I’m not about to write about evolution. That’s the furthest thing from my mind. I just thought that title was catchy and could be slightly relevant. Just read the whole thing to find out why. So, when we read the scriptures we see these great examples about how strong faith in the Lord translates to miraculous acts. In the Old Testament Moses parts the Red Sea and David defeats Goliath with just a sling and a stone. In the New Testament Jesus raises a dude from the dead and causes a paralyzed man to walk at the command of his voice. “Miracles” litter the Bible. It’s almost like if we live a Christian life we should see them regularly. It’s like miracles really aren’t miracles; they are just the norm.
But that’s the biblical reality: miracles aren’t miraculous. Or maybe I will say not rare if that word fits better.
The Bible doesn’t just give us examples to treat them as the norm, but commands us to. Like it’s an expectation. The Bible tells us to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. Like those things are part of your How to be a Christian 101 class. Well, according to Hebrews, they are. The writer calls them elementary then demands that the church start dealing with more urgent issues. I’ll ask you this, have you seen a healing recently? Did you raise the dead before you took your lunch break today? Do you spend so much time casting out demons that they know your name and talk about you during their downtime?
I’m guessing your answers to these questions are no, no, and no. They are for me. Before coming on the race I don’t know if I could say I’ve seen things that we might categorize as miraculous. I had seen really sick people get better, but medicine was involved; I had seen broken relationships healed; I had seen people confess so pretty difficult sin. But none of these things I would categorize as miraculous. They didn’t fall into that sick healed, dead raise, demons flee category.
Any my prayers reflected it. My mentality was, well if I don’t see it happening, then obviously it doesn’t exist and if it doesn’t exist then it’s not God’s character to heal. I let my limited experience and faithless perspective dictate the character of God. I had told God that what I saw (or in this case hadn’t seen) with my own two eyes trump what he says his character is in the Bible. I let my cursed conscience define the holy High Priest.
And this often happens with our relationship with God. Because we never see the crazy happen, we believe it can’t. And our prayers become, if your will is to heal this person, Jesus, then heal them. Almost as if we must safety net ourselves to make sure we don’t have to commit to too much faith. Almost as if to say as a fallback, well I guess it just wasn’t his will. Maybe this will help us rationalize why someone didn’t get healed? Maybe this will help us not ask why not as much?
Well, I think it’s in God’s will to heal his people. I think it’s his desire. I mean he commands us to first of all. It’s something he asks us to do as being part of his family. Jesus brings Lazarus back to life; he makes a paralyzed man stand up and walk like he was just taking a nap; he puts a dude’s ear back on his head. He heals 38 times. I Googled it. And those are just the recorded ones. But if that wasn’t enough, Jesus died on the cross to cure us of the most wretched disease of all: sin. It’s in God’s nature to heal. Physically and spiritually.
And our Pastor in Rwanda understood that. We had the opportunity to cast a demon out of a woman our second week there. No, I’m not a losing my wits (although I would say it sounds kind of crazy), yes it was weird, and I too have thought this stuff was just a bunch of hocus-pocus. This lady named Fiat approached us to pray for her and a friend. She had fallen into prostitution after committing her life to Christ, wanted to repent, and give her life to Christ again. All normal, well sorta.
So we went to her house where she was already praying and joined her. As the prayer continued she started to shake uncontrollably. Yes, I know it sounds weird. She fell to the floor. Instead of calling 911 (they don’t have emergency service) we did the only thing we could: pray. Prayed for a long time. Prayed for the demon to come out of her, something shook and felt thick. Prayed for her protection. Prayed for forgiveness. It all came out so naturally, even though it felt so foreign.
We walked home shaking, not knowing what to say. Some stayed speechless, others couldn’t stop talking, others jumped for joy. Emotions were all over the place. I mean, what’s the normal emotion you experience when the reality hits that you just cast out a demon? Abnormal? Yes, bad joke.
Our Pastor, though, just kept walking. Said it was “just another day, just another demon” or something along those lines. And that’s his mentality. That’s his expectation. He expects that those things will happen. He expects that he’ll need to pray for someone who has the flu. He believes that that’s they’re only medicine. He believes and expects that prayer to heal them because he’s seen it happen, and he knows if he doesn’t then that person might not get better. I’m not saying that his prayer is always answered, but when it is it’s nothing to write home about. It’s praise worthy, and something to give God the glory. It’s nothing he’ll post a blog about the next day because his mindset changed.
That’s because he doesn’t let his experience define his theology, or God’s biology. He lets his bible be his worldview, not his worldview be his bible. He knows who God is. Because he lets God tell him who He is. He knows who God is because he believes scripture even when he doesn’t see the healing or the exorcism (yup, weird word) come every time he prays.
Instead of letting our lack of first-hand-experience dictate the weight and faith with which we pray, why don’t we let it strengthen our prayers? Why doesn’t it hasten our urgency? Why don’t we let it become something we use to fan the flame of our prayers because we know who our God says He is. And, if He’s not a liar, then we shouldn’t pray like he is.
I was thinking about this whole situation on our drive to Uganda. On the drive here we saw some baboons. (This is the part that connects back to the title.) And when we saw our cluster of baboons chilling on the side of the road, we all jumped in our seats. We pulled out our cameras, got really excited, rolled down our windows and kept snapping. We all treated it like a rare occurrence. I mean, how many baboons do you see sitting on the side of the road in America?
Then we saw them again. Took so more pictures.
And again. Took less.
And again. Took none.
And again. Didn’t react.
With each time we saw the baboons, it became more and more normal. The unbelief that we would never see them again dwindled. No longer did we let our limited exposure to baboons in America define how often we expect to see baboons here. The nature, the makeup, of Uganda is that it has baboons sitting on the side of the road. Just because I don’t see baboons sitting outside the house I’m staying at this month doesn’t mean Uganda doesn’t have baboons sitting on the roadside anyway. It’s the truth and the expectation.
We can’t let the amount of times we see something or not see something dictate the DNA of who God is. We can’t let our exposure define our expectation. Instead, continue to expect God to be who he says he is and show up in the ways he promises. He often tells people in the New Testament that he does something on account of their faith. He heals a Centurion’s servant and a paralyzed man both on account of their faith. The Bible tells us that God honors our faith. So, take faith. And believe that God heals.
