LEAD THE WAY
Extra Sessions
DOING THE STUFF - 2

CONNECT

• Connect through care, prayer and loving accountability for previous “I will …” statements

DISCOVER

REVIEW

1. How and why Jesus did the stuff?

• Through His partnership with His Father (relationship & obedience)

• Through His empowerment by the Spirit 

• To show His compassion for people

• To bring the Kingdom of God through word and deed

• To reveal His identity as the Messiah and the Son of God and to bring about faith and life in His name

2. How and why we can do what Jesus did?

• By the commission of Jesus to carry on His mission (obedience)

• Through the empowerment of the Spirit (including His spiritual gifts)

• Through faith in Jesus

• Through the power and authority given to us by Jesus

• Through the presence of and our partnership (relationship) with Jesus

• To bring glory to Jesus. 

• To express His Kingdom in word and deed.

• To lead people to faith in Jesus

3. From Randy Fisk in The Presence, Power and Heart of God, p. 26

Instead of one person, Jesus—speaking His powerful words and doing His awesome works—suddenly Jesus begins to act via the Holy Spirit through every believer. This initiates what has to be one of the devil’s worst nightmares: instead of one Jesus at work, there are now millions and millions of “Jesuses” walking around, doing what He did!

YOUR KINGDOM COME

• What is the Kingdom of God? How does “Kingship” explain Kingdom?

• Was there sickness and demonization and racism and wars and natural disasters in Creation?

• Will there be sickness and demonization and racism and wars and natural disasters in the Re-Creation?

When God is large and in charge there is Shalom—Order Out of Chaos—in the personal, interpersonal, national, international, natural, supernatural spheres.

• What’s in conflict with God’s Kingdom?

Colossians 1:13-14 (NLT)

13 For [God the Father] has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

• How is the proclamation of the Kingdom of God a Kingdom Truth Encounter with the kingdom of Satan?

• How is the demonstration of the Kingdom of God a Kingdom Power Encounter with the kingdom of Satan?

YOUR WILL BE DONE

• Is it God’s will to heal sickness, deliver the demonized, overcome poverty and reconcile the races?

• Were these things in Creation? Will they be in the Re-Creation?

• Are there reasons why God may use sickness or hardships to bring about conviction or dependence or maturity?

• Could sickness or demonization or poverty be rooted in sin?

• Could Job have been cured at a healing service?

• Is there mystery to God’s will?

ETERNALLY, it is God’s will to heal. GENERALLY, it is God’s will to heal here and now. So it is best to assume that it is God’s will to heal and to seek it with compassion, passion and persistence.

• What do you think of Sam Storm’s “policy”?

“I just assume that it’s God’s will to heal unless He somehow reveals to me that it isn’t or the person dies.”

• What do you think about ending your prayers for healing, “If it be Your will”?

THE ALREADY BUT NOT YET

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

1 John 3:2 (NIV)

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Romans 8:22-25 (NIV)

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

The Kingdom of God has already come in the ministry of Jesus and continues to come through the ministry of the Spirit in the church BUT IT HAS NOT YET FULLY COME. We aren’t in heaven yet.

Here’s how the Jews would have diagramed their expectation of the Kingdom:

One reason why the Jews reject Jesus is because He didn’t fulfill this expectation.

This, however, is the diagram of the Kingdom reality as found in the Bible:

We live in the overlap of The Present Age and The Age to Come where the Kingdom has come but not fully come. This is called The Already But Not Yet.

• How do we experience The Already But Not Yet of God’s Kingdom in our lives?

• How much of The Already can we expect here and now?

Robby Dawkins in Do What Jesus Did, p. 206

The fullness of the Kingdom is yet to come, but there’s a level of the Kingdom we aren’t experiencing now because we’re not GOING. 

As we GO in obedience to Jesus seeking to proclaim and demonstrate His Kingdom, we will see more of the Kingdom of God breaking in around us.

So let’s lean into The Already of the Kingdom without falling over. Keep both feet on the ground. With one foot/leg lean into The Already. With the other foot/leg stay balanced in the Not Yet. But don’t be afraid to LEAN.

WHY DOESN’T HEALING ALWAY HAPPEN?

