Healing and Deliverance Ministry Is Dangerous (Epiphany 4b)

 The Readings open our eyes to an Epiphany moment of realizing how dangerous healing and deliverance ministry can be. There is a wonderful line in C.S. Lewis’s story "Prince Caspian". This is a children's story that deals with the struggle between good and evil. Jesus is represented as a lion. Lucy, the youngest girl asks, "is he dangerous?". The reply comes back "Of course he's dangerous". The Gospel reveals a very dangerous side of  Jesus that has been almost lost in our time: (One of my manuscripts 7 lost spiritual truths)

·      Isaiah reminds us that spiritual authority comes from God and is dangerous

·      Paul warns us to be careful in our spiritual lives

·      Jesus teaches us how spiritual authority works in healing and deliverance ministry

 

1. Spiritual authority comes from God

Mercy Is the Highest Form of Love (Proper 20)

 Jesus is teaching us how to do pastoral ministry. The readings teach us that God wants more than a formal relationship with us. God wants a passionate, powerful risk-taking love that is passionate, intimate and forgives. Mercy, when God or we forgive, and give the other another chance, is the highest form of love. The difficulties we face in life are teats of that love. This is how our love and spiritual life grows.

 1. Jesus shows us how God’s love and mercy never gives up

Forgiveness Gives Us New Life in-Christ (Proper 10A)

Abram is called to leave his family and old way of life, go on a long and dangerous journey and put his whole trust in God. In baptism we are asked “Do you put your whole trust in Jesus love and grace?”God desires an exclusive love relationship with us. In the Romans Reading (4.13-25) Paul reminds us that Abraham was given a new name and honoured for his faith in God. In Matthew (9.9-13, 18-26) challenges the Pharisees that “God desires mercy not sacrifice.”. He goes out to model this by healing and giving new life to woman suffering from bleeding and the Synagogue Ruler’s daughter. This is our mission as people who have put their faith and trust in Jesus.

 

1.   Abram trusted God to Leave His Family and Friends

Experiences of God's Glory Give Us Hope (Transfiguration)

 The supernatural worldview of the Bible has been lost to many in the Church. The power of God and the glory of God has been lost and forgotten. For many people Christianity has been reduced from a revealed religion to a philosophy of life. This has made us weak and ineffective. We all need experiences of the power and glory of God to give us hope in this dark time. The good news is that the Bible is full of examples and teachings that help us grow spiritually from knowing about Jesus to experiencing Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our ministry is to share this good news and give those around us hope.

1.   The Hebrews Experienced God’s Glory

Called and Anointed to Proclaim Healing and Deliverance (St. Luke's Day)

 

This is Jesus mission statement. It should be the Churches’ mission Statement and it should be the mission of all Christians. Sadly, it is not. It is not because it can be dangerous and requires real commitment and community prayer support. You would think people who wear crosses would get it that crosses are for killing dangerous people. We avoid the hard, supernatural things in ministry – and Jesus weeps.

 

1.     We Are Called and Anointed – Its Spiritual!

Jesus Gives Us Hope and Healing (Funeral of Sue Lennie, OSL Member and friend, tribute is below)

 

The Reading from Luke 4.18-21 was chosen because it is for an International Order of St. Luke the Healer service. Sue was a long-time OSL Member. Her life was filled with self-sacrificial love for others. She proclaimed the Good News of God’s grace, love, forgiveness and healing “with words only if necessary” as Francis of Assisi would say.

11.  Jesus came into a world like our own

People were traumatized by the Roman occupation and without hope from a religion that was ‘going political’ and losing its authenticity and relevance. Instead of divinely inspired prophets the Jewish religious leaders had become religious politicians. Just like in our own time.

We Are In the Healing and Reconciliation Business (Proper 16)

 When I was the Business Librarian at the Richard Ivey School Of Business Administration I heard a wonderful story about defining “what business you are in” as a key to business focus and success. The Adams Adding Machine Co. was a small US company making pre-computer adding machines. The son took over and decided they needed a more ambitious name for the coming computer age. He chose International Business Machines - which is still one of the most sucessful computer companies in the world. The Readings this Sunday teach us we are in the business of healing and Reconciling people to God.

1. The Church is to be Holy Spirit Led

Teaching Leads To Healing and Deliverance (Proper 14)

Jesus is commissioning us as His followers to a ministry of teaching, healing and spiritual deliverance. He is teaching us to be humble servants and expect obstacles including pride and ridicule as we speak the truth to the misguided. Paul is teaching us to rejoice in opposition and depend entirely on Holy Spirit.

