A boy was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible. He was loudly exclaiming his praise to God: "Hallelujah! God is great!" Along came a young man who had recently completed his first year of seminary study. Feeling himself very enlightened in the ways of truth, he asked the boy about the source of his joy.
The boy replied, "Don’t you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle."
The enlightened man laughed lightly, sat down next to the boy, and began to try to open his eyes to the "realities" behind the miracles of the Bible. "That can all be very easily explained. Modern scholarship has shown that the Red Sea in that area was only 10-inches deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to wade across."
The man, content that he had enlightened the boy to the finer points of theological truth, turned to go. Scarcely had he taken two steps when the boy began to rejoice and praise louder than before. The man turned to ask the reason for this resumed jubilation.
The boy exclaimed, "God is greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in 10 inches of water!"
We have been exploring God’s miraculous power and working over the past few weeks. Many of you were not here in December of 2003, and I would dare guess that even those who were would have a difficult time remembering the sermons of that month. However, it was in that month that Debbie and I visited Stonewall, and I preached a trial sermon for the congregation. I know they prefer we call it a candidate sermon, but we all know trial sermon is a bit more accurate.
I won’t ask any of those in attendance that day to recount what I preached on, but it centered on Jesus healing the blind man along the roadside in the book of Luke. It was entitled, “Receiving a Miracle,” and I shared some keys from that passage that when applied to our lives would position us to experience God’s miraculous power. You see, I wanted you to know from day one, that if you choose to call me as your pastor, you were calling someone who still believes that God moves in supernatural ways in lives today. And I still do.
I believe passionately in the hope for healing. So for almost 40 days now we have looked at the types of healing that God makes available to us: spiritual deliverance, physical healing, and relational restoration. We have looked at a major blockage to healing: that being fear. Our fear of what life might be like were we to unleash the power of the Holy Spirit to bring true freedom to our lives. We examined the historical status quo of society that limits, and boxes in the way God can heal and move in our midst. And we looked at four individuals who experienced first hand God’s healing power in their lives, exploring their mindsets which played a part in opening the door to their healing encounters.
Today, as we wrap up this series, we want to move beyond a look at healing, to living a lifestyle that is conducive to supernatural power being unleashed in your life. We are in Matthew chapter 17. One of the most common, traditional, and maybe even familiar passages in the entire Bible dealing with healing. We took a glancing look at it back in week one, but I want us to explore it deeper today.
Matthew chapter 17:14 (read through verse 19 expounding on the passage). Great question. I would bet that being 30+ days into our healing emphasis, some of you are starting to ask that question. Some of you listed out various needs in week one, you have been diligently praying about those needs, and you are starting to ask, “God, why isn’t it happening? Why am I still in bondage to worry, or fear, or anxiety? Why am I not seeing any physical improvements? Why is this relationship getting worse, rather than better? God, why isn’t this stuff working?”
The disciples didn’t understand. They had been given the authority from Jesus. They had successfully navigated many healing situations. Think about it. You are roaming the countryside. Healing people left and right. Then you come to one, and it doesn’t work. Imagine their frustration. Imagine their fear. “Maybe we have lost the magic touch. What’s going on?”
Verse 20 (20a). Don’t miss this. If you get nothing else out of this series, this is what I don’t want you to miss. Jesus says it as plain as day. As straight forward as you could ever imagine. He doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t tell them a parable. He doesn’t need an interpreter to help these poor, uneducated disciples understand his point. They want to know why it didn’t work this time, and he says, “Because of your unbelief.” You see, a lifestyle for the supernatural. . .
A. BEGINS IN FAITH
Now, follow this with me. Because I have heard this part of Jesus’ response get confused. Verse 20 (read through 21). Now, I have heard people that teach, preach, and say. . .”Well, yea, Jesus pointed to their unbelief. But look at what He said, ‘However’. In other words, ‘However, didn’t matter if you did have faith, this guy still wasn’t coming out without a whole bunch of prayer and fasting.”
I don’t think that is what the ‘However’ means. I think it means, “You lack faith. If all you had was the faith of a mustard seed. . .that little tiny bit. . .the smallest imaginable amount of faith, you would be able to move mountains. However, since this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting, you can’t do it. Why? Because what is prayer and fasting without faith?” They are all tied together. Praying without faith is just offering lip service. Going through the motions.
