Why is there so little healing in the church?

In order to be able to give real healing, we need to understand the place of the church in God plan for healing. To do that, we need to understand what the church is. One of the problems is that the church is no longer what God created her to be.

The church today, by and large, is an institution. People "go" to church. In the Bible, do you ever see anybody "go" to church? Nowhere! No-one went to church! Why not? They were the church. The church meets, but no-one "goes" to church. That implies that the church is an institution, or a place, or an event. But the early church was none of these things.

Why is there so little healing in the church? One of the reasons is because the church has become an institutional treadmill, largely irrelevant to life. You may go to church for an hour or two a week and experience a great charismatic feeling for one hour, or you may hear great theological truths. But then you go out into the world and all the problems are still there. What happens to you? The glow wears off pretty quickly; sometimes before Monday, certainly before Tuesday.

There is nothing wrong with having a great worship experience, or listening to great messages. But in John 13:17, Jesus said, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." Where's the blessing? The good evangelical church of America knows too much and does too little. It has doctrine galore; we can argue for hours about when the millennium is going to come and when the rapture will take place, but what are our lives reflecting? Are we loving God? Are we loving our neighbor? That's the measure! When we get to glory, Jesus is not going to give Western Christians a multiple-choice test and award us our crowns based on how much we know! He is going to hold up our lives beside what we know, and then you get the rewards based on what you have DONE! For most of us, the list of what we knew will run out the door; what we did will pale in comparison.

If we are going to see our churches empowered as healing agents we need to understand that the church is not a school and it's not an institution that propagates religious experience to charge you up for an hour or two each week. The most prominent metaphor in the new testament describing the church is family. As a family the church is uniquely suited to bring about healing of souls. Let's think about this for a second.

What family were we born into? Adam's family. How does this work out in space and time for me personally? It means that my first family, my parents and siblings, were of Adam's family, too. And what's the characteristic of Adam's family? Sinfulness. I was born into an earthly family which practiced sin, and we sinned up a storm together! We didn’t try to. It was not our goal. But we had no power but to do otherwise.

I was born in a non-Christian family, and so the above pattern was obvious to me soon after coming to Christ. Looking back, I can see how many good things I received from my parents. I have worked with people who were brought up in truly Christian homes who had a worse upbringing than I did, and bore the scars. Of course it is likely that their parents bore the scars to their first family (for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.) and did not experience healing, but passed on the sins down to their children.

But I also learned from my first family all kinds of ungodly ways of living in this world. Everyone learns different things, because everyone's family is different. I also believe that we all receive different flesh (Gal. 5:16f) from our parents. But one thing is true of everyone's first family...everyone in it is has sin. Some look worse than others, but they are all sinful.

Now, as I moved out into the world I began practicing all these patterns that I had learned in my early years. Many of these were reinforced by the world and thus incorporated into my pattern of life and worldview.

When I came to Christ I came face to face with my Creator God and His perfect son, Jesus, who was the perfect man I had been created to be. 1 Corinthians 13:11 says:

"When I was a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man I put childish things away."

This is what God demanded of me as far as maturing in the Christian life. For 24 years I lived as a child of Adam. But God wanted me to put these childish things away. Some 25 years later He is still faithfully showing me new patterns that I picked up in my first family which need to be put away. But too many Christians are still living out the lessons they learned in their first family with little or no change. They are content having their sins forgiven. But Jesus died to set us free from sin, not just to cover our sin (Cf. John 8:31-36).

But How am I going to reverse this pattern of sin?

The answer is that I have to be involved in another family. We could call this the " Family of God." This family has parents in it. These are the Elders. A look at I Timothy 3:4,5 reveals the Father-like requirements for leaders. The family has siblings; what do we call those? Brothers and sisters in Christ. And if the church

is a community, that's the model you have; you have a family.

What are you going to find in the people who come there? Sin. They will relate to leaders in similar ways that they related to parents and worldly authority; rebelling against them, trying to gain favor with them, etc. All the problems they developed in their early life will be brought with them into this new family! Their relationship with their brothers and sisters in Christ will expose similar problems that they had with their siblings. If you understand this, that all the people coming to church--your church--will be bringing their baggage with them--all the sin they've ever learned, all the coping mechanisms they've used, then you, as a church can begin to become a healing agent.

For healing to occur the church needs to be a family. The first thing the church family does in the healing process is to teach in such a way to lead to Revelation. The best place for this to happen is a meeting in small groups. It may actually be a house church, or a larger congregation that meets in cells. But any way this is worked out, these small groups must be able to allow people to relate to each other in close ways as in a family.

