The Supernatural

I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
Romans 15:18-19

Inevitably, when you bring up the desire to engage in the supernatural parts of the Kingdom of God or the desire to operate in the power of the Spirit, you’ll have at least one person in the room say something like, “But I believe everything is supernatural,” or “The Holy Spirit is working in all of our interactions and activities.” It’s sort of like when you invite God’s presence and power to fill the room and the guy in the back says, “But God is omnipresent. He’s always here.”

When people say these sorts of things, sometimes it’s just an attempt at a theological “gotcha” moment. But in my experience, more often, it’s an indication of a lack of understanding of the way the Spirit works and the way the Kingdom works.

The reality is that there are things we do as the church that we can absolutely do on our own strength without any help from the Spirit. We can make people feel welcome, create community, engage in relationships, etc. all without ever depending on Jesus. In fact, many businesses do this better than the Church and they don’t give a rip about the Spirit or Jesus. A lot of people feel more connected and loved at their CrossFit gym than at church. You don’t need Jesus for this. In other words, things like this are not what we mean when we use the word “supernatural.” We can choose to have Jesus at the center of these things (which opens the possibility for powerful Holy Spirit moments), or we can do it in our own strength. It’s up to us.

But there are other things that we absolutely cannot do in our own strength. We can’t see people truly surrender their life to Jesus and get saved in our own strength. We can’t heal people in our own strength. We can’t cast out demons in our own strength. We can’t deliver an accurate prophetic word or word of knowledge in our own strength. These things are supernatural precisely because it is impossible to do them without God’s activity and our dependence on Him.

That is what we mean when we talk about “engaging in the supernatural aspects of the Kingdom.” That is what we mean by “operating in the power of God.” It means engaging in ministry where, if God doesn’t move in power, nothing happens. The results make it very obvious whether it was God’s power moving or just our own.

In the same way, those of us who invite the Holy Spirit to come, who invite the increased presence and power of God in the room, already understand that God is omnipresent. What we are inviting is God’s tangible (or manifest) presence. We are inviting God to step a little more through the veil that separates the natural world from the spirit realm so that we can feel His presence and encounter Him holistically–physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Lives are changed when God’s tangible presence fills the room. People are impacted in greater ways when this happens. This is why we invite God to do it. We desire to host His presence and make ourselves available to Him. When His tangible presence fills a room, He does more to transform lives in minutes than we could do in years.

Our society is fascinated with the supernatural but is mostly engaging with the counterfeit forms of it (New Age, mediums, psychics, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, energy healing, witchcraft, the Occult, etc). But, ultimately, what they are looking for is the real thing, they just don’t know the real thing can only be found in Jesus through the Spirit.

Here’s an unpopular opinion that I believe is true: Any church that doesn’t know how to operate in the power of God or the supernatural aspects of the Kingdom will find themselves very limited in reaching this next generation. The next generation knows that there is more to this world than the natural, but what they don’t know is that the true power and authority to engage in the spirit realm comes only through Jesus. Everything else is a poor counterfeit from the kingdom of darkness. A revival atmosphere where they can actually experience an encounter with God is what they’re longing for.

Are you seeing regular physical healings at your church? Are people regularly finding freedom from demonic oppression at your church? Are the prophetic gifts cultivated at your church so that people hear from the Lord regularly through these gifts? Are people just singing songs and hearing a message or are they having encounters with the living God? These aspects of the Kingdom will be essential for reaching the next generation. If your church isn’t yet engaging in these, it’s time to start now.

A New Season

This is a letter that I wrote to my church and delivered today:

Dear Horizon Church of Towson,

I remember the early years when a few of us on Sunday mornings would go into an old, dark and dingy movie theater—smelling of stale popcorn from the night before—to set up our sound equipment, projector, computer, and “kids’ area” (if you can even call it that) before people would arrive. We were just a bunch of twenty-year-olds trying to realize a dream called Horizon Church of Towson. I was there the Sunday morning we officially launched in October of 2004.

Since then, we’ve grown and matured and gone through many seasons. We learned how to do link groups and life together. We learned how to care for the marginalized and engage in social justice initiatives. We experimented with spiritual disciplines. We moved out of the theater and began renting a church building. Our children’s ministry grew as did the number of people getting married and having babies. We experienced a move of the Spirit where the supernatural gifts of the Spirit were awakened and set aflame among us. With your generous giving, we purchased our own properties, and we somehow managed to survive COVID. Season after season, God has been faithful to us.

This is why it is with a heavy, yet hopeful, heart that I share with you today that I am officially resigning from Horizon Church this May. Besides facing my brother’s tragic death, this is the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to face and the most difficult decision Missy and I have ever had to make. I want you to know that it has been an honor to serve as your pastor for the last 19 years. Every organization eventually has to move on from its founders, and this is now that time for Horizon.