Ever been in a conversation with someone who you know didn’t mean what they were saying? A few hours from now, I might go to Debbie and say, “Man. Gordon was a lap down, but he got the lucky dog pass, they put in some wedge to give him some more front end bite, and he came all the way back and won the race.” And she will look at me and say, “That’s great Chip.”
And I’ll know I could have just said, “Honey, the toilets are backing up all over the bathroom floors.” And she would have said, “That’s great Chip.” She isn’t listening. She doesn’t care about a stinking NASCAR race.
Of course, I use that example, but all the wives know it is usually the other way around, right? Well, that is praying without faith. “God, I need you to heal my. . .”, and you fill in the blank. But you are thinking, “I’m not gonna get healed. He isn’t listening. So what are the other alternatives?”
That’s what happened to the disciples. They tried to cast out this demon. I’m sure they tried to pray over this boy, but they didn’t have any faith. Jesus made that clear. “Why couldn’t you do it, because of your unbelief. If you believed, you could move mountains. However, you don’t, so you don’t have the essential ingredient to remove this kind through prayer and fasting.”
Are you with me? To live a lifestyle that positions yourself daily to experience the supernatural working of God in your life, it all begins with faith. Earlier this year we studied through the book of James. What did James say? “Don’t ask double minded. When you ask, believe God will answer.” Begin with faith.
But then put that faith into action, and Jesus tells us what actions are necessary. A second lifestyle for the supernatural is one that is. . .
B. GROWING THROUGH COMMUNICATION WITH GOD
That is what prayer is. Communication with God. You can do it with your eyes open, or your eyes closed. You can do it on your knees, standing up, walking around, and sitting down. You can do it without verbal words, or in verbal outbursts of emotion. You don’t have to be concerned with perfect grammar or linguistics. You don’t need to know Greek or Hebrew. You can be a high school drop out or a multi-sheep skinned Ph.D. You don’t have to be ordained, wear a collar, or be able to recite the Nicene Creed.
You just have to make a decision, a choice, a deliberate lifestyle commitment to communicating with God. Many of us are like the new army recruit who was given guard duty at 2 a.m. He did his best for a while, but at about 4 a.m. he went to sleep. He awakened with just a crack of his eyelids to find the officer of the day standing before him. Remembering the heavy penalty for being asleep on guard duty, this smart young man kept his head bowed for another moment and then slowly looked upward and reverently said, "Amen!"
Are you asleep at the prayer wheel? You see, it is a double edged sword. I have great concern that we have thousands, and thousands of “Christians” who pray, but don’t really have faith that God is going to do anything great. But I also have great concern that we have just as many “Christians” who have faith, but don’t have the discipline to pray.
Jesus said, there are some kinds, there are some of these things in life that do not get better without prayer and fasting. So if you want to see the supernatural happen in your life, you need to live a lifestyle that continues to grow through your communication with God.
ABCNews.com ran a story, “Can Prayer Heal?” In it they shared about Dr. Elizabeth Targ, a psychiatrist at the Pacific College of Medicine in San Francisco, who tested out prayer on critically ill AIDS patients. All 20 patients in the study got pretty much the same medical treatment, but only half of them were prayed for by spiritual healers. Ultimately, all 10 of the prayed-for patients lived, while four who had not been prayed for died.
In a larger follow-up study, Targ found that the people who received prayer and remote healing had six times fewer hospitalizations and those hospitalizations were significantly shorter than the people who received no prayer and distant healing. "I was sort of shocked," says Targ. "In a way it’s like witnessing a miracle. There was no way to understand this from my experience and from my basic understanding of science." Of course not, it’s the power of prayer.
A lifestyle for the supernatural is a lifestyle of faith that grows through communication with God, and the third component is that that communication. . .
C. IS EMPOWERED WITH DENIAL OF SELFISH DESIRES
That’s what fasting is. It is setting aside our selfish, personal human desires long enough to focus in on the things of God. For many of us, that takes the form of a food fast, because for many of us, food is the greatest of our selfish desires.
There was a middle-aged man who wasn’t feeling well, so he went to the doctor for a check up. After a thorough examination, the doctor said, "Based on my examination, the best thing for you is to cut out all sweets and fatty foods, give up alcohol, and stop smoking." The man said, "Well, to be honest with you Doc, I don’t deserve the best. What’s the second best?"
