The day it all changed

In about 2005, I was still recovering from a difficult season in my life and cruising along as a Christian of some years’ standing – I say ‘cruising’, probably in third gear and with nothing especially remarkable to show for my years as a Christian up to that point. Dare I say it, my life was probably fairly typical of a Western evangelical Christian. The idols of comfort and ease can be the enemies of a radical Christian life.

In 2005, I was given a book which I have since concluded I had been waiting to read all my Christian life. It completely changed the way I viewed life as a Christian and what was expected of me. I felt excited and daunted in equal measure.

The book was about the King (God) and His Kingdom, the fact that He intended His Kingdom to impact the earth today (‘on earth as it is in heaven’) and that I (as His son and ambassador) bore significant responsibility for helping make that happen.

Jesus proclaimed the Good News of salvation (freedom would be another way of putting it), but He also demonstrated what that freedom looked like – forgiveness of sin, physical healing in the body, freedom from demonic oppression. But He was the Son of God, so of course He could do those things! Right? Wrong!

The book showed that, while Jesus came to give us access to God’s Kingdom through His death and resurrection, He also came to show us what life looked like in the Kingdom – and it wasn’t much like the life I was living.

In Philippians 2.6,7 we read that Jesus ‘did not think of equality with God as something to cling to’, but ‘gave up His divine privileges’ or ’emptied Himself’ and was ‘born as a human being.’ Jesus did not perform the miracles He did with His divine power because He had ’emptied Himself.’ Instead, He did them as a human being in an intimate relationship with His Father and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Though he was God, [Jesus] did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

Philippians 2.6-7 (NLT)

He sent His disciples to do the same: ‘Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy and cast out demons’ (see Matthew 10.7). And He has called each generation of His followers to do likewise. The great commission in Matthew 28.18-20 includes the words: ‘Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you’ (including Matthew 10.7)! Jesus also said, ‘…anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works’ (John 14.12).

I felt rocked to my core. This was not the sanitized version of discipleship I had encountered all too often in church. This was pretty daunting, but I felt inspired to take up the challenge to live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, as described in the New Testament. It was time to face head on those uncomfortable verses I had all too often been guilty of skirting round.

And so began the journey.

I am under no illusion that I still have masses to learn. But my future blogs will reflect what I have learnt so far – from A-Z! You may have heard the phrase ‘the now and not yet of the Kingdom’ – what is available now of God’s Kingdom following Jesus’s reinauguration of it and what we have to wait for until He comes again in all His glory.

I felt rocked to my core… It was time to face head on those uncomfortable verses I had all too often been guilty of skirting round. And so began the journey

As you journey with me, I want you to keep an open mind on the possibility that there might be more of His Kingdom available to you now than you have up to this point been taught or seen for yourself or dared to believe.

What was the book that I had been waiting to read all my Christian life? I’ll tell you soon 😉.

I end today with a good news story from 2008…

A lady approached the church asking for someone to pray around her home nearby. She said there was an evil presence there. She said it often followed people upstairs and her 8 year old daughter said that she wanted to kill it! This was unusual for this normally very passive girl. The daughter would not sleep in her bedroom because the evil spirit had pulled her bed clothes off. Even though the radiator in that room was working and was very hot, the room would remain cold. She slept in her mother’s room. Friends had passed the house and later commented on her older son being at home, having seen him at the bedroom window. The mother knew these were times when her son was not at home and she was there alone (or so she thought). Objects had started moving about in her kitchen.

We went to pray around the house. We prayed in every room and up the stairs, inviting the presence of Jesus to come by His Spirit. We sprinkled water liberally. We encouraged the family to pray the Lord’s prayer as they went up the stairs. We advised them to get rid of a few items that we thought might provide a ‘landing place’ for the enemy (satan). The mother was very willing to do as we suggested. We followed the lady up after our visit. She said there had been no further manifestations and the objects had stopped moving around in the kitchen. The stairs were clear, the bedroom was hot and they had had to turn down the radiator! Her daughter was back sleeping in her room. As a result of this, the mother started coming to church regularly with her daughter.