Over the last several years of full time ministry, I have seen a lot. I have watched peopled get healed from sicknesses or injuries that science and the medical community had told them they would never recover from. I have watched demons leave the bodies and minds of the people they have oppressed. I have seen lives transformed by the power of God through the name of Jesus Christ. I have seen people get out of wheelchairs in astonishment that they could walk again. I have watched broken bones fuse in a short period of time and people run around the room after needing crutches to walk. I have seen deaf ears open and watched in awe as people have cried tears of joy as they have heard clearly for the first time in years. I have held people who have been weeping as they experienced freedom from oppression for the first time in decades. I have watched people take off their glasses and marvel that they could now see without them. At the same time, Ive seen a lot of other things. Ive seen children die while their cessationist parents insist that it is Gods will to take their child. Ive had cessationists tell me that they would believe in the miracles of Jesus still continuing today if I could provide them medical documentation of a healing. Upon doing so, they still refused to believe and said it wasnt good enough. Ive watched people argue incessantly with me and my friends when we have shared videos of people getting miraculously healed and they have said that we were just acting and making a mockery of the Gospel. Because, you know, we dont have anything better to do, right? Ive had people insist that we stop ministering to the sick and setting them free to instead spend more time crying out for the power of God to come to this nation by attending more pointless church meetings. Because asking for something youre already walking in and living out is intelligent, right? All of that said, I want to go on record and just say it like this - you will convince a lot more people of the goodness, the love, and the power of God through your actions than you ever will through your words. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. - 1 Corinthians 4:20 There are a lot of things that I would do differently if I could do them over, and one that sits pretty at the top of the list is this one: Stop trying to convince people through endless arguments on the internet that you are right and they are wrong...even if you are right and they are wrong. Its one thing to make a point, share a perspective, and yes, even at times come out and full on confront someone who is doing insane amounts of damage to the church at large with the stuff that they are saying and spreading around the world. But like I said, its a whole lot harder to argue with someone who can prove it than someone whos sitting behind a computer screen angrily mashing on their keyboard because you just shot holes in all their precious doctrines. I would not want to ever have to stand before God and have him ask me, So uh...even though you had countless people showing you full on proof that miracles were happening today you still felt the need to aggressively defend some tired old lie that said I stopped working after a book was canonized a few hundred years ago? I want to end this little rant with one more thing: John MacArthur, you are wrong. You are so incredibly, undeniably, ridiculously wrong. I wish that you would stop hiding behind your pulpit and all the yes-men in your congregation and actually spend some time with people who have seen legitimate miracles and then reassess and recant the cancerous poison and unbelief you have spread in the Body of Christ since you started opening your mouth. I wish that you would stop spending so much time and money gathering people around yourself who, like you, refuse to even cater to the idea that you may be incorrect about your stance on the miraculous. I absolutely cannot stand cessationism and the idea of it. I have literally watched it kill people. Yes, there is a whole lot of nonsense that goes on in the charismatic church. I spent a long time in it and have spent considerable time speaking to those errors myself. I have gotten quite frustrated with a lot of the things that I have perceived to be off in the charismatic church over the years...but if I had to take my pick, I would choose being around the charismatic folk than the cessationist crowd any day of the week. At least a lot in the charismatic crowd has hope that things will get better when sickness knocks on someones door. At least a lot in the charismatic crowd actually has faith that things will turn around instead of chalking it up to the sovereignty of God when a child contracts cancer. At least a lot in the charismatic crowd has the audacity to believe Jesus at His word: Those who believe in Me will do what I have done, and greater things. At least a lot in the charismatic crowd has the audacity to believe Jesus when He said: These signs will follow THOSE WHO BELIEVE... (not those who believe up to the point that the Bible gets canonized). There are a lot of imperfections...and a whole lot of things that I would personally change immediately if I had the ability to do so within the charismatic church. And I could spend a considerable amount of time defending this post and writing more words on this page to argue my points left and right about all of this if I really wanted to. But I dont want to. I want to live my life. I want the fruit of my life to exemplify the love, the power, and the grace of Jesus Christ much more than I want to waste any more time trying to convince a large group of people who profess Christ but deny His power to listen to reason. There are reports all over the world all the time of people being miraculously healed - raised from the dead, blind eyes opening, etc. So Johnny Mac and crew - you may disagree with all of this and all of those reports that continue to spread around the planet of the power of God in operation. But I assure you - God is not limited to the restrictions you placed on Him at your strange #StrangeFire conference. He is so much bigger than the powerless, judgmental, miserable bigot you made Him out to be. What Im saying, John, is that God is not like you. His love for everyone, even you, is so much larger than you can possibly comprehend - and His power will not be mocked, contained, or limited by a handful of religious hypocrites who insist that He is THIS WAY AND ONLY THIS WAY. I dont know what Bible you and your cessationist crew are reading...but it might do you well to go back and read about the life of Jesus and His disciples, what they did, how they did it, who loved them, and who they pissed off. Because I would venture to say that at this point in your life and your career, youd be standing right next to the Sanhedrin yelling CRUCIFY HIM! if He walked into that giant cemetery you call a church in Southern California and started doing what He did a couple thousand years ago. I would much rather stick with these signs will follow those who believe and the people who are willing to learn through the messes that come with that than continue rationalizing away the millions of testimonies of Christ-loving believers around the world. I bless you with eyes to see and ears to hear. Cheers.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 20:07:44 +0000
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