill again where we had to take a breather! All the way I was asking, “How you doing? Still breathing?” (To be honest I was half freaking out she was going to drop with all the excitement, but praise God she didn’t!) Every time I asked, she said she was breathing fine. The reason we had to stop, was not because of her lungs, but because her emaciated body had had no exercise for 3 years and her legs got tired. I felt prompted to pray for and strengthen her heart because it wouldn’t be used to all the activity it suddenly got! We walked back to the house (albeit a little slower due to leg exhaustion) where we spent a bit more time praising and thanking God.

When I left Indonesia at the end of June 2012, Winda was regularly, singing and playing guitar and ukulele, she had been teaching the girls some dances, able to leave the house and go on trips, started studying basic healthcare, helping out in the school and was still breathing with no troubles. Her body was still week, but in time she will grow stronger. Jesus came that she may have life and have it to the full. And he came that I may have life to the full – and I don’t want to miss out on anything due to fear of man, or fear of disappointment any more.

The Powerful Name of Jesus

"In Jesus' name", "In the name of Jesus"... In my experience growing up, these are just a couple of the prayer validators I used and heard, which made our prayers heard in Heaven. Or so I thought. There was no doubt in my mind that the name of Jesus is powerful, well-resourced and accessible to us. But when I think about it now - our behaviour in praying and acting in Jesus' name didn't really indicate a true understanding of the power Jesus' name carries. If you had a church upbringing similar to me, then maybe your experience of the name of Jesus goes a little like ending prayers with Jesus' name, commanding things in Jesus' name, rebuking things in Jesus' name... Now I’m not saying this is wrong, but I have recently been gaining revelation on how those aforementioned methods are just not as effective as using the name of Jesus how HE intended.

Prior to this revelation, I would pray all my prayers ‘in the name of Jesus’. Of course, I was sure to check my requests and motives (maybe to make sure I wasn’t pulling God’s arm by using the ‘magic’ catch phrase and making my worldly requests come to pass.) I understood a bit about the authority Christ gave us when he ascended to be with the Father. I believed that people could and would be healed when being prayed for in the name of Jesus. I didn’t personally see much from my own experiences with prayer like this. But it was all I knew, at that stage anyway.

In January 2010 I was able to attend a conference with David Riddell. In the course material he mentioned praying or doing anything ‘in the name of Jesus’ means we should be about the Lord’s business. I confess, I didn’t fully grasp the meaning of this until later in 2011. It made a bit of sense, but the penny hadn’t fully dropped. In 2011, I was listening to a podcast, (I can’t remember which one, sorry) and the speaker explained what it meant to pray, or act, in the name of the Lord. He explained that it’s like having a credit account at Bunnings for the company you work for. Technically the Boss owns the account and is responsible to pay it up in full by a particular time. Bunnings assumes that when one of the employees buys stuff on the account that they are buying on behalf of the account owner. It is not likely that the employee will buy things on the account without the owner knowing. If they do – then that’s it. But let’s take this one step further. For a new employee, it’s likely that the Boss will have to authorise all the purchases that they will buy on the account. All the while building rapport and trust between the boss and employee. As the trust is earned and the Boss can see that the loyalty of the employee lie with the business, the Boss will lessen the authorisation and will trust that the employee will do what is necessary to complete the job.

