Fire On Your Head

I’ve been thinking about something in evangelical Christianity that strikes me as inconsistent.

Today I heard some stuff preached that really grieves me to hear believers believe this way and ignore blatantly straightforward things the Word of God says, and replace it with what their experiences and circumstances say.

Why is it as believers we are too afraid to have faith? Why must we walk by certainty instead of by faith, and be comfortable all the time believing we have the answers to each and every question?

Paradoxes don’t bother me, but it seems when things seemingly contradict each other, many believers can’t handle it, and instead pick one side of the coin and form their whole perception of God based on that ONE side of the coin they choose and then ignore Scriptures that don’t fit their perception of God. A finite mind trying to grasp the ways of an infinite God, hmmm–good luck with that!

It’s like two flies flying over a giant rocket. One lands underneath the rockets, the other lands on top of the ship’s nose, and upon takeoff both have a radically different experience–one is scorched by the flames from the rockets as the ship lifts high into the sky, the other is taken up into the skies at new heights. Both have a legitimate experience, but form radically different conclusions diametrically opposed to each other. However, one has no right to assume their experience is the sum total of how a rocket works. Likewise I cringe when I listen to people in the Body of Christ insist on one side of a view that has many more angles. Such examples include but are not limited to divine healing, the Holy Spirit [and by default ways He operates], and Calvinism(predestination) vs. Arminianism (emphasis on man’s free will to chose salvation)–neither Jean Calvin and Jacobus Arminius are in the Bible, so why they are treated like authors of the Bible is beyond me.

So, how come we throw the baby out with the bathwater on the subject of faith for healing? I heard the faith message totally trashed today by someone I respect, and it’s made me think some more about how damaging this view I’m taking on is. For example, if we don’t see God heal someone, we rule out the idea that divine healing is for today AT ALL. Well let’s be consistent with this view in all areas of our theology and not just compartmentalize. I know very little about Benny Hinn–who is the individual many people refer to when I’m talking about this subject–under the impression saying something negative about him will undermine everything I am telling them on this subject–when they just build a straw man argument to dismantle and look like they made me look uneducated–but I will use him as a hypothetical example anyway since he’s known prominently.

Hinn holds a crusade and 10,000 people attend it who are crippled. Say he heals only 500 people, but another 1000 people will get prayer and are not healed, I’ve heard people say that not healing the rest makes him a false healer. Wait a minute, isn’t 500 people (though a mere 5% GOT healed, and are overlooked in the evaluation) an awesome testimony?! But we’ll look at the 10% who didn’t get healed and the other 85% that didn’t get prayer at all but just watched. I personally would praise God for them that did get it!

However, statistically speaking, let’s apply these numbers to salvation:

If Billy Graham, a gifted evangelist held a crusade, and 10,000 people attended it, why is he the most historic evangelist of our time if he produces many many more backsliders than Hinn produces of unhealed attendees of his meetings? For example, I’ve read in articles Graham state that for decades of his ministry, statistics showed that out of all the people who got saved from his altar calls, ONLY 5% were found in local churches in the next 6 months! What happened to the other salvations? That means out of whatever proportion of his audiences that responded to receive salvation, 95% of the ones that did actually fell away from the faith or rejected it later! Nobody questions that Billy Graham is a gifted evangelist, based on the fruit that lasts. Why the difference in logic when it comes to healing a body and not just a soul? When they lifted the lame man through the roof Jesus healed him AND told him his sins were forgiven. Jesus did BOTH.

So lack of results in a healing of bodies = the preacher is false; lack of results in the salvation of souls= the preacher is still a wonderful evangelist. Like I said at the beginning of this comparison, why don’t we apply the same logic everywhere in our spiritual lives?

Here’s another one for you. Gold. Did you know that major gold rushes in the Yukon and southwestern USA in the last centuries were started just by mere flakes and rocks that were found? It’s true, and in fact, it was the hope that there was more to be found that compelled untold numbers of people to sell all they had to embark on quests to find it in the hopes they’d find what they were looking for and be set for life. Here’s the thing we’d do if we used the logic we use for why we refuse to have faith for the supernatural aspects of God in our daily lives: someone tells us they found gold buried in a field, and invited us to help them find more and have whatever we found. If we were consistent we’d refuse for fear that we might not find any. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself if the dialogue with your friend doesn’t resemble the kind of things said in order to mask not believing in the supernatural aspects of God’s character happening today and NOT just in Bible days.

The doubter’s response would be something like ”I don’t want to look for it, but if it shows up without me having to go looking, then I’ll believe”–rather than having faith that he will find more. Maybe the friend searches every day and only finds a few ounces a week, on average, in one acres’ worth of land. I don’t know the math, but a piece of gold for every acre would make the gold digger search through more and more acres. The doubter would say ”Nope, statistically speaking, I don’t want to waste my time searching for anything. I only will only spend my time if it costs me five minutes and I find something instantly.” There’s no tenacity whatsoever to that, and there certainly isn’t any faith.

We are to walk by faith, not by certainty.

Now if we wanted to be consistent and take this analogy further, the gold digger, after untold weeks of diligent searching finally stubs his toe on something that turns out to be way too big to lift with his bare hands. He digs around enough to see a humongous piece of gold, 45 pounds (forgive me for not knowing exactly how much gold is worth, this analogy is not perfect) of it portruding from the ground. He calls on a few neighbors, not only to help him lift it into his wheel barrel but promises a portion to each of these helpers once he cashes this in at a bank. He is set for life. What about the doubter who didn’t want to get dirty? Who didn’t want to waste any of his time unless he was going to find some gold in the first five minutes? Well, if he’s like most Christians, he’ll rationalize his predicament and say ”well, this is God’s plan for my life, and that’s God’s plan for that gold digger’s life” rather than recognizing the difference having faith (that he could have found gold himself) could have made in his life.

Back to faith, I’m sorry if the gold thing was long-winded. Friend, and dear reader, there is gold that isn’t even buried very deep in the pages of the Word of God, and it isn’t hidden at all but is there in plain sight for all who want to go after it and devour the Word of God and live by it! Faith is action, not agreeing with doctrine. James 2 talks about faith without works being dead. Faith is not mental, it’s acted upon. One individual in our analogy acted on his faith that he’d find more gold after seeing a few glimpses, but the other refused to act on it and likewise didn’t reap anything because he never sowed any of his time in faith. Failure to look will guarantee no results in finding. Failing to step out in faith will ensure failure to receive in faith.

This might amaze you, but did you know that nobody says ”I’m not going to go see a doctor because statistically he doesn’t cure more than 25% of his patients”? Nobody feels that way in real life! But if the made up individual in this scenario was like most of us Christians, he’d say ”I have only 3 out of 4 chance I won’t get cured, well then I won’t bother to go at all.”

Did you know, that not acting in faith, makes you now have a 100% certainty of not getting cured by that doctor. It’s true. But yet that’s how most Christians are–we act on the side of doubting and unbelief more often then not, and then build our theology around these experiences. Curry Blake, a healing evangelist from Texas puts it simply that too much of the Church’s theology is based on its failures. Is that not right?

Let’s rethink our thoughts, and go at the Bible afresh with all of our pre-conceived notions, or one-sided views of things, and just see what it says and see if our lives don’t get radically changed.