PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 28:7–10
There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.
CONSIDER THIS
It’s like déjà vu. Check this out from Mark 1:
As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. (vv. 29–34)
See the similarities between these accounts? It brings yet more confirmation to the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise when he said to his disciples: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
Whenever Jesus inserts a “very” and a “truly” before he says something else, he really, really means what he’s about to say. It means go back and read it again and once more for good measure.
So thinking about today’s story and this remembrance of Jesus’s words we must remind ourselves of the following: 1. The Holy Spirit has not changed. 2. Human sickness has not changed. 3. Demon possession and oppression have not changed.
So what has changed?
The way we make disciples has changed. So I’ll ask you. Through the course of your discipleship as a follower of Jesus Christ, did you receive equipping in the ministry of healing? Did anyone teach you how to pray for the sick and lay hands on them? Were you ever equipped to deal with evil manifesting through demonic activity?
I’ll go first. No! None of this even remotely entered into the purview of my discipleship until I went to seminary (and hardly then). Most of the discipleship I’ve ever witnessed could be boiled down to Bible studies and the busyness required to keep the machinery of the church going. No one ever really discipled me in the normal everyday reality and work of the person of the Holy Spirit.
Whenever and wherever the church has grown in apostolic fashion, the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit has been the norm rather than the exception. I dare say the corollary is also true: wherever and whenever the church has stagnated and atrophied, the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit was the exception rather than the norm.
Whole towns don’t show up at the door because of our latest sermon series or our cozy fall festivals with awesome chili and massive inflatables everywhere. They show up because the kingdom of heaven is breaking in on earth through bright and visible signs of the eradication of the kingdom of darkness.
As we near the end of the Acts of the Apostles, I’m finally realizing why they didn’t title the book the “Acts of the Holy Spirit” as I earlier thought they should. It’s because the Holy Spirit does not typically act without apostles or prophets or teachers or evangelists or pastors or preachers or youth volunteers or ushers or singers or dancers or artists or business people or entrepreneurs or carpenters or stay-at-home mothers or school teachers or football coaches or truck drivers or farmers or Wal-Mart people or otherwise ordinary people like you and me.
If you’ve been with me for any period of time you know I tend to be honest, but I don’t typically rant. Admittedly, today’s entry may feel a little rant-ish, but we are in Acts 28. It’s almost over and yet it cannot end. We’ve got to get on to Acts 29 and 30 and 4,253,335. The central premise and point of this whole thing has been to say this one thing:
MAKING DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST CANNOT, WILL NOT, MUST NOT BE ATTEMPTED WITHOUT EVERYDAY ORDINARY PEOPLE RECEIVING ORTHODOX TRAINING IN THE EVERYDAY SUPERNATURAL MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Seedbed has worked from the start to help remediate the gap in our churches by publishing some helpful resources in this disciple-making work. Get them here.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
Did your discipleship journey include training in the everyday supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit? Are you ready to get that going? It’s not too late. In fact, it may be right on time.
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” (hymn 3) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
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6 Responses
Wow!!! JD, you’ve really lobbed a radical truth grenade with this Wake-up call! I would venture to to say that the majority of the Wake-up call readership would have to admit that our experience is pretty much the same as yours, myself included. The exceptions would be those who’d been raised in a Pentecostal/Charismatic faith tradition. And even there, the key would be “ORTHODOX TRAINING “. I, myself came from a confessional Lutheran tradition where such training would not only be non-existent, but condemned due to a vast amount of charlatanism that exists within the traditions that do teach these things. I personally struggle to understand how recovery of the ancient working of the ministry of Holy Spirit can be integrated into the modern institutional church without the creation of a totally new wineskin. There are a number of opposing forces built into that organization that are able resist this effort. IMHO, this would not happen without much conflict.
Ditto. I would add that I’m getting a lot of prodding to overcome my distaste of the “charlatans”. May the Holy Spirit teach me.
Ditto. I would add that I’m getting a lot of prodding to overcome my distaste of the “charlatans”. May the Holy Spirit teach me.
The way Christians “make disciples” has changed drastically from the first century. Today Christians rarely even used the word disciple. Instead, they sit in rows, passively hear a weekly lecture, and then go home to the same ole lifestyle while believing that they’ve just experienced New Testament Christianity.
Discipleship is the ongoing activity of passionately pursuing, focusing on, interacting with, and obeying the risen Jesus. It’s an unearned privilege made available by the grace of God through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the Cross. True Christianity never fails, but it is often abandoned and replaced with routine religion.
Discipleship isn’t just hearing a message. It’s being a messenger who testifies to and personally demonstrates the new life in Christ throughout each day.
True discipleship is much more than routine religion. It’s rich revelation that ever burns in your heart and demonstrates itself through your attitude, words, and behavior.
Biblical discipleship freely flows with God’s supernatural inner flow of rivers of living water as Christ-followers gather to all be led by the Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.) It doesn’t shut down the Spirit’s inner flow with a programmed religious show. It trains people to continually listen to and obey the Spirit, not just to sit for a religious talk.
Real discipleship
Isn’t being spoon fed
By a weekly message.
It’s being Spirit-led
By Christ alive in you.
JD, re: prayer for healing for Susan, one way to pray is Lecto Devino, praying Scripture.
Psalm 103 Bless the Lord, oh our souls, Bless the Lord God Almighty (no one, nothing more powerful)/ Yahweh/Jehovah/God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And all everything (means all, the good, the bad, the ugly, the things of God, the things not of God yet, diseases[cancer, heart disease, lung disease, stroke, COVID, depression, diabetes, allergies, …], demons, addictions, …within us/Susan/your name must rise up and praise your Holy Name for You alone are God and there is no other (no idols). Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty the whole earth is full of Your glory for You forgive all our iniquities
and sins, heal all our diseases (cancer, name specific disease…) redeem our life from the pit (depression) and crown us with loving kindness and compassion and satisfy our years and desires with good things so our youth is renewed like the eagle, may we sore to new heights in You.
Soar not sore. Soar like an eagle.