Early in 1985 we attended a conference of pastors of a certain denomination, in Los Angeles, CA. The keynote speaker that year was the late John Wimber. At that time, John was pastoring the original, Vineyard church in Anaheim, CA., teaching at Fuller Seminary, and writing about what he called, "Power Evangelism." His idea was that if The Church could somehow reconnect with the power of the Holy Spirit as the first disciples had, the world would understand the reality of God. Those were the reasons he was invited to speak at that august gathering of ministers from around the world. However, the reason he is the subject of his post is that he had arrived for his keynote address without his belt. Before I explain that, let me tell you what happened in the meeting.
John's message was all about power evangelism and physical healing. He shared a few stories of people receiving healing as well as his personal experiences. He did mention during the message, on more than one occasion, that he had to continually hitch up his pants because he had forgotten his belt. When he finished speaking, he invited anyone who wanted to pray for the sick to join him on the platform. When he made that invitation, I knew that was why I was in the meeting that night. Starting from the balcony, I was within the first half dozen or so people to reach the platform. (I was much younger and faster at that time.)
After speaking just a few words to those of us who had moved to the platform, John invited anyone who needed a physical healing to join us on the platform. I could not guess the number, but there were a lot of people who came forward. A lot of detail is probably not necessary here, but I did have the blessing of praying for a woman with some kind of back problem and watching her as she was able to straighten up for the first time in years.
The next night, the final night of the conference, one of that denomination's, well-respected, ministers brought the closing message. I still sometimes wonder, with all the things the Lord did the night before, why the only thing this minister seemed to hear was that John Wimber had forgotten his belt. His assertion was that the mentions of the belt were mere style and served no purpose. He thought John would have been better off and the assembled ministers would have been better served had John simply bought another belt before he ascended the steps to the platform the previous night. Point taken, but I honestly cannot remember anything else he said that night. I suppose that is really the point here.
People will criticize us for any reason or no reason. We will be criticized for what we do and what we do not do. We will even be criticized for what we think and what others think we think. We have to think people who do those things have never read, or at least never really understood, James chapter 3. I suppose the key verse in this context would be verse 10, "Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so." Without further explanation, James is writing to The Church.
I was listening to a relatively famous, female minister recently who said the best way to deal with our critics is to live our lives with such integrity that whatever they may say bad about us is a lie. I cannot say I am quite there yet, but it does seem like a worthwhile goal. That will not stop the criticism, but it will diminish it's quality and effectiveness.
If you read this blog regularly and have not yet figured it out, the winds of change are blowing around us. As far as I know, none of us really knows exactly what the change will bring. If anyone does know, please let me in on it. What we do know, is there is still some spiritual interference to fight through. Along with that will come accusations, recriminations, and criticisms. (Shoot, that sounds too close to prophetic to me.) Not to worry, whatever it is, God is doing it. I can tell you with complete confidence that it will be good. Everything God does is good! Praise His Holy Name!
Showing posts with label John Wimber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Wimber. Show all posts
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Hearing the Voice of God
In my line of work, my teaching ministry is largely limited to men who have little or no knowledge that a personal relationship with God is even possible, much less likely for them. One question that invariably is on the minds of those men is how one hears the voice of God. It is often phrased something like, "You mean you actually hear God speaking to you?" It is almost never asked in a belligerent manner. The man asking sincerely wants to know if it is possible to hear God speaking. The short answer is an unqualified, "Yes."
When one has been around as long as I have, if he is paying any attention at all, he learns things. One of the things I have learned is that God does indeed speak to His people, clearly and distinctly at times. Sometimes He even speaks so clearly and distinctly that one wonders if this time he actually heard an audible voice. God more often speaks to our spirits than to our ears. I will never forget something I heard the late John Wimber say at a conference when referring to a specific experience he had. "I think God spoke to me in an audible voice. My theology allows for that, but I am a little short on experience."
