The supernatural good-news life

Paul and the Viper*

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 16:9-20

TO CHEW ON: " ' And these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents, and if they will drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.' " Mark 16:17-18

What an incredible list of predictions Jesus makes here, of signs that will follow those who spread the gospel:

1. They will have power over the demonic realm (Mark 16:17).
Luke recounts an almost humorous incident showing the unique power that Jesus' followers have in this area. When some Jewish exorcists use the name of Jesus without the power of true faith in Him, the demon responds: "Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you?" Then the possessed man beats up the exorcists - Acts 19:13-16.


2, They will have new powers of communication: " ' … speak with new tongues' " (Mark 16:17).
I understand this promise to involve more than only the glossolalia of the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). It is that for sure, i.e. the power to communicate in languages not learned. But I believe it is also the tongue used in private prayer and self-edification (1 Corinthians 14:2,4, 14-16). And, I would submit, we could also make a case for the new tongue including the tongue of boldness, so evident in the early Christians (Acts 4:31).

3. They will have remarkable protection (Mark 16:18).
The experience of Paul in the Island of Malta brings Jesus' words to life about protection from snakes (Acts 28:3-6). And to the protection stories from Acts we could add the testimony of Christians experiencing unusual protection through the centuries. In this department, I love the saying attributed to Henry Martyn: "I am immortal until God's work for me to do is done. The Lord reigns" (from Inspirational Quotes).

4. They will have unusual power to heal (Mark 16:18).
This comes true for the Apostles in Acts as we see them perform numerous healings, sometimes even raising people from the dead (Acts 3:7-11; 5:12-16; 9:3-9, 32-35, 39-42; Acts 14:8-18; 16:18; 20:8-12; 28:8-9).

The question I ask myself is, do these signs still follow the spread of the gospel today? Are these things our experience? Some have developed a hermeneutic which says the signs and wonders seen in Acts were only for that time. However the words we read today are attributed to Jesus. The evangelical church doesn't take His command to " ' preach the gospel to every creature' " as only for the apostolic time. So why do we often wave off the signs that confirm the gospel as meant exclusively for an earlier age?


PRAYER: Dear Lord, please confirm Your reality, power and word with signs and wonders again. Amen.

MORE: Modern prayer for spiritual awakening

Bible teacher Beth Moore has written an impassioned "Intercessory Prayer for Awakening." Read it HERE.

The Feast of St. Mark Evangelist.

Today the church celebrates the Feast of Mark the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel of Mark and today's Bible reading.

This Collect begins the day's liturgy:

 Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

* Illustration of "Paul and the Viper"
Illustration from Volume 10 of The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, edited by Charles F. Horne and Julius A. Bewer, published by Francis R. Niglutsch, New York, in 1910. Many of the original paintings were in color, but were published in this book in black and white.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Wind, Fire, Words of the Spirit

Descent of the Holy Spirit - Dore

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 2:1-21

TO CHEW ON: "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. There appeared to them divided tongues of fire and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:2-4

Three elements jump out at me as I read this thrilling passage of the Holy Spirit's coming on the day of Pentecost:

Wind

Wind was the sound of the Spirit's coming. Wind is that invisible unpredictable force of nature we all know. It is associated with the Spirit in other places in the Bible.

• Think back of creation where "The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). The writer of my Bible's notes on Genesis explains:  "Hovering connotes sweeping or moving rather than staying stationary. The Holy Spirit is the 'executive arm' of the Trinity so He was quite active as God spoke each word" - R. Russell Bixler,  New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 4.
• Jesus referred to the invisible, unpredictable wind when He spoke to Nicodemus about being born again: " 'The wind blows where it wishes and you can hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of he Spirit' " John 3:8.

Fire

Fire was the sight of the Spirit's coming. Controlled fire is a friend and powerful tool, but uncontrolled it's dangerous. God's presence is often linked with fire in the Bible.

• In the Old Testament God spoke to Moses from a fiery bush (Exodus 3:2).
•  He lingered over Israel in the wilderness in a nighttime cloud that looked like fire (Exodus 13:21,22).
• And God descended on Mt. Sinai in fire, shielding the Israelites from His presence in a thunderous cloud of smoke (Exodus 19:18). 
• John the Baptist predicted Jesus would baptize "... with the Holy Spirit and fire" - Matthew 3:11.

Words

Tongues were the shape of the Spirit's flames and the result was everyone present "began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." The Holy Spirit and words are linked in other places too.

