Sunday night I
watched a number of videos that would be categorized as “spiritual warfare
ministry”. While there is no doubt that the Bible speaks of spiritual warfare,
telling us how to put on the whole armor of God in order to take our stand
against the evil one and his schemes,[1]
and that “the weapons of our warfare are
not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds,”[2]there
is regular disagreement between those who are involved in “spiritual warfare
ministry” (SWM from here on in), and those who believe they are “discernment
critics” (DC from here on in) who have the discernment to critique them.
One of the
things that helps me “test everything,”[3] is
to remember God’s word, “that you may
learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up
in favor of one against another.”[4] We
are to avoid putting our trust in one favorite teacher to the exclusion of
others, resulting in men having their own ministries that invariably take
people beyond what Scripture teaches, and result in one man puffing himself up
as better than another.
When we
consider whether any ministry is going beyond what is written, whether it be a SWM,
or a DC, have we thought through how we treat the examples of Jesus’ work in
setting people free? Do we treat those examples as Scripture limiting present
day experiences of demonic activity only to those specific scenarios, or do we
treat these examples as a generalization of the kinds of things that demons can
do, and so watch for anything in anyone’s life that looks like demonic
activity? In other words, do we only call something demonic activity if we can
find the exact same scenario in Scripture, or do we call something demonic
activity because it is the same kind of thing we see in the many examples of
Scripture?
Another way of
looking at this would be in relation to Jesus’ description of the sheep and the
goats who will stand on his right and his left in the judgment. [5] In both cases Jesus had a check-list of things
that people did or did not do for him. The list was identical. The sheep did
the things on the check-list, and the goats did not do the things on the check-list.
The check-list included, “I was hungry and you gave me
food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed
me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in
prison and you came to me.”[6] When
the sheep asked Jesus when they did these things for him, he replied, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one
of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”[7]
When the goats asked Jesus when they failed to do these things for him, he
replied, “Truly, I say to you, as you did
not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”[8]
The question
is, do we take a passage like this and apply Paul’s teaching about not going
beyond what is written in such a way that we believe and teach that only the
good works described in this Scripture count as doing something for Jesus? Do
we tell ourselves that the only good works that matter to Jesus are feeding
hungry little ones, giving a drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger,
clothing the naked, visiting the sick, or coming to the prisoners? Do we teach
that we all have to do all these precise things in order to be counted among
the sheep that enter into the joy of their master?
Or, was Jesus giving
us a picture of what matters to him, and, in this case, he describes it in
terms of the kinds of things we do for him when we do things for “one of the least of these my brothers”?
Can we apply this section of Scripture to any way that any believer in Jesus Christ
does anything for someone who qualifies as “one
of the least of these,” and encourage ourselves with this wonderful
affirmation of grace that we are doing these things for Jesus our Savior?
In other
words, can we apply this passage of Scripture to things the Bible doesn’t
mention, while believing that we are not going beyond what is written in this
passage? Can someone faithfully visit the elderly in a care facility, something
that isn’t mentioned in this passage of Scripture, confident that they are not
going beyond what is written here when they go home smiling with the thought of
how visiting the senior little ones was visiting Jesus? Can someone walk with a
young lady whose life is being broken and destroyed by memories of abuse, and
faithfully minister to that little one through her battle with an eating
disorder, knowing that joining Jesus in his work of healing the brokenhearted
and binding up their wounds[9]is
just as much doing something for Jesus as visiting a persecuted Christian in
prison?
I think of all
those girls who are being kidnapped and turned into sex slaves, and what their
daily traumatization is doing to their souls, and how their brains are trying
to manage the pain and the horror of what they are going through, and wonder
what the church will do for these broken little ones whenever they are
delivered from the nightmare they are enduring. Will the DC’s tell the church
that there is no such things as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because it isn’t
in the Bible and that means that treating such symptoms as nightmares, and
dissociative parts, and crippling flashbacks, is going beyond what is written?
Or, will the
sheep see little ones who need a body of Christ that rises up in faith to be
filled to the full with the Holy Spirit, and to exercise every possible
spiritual gift that is distributed among them by the Holy Spirit, and welcome
any symptom of brokenness that these traumatized victims bring into the church,
knowing that even the most surprising and shocking descriptions of abuse, and
the most unheard of symptoms resulting from such abuse, fit right in with
anything the Bible says about the brokenhearted, the poor in spirit, those who
mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,[10]
all in the midst of stories of the most concentrated wickedness the church has
ever heard?
Will the body
of Christ face things it has never heard of, things that Scripture does not
mention, and do the ministry the Bible does call for, using the examples that
are breathed-out by God, believing that the head that moves the body to do such
ministry is also receiving the ministry as if it is done to him?
