The Evil Eye

You may have heard of “giving someone the evil eye.” It’s a saying that sometimes get thrown around in our culture and usually refers to looking at someone with disdain or disgust. It is often associated with another common phrase about giving someone “side-eye.” This is when someone looks at another person out of the corners of their eyes with an expression of contempt.

However, the idea of the “evil eye” is much more than just looking at someone with disdain. The evil eye is an idea that goes all the way back to ancient cultures and was believed to bring real harm into a person’s life.

We even see the idea of the evil eye being addressed in the New Testament by Jesus. The evil eye was a daily part of First Century culture, and although most translators have scrubbed this language from English translations of the Bible so as to not lend credibility to this superstition, Jesus addresses the notion of the evil eye directly on more than one occasion.

For instance, the cultural belief in the evil eye shows up a couple times in how Jesus heals a blind person. In John 9:6, Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud with his saliva, and puts it on a man’s eyes. After the man washes, his blindness is healed. In Mark 8:22-23 Jesus spits directly on a blind man’s eyes in Bethsaida, places his hands on him, and the man’s blindness is healed.

These stories don’t make any sense unless you understand a bit about their culture. Ancient cultures believed that the eyes were the windows to the soul. If you were blind, it must mean that there was darkness in your soul. They didn’t believe light came into your eyes so that you could see as medical science tells us today. They actually believed you were able to see because light was coming out of your eyes.

They also believed other things could come out of your eyes from your soul. If you were envious of someone and you stared at a person or if you were angry at that person, they believed that envy or anger could come up out of your soul, through your eyes, and end up cursing the person you were looking at. This became known as giving someone the “evil eye.”

This is what Jesus was referring to when he says this:

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
Luke 11:34-36

The Gospel of Matthew has Jesus saying it almost identically:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Matthew 6:22-23

The word in the Greek translated here as “healthy” is actually the word that means “undivided” or “singular.” In other words, “without a double agenda.” It’s the antonym for the Greek word for double. And the word here translated as “unhealthy” is the word “evil.” It could literally be translated, “…if you have the evil eye, your whole body will be darkness.”

Jesus is using their cultural understanding of the “evil eye” to tell them that if they are duplicitous in the way they look at things, they’ll end up filling their life with darkness. But if their heart is pure, their soul is full of light, then they won’t look at things with envy and jealousy. In other words, if your insides (your heart, your motivations, your thinking) is full of light, then that light will shine out and impact everything around you.

The context of the Matthew 6 passage is Jesus’s conversation in the Sermon on the Mount about storing up treasure in heaven. Just as He finishes talking about not storing up treasure on earth, He talks about the need for the eye being “undivided” or “singular” in order to have a life full of light.

Then Jesus concludes by saying you can’t serve two masters; you’ll hate the one and love the other. Therefore, you can’t serve both God and money. An “unhealthy” or “divided” or “evil” eye in this case is one that is greedy and covetous about material wealth and possessions. It’s an eye that is divided between serving God and serving money.

But what about Jesus using saliva and spit to heal?

In that culture, one of the main ways to ward off the “evil eye” was to spit or use saliva in some way. This belief that saliva wards off the evil eye still exists today in some of the older cultures like the Mexican and Greek cultures.

If an old Mexican grandma or an old Greek grandma finds herself staring at you too long, she may come up and start making spitting noises around you. This is so that she doesn’t accidentally give you the evil eye. This happened to our nephews when they lived in McAllen, Texas right on the border between Mexico and Texas. They were the only blond-haired, blue-eyed kids walking through the grocery store down there. So, they’d have these grandmas staring at them and then coming up and making spitting noises toward them in the store. The grandmas were actually trying to care for them by protecting them from the evil eye.

Jesus knew all about his own culture’s view of the evil eye as well as the belief that saliva could combat it. Knowing this, Jesus spits on the ground, or spits on the man’s eyes, and uses his saliva to cure the evil eye. And curing the evil eye cured the blindness.

All of this might beg the question: “Is Jesus suggesting, with his words and actions, that the evil eye is real?”

