Apostolic Purpose

This session in our ongoing series about the ministry of healing is called “Prayers Of Command In Jesus’ Name.” We take a look at the Name of Jesus, and how Christians use it to exercise God’s authority in this world at His leading. Jesus has the “Name above every name…”, but what does that mean for us?

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT: Peter and John weren’t carrying any money, but the riches they did possess were more beneficial for the lame man — they had the right to use the Name of Jesus.

When Jesus received authority from His Father, He didn’t give His authority to the whole human race. Remember, the right to use another man's name first requires that he specifically give you that right. A power of attorney only authorizes you to do something for me if I put your name in it, otherwise, you can’t do anything.

In just the same way, the privilege to use Jesus’ Name only belongs to people who are in a covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It belongs only to people who are in Christ.

Jesus said that the authority of His Name belongs to those who believe in Him. He said, “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons… they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18 NKJV).

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore…” (Matthew 28:18-19 NKJV). That makes no sense unless by saying this He was also giving them the right to use his Name. In other words, He didn’t say, “I have all authority, so I’m going.” No, He was saying, “I have all authority, so I’m sending you!” He wanted His disciples to keep doing what they already were doing, because they had already been using His Name to do works of power. And He wants His followers to use His Name to do the same today.

In the Gospels and the Book of Acts, people led by the Spirit used the Name of Jesus to release the power of God. It was more than just the 12 or the 120 that Jesus was referring to, because He said that the one who believed in Him would do the works He had been doing, and would do even greater works than those. (See: John 14:12)

It's the “family name,” and if you’re in the family you can use the family name.

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This week’s session in our ongoing healing series is entitled “Contending in Prayer for the Miraculous.” We explore the need to be persistent in prayer for healing. Why do we sometimes have to “knock” in prayer? We should pray for the miraculous like the Early Church – and not accept the normality of powerlessness.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

For a fuller version, including a time of prayer and ministry after the teaching, you can watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT: Don’t accept the normality of powerlessness.We’ve talked before about Paul telling Timothy to stir up the gift that was within him. We said that it was up to Timothy to stir up what God had given him.

In a similar way, if you want to see healings and miracles in your life, you will need to stir yourself up. You will have to stir yourself up to pray for the miraculous. The Apostle James, of course, gave us that simple principle, “…ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2b). To get started, just begin praying for the miraculous. Ask God that He would do these things, and that He would use you to do them. Keep meditating on the passages we’ve been sharing, and ask God to release the Gifts of the Spirit.

But we need to stir ourselves up another way. We need to have something in our spirit that will not accept business as usual. Thank God, we believe God has lost none of His power. Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever. But any Christian can face the temptation to accept the normality of powerlessness. Don’t accept the normality of powerlessness. Let your spirit be stirred up with zeal and compassion, and refuse to accept a lack of power as normal Christianity.

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In this message we looked into some basic questions on the judgments of God and the Judgment Seat of Christ.

* Why will God judge people anyway?

* What is the judgment of God like?

* What is the judgment of unbelievers like?

* What is the judgment of believers like?

* What can we anticipate at the Judgment Seat of Christ?

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15 NKJV).

”We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:8-10 NKJV).

Message preached at Harvest Time Church, Greenwich, Connecticut, on October 1, 2023.

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In this session we taught on Jesus’ words concerning our qualifications to minister healing, and some practicalities of praying for the sick. We then shared a popular model of prayer for healing and released people to pray for each other in small groups. We were excited to hear that several healings occurred by the end of the night!

NOTE: New sessions in this series will be posted weekly until December 2023.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

You can also watch on my YouTube channel.

—EXCERPT—Can all believers be used in supernatural ministry?

Jesus refused to limit supernatural ministry to the apostles. He said all believers could be used in these things. In Mark 16:17-18, He said, “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Indeed, Scripture shows us how that many people besides Jesus’ first Apostles healed the sick and did signs and wonders:

* “…Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8).

* “…the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed” (Acts 8:6-7).

* “…they [Paul and Barnabas] stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands” (Acts 14:3).

* “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:28). (Emphasis added.) Notice that this is a list of people or ministries God appointed in the Church. Therefore, other people besides apostles and prophets had ministries of healing and miracles.