This revelation totally changed the way I look at praying ‘in Jesus’ name’. Our ultimate model is Jesus, and he said, “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (Jn 5:19) So, if Jesus could do nothing of himself, then it’s not too much of a stretch to understand that we also can’t do anything of ourselves either. BUT. When we look at everything that Jesus did, then we have to understand that we too can access that power – as long as we are doing what we see the Father doing. Jesus taught us to pray by praying for the Kingdom to come “to Earth as it is in Heaven”. Therefore I was led to understand that we can bring Heaven to Earth if that is what God is leading us to. I was no longer content to pray and finish with ‘in Jesus’ name, amen’ if I wasn’t prepared to be ‘ordering’ it on behalf of Jesus. It caused me to seek God more in my prayer times to really find out what He is already doing on Earth so I could partner with Him. I want to align myself with His will in order to have a more effective prayer life which is basically a closer relationship with Him. Through this paradigm shift, I have seen healings and changed lives. I am still learning to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and go where He is leading. But in these last 4 months I have seen more changed through my prayers with them than in my previous 26 years of knowing Christ. God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. My level of faith didn’t change either. I can clearly remember several times I prayed with a certainty that someone would be healed, or a prayer would be answered, but at that stage those desires weren't manifested. The key aspect that changed was my understanding of the power in Jesus’ name. It’s all about jumping on board with what God is already doing. It's about making sure you’re being about the Lord’s business. God has given us the stockrooms of Heaven as our inheritance. These stockrooms hold a whole myriad of miracles and it’s up to us to be in such constant communion with the Holy Spirit that we can approach the store room, on behalf of Jesus (he’ll fix it up at the other end for us), and bring what we need from Heaven to Earth.

I personally have accessed this store room for a set of lungs for one of my friends, and love invaded her life and healed her. Earlier I prayed for the same girl, only using the name of Jesus, and there was no apparent change. My next blog entry will share with you in more detail about this story. It totally changed my life.

The Power of Christ in Us

“Christ in us is mightier than death, mightier than sin, triumphing over principalities and powers.” – Smith Wigglesworth

With a revelation such as this, how could we not want to risk it all for the Kingdom of Heaven? I’m getting more and more enlightened in the meanings of the scriptures as I read with the presence of the Holy Spirit. When we are called to die to ourselves – this is talking about the old man, our old flesh before we accepted Christ. The Law (the old testament) will try to keep us in its power. The letter [the old covenant] brings death, but the Spirit [revelation of the new covenant] brings life. The more I read the books in the New Testament, the more I see the difference between the two covenants

Preceding this last 18-month period I really had no specific idea about the differences or purposes of the two testaments. Of course I understood that before Jesus died that people had to offer sacrifices for atonement of sins, and post Jesus’ death this was no longer necessary. But I had no idea about what these covenants bound us to. Or why it was so important for people to convert (other than the obvious reasons that they could not be saved without believing in Jesus and what He did.) I’m grateful for the teachings of Joseph Prince and Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton for their teachings on this subject, which then inspired me to search the scriptures to see if what they were preaching was indeed true. I was not disappointed.

I’ve known Jesus since I was 5 years old. And in that time there have been very few moments where I have been excited to read the scriptures. Of course, I have enjoyed scriptures, but not thirsted for them. I have read the Bible out of a sense of duty, but it rarely broke out of habit. All of this changed in this last 18 months. I admit that I’m still not hungering like I want to, but I can say that my time spent reading has been more revelationary and intimate.

Until recently, I and, I imagine, many of my Christian friends believed that Christ came to die on the cross for us, as us, in order to reunite us with our Heavenly father. To paraphrase, he bought our ticket to Heaven. But something that doesn’t match up with that idea is, why did Jesus perform so many miracles? He didn’t need to do anything supernatural for us to get into Heaven. All that God required was a perfect blood sacrifice. And that would have been fulfilled solely through the death of Jesus. So what’s with all the miracles? Why did Jesus perform so many? So people would believe he was the Messiah? To prove he was the Son of God? I’m not sure. Despite the miracles there were still many people who didn’t believe in him. And who were the main culprits? The apparent experts in the law. Those who, if were interpreting scripture through the Interpreter, would not have been able to ignore the arrival of the Saviour of the World. They were the ones who should have been Jesus’ biggest advocates. But what happened? They were too comfortable in the Law that they had wrapped themselves in but imprisoned those they were called to help. “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6) In this passage ‘letter’ is referring to the Law.