I don’t think Jesus is saying that the superstition of the evil eye is real. I don’t think He was confirming that you could curse someone by looking at them sideways. There is no physical substance coming out of our eyes and impacting someone else negatively.

However, I do think Jesus is confirming that, in many ways, the eyes are the windows to our soul. We already know this intuitively. We can see so many emotions express themselves through a person’s eyes. Sadness, anger, joy, confusion, and so many more emotions show up in our eyes whether we like it or not. Our heart often does speak through our eyes.

And there is a different way that the eyes are a window to our soul. My friends and I who do deliverance ministry can often tell if a person is demonized by their eyes. The more heavily demonized a person is, the more it shows up in their eyes. The eyes of a demonized person tend to be darker than normal or more empty than they should be. This is hard to explain because you see darkened eyes as much with the “eyes of your heart” as you can with your physical eyes. It’s not as much a physical reality as it is a spiritual one.

I’ve also had occasions in prayer sessions where demons have manifested in a person’s eyes or in their facial expression. What I mean by “manifested” is that a demon can sometimes take over part of a person’s body who is heavily demonized. I’ve had demons take over arms that will start flailing or swinging at me. I’ve had demons take over legs that then move spontaneously on their own. I’ve even had demons take over the person’s whole body as they tried to get up and leave the room.

All of this to say, sometimes demons can pop up in a person’s eyes to “look around” or to make an expression. The most common demonic expressions I’ve seen are either mocking me, angry at me, or completely terrified of Christ in me. The eyes end up being, in a very literally way, the windows to the person’s soul.

Jesus, of course, has authority over all of this. Our desire, ultimately, is that people look through the windows to our own souls and see Jesus there. Christ in us the hope of glory. Or better yet, that when they look at our eyes, they would see the eyes of Jesus.

Jesus had eyes of compassion and love. He saw people that no one else saw. He loved people no one else loved. He also had eyes of fire. After all, when John had a vision of Jesus on the Island of Patmos, he described Jesus as having eyes that “were like blazing fire”(Revelation 1:14; 2:18; 19:12). So when John looked through the windows to Jesus’s soul, what John saw there was a blazing fire! Jesus is a consuming fire, even down to His very soul!

How about your eyes? Are they “healthy?” What’s coming out of them these days?

Saying Goodbye

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 19:25-27

The following was not written by me but by the great Max Lucado in his book No Wonder They Call Him the Savior. Chapter 5 in that book is called “Leaving is Loving.” It was given to me half a lifetime ago when I was in college. I can’t remember who gave it to me, but I’ve kept a copy of it ever since. It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve ever read in regards to leaving.

As my family and I pack up our house and prepare leave a life we’ve loved for nearly two decades, setting out for a new adventure with God in Kansas City, these words resonate deeply with me. Many people have recently asked me how I’m doing or how I’m feeling. In this beautifully written chapter from Lucado are the word that most closely represent my best answer to those questions.

The gospel is full of rhetorical challenges that test our faith and buck against human nature.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”

“Only in his home town and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”

But no statement is as confusing or frightening as the one in Matthew 19:29. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

The part about leaving land and fields I can understand. It is the other part that causes me to cringe. It’s the part about leaving mom and dad, saying good-bye to brothers and sisters, placing a farewell kiss on a son or daughter. It is easy to parallel discipleship with poverty or public disgrace, but leaving my family? Why do I have to be willing to leave those I love? Can sacrifice get any more sacrificial than that?

“Woman, behold your son.”

Mary is older now. The hair at her temples is gray. Wrinkles have replaced her youthful skin. Her hands are callused. She has raised a houseful of children. And now she beholds the crucifixion of her firstborn.

One wonders what memories she conjures up as she witnesses his torture. The long ride to Bethlehem, perhaps. A baby’s bed made from cow’s hay. Fugitives in Egypt. At home in Nazareth. Panic in Jerusalem. “I thought he was with you!” Carpentry lessons. Dinner table laughter.

And then the morning Jesus came in from the shop early, his eyes firmer, his voice more direct. He had heard the news. “John is preaching in the desert.” Her son took off his nail apron, dusted off his hands, and with one last look said good-bye to his mother. They both knew it would never be the same again. In that last look they shared a secret, the full extent of which was too painful to say aloud.

