Baptism of Love

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And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:5 (NASB 2020)

It was the Fall last year. I was at the Healing Rooms at Bethel Church in Redding, California. Bethel is my former church and though I now live six hundred miles away, I still consider it home in many ways. As we sat in the waiting room for the healing room session to begin (the healing rooms consist of three phases: a small teaching, a prayer and worship service, and then actually receiving prayer from a team), the coordinator asked if anyone had pain in their wrist. I raised my hand and he came over, touched my wrist, and began asking for Jesus to heal me.

Suddenly a profound peace came over me, almost tangible like a weight resting on my chest. And then a sensation I can only describe as liquid love broke through and began filling my heart, causing me to weep. I had experienced the love of God before, but this was more profound than I had ever experienced. It was also something I had been praying for in the weeks leading up to this encounter with God, prompted by the scripture verse where Jesus says to his disciples, “Wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”1 The experience increased as we made our way to the sanctuary for worship and prayer. I was weeping uncontrollably.

In the weeks and months that followed, I continued to encounter God’s love in this way during my times of personal prayer, experiencing an intimacy with him I had not experienced in decades. Ironically, my wrist was not much better! But I really did not care. God’s love was all that really mattered. And in a way, it is the only thing that matters for any of us. Though we may go through many trials this side of heaven, God’s love is the one thing we cannot be separated from, and it is the one thing that does not disappoint.

  1. Acts 1:4-5 ↩︎

All Roads Lead to the Spirit

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For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Romans 8:14 (NIV)

As Christians, we know we are called to lay down our lives. But what are we to lay down our lives to? I mean, in what way is laying down one’s life accomplished?

When I was much younger, a well-meaning (or not-so-well-meaning: I have not figured it out yet) church ministry told me laying down one’s life meant doing exactly what the Bible commanded me to do, which, many years later I realized, meant doing exactly what they commanded me to do. They wanted to control my life, and I assumed God wanted to control my life as well. He wanted me to tirelessly go about doing whatever His Word tells me to do. If Jesus said, you will remain in me if you obey my commandments,” then I was going to obey his commandments: every single one of them.

But I began to realize something unique about the Christian life: We are really not called to obey a Book. We are called to obey a Person. This began to dawn on me as I meditated on such passages as Romans 8, which states we are set free from the law of sin and death as we obey the Spirit.1 Interestingly, the law of sin and death is not about sinning: it is about trying not to sin.2 We are only successful in the Christian life to the degree we are led by and surrendered to the Spirit. It is to the Spirit of God we lay down our lives.

Which means when Jesus says, “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love,”3 he is not talking about whatever commandments we find in the Bible. He is talking about what he commands us to do through the personal and intimate relationship he has made possible by the Holy Spirit. It is this obedience that Jesus not only desires but makes all other things possible.

  1. Romans 8:1-4 ↩︎
  2. See Romans 7 ↩︎
  3. John 15:10 ↩︎

Prophets and Sorcerers

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Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.

1 Corinthians 14:1 (NIV)

The other night at midweek Bible Study, we practiced prophecy. Though common in charismatic churches like the one I attend, it was new for many of us, since there are a lot of newer Christians at our church.

For the uninitiated, prophecy is communicating what God is saying. Without context, that may sound odd. But when one considers we believers have the mind of Christ1 and also an anointing from the Holy One who leads us into all truth,2 and further that we are sheep who hear his voice3 that we might follow Him, it is not odd at all. If we accept what the Bible says that we hear God and receive truth from him, prophecy is no more than hearing God on behalf of another.

Some wonder why prophecy exists at all. They say, “Why do we need prophecy when we have the Bible?” The answer I suppose is that the Bible is the very thing that tells us we need prophecy. If you read what the apostle Paul has to say in his letter to the Corinthian church, it is clear prophecy is vital and that we should practice it. Saying “Why do we need prophecy when we have the Bible?” then, is sort of like saying, “Why do I need to make coffee if I have the espresso manual?” You need to make coffee for the benefit and pleasure it brings, and the manual tells you how. It is the same with prophecy. We practice prophecy, just like we practice prayer or worship, because the Manual tells us it is vital.