1. Teaching leads to experience and faith

We Fix Our Eyes On Things Unseen (Proper 10)

 

Pentecost is the longest, most practical and probably most important season of the Church year. Pentecost is about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the daily lives of believers. We are prepared for the Holy Spirit by the teachings of:

•       Advent - OT history of God reaching out, making covenants

•       Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter - who Jesus isand His mission and our mission

•       Ascension - Jesus promises Holy Spiritto guide us

•       Trinity - defines the love relationship, work of Holy Spirit as the continuing presence of Jesus in the World

•       This week we learn that we have to focus on what is unseen and expect opposition from those who do not understand Holy Spirit

•       We are warned Christians will not be understood – and need a support community where they can safely share their own experiences of the Holly Spirit 

1.   The Pharisees think Jesus is possessed

Easter - The Good News of Eternal Spiritual Life

 We are all temporaries. The Pandemic has made us more aware of this. We have all been in at least some bondage to fear of death. Those of us who have been vaccinated have sensed a great relief. The Resurrection of Jesus is the Good News that Christian believers will die physically like Jesus, but then be raised to a new form of eternal spiritual life with Jesus in Heaven. There are people among us who have seen heaven. Many have experienced the healing power of forgiveness in Jesus and the joy of this new spiritual life. All Christians are baptized into Jesus Covenant of forgiveness, healing and eternal spiritual life. The Resurrection of Jesus challenges us:

1.    To believe and put our trust in Jesus

2.    To seek forgiveness and healing and grow our spiritual life 

3.    To be witnesses to our own experiences of spiritual life

1. To believe and put our trust in Jesus

Love Binds and Looses (Proper 21a)

(Teaching available on John Gishler Youtube channel Aug. 22) 

Binding and loosing are words that many people may not be familiar with. Jesus reveals His identity as The Christ - the long expected successor to Moses, who will free His people not from political and military oppression, but from the much more dangerous spiritual deception and oppression of Satan. Jesus is talking about the love of His sacrificial death that broke the power of Satan. This enables forgiveness of sin and frees people from their bondage. Jesus love  binds us in a love relationship as the body of Christ. This binding and loosing is the essential work of the Church. The story of Moses birth illustrates how the fear of loosing the love of God strengthened the Egyptian midwives in disobeying Pharo’s order to kill male babies. 

The Romans reading (12.1-8) explains how the love of the members of the body of Christ grows and binds them to Jesus and each other as they exercise their spiritual gifts.

1. The midwives of Egypt were bound by “fear” of God

A Conscience Ruled By the Holy Spirit (Proper 18a)

(Watch on Youtube channel "John Gishler" Aug. 2)

 

The Readings are a profound message to all church leaders and anyone who would like to develop a serious Christian life. Jacob was wrestling with his conscience and afraid for his life. It was like wrestling with God Himself – and God let him win! Jesus is in grief over the death of John and overcomes it by focusing on what those around Him need – not want. Paul is also in spiritual grief over the Hebrew people who do not believe him about Jesus. We learn that listening to the Holy Spirit is why it is that some people “get it” and many do not.

1. Jacob’s conscience is bothering him for good reason

Spiritual Life In The weed Patch (Proper 16)

In the Parable of the Weeds Jesus is giving us a critical teaching on how to develop a spiritual life in the face of evil. Our natural tendency is to fight with the weeds. Jesus says:

·      Do not try to root out evil

·      Be led by the Holy Spirit

·      Endure suffering as an offering to God

 

1. Do not try to root out the evil

Regaining Our Birthright (Proper 15)

(Watch at https://youtu.be/Ww6PJwGmlkE)

Our hearts are restless. This is particularly acute in this time of pandemic, fear of death, social isolation and inactivity. Many of us are alone at home with too much time on our hands – or so we think. Now that we have run out of projects and distractions it may be time to do some serious reflection on our lives. One of the first questions we could ask is “Who are we?” Many people think of themselves as a teacher, lawyer, housewife, manager, librarian etc. But that is what we do – not who we are. The readings explain how easily we lose our birthright – our identity as beloved children of God; and how Jesus as the Word and the Holy Spirit help us regain our true identity and a life of joy.

 

1. How did we lose our birthright?

Right Relationships For Spiritual Life (Proper 13a)

(Available on John Gishler Youtube June 28)

 Today’s Readings challenge us to develop right relationships in this life as we prepare for our resurrection life in Jesus Christ. Last week we were challenged to love God more than family. This week we are challenged to die emotionally and spiritually to anything that competes with our love of God and to love our neighbour as ourselves. This involves painful challenges to the development and healing of our spiritual lives.

