I was chatting with the contractor remodeling our basement about Arminianism versus Calvinism. (You never know when a theological discussion will pop up!)
He has been having conversations with his brother (a Southern Baptist pastor) about doctrines like pre-destination. Since I had written a book about living in the tension of deeply-rooted biblical paradoxes such as human free will and divine sovereignty, we had a lot to discuss.
As he buckled on his tool belt to get back to framing the walls and I began to leave, he turned and said, “Here’s another thing.” I settled in again.
Healing and Worldview
He described leading a small group Bible study the previous evening. When the topic of healing came up, his group was certain that supernatural healing ended in biblical times and did not happen today. All 15 people in the room were unanimous on this point, all except him.
He reflected: “I wonder sometimes if we Christians are using only a fraction of the power of the Holy Spirit available to us.”
Does closing one’s mind to even the possibility of spiritual healing not contradict much of what the Bible says about the Spirit, he wondered? And where does the Bible say that all miraculous manifestations of the Spirit’s power ended in New Testament times? Isn’t that just an assumption we make? Good questions!
In reply, I talked about the assumptions (often wrapped up together as worldview) we inherit from our family, culture and personal experience. These assumptions become a pair of glasses through which we “see” the world.
If our worldview tells us that God never directly heals people today, we will never expect to see it, which makes it far less likely that we ever will see it. Indeed, few Americans I know have experienced supernatural healing or know someone who has. And those who have experienced healing rarely speak openly about it. Most stories of supernatural healing I’ve heard over 40 years as a pastor were told to me quietly, even conspiratorially, and only after they determined that I would not view them as crazy.
The possibility of supernatural healing is also degraded by the showmanship of TV healers, who often slap folks on the forehead and watch them fall over backward. Such flim-flam deters many from considering that God might still be healing today.
As I was growing up, my mainline Lutheran church never taught about healing or spiritual gifts. Indeed, the Holy Spirit was AWOL as the third person in the Trinity. The message was, “Try to be a good person.” As a prize-winning high school science student heading off to study nuclear engineering, I was a poster child for a closed mind about anything to do with the supernatural. I could be a good person on my own.
During my third year of college, however, I experienced Jesus Christ personally, opened my life to follow him and became a serious Bible reader for the first time. Sitting on a fraternity living room floor with other new believers taking turns reading through a chapter of the New Testament, the impact I felt hearing these words was monumental:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (I Corinthians 6:19)
I was amazed! God was not off somewhere running the universe, but actually living inside me? Talk about a shift in worldview! That was four decades ago, and I am still absorbing and processing the truth of that statement.
Overflow of the Spirit
As a climatic end to the Feast of the Tabernacles, Jesus cries out to the crowds:
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. (John 7:37-39)
Jesus promises an “inflow” of God’s Spirit into every believer that will result in an “overflow” through them into the world around them. Biblical commentator Dale Bruner summarizes:
“It is both Jesus and the thirsty drinkers who become rivers of living water. Both are true. Trusters both get and give “overflow.” The gospel is this good.”[1]
I have come to believe that experiencing this overflow of the Spirt both to us as well as through us has much to do with our worldview (i.e. our expectations).
The Bible lists anywhere from 20 to 25 distinct spiritual gifts. Every believer is included in this “overflow” of the Spirit and receives at least one unique supernatural empowerment. (“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” I Cor 12:7)
My contractor friend’s small group wore worldview glasses that screened out all “miraculous” gifts of the Spirit (e.g., healing, miracles, speaking in tongues) Well into my 40’s, I was wearing the same glasses but determined to challenge this worldview for the very reason my contractor friend proposed—it did not square with Scripture and I did not want to sell short the power of the Holy Spirit.
I attended a two-week healing seminar at a reputable seminary and heard many stories of supernatural healing from people I trusted. I witnessed firsthand several healings and demon exorcisms that were genuine and real, never showy or flamboyant; one even happened to me.
Convinced both biblically and experientially, I returned to my congregation determined to offer spiritual healing as one aspect of wholistic spiritual gifts in the Body of Christ. We began monthly healing services, never attended by more than a handful of people. But in very non-flamboyant, even mundane, ways, God did show up.
