Catching up on my blog reader…a couple of days ago Co-heir posted a very insightful piece on “Falsetto Spirituality”, in which he discusses the tendency of many Christians to chase after supernatural manifestations, and how he is seeking to find God in the everyday. Go read it…I’ll wait… (actually, I’m kind of pressed for time this morning, so if you could hurry it up…)
Anyhow…I grew up in the charismatic stream, and there were often healings and miracles. Not only that, but I’ve also experienced a “season” of supernatural manifestation, when the church I served in was touched by the what some called the “laughing revival” in the 1990s. Yes, I know there were some carnal manifestations there (when is there not?); but I also sensed God strongly in my life and in the life of my family, and it was refreshing and healing for us.
But then I began to see people being enamored with the manifestations themselves, rather than falling in love with Jesus more. And honestly, this troubled me. When word started going around that some churches were seeing manifestations of gold dust appearing, people started wanting to chase after that, because it was “new.” Or if word got around that this or that place was the next “hot-spot” of revival, everyone wanted to go there. I didn’t have a theological problem with the gold dust thing; I just didn’t like the obsession with it. It was almost like this undercurrent that said if this wasn’t happening in your church–or if you weren’t seeking it–you were somehow “out of the stream,” because that’s what God was doing right then.
In the past few years, in our journey, we’ve found ourselves more along the line of what Co-heir was talking about–looking for Jesus in our everyday existence. But I have to admit I’ve felt a subtle twinge of guilt because I’m not actively pursuing signs and wonders. I mean, I’m not a cessationist or anything; I do believe in this stuff. And signs and wonders did accompany the early church. Shouldn’t we want that? Is something wrong with us if it isn’t happening? Are we just not “spiritual” enough? The recent hubbub surrounding the healing revival going on in Lakeland, Florida right now has touched off these questions afresh. I even wrote a post or two about it, wondering why I wasn’t jazzed about the miracles that were reportedly taking place.
This is just an observation, but in the western church especially, it seems that there is feast or famine where signs and wonders are concerned. Either they aren’t happening at all, or they are happening in various “hot-spots”, where everyone gets all excited and goes and chases after them. It all seems a bit unbalanced to me.
Here’s where I’m going with all this. It seems to me that although signs and wonders were definitely widespread with the early church, those believers weren’t focused on the supernatural itself; they were focused on the Person of Jesus, the message of His death and resurrection, and the quest to bear fruit as His disciples. To them, the supernatural was simply normal, because Jesus was God, and because Jesus was alive. Not that there wasn’t a “wow” factor, but it was just…well, expected. The supernatural wasn’t the point; Jesus was.
These days, I think we don’t expect the supernatural. So when it occurs, we get all distracted over it and miss the point. The point isn’t miracles; the point is Jesus.
For me and mine…I think because of the unbalance we’ve encountered with this stuff, this apparent indifference we feel right now over the supernatural is an attempt to recover balance. I think we’ve needed a season where we deconstructed all the hype and hoopla, and truly find the wonder of God in everyday existence–because He is there. Even if He is not disrupting the natural flow of things with some miraculous manifestation…He is working within the natural world He created. That has been an awesome revelation for us, one that has us living much more in the moment than we used to.
And yes–when someone in our circle needs a miracle, we can pray in faith and trust God to work on that person’s behalf, however He chooses to do it. We have experienced many answered prayers. But I want to have the right perspective about it. If I believe that God is real, that Jesus is alive, then I want to be amazed by Who He is more than by what He does. And when signs and wonders occur in our lives, I don’t want to lose that perspective. I don’t want to chase supernatural manifestations; I want to walk with a supernatural Person, and come to expect signs and wonders as a natural part of that relationship. And honestly, I think those days are coming for us.
One final thought. If you think about “signs”…a sign is something that points to something else. If I’m driving down the road and I see a sign with an arrow that points to Baltimore, I don’t stop the car, get out and get all google-eyed over the road sign. I don’t set up a tent and invite people to come and have a vigil by the road. That would be completely missing the point. If I want to go to Baltimore–I simply go where the sign is pointing.