There may be questions and emotions that naturally arise with this sort of announcement. First, let me address the emotions. This news will likely cause a wide range of feelings within our church community. I want to encourage you that the full range of emotions are appropriate for a moment like this. Missy and I have cycled through all of them, more than once, as we prayerfully considered this decision. Sometimes it’s just hard for a church to lose one of their pastors. Believe me when I say it is equally as hard to say goodbye to a church that I planted and led for nearly 19 years. A variety of emotions are a part of grieving, so let’s make sure we grieve well together.

So, why am I resigning now?

The best answer I can give to that question is that I am resigning because God is calling us to move on from Horizon Church. Over the last few years, the church leadership and I have started to grow in different directions, and it is time for me to pass the baton of leadership to the next generation of leaders at Horizon. Missy and I believe this is what God is asking us to do. We’ve been honest with God and told Him that we don’t want to do this. Yet, ultimately, God has our “yes.” We have consulted our closest friends, spent countless hours in prayer, asked the Lord to speak through scripture, through wise counsel, through prophetic words, and through the Spirit’s leading. God has been faithful to do so on all fronts. As a result, we feel the Lord is calling us to move on.

You may be wondering where we’re going.

Being a pastor is a weird job. When you change churches, often the best thing to do is not to go to a church across town. Changing churches usually involves uprooting your family and moving. This is one of those painful realities of being a pastor. Sometimes God asks all of us to do hard things, yet we know He is faithful and that there is blessing on the other side of obedience.

After much prayer, many tears, and much heartache, Missy and I believe the Lord is asking us to move to Kansas City and take the Teaching Pastor position at Vineyard Community Church of Overland Park.

As I’ve tried to process this decision, I’ve found the following quotes to be helpful to me. Maybe they will be helpful to you as well.

“The economy of the kingdom of God is quite simple. Every new step in the kingdom costs us everything we have gained to date. Every time we cross a new threshold, it costs us everything we now have. Every new step may cost us all the reputation and security we have accumulated up to that point. It costs us our life. A disciple is always ready to take the next step. If there is anything that characterizes Christian maturity, it is the willingness to become a beginner again for Jesus Christ. It is the willingness to put our hand in his hand and say, ‘I’m scared to death, but I’ll go with you. You’re the Pearl of great price.’”
John Wimber

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Jim Elliot

We love you, Horizon Church! As we have helped to birth this church and see it mature, we have been forever changed by this community. Horizon will always be a part of me, my family, and my ministry. It has been an honor to serve as one of your pastors for 19 years. As alumni, we will be rooting for you and cheering for you from a distance.

With a heavy but hopeful heart,

Mark Stephenson

P.S. Also know that I’m happy to process any other questions and concerns you may have. Until June 4th, I will make myself available to anyone who wants to talk in person. And after that, I will be just a text or Zoom call away.

Spirit-Son-Father

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1:18

I’ve heard it asked, “Why do ‘those streams’ of the church focus so much on the Holy Spirit? Shouldn’t we be pointing people to Jesus? After all, the Holy Spirit’s main job was to glorify Jesus (John 16:14), right?”

It’s an interesting question. But would we also ask, “Why do ‘those streams’ of the church focus so much on Jesus?” Is that a question that makes sense? Because, after all, one of the main missions of the Son was to reveal the Father (see John 1:18; John 16:9-10; Colossians 1:15). The Holy Spirit points to Jesus and Jesus points to the Father, so should we only focus on, talk about, pray to the Father?

No, of course not.

There is another reality at play that flows in the other direction. The Son reveals the Father and the Holy Spirit reveals the Son. In other words, Jesus makes the Father more accessible, more tangible, more relatable and the Holy Spirit does the same for Jesus. And in this cycle of interdependence we see the beauty of the Trinity.

If you want someone to know the Father, have them get to know Jesus. If you want someone to know Jesus, have them experience the Spirit. This is why so often people encounter the Spirit and experience the love of the Father. Their interwoven connectedness and unity is impossible to separate.

So maybe some streams focus on the Holy Spirit because they want people to experience Jesus. And maybe other streams focus on Jesus because they want to reveal the Father. And still other streams focus on the Father because it glorifies the Son and the Spirit. The truth is that all streams should be focusing on Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are inseparable. They are God.

Darkened Understanding

“…you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.”
Ephesians 4:17-19

In the passage above, Paul reveals the connection between insightful thinking, a tender heart, and actions that line up with God’s way of living. He starts by exhorting the Christians in Ephesus to no longer live as the Gentiles do, and he specifically identifies the problem: “the futility of their thinking.” He rewords this same problem a couple more times saying the Gentiles are “darkened in their understanding.” He exposes their “ignorance.”

All of this is a problem in the mind. Their thinking was skewed. They lacked insight and wisdom in the way they thought about things. Their minds were cut off from God’s revelation and truth. What is most interesting is Paul’s diagnosis. How did their minds and their thinking get so warped? How could they become so blind to the truth? Paul says that this happened because of the “hardening of their hearts.”

