An All-Hallows Eve Ramble

[DeanZF]

Hi ho the derry-oh, a-rambling I will go!



I’ve been reading a book that will remain unnamed, at least until I finish it. It’s about a contextual Jesus through the eyes of what seems to be a liberal historian. From my perspective, it’s a pretty good representation of what I see as a scholarly book, not pushing one agenda item, but rather exposing thoughts and opinions about all sorts of seemingly minorish points. When that happens, it comes with a lot of subtly negative, critical comments about the folks that many of us consider to be heros. Over and above Messiah’s status as divine, over and above centuries of debate, research, and investigation of events, over and above the stance of the vast majority of orthodox scholars of the Bible, there are still those who entice innocent readers and seekers of truth by clever titles and slanted texts.



The book in question was written by a man who sounds in the opening chapters of the book as though he’s a believer in Christ. He’s a professor of the history of the Jews and seems to be pretty focused on Judaism as expressed in the several hundred years either side of the birth of Messiah. He brings some things that make any thinker ponder some of our preconceived ideas. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. More on that in a bit. (I did look at the last pages of the book and the author does confess the lordship and divinity of Jesus. That’s a good thing and a relief to me.)



He also writes about events chronicled in the Gospels, narratives about things that Jesus did. This guy, however, writes about the same sorts of things being manifest in the lives of other Jewish holy men. In one chapter, he writes about Jesus’ various confrontations with the demonic realm. With deftness, the writer presents historical accounts of devout, but admittedly non-deity, Jewish holy men of that time and their encounters with demons. Like the other exorcists of that era, Jesus was treated as just another Who had His own formulae for dealing with the connection between exorcism and healing. It is true that the Hebraic mindset sees the human being as a complete being, mind/body/soul/spirit. Greek mindset subdivides us into convenient components that can be dealt with separately, with little or no connection between spirit and body, for instance. Hmmm.



Those of us who have traveled in Charismatic circles for any length of time, have seen all sorts of healing and exorcistic events. Some I’ve seen have been pretty mild, some were pretty wild. I’ve been hissed at, called names, glared at with suddenly hateful eyes. I’m sure that you’ve been exposed to similar stuff. If you’ve studied the Book, you’ll remember how Jesus and His followers, and even the prophets before Him, did this stuff. Most of how Jesus healed worked against demons was from the position of authority. He simply spoke and things happened. He also did things, however, many of which are very foreign to our western experience. In today’s disease-paranoid world, imagine putting one of your bodily fluids in someone’s ears or eyes! Can we say “lawsuit”? I’m positive that there is something to the author’s thesis that saliva has cleansing and thus healing aspects. The mouth is the area of the body that heals quickest. Remember the old adage about licking one’s wounds? We see Jesus spit in an ear, saliva-mud on the eyes—was this part of the healing ritual? Was this something that other Jewish exorcists of the era practiced? Or was this a cure that came special delivery from on high, from the throne?



Even though Jesus certainly had an earthly context, I don’t believe that Jesus was “like” other healers or exorcists of that or any other age. How did Jesus do what Jesus did? I think that we have a couple of clues from Scripture. We know that He was up early in prayer, spending time with Father. In John 5:19, Jesus gives us an even bigger clue, that the folks saw the Son does nothing on His own, but rather does only what the Son sees the Father doing. One of my earliest memories of being schooled in ministering to people was to be careful to listen to the Spirit. Don’t be praying for or declaring healing on someone unless you’re hearing or “seeing” Father heal that person. In a prayer line with someone who’s intent on doing what Father is doing, you might hear prayers for blessing for the one requesting prayer rather than prayers to heal.



The author in question shared that many of the historic healers spent hours or even days praying before what we might call ministry. These people were homing in on what G-d was wanting to do! This author shared one special anecdote about one evidently famous healer who spent an hour focusing his heart and preparing before he ever addressed HaShem! That’s an interesting lesson from antiquity, yes? We do things like confessing our sins and asking that any weakness spiritual, mental or physical would be shown that we could present it to Father that He might make it whole, so that we can be better and more effective vessels of His virtues.



