Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part V
–from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman
Another mindset that I need to change: All members of the New Testament priesthood, believers in Jesus, should be allowed to “give back” to the Lord God Almighty what He has given them as an act of worship!
Our second guideline to worship is “Whatever the Lord gives you, give back and/or give away.” Have the believers in Jesus Christ, his royal priesthood, received anything from Jesus this week? I certainly hope so! If Jesus has given them His grace, His mercy, His love, His compassion, His tender heart, His Spirit, His healing, His deliverance, His provisions, and on and on, then why do we prevent His people from giving back to Him what He has given them, or the chance to give it to others during our “worship” services? We have prevented worship and its instinctive flow? We have prevented our brothers and sisters in Jesus from entering into the Holy of Holies, His Presence. Our Pharisaical attitudes should hear the echoes, “Woe to your scribes, your Pharisees, you lawyers, your hypocrites…” that we find throughout the four Gospels. As the children song says, “I don’t want to be a Pharisee, cause they’re not fair, you see”, or “I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” “I just want to be a sheep, baa.”
If someone has been healed this week, why not let them profess before the congregation of their experience with “the Healer”, Jesus Christ, as a Sacrifice of Praise. Then why not allow them to give their healing away by the laying on of “their” hands and praying for others in their midst to be healed. “Lord, you have healed me; I give the gift of your healing that you gave me this week to this person whom I am laying hands on right now,” could be their faith confession and personal prayer! You have confessed the supernatural healing power of Jesus in your life; now you are giving that supernatural healing power to another in need. There is usually a supernaturally natural response from God who heals, for “I AM your healer.” When God reveals himself, “I AM”, thus you are IN HIS PRESENCE! This can happen anywhere when you worship by giving away those things Jesus has given you. Are we going to “trust” the Holy Spirit to not only “draw us near” but also “draw us into” the Presence of God, or do we naturally try to do it ourselves, which doesn’t get supernatural results. Confession of what Jesus has done, and keeping it in the present by healing others raises the faith level of any congregation.
You know there is power in confession. If you are a member of a church over one hundred members, you probably do not know everyone that attends. I often look out across a congregation and wonder what are all the different stories, all the different journeys that are housed in this one place at one time. You never get to know their journeys if they sit there in their natural church poses of quietness, “reverence”, sober faced, lifeless looks. Their lives have been touched by the supernatural in accepting Jesus as their Savior. Just hearing their supernatural experience builds faith in others. Let’s bring on the confession of their faith journeys to build up my individual faith and the congregation’s family faith as we hear their confessions together.
Lets get stretched even farther. Does Jesus only heal in the synagogue or the church? When in the synagogue many of the Pharisees were critically, judgmentally looking at Jesus as a “law” breaker if he heals. He told people to “stretch out your wither hand” or “arise, take up your bed and walk” when in the synagogue only inflaming the adverse reactions from the Pharisees. That Parasitical attitude, unfortunately, still prevails in most churches today. I actually heard from the front platform of a large mega-size church, the senior pastor inform his congregation that there were people in their local community who believe in miracles and warned them to be on alert for them as if they were dangerous. He told his congregation that they were not to be trusted. He became defensive as most Pharisees do by justifying that his church believed in healing, and the elders would pray in a side room with anyone who requested to be prayed for healing after the service, but assured his congregation that they did not believe in miracles as these people. I thought, where are these believers in the supernatural? Bring them on, I want to meet them!