My personal experience is much the same as John Wimber's. I can recall a few times when God's voice was so clear that I wondered if I had heard an audible voice. One time I even looked around to confirm there was no one there who could have said what I heard. There was no one there, but I am still not going to affirm that I know I heard an audible voice. It may as well have been because, in my mind, I heard words. In case you are wondering, those words were later confirmed by another person as being true.
That brings us to a basic, physiology lesson. We do not hear sounds with our ears anyway. We hear them with our mind, which is part of our soul. Sounds enter our ears and cause our eardrums to vibrate. Those vibrations in the air are first converted to mechanical vibrations in the bones of the middle ear, hydraulic vibrations in the inner ear, and finally to electrical impulses in the auditory nerve. All that to hear a simple sound. Sounds mean nothing unless they are translated. That translation occurs in the brain, the physical part of the mind. So, again, we hear audible sounds with our soul.
There is another way to get information to our soul. God does not work around our ears, so to speak, when He wants to communicate something to us. He can speak it into the other part of our being, our spirit. From there the physiology is much more simple than that described above. There is no physiology. God speaks into our spirit and the impression, the thought, the idea, the concept, or possibly even the words, are sent directly to our soul. Throw your science out the window on that one. It is not quantifiable. It cannot be demonstrated by research or experiment. It is not an hypothesis, theory, or law. Well, not in the scientific sense anyway. Let's call it a law of the Kingdom of God. (Someone ought to make a list of Kingdom Laws sometime. Any volunteers for that assignment? Maybe it has already been done and we have not heard about it.) You know, like the Law of Death, and the Law of the Spirit of Life from Romans 8. Spiritual hearing is a Law of the Kingdom of God.
That is probably not all that helpful for those of you who think you have never heard God speak to you. Think of it this way. I have been told many times I have a distinctive voice. Were I to call you on the phone right now, would you recognize my voice? Your answer would have to be "No" if we had never talked before or if we had talked only infrequently. However, were you to talk to me on anything like a regular basis, you would immediately recognize my voice. The difference is familiarity. If you are familiar with me, you recognize my voice. The more familiar one is with the voice of God, the easier it is to recognize it.
When asked what the voice of God sounds like, I often tell the men in my classes that, while they are in my classes the Holy Spirit will most often speak to them in a voice that sounds very much like mine. That is only partially tongue in cheek. Sometimes because of what I say, and sometimes in spite of what I say, they do hear God's voice. It sounds possibly evasive to some, but the truth is that when you hear God's voice, you will know it. The more you hear it, the better you will recognize it. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice. If we follow Him, we will hear His voice. (John 10:27)
But what does His voice sound like? I doubt it sounds the same to any two people. We each hear God individually. There is one thing to keep in mind that is supremely important. Whatever God says to you will always agree with the Word of God, the Bible, always. The Bible is God's entire revelation to mankind on this earth. Should you hear something you are not quite sure about, go back to the Bible and see what is says on the subject. If you cannot find anything that seems quite right, consult with someone who is further along in his or her walk with God than you are.
There is one other thing you have to do if you really want to hear the voice of God. It is possibly the most difficult thing for most of us to do. Are you ready? Be quiet! God speaks a lot more than most of us listen. There is no way to know how often we have missed a word from God because we were being too noisy, or listening to the wrong things, or the wrong people. (Make your own list.) Talking to God is only half of praying, or praising, or worshiping. You would not consider it fellowship if you did all the talking while the person you were talking to did nothing but listen. Prayer and worship are the vertical equivalent of fellowship. Perhaps that makes a little more sense. Hearing the voice of God is not magical, mystical, or even difficult. It is a Christian discipline we all need. Please allow me to exhort you that if you have not, are not, or are not often hearing the voice of God, ask Him to help you. He wants you to hear His voice.