Now, how pleasant do you suppose such a church will be? How pretty is it to have sin revealed? Not very. No-one likes it. So the church must be trained in the ministry of transformation and understand how it works. No one likes discipline in a family, but without it a family will be very fragmented.

So what's the tendency in small groups, when sin is revealed and comes bubbling out? Most of us would ignore it and try make everyone feel comfortable. We don't like Revelation. What does the Bible say about it? "Men love darkness rather than light!" (John 3:19). But light is good even if not pretty! Why? Because light merely exposes the hidden sin already existing in the person's character. Family interactions just bring it into the light. Once exposed healing can begin as one goes through repentance and restitution.

So we need to train the church to accept that Revelation, though painful, is good. It leads to growth when we act appropriately to the Revelation. Rather than trying to avoid revelation and keep things comfortable or getting all concerned and worried over what is revealed, we need to work on bringing about healing through transformation.

Small groups are especially uncomfortable. When people are brought in there is going to be light; there is going to be Revelation. The process will be painful, and will almost never be easy. It will most oftentimes be painful, and ugly, and hideous. The question is, how can we be agents in transformation and healing?

In house groups, the older Christians especially need to understand the Cycle of Renewal so that they can go help disciples work through the mess! Integral in this is knowing how to use the word of God to bring about Transformation. The following diagram places the responsibility of the community in using the word around the cycle of renewal. The responsibility of the community is found in 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

In verse 16, Paul states that the word of God is used in order to change people's lives. How adequate is the man of God armed with the word of God to do this deed? Thoroughly equipped for every good work! Do we need to send believers to professionals? We need to be the professionals. That's the challenge--to use the Word as God intended!. We need to develop in our church families older, more knowledgeable brothers and sisters who handle the word this way.

We will often feel inadequate to do such work. And that is okay; God blesses humility. He is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Paul himself when talking about the ministry of transformation says "Who is adequate for these things?" (2 Cor. 2:16). But he goes on to say " but our adequacy is from God" (3:5).

God wants us, like a family, to turn to each other in times of trial and need. I've been able to work with people who have been locked in bitterness, hatred, and strife. Why? For 24 years, all my pre-Christian life, that is where I lived. When God saved me he led me to a good church where an older man took me under his wing and discipled me to "put off all bitterness and wrath and anger clamor and slander along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you". (Eph. 4:31,32).

God helped me through this older man who brought me through the process of transformation. God then enabled me, by His grace and through His Word, to help others in this area and other areas, as I applied the same principles in His Word (Cf. 2 Cor. 1:3-7). I am an expert on being transformed from bitterness and anger. I had to be, because God had to get me through that so I could experience God’s power in real deliverance from these sins.

God's Word, used by the man (or woman) of God accomplished this. How does this work? The rest of this book goes into this in great detail, but I will give an illustration here to give you an idea.

The Word informs the conscience. We were created as moral beings by God, and thus we have a conscience. We can think of the conscience as a moral gyroscope. A gyroscope is basically like a top. It has a wheel in the middle of it that spins, and when you try and push it off its axis it doesn't push very easily. Gyroscopes are what are used to steer satellites, and various other things that are used without gravity. The gyroscope, once headed in a direction, keeps on going in that direction.

Our conscience is a sort of moral gyroscope. It tends to always head in one direction, and whenever something or someone pushes it out of kilter, the result is feelings of guilt. Paul says not to sin against one's conscience; the idea is that the conscience is the residue of the image of God in us. It's the only thing we've got to discern God's will. Martin Luther said, "It's neither safe nor right to go against your conscience." It's not safe because, once you go against your conscience, the conscience becomes calloused. Then things can easily spiral out of control.

So the question is: Does our conscience lined up with God by nature? No. Our conscience is usually lined up with the norms and values of our culture, particularly those instilled in us by our family. Usually, our morals reflect our family. Remember the two-worlds diagram: our parents stand in the place of God, and therefore it's their influence that usually has the greatest in shaping us and our values. Once we get out into the world, our values can get re-shaped, but usually they're fixed by this point and only undergo slight adjustments by the world. Whenever we go against these moral norms, we experience a sense of guilt.

So when a person sins against his conscience is that person actually guilty? It depends on whose standards we are using. Let's use the example of a girl raised in a strict "Christian" home, in which dancing is not allowed. Her senior year of high school she gets asked to the Senior Prom. She goes, and dances. Afterwards she feels incredibly guilty. Is she? By her own conscience; yes, she is guilty. But by God's holy standard, no. At least there is nothing in the scripture which condemns dancing.

