Revolution of Supernatural Miracles and Balance

Churches seem to be split between those who believe in what you can do for God and those who believe in what God can do for you. The Jesus Christians who expect people to give up their jobs and travel around in little vans preaching the gospel, and any number of other churches and organisations who have effectively done the same thing, are all dedicated to the pursuit of a radical Christian lifestyle. Then, some ex-members of the Jesus Army would say that it's not a radical lifestyle you need. Christianity must not be like a visit to the gym, lifting spiritual weights to please God. How heavy a burden can I carry? Jesus said, 'Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.' Matthew 11:28-30. When Jesus said these words, he was referring to religion, the attempts of people, especially in his lifetime, to please God with their radical lifestyle.
Listen to Chris from Manchester speak on a Sunday morning. All is love, joy and peace. Ask not what you will  do for God. Ask what God has done for you. Why was one of my friends so furious at the end of this sermon? What are Christians afraid of? Is there anything wrong with 'Enjoying Everyday Life?'(the title of a popular Christian TV programme by Joyce Hugget.) As a younger Christian, I would have called this easy believism. Actually, there is nothing easier than believing in Jesus. Jesus did all that for you, and requires nothing in return. All you have to do is believe and it's yours. Brendan Manning wrote the book The Ragamuffin Christian to explain that it is all about grace and that a Christian doesn't have to be super spiritual. I remember being deeply offended by the book at the time. What are Christians afraid of?
As an angry young man, when I spoke about easy believism, what I really wanted to avoid was mediocrity. Brendan Manning says some wonderful things about God's grace but he also gives the impression that it is not possible for a Christian to be super spiritual. 'A Christian doesn't need to belong to a church with fantastic teaching.' But I would like to belong to a church with excellent teaching and a few other things. From those who are given little, God will expect little in return. Brendan Manning was an incurable alcoholic. Some of the Christians he is writing about have turned to prostitution to feed their children. People in tragic circumstances may need saving faith in the absence of solutions. For most of us life is not totally hopeless. We can aspire to belong to good, healthy churches or to take part in Christian work that we think is worthwhile. If the teachings of Jesus in the four gospels do not have to be observed in their entirety in order to be born again, surely they must be observed in their entirety in order to be a mature disciple of Christ.
How do we cope with this conflict between being saved by completely undeserved grace and not becoming passive Christians? Keith Green put it this way. 'The Lord is saying tonight, God gave you his Son, why don't you give him your life in return? All of it?' It is a response to everything God has done for us that motivates us to serve. We work hard at evangelism or church ministry because of what he has done for us. We give generously to Christian work because of what he has done for us. We do these things not because we have to earn our salvation and not because we are under orders from a cruel master. We do them because we want to and because we can. The love of Christ compels us. (2 Corinthians 5:12-15.) It should be a joy. (2 Corinthians 9:7.) The Spirit and the Word come together. In the early 20th century, Baptist and Brethren churches had an emphasis on the Word. Pentecostal churches had an emphasis on the Spirit. Too much emphasis on the Word and Christianity becomes a set of rules. Too much emphasis on the Spirit and people become ignorant of the Word. When the Spirit and the Word are coming together, you are no longer trying hard to apply the Bible to your life or conform yourself to the text. The Spirit is working in you to apply the Bible to your life and to conform you to the text. He is writing the law of God on your heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3.) The fruit of the Holy Spirit becomes manifest in our lives and we are changed into what God wants us to be. (Galatians 5:22,23.) We are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1,2.) The love of God is poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:1-5.)  The world will know we are Christians if we love one another (John 13:34,35.) It is this inner transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit that causes a change in our lifestyle.
It is better for a Christian who is an alcoholic and a Christian woman who is driven to prostitution to know God's deliverance from these physical problems. Full salvation is the restoration of the whole person, not just saving of the soul. This is more difficult than many people think. Our economy has huge problems with over production. Full employment lasted until the late 1990s in Japan. The economy collapsed in 1998 as the cars built up in the factory car park. They were making far more Japanese cars than anyone in the world could ever buy. There are practical reasons for unemployment as well as spiritual ones. Sometimes human greed does make the situation worse. In Britain a factory making sports cars closed down when the government forced them to return their only engineer to India. In 1986, I knew an unemployed university graduate who was obsessed with making an 8 wheel amphibious sports car. Why didn't they train him 30 years earlier? Two reasons. The very intelligent (if that's what he was) can come across as being weird in a job interview. Training people also requires a huge investment. A person with a 10 year checkable work history makes money from day one and doesn't have to be patiently nurtured until they learn what to do. As there are spiritual and practical reasons for being unemployed, that person might still get a job if we wrestle with the supernatural forces that cause discrimination and greed. My experience of drug addicts and alcoholics is that many of them need a personality transplant before they can ever be completely healed. That won't happen. They can know the special grace of God to resist temptation and his peace beyond understanding (Philippians 4) and this will help them to remain stable. One of my friends also made considerably more progress when he had a job in a hospital. He had enough on his mind to keep him out of harm's way and couldn't get drunk without putting his patients in danger.
Why are Christians afraid of health, wealth and prosperity teaching? God wants us to be prosperous and healthy. Why is it such a scandal? Some people make it too easy. As I said before, many Christians struggle for many years with problems that are very difficult to overcome. For Pastor Rod Parsley to offer a book entitled No More Problems in exchange for any donation over $50 (World Harvest Radio 2001) is promising you easy answers from God to problems that, in reality, are very difficult to sort out. I met a man in an internet chat room whose faith had been destroyed by Pastor Rod Parsley and his church. There is also too strong a connection between the $50 donation and a book on such a controversial subject.  God will solve all your problems if you give the ministry a $50 donation. It is selling miracles for money. With some churches there is too much emphasis on money and too much emphasis on Jesus improving your life in the physical sense. This is all you ever hear about. 'I am your Pastor and your life coach.' What many Christians fear, apart from a misguided belief that God can solve problems easily on a wholesale basis, is the possibility that if God actually does this it could lead to love of money and material things. It can seriously weaken someone's character and make them a carnal Christian if the emphasis is wrong in this way, especially if God does a financial miracle.
An ideal church would have a balance between the fact that God can work miracles, financially and medically, and the other aspects of the Christian life. The Christian life is salvation of the soul as well as the body. The alcoholic and the prostitute must know victory over their problems if they are ever to become mature Christians. They must also learn that they are loved by God, that their response is to serve him in their local community and to give generously, and they must develop their spiritual gifts. Some English Christians are so afraid of the Pastor Rod Parsley style of church that they would never pray for a miracle. Anyone who believes that God can miraculously provide an unemployed person with a job and enough money for a new car is obviously working for the devil. This is not necessarily the case. The New Testament clearly teaches that work is a good thing and that God can provide our needs. It is also becoming clear to many Christian leaders that it is usually God's will to heal illness. Jesus didn't say to anyone, 'You need to have leprosy. God's using you more because of it.' When I was a young Christian, we were taught to seek the Lord's will on the matter. Very rarely would it actually be God's will to heal someone and it seemed to be a terrible thing to pray for God to do something if it contradicted his Divine Will. But how many times did the lepers say to Jesus, 'Master, if you are willing, you can make me clean,' and Jesus say, 'No, this is God's will, for you to have leprosy,' or even,'Not today, God's perfect timing is for this to happen in 10 years time. Peter will heal you when he comes to your city.' It is God's will to heal more often than not. Even that could be a huge understatement. Some modern day Christian healers like Andrew Womack believe it is God's will to heal every illness. Is he right? I honestly don't know.