Mary learned that day the heartache that comes from saying good-bye. From then on she was to love her son from a distance; on the edge of the crowd, outside of a packed house, on the shore of the sea. Maybe she was even there when the enigmatic promise was made, “Anyone who has left . . . mother . . . for my sake.”

Mary wasn’t the first one to be called to say good-bye to loved ones for sake of the kingdom. Joseph was called to be an orphan in Egypt. Jonah was called to be a foreigner in Nineveh. Hannah sent her firstborn son away to serve in the temple. Daniel was sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. Nehemiah was sent from Susa to Jerusalem. Abraham was sent to sacrifice his own son. Paul had to say good-bye to his heritage. The Bible is bound together with good-bye trails and stained with farewell tears.

In fact, it seems that good-bye is a word all too prevalent in the Christian’s vocabulary. Missionaries know it well. Those who send them know it too. The doctor who leaves the city to work in the jungle hospital has said it. So has the Bible translator who lives far from home. Those who feed the hungry, those who teach the lost, those who help the poor all know the word good-bye.

Airports. Luggage. Embraces. Taillights. “Wave to grandma.” Tears. Bus terminals. Ship docks. “Good-bye, Daddy.” Tight throats. Ticket counters. Misty eyes. “Write me!”

Question: What kind of God would put people through such agony? What kind of God would give you families and then ask you to leave them? What kind of God would give you friends and then ask you to say good-bye?

Answer: A God who knows that the deepest love is built not on passion and romance but on a common mission and sacrifice.

Answer: A God who knows that we are only pilgrims and that eternity is so close that any “Good-bye” is in reality a “See you tomorrow.”

Answer: A God who did it himself.

“Woman, behold your son.”

John fastened his arm around Mary a little tighter. Jesus was asking him to be the son that a mother needs and that in some ways he never was.

Jesus looked at Mary. His ache was from a pain far greater than that of the nails and thorns. In their silent glance they again shared a secret. And he said good-bye.
No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Chapter 5, Max Lucado

I’m not under some illusion that I am making some great sacrifice for the Lord. I’m moving to the Overland Park area of Kansas which is consistently rated as one of the top 5 places in the country to raise a family. I’ve had good friends pick up everything, leave the comfort of the familiar, and go to Belize (The Zittles) and to Zambia (The Morreaus). I know there are Christians around the world who are persecuted and risking their very lives for the sake of the gospel.

Even with all that in mind, leaving is still hard. We’ve invested here for 19 years, so the roots run deep. Pulling up those roots in order to transplant them is very painful, even though the place we’re going is really good soil. We have so many blessings, promises, and prophetic words waiting to be fulfilled on the other side of this move. But right now we’re grieving the loss of so much. Yet, we’re choosing to see each loss not as something taken from us, but as something surrendered, something sacrificed to the only One who is worthy of such sacrifice.

Jesus, you left everything, the perfection of heaven, for our sake. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, you left your hometown, your good friends, your family, your mom, to do ministry and usher in the Kingdom of God among us. And, finally, you even said goodbye to life itself as you surrendered yourself fully to the Father on the cross. You’ve left more than I will ever comprehend, and you did it for my sake. You’ve said painful goodbyes at a level I will never fully understand. Thank you that you never ask us to do anything you haven’t already done in greater measure. Thank you that you understand painful goodbyes. Thank you for the gift of roots even though it hurts to transplant them. Amen.

Beautiful One

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”
Matthew 23:27

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
Matthew 26:6-8, 10

I’ve noticed a trend where some churches who are trying to appeal to younger generations are emphasizing “beauty” in their worship gatherings. They’ll tap into ancient liturgies of the church. They’ll use lots of poetic language. Their songs will sound like folksy, indie rock. Even their language is very artsy, bordering on pretentious.

All of this is an attempt to have a service that feels trendy and leans into “beauty.” It’s also an attempt to get away from the more conservative evangelical focuses on numbers, baptisms, and salvations. But what these churches don’t realize is that they are making the same mistake as the evangelicals just in a different direction. In both cases, these churches are chasing the fruit rather than the source.