When one has been around as long as I have, if he is paying any attention at all, he learns things. One of the things I have learned is that God does indeed speak to His people, clearly and distinctly at times. Sometimes He even speaks so clearly and distinctly that one wonders if this time he actually heard an audible voice. God more often speaks to our spirits than to our ears. I will never forget something I heard the late John Wimber say at a conference when referring to a specific experience he had. "I think God spoke to me in an audible voice. My theology allows for that, but I am a little short on experience."
My personal experience is much the same as John Wimber's. I can recall a few times when God's voice was so clear that I wondered if I had heard an audible voice. One time I even looked around to confirm there was no one there who could have said what I heard. There was no one there, but I am still not going to affirm that I know I heard an audible voice. It may as well have been because, in my mind, I heard words. In case you are wondering, those words were later confirmed by another person as being true.
That brings us to a basic, physiology lesson. We do not hear sounds with our ears anyway. We hear them with our mind, which is part of our soul. Sounds enter our ears and cause our eardrums to vibrate. Those vibrations in the air are first converted to mechanical vibrations in the bones of the middle ear, hydraulic vibrations in the inner ear, and finally to electrical impulses in the auditory nerve. All that to hear a simple sound. Sounds mean nothing unless they are translated. That translation occurs in the brain, the physical part of the mind. So, again, we hear audible sounds with our soul.
There is another way to get information to our soul. God does not work around our ears, so to speak, when He wants to communicate something to us. He can speak it into the other part of our being, our spirit. From there the physiology is much more simple than that described above. There is no physiology. God speaks into our spirit and the impression, the thought, the idea, the concept, or possibly even the words, are sent directly to our soul. Throw your science out the window on that one. It is not quantifiable. It cannot be demonstrated by research or experiment. It is not an hypothesis, theory, or law. Well, not in the scientific sense anyway. Let's call it a law of the Kingdom of God. (Someone ought to make a list of Kingdom Laws sometime. Any volunteers for that assignment? Maybe it has already been done and we have not heard about it.) You know, like the Law of Death, and the Law of the Spirit of Life from Romans 8. Spiritual hearing is a Law of the Kingdom of God.
That is probably not all that helpful for those of you who think you have never heard God speak to you. Think of it this way. I have been told many times I have a distinctive voice. Were I to call you on the phone right now, would you recognize my voice? Your answer would have to be "No" if we had never talked before or if we had talked only infrequently. However, were you to talk to me on anything like a regular basis, you would immediately recognize my voice. The difference is familiarity. If you are familiar with me, you recognize my voice. The more familiar one is with the voice of God, the easier it is to recognize it.
When asked what the voice of God sounds like, I often tell the men in my classes that, while they are in my classes the Holy Spirit will most often speak to them in a voice that sounds very much like mine. That is only partially tongue in cheek. Sometimes because of what I say, and sometimes in spite of what I say, they do hear God's voice. It sounds possibly evasive to some, but the truth is that when you hear God's voice, you will know it. The more you hear it, the better you will recognize it. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice. If we follow Him, we will hear His voice. (John 10:27)
But what does His voice sound like? I doubt it sounds the same to any two people. We each hear God individually. There is one thing to keep in mind that is supremely important. Whatever God says to you will always agree with the Word of God, the Bible, always. The Bible is God's entire revelation to mankind on this earth. Should you hear something you are not quite sure about, go back to the Bible and see what is says on the subject. If you cannot find anything that seems quite right, consult with someone who is further along in his or her walk with God than you are.
There is one other thing you have to do if you really want to hear the voice of God. It is possibly the most difficult thing for most of us to do. Are you ready? Be quiet! God speaks a lot more than most of us listen. There is no way to know how often we have missed a word from God because we were being too noisy, or listening to the wrong things, or the wrong people. (Make your own list.) Talking to God is only half of praying, or praising, or worshiping. You would not consider it fellowship if you did all the talking while the person you were talking to did nothing but listen. Prayer and worship are the vertical equivalent of fellowship. Perhaps that makes a little more sense. Hearing the voice of God is not magical, mystical, or even difficult. It is a Christian discipline we all need. Please allow me to exhort you that if you have not, are not, or are not often hearing the voice of God, ask Him to help you. He wants you to hear His voice.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
A Time Before Time Began
In 1985 we were busily and more or less happily pastoring the Foursquare Church in Davis, California. We say "more or less" because a day job was still a necessity with four young children to feed and clothe and a small congregation of mostly college students. We had started that church from scratch in the latter half of 1980. And ok, so the title of this post is a little misleading, but it seems like another lifetime ago, and it was before the time this blog has recorded heretofore.
