We Need Supernatural Gifts Today

 Why do we still need the supernatural spiritual gifts that appear in the New Testament?

God still wants to heal supernaturally today.

Why did Jesus heal? The suffering of the sick aroused such compassion in Jesus that his stomach turned. He never changed. God is love. He has never changed.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Heb 13:8 NRSV

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Jn 14:12 NRSV

We need to release the healing gifts of the Holy Spirit because Jesus commanded it, because he loves sick people.

We need the gift of grace to discern spirits. (1 Cor 12:9)

So many Christians try to discern spirits, but only on the basis of Bible knowledge. But how can we help a mentally ill person if we don't know what the cause of the illness may be? Natural or demonic?

• Is the sick person demonised, or do demons play a lesser role?

• Should we pray for miraculous healing or cast out demons?

• Does this person need counselling or psychiatry or simply deliverance?

Bible knowledge or psychology often cannot provide answers. We need revelation from the Holy Spirit.

Once I wanted to help a person who had taken a lethal overdose. I prayed for hours in unknown languages from the Holy Spirit. God intervened and the person recovered without harm.

Why was praying in tongues necessary and effective? I desperately needed a miracle from God, but my faith was not enough to get the miracle I needed, but the gift of praying in tongues added God’s supernatural power to my limited faith.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Rom 8:26–27 NRSV

Paul did not want to speak in tongues in the church service, but rather prophesy so that the congregation would understand, but in his private prayer time it was quite different.

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; 1 Cor 14:18 NRSV

Christian Activism

 As a little girl, she firmly believed in Jesus and prayed to God with childlike trust. But then she was sexually abused. As a teenager, she was confused and sought solace in marijuana and boys.

I am thinking of stories of more than one or two women who ended up in a brothel, a clinic or on the street.

I am thinking of a young man who was begging on the street in a German city in winter. He lived from donations and told me that he sometimes spent the night with a client.

I know women in Germany who visited brothels to help prostitutes with friendliness. In one year, they found four victims of human trafficking and helped them to return home.

In one Australian state, the government reported that 15-20% of all mentally ill patients committed suicide within 24 hours of being discharged. After that, no more statistics were published. The scandal was simply hushed up.

Yesterday a Christian political activist rang me. He told me to contact the government and demand that we have religious freedom.

I was not at all impressed and told him in very clear terms what I was thinking

Why do these activists protest against abortion, gender mainstreaming etc. but ignore domestic violence, homelessness and the neglect of the mentally ill and victims of abuse?

I told the Christian on the phone that his organisation should be lobbying governments to provide adequate poverty relief and mental health services. He said he had been a homeless drug addict until someone told him about Jesus, and he was born again. He said we just needed more evangelism.

I answered rather angrily that I minister to Christians who are mentally ill or suicidal because of abuse in Christian families and churches.

I know a Christian woman who needed therapy in a psychiatric clinic. In the clinic, she met Christians she had known in Church.

Of course, freedom of speech is important. I am not in favour of gay marriage or gender mainstreaming, but if we focus on a few moral issues and fail to care for broken people, we are misrepresenting Jesus.

A conservative Christian politician in Australia loudly opposed abortion and post-modern gender policies. He said it is better to have a fence and a warning sign at the top of a cliff than an ambulance at the bottom.

But warning signs will not stop people jumping or falling. It is good to promote Biblical principles for personal morality, but we still need ambulances and rehab services.
 
Jesus sharply rebuked the Pharisees for imposing a narrow religious mindset on others, but they didn't care about poor, sick and suffering people.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; loving kindness and truth go before You. Ps 89:14 NASB95

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Gal 5:14 NRSV

God is for you, not against you.

 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Rom 8:31–32 NIV

Your life is a gift. You are because God is. Your talents and abilities are from God.

God has good plans for your life, but you may not see it.

An American was a world champion shooter. He was on the verge of winning a gold medal at the Olympics. His last shot was a direct hit. He was delighted, but then shocked. He had hit the wrong target. No medal!

You may have talent, but despite hard work and remarkable achievements, you are frustrated. Many people try very hard but are unfulfilled.

Vincent van Gogh is still world-famous as an artist, but he was not respected during his lifetime. His family were devout Christians, and very strict Calvinists at that. He was supposed to become a preacher, but everything went wrong.

He was very depressed, but in his church there was no understanding of mental illness or God's miraculous healing. Thank God we have good psychiatry in our time and also Christian ministries where you can receive healing.

We are obviously in the end times. Many Christians focus on the schemes of the devil that can be seen everywhere, but in our time God has also given marvellous gifts.

We now understand much better that Jesus is not only the Saviour and Redeemer, but also the Healer who heals all diseases, just like in the Bible.

If Vincent van Gogh and his family had understood God's plans better, he might have experienced miraculous healings. His gift as a painter would have been recognised and he would have been able to manifest his Christian faith as an artist.

Thank God we have miraculous healing services today and also good psychiatric care. I know Christians who need both. God is so good.

I know Christians who, despite loving support from friends or family, were often overwhelmed by stress, illness or panic until they got the help they needed with good care and psychiatric medication.

 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Rom 8:31–32 NIV

Many of us need counselling, healing and good care to release our talents. Then we need wisdom to understand what God's purpose and plan is for our lives.