I especially remember one woman (not a member of our congregation) who requested healing prayer after a regular Sunday worship service. A few weeks later, she came back and shared during our announcements that she was completely healed; she had even been to her doctor to confirm it. In that moment, the inner skeptic still whispering within me was finally convinced; I could not deny the evidence.
A decade later I was a missionary teaching theology in Ethiopia. Unlike Americans, Ethiopian Christians have no problem with God healing them; in fact, they count on it! With modern medical care often not available, the only real option for many is God’s promise to heal. Because their worldview expects healing to happen, it does, in lavish healing conferences in the cities and humble thatched huts in the countryside.
For example, God directly healed the daughter of missionary friends who lived far out in a rural area. In a scene straight out of the Old Testament, their young girl was healed as an Ethiopian church elder lay on top of her, just as Elijah did in I Kings 17:21-22:
“Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.”
I went to Ethiopia expecting to see and hear about such healing miracles and I did. Indeed, missiologists argue that worldview blindness in the Western world is why healing and other examples of God’s supernatural intervention in daily life is much closer to the surface in so-called third world cultures. [2]
What I was not prepared for was an opposite blind spot to the one I had left behind in America. While most Ethiopian Christians expect God to heal and perform other miracles, they often ignore or neglect the less dramatic spiritual gifts.
When speaking at Christian gatherings there, I would often ask the audience how many spiritual gifts are named in the Bible. Invariably, they only knew about a handful (e.g., healing, prophecy, miracles, speaking in tongues) and were surprised to discover there are at least 20 spiritual gifts listed. Few had ever heard of such “quiet” gifts as administration, teaching, service, giving or mercy.
In this worldview, it makes sense that dramatic gifts would receive more attention. The most powerful God is the real God (think of Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal to determine whose god was real). Supernatural healing and other miracles are exhibit #1 of God’s reality. Such dramatic gifts always draw a crowd.
On the other hand, humble service, selfless giving or deep caring are rarely seen as supernaturally-empowered gifts in Ethiopia. Perhaps they seem too ordinary. Thus, while most Ethiopian congregations have well-attended healing services, essential ministries requiring gifts of service, mercy, teaching and discipleship often are lacking.
What We “See” Is What We Get
Our worldviews influence what we experience. While Americans may lop the sensational gifts off one end of the spiritual gifts spectrum, Africans tend to lop the quiet gifts off the other end. In both cases, worldviews filter out different portions of the Holy Spirit’s powerful work desperately needed to create wholistic Bodies of Christ.
If the Spirit is not overflowing in our lives, we can, like my contractor, courageously ask probing questions that challenge our current worldviews, even though letting go of one worldview to embrace another is never easy.
[1] F. Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 488.
[2] As examples, see Charles Kraft, Christianity with Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural (Wipf and Stock, 2005) and Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Question: Do you wonder if your worldview might be limiting your experience of God’s Spirit? What question(s) do you need to ask to challenge yourself to keep growing?
Thank you for continuing to challenge us!
Thank you, Rich, for your insights. You have inspired me to reflect once again on my own Ethiopian misson experience. I had similar conversations with the pastors and evangelists i tutored through Theological Education by Extension. The most widely read of my students could grasp that Wandimu’s ability to teach highschool physical education was an gift of the spirit similar to Pastor Jonas’s preaachking ability. TEE itself became a transformatoinal gift for all of us, students and tutor alike when we explored Christian Spirituality. We explored education itself, along with community work with scripture, as a type of spiritual healing.
For instance,reading and praying Paul’s appeal to the Roman church in 12:1,2 helps us to connect presenting “our bodies as a living sacrifice…which is your spiritual worship” as the entry point to spiritual growth, transformation and discernment of the will of God. Our being transforms as we present ourselves as living sacrifices. We sacrifice selfishness, anger, deceit, hate, etc. and gain the virtues that Paul lifts up, genuine love, mutual affection showing honor, zeal for God, hope, patience in suffering, perseverence in prayer, generosity and hospitality.
As the class and I worked together that year and a half I discovered that they were the instruments of my spirital healing. The healing of our spirits, the tranformation that changes our whole being, are as miraculous as our mutual friends’ young daughter.
Thanks so much, Larry, for kindly offering your own experience. The transformation you describe is truly the work of the Spirit! I (and other readers) appreciate your time in sharing it!