What does this even mean? This was always a scripture that barely bleeped on my radar until now. Let’s go back to the Israelites leaving Egypt. Pharaoh let them go and as they approached the Red Sea they saw the Egyptian army and complained to Moses that it would have been better to stay in Egypt than die out here. After they made their miraculous escape, they were quick to forget that act of love from their God and continued to complain about being thirsty, hungry, wanting meat… It seems like they complained about anything they could!! But in that journey, from Egypt to Sinai there were no deaths for complaining. No deaths for rebellion. There are no recorded deaths at all! This was because they were governed under grace at this stage, which lasted for about 3 months. It wasn’t until they got to Sinai and the Israelites claimed that they could do anything the Lord told them to (Deuteronomy 19) that the Ten Commandments were given to show the Israelites that they would never be able to uphold the standard. This was to keep them dependent on Him, but this didn’t last. From Sinai on, people started dying for all those things that grace had previously saved them from. But what was the key separation here? Only selected prophets and judges were able to have a personal interaction/relationship with God. When righteous people from the Old Testament died, they were not able to enter Heaven, but had to wait in Paradise. It wasn’t until the Saviour came, that those saints were freed to enter Heaven.

From the moment of Christ’s death, the veil in the Tabernacle was ripped showing us that any person – man, woman, slave or free, and (soon to be revealed) Jew or non-Jew – may enter the Holy of Holies and commune with their Father. We can see in Matthew 27 that it wasn’t at point of death that the Saints were redeemed, but at the point of resurrection – only after Jesus had taken back the keys of the Kingdom. This is the part that is particularly exciting for me. Where in Matthew 28 Jesus tells the disciples that “All authority in Heaven has been given to me. Therefore go… And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” Why did the disciples need the authority Jesus gave them? Why did he perform so many miracles? Only for making disciples? Only for gaining converts? I can’t believe that anymore. It was a convenient point of view. Very comfortable. Low risk. But I don’t want to make excuses anymore. Not now that I know the truth.

The glorious truth that Jesus came to earth first and foremost to restore relationship with the Father. But the equally exciting truth that Jesus provided, through his grace, the authority and opportunity to live a life like he lived. If this were not true, then he never would have told the disciples that they would do greater things than he. Of course this kind of lifestyle was released to us through communion with the Holy Spirit. If Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing – then that’s our benchmark.

At first, I thought that chasing a lifestyle such as this was taking the place of seeking intimacy with God. But on my journey I have been finding out that seeking God and seeking a supernatural lifestyle can go hand in hand. It’s not that you have to replace one with the other. Really, it’s very difficult to have one without the other. And God, in his grace, is prepared to meet us where we’re at. He’s not restricted to one doorway. He goes one better. He doesn’t even need to use doorways. And I want to impact this world for him. I’m not happy with human speed if I can have supernatural speed. I’m not satisfied to communicate my human love if there’s an option involving supernatural love. I’m not happy only gaining converts for the Kingdom if I can expose people to the most fulfilling relationship of their life. I’m ready to take the next step – whatever that may be. 

From the beginning...

My early days at church were in the 1990’s. These were the days of Pensacola and the Toronto Blessing. Days of Billy Graham crusades and moves of the Spirit. I saw people falling down when they were prayed for at the altar calls. We even had a few chapel services at high school where kids were praying for kids and being ‘slain in the Spirit’. We saw people weeping and laughing, sometimes for hours. Then there was a ministry where gold was featured. Gold dust would appear on people’s hands and faces, people’s fillings would turn to gold. This was described as the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Women were even asked not to wear make-up to church so that we would not be in doubt to the origination of the gold dust. I had it. I saw it. I fell down (sometimes for real and sometimes just so I wouldn’t be left out!! – I was only in primary school!) These were the days of revival! And then… those days faded out into the mundane again.

For years after that I remember churches crying out for revival again. We stopped hearing about the revivals in Toronto and Pensacola. Altar calls were stock standard and the gold dust dissipated. For years I never thought much about it. I assumed that the Holy Spirit would do as He will, and will come when He wants, and will breathe where He feels. I wouldn’t really have said as much, but when I think about it – I think that’s how I felt. And I was ok with that. The Holy Spirit has sovereignty – just like us.

Then I experienced the debate on whether we should even be chasing revival. But I guess that comes down to the definition one is prepared to employ. The main points were that we don’t need a revival because that indicates the move of the Spirit is only for those who are already born again – and we really need to focus on those who are yet to be saved. The other was that we shouldn’t be chasing a revival because it will last a few years, then disappear, then people will leave the church because they feel the Holy Spirit has left them on their own.