 

1. Right relationship with God

Forgiveness, Healing and Reconciliation (Proper 11 A)

(Available on Youtube June 14)

We are all like Sarah and tend to laugh at God when we are promised something that sounds impossible:

·      Having a child in old age

·      Raising from death

·      Forgiving our rebellion and sin to make us holy

But this is the business our God is in as he continues to reach out to us with the offer of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation into our eternal spiritual life with God. He knows we cannot work hard enough to overcome our natural rebellion and spiritual un-holiness. Sadly, many in the Church also laugh at God’s supernatural gifts and fail in their responsibility to bring in the full harvest of heaven. Paul challenges us to persevere in example of Father Abraham and have faith in God’s promises of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. This is why Abraham was chosen by God as the father of our faith.

1. Un-forgiveness separates us from God, self and others

Jesus Can Free Us From Bondage (Proper 21C)

The Luke reading (13.10-17) reminds us that Jesus mission to proclaim the good news, open the eyes of the blind and free the prisoners includes freeing those “crippled by a spirit” (v 11). Sadly many in our time do not believe in spiritual warfare and would interpret this as a psychological problem or victory over superstition. One has to be blind spiritually, another form of bondage, to miss the clear meaning of “whom Satan has kept bound for 18 years” (v 16). Other forms of bondage mentioned in the readings are:

• Fear that almost prevented Jeremiah (1.6) from accepting his call to be a prophet 
• Legalism that criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabath
• Religious spirit that prevented the Pharisees and teachers from seeing the love of God 

Christians Are In the Business of Healing (St. Luke's Day)

During the Management Training Course at Western, the question we learned to ask was: "What business are we in?" Many businesses and organizations fail because management is confused about what business they are really in. I tell the story of the Addison Adding Machine company (never heard of it?) which discovered it was not in the business of making and selling mechanical adding machines. Computers were a new thing. They were in the business of making international business machines - IBM. The dramatic moment when Jesus claims the mission of the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah reminds us of what business we are in. We are not in the business of saving people or planting and developing healthy churches. We are in the business of healing the relationship between God and His people. The prophecy tells us exactly and in depth how we are to do this.

1. We are anointed by the Holy Spirit for this mission

Why Were The Workers Few? (Proper 11)

This is a strange statement coming from Jesus in a country where religion was supposed to be central in everyone’s life. Something is terribly wrong. Something needs fixing. This is important to us now as we live in a similar time. We too are supposed to be Christians in a Christian Church - yet many people are sensing that something is very wrong. Do we to have lots of religion but little real Faith? We need to ask the same question as Jesus - why are the church workers few?”.

1. The workers are few because we have lost our mission

In Jesus time most people went to the synagogues and Temple - but for many, it was only an outward form. Their country was occupied by Roman soldiers. They were harassed and confused. They felt defeated. Instead of giving them hope, their ancient faith had not helped them against the Romans.

• It was a time like our own, when many people feel our own church is drifting without real spiritual direction or leadership.
• We feel like the people in the Gospel who were “...harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd...” (Matthew 9.36).

 2. Jesus had a clear mission of radical new teaching and healing

Mission Is To Boldly Proclaim Forgiveness, Healing and Freedom In Jesus Name (St. Luke's Day, Oct. 18)

We are a confused and deceived people living on a demon infested planet surrounded by lies and half truths. As Paul warns Timothy in commissioning him for ministry, false teachers have arisen in the Church to fill itching ears with what they want to hear - as opposed to the truth of our need for forgiveness, healing and freedom from spiritual oppresion. For example the clergy who selected the Timothy Reading for St. Luke’s Day deliberately omitted the first four verses of Chapter 4 – the key warning about false teachers. Many in our churches have failed to “fight the good fight” , “endure hardship” and “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4.5, 7). In contrast, in our Readings Jesus reads the Isaiah (61.1-2) Prophecy and begins by stating that this Prophecy is fulfilled in their hearing. Jesus is claiming His destiny as Saviour and teaching us His Mission or Plan of ministry. All of Jesus ministry was related to healing the separation of individuals from God and others by speaking the truth to the half-truths destroying spiritual life and imprisoning people in false teachings. We all need to get back to Jesus authentic plan of ministry!

1. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor.”

Jesus ministry is anointed and guided by the Holy Spirit. We have in our time many false teachers and self-appointed ministers. These people have no authority or power from God. False teachers are hard to identify as they generally speak in platitudes about love that sound good but are just a little off. They rarely talk about healing as this would involve the supernatural Biblical worldview and spiritual warfare which they generally regard as mythical. Teachers anointed by the Holy Spirit have the truth and proclaim it fearlessly: