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| I, too, want to be in that number |
A text like this gets me all riled up inside. It's not that I don't believe it. I'm a Pentecostal after all and by definition believe in the “full” Gospel – that all the stuff that Jesus and then his disciples did back then in Bible days has not gone out of style or become out of date. I've heard and read the countless stories of so many others who have gone out and done “the stuff” (as John Wimber was wont to say) whether it was in Africa, Asia, Timbuktu or Tennessee. My beef is this: why don't I see and experience more of that triumph in my place of ministry – Chetek, Wisconsin? Between 2004-2010, our fellowship hosted a monthly Service of Healing where we laid hands on the sick, anointed them with oil, prayed for their recovery and, when necessary, cast out evil spirits. With perhaps one or two exceptions, they were always low-key affairs. What I mean is that not many people came out and while we loved on lots of people over that six year period, we had few testimonies of actual healings and deliverances. In the last year, the only ones who came were those who came to pray for the sick and so after several months of this I made a pastoral decision to park the meetings indefinitely. So when I read, The seventy [or the seventy-two depending on what version you prefer] came back triumphant...I sincerely cannot relate. We were not as successful. True, a lot of people were encouraged and ministered to. Lots of folks felt comforted and consoled in their sickness. But out-and-out healed? No. Out-and-out set free? It doesn't seem that way to me. So, my question is, What gives?
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| This is how I sometimes feel |
During that six year period I read over a dozen books on healing and/or deliverance not only for knowledge but to build my faith. I attended healing conferences if only for the benefit of spiritual impartation. I kept myself and my small ministry team encouraged by reminding them that we shouldn't “despise the days of small things” and all the other standard things we tell each other to keep going in the things God gives us to do. Whoever these 70/72 guys were they had stories to tell – and they knew it. There doesn't seem to be a lot of speculation in their accounts to Jesus upon their return. They are high-fiving and chest-bumping each other (or would have been if they were from our time). Personally, if I had been part of that group you would have found me hanging out at the back, hoping that Jesus wouldn't make eye contact with me because in reality I and my small team, faithful though we were at praying, have little to show for our efforts.
That's not to say we've given up praying for the sick or shy away from an invitation to send an unclean spirit packing. Since discontinuing our monthly service, we have had multiple opportunities to do just this (and with equally questionable results). And as long as I am pastor of our fellowship this will be standard operating procedure – we will follow what’s in the Book and trust the results to God. But with a guy at Regions Hospital in St. Paul in serious condition and a few others from our fellowship who suffer from some form of mental illness, though we pray in English and in tongues, though we anoint with oil, though we are, to the best of my knowledge, praying in faith, why do we not share in the “triumph” of these 70/72 saints who came marching in a whoopin’ and a hollerin’ that wherever they went “the demons had to dance to their Lord’s tune.” Gee whiz, I want to see that. No, I want to do that.
In that last year or so that we hosted the healing gathering my ongoing question to myself and to anyone else who might listen was, What if you hosted a Service of Healing that no one decided to come to? Either a) no one in community (for we always put a notice in the paper about it) needed prayer for healing/deliverance (that's a good one) or b) no one considered our Service of Healing something at which heavenly power resided. After all, whenever a bonafide healing occurred in Jesus' day, you didn't need to put a release in the local paper – everyone knew and people came running to get a little of whatever had spilled out onto that sick person. I mean, the contrast could not be greater: Jesus often would perform a miracle and beg a person to say nothing about it. If we, by God’s grace, did the same it would be on Facebook, Twitter, and (if someone had their Iphone handy) on YouTube within minutes of confirmation. So, again, What gives?
I don’t feel pouty as I write these words as in something is wrong with me or us. I like John Wimber’s approach to things: in his heyday wherever he was ministering to the sick or afflicted after praying for awhile he would reportedly take a potato chip break. His reasoning was since the power was all from God there really was nothing unsanctified in having a snack half way through a deliverance session. I can hardly argue with his results. So, there it is again, the question – What gives? If Jesus has still given all authority to we his modern day disciples to go out and “heal the sick and tell them ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you’” (Luke 10:9, NIV) than why don’t we see more of what those guys saw in these here parts? I have yet to think up an answer that satisfies. I believe, Lord…so help me in my unbelief to make room for You to do the things that only You can do.
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