Broken Bedside Manner - Part 2

Please read Part 1 first!

Over the years I've prayed for lots of sick people in the name of Jesus and some have been healed, some haven't. In that time I feel like God has taught me something valuable about ministering to broken people (physically or otherwise). People coming to you for prayer are often afraid of what may or may not happen or are anxious about being in front of lots of people. They may be wavering in their faith in God or hoping that the Holy Spirit doesn't show you the root of their real problems! They're vulnerable. They might have their defenses up because of past injuries from the Church. Often a slap on the fourhead and a "BE HEALED IN JESUS' NAME" is not what these people need. "BELIEVE AND YOU'LL RECEIVE" can just drain on people's faith if they can't force themselves to believe. If they don't know God and you're supposed to be representing Him, they may end up hating Him. This is terrible bedside manner!

Broken people need to be loved and appreciated, cared for and comforted. Jesus didn't only demonstrate power, He embodied Love! When broken people came to Jesus they were met by His love and compassion and so when they approach us in search of Him, they should get the same. Bill Johnson, an american minister says that everytime someone comes to you for prayer they should encounter the love of God through you whether they get healed and all their problems are solved or not. Experiencing the love of God creates a desire for Him, desiring Him attracts His presence and His power is in His presence. This means that if someone encounters His love, God can continue to work in that person after they've left your care. I hope you're still thinking about this in relation to non-physical healing.

The presence of God in our lives is what makes us whole as human beings. When we minister to the broken out of obligation we're ministering out of ourselves instead of out of His love so we have nothing to give anyone except for what we're feeling in that moment. Fear and unbelief often keep us from showing genuine care. I've found that sometimes when I've prayed for someone to be healed and nothing has happened instantly, the next time I see them I avoid the topic! Just being honest. In the past this may have been for many reasons inc. not wanting to tarnish my record of people healed (sickening I know but Jesus loves me), not wanting to risk finding that my lack of faith kept them from their miracle or just not wanting to have to pray for them again knowing it might not happen again etc etc. Basically it was selfishness. All about me. Are we moved by the suffering broken people are going through in comparison to the life God wants them to have?

We cannot get around the fact that caring for the broken takes times and effort and energy (both human and Divine). The quick fix isn't always the solution. I have friends who were alcholics and drug addicts prior to becoming Christians. For some of them their addictions vanished overnight and God healed them completely. For others they had to walk with people through the rough processes of recovery and lean on others for support. If we try to love broken people from ourselves, we run dry because our love is finite and limited. We need to allow the love of God to flow through us because that is a river that doesn't run dry. When we encounter the broken we must be ready to give them the affirmation and comfort they need until they are ready to walk in their new found wholeness.

Thanks for reading!

Broken Bedside Manner - Part 1

Google definition of bedside manner: "manner or conduct of a physician in the presence of a patient."


"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified."
Isaiah 61:1-3
     Brokenness has many different symptoms, it may be poverty, it may be insecurity, it may be fear or past wounds that haven't healed. It may be destructive relationships, substance abuse or laziness. Since sin entered the world humanity seems to have a tendency towards brokenness even to the point where those who are whole create issues for themselves in order to fit in with everyone else! I'm not really sure at the moment whether I think "whole people" are people without issues or just people whose issues are in submission to them  rather than the other way around. Maybe it's both. Either way, Isaiah shows us that the brokenness of humanity is not God's will as Jesus came to bring an end to it.


     One of the main responsibilities and privileges of the Church in fulfilling the ministry of Jesus is to serve and care for those who are broken and see them made whole. Throughout Scripture the Lord pretty much says there's nothing He loves more! (Isaiah 58:6-12; Matthew 25:31-46 to name a couple) Many churches have specific ministries to specific groups of broken people and they are fantastic. We have people that venture out across the globe on missions trips to give time to serving those who are broken whether in the sex trade in Thailand or in marriage counselling in the UK. All of these are fantastic but I want to raise a question. Is (y)our heart for the broken?


     As with many activities in the Church that we're afraid to engage with, it's really easy to stand back and applaud those who selflessly give of themselves to see the broken made whole. We can agree theologically with what they're doing and think "Yeah it's great that someone is doing that" and have absolutely no change happen in our hearts and therefore our lives. Or worse we can restrict our time for serving the poor to our missions trips or ministry nights. The issue comes when we minister to the broken while our heart is not in it. Think back to when you were a kid and you hurt yourself. You're crying and the world is pretty much ending. You run to the nearest trusted adult for help in all your vulnerability. If all you get is a plaster (or worse maybe even a "stop being such a baby"), you're going to be miserable for a long time afterwards! What we need in that moment is authentic sympathy mixed with affirmation ("You're such a brave boy!") combined with the mystical power of the "kiss-it-better" finished off with the embrace that doesn't end until the pain has gone! Then you run off, ready to take on the world!


