Lately I've been struggling a lot with the concept of spiritual gifts and spiritual healing. I've always been a huge skeptic for a few reasons:
- I realize that in Bible times spiritual gifts and healings were everywhe
re. There of course are always those who do it for their own gain, but in those times these men most of the time gave the glory right back to God. They took none of the credit, they were doing it to further God's kingdom. The issue I have is that nowadays people are so inherently selfish that I believe it's a lot harder to not only give God ALL the glory, but also for other people to accept that the miracle was God's doing. - I've been to a few churches where people are flailing around, speaking in tongues, and doing healings and it always seems like such a show. It brings to mind any number of Bible verses about the pharisees like Luke 20:46-47 that says; “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” People making a seemingly huge show of their faith really rubs me the wrong way as if they're saying, "Look at me! Look at how holy I am!
So this skepticism has been prevalent in my life for as long as I can remember. Lately God has turned this viewpoint upside down though. What happened first was that I kept reading Bible verses about spiritual gifts.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. –1 Cor. 12:27-28
There was this one and so many more. I was wondering why I kept reading verses like this but then I just brushed it aside and kept on thinking my narrow minded viewpoint. Then, I visited a church here in Jamaica where people were falling down and convulsing in the aisles, speaking in tongues, and wailing at the top of their lungs as if they were expelling evil from their gut (it was weird). Yet, I didn't feel weird being in the presence of this. I felt strangely calm which was bizarre for me because usually I'd make a very indiscreet exit from a place like that. While it wasn't really my cup of tea I could feel God saying to me that this is another form of worship and these are all His children too. Different forms of worship, same God.
Needless to say through all of this I was still keeping a relatively closed mind and not allowing God to work through me on this. That is until I watched a documentary last night called "Father of Lights." If you haven't seen it, you need to. Seriously, watch it tonight. It is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. It's a film about how God is a God of light and how He is working around the world and how we can still see Him working today. It is such a beautiful and moving film. You will cry.
In this documentary there are many scenes of pastors going into rough areas and healing people in Jesus' name. Even as I watched this I was skeptical at first but from one minute to the next God just hit me upside the head. It was the weirdest feeling. I felt all reservations I'd had about spiritual gifts and healings suddenly leave me. These men were healing people and giving all the glory to God and I suddenly realized that yeah, maybe God still does work in these ways to make His power known. These Bu
ddhist priests, Muslims, and atheist who were being healed were turning their backs on their pasts and accepting the one true God then telling everyone else about this God. It was so beautiful.
God has been working hardcore in me with this and it wasn't until I actually let Him speak to me about it that my mind has been forever changed. For so long I was completely shunning a huge section of God's glory and power. That isn't to say I'm not still looking at these spiritual gifts and healing through a Biblical lens. There are those out there that the enemy has allowed to have these gifts to take away from God's glory. It is vitally important to make sure that if we encounter healings and the like that we make sure that whoever is doing it is doing to further God's kingdom and not themselves. Because as Matthew 7: 21-23 says;
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."