I find this fascinating!

The reason their thinking was so warped and their ability to embrace truth so damaged was because of a condition in their heart. They had “lost all sensitivity.” What does that mean? It means that, over time, if we don’t actively try to keep a tender heart, our heart will become hardened. If we aren’t actively forgiving those who hurt us, if we aren’t actively being sensitive to the contamination of sin and impurity, we will eventually become desensitized. Bitterness will become normal. We will stop feeling the pangs of conviction when we sin. Instead of feeling the natural guilt that comes from lust and perversion, we’ll feel nothing at all but justification for our actions.

When hearts become hardened to sin, our actions become unrestrained. Selfishness, indulgence, pleasure, and ego become king. Greed becomes normal, along with lust and jealousy, fear and hatred. And it’s not difficult to see how this works its way backward toward darkened understanding and futility in thinking.

When sin abounds in our life, our heart loses its sensitivity to conviction, its sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. And when our heart loses sensitivity over time, it becomes hardened, calloused, desensitized. Inevitably, the hardness of our heart prevents our mind from receiving truth, illumination, and revelation. We are cut off from the profound insights that the Lord wants to plant in our minds, and our thinking becomes darkened and futile.

So often we compartmentalize the wholeness of our being and we miss the deep connections between our actions, our heart, and our mind. Paul makes these connections clear to the Ephesians and to us. We all want to have profound, insightful thoughts, but most people don’t see the connection between how they’re living and how they’re thinking. We want to have illuminating thoughts without obedience. We want insight without self-discipline. But they are connected.

The more willing we are to surrender our actions to the Lord, the more willing we are to be obedient in our self-denial, then the more tender our heart remains. We want a heart that is sensitive to the gentle nudges of the Holy Spirit. We want a heart that is quick to embrace conviction of sin and quick to repent. This then keeps the door open and receptive for when God wants to download His thoughts into ours. This then keeps us ready to receive profound, illuminating thoughts that are thick with wisdom and insight.

Our actions change the condition of our hearts. Our hearts then change the receptivity of our minds.

Truth in Advertising

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25

One of the major idols in America is the god of comfort and safety. The pandemic exposed this as people’s illusion of control was dismantled. Yet, so many churches have some sort of promise of “safety” on their websites. They advertise their church as a “safe place” to (fill in the blank). But I have never found following Jesus to be safe or comfortable. Jesus warned us about this when He invited us to take up our cross and follow Him.

I long for a generation of churches that would rise up and boldly put the truth on their websites. It might look something like this:

“Welcome to our church. We want you to be a part of our community. But we must warn you, this is not a safe place. Jesus, like Aslan, is good but not safe. If you want safe, the country club is down the street. No, here you will be asked to die. Following Jesus is not just a ticket to heaven. It’s a ticket to the cross that will then be followed by a resurrected life that you can’t fathom.

You will be asked to sacrifice the things you most cherish. You’ll be invited to give beyond what you think is possible. You’ll be challenged to let go of your comforts and step into the unsafe world of risk and vulnerability. You will not be protected from life’s hardships. In fact, if you want to follow Jesus, those hardships will increase.

You will witness extraordinary miracles. God will send his power to flow through you in unbelievable ways, and it will cost you everything. This is not just a hospital for sinners. This is the frontlines in a war that has been raging for 2000 years between followers of Jesus and the kingdom of darkness. We do have a medical tent when you need it. But don’t get too comfortable there because we need you to heal up and man your post. You can expect to get wounded along the way. You will then be asked to become a wounded healer once you are healed. So if you are ready to lay down your life so that you might find it, this is the place for you!”

I imagine the church in America would be much, much smaller and much, much more powerful. In other words, we’d look more like the book of Acts.

Demons and Halloween: An Interview

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
Acts 16:16-18

Halloween, or All-Hallows-Eve, is upon us. Kids are excited to dress up in costumes and get obscene amounts of candy. Inevitably, this time of year, people in the church begin to discuss whether Christians should participate in a holiday that seems to celebrate witchcraft, darkness, satan and masked murderers. Some of these Halloween traditions seem to stem from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain which was later supplanted by a church celebration on the eve of All Saints Day.

As a pastor and a parent, I usually advise parents that they need to make their own choices for their families. Yet, those choices should be informed and based in truth (not exaggerated fears or naive ignorance). What follows is a conversation between a Christian who has questions about all of this and their pastor. We’ll name the curious Christian “CC” and the pastor “P.”

CC: Why do some Christians get so uptight about Halloween?

P: I don’t know that I would call it “uptight” as much as I would call it “cautious.” There is some evidence that there used to be a pagan holiday where people dressed up in costumes to avoid getting harassed by the spirits of dead people. The belief was that the spirits of the dead would wander the earth for a year and that on their final day (the last day of the harvest season, just before the first day of the winter season, a.k.a. October 31st) they would haunt people in order to get revenge. The solution was to dress up in costumes to either hide or scare off these ghosts.

