Overcoming the sin of pornography and fantasy lust
A poll was taken from the men attending a certain Promise Keepers meeting. One-half of the men admitted that within the past week they had looked at pornography. According to an article on the website Pastors.com, over 9 out of 10 men at a Christian men’s retreat revealed that they had a problem with pornography or fantasy lust although they knew that it was not pleasing to God. Over 500 men were surveyed at the retreat. According to a separate survey taken by the magazine Christianity Today, 40% of the pastors surveyed have visited a pornographic website. Over half acknowledge that they can be tempted by internet pornography. Shockingly, 37% of them are now struggling with pornography.
How can a man overcome this problem?
On a certain occasion, Jesus taught his disciples about things that cause people to sin.
Luke 17:1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves.
Then Jesus taught that it is within our power to forgive our brother who has sinned against us.
“ If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
Jesus commands us to do something that is entirely against our human nature. If someone hurts us even once, it is difficult enough to forgive that person even if he repents and asks for forgiveness. We like to remember what he did. It is virtually impossible to forgive that brother seven times in a single day. This would be a mountain that is simply too huge to move. Two thousand years ago, the apostles realized this. They asked Jesus for more faith to move the mountain of unforgiveness into the sea.
Luke 17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
In response to the disciples’ plea for more faith, Jesus spoke of commanding a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea. It is of course against the very nature of a mulberry tree that lives only on fresh water to be planted in the sea which contains salt water. But Jesus taught the disciples that it can in fact be done if one had faith as a mustard seed. Elsewhere in Scripture Jesus taught his disciples about this kind of faith.
Matthew 17:20 I tell you the truth, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
It is clear that the faith to command and move a mulberry tree into the sea is very similar in nature to the faith required to command and move a mountain into the sea. Therefore Jesus is essentially teaching here the same faith which is required when exercising authority to heal the sick or drive out a demon, which forms the context of the above verse from Matthew 17. When with mountain-moving faith we command things under our authority such as infirmities and demons to move, they will obey us. What is it that also obeys us? Our servants obey us. And Jesus goes on to teach us about the relationship between a master and his servant.
Luke 17:7 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?
Two thousand years during the time of Jesus, a master would not have spoiled or coddled his servant. This is not how a master exerts his authority over his servant. Eventually a spoiled or coddled servant will begin to disobey his master’s orders. Scripture teaches that we have authority over our sinful nature.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live…
The apostle Paul teaches that we have authority to put to death our sinful nature by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus when our sinful nature tempts us to sin, we do not coddle it by entertaining its suggestions, but rather treat it harshly as a master would a servant.
Let’s apply this to the problem many men, including pastors and believers, have with pornography and fantasy lust.
We can overcome this temptation by applying Jesus’ teaching. Let’s say you are struggling in this area. When you are checking your email one day, you accidentally type in the wrong address and suddenly you find yourself on a pornographic website. Seemingly irresistible images jump out at you from your screen. Your servant, your sinful nature, picks that very moment to approach you. He says:
"It’s OK, don’t be afraid. Just one look won’t hurt you. It’s the second look that’s bad. Just loooook at her! Stay for a moment…it’s OK. The Lord is merciful and will forgive you if you just confess it to Him later. Remember that He died to bear your sin. But you cannot stop now. Click on that link down there."
At that very moment, we must know what to do and what to say to our servant. If we invite him to sit down, serve him food and eat with him, we are in trouble. We will fall into the sin of fantasy lust and pornography again. Yes, if we are truly repentant afterwards and ask the Lord to forgive us, indeed He will. But there will be a price to pay for failing to be strict with our sinful nature and to exercise our authority over it. Among other things, we may once again need deliverance from the spirit of pornography. And this time it may be more difficult. Luke 11:26 tells us that when the unclean spirit returns, he brings with him seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and our final condition will be worse than the first.
Instead of coddling our sinful nature when it tries to seduce us, we should immediately rebuke it severely, commanding it authoritatively with mountain-moving (or mulberry tree-moving) faith to be quiet and to leave in Jesus’ name. Our sinful nature will back off, and we can leave that pornographic website and escape from temptation. Each time it tries to tempt us to sin, we must rebuke and resist it in Jesus’ name as we would fight off a home invader.