• When the Spirit came on the seventy elders who were to be Moses' helpers, they prophesied (Numbers 11:25). 
• Joel predicted, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughter shall prophesy…" (Joel 2:28). 
• Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Spirit who would give them witnessing power (Acts 1:8). 
• And it is through the Holy Spirit that we have the Bible writings (2 Peter 1:21).

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit's coming. As we ponder our own lives relating to the Spirit's presence, let's keep in mind how His empowering and working through us is wind-like. We can't control Him. What He accomplishes through us is done according to His sovereignty.

His presence in our lives is fire-like in its cleansing, powerful, helpful, sometimes dangerous ways.

Its evidence in our lives is words—words of prayer, praise, song, witness, teaching, encouragement, verbally and through all kinds of media.

PRAYER: Dear God thank You for sending the gift of the Holy Spirit who lives in me (1 Corinthians 3:16). May this be supported by the wind, fire, and words that emanate from my life. Amen.

MORE: Day of Pentecost.

Today is the Day of Pentecost or Whitsunday. Here is the Collect that begins the day's liturgy:

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Self-deception

"Blind man on trial"
by William James Webb

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 9:24-41

TO CHEW ON: "Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say "We see!" Therefore your sin remains.'" John 9:41

The interesting way this story ends, with some of the Pharisees checking on what Jesus thinks of them, shows that either they wanted to catch Jesus in another outrageous pronouncement—more incriminating evidence—or  they really were beginning to have doubts about their perception of what had just happened.

For the miracle of a blind man's sight restored on the Sabbath did not fit in their "it makes sense" category. And so they had reasoned it away and excommunicated the healed man. A footnote to this story in my Bible says,

"The perverse reasoning of the Pharisees placed them in a dilemma from which the only escape was to disprove the miracle that had been performed. They argued that no miracle could have occurred because it was the Sabbath, and God would never violate the law of rest by healing a person. However, the fact that a man born blind now had perfect sight refuted their theory. Thus, they must either deny the facts or confess the divine nature of Jesus. The logic of the healed man was simple and irrefutable (vs 30-33). Unable to deny the man's testimony, the religious authorities took the cowardly way out and excommunicated him" -Siegfried Schatzmann, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1460.

Much as we like to dump on the Pharisees, we act a lot like they do when we encounter spiritual things that don't jive with our reality.

Take, for example, the speaking in tongues controversy (Acts 2:1-4; 1 Corinthians 14). Because this phenomenon has ceased in many parts of the 21st century church, some theologians and Bible scholars have constructed an entire apologetic about why it was only for the early church. In some cases they go so far as to demonize those who practice it now.

It's in our nature to want to live consistent within what we believe is real and true. When something doesn't fit our paradigm, we feel uncomfortable until we've "proved" it wrong.

I ask myself, do I do that? Do I insist that every sign and wonder must have a material, rational explanation? Do I too reason away parts of God's revelation because I don't understand them or they haven't been my experience? Do I deceive myself by insisting I see, when I really don't, thus demonstrating my own spiritual blindness?

PRAYER: Dear God, I want Your word, not my experience or common wisdom to set the boundaries of my reality. Please give me faith that flexes and stretches to believe all that is in the Bible. Amen.

MORE: Another view

Lest I have opened a can of worms by mentioning tongues, above, let me leave you with another viewpoint. Here, from John Piper's 1990 message "Tongues of Fire and the Fullness of God" (text Acts 2:1-13) is Piper's description of what that phenomenon means for us today:

"That leaves just one last observation from the text. And it turns out to be a caution to us. In verse 12 the demonstration of God's power in the miracle of tongues causes amazement and perplexity among everyone. "And all were amazed and perplexed." But the perplexity gave way to two very different responses. Some seriously asked, "What does this mean?" Others (in verse 13) mocked and leaped to a naturalistic explanation: "They are filled with new wine."

This is the caution: whenever revival comes—whenever the Holy Spirit is poured out in extraordinary power—this division happens in the Christian community. Some genuinely inquire as to what this is, and test all things, and hold fast to what is good. Others stand outside and mock and write off the enthusiasm as merely human, "They are filled with new wine."

There are some signs today that we are in the first stages of a genuine, widespread awakening. Not the least of which is the undying desire and prayer in the hearts of so many of us at Bethlehem that God would rend the heavens and come down and revive his church and empower us for the final thrust of world evangelization. If this is true, what we need very much is discerning, expectant, open hearts that say, "What indeed is this?" and then listen for a biblical answer" (emphasis added).

 (By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org -  Read entire...)

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.