Some historians believe the Catholic Church, in an attempt to Christianize this pagan holiday, absorbed some of these traditions and beliefs and placed the celebration on the day before All Saints Day (which is on November 1st). The evidence for all of this is a little murky. Not all historians agree with this theory of the origins of Halloween. But, some parents don’t like that it is possibly rooted in a pagan holiday.

Other parents don’t like the emphasis on death and witchcraft that you see around Halloween. It is true that Wiccan groups, the church of satan, covens of witches, and others who participate in the occult do have satanic rituals that are celebrated on or around Halloween. These rituals often include animal sacrifice and other unseemly practices.

All of this leads to a kind of hesitation about wanting kids to participate in that.

CC: But isn’t Halloween just about kids dressing up in costumes and getting candy? I mean, all that witchcraft and satan stuff isn’t real, right?

P: Well, there are sort of two Halloweens that happen simultaneously. Yes, much of it is just kids dressing in harmless costumes and getting candy. There is definitely a fun, family aspect to Halloween. However, there is also a dark side to this holiday. Witchcraft is real. Satan is real. Demons are real. I’ve personally cast demons out of people in the name of Jesus. These things are not mythological. They are very real, and we can’t be naive about their reality.

CC: So, you don’t let your kids celebrate Halloween?

P: My wife and I do let our kids get dressed up in costumes and go door to door to get candy. As a family, we have fun walking around the neighborhood together. However, we don’t let our kids dress up as serial killers or mass murderers. We also don’t let our kids dress up in costumes that are demonic or overly sexualized. Again, demons are real. I’ve interacted with them on more occasions than I can count. They are evil and want only to steal, kill and destroy people. It’s not something to take lightly. (In Christ, it’s also not something to fear. Jesus has given us His authority over them.)

My question to you is this: Would you let your child dress up as a Nazi for Halloween? If not, why not? Most parents would not let their kid dress up like a Nazi because it makes light of something that was horrific and evil. It’s not something to joke around about. Evil has victims. And making light of that evil doesn’t honor those victims. The same is true when we make light of things like the occult, the demonic, mass murder, etc. That level of darkness has real victims, and I have see it firsthand. It’s not mythological or hypothetical. It’s real.

CC: Whoa, that’s intense! How often do you run into demons in your ministry?

P: More often than most people want to hear about. I’ve created a prayer ministry at my church that we call an intensive prayer ministry. In 2 to 3 hour prayer sessions, we address people’s deep need for inner healing. On a regular basis during these prayer sessions, we run into demons who are either “attached to” or “entrenched in” a person. These demons create havoc in a person’s life. They make a normal level 2 temptation feel like a level 8 (where it feels impossible to overcome). They harass and torment a person’s mind, emotions, and body. They foster fear, terror, and anxiety. They promote addictions. They breed self-hatred, depression, and bitterness. They hate their host and are assigned to oppress and, eventually, destroy their lives.

When people finally get free, when these demons are cast out, they feel completely different. They experience a level of freedom and lightness they had only dreamed about. This freedom is made possible only by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Only by His power and His authority is this possible.

So, like I said, this isn’t something to take lightly. Caricature costumes of the demonic are only acceptable when you don’t think demons really exist. But they do.

CC: So with everything that you just said, I’m surprised that you let your kids do Halloween. Why are you okay with it?

P: Well, I’m not okay with certain costumes, and I’m not okay with the darker side of Halloween. But I am okay with my kids dressing up as movie characters or cartoon characters and getting candy. I compare it to how Paul addressed food sacrificed to idols. Think about it. There were bulls and goats literally sacrificed in pagan rituals to pagan demonic gods. Then Christians in the first century had to decide if they were okay eating that meat. Paul’s conclusion was that he was fine eating the meat because of his freedom in Christ. His main concern was not causing others to stumble who were less mature in their faith. If Paul was okay eating meat that was literally sacrificed to a pagan god, I think I’m okay with my kids dressing up and getting candy.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it‘”(1 Corinthians 10:25-26). He went on to say, “If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?“(1 Corinthians 10:30). His main point is that Christ has given us a freedom that allows us to enjoy certain things, even things that have been co-opted by satan and pagan worship. In other words, satan doesn’t get to steal things that are God’s in the first place. For me this includes costumes, candy, and the family fun of Halloween.

CC: What do you say to parents who don’t let their kids do Halloween?

P: I totally understand that decision and respect it, especially based on everything I’ve already said about demonization and the occult. I think those of us who are Christian parents who do allow our kids to dress up and go trick-or-treating have to be careful not to fall into a kind of blind, naive, indifference or ignorance to the real evil that exists in the spirit realm. And we need to know that the day of (and the days around) Halloween are days of intensified spiritual warfare due to the increase in satanic rituals.

