Not far removed from it is the emphasis on power, signs and wonders, these are extolled as being the be all and end all of church life and where pursued they produce an atmosphere encouraging bizarre behavior and an almost neurotic type of Christianity where spurious ‘gifts’ work and become the criteria by which the spirituality of a church, person, ministry or a meeting is judged. Preoccupation with becoming an effective church and having a successful and powerful ministry is alive and well. We are visiting a country at the moment, where there are perhaps no more than a five or six hundred native born believers meeting in maybe forty or fifty different churches and groups and even here there is a polarization taking place as the latest recurrence of the health, power, wonders, prayer doctrines are pushed forward by enthusiastic adherents and visiting preachers. It is grieving to see the divisions caused by these doctrines; they are a corruption of the wholesome doctrine that Paul enjoins to Timothy and Titus. (1Timothy 1v 8 is an example and the word he uses is ‘healthy’ doctrine) I was reminded of a short video I saw presenting John Piper, the out spoken preaching pastor from Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis. In the first sentence or two he said, “Some people ask me my attitude towards the health and prosperity doctrine.” “I answer them by saying, I hate it!” I am certain he went on in the three short minutes of that video to explain his reasons for that reaction.
Again, today, when pondering the quest for power and a powerful church I was reminded of a phrase used by Tom Smail at least ten or fifteen years ago, he asked the question, “the love of power or the power of love?’ Last year there was a great deal of excitement, (at least for a few months) over what seemed to be a ‘new move’ happening in a certain town in Florida; actually, it was “the same old, same old.” There is much vulnerability to these things, many seek for power and effectiveness yet these must be sought after with wisdom and understanding as to what God’s power really is. There are those who sink into cynicism because of the unfulfilled dreams, prophecies and hopes upon which they set their hearts. It is true that we must turn from the excesses, extremes and exaggerated claims of healings and raisings from the dead with their display of so called words of knowledge and powers, but jettisoning everything is not the answer, we must discover where the power of God is to be found and seek to abide there, in Him so that He will express Himself as He has promised and as He pleases. There are several points crucial to a better understanding and the first is that it is not easy for those who are zealous and desire to glorify the Lord to live in the midst of paradox. There is an inability to handle apparent contradictions and opposites; doctrinal systems espoused by charismatic, evangelical, Bible believing Christians tend to encourage an either/or position.
To strongly hold to what we regard as our fundamental doctrines implies a dualism where one thing is divorced from its apparent opposite. Just apply this thought to the subject of power, healing, health and miracles. God wants to give us health, therefore the opposite, namely the suffering of sickness is an enemy to be overcome on every hand. God’s power is conceived as an expression of His omnipotence; it is a kind of brute force that sometimes knocks people over; (sometimes called being slain by the Spirit) it carries all before it and is a manifestation of the victory of Jesus over every enemy. If we are not healed it is not God power that is at fault, but there must be a blockage in us, not enough faith or a hidden sin or some such. This version of the power of God does not sit easily with the fact that the power of God is made perfect in weakness, yet wherever we turn in the New Testament this is what we find, the inseparable joining of God’s weakness with His power. If we put it in the context of Calvary, Good Friday with its weakness and death is joined with Easter day and its triumphant resurrection. When you take, even a cursory look at the writings of Paul, John and Peter, examining context you will find them in complete agreement about this, for them suffering and triumph are joined, the Holy Spirit is to be recognized and known as the Spirit of Good Friday and of Easter Day.
In the first letter of John and chapter four there is mention of the gift of the Spirit which God has given us, it is verse thirteen, but note its context, the surrounding verses, God’s love is His power, and His love was manifest in the sufferings of His Son whom He set forth as a propitiation for our sins. (v10) Perhaps it is not good to appear to set the omnipotent power of God against His love, but we must recognize that God chooses to curb His omnipotent power by the fact that the Word became flesh and dwelt here upon the earth, “contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man;” this is restriction of power, this is weakness. We must begin with the Godhead, with the Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit how is it that the Power of God works within God in Three and what is the power? It is certainly not a force and there is no circuit of power between the Father and Son into which the Spirit taps. It is the eternal love of the Persons, abiding in mutuality, sharing without heavy hierarchy. At first glance we might not see a connection between the error of health, wealth, power, signs and the Godhead, but it is precisely the lack of true consideration concerning the Godhead and the weakness implicit in the Incarnation that comprise the starting points for this imbalanced doctrine causing division in the churches. The Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh is the supreme manifestation of the weakness of God’s power, His humanity implies profound weakness and limitation unto suffering and His love comes to its ultimate expression in the suffering of the cross. I have read a good many books extolling the doctrines of power, health and the like and I always get the sense that the power they are talking about is more of a force, it lacks personality, ‘it’ does miracles, or at least should do, ‘it’ is something that we must be touched by, then we can tap into it. I get the picture of an electric circuit connected to God’s omnipotent creating power, this has various ‘points’ into which, if I plug in I can get empowered.
These particular plug-ins are often the dominant leaders who are themselves thoroughly plugged in and are therefore conduits for the power. These leaders are very important points of contact and almost become inseparable from the power and Person of God Himself, hierarchy becomes dominant and infallibility is never far away. We must go to that person who is the access point to get the blessing we desire. Perhaps there is a plug in point at a certain ‘move’ taking place in a town or city but one thing is sure, I must totally submit to the leaders operating as the point of contact with the circuit, leaving my mind to the side and ‘letting go’ I shall likely as not become a person of power myself, thoroughly connected with the circuit, though perhaps needing top-ups from time to time but if I refuse to go this way I will remain outside the circuit of God’s power and am to be pitied. I am aware that I am writing a little ironically but I do not mean unkindness, I trust that we can begin to see that the underlying concept is flawed, there is no notion of a power circuit we must touch and tap into in the Godhead, all is personal there, it is the power of God the Father sharing His eternal life with the Son and Spirit with us, we become partakers of the divine nature, morality and spirituality are wedded, holiness and power and love are joined, fellowship, friendship, intimacy; union and communion are at the heart of everything