There are of course other many other ways besides unforgiveness and fantasy lust with which our sinful nature can tempt us to sin. Some are the temptation to anger, greed, covetousness, fornication, adultery, pride, and jealousy. Whatever our sinful nature says to us, we must immediately take authority over it with mountain-moving faith, without any trace of doubt or wavering. Like a servant, it will obey us.
Our Ill-Equipped Missionaries
Missionaries are by definition those who are “sent out” essentially to proclaim the kingdom of God to those who have not heard the gospel. While he was on earth Jesus sent out his disciples on different occasions to proclaim the kingdom of God.
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 6 So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.
When Jesus sent out the Twelve to preach the kingdom of God, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases. He commanded them to heal the sick as they proclaimed the gospel. After this commissioning, they did as they were commanded: they went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere. They did not simply pray for the sick as the Church does today; they actually healed the sick.
Luke 10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
After this Jesus sent out seventy more disciples and commanded them also to heal the sick and to proclaim the kingdom of God. He also gave them authority over demons. He taught them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field. To this day the Church is praying that the Lord will send out workers to the harvest field.
The Church then obediently sends out missionaries to the harvest fields of the world. How should the Church send them out? It should be obvious that we should send them out in the same way that Jesus himself sent out the Twelve and then the Seventy. As he sent them out, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases.
Unfortunately the Church does not do this today. We do not equip our missionaries as Jesus did. Many of our missionaries do not even know that they have such authority or do not know how to use it effectively to confirm the absolute truth of the gospel to the lost.
Those who are sent to the 1040 Window to proclaim the gospel to Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, idolaters, and adherents of sorcery must especially be equipped with such weapons. It is extremely difficult to bring these gospel-resistant peoples to Christ unless they first see miraculous signs.
Our missionaries are sent out with mostly everything they need except for the proper weaponry. They are already sanctified and committed to the Lord; they are willing to lay down their lives for Him. They are usually sufficiently funded. They are sent out by a mission organization and covered by the intercessory prayers of supporting churches. They are otherwise well trained. But instead of the equivalent of M-16 automatic weapons, they are sent out with bows and arrows. Not only are many frustrated with their inability to fulfill the Great Commission in their own areas, some along with their families are under frequent attack by the powers of darkness and do not know how to defend themselves.
Part of the reason why the Church has not fulfilled the Great Commission during these past two thousand years is because we do not proclaim the kingdom of God as Jesus commanded his disciples. We just preach the gospel with words or with good works, without healing the sick and confirming the message with miraculous signs. The words and good works are necessary, but not sufficient in themselves to get the job done. Disobedience, whether unwitting or not, ultimately leads to failure.
We are now in the last days and it is time to equip and send out every missionary with the powerful weapon that Jesus gave to his disciples when he sent them out. The Lord is now restoring the understanding of supernatural power and authority to the Church for the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. The “theology of helplessness” prevalent throughout the Church has imprisoned us in our present state of weakness for the past millennium. It must be reconsidered.
Self-Deception in the Church?
I was invited to minister to a congregation of thousands at a Sunday service in Asia. During a pause in the worship before I stood up to speak, the worship leader said something to the effect that everyone had been healed of their infirmities by faith. For emphasis he raised his hand, and a thousand hands went up in dutiful agreement with him that they had been healed. Had all of them really been healed? No, they were simply healed “by faith.” This practice is based on Mark 11:24.
Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
The people believed that they had already received their healing, and according to this verse, the healing would be theirs. There are miraculous healings in the gospels that may be based upon this Scripture. In Luke 17, for example, ten lepers were healed when by faith they obeyed Jesus and went to show themselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed.
The problem is that it was relatively rare for Jesus to heal people in this way. If frequency of mention in the gospels is an indication of how often Jesus healed in a particular way, the overwhelming majority of his healing miracles were performed instantly and on the spot. The infirm usually did not need to exercise faith in order to receive their healing later at a future time. There is considerable discrepancy between what we see in the gospels and what we see in the Church today with regard to healing.
In the gospels and Acts we read of many supernatural healings. We believe with all our heart that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that He heals the sick today as He did two thousand years ago. Unfortunately we do not see today the frequency of healing miracles that are recorded in the New Testament. Yet to our credit we somehow cling to the belief that God heals. The irony is that when taken to an extreme this has led to what might appear from the outside to be self-deception. Today believers are no longer healed in the way the sick were often healed by Jesus in the gospels. Instead we are now healed “by faith,” whether or not we are really healed. (And if our healing is not forthcoming as is often the case, it is because we “lack faith.”) I suspect that for many who have been believing in this way and waiting a long time for their healing, their participation in this practice has become little more than dutiful mental assent to a tired charismatic tradition.