And I think those of us who are Christian parents who do not allow our kids to dress up and go trick-or-treating have to be careful not to fall into a kind of legalistic, religious fear that gives satan too much credit. Some things, even things rooted in paganism, can be redeemed and enjoyed by God’s people.

Back in Paul’s day, in the early church, there were some who were fine eating meat sacrificed to idols and some who were not. Both existed in the church together.

CC: Any final advice to parents about Halloween?

P: Yes. In a word, “Taxes.” That’s what I say really loudly just as I reach into my kids’ Halloween candy and steal some. I reach into their Halloween bags and yell, “TAXES!” I then take and eat some of their best candy. And then I remind them about how if the government can take 30% of our income, then surely parents get to take 30% of their kids’ candy. I tell them I’m just trying to prepare them for the real world. So, parents, don’t forget to collect “taxes” from your kids this year!

Valid Opinions

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…
James 1:19

Sometimes we say things that are well-meaning but untrue. We say these things without much thought or reflection because in the moment we’re trying to care for people’s hearts. Yet, when I hear some of these statements, the lack of truth becomes glaring. Just like some people’s skin gets irritated by wool sweaters, my brain gets itchy and irritated when people say well-meaning cliches that aren’t true.

For instance, we like to say things like, “There is no bad question” to help students overcome their insecurities about asking questions. But every teacher knows that statement isn’t true. There are bad questions. Like, right after you give students the syllabus for the class and then someone asks a question that is answered in the first few lines of the syllabus. Bad question.

Similarly, it’s common in our society to hear someone say, “Everyone’s opinion is valid.” But what do people really mean by that? What do they mean by the word valid? Sure, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but does that make every opinion equally valid? Is your neighbor’s opinion about that growth on your skin just as valid as the dermatologist’s? I don’t think so. Not everyone’s opinion should carry the same weight.

When people want their opinion “validated” they usually just mean they want to be respected enough to be listened to. And that’s a good thing. Mostly people want to be validated as a person. They want to know that they themselves are valuable, regardless of what their opinion is. And, again, that’s a good thing. But to me, validating the worth of a person is different than calling all opinions valid.

Here’s what valid actually means: having a sound basis in logic or fact; reasonable or cogent. With that definition in mind, it’s clear to me that not every opinion has a sound basis in fact. Not every opinion is equally informed or cogent.

This is why, for me, not every opinion is equally valid. Uninformed and weakly formed opinions are everywhere, but they are not as valid as an informed opinion that took time to develop. I like how leadership guru Carey Nieuwhof said it:

“…a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. We live in an age of strongly held, weakly formed opinions. Too many people’s worldviews are three questions away from collapsing. So learn broadly and be slow to draw conclusions. Wisdom takes time and input.”
Carey Nieuwhof

And we could rightly add that valid opinions take time and input. Valid opinions are well-thought-out, well-researched, informed opinions. Forming a strong, valid opinion is like smoking meat. There is no short cut. It has to be “low and slow” or it’s going to lack truth and wisdom.

So, no, everyone’s opinion is not valid. You have to earn the right to have a valid opinion about a subject and that means doing your homework*. It means doing more than just listening to one podcast, Googling it, or reading WebMD. People want their weakly formed and uninformed opinions validated, but we need to stop doing this for people. It plays into a kind of deception that pretends all opinions are weighted equally, and they’re not.

I have lots of uninformed opinions about a lot of things, but humility dictates that I pay deference to those who have spent more time formulating their opinions on a subject. Humility says that I need to listen to people with informed opinions when mine is uninformed. If I demand that my uninformed or weakly formed opinion be validated, then it usually means I’m operating out of insecurity or arrogance rather than humility.

*Note: I do believe there is at least one exception to this truth (if not more). In situations where a team might be brainstorming, innovating, creating, or experimenting with something new, sometimes the most helpful opinions are the least informed opinions. During times of innovation, sometimes people with well-informed opinions about a subject can get stuck in what they already know. This makes it difficult for them to think creatively. So, during times of experimentation or innovation, validating the weakly formed or uninformed opinions in the room might be necessary.

Does God Favor the Poor?

“God does not show favoritism.”
Romans 2:11

A friend of mine posted on his Facebook page that he often tells his kids, “If you want to find God, find the person with the least amount of power in the room and stand next to them.” This statement got me thinking about whether God shows favoritism, especially to those who are powerless and marginalized. This seems to be a popular notion going around the church right now.

After some contemplating over that statement, I’ve made some observations. First, I think that statement comes from a place in my friend’s heart that is good and compassionate. He is a guy who cares about the marginalized and has lived a life that cares for the poor (who are all too often overlooked). Secondly, however, I think the statement isn’t exactly true, or at least it is a misleading half-truth.