That little church was Foursquare in every sense of the word. We had been licensed to preach the Foursquare Gospel in Davis and were diligent about that business. We believed and taught that Jesus is the healer of our bodies, the savior of our souls, the baptizer with the Holy Spirit and our soon coming King. We still believe He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) We think we even believed all that in our spirits, but somewhere in there a switch had not been thrown or something.
We saw people being born again and beginning their new life journeys. We baptized new believers in water several times a year. There had been a smattering of physical healings, but nothing on a regular basis. Then as He sometimes does, God began to work sovereignly, behind the scenes, to rock our world in a very positive way.
We had made arrangements to attend the annual Foursquare convention in Los Angeles. It would be good to get away and to see some people we had not seen in some time. We could also stay with relatives so the cost would not be prohibitive and it would be good to see them as well. We do not recall if we knew who the keynote speaker for the convention was before we registered, nor does it really matter. It was John Wimber--at that time a man at the pinnacle of a career which included leading the Vineyard churches, teaching at Fuller Seminary, writing, and actively involving himself in what he called "power evangelism". Power evangelism, as we understand it, is the demonstration of the Kingdom of God, on earth, in signs and wonders, for the purpose of bringing people to Jesus.
John Wimber delivered an excellent teaching on physical healing and it's availability to The Church today. Well that was 24 years ago, but if Hebrews 13:8 is still good, the time would not seem to be relevant. At the end of his message, he called for anyone who wanted to participate in a healing time to come to the platform. I was in the first balcony in Angelus Temple, toward the front. The exit is in the back. I believe I was the second or third person to reach the platform. I was excited to be part of that ministry. John then called for anyone who needed a physical healing to come to the platform. He then told us to wait until the Holy Spirit showed us who to minister to in prayer. The end result of that is that I prayed for and watched as a woman, with tears in her eyes, stood erect for the first time in a long time. She was healed from a spinal condition that had kept her slightly bent forward.
Just a few weeks after we returned from the convention, we received an unsolicited invitation in the mail to have dinner at a restaurant fifty miles or so from Davis. The invitation came from a group calling themselves, "Friends of Deliverance". They were providing a complimentary dinner to introduce pastors and other interested people to the need for deliverance within The Church. Some note on the invitation linked the group with a Foursquare pastor we knew in the town where the meeting was being held. We made a telephone call to be sure this was not some kind of weird group and were assured by the pastor these were good people who simply wanted to expose more people to the deliverance ministry. Besides, they were buying dinner so we felt we had nothing to lose by joining them. We found what they had to say very interesting, encouraging, and even inspiring. Our sole, previous experience with a demon had not ended well. By the time we left that meeting we had a better handle on the deliverance ministry. I remarked to Judi on the trip home that I was pretty sure the Lord would not have been teaching us about healing and deliverance if He did not plan to have us doing something in that area.
Within the next several months we actually led our first successful deliverance session. We saw virtually everyone in the church who had physical problems receive their healings. Time and space, and the Holy Spirit, will not allow us to go into any further detail about all those things.
Sometime, I am going to have to rehearse for you, my call to the ministry. Until then, let me just tell you it came via a word from the Holy Spirit to my spirit from Luke 4:18-19. Verse 19 says, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Without a detailed teaching on this verse, let us say for now we are talking about a time when God is pouring out His favor on His people. This is not necessarily a literal 365 day year. I am writing this post, on this day, to tell anyone who will listen, you can have the Lord's favor on your life right now. All you have to do to appropriate it for yourself is to do as Jesus said. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7) It is time. If you need help with that feel free to give us a call or send us an email. You can even post a comment and perhaps help others too. God bless.