When it comes to dealing with demons, Jesus gave us a bunch of examples. Were these “standard operating procedure” for healers and exorcists of the day? Do I care?? The point here is still the same—what is it that Father is doing and how do I do that?



Dealing with healing issues and exorcism issues of any sort are not for the faint of heart or the ill-prepared. Demonic forces play for keeps—they’ll hurt you. Remember the sons of Sceva the Jewish chief priest? We don’t know all the details, but we know that they tried to do what Paul did, but did it by an Authority that they did not know. I love the story and I have my own imaginings about how it came down. The boys were dabbling with exorcism. Were they thinking that because they were the chief priest’s kids that they had clout? They watched St. Paul the Jewish exorcist and used his formula: “Come out of him in the name of the Jesus that Paul preaches!” The demonic force answered and I swear I can hear a Jewish accent, “I recognize Jesus. Paul I know, but who are YOU?” These hobgoblins did not go “boo” and make ugly faces. This demonic force pounced on all seven of them at once, overpowered them, stripped them of their clothing and then allowed them to flee the house naked and bleeding from their wounds! PHYSICAL punishment for SPIRITUAL warfare! Do not forget that story, ever! It’s not there to amuse.



My bishop regularly says, “The day after the battle is more important than the day before.” What does that mean practically for those who minister, ordained or lay? If Sunday is my day for the ministry team, that means that the days prior, I need to be “prayed up”. Focus on confessing my sins, asking the Spirit of the Lord to show me anything that can and will be used against me and to deal with it. Confess it, renounce it, throw it out, or otherwise deal with trifles or giants. As dedicated believers, serious about our relationship with our God, we always strive to be clean before Him, but any warrior or athlete prepares differently for the battle than for daily life. Some will describe this in a lot of ways. The point is to prepare. Put on the armor, check the sails and rigging, do all of the warm-ups—prepare. Part of the preparation is using spiritual Q-Tips to get the spiritual ears clean. Come ministry time, we need to be ready to see all those in the prayer line or at the rail, depending on the church culture—see them and DEAL with them. How do we deal with those folks in the line?



As compassionate Christians, we want everyone to be healed, set free, whole. EVERYone! Is that practical or possible? No, sadly. Jesus did not heal everyone, and He was God! How do we pray for the sick? We’ve prepared, we’ve asked Father to clean our ears that we might hear Him clearly and know what to do and how to pray. What now? Might I suggest the tried and true? “Practice!” In this case, it does not make perfect, but it does help us understand and recognize His voice and His thoughts. If we don’t hear a clear word for the person’s healing or release from oppression/possession, we should not be proclaiming their healing or even praying aloud for specifics.



[Please note: This is the training that I’ve received and that I feel has worked for me in my life in ministry. Paul told Timothy to not be in a hurry to lay hands on people. I think that was primarily having to do with ordination or the passing on of spiritual gifts, but what greater spiritual gift could there be than the release of a soul from spiritual bondage?]



If a person comes forward and you feel no unction, pray blessings and peace on the person. Maybe pray for wisdom in handling the issues. Don’t patronize, don’t lie, don’t pray for something that you’re not sure “Father is seeing”.



Jesus was not like the other healers of His day. He was not the average, well-schooled exorcist student of local masters. He is the author of all this stuff! He knows the demons by name and by traits and He knows how to deal with them.



The author of the little book (at least of the point of the book where I’m at) is busy dismissing this aspect of our Lord. Jesus knows ALL this stuff!! And if we have ears to hear and are called to the task, we can hear His voice and learn of His ways. In spite of liberal dismissers of the divine nature of our Creator, He's still the very best at what He does, and His is the original!



A ramble this has been, loosely inspired by the appearance of Hallowe’en and the spiritual darkness that too often accompanies it in our society, along with the book being read. I look forward to the thoughts of those who have rambled with me on tonight’s mental walk.