The statement is a claim about power, specifically socio-economic power, and that God seems to favor those who society counts as powerless. If you want to find God, He’ll be among the marginalized, the outcasts, and the forgotten. And there is a lot of truth in that. But again, it’s a half-truth. In the Gospels, we do often find Jesus among the outcasts, the powerless, and the marginalized of His day. But that’s only part of the story of scripture.

I am reminded that God also regularly partnered with the powerful in scripture (Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Samson, David, Solomon, Daniel, Matthew the tax-collector, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Lydia [Acts 16:13-15], the centurion who showed great faith [Matthew 8:5-13], etc). All of these people either had great wealth, power, position, or some combination of the three. And they were the ones of their day to stand next to if you wanted to find God.

Think about it. Abraham was extremely wealthy. God used Moses to confront Pharaoh using the power of God, power unlike we’ve ever seen. And Moses led an entire nation of people for many years. Joseph was the right-hand man to Pharaoh and was extremely wealthy. Samson wielded incredible physical power. David and Solomon were wealthy, powerful kings. Daniel was the number one advisor to the king of a massive empire. Matthew accrued great wealth as a trusted employee of the Roman empire. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were members of the most powerful religious groups in the first century. Lydia was likely a wealthy business owner dealing in the expensive and fashionable Tyrian purple fabrics. She likely had a large house that was used to hosting people of upper-class society. A centurion wielded the sword of Rome to occupy and oppress weaker people groups.

Can we really look at the biographies of these people and say that if you want to find God you have to look among the powerless? If you only had these stories from the Bible, would that be your slogan about finding God? I don’t think so.

Instead, your slogan might sound something like: “If you want to find God, stand next to the MOST powerful person in the room who hasn’t let their wealth and power destroy their dependency on God.” Or maybe it would be: “If you want to find God, stand next to the one who wields tremendous power but does so for the sake of the Kingdom of God rather than for their own selfish gains.” Or possibly: “If you want to find God, stand next to the person who humbled themselves (or who was humbled by God) to the point where God then raised them up to power.”

This last slogan strikes at the heart of the matter. One of God’s promises in scripture is this: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up“(James 4:10). What this means is that, when we see someone who has power, sometimes we are looking at a person who unjustly clawed and climbed their way to the top, and yet other times we are looking at someone who humbled themselves and God raised into power. Just the mention of this idea is scandalous to our culture today, and yet we see God do this over and over in scripture.

Let’s look at the life of Joseph as an example. If we believe that God favors the poor and powerless, that if we really want to find God we will find Him primarily among the marginalized, then we will cheer at the middle of Joseph’s life. That’s when we find God with Joseph through hardship, false imprisonment, and pain.

But what do we do with the beginning of his life when he was the favored son of wealthy Jacob? And what do we do with the end of his life? What do we do with the Joseph who was second only to Pharaoh in power and wealth in Egypt? Do we declare that God can’t be favoring Joseph in that moment? Do we stick to the modern narrative that God isn’t among the wealthy and elevated, that He doesn’t bless the powerful and privileged?

Or, could it be that the picture of God’s favor is a bit more nuanced than our popular slogans admit?

What about the life of Daniel? We may feel good about the popular truism that God will be found among the outcasts when Daniel is down in the lion’s den. But what happens to our theory when Daniel gets elevated to King Nebuchadnezzar’s most trusted advisor?

And what about Jesus? Do we identify Him as one of the poor outcasts–a peasant Jewish carpenter of the first century under political and economic oppression from Rome and religious oppression from the Pharisees? Or do we identify Him as a powerful miracle-worker and rabbi who had thousands of people following Him and expecting a revolution? You can’t really look at Jesus walking on water, calming the seas, healing the sick, and casting out demons and call Him “powerless.” Or, further still, do we identify Jesus as God-incarnate, the Son of God, the Almighty God-with-us, now seated at the right hand of the Father wielding all power and all authority?

The thing is, He was (and is) all of these things. He was simultaneously powerless and the most powerful.

This is precisely why I believe my friend’s statement is misleading. God isn’t just among the powerless. God is also quite at home among the powerful (as scandalous as that might be for some). In fact, God loves to take the powerless who are humble and raise them up to be powerful. He often does this in order to use them mightily in His Kingdom and for His glory.

For God, it’s not about your socio-economic status but about your heart. What is the condition of your heart? Regardless of your race, the size of your bank account, or the positions and titles you hold, do you still acknowledge your deep dependence on the Lord and your poverty of soul? Are you still teachable? Are you pursuing humility?

These are not things that can automatically be seen on the outside. These are renovations that happen on the inside. Which is why if you are in a room and you try to stand next to the person who is “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), and you try to base that on appearance, you’ll likely get it wrong. “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart“(1 Samuel 16:7).