Now, to be clear, I believe that creativity and the arts can be used powerfully in worship. We were created in the image of the Creator God, so we were made to be creative. The arts are powerful tools to bring beauty into the world that points us back to our Creator. So, don’t hear me say that I’m against the arts or creativity.

What I’m critiquing is the church that claims to be all about beauty, justice, and love. But they’ve prioritized the pursuit of beauty over the pursuit of the Beautiful One. They’ve prioritized seeking justice over seeking the God who is just. They shout from the rooftops that “God is love,” but what they demonstrate with their lives is their true slogan, “love is god.” The shift is subtle but recognizable.

In trying so hard to be beautiful on the outside, these churches often become just like the Pharisees who were called white-washed tombs by Jesus. Beautiful on the outside, full of dead bones and unclean things on the inside.

What Jesus called beautiful was the extravagant worship of the woman who broke open the alabaster jar. This over-the-top display of public affection for Jesus was embarrassing to the disciples. But for Jesus, this was beautiful. Real beauty is produced not just with meticulously crafted, poetic liturgy. Real beauty is produced with surrendered hearts who are completely abandoned to the Beautiful One.

King David showed us the right heart posture when he wrote:

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4

When we focus on creating a “beautiful” church service or liturgy, people will leave saying, “Wow, that service was beautiful.” But when we focus on an all-out pursuit of worshiping Jesus with abandon, a singular focus on the Beautiful One, then people will leave saying, “Wow, God is so beautiful,” or “What God did here was so beautiful!”

Can you see the difference? Is our goal to have people think our services are beautiful? Or is our goal to connect people to the beauty of the Lord?

He is the Beautiful One. And what He calls beautiful is extravagant, messy, surrendered worship that will often have onlookers a little embarrassed and a little offended. When the Holy Spirit moves, you will find a room full of people ugly crying, falling on their knees, trembling in God’s Presence, crying out to the Lord. It’s not pretty, but Jesus calls it beautiful. Or you may find a room full of people completely silent, reverently still as the fear of the Lord floods the room. No fanfare. Completely in awe as Jesus enters the room. He’s not impressed with white-washed tombs. He’s looking for those who, with totally abandonment, are willing to let go of their pride and dignity and give themselves fully to the beauty of the Lord.

Full

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19

If you’ve ever stuffed yourself at dinner, you know that feeling. You feel full and heavy. But if you’ve ever fasted for a few days, you know the opposite feeling. You feel lighter but not full. What if, spiritually, you could feel both simultaneously?

“Somehow, I feel both lighter and fuller at the same time!“

This is a quote from a person who had just received inner healing and deliverance prayer. Read it again and let those words really sink in. This is what happens when the power of God comes to set people free from the heavy spiritual oppression of demonic spirits and then fills them with the Holy Spirit. When God comes in power to set you free, you feel both lighter and fuller at the same time. Only God can do that!

As we pray for people and these oppressive spirits leave, we always ask the Holy Spirit to fill the places in the person’s life that have just been vacated. We invite the Holy Spirit to fill every place in their heart, soul, mind, and body that had previously been occupied by the enemy.

Paul prayed something similar for the Ephesians when he prayed that they would be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” This is also what he was saying when he told the Ephesians,

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…
Ephesians 5:18

Instead of being filled with the heaviness of sin and darkness, we are called to be people who walk in the lightness of the Spirit because we are filled with the Spirit.

If you have a heaviness that seems to follow you around, you may discover that you need freedom. You may have some spiritual parasites that have globbed onto your life and are sucking the life out of you. Demonic spirits love to bring a heaviness that feels empty. Instead, the Holy Spirit brings a lightness that feels full. This is the difference between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God.

Jesus paid a high price so that we could walk in freedom, lightness, and fullness. His Name is the only Name with the authority to set people free from demonic darkness and usher in the fullness of the Spirit.