And, what if
the little ones who need ministry talk about hearing voices, or seeing things
in their rooms at night? Do we say that we are not going to help such people because
the Bible doesn’t mention these things and so helping them would cause us to
sin against the command to not go beyond what is written? Or do we tell people
that God has written so much about Jesus delivering people from demonic
activity, and so much about the apostles as the foundation of the church
helping people with absolutely anything they brought to Jesus for ministry,[11]
and so much about the same Holy Spirit who filled Jesus and the apostles[12]
also distributing every kind of spiritual gift throughout the church[13]
so that we can continue doing even more than Jesus did while he was here,[14]
that we will continue facing anything God gives us to deal with, no matter how
much any one person’s oppression and trouble is a combination of problems in
body, soul, or spirit, and walk with those people in Spirit-filled faith until
the poor feel that the good news we are preaching to them is filling their
hearts with freedom and faith, the captives feel that the liberty we proclaim
to them is setting them free, the blind are testifying that they can now see, the
oppressed declare that they have come into a liberty they have never known
before, and the people feeling that their abuse has been some kind of judgment
of God upon their lives now believe and declare that they feel like they are
living in the season of God’s favor?[15]
Which person
are you going to believe, the one who says that Jesus’ words, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in
your hearing,”[16]
only applies to the people Luke was writing about because they were the only
ones who were living in that “today”, or the one who says that Jesus declared
the prophecy to now be fulfilled, so every believer in Jesus Christ has the
right to expect these things to be filled in their lives today?
The reason
that this is of such great concern to me is that people are missing out on
ministry because the DC’s have sold us a big fat fish story that has made
people terrified of stepping outside the letter of the New Testament law and
doing something the DC’s have never heard about. People are afraid of going into
ministries people desperately need because they think that if a DC hasn’t heard
of something, then it couldn’t possibly be in the Bible, and to do it would be
going beyond what is written.
The fact is
that, there is plenty in the Bible to teach us “what accords with sound doctrine”[17]
in the things that aren’t in the Bible. We can address drug addictions,
dissociative conditions, eating disorders, hearing voices, seeing apparitions, things
that are not legalistically listed to the DC’s satisfaction, and yet are real
expressions of the oppression, captivity, blindness, and darkness the Bible
does speak about in sufficient detail. If God heals the brokenhearted and binds
up their wounds,[18]
we can welcome anyone with anything that fits this description of brokenhearted
and wounded and tell them that, in the body of Christ, Jesus will heal them and
bind up what is wounded.
If God has
written that he, “is near to the
brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit,”[19]
than it is not going beyond what is written to be the body of Christ that comes
near to any kind of brokenheartedness that comes near to us, and saves crushed
spirits no matter what unheard of story describes their experience of crushing.
If “the One who is high and lifted up, who
inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy,” declares in his word, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and
also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of
the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite,”[20]
than it is not going beyond what is written to be a church that can discern any
kind of contrition, any variation of lowliness of spirit, and leave our lofty
experiences of fellowship with God to also live with these little ones no
matter what they look like in real life, and to be a church that is so filled
with the Spirit (like what is written), and that uses every spiritual gift
distributed to us by the Holy Spirit (like what is written), until everyone is
agreed that the contrite and lowly who have come to us are now revived by our
Lord Jesus Christ (like what is written).
Now, it might
sound like I had someone else in mind when I wrote this, but it was really for
the building up of my own faith more than anything. I just hope that, if anyone
else has become discouraged about helping people with scary things because someone
else has said that their problem isn’t mentioned in the Bible so we’re not
supposed to help them, that we will take hold by faith of the wonderful
promises that are in the Bible and apply them to whatever situations people are
facing, no matter whether we see something similar in the Bible or not.
If something
is going on in someone’s life that is holding them back from experiencing what Jesus
promised as, “if the Son sets you free,
you will be free indeed,”[21]be
the member of the body of Christ that ministers to them the wonderful things
that are written in God’s word until those promises of God are fulfilled.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Ephesians 6:10-20; II Corinthians 2:11
[2]
II Corinthians 10:4
[3]
I Thessalonians 5:21
[4]
I Corinthians 4:6
[5]
Matthew 25:31-46
[6]
Matthew 25:35-36
[7]
Matthew 25:40
[8]
Matthew 25:45
[9]
Psalm 147:3
[10]
Matthew 5:3-6
[11]
Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14
[12]
Matthew 3:16; 4:1; Luke 4:1; 4:14; 10:21; Acts 2:4; 4:8; 4:31; 9:17; 10:38; 13:9;
13:52; Ephesians 5:18
[13]
I Corinthians 12:11 (whole chapter as context); Hebrews 2:4
[14]
John 14:12
[15]
Luke 4:18-21; Isaiah 61:1-4
[16]
Luke 4:21
[17]
Titus 2:1
[18]
Psalm 147:3
[19]
Psalm 34:18
[20]
Isaiah 57:15
[21]
John 8:36
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