Each of us is unique and somehow different. Vincent van Gogh was not meant to be a preacher, as he was expected to be, but an artist.

The Power of Good Thoughts

 I was studying to be a social worker. I had a practical placement in a public hospital. 

The social worker introduced the students to a cancer ward. She explained that dying patients were given strong narcotics to ease the pain and mental suffering. The medication was effective but it also helped the patients to die more quickly.

I began to think more intensely about my mortality and the meaning of my life. I was in my twenties and I could look forward to 50 or 60 more years, but what then?

I was going to a church which focused on humanist theology, social justice, therapy for troubled souls and human solutions to problems. I had a nagging feeling that I was avoiding eternal spiritual issues, but I was afraid to commit myself to the God of eternal heaven and hell.

In my confused state of mind, I was enticed by a horrible cult following a false Messiah. After a few days of brainwashing I was on the edge of a mental breakdown and I walked out of the commune.

I was desperate and I was finally ready to go to a church that took the bible seriously. I made a real commitment to be a disciple of Jesus, but I was still very depressed.

A good Christian friend took me to a church where I encountered the love and the real presence of God, but sadly this was not a happy ending.

This church turned out to be an authoritarian cult. I was told to fast a lot and to stop seeing my psychiatrist. It was a disaster. I became upset and angry and I was excommunicated by the pastors.

I spiralled down into an abyss of mental illness and I spent 12 months in a psychiatric ward on strong medication.

In the few months before I was excommunicated, I had been hammered by severe preaching. We were told we must be broken in spirit, that our wills must be broken to submit fully to God. I was already broken by terrible trials and I just could not take this poisonous mixture of obligation, fear and guilt.

Before and long after I left that church, I lived in fear of condemnation from God. At times, I was terrified.

Eventually I left the hospital and went to a good church, where I found kind people and good ministers, but I struggled to overcome the deep depression.

I remember standing outside the church after a good meeting. I looked up at the night sky and told God I just wanted to die and go to heaven.

In this short article, I don't want to tell my whole life story, but the question is how I overcame my trauma.

I found a church where God's grace and miraculous healings were emphasised. I learnt to experience and enjoy God's loving presence on long walks.

Even in the hospital, I learned to distract myself from the horrible thoughts with positive and creative activities.

Sometimes I hear Christians condemning psychiatry and medication. I can only say that they are often misguided by ignorance and prejudice.

I am eternally grateful for the support of my parents, and also of good friends and loving Christians.

I have been in a church for seven years where a pastor has taught us to unleash our imagination to think of fond memories and develop an attitude of gratitude.

This is so important that we focus on beautiful thoughts.

When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling bad, I simply remember my favourite things, and then I don't feel so bad.’ (The Sound of Music.. Rogers and Hammerstein)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Php 4:8 NIV

Victims Need Healing

 The Hebrews were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. Towards the end of this time, hardship became terrible agony. Finally their male babies were slaughtered by the Egyptians. Their life was unbearable and they cried out to God.

We could think of the refugees sacrificing everything to escape the agony of tyranny in North Korea, much worse than in the old East Germany.

When I was in Australia in 1972, I studied psychology at university. I read that quite a few immigrants from Eastern Europe after the war had psychiatric disorders, especially paranoia, that is, delusions of persecution.

When you feel threatened all the time, you can internalise fear in such a way that you see threats where there is no threat.

Panic can become a habit. With this extreme fear comes despair, depression, anger and hatred.

Persecuted slaves and captives are always afraid of betrayal because that is their life experience.

Trafficked prostitutes sometimes have the opportunity to report to the police, but they do not know whether a police officer is trustworthy or in league with the pimps.

We have read recently about children who were sexually abused in churches or religious schools. Who can these children trust? Who would they believe?

There are Christian women who are cruelly controlled by their narcissistic husbands. At home the abusers are arrogant and bossy, but at church they are radiant Christians.

When the wife leaves her husband, she is judged as the guilty one.

When people are broken, they not only need a deliverer to rescue them from captivity. They also need miraculous healing for their broken hearts.

In the story of Moses in Exodus, we see how God delivered the Hebrews through dramatic miracles. God punished the Egyptians with ten terrible plagues, but the Hebrews lived in another region, Goshen, and they were spared.

Then two million Hebrews were trapped in an ambush on the shore of the Red Sea. Pharaoh with his army had chased after them. Without a miracle, they were as good as dead.

There are Christians today who claim that God only ordained miracles for Bible times, but nor for us today, as if miracles were a special offer for a limited time only.

This religious idea is simply cruel, blasphemy. God is love. He does not change.

You don't need a miracle until you need a miracle.

There are so many broken and enslaved people today.

I know Christian women who visit brothels. In one year they discovered and freed four enslaved prostitutes.

Liberation from slavery is absolutely necessary, but it is not enough.

Where will you go after you die, heaven or hell? It makes no difference whether you lived in a brothel or a palace

But there are so many Christians who only know Jesus to some extent. They believe that their sins are forgiven and they hope to go to heaven after death.

But in the Bible we see Jesus as the healer and deliverer who completely transformed broken people. 

You may have been set free from abuse, but the aftermath of trauma is still a torment.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 ESV

It is not enough to save people from sin. They need care and healing for the aftermath of sin, from their own sins and from the sins of others who have tormented and broken them.