Some of us, when it comes to food, that is the ultimate denial. Maybe you have the attitude that many have taken regarding food today. Everything is bad for you. Everything will cause cancer or some insane disease. So you just eat it all.
Well. . .here is some diet news just in, that you might not yet have heard. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. On the other hand, the Italians drink large amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. The conclusion of the study is: eat and drink what you like. It’s speaking English that kills you.
But seriously, Jesus says you have to have faith. However, even with that faith, some healing will not take place without prayer and fasting. Communicating with God, and setting aside your selfish desires long enough to see God move.
If you have been at SWC for very long at all, you know my emphasis on the importance of fasting. Whether it is from food, TV, email, or something else that keeps us from fully experiencing God’s power in our lives. And sometimes, we may have to apply fasting to areas of our lives where we previously wouldn’t have imagined it.
Sports. Ouch. That’s getting close to home. Does watching, reading, or thinking about sports get in the way of your relationship with God and His ability to unleash His supernatural power in your life? Another way to ask it might be, is watching the UK versus Louisville football game this afternoon going to enhance your walk with God, or cause you to lose your religion?
Money. Does earning, spending, saving money get in the way of God’s ability to unleash His supernatural power in your life? You see, there are all kinds of things that can block us from the miraculous healing that God wants to do in our lives if we are not willing to put our selfish desires aside, and open ourselves to following God’s will and purpose for our lives.
A former pastor in Seattle, WA, wrote a powerful statement about setting aside selfish desires to see relational restoration take place in his marriage. He wrote,
“I am standing for the healing of my marriage!
I won’t give up, give in, give out, or give over till that healing takes place.
I made a vow; I said the words; I gave the pledge; I gave a ring; I took a ring; I gave myself; I trusted God; and said the words and meant the words…in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in good times and in bad; so I’m standing now, and won’t sit down, let down, slow down, calm down, fall down, look down, or be down till the breakdown is torn down!
“I refuse to put my eyes on outward circumstances; or listen to prophets of doom, or buy into what’s trendy, worldly, popular, convenient, easy, quick, thrifty, or advantageous.
Nor will I settle for a cheap imitation of God’s real thing.
Nor will I seek to lower God’s standard, twist God’s will, rewrite God’s Word, violate God’s covenant, or accept what God hates.
“In a world of filth, I will stay pure.
Surrounded by lies, I will speak the truth.
Where hopelessness abounds, I will hope in God.
Where revenge is easier, I will bless instead of curse, and when the odds are stacked against me,
I’ll trust in God’s faithfulness.
I’m a stander, and I won’t acquiesce, compromise, quarrel, or quit.
I have made the choice, set my face, entered the race, believed the Word, and trusted God for all the outcome.
I will allow neither the reaction of my spouse, nor the urging of my friends, nor the advice of my loved ones, nor the economic hardship, nor the prompting of the devil to make me let up, slow up, blow up, or give up till my marriage is healed up. AMEN!”
A commitment to set aside selfish desires to see healing occur. Someone in our church family has gotten to experience this first hand over the past few months of his life. Andrew Perkins is going to come up and share his testimony of how selfish desires became a road block to God’s healing touch and power in his life. Be praying for Andrew as he shares. (Andrew’s testimony & prayer)
Thank you, Andrew. That took a great deal of courage, and willingness to be used by God. And I am sure there are other testimonies in our midst of people that have seen this simple pattern and lifestyle play out. Faith moved in, prayer began, selfish desires were set aside, and God moved in a mighty way.
That is what I pray will become a part of your lifestyle. That is what I pray will become a part of our lifestyle as a church family. There is hope for healing. There is the opportunity to experience miracles today. As you listen to this song, think about those areas in your life, where you desire to truly be free. Whether they are physical, relational, or spiritual. Allow your faith to well up inside you. Believe God for the breakthrough. Then begin living a lifestyle of prayer and fasting that welcomes the Holy Spirit into your life, to have His way.
(Third Day, “Innocent” – Music Drama)
Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, "He died." Campolo felt terrible.
But she continued, "Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.”
But the lady told Campolo, "After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing."
And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, "He wasn’t cured, but he was healed."
I don’t know what all God has in store for us. I don’t know what all God has in store for you. But I believe there is hope for healing. And I hope you will live a lifestyle that is prepared for the supernatural to take place in our midst.
Let’s pray.