The word of God is designed to inform the conscience and bring it back into alignment with God. When we begin working with people we need to understand that their gyroscope isn't lined up with God. We need to be teaching them what God's Word really says and re-forming the conscience. It may take a while to re-calibrate the gyroscope; to get it to twist from family and worldly morals to God's morals of love. There may be certain things in the family's morals that were fine and are lined up with God, but there will be things that aren't. The Word of God becomes the external standard by which we can start reviewing our moral guidelines and making changes and adjustments.

Thirty years ago it was absolutely immoral to live with a girl. Everyone understood that; anyone who slept with a woman felt guilty. That's just the way it was. Today that is no longer the case. Now, we live a different culture; a Christian counter-culture, as it were. Christians understand that God says such a thing God is immoral and thus sinful. But why? Because our gyroscope is lined up with God through His Word!

When a person comes into the church and is living with a girl, their gyroscope is not lined up with God. They may not be experiencing any feelings of guilt. If they are, we bring them to Repentance; but we cannot assume that they are. And if they are not, we need to inform their conscience of what God's Word says. That's a little more difficult than saying, "The Bible says that the immoral shall not inherit the kingdom of God," because our culture also says, "Why is it immoral?" The world says that it is OK to sleep with someone you love. Immorality in sleeping around or with someone you do not love. Or cheating on someone you love.

To transform such a person we need to deal much more deeply that merely superficially dealing with the sin. We need to explain that God is not a capricious god, sitting up in Heaven and saying, "Today I'm going to outlaw men and women sleeping together. Write that down." Instead we need to show the new believer that this violates the Law of Love. We need to explain that this law is there because of how He created us! God created the sexual bond to be a powerful bond between a man and a woman; the deepest form of giving between a man and a woman, and this relationship needs to be protected within a covenant relationship; an abiding and lasting relationship of love. The consequences of not protecting a sexual relationship catastrophic in terms of suffering and pain, and resulting callousness (Eph. 4:17-20) which leads to a lifetime of destructive behavior.

Teaching
We need to understand our culture and the things that contribute to the moral conscience, so when a person asks why he shouldn't be living with his girlfriend we can explain it to him. If he (or she) responds by saying "I don't know if I believe that," then we need to lead him to a deeper encounter with God by looking at the natural consequences of sin.

For example, I would then ask him if he's ever broken up with a girl he's slept with.

"Yeah."

I would go on: "How did it feel?"

"It was horrible."

I would go on inquiring about the pain, any resulting depression, etc. I would conclude by asking "Do you see the wisdom of an all loving God who wishes to protect men by confining sexual relationships to marriage?" I would probably show him Eph. 4:17-20 which would explain how sexual relationships before marriage actually hinder intimacy in marriage. I would also hold out the hope that this callousness could be cleansed by Jesus as he repents and cleanses himself and brings forth deeds in keeping with repentance. With Jesus all is not lost even when we sin grievously. But we should not presume upon God’s grace by persisting in sin (Hebrews 10:26-31)!

This exchange also shows how we should try to bring light to those in darkness. The goal is to bring them to an encounter with the living God through His word. The goal is not to get the person to respond to us as we place ourselves in the place of God. The diagram below shows the best way to confront vs. this less helpful way.

So we need to understand these things, so we can inform people’s conscience for the Word, so they know not only what to do but why to do it. They will then be able to transfer a specific moral principle over a broad spectrum of experience.

It is important that the conscience is lined up with God. Attitudes affect Actions. The word of God is used to teach, but it is also used to reprove. It is used to work on Actions, but the word of God can be used to go much deeper, to work down through the Attitudes, down to the Affections.

Let's say you go up to this new believer who is living in an immoral way. You take him to the passage: "The immoral shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Eph. 5:5) You ask him what this means; he says he doesn't know. So you ask him what being immoral means. He doesn't know that either. So you go back to the Old Testament, and you keep working until he understands. Then you ask him what he thinks he should do. His response: "What do I have to do? Move out?"

What is the attitude reflected in the way he asks the question?

"Are You going to tell me what to do?" So now you begin to address the attitude. "Excuse me--are you asking me what I'm telling you to do, or are you asking what God is directing you to do? What do you think God's directing you to do?"

What is his attitude? Is he letting God be God, or does he have a better idea than God? What's the attitude?

Finally he says, "I'm not going to move out."

Rebuking
The loving discipler then points out to him that his actions are a reflection of his heart. Who does he love? Who is he serving? Where are his affections?

Here you have gone from attitudes to brining revelation to his Affections. Does he love God? Or himself? He may say he is loving the girl, but even this shows that he does not trust God and his word. Is he serving God or is he serving himself? The reproof needs to go as deep as it possible piercing even to the very attitudes and affections of the disciple (I Cor. 4:5, Hebrews 4:12).