Such perseverance in the face of harsh reality may be commendable. But nevertheless we should not avoid the question: where are the “real” miracles? Why do they occur only in the meetings of certain superstar ministers but are otherwise very rare? What about certain Scriptures which teach about ordinary believers healing the sick?
Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. …17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: …they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” 19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
John 14:11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
There are two issues that jump out immediately from these Scriptures. The first and more substantive one is that of context.
In the verses from Mark 16, the context of believers placing their hands on sick people is clearly evangelistic. The miraculous healings are signs to accompany and confirm the truth of the gospel to the lost. Similarly, in John 14:6 Jesus claims to be the only way to the Father. According to verse 11 later in the same chapter, the evidence of the truth of this declaration is the miracles that He did. Then in verse 12 Jesus promises that His disciples will do these same miracles for clearly the same evangelistic purpose as He did them.
Today the context of healing has shifted markedly away from being an evangelistic weapon for winning the lost to that of being a blessing to infirm believers. Healing services are predominantly events where sick believers can be touched by the compassion and healing power of the Lord. Few will object to believers being healed, but the original context of healing was primarily as a sign to the lost that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah and the only Savior. Thus the original context of healing has for the most part been lost by the Church. This can partly explain why miracles are rare today.
The second issue is one of methodology. Those who stand strongly on Mark 11:24 as a means of receiving physical healing should look at the verse which immediately precedes it.
Mark 11:23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
This is primarily how Jesus healed the sick in the gospels. He generally did not pray for them, but rather spoke to the diseases and demons and commanded them to leave with mountain-moving faith. With authority and finality he commanded the lame to get up and walk and the sick to be healed. There was no doubt in his heart that the infirmities and demons would obey his words because he knew the Father had given him authority over them. Because of this authority he fully believed that what he commanded would happen.
The Church is to heal the sick in the same way today. But because of the fear of failure, we dare not. (One might say that because of this fear the Church has set aside the logos and put all if not most of her hope on the rhema---an unhealthy extreme.) We would rather ask and trust the Lord to heal directly. We also put the burden of the healing on the infirm person to have faith to receive the miracle. However, fear of failure is a very poor foundation on which to build a teaching. When you are afraid, you will have doubt in your heart and you will not believe that what you say will happen. Consequently the mountain will not be moved; the miraculous healing will not take place. Teachings based on the fear of failure, however well they appear to be formulated, will not stand the test of Scripture. Needless to say we should not walk in empty boldness and presumption either, but rather on balanced understanding of the word of God. The second reason why the miracles no longer happen as they did two thousand years ago is because the Church no longer heals the sick as Jesus did. Instead we only pray for the sick and trust the Lord to do the rest.
There must then be scriptural balance between Mark 11:23 and Mark 11:24.
Mark 11:23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Verse 24 teaches that those who desire healing from the Lord should believe for their healing after they pray, something already taught in most “Spirit-filled” churches. To balance this, verse 23 teaches that those who minister the healing should understand and operate in mountain-moving faith. This faith-without-a-doubt based upon the authority over disease and demons given to believers is the kind of faith that will result in the re-emergence of New Testament healing miracles today. This faith issues forth strict commands that will be obeyed by diseases and demons in the name of Jesus Christ. Today the Lord is restoring this mountain-moving faith to His Church.
The current focus of the Church is on a somewhat nebulous concept called “the anointing.” Whatever it really is, we might not lack “the anointing.” What we lack is something far more basic: mountain-moving faith. We should remember that after Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at the Jordan River (Isaiah 61 and Luke 4), he began to exercise unparalleled authority over diseases and demons through mountain-moving faith. Again, balance must be restored.
Finally we must not neglect the very next verse, Mark 11:25.
Mark 11:25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”For the mountain to move according to our command and the healing to take place after prayer, there must be no unforgiveness as well as unforgiven sin standing between the believer and God. This relatively unexplored area encompasses possibly another reason why miracles are relatively rare today.
Finally, we understand that God is sovereign and that He is the One who ultimately heals through His disciples.