     Broken people can tell when someone is attending to them out of obligation and guess what? It sucks! It makes you feel horrible, like a faceless name on a long list of arduous chores! People actually often get more injured through that sort of ministry, thinking "Not even the people who're supposed to care care about me!" Jesus didn't treat people like this. We find Him giving His full attention to the people who came to Him and engaging them, meeting them where they're at. Jesus touched the leper who hadn't been touched for years and healed him when He could have just spoken a word. Jesus allowed the children to come to Him so that He could bless every single one! And although it seems gross, Jesus put his own spit in the eyes of a blind him to restore his sight! He gave something of Himself for the restoration of another. Broken people need to be accepted in their brokenness in order to be led into wholeness.


Thanks for reading. Please read Part 2!

Poem: A Request from the Young Men of the Nation

A Request from the Young Men of the Nation

Show me a man who can carry the weight of the world on his shoulders but knows when to lay it down.

Show me a man who can walk with confidence without falling prey to pride.
Show me a man who knows how to be humble before both God and men.
Show me a man whose possessions don't possess him but instead are collected for the good of others.
Show me a man who fights for justice while surrendering to love.
Show me a man who has mastery over his emotions but does not deny them.
Show me a man who kisses his children and tells them he loves them.
Show me a man who can wear his heart on his sleeve without a designer label.
Show me a man who always has an answer but doesn't have to say it.
Show me a man who encourages his friends without patronizing them.
Show me a man who can keep his faith in the darkness based on what he saw in the light.
Show me a man whose life isn't as precious to him as the next man's.
Show me a man who values peace over victory.
Show me a man who respects before it is earned.
Show me a man who forgives before it is asked of him.
Show me a man whose romance is not limited to February 14th.

Show me such a man, find him if you can so I can grow up to be just like him.

Climbing Jacob's Ladder to Get Over Ourselves!

     One of the main things God has taught me over the last year is the simple fact that the Church is made up of people. PEOPLE!!! It makes me think "God...I know you wanted somewhere to live on earth but why on earth did you choose PEOPLE???" People are crazy! People are annoying! People are ignorant! People are rude! People are fickle! People are mean! The list goes on.


     However God knows better than me (Phew! Praise Jesus!) making His Temple out of people is a great idea because it's His. It's up to us then to figure out how to make this thing work right? Wrong. We think if we just act nice to everybody, everything will be "okily dokily". But instead we end up festering with negative emotions inside and actually the Church just becomes a beautiful looking cake that's rotting on the inside. The Sunday morning smile and small talk is poison to the Church.


     The Church by it's very nature is spiritual and supernatural but we don't always believe that. We believe that some things should be supernatural and other things should be done out of human effort. Paul thinks differently though. Paul reckons we should walk by the Spirit and that walking by the Spirit will mean we don't gratify the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). He goes on to say 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; HATRED, DISCORD, JEALOUSY, fits of rage, SELFISH AMBITION, DISSENTIONS, FACTIONS 21and ENVY; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I've emphasised the ones that are unfortunately pretty commonly found in the western Church.


     Paul tells us that in order to live like this in the Church we have to live supernaturally, we have to walk by and be filled with the Spirit. So what happens when the church leaders turn down your request to preach on a Sunday morning? Do you let selfish ambition flare or do you walk by the Spirit? What happens when everybody pays more attention to someone else than you? Do you stew in envy or walk by the Spirit?


     What if we started using the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit to invade our everyday lives as the Church? What if we used the gift of discernment instead of pulling that prank on our friend who just isn't in the mood? What if we moved in the gift of faith to see that someone is made in the image of God and so we shouldn't be kicking off at them? What if we used the gift of healing to heal our own wounds and enable us to forgive supernaturally? Just thinking out loud here...


It's not just a case of trying harder. We have to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit's teaching, shaping and moulding. We're the Body of Christ right? Who knows how to be Jesus better than His Spirit?