Correcting
Let me say that at this point, the church is essential in the area of correcting. The church is the picture of the new life being lived out. Let's diagram the church using the illustration of the gyroscopes. By the church, I mean a group of people who are close enough where they can see each other's lives. So let's show a new person coming in.

The new person coming in is out of sync and will come to realizes that something is not quite right here. While everyone else is spinning in one direction (hopefully God’s direction), he is spinning in a slightly or even largely, different direction. The church should realize this as well as expect this from new believers.

As the gyro becomes exposed that it is out of kilter, the responsibility of the church is to help the gyroscope be re-calibrated so that it is in synch with the rest of the church. Too often members of the church get offended at wrongly calibrated gyro’s rather than helping in re-calibrating them. The church needs to realize that re-calibrating gyroscopes is part of God's plan for the church.

As the church members live out a substantially different life than that of the world, and a new believer becomes involved intimately in the fellowship of the church, he will realize that he's not spinning the same way. Hopefully he will see lives that are attractive, something that draws him in and makes him want to be a part of this life. This type of correction itself may not actually be verbal or even intentional, but simply through example; the person comes into the circle, and their spin is imparted to him.

Having said this though, it may take some real directed help to make the necessary corrective changes. But hopefully by this point the new believer has developed some relationships where she can ask for help from older believers. It may be seeking out an older woman to ask for help in her relationship with her children, or help in her relationship with her husband (Titus 2:3-5).

The Word of God is able to correct, and the people of God are often the delivery instrument of God. Small groups, or house churches, are incredibly powerful in their ability bring about these types of changes since they are modeled after the family. If the house churches become ingrown, focusing simply on itself, and not on God, what happens when a new believer comes in and his gyroscope is off is that this group is either going to condemn and exclude him because of his flaws, or try to accommodate him in his sin and make him feel comfortable. When this happens, his gyroscope actually imparts spin to all the other gyroscopes rather than the other way around, and the other gyro’s are going to start spinning out of place. This type of church will eventually go downhill.

Both the condemning church and the condoning church are self-centered churches. What we need are God-centered churches. God-centered churches are always looking upwards as well as outwards, looking how to serve God, seeking God, sacrificing, going through suffering, as they are the caldron through which new believers will be transformed and the world will be reached. The church of Jesus Christ needs to be a loving family; a family that is willing to teach, reprove, correct and train the family members.

I recommend the book of Proverbs to those who are engaged in this kind of ministry. Skim through the book, especially chapters 9-30, looking for the put-ons and put-offs that apply to the person you are discipling or counseling. Often the verse includes some of the consequences of persisting in sin. This will help motivate the disciple to change. "Do not loose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary." Gal. 6:9. People don’t change easily. As you try to spin against him, he will spin back against you. Your patience and perseverance will be a test of your faith.

I believe that transformational ministry is an essential part of God's plan for His church. There seems to be a strong movement in the modern-day church to cell churches and house-groups. These models will be very difficult if they are going to expand by bringing in the lost.. There will be times when, as leaders, we will ask, "What in the world am I doing? I don't need this aggravation."

At times like these you must remember: God has called you to this aggravation. These are His children. He has chosen them to be in His family. Your responsibility as a leader is to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Your tool is the Word with which you will teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness.

You have no right to check out, and if you do, you prove yourself to be a hireling and not a shepherd (Cf. Acts 20:28 and Jn.10:12). God has called those of us who are leaders to this kind of ministry. We need to give ourselves to others, especially those who are unwanted.

We need enable the old gyroscopes to have their way with this new one, as everyone's focusing on God. We need to train people and tell them, "When new gyros come in, initially things are going to be uncomfortable, because the gyro isn't lined up yet. We're going to labor with these people, we're going to work with them, we're going to see them transformed into the very image of Christ as God enables us to liberate His Word through His Spirit in their lives. Whoever God is going to lead into that person's life to help them, we're going to help that person. We're not just going to try to get them to conform so we can feel better. We're going to bring that person into conformity with God, so he can be better.

There will be times when a new believer does not make the transition and has to be disciplined and put out of the church. That is very painful. The group will often respond saying, "We just don't want this anymore." They may not consciously say that, but they will feel that way. They may stop evangelizing and reaching out.

As leaders we need to prepare our churches for such suffering. This is the norm! The norm is not being cloistered in our little community saying, "Wow, this is great! This is just wonderful!" No; the norm is bringing in the battered, the broken, the wounded, and realizing that it is going to be messy (Jude 23). But God will gain glory!