Testimonies of multiplied miraculous healings
done by ordinary disciples of Christ
The Headlong Rush for Size and Crowds
In America today, the priority among many churches is size, almost at any cost. This conforms to the pattern of American culture where bigger and more in a quantitative sense are almost always desirable. More wealth, more fame, more business success, bigger profits, more expensive homes and cars, bigger churches. If huge churches translate directly into more souls born-again into the Kingdom of God, what’s not to like about megachurches?
In the corporate world, a well-run company can succeed. Good management and marketing and timing will bring growth. There are formulae that make business success likely. “God’s blessing” in a direct and sovereign way is not necessarily the responsible agent. In the same way a well-managed and well-marketed church can grow big. Good management and marketing for a church are not necessarily bad. They can be applications of what is called “contextualization” by missiologists whereby the basic gospel is tailored to fit the culture of the people group being targeted. However, one must be careful not to cross the line from contextualization to syncretism or compromise. This is what the Catholic Church did after Christianity become the official religion of the Roman Empire. The strategy succeeded admirably. At present throughout the world Catholics arguably still outnumber Protestants.
Today American Protestant churches in their zeal for large crowds may be unwittingly emulating the Catholic formula for success. Without citing any specific examples of this, let us simply look at what Scripture says about entering the Kingdom of God.
Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 13:18 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.” 20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Here Jesus teaches about “birds of the air” and “yeast” in the Kingdom of God. In Scripture these are not normally seen to be good things. The former can refer to agents of the devil (Luke 8:5) while the latter almost always refers to sin, false teaching or hypocrisy, as in the “yeast of the Pharisees” (Luke 12:1). These are things that Jesus tells us will be found in Christendom. Immediately following this teaching, Scripture goes on to tell us:
Luke 13:22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
Granted that according to the context of this Scripture, Jesus was speaking to the Jews. But dare we Gentiles think that with the age of the Gentile Church over these past two thousand years the very same warning cannot now apply to us? Indeed within the Christian circles found in parts of America “we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.”
Matthew 22:1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. 13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Again Jesus is speaking to the Jews. They were going to reject the gospel, so it would be offered instead to the Gentiles. Many of these Gentiles will be invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb, but they will show up without wedding clothes. Few of them are chosen.
While we dare not speculate as to exactly how many in terms of absolute numbers the phrase “few are chosen” signifies, it does not bode well for the huge crowds of “Christians” that gather in some American megachurches every Sunday. Is it the gospel of Jesus Christ that draws them, or an event that tickles their ears and massages their flesh? Will these megachurches really ever get around to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the crowds as they say they intend to do? If they do, will the crowds stay? Scripture seems to say that they will not. Few of them are chosen.
Luke 14:33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
This movement born in the West is now being exported to the Church in Third World countries.
Are big churches all blessed by God?
"The Anointing"
Within the body of Christ today there are some very anointed servants of God who minister with great power and giftedness. Unfortunately, for many believers---especially those of the evangelical persuasion---“the anointing” is an elusive something that is difficult to understand and even more difficult to obtain. Perhaps we can provide some clarity on this subject for them.
Let’s look at the example of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…
According to this prophecy, Jesus would be anointed by the Holy Spirit in order to carry out his ministry as the promised Messiah. This was fulfilled in Luke 3 when the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove following his baptism at the Jordan River. After this anointing by the Spirit, his ministry was immediately marked by supernatural authority.
Luke 4:32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.
His very first miracle as recorded by Luke amazed the onlookers because of the authority which he exercised over a demon.
Luke 4:33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon and cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, Let us alone! What is to us and to You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know You, who You are, the Holy One of God. 35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet and come out of him! And when the demon had thrown him into the midst, he came out of him, not harming him. 36 And they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, what a word is this! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.
The miracle astonished the onlookers because this flesh-and-blood human being gave a command to a spirit being and it obeyed him. As far as they knew, only God in heaven had such authority over demons. Luke then records a second miracle in which authority was again the primary vehicle.
Luke 4:38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.
Even though Simon’s mother-in-law was simply physically sick and not demonized, Jesus rebuked the fever as he had rebuked the demon earlier. He gave a command to the fever to leave and it promptly obeyed his command.
Thus when Jesus was anointed by the Spirit, he received authority over diseases and demons. He exercised this authority to heal and deliver by the giving of forceful commands. He never simply prayed for the sick. Rather he performed these miracles by rebuking and giving commands to demons, diseases and the infirm.
We conclude that the anointing of the Spirit on Jesus resulted in authority, especially over infirmities and demons.