Still others are uncomfortable with prophecy because it can be misused. But I have always found the best way to ensure something is not misused is by getting good at using it properly. It is for this reason I drive a car to work every morning.

But prophecy to some believers remains a source of deep concern, as though it were a form of sorcery. And God knows no upright believer wants to be found practicing sorcery. They are quick to quote the verse that there will be false prophets in the last days,4 which is true. But the very fact Jesus warns us about false prophets and calls them false and tells us we will know them by their fruit is because there is such a thing as true prophets; otherwise, He would have just said watch out for prophets, and that we would know them by their prophecies.

We should not practice sorcery, of course. But at the very least, we should probably do what the Bible says and practice prophecy. God is speaking all the time. And since he is good, He has very good things to say.

  1. 1 Corinthians 1:16 ↩︎
  2. 1 John 2:20 ↩︎
  3. John 10:4-5 ↩︎
  4. Mathew 24:24 ↩︎

Faith and Rest

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Matthew 17:20-21 (NIV) Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

It is difficult to be at rest when you think you should have more faith than you actually do. After all, if all my problems would go away if I just had more faith, then I really do not have time to rest: I must devote all my time and energy to perfecting this thing called faith. I must believe harder, the difficulties in my life an indicator that, from Jesus’ perspective, whatever faith I possess is clearly not enough.

But if I am going to sacrifice my sense of well-being for the sake of faith, it is important to know what faith actually is. For starters, it is not achieved by human effort. I cannot will my way into having more faith than I actually do. Faith simply does not work that way. So my lack of mountain-moving may rightly indicate an opportunity for me to grow in faith, but striving my way into it will never work.

What then will? Jesus gives us a clue when he says to his disciples (and by extension to us) “Apart from me you can do nothing.” On the surface, this would seem to contradict the whole idea all we need is faith to do anything. But Jesus is actually giving us insight into what faith actually looks like as it is walked out in the Christian life: partnership. When we remain in Jesus, we become aware what he is doing, and participate with him. We find ourselves moving the mountains he is moving and in fact desires to move with us.

When Jesus says “have faith,” he is not encouraging us to try harder: he is inviting us to go deeper. He is inviting us into a life where we, aware of our own insufficiency, come to know and partner with his unlimited provision for every situation we face. To me, there is no greater place of rest.

Peace Like a River

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During pre-service prayer at the church I attend in the heart of Los Angeles, the theme last Sunday was rest. One of the members present shared a well-known verse:

Romans 8:28-29 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son

It occurred to me that, although this “sovereignty verse” is often understood to mean our justification* is secure, it means much more than this: that our purpose, calling and destiny are secure as well. God is telling us he has predestined the perfection of our faith and with it our destiny as well.

I know this passage and others like it have been used by some to suggest our part in life is nothing at all (since presumably everything has been predetermined**), but this is not, in my humble opinion, what this passage is saying. To assume so is to mistake God’s sovereignty for God violating our free will, an idea that is neither suggested nor taught anywhere in Scripture. But what it is saying is that the fulfillment of God’s plans and purposes are as readily available to us as salvation itself. In every moment, God has everything we need to fulfill the amazing life God has for us. We do not need to fear we are missing out.

Which on this particular morning was meaningful to me. I suddenly felt as if I had spent my entire life frantically navigating life as though I would miss out, first by failing to be acceptable to God, then by failing to “position” myself to be blessed by him. It was clear in that moment both of these attitudes were the very thing Jesus had come to deliver me from. That the image he desired to conform me to was that of a son who knew in each moment his Father had everything he needed to share in the fullness of the abundant life He had dreamed for him. And in that stillness I found peace flowing like a river.

*That is, our righteousness before God on account of what Jesus has done for us at the Cross
**A traditionally Calvinist perspective