That little church was Foursquare in every sense of the word. We had been licensed to preach the Foursquare Gospel in Davis and were diligent about that business. We believed and taught that Jesus is the healer of our bodies, the savior of our souls, the baptizer with the Holy Spirit and our soon coming King. We still believe He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) We think we even believed all that in our spirits, but somewhere in there a switch had not been thrown or something.
We saw people being born again and beginning their new life journeys. We baptized new believers in water several times a year. There had been a smattering of physical healings, but nothing on a regular basis. Then as He sometimes does, God began to work sovereignly, behind the scenes, to rock our world in a very positive way.
We had made arrangements to attend the annual Foursquare convention in Los Angeles. It would be good to get away and to see some people we had not seen in some time. We could also stay with relatives so the cost would not be prohibitive and it would be good to see them as well. We do not recall if we knew who the keynote speaker for the convention was before we registered, nor does it really matter. It was John Wimber--at that time a man at the pinnacle of a career which included leading the Vineyard churches, teaching at Fuller Seminary, writing, and actively involving himself in what he called "power evangelism". Power evangelism, as we understand it, is the demonstration of the Kingdom of God, on earth, in signs and wonders, for the purpose of bringing people to Jesus.
John Wimber delivered an excellent teaching on physical healing and it's availability to The Church today. Well that was 24 years ago, but if Hebrews 13:8 is still good, the time would not seem to be relevant. At the end of his message, he called for anyone who wanted to participate in a healing time to come to the platform. I was in the first balcony in Angelus Temple, toward the front. The exit is in the back. I believe I was the second or third person to reach the platform. I was excited to be part of that ministry. John then called for anyone who needed a physical healing to come to the platform. He then told us to wait until the Holy Spirit showed us who to minister to in prayer. The end result of that is that I prayed for and watched as a woman, with tears in her eyes, stood erect for the first time in a long time. She was healed from a spinal condition that had kept her slightly bent forward.
Just a few weeks after we returned from the convention, we received an unsolicited invitation in the mail to have dinner at a restaurant fifty miles or so from Davis. The invitation came from a group calling themselves, "Friends of Deliverance". They were providing a complimentary dinner to introduce pastors and other interested people to the need for deliverance within The Church. Some note on the invitation linked the group with a Foursquare pastor we knew in the town where the meeting was being held. We made a telephone call to be sure this was not some kind of weird group and were assured by the pastor these were good people who simply wanted to expose more people to the deliverance ministry. Besides, they were buying dinner so we felt we had nothing to lose by joining them. We found what they had to say very interesting, encouraging, and even inspiring. Our sole, previous experience with a demon had not ended well. By the time we left that meeting we had a better handle on the deliverance ministry. I remarked to Judi on the trip home that I was pretty sure the Lord would not have been teaching us about healing and deliverance if He did not plan to have us doing something in that area.
Within the next several months we actually led our first successful deliverance session. We saw virtually everyone in the church who had physical problems receive their healings. Time and space, and the Holy Spirit, will not allow us to go into any further detail about all those things.
Sometime, I am going to have to rehearse for you, my call to the ministry. Until then, let me just tell you it came via a word from the Holy Spirit to my spirit from Luke 4:18-19. Verse 19 says, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Without a detailed teaching on this verse, let us say for now we are talking about a time when God is pouring out His favor on His people. This is not necessarily a literal 365 day year. I am writing this post, on this day, to tell anyone who will listen, you can have the Lord's favor on your life right now. All you have to do to appropriate it for yourself is to do as Jesus said. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7) It is time. If you need help with that feel free to give us a call or send us an email. You can even post a comment and perhaps help others too. God bless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)