When Jesus performs a sign, that sign isn’t pointing to itself, and it isn’t pointing to some other person (even though sometimes we give incorrect credit to a person). That sign points to Jesus. And that’s where our focus should be.
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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Good thoughts. I like the road sign analogy.
Thanks for the link. 🙂
Jeff,
I very much agree with you on this. I remember the gold dust in the 90’s and all of the other manifestations that were happening around that time. We were attending a church whose Pastors were conference hopping on a regular basis chasing after the signs and wonders. Like you we noticed how unbalanced it all was.
After awhile we couldn’t help but notice who was chasing the signs and wonders instead of chasing God Almighty Himself. It seemed to be the people who were spiritually unbalanced.
So much of this stuff seems to turn into hype as the news of signs and wonders travels outward. But, it should be the supernatural of God that travels outward. I think you nailed it with the analogy of the Baltimore sign, and people taking their eyes off of Jesus that causes the problem. That was an excellent analogy by the way.
We try to keep our eyes on Jesus. And, as we do He is faithful to answer our prayers.
Thanks. This is definitely good stuff.
Jeff – thanks for the post and your relections of days gone by.I must admit I still see signs and wonders acompanying the proclaimming of the good news. And as you rightly say, a sign is something that points and He is indeed where our focus ought to be.
The emergent/missional movement with it’s present emphasis on the didactic I feel has failed to acknowledge the supernatural, which is a pity, there in lies a tremendous resource.
Co-heir,
Thanks for opening the conversation. Hope even more join in…
Lightbearer,
I think you may have inadvertently touched on something when you mentioned the supernatural traveling “outward”. Seems to me the supernatural was never intended for us church folks to get together, cloistered, away from the world, to heal each other and pat each other on the back about how God moved in our midst. It’s supposed to be outside the walls…
Mork,
It’s highly probable that the lack of emphasis on the supernatural in the emergent/missional movement (besides theological reasons) is likely a reaction to the abuses we’ve just described. Hopefully that will swing back into balance in time.
I like what you aid about the sign jut being a pointer. Looking back at my 30+ years in charismatic circles and churches I have to say that there has sometimes been an unhealthy focus on experiencial Christianity. This focus breeds a superiority of sorts and hurting people are left behind when they don’t experience the miraculous.
Jeff,
Thanks for the reminder that we are to focus on Jesus. Regardless of the topic, Christians can find themselves focusing on something besides Jesus. We focus on what type of music will lead us to Jesus, instead of focusing on Jesus as we worship. We focus on the preacher’s style that makes us feel comfortable instead of whether the words he says reveal God in truth.
The list goes on, but you already know that.
I would say that most Christians that I know are cessationists. I am not, but due to the abuse, I find it easy to ignore and dismiss most of what I hear. Balance is the key. Seeking Jesus, focusing on Him, will result in a relationship that provides what I need.
“I didn’t have a theological problem with the gold dust thing”
Really?
This is a new one to me. I worked at a Christian radio station for a time when some big church, in southern Texas IIRC, was hitting it big for their ongoing revival. We played a bunch of their worship music. I remember thinking at the time that these things seem to happen most when there are a LOT of people involved. Just as a large crowd at a Colts game makes much more noise than a crowd at the local softball park, the more people that witness an “outpouring” and join the din makes a bigger impact than a similar thing at a smaller congregation.
But gold dust?! How is God possibly at work in that? Sure people probably got saved. But how many more were wounded?
I wonder . . .
Jeff,
I agree totally that the signa and wonders are not for those who are saved. We aren’t really suppose to need signs. Because, we are already suppose to know the way to Jesus.
We do seem to “stay cloistered away from the world and pat each other on the back”. When we should be sharing Jesus and His signs and wonders with the world. Especially since those in the world are really the ones who need to be point in the right direction with the signs and awed by the wonders.
What do you suppose it will take for that to occur?
Blessings,
Gary
KB,
I, too, have witnessed the superiority thing about experiencing the supernatural. I can’t imagine that this reflects the heart of Jesus.