So before we continue repeating statements about God that fit really well into our current cultural milieu, we need to check to make sure they also hold up to what God has revealed about Himself in scripture. And while saying that God is primarily among the powerless has a compassionate ring to it, in the end it is a well-meaning half-truth that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Instead of my friend’s slogan, I think the truth is something closer to this: “If you want to find God, find the person with a humble heart who deeply loves Jesus, who admits their poverty of soul, and who has experienced great loss from great sacrifice for God.” And I’d add: “You won’t be able to tell who that person is by how they look. You’ll have to speak to them to hear their heart.”

DNA of the Spirit

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Matthew 3:11

Whenever I tell people that the Lord has taken me through a journey of deeper engagement with the Holy Spirit, people often assume something about tongues or becoming charismatic. But this kind of assumption totally misses the point.

In order to give a more holistic picture of what has really happened in my life, I tend to say that I got a download of the “DNA of the Spirit.” This happened at God’s initiation and invitation, not my own. Using language from the charismatic stream, we might call this a filling of the Spirit or “baptism” of the Spirit. But many people are uncomfortable with that language for various reasons.

Using language from the spiritual formation/contemplative stream, we might say that this DNA of the Spirit is often the result of Jesus moving us from mansion 3 to mansion 4 or 5 in our interior life with God (according to the seven mansions laid out by St. Teresa of Avila in her Interior Castle paradigm of spiritual formation [read this if you want to learn more about this paradigm]).

In order to bring greater clarity to what I’ve experienced, I list here some of the common characteristics that I’ve noticed accompany a download of the DNA of the Spirit. This DNA is not just about having the Spirit or interacting with the Spirit. This is something more. I write this as a person who for many years did not operate with this DNA and now does (I was a Christian for 25 years and a pastor for 10 years before experiencing this).

A person who embraces the DNA of the Spirit will often experience:
1. An increase in awareness of and prioritizing of the unseen realm/spirit realm
2. An increase in deep intimacy with the Lord, often accompanied by supernatural encounters with the Lord
3. An increase in two-way conversational dialog with the Lord, often accompanied by a desire to spend more time with Him
4. An increase in the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s tangible presence and the Holy Spirit’s activity in the room, including a desire to notice and obey spontaneous promptings of the Spirit
5. An increase in the use of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 12)
6. An increase in the power of the Spirit and the authority of Christ
7. An increase in the awareness of spiritual warfare as a regular part of the Christian life (including demonization and casting out demons)
8. An increase in the conviction that the gospel is true and that Jesus is the only way (any residue of unbelief gets washed away)
9. An increase in the amount of God’s Kingdom that is believed to be available to us “already,” this side of heaven
10. An increase in prioritizing ministering to the Lord (rather than just to people) and hosting His Presence (rather than just hosting people)
11. An increase in willingness to obey God even when it might seem weird to the people around you and you might be misunderstood [an increase in boldness is often a result of a “filling of the Spirit” (see Acts 4:31)]
12. An increase in a desire for holiness and purity, often accompanied by a reduction in desire for sin
13. An increase in expectancy as it relates to God moving supernaturally
14. An increase in the desire to speak about the above realities so that others may become awakened to them in similar ways

Most Christians can relate to one or two (or even a few) of the above characteristics. But imagine if you experienced all of these at once (or in a very short amount of time). That’s what a download of the DNA of the Spirit feels like. For me it was both a process and an event. It was a year and a half process of wading out into deeper waters of the Spirit (like slowly walking out into the ocean) followed by an event of being overwhelmed by the Spirit (like a wave of the Spirit crashing over me). This, then, was followed by a lifestyle of living in the deeper waters and experiencing continual wave after wave of the Spirit crashing upon my life. Once you’ve experienced these things, you want them for everyone you love and everyone around you.

Yet, there is another reality to experiencing the DNA of the Spirit that’s not all rainbows and unicorns. There are some difficult aspects of it as well.

Here are some things that are difficult that also tend to accompany a download of the DNA of the Spirit:
1. An increase in misunderstanding from people: I don’t think I’ve ever been more misunderstood than I have during this time. The amount of misunderstanding that has come from the DNA of the Spirit in my life has been disorienting. When one begins to try to explain this new engagement with the Holy Spirit, it is often met with skepticism, confusion, and false assumptions. When one becomes a Christian, it is difficult to describe to your non-Christian friends what exactly has happened to you. When you’re married with kids, it’s difficult to describe your new life to your single friends. There are certain things in life that will be misunderstood until they are experienced firsthand, and this is one of those things.

2. An increase in attacks from the enemy: The enemy will begin to recognize you as a greater threat to the kingdom of darkness and will respond accordingly. He will launch all manner of attack against your life including illness, grief, loss, betrayal, false accusations, and an increase in temptations. The goal is to ruin your reputation and limit your impact for the Kingdom of God.