All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!”
Luke 4:36

he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth…
Philippians 2:8-10

You Will Understand

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9

I was wrestling with God in prayer one morning. Some things weren’t happening that I wanted to happen. I was frustrated that housing in Kansas City wasn’t lining up a little easier. I was frustrated that better houses weren’t opening up in our target areas. I was frustrated that it felt like we’d have to move from an awesome house to an average house.

I let God know about it. I kept saying, “God, I don’t understand what you’re doing. What are you doing here, God? I don’t understand what you’re doing.” This complaint-prayer was the main refrain of the morning.

Then, I loaded the kids into the car to drive up to the baseball tournament in Pennsylvania that my oldest was playing in. A few minutes into the drive, the SiriusXM radio DJ, Ashley Till, mentioned that she picks a scripture verse every morning and takes it with her throughout the day. She shared with her listeners that her verse for that day was John 13:7 where Jesus says to His disciples, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Read that again. I was stunned.

Sometimes God takes a long time to answer prayers. Sometimes He answers within the hour. This was the latter. She quoted a verse that directly answered the question I had been asking God that morning. And it came within minutes of getting in the car. Thank you, Jesus!

God heard my complaining and answered directly, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” This verse named my situation perfectly and then offered a future promise of understanding. Later you will understand. This is one of those verses that asks us to trust even when we don’t understand. Maybe this is a verse for you today.

The original context of this verse is when Jesus washed the disciples feet the night before His crucifixion. They didn’t understand what He was doing. They felt confused and awkward. The Messiah wasn’t supposed to be washing feet.

The disciples were looking for understanding based on their past learning and experience. Jesus was clueing them in on the fact that God’s understanding doesn’t always come from the past but often comes from the future. Jesus’s act of washing their feet in that moment would only be understood based on what was about to happen (His death and resurrection) not based on the disciples’ previous understanding.

Isn’t that interesting?

God often does things that we won’t understand because they are rooted in the future, not the past. We search our previous understanding and experience for some kind of understanding, but sometimes it can’t be found in our past. Often, we will only understand what God is doing right now once we have stepped into the future that God is already in.

God knows that right now we do not realize what He is doing, but He’s not troubled by that. In the present moment, pregnant with confusion and misunderstanding, we have to trust. Yet, we are given a promise that eventually, when we see what God sees from His future vantage point, we will understand. Maybe that future is 5 years from now. Maybe that future is eternity. But the promise still stands. One day, we will understand. And that is a truth we can hold on to today.

Depths of God’s Grace

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16

Andrew Ripp has a great new song out called “For the Love of God.” I really love this song. I love the truths found in verse 1 and verse 2, the chorus and the bridge. I love the sound of it too. Ripp’s voice is soulful and catchy. You can listen to it here.

Maybe my love for the song is why verse 3 caught my attention. What Ripp articulates in verse 3, I resonate with in my heart. However, as soon as I heard it, the “truth-meter” in my head sent alarm bells going off. As soon as I heard it, I knew two things: 1) there was something “off” about it theologically, and 2) it is a common trope in Christian circles that is regularly accepted as “true” but doesn’t line up with the life of Jesus.

So what does verse 3 say?

The first half of verse 3 says, “If it wasn’t for my failures and mistakes, I would never know the depths of this grace…”

My guess is that, if you have any experience in church, this sentiment feels familiar and maybe even comforting. You may have heard something like this a thousand times. And while it may resonate with our hearts, it actually articulates something that doesn’t line up with the gospel.

What this phrase actually ends up saying is that my sin was necessary. It’s saying something like, “The only way for me to know the grace of God is to sin against God and then experience His grace.” But, is that true? Jesus never sinned yet perfectly knew the depths of God’s grace. Can you see the problem here?

There are a couple issues with thinking our sin is a mandatory prerequisite to knowing the depths of God’s grace. First, it limits the definition of grace to something like “forgiveness.” But God’s grace is bigger than just His forgiveness. If all you know of God’s grace is the forgiveness aspect of it, then you don’t yet know “the depths of this grace.” Grace isn’t just God’s willingness to forgive us over and over again as we sin over and over again. Grace actually empowers us to to be transformed. Grace enables us not to sin.