How does this apply to disciples of Jesus Christ today?
John 20:21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
As the Father sent Jesus and gave the Holy Spirit to him, Jesus sends us and gives us the Holy Spirit. We have received “the anointing” for preaching the good news to the poor. As in the case of Jesus, this anointing brings authority for us also to heal the sick and cast out demons as we proclaim the Kingdom of God to the world.
How do we exercise this authority? Jesus gave forceful and authoritative commands to demons, diseases and the infirm. They obeyed him. Believers can exercise this authority in exactly the same way. If we issue the commands with mountain-moving faith---with no fear or doubt---people will be healed and set free. The gospel of the Kingdom will be confirmed.
Mark 11:23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
“The anointing” need not necessarily be a mystical phenomenon accompanied by physical or spiritual sensations. Rather it can simply bring to believers on earth God’s authority from heaven. Exercising this authority to heal the sick and cast out demons in Jesus’ name is in principle nearly as simple as commanding your pet dog to sit or ordering your five-year-old bundle of energy to sit down and eat his dinner.
Teaching vs. Preaching
Today in the Church there is a preponderance of preaching and relatively little teaching. This is especially true at the Sunday morning worship service of most churches---generally considered the “highlight” of the week---where most believers get their spiritual food. This is also generally true of conferences and special gatherings where preaching often dominates the agenda. (This trend has left its impact even on the secular media which is familiar with the term "preacher," but usually in a negative way.) In some circles around the world, the mark of a good preacher is one who can entertain the congregation and make them laugh.
In contrast, Jesus Christ was balanced in his ministry with regard to teaching and preaching.
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
He not only preached the gospel of the kingdom, he also taught and healed the sick. There is a difference between preaching and teaching. Preaching is generally for proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God to the lost. The Greek word for preaching kerusso signifies (a) "to be a herald," or, in general, "to proclaim," (b) "to preach the gospel as a herald," and lastly, (c) "to preach the word…" Moreover, the term euangelizo is almost always used of "the good news" concerning the Son of God as proclaimed in the gospel. Thus preaching is primarily for sharing the gospel with those who have not heard or for those who do not believe. Accordingly, Jesus commands us in Mark Chapter 16 to “go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (verse 15).
Teaching, on the other hand, is from the Greek work didasko which means “to give instruction.” The object of the instruction is obviously the body of believers. In verses from the end of Matthew 28, also known as the Great Commission, Jesus commands us,
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Here---in contrast to Mark 16:15---the emphasis is not on preaching, but upon teaching and discipleship. We are to teach believers to obey everything Jesus commanded His disciples. What, among other things, did Jesus command them to do?
Luke 10:9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’
Among other things, Jesus commanded His disciples to heal the sick and to proclaim His kingdom to the lost. Today we are to teach His disciples to obey this same command. The problem is that healing the sick and proclaiming the gospel are not practices that can be taught through preaching. Preaching, of course, can bring sinners to conviction and faith in Jesus. It can inspire, challenge, and renew the faith of tired believers. However, it does not equip them to do the works that Jesus did according to John 14:12. It cannot train believers to heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom of God to the lost.
Therefore preaching is generally for the lost, the backslidden, and for the needy to be strengthened; it can be accompanied by great emotion and drama. In contrast, however, teaching is for those who are ready to obey Christ’s commands, which include the Great Commission. It involves the methodical and logical presentation of Scripture line-by-line in a precise and didactic manner. Unfortunately, there exists an unbalanced emphasis on preaching within the body of Christ today. If anything, the emphasis for believers should be teaching.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (English Standard Version)
The primary job description of all five offices given by God is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. But this job is not being done. The trend has been rather in favor of superstar, one-man-show ministries of which the primary purpose is not to train and equip the body of Christ to do what they are doing. One suspects that the last thing such ministries want to see is the body of Christ---“ordinary” believers---enabled to do what they are doing. There may be understandable concerns of job security. Perhaps this can in part explain the emphasis on preaching and the relative lack of teaching. Moreover, preachers can attain to celebrity status and enjoy the accompanying earthly benefits whereas teachers do so less frequently.
The Church of Jesus Christ needs to correct the imbalance between teaching and preaching. Only then will those who believe in Jesus be equipped to do the works that He did, and the Great Commission be fulfilled.
We believe today we are at the beginning stages of restoring a scriptural and healthy balance between preaching and teaching.
