I was worried it was going to be weird or gross or blue jeans-feelsy. I had recently been hired with Tierra Nueva and was asked to attend a training to better see the kind of work I would help organize and promote. Having grown up in the church (my father is a theology professor, my oldest brother is a pastor), I’ve been in the Church my entire life. I knew of ministries and organizations like TN that fought to balance theological rigor with Spiritual enthusiasm and liturgical admiration.
The training was called Transformational Ministry at the Margins. About twenty of us met, seeking to be equipped to deliver God’s Word to God’s People. Our small group explored the political, cultural, and thematic posturing of different passages. (“What were the bystanders thinking?” “What was the power dynamic between the leper and the people who brought him?” “Who is God? What are people?” “So, they broke a hole in Jesus’ roof. Do you maybe think Jesus was mad? Like, he was tired from his trip. Right?”) It was intensive and applicable and exciting.
The last day included a unit on Spiritual Healing. Oh boy. Everybody, let’s just take it easy. Don’t jump to any conclusions. I mean, when our church prays for sick congregants, we usually leave it at, “Guide the hands of the doctors,” or “May you be a comfort to their family in this time.” So, don’t get carried away here.
Except I had forgotten ignored the multiple passages in the Bible (the New Testament, even!) where the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit and literally heal disease. Jesus sends his team out and tells them to heal sick people. And if they’re dead, raise them from the dead. (Matthew 10:8)
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
Acts 4:8-1012 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
Acts 5:12-16
These are distinct instances from the practice of medicine, which is an equally important practice in the Kingdom of God. John Piper writes* that these instant, miraculous healings point to the sovereignty of Christ over every earthly principalities. Disease, of course, is included on that list as it falls under Christ’s authority.
I realized the way I had been praying for the sick was not acknowledging that my Savior defeated even death to show his love for us. I should have at least been praying something like, “Lord, remove the cancer because I know you have power to do so.” The audacity of laying hands over someone’s body and directly asking the Holy Spirit to transform it was strange and unsettling to me. When I had heard those stories growing up, I rolled my eyes and wanted my life to remain normal.
Bob and Gracie shared similar stories of their reaction to such instances, though they were actively working as ordained pastors at the time. Like me, they were skeptical about the stories of incredible things happening. Of course they happen! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to accompany us in bringing Good News. That didn’t stop happening. Dear reader, I can tell you that it happened at the training. I saw healing take place. Ask me about it. It was crazy.
When I told those stories to my wife, she (wise social worker that she is) helpfully pointed out that Christ has the power and love to heal. It doesn’t always happen, but that’s not the point anyway. (“Tuesday night at the Bible study, we lift our hands and pray over your body but nothing ever happens.” **) The point is the Kingdom of God. The point is our becoming Christ’s righteousness, body and blood, through His reaching out and bringing us to him.
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The Peoples’ Seminary*** began as a way for Bob and Grace Ekblad to work with Honduran farmers in learning sustainable growing practices. Those farmers showed other farmers their methods, and it spread and developed to individual needs.
Then, it was a way for the Bible to become accessible and celebrated by people on the streets/farms/margins/jails.
Today, it is a continual series of training for those in ministry to reach people on the streets through the power of Scripture.
*Piper, John. Why Don’t We Experience the Miracles That the Apostles Were Capable of? 2009.
**Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens.
***more info on The Peoples’ Seminary here
Beautiful writing, Alvin, thanks for sharing. I found myself thinking about this a lot fairly recently when my aunt was diagnosed with cancer. At first I only prayed that God’s will would be done, but after a few days I realized what an empty prayer that was. God’s will WILL be done, we know that with absolute certainty. So why pray for it? But despite that thought, I still had trouble praying for a miracle. It’s so easy to believe they can happen, in a far-off, hypothetical sort of way, and so hard to trust they will come when you really need them.
I’m probably rambling now, and there are 1000 other thoughts try to exit my brain in a disorderly fashion, so I’ll end here before they can. Thanks for posting, I’ll look forward to more from you.
I too have experience God’s instant healing and I have seen God instantly heal. In one case it was my are that was bent 20 degrees from RA, and it became almost straight. In another case, a woman who had multiple personalities, was reintegrated. And that was tracked over several years to know it was real. A woman who was dying within a day or two of liver failure, left the hospital two days after prayer. A baby dying, was healed at 11:15, when our congregation had “marked the time” of 11:10 as when we had prayed. And yet, I find it difficult to remain on that spiritual edge! Bob and Grace and the church do a marvelous job of living the story of Jesus!