Imagine God’s grace as a kind of spiritual fuel. We use up more grace not sinning than we do sinning and being forgiven. We can’t live a holy life in our own strength. So living a holy life actually requires more of God’s grace, not less. This is why Jesus knew the depths of God’s grace more than the rest of us yet was without sin.

The second issue with framing sin as a mandatory prerequisite to knowing the depths of God’s grace is that it makes our relationship with God dysfunctional.

Think of a parent/child relationship. There are two main parent/child paradigms where the child subconsciously feels the need to rebel in order to “prove” that their parent really loves them unconditionally. One paradigm is where the child got the message that they had to perform and be perfect in order to earn their parent’s love. Often, a child living in this paradigm will perform well and live a “perfect” life until they can’t take the pressure any more. Then they will subconsciously snap and turn into the “prodigal son,” all as a means to test if their parent’s love is real.

The second dysfunctional paradigm is that of an orphan or adopted child. Orphans will often test their adoptive parents through rebellion because they don’t really believe they are lovable. They are waiting to get rejected once again in order to prove what they already believe.

The point is this: if the only way I can know the depths of God’s grace is through sinning against Him, then I am relating to God either with a performance mentality or an orphan spirit. The truth is that I can know my parents’ deep love for me without rebelling against them. In fact, in a healthy parent/child paradigm, I can better experience their love for me if I don’t rebel against them. The same is true of God.

I don’t have to rebel against God to know the depths of His love and grace for me. If Jesus is our example, then obedience may actually give me a better taste of the unconditional love of God and the empowering grace of God. This concept is so foreign to so many people only because we’ve gotten so used to a dysfunctional relationship with God.

Again, don’t get me wrong, I do love Andrew Ripp’s new song. There is so much truth packed into it. But I wish verse 3 didn’t accidentally perpetuate a common theological falsehood. I wish, instead, it said something like, “Even in the midst of my failures and mistakes, I experience the depth of His grace…”

Unhealed Healers

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Matthew 10:1-4

In the popular television series, The Chosen, they often tackle some difficult issues in the life of Jesus and His disciples. One such issue is the question of why some people get miraculously healed and others do not. They tackle this issue in Season 3, Episode 2 by having James son of Alphaeus (or “Little James” as he’s called on the show) ask Jesus why Jesus hasn’t healed him. Little James walks with a limp and deals with “a kind of paralysis” on the show, yet, Jesus still chose to send Little James out to do ministry where James is used by God to bring healing to others. (You can watch this poignant scene here.)

This scene is particularly powerful because the actor who plays Little James, Jordan Walker Ross, isn’t acting when he walks with a limp. He was born with cerebral palsy and scoliosis. The struggles and questions of the character Little James were similar to Ross’s own real life struggles and questions.

Whether you agree with the particular answers Jesus gives in the scene or the particular theology of healing that the show portrays, it still raises and important question.

Why would Jesus use a person to heal others while not healing the person He’s using?

This question hit home with me as I listened to Ross being interviewed about this scene. He was very honest about his struggles with not being healed and the insecurities that he has battled. (You can watch that interview here.)

I had just finished a lunch meeting with someone and was sitting in my car, outside of Panera, watching the interview on my phone. And before I had a chance to even ask the Lord why He chooses to heal through people whom He hasn’t yet healed, the Lord answered the question. Maybe my spirit asked the question before my brain could catch up, and God decided to answer my spirit before my brain knew what was happening.

So, as I sat there in my car, the Lord brought to mind my own prayers about myself, that God would change certain parts of me to look more like Jesus. I had just prayed those prayers that morning. And as the Lord brought those prayers to mind, suddenly I knew what God was telling me.

“I only heal through people who are still unhealed.”

God was reminding me that He has healed people through me, and yet there are parts of my life that are still unhealed. The parts of my life that are unhealed are not as obvious as Ross’s or Little James, but they are still there. There are parts of my character, my heart, my thinking, and more that are yet to be fully healed. In fact, I will never be “fully healed” in totality this side of heaven. No one will.