1. Could the lack of faith impact healing?

2. Could the lack of persistent prayer impact healing?

3. Could unconfessed sin impact healing?

4. Could the demonic impact healing?

5. Could my lack of the gifting impact healing?

6. Does God’s mysterious (yet always good) will impact healing?

7. Does our beliefs in God’s feelings toward us impact healing (our view of God)?

8. Could the fact that we aren’t in heaven yet (The Already But Not Yet of the Kingdom) impact healing?

• When healing doesn’t happen (or hasn’t happened yet) what reason do you normally go to?

May I suggest a healthy order of questions?

1. Do I need to pray more here? Am I willing to persist in prayer, even fasting?

2. Is there something of The Already But Not Yet here? After all, we’re not in heaven yet. There's An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian life.

3. Is there lack of faith here? (I’ll start with my own faith and not the person’s faith I’m praying for)?

4. Is there something of The Already But Not Yet here? After all, we’re not in heaven yet. There's An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian life. 

5. Is there unconfessed sin here? (What about my own?)

6. Is there something of The Already But Not Yet here? After all, we’re not in heaven yet. There's An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian life. 

7. Is there something demonic going on here? (Personal sin, generational or occultic curse?)

8. Is there something of The Already But Not Yet here? After all, we’re not in heaven yet. There's An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian life.

9. Is there someone else with a greater gifting in this area that I could partner with? Do I need “credit” for this miracle?

10. Is there something of The Already But Not Yet here? After all, we’re not in heaven yet. There's An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian life.

11. Is there a mystery to God’s will here that I just don’t understand so I need to humbly submit knowing that God is always good?

12. Is there something of The Already But Not Yet here? After all, we’re not in heaven yet. There's An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian life.

13. Do I need to pray more here? Am I willing to persist in prayer, even fasting?

14. Is there something of The Already But Not Yet here? After all, we’re not in heaven yet. There's An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian life.

HEALING IN THE ATONEMENT?

In some Pentecostal and Charismatic circles, you’ll hear that healing is in the atonement—“By His stripes we are healed”.

By this they mean that divine healing is guaranteed in the atonement (100% of the time). In the same way that everyone who asks Jesus to forgive their sin will be forgiven (100% of the time), SO TOO everyone who asks for healing will be healed (100% of the time). Forgiveness of sins is guaranteed in the atonement and so is healing (once again, 100% of the time). So if there’s a problem (no healing), it’s a problem of faith (usually in the one being prayed for). This is a huge burden to carry and a huge burden to put on others!

Where does this all come from?

Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV)

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Matthew 8:16-17 (NIV)

16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Obviously, Isaiah 53 is a key Old Testament prophecy of Christ’s atonement. And this atonement refers to Jesus’ death on the cross where He bore our sins and was punished by God in our place. Matthew says that Jesus healed all the sick and does connect Jesus’ healing ministry to Jesus’ atonement (even though that atonement hadn’t taken place yet). Peter, however, isn’t even focusing on healing but on sin. That’s the “wound” that is healed in Peter’s passage. 

That’s not a lot to build a whole theology on how the atonement guarantees all healing as it guarantees all forgiveness. 

So how about this?

Yes, healing is in or connected to the atonement. But so is heaven. So is perfection. So is the ending of spiritual warfare. So is our resurrected bodies. Yes, all will be healed in the New Heaven and New Earth. And yes, full forgiveness is promised in the atonement even in this life. But it’s too big a leap to say that all healing is promised in the atonement. Besides, it creates false hope and false guilt!

Yes Jesus batted a 1000 when it came to healing. But did the apostles? How about the church? Will we? Do you?

Let’s bring up our batting percentages when it comes to OBEDIENCE to Jesus’ call to pray for the sick and showing His COMPASSION. But if we have to bat a 1000 when it comes to HEALING either we won’t get started or we’ll stop really soon. 

So once again, there is An Already But Not Yet to everything in the Christian faith, including the fact that healing is in or connected to the atonement.

SHARE SOME STORIES

LIVE / LEAD

• What did you discover in this training session?

• What is your “I will …” statement flowing from this training?

PRAY

PRINTABLE PDF

• Doing the Stuff - 2