Michael, I can relate to what you’re saying about dismissing what you hear. I think that’s indicative of how much mixture we have, that even though we theoretically believe in the supernatural, we don’t always trust the people who claim to walk in it. If it’s real, it speaks for itself; when all the hype surrounds it to convince you there’s something there…it breeds distrust and skepticism.
tysdaddy,
The reason I said I had no theological disagreement with manifestations of gold dust is simply this. Scripture predicts signs and wonders in the last days; it is not all that specific about what it might look like. I guess if God wants to manifest gold dust, that’s His prerogative. As I’ve mentioned before, I am not quick to rule things out just because they are not specifically mentioned in Scripture; I DO rule them out if they *violate* Scripture.
My take on the last question you asked is this…the sign itself neither saves nor wounds anyone. It is what man does with it. I know there are those who have rejected prior “revivals” because people got wounded, and that’s interpreted as bad fruit. I would respond that when God does something, it is good; woundedness occurs when something that was good is misused, or just because we are broken people. To say a certain manifestation was not of God because people got wounded makes about as much sense to me as blaming a bottle of wine for someone’s alcoholism. It’s passing the buck, as far as I’m concerned. Just sayin’. 🙂
Lightbearer,
“What do you suppose it will take for that to occur?”
I think we’ve answered our own question here, bro. We can’t change the thinking of the whole church, but we can change our own. We can start living like signs and wonders are for the world, and begin trusting God to meet us outside the walls.
This is an interesting post! A controversial topic, usually. 🙂 It seems as though ‘supernatural’ occurances are expressions of the kingdom of God here, now. When Jesus did something supernatural, He would say, “The kingdom of heaven has come near you” or some variation of that. The Bible does instruct us to seek the kingdom. So, I’m not sure that I can dichotomize seeking the supernatural vs. seeking Jesus only.
But you do raise a problem that does in fact exist. The problem I see is that people are content to be entertained by signs, and then walk away unchanged. This to me reveals a hardness of heart and an unhealthy spiritual state. When the supernatural becomes entertainment, it becomes an idol. And when the reality of the kingdom of God invading earth does not impact our relationship with God in a positive way (causing us to worship and love Him more), then something is seriously wrong.
I think that’s the problem I have with charismatic culture. The supernatural is reduced to entertainment and thrills. Whereas in reality, Jesus is revealing His deep love through healing and His glory through supernatural occurances. Our response to such things should lead us closer to Him, and to desire to be like Him and do the works He did. That’s what a disciple is – one who learns to do what his Teacher does.
Sorry, this is a long comment. But I have to add that there are many, many miracles taking place in the context of people’s everyday lives. We just don’t hear about them as readily since they don’t get the media that large movements get. But it is happening! 🙂
Sarah, thanks for this very insightful comment. It shouldn’t be a question of whether or not to desire the supernatural, since that comes with God Himself; but it’s missing the point to be enamored with the actions themselves more than the Person performing the actions.
The supernatural as entertainment is truly very active in the charismatic culture–another instance of missing the point.
I think what I’ve been stumbling over, trying to say here, is that I *do* want to participate in the signs and wonders of God, but not for their own sake. The supernatural should be, for lack of a better term, “natural” for us. This isn’t magic. It just makes sense that when you are walking with a supernatural Person, the supernatural will occur.
“I do want to participate in the signs and wonders of God, but not for their own sake.” Yes, this statement raises a lot of questions around motive. I think Jesus healed people because His motive was love and empathy. He raised the dead to glorify God, and express love and empathy. I suppose if we seek signs for themselves, I would question our motives…
On the positive side, there is so much joy when someone is healed. No one’s talked about it from their perspective. When someone who has been in pain and suffered the majority of their life all of the sudden is free from that burden… it’s such a beautiful thing! I always worship so deeply when this happens, since it is such a profound expression of his love and care for people.
PS. I never questioned your desire to participate in the supernatural, and appreciate that you define it as a byproduct of being in relationship with a Supernatural Person. Amen! 🙂
Sarah,
No offense taken at all. I very much appreciated your remarks. 🙂
I tried twice to comment further on your thoughts about rejoicing in someone’s healing–I agree, that is a beautiful thing–but I think it warrants it’s own post at some point. Be watching for it… thanks. 🙂