So, yes, God will heal through people who are still unhealed because that is all of us. That is all He has to work with. The only One who walked this earth who was completely healed and whole was Jesus Himself. So, now, whenever Jesus heals someone through the prayers of another person or through the laying on of hands of another person, He is healing through someone still unhealed in some way. That’s all He has to work with.

Sometimes our “unhealed” parts are physical. Sometimes they are emotional or spiritual. Sometimes they have to do with parts of our personality or character. Sometimes it has to do with the condition of our heart or mind. All of us walk this earth partially healed and partially not. In Christ, we have been made new creations, yet that new creation is still working its way through us toward fullness.

We are already new creations in Christ, and we are not yet living in the fullness of it all.

Jesus healing others through people who themselves are not yet physically healed is a prophetic sign to us all. It’s a mirror showing us the reality of our own lives. It’s both a celebration of the grace of God who is willing to dwell in and use imperfect vessels of clay, and it is a humbling reminder of our own unhealed, unwhole parts yet to be brought into their fullness.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:6-10

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.

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.

Self-Limiting

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:6-8

As Christmas approaches, I’ve been thinking a little about the incarnation–God becoming human in the person of Jesus. Nothing can limit or contain God except Himself. When Jesus became human in the incarnation, it was a gigantic act of self-limitation on the part of God. The One who was once omnipresent, self-limited to a time and place in history. The One who never experienced pain, hunger, or thirst, self-limited Himself into a human body that experienced all the basic human needs for food and sleep. He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.

Does this mean that Jesus wasn’t the fullness of God?

No. Colossians 2:9 is clear, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Imagine a dad playing basketball with his young son. If he is a good dad, he will “self-limit” the amount of force and skill that he exerts. He does this out of love for his son. Does this mean that in this moment he is “less” of a dad? Quite the opposite. In the dad’s loving self-limitation he is fully himself and maybe even the best version of himself because his love is tangibly on display. The same is true of Jesus. “The Son is the image of the invisible God…” (Colossians 1:15).

What about God’s omniscience and power? Did God self-limit those in the incarnation?

I believe He did.

It is true that we see Jesus know things He couldn’t know without supernatural insight. We also see Jesus do incredible miracles that He couldn’t do without divine power. Yet, I believe that what we see in Jesus is a tiny fraction of God’s total omniscience and power. I believe Jesus only did that which is possible to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. He only did that which was possible for a human to do who is completely filled and empowered by the Spirit and perfectly connected to the Father. In other words, I believe Jesus did these things as a perfect human conduit of the power of the Spirit not as God the Son.

Luke 4:1 says that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit” after His baptism as He was led into the desert to be tempted. Then, having been victorious over Satan in the desert, Luke 4:14 says that Jesus returned to start His ministry “in the power of the Spirit.” It’s not until this happens that we start to see Jesus do miracles, healings, and deliverances. So I believe that the “supernatural” aspect of Jesus’s ministry was Him acting as a human fully empowered by the Spirit and completely connected to the Father. I don’t believe they are instances of Him flexing is divinity (though He had every right to as God the Son). So even His miracles are an aspect of His self-limitation.

We know that the power He could have displayed could have been so much more overwhelming. Jesus even said, leading up to the cross, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?“(Matthew 26:53). There was so much more power that could have been unleashed but wasn’t. Again we see Jesus’s self-limitation.

Though Jesus knew things about people that He couldn’t have known without supernatural help (see John 1:47-48 & 4:16-18, Luke 5:22 & 9:47), I believe this was Him operating in what the apostle Paul would later call gifts of the Spirit like words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Yet, we still see that Jesus self-limited His foreknowledge when He talks to His disciples about the end times and says, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36).

Jesus’s self-limitation in the incarnation was a radical act of love toward us. It also leaves us followers of Jesus without excuse. We can no longer write-off parts of Jesus’s ministry with the statement, “Yeah, well, He was God.” We sometimes like to think Jesus’s divinity gets us off the hook from having to operate like Jesus did in the fullness of the Spirit. But, though He could have operated out of His divinity, I don’t believe He did. Everything He did He did as a human fully surrendered to the Father and fully empowered by the Spirit. And though we will never be the perfect conduit of the Spirit that Jesus was, we are still called to be a conduit just the same.