However, if the word revival can be used as a term to describe the renewed life – one fully focused on obtaining all that Christ left in our inheritance – then I guess now I can be labelled as a revivalist. This process started just before I left for Indonesia in 2011 and, like most things in Indonesia, grew at an accelerated rate and now is becoming an insatiable thirst. One might suggest that listening to other revivalists on podcasts, and reading their books might create a bit of a one-eyed view on this possibility. But I have not been slack in studying the scriptures myself, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit I am discovering more and more about living a supernatural lifestyle.

I have had people ‘concerned’ that I am putting my energy in the wrong place by seeking miracles. That somehow I have exchanged my pursuit of Jesus for a pursuit of the supernatural. To be honest – I’m not sure it’s even possible to exchange something that should go hand-in-hand. If one was to compare the fervour of the apostles to the attempts of most Christians today, then we can see that there is a vast difference. Wherever the apostles went were explosions of the Kingdom of Heaven entering earth. People healed, set free, made whole… there is an entire book dedicated to their acts. And it doesn’t stop there. Don’t get me wrong. There is a place for building relationships and showing Jesus even without using words – but that just takes sooooo long! I’m all in favour of the long haul. But… What if we were actually called to more. What if the evangelical modes of the apostles were accessible today? What if you, too, could bring healing and wholeness to those whom Jesus yearns to be in relationship with? What if Jesus actually intended miracles to be showing the love of Jesus every day? I have committed my life to serve my saviour – and I’m preparing to live using all the tools I have at my fingertips! I have decided to live out my existence in communion with the Holy Spirit and endeavour to do what I see Him doing and say what I see Him saying. I want to live like Jesus did.

I want to see blind eyes healed, crippled people walking, deaf ears hearing, cancers disappearing, organs replaced and minds renewed because I was in tune with Heaven. I want to see lives changed because of the violent demonstration of love that God wants to send to Earth. I want people’s conversions to be as a result of experience the powerful presence of God so that there will never be a doubt in their mind that they made the right choice. If Jesus promised his disciples that they would do greater things than he did – then I want in.

The first step I really needed to take to access this lifestyle was a renewal in my thinking. This is why Paul tells us that we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Our current doctrine tells us that we are sinners saved by grace. This is true – but I would like to emphasise that we were sinners, but after we have received Christ and been baptised then our bodies – our sinful natures – are buried with him and we are raised out of the water as new creations. The old has gone, the new has come. If the old has gone… Then this obviously means that God no longer refers to us as sinners. We have permanent access into his presence. Sin is no longer an issue for us.

Now I know some of you may get a bit antsy about this statement. I had to come to terms with it too. Many people will argue that because we still ‘sin’ that makes us sinners. Well, I suppose that on a level it’s true. The same way that if you teach you’re a teacher. There are people who teach who are not qualified to teach – in the English language that makes them a teacher. But there are also qualified teachers who also teach. So in this way we have saved people who sin but sin has no power over them. There are also people who are still sinners who have yet to meet Jesus and take up his offer of erasing their sins. Grace is the doorway to the renewed life. Jesus died for us, as us, which means we are  no longer accountable for our sins. If you don’t believe me – then invite the Holy Spirit to read Romans to you and you will see it. But, as it is also mentioned in Scripture, this is not our opportunity to sin as much as we like because we can get away with it. It is more about focusing on becoming closer to Jesus rather than focusing on avoiding sin. In my experience I find that the more I try not to do something, the more likely I am to do it. So I need to change my focus. Otherwise known as renewing my mind. And this is done only with the insight of the Holy Spirit (which may come direct to us, or through the Bible or through other people, dreams, visions etc.)

I have really enjoyed being challenged in my thinking. God is so good to me that he was not content in my mundane Christianity. He wants to take me on an adventure, and I’ve accepted. I’m beginning to care less and less about what people think about my new perspective. The closer I get with him, the less I tend to be consumed with ‘human’ concerns. People may even suggest that I’m losing my mind. You know what? I’m ok with that. I’m chasing a mind that is not of this world, and it comes with the heart of my saviour and friend.