Poem: Grace

The grace of God is not a dish cloth to wipe up the messes we make
but a safety net that catches us after the risks we take
and the steps we make as the Spirit breaks sin's hold on us!
A heavenly gift to lift us from the rift caused by the original lie, that flowed out on us the day they thrust that spear in Jesus' side.
So for now I'll embrace grace until I finish the race and we're face to face in that holy place, Heaven.
For now I'll continully shoot for the purity pursuit to produce the Spirit's fruit for the hungry.
He desires me to enquire of Him to inspire the liars to flee from eternal fire and set their sights higher.
It's His grace that allows me see all the things i can be and get done because of the One who hung on a tree.
His grace calls the prodigals from the farthest nations
Enabling saints to step into a life of consecration
To become a physical manifestation of that same grace.
Thank you Lord for Your grace.

God does not love everyone equally

What I mean by that is that parents often say they love all their kids equally (easy if you have one) but they mean that their love is spread evenly between each child. I don't think it's that way with Father God. I think that God's love is all for me. I say that because God is infinite and so is His love and so He doesn't have to spread His love evenly between His children because it doesn't diminish with use! All of God's love is for me and ALL of God's love is for YOU! You can have as much as you want!! It doesn't run out! Think about that, ALL OF GOD'S LOVE!!!! Ask God to let you experience more of the love He has for you and watch what He does! Go on! I dare you!


Do listen to this and go crazy about our Father God who loves you completely all the time with all the love He's got! He's not holding out on you, He's holding out FOR you! Ask Him! Ask Him!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmzuPLBot5Q


You might want to have a boogie afterwards... so here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_KXsMCJgBQ


Haha I'm sorry the crazy title made you read it! Well I'm not sorry...I'm sorry if it upset you. :-)

Church on Tour

    Over the centuries there have been small outbreaks or "outpourings" or "renewals" of the Holy Spirit (or whatever we want to call them) in different churches and denominations around the country. These have been quite short-lived and their impact is often "small" but glorious all the same. I think this is because we can all be a bit pompous towards anything that doesn't start in our own church or our own network. We draw up checklists and say that "a true move of God should have this, this and this, so it's not a move of God." I reckon there have been times we've missed out on what God was wanting to release to us because we haven't been willing to a) get over ourselves and b) travel.

     There is still quite a powerful sense of competition between different churches and denominations in the same city, all believing that they and they alone are God's answer. We all rightly expect God to do something mighty in our church whether it's massive salvation, manifestations of the Holy Spirit or angelic visitations but in my opinion we wrongly expect that it all has to start with us in our church in order for it to be from God or for it to benefit us. For example let's say we've been praying to God to see more people healed in our church in Nottingham and we hear that a church in Edinburgh has received huge breakthrough in healing. For a lot of us our first thought isn't to jump on a train and go humble ourselves to learn from the church in Scotland and what God is doing there. Instead we keep crying out to God to come and do it here for us. We miss the fact that God only has one Church in the UK so if the Church has been crying out to see more healing (through it's mouth in Nottingham), God has released it to the Church, just maybe not directly to that congregation. So the question comes, how badly do we want it?

     It works both ways. If we step back and say we are looking for God to move through the whole country, why would we stay so focussed on our city alone? If we want God moving throughout our city, why would we focus on our local church alone? If we get breakthrough in an area in our local church, do we keep it to ourselves or do we let the rest of Jesus' Church in our city know what's happening and share the grace we've been given? If we see another city that needs breakthrough in an area that we're succeeding in, do we expect them to come to us or do we go to them to serve them and give to them? We need to get the Church on tour! I'm not just talking about special leaders with titles but people who are full of the Holy Spirit and in-tune with what God is doing who have a heart to see His glory radiate throughout the Church. Imagine planting seeds of the kingdom wherever we meet Christians. What if you prayed for God to release the breakthrough in prayer that you've had in London in the tiny little chapel you visit while on holiday in the Lakes? What if you discover that they have powerful encounters with God during their times of praise? Ask them to pray for you!


There's lots of questions in here but I'm thinking of it like this: God's presence is everywhere but His manifest presence is His choice. If He is choosing to powerfully manifest His presence somewhere on this planet, why wouldn't we run there to see Him?! We live on a tiny island, we have cars, trains and planes. Let's use them to build up the Church and stop hoarding God's gifts like greedy children. The Church is one Body so unity is our reality. Our experience of it however is limited by our decision. I think God sometimes works this way to develop humility in us at the same time as releasing to us the things we've been asking for. I'd also apply this principle to other supernatural things like restored marriages and obedient young people who aren't insecure. If we see these things in other churches, let's get humble, pack up the van and go on tour!

Thanks for reading :-)