3. An increase in testing from the Lord: The strangest thing to experience is that God allows the above things to happen, both misunderstandings and attacks, in order to test your character. He begins to test the clarity of the “well water” of your soul, not at the surface but at the deeper levels. And down in the depths of your soul is where you will find sediment that you didn’t know was there. It’s a painful process as you get As on some tests from the Lord and Fs on others. Your character is pressed and stressed to see where it is weak. The gold of your heart is thrown into the Refiner’s fire in order to clean out the dross and purify your desires. The point of all of this is so that God can trust you with the weight of “more” without crushing you under it. He has to sure up the weak parts of your character so that it won’t break under the weight of His glory.

You may have noticed by now how often I’ve used the word “increase.” And that is the main theme of receiving a download of the DNA of the Spirit. You get “more.” You get more intimacy and connection with God; you get more gifts; you get more passion, conviction, revelation and insight. But you also get more challenges and testing. You get an “increase” and an “upgrade” on all fronts.

So, this is the best I know how to describe what has happened in my life. It still doesn’t do it justice, but it’s a good summary of the experience. What is most amazing to me about it all is that it was initiated by the Lord. It wasn’t something I was interested in or something I was asking for. It was an invitation that He initiated on His own for His own purposes.

The only way I know how to describe this humbling feeling is to imagine being a first century beggar on the side of the road as Jesus and His disciples come into town. I know all too well that Jesus could have passed me by. He could have kept walking (and probably should have). Instead, on His own initiative, He decided to stop just for me. And in doing so He forever changed my life, my family, and my ministry. And he’ll do the same for you if you’re willing.

Worshiping Justice

Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
Acts 28:1-6

The apostle Paul had been arrested because of false charges against him. After a couple years of being imprisoned for no reason, Paul appealed to Caesar–his legal right as a Roman citizen. However, on the journey from Caesarea to Rome, his ship was mercilessly battered by strong, early winter storms in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Shipwrecked and exhausted, Paul and the other 275 people on board swam to shore on the tiny island of Malta, located just 80 miles south of Sicily, Italy.

The people there were hospitable to the haggard sailors, passengers, and prisoners, building them a fire as they came ashore. Even Paul pitched in to help build the fire. Yet when a venomous snake, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on Paul’s hand, the pagan islanders assumed that it was the work of the goddess of Justice [called Dike (pronounced “dee-kay”) in the Greek pantheon of gods and Justicia in the Roman pantheon of gods].

It’s clear that their understanding of justice was very different than the justice we see implemented by God in the Bible. The activity of the goddess Dike (Justice) was more like a combination of vengeance and karma. If something bad happened to you, then it must be because of some wrong you had done. This kind of thinking is what we find in the modern concept of karma. Only for the ancient Greeks, this kind of karma was the personified vengeance of the goddess Dike.

So when Paul was bitten by a venomous snake after having been shipwrecked, the assumption was that he did something really, really bad (like murder). Justice (the goddess Dike) was getting her revenge on Paul. The only problem was that, as they waited for Paul to die, nothing happened. He suffered no ill effects from the snake bite. So not only was he saved from the Mediterranean storm and shipwreck, but now he was miraculously unaffected by the venomous snake bite.

Because of their warped view of justice, the pendulum now swung completely in the opposite direction. Not only was the goddess Justice not getting revenge, but Paul’s survival could only mean one thing: he was a “god” himself.

In this story I see our own culture’s obsession with “justice” and how misunderstood biblical justice really is. Yes, our God is a God of true justice, but our culture has severely warped any sense of real justice. Instead of worshiping at the feet of a God who delivers biblical justice, our culture bows down to the goddess Dike, the goddess of Justice who favors karma over grace and vengeance over restoration. “Cancel Culture” is the bastard offspring of Dike and her demonic ideology of warped justice.

The Bible is clear that the pantheon of pagan gods were not just fictitious mythologies, but instead were dressed up demonic forces who gained power by having humans worship them.

Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.
1 Corinthians 10:19-20

So the goddess Dike (or Justicia) is a demonic entity that loves to distort proper, biblical justice. The demonic Dike loves to enforce karma and enact vengeance and call it justice. Isn’t our culture, especially “cancel culture,” rife with this warped understanding of justice? And how many hundreds of action movies pretend to seek “justice” for some wrong that was done but are essentially bloodbaths of vengeance. Dike and her demonic minions are running rampant in our culture.

True biblical justice doesn’t come from worshiping Justice herself, but comes as a byproduct of worshiping the One True God, Yahweh, The Lord Jesus Christ. True biblical justice always comes seasoned with grace, redemptive consequences, and restoration. The prophets of the Old Testament regularly called for true justice yet always left room for the return of Israel, the redemptive process of discipline, and the restoration of a people.

Shame, guilt, condemnation, and violence are never the final word when we’re operating in true justice. Instead, they are tools of the demonic goddess Dike and her karmic vengeance. If we worship Justice, we’ll never actually attain true justice. When we build an idol out of anything, including justice, it will inevitably be warped and hijacked by the enemy.