In the early 1990s, I read an account of Vineyard Association Founder John Wimber’s decision to follow Christ subsequent to an intense reading of the biblical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. On the first Sunday after his conversion, Wimber chose to attend a nearby neighborhood church.
The morning worship service was pretty typical – announcements, hymns, prayers, offering, sermon. On exiting, however, Wimber confronted the pastor with an honest, new believer’s question.
“Where’s the stuff?”
“What do you mean?” the pastor replied, bewildered.
“Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and got rid of demons,” Wimber answered. “Where’s the stuff?”
Where’s the stuff, indeed? In a July 16, 2019 Facebook post, Dr. Carolyn Moore, pastor of Mosaic Church in Evans, GA (www.artofholiness.com), asked “Where are you seeing the kind of miracles that only Jesus and his supernatural power can accomplish?” That same day her article “A Supernatural Kingdom” was published in GOOD NEWS magazine.
If you didn’t catch it at the time, Google it. It was “must” reading for anyone who called himself or herself a Christ-follower in 2019. In 2020, as our lives – and our Kingdom work opportunities — have been radically changed (probably for all time, in some respects) by the COVID-19 pandemic and by heartbreaking national unrest over multiple complex social issues, it is even more timely. The Body of Christ has had a wake-up call, people are hungry for Jesus, and we who know Him have in front of us “fields that are ripe for the harvest” (John 4:35).
In her easily understandable, matter-of-fact way, Moore laid out Jesus’ own scriptural mandate for life-changing ministry – and the mandate He passed on to the disciples. The disciples then — and the disciples now: You and me. Quite frankly, it’s the only kind of ministry that makes sense in a shattering, dying world. Anything else is empty religion.
“Our culture has come to accept an hour in church and a blessing before meals as the center of the Christian experience,” writes Moore. “Meanwhile, driving out demons is just weird. That, we relegate to the fringe. But folks, when I read in my Bible how Jesus defines for his followers what it means to be sent out to represent the very best the Kingdom has to offer to this world, this is what I hear: that followers have power and authority to drive out demons, cure diseases, proclaim the Kingdom of God, and heal things that destroy people’s lives.”1
To which I can only reply, “YES!”
My own practical experience with this kind of ministry started hesitantly. I was proofreading manuscripts for Chosen Books in an effort to supplement my pastor/husband’s salary as a year ‘round Christian camp director (and as a side gig to raising three kids!) Chosen published then and publishes now “narrowly focused, thoughtful but non-academic books that recognize the gifts and ministry of the Holy Spirit and help readers live more empowered and effective lives for Jesus Christ.” Books by folks like Francis McNutt, Chuck Smith, Mike Bickel, Melinda Fish and Derek Prince were crossing my desk, and I found my well-grounded, Bible-immersed Wesleyan upbringing and education challenged: Did I believe what the Holy Scriptures taught about the Holy Spirit’s work in the world, or not?
Then one night our eleven-year-old daughter, Katie, had a nightmare. I heard her crying out across the hall, and ran to her bedside.
“Why didn’t you come to our room?” I asked.
“Because I can’t move,” she rasped through her tears. Immediately I recognized that she was experiencing the demonically caused “nightmare paralysis” I had read about in one of several spiritual warfare books I’d been proofreading. I prayed over her, and she fell into an uneasy sleep.
The next morning I poured over Francis MacNutt’s book, Deliverance from Evil Spirits: A Practical Manual.2 This time I was not looking for grammatical errors: Now I was searching for answers about how to deal with an apparent satanic attack on my daughter. When Katie came home from school, I gently asked her if there was anything – any disobedience, any sin – she thought she needed to confess, to me or to God. She looked sheepish.
“I watched a horror movie at S______’s the other night,” she admitted. “I know we talked about how they make me upset and scared. I didn’t want to watch, but I was too embarrassed to call you to come and get me like I promised I would. I disobeyed you.”
I gently explained that her sin had given Satan permission to “bother” her. I reassured her that I understood completely, and that I forgave her. I encouraged her to confess her disobedience to Jesus. She readily agreed.
That night, the nightmare returned. Armed with new understanding about spiritual warfare, I placed my hand on Katie and strongly rebuked Satan in the name of Jesus, affirming her confession of sin and telling the enemy he had no right to oppress her. Immediately a clear sense of heat passed from my hand to her body. I was astonished, until I remembered another Chosen author suggesting that God often gave such a sensation to Christians new to spiritual warfare as a reassurance of His presence and action. Katie relaxed and fell asleep. I was amazed – and awed.
A few months later an acquaintance called unexpectedly, late one night. She told me her husband was threatening suicide, and begged me to talk to him. Before I could agree, she handed him the phone. I listened to his agonized story for a few minutes, recognizing in my spirit that once again, Satan was attacking one of God’s children.
I was scared. I was unsure. But I decided to act in Jesus’ Name. Calling on His Holy Spirit for help, I began rebuking Satan and the spirit of death, telling him to leave this man alone, for Jesus’ sake. Gradually he calmed. The next morning his wife called to report that he was “in his right mind and behaving normally.” He is alive and thriving today.
These are just two of many experiences that have proven to me that Jesus wants to save, protect, defend and restore people with His miraculous power today, now – not just in biblical times.
More on miracles in “Passing on the Faith, Part II: A Miracle Remembered,” coming soon on www.onethousandgenerationsoflove.com.
1.Since the writing of this article, I’ve purchased Carolyn Moore’s terrific new book SUPERNATURAL: Experiencing the Power of God’s Kingdom. Look for it at the Seedbed.com store and on Amazon.
2 MacNutt, Francis. Deliverance from Evil Spirits: A Practical Manual. Chosen Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, MI. Copyright 1995, pp. 167-222.