* “…He [or he] who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:5)

Jesus never limited supernatural ministry to the Apostles, nor to a certain timeframe. The ministry of healing, as is the case with casting out demons, is available to those who believe, and is performed in His Name — which cannot lose its power, and is no less available to us today, else we are not even in the New Covenant.

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We recently began a new course on the ministry of healing. New sessions in this series will be posted about once a week until December. In this week’s session we began with a healing testimony before moving into a time of teaching on the Gifts of the Spirit, followed by prayer. We focused on what is the greatest obstacle for many people who seek to be used by God in the spiritual gifts: understanding and believing that they are both qualified and capable of being so used.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

You can also watch on my YouTube channel.

—EXCERPT—We need to recognize that it’s biblical to desire spiritual gifts – in fact, we are commanded to do so!

Contrary to what tradition might say, God says to be zealous to have the Gifts operating in our lives. In his teaching, Paul uses a certain Greek word three times to emphasize this. It’s the word zelóo, which means to be zealous — and it’s the source of our our English word zeal. Using this word, Paul says:

·  “earnestly desire the best gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31)

·  “desire spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy” (1 Cor. 14:1)

·  “desire earnestly to prophesy” (1 Cor. 14:39)

You need to be convinced that the choice between fruit and gifts is a false choice, a choice God doesn’t ask us to make. He wants us to have both, so He can extend His power through us.

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We’ve just begun a new course in our “Life In The Spirit” series on the ministry of healing. If you’re interested in exploring different topics in healing and deliverance, you may enjoy this course. (This won’t be the only topic we’ll be posting on this Fall, so if it’s not for you that’s fine, too. There will be other things to read and hear.) A new session will be posted about once a week until December.

Class notes are available here as a PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/193UeXSP94YMghjhMCgzTfqd8wwv4UkPV/view?usp=drive_link.

You can also watch on my YouTube channel.

Following the session there was a brief time of prayer. We already received one report of healing connected to that prayer time, for which we’re thankful to God.

—EXCERPT—Why have a course like this? What are our goals?

* First, we want you to grow in your understanding of healing.

* Second, we want you to become more confident in your ability to minister healing.

* Connected to that, of course, we want to increase your faith to receive healing for yourself when you need it.

* We need all three of these things: we need to understand healing, minister healing, and receive healing.

In order to do that, we’re going to dig into several areas. This is the big picture of what we’ll be studying together:

* Understanding God’s desire to heal;

* Understanding whom God uses to heal;

* Understanding how healing comes;

* Understanding hindrances to healing;

* Becoming more effective in ministering healing.

This will involve exploring a few things:

* Basics of healing prayer

* Basics of deliverance prayer

* Growing in compassion

* Growing in wisdom

* Growing in discernment

* Growing in anointing

* Growing in understanding how God uses you

Those are the topics we’ll be looking into, and they’re obviously large subjects. But that is the framework we’ll be using.

To begin this course, we’ll look in this session at five simple principles from the Word to start to build our faith for healing.

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“…I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:10-13 NKJV, emphasis added).”

Philippians is often considered to be a “letter of joy.” Paul begins Philippians by telling the church how he gives thanks for them with joy, then tells them that he will stay with them longer so their faith can go on joyfully. He goes on to say that he is preaching so that he’ll be able to rejoice in the Day of the Lord, and that the church is rejoicing with him over that.

As he comes into this final chapter of the letter, he tells the believers to rejoice in the Lord always—and again, he says—rejoice. Now he will reveal to them the secret of his joy and of his contentment.

The word Paul uses in verse 11 to say he’s content means that he is sufficient in himself, and he needs no outside support. It means he is satisfied. And he’s telling us how he did that. Your translation may say here that he has learned the secret of “being full” and “being hungry.” There are three things I can see here that will help us experience Paul’s contentment and joy.

1. First, Paul learned to be content. He says he learned to be content in whatever state he was. Whatever his circumstances, he was satisfied. But he wants us to know this was something he had to learn. “Learning” there is the word mantháno, which means he had been learning as a disciple.

This speaks to us of gradual learning. It’s the word Jesus used when He said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me (Matthew 11:29)…” The writer of Hebrews uses this word when he says that although Jesus was a son, “…He learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).”

Paul wants us to know that there will be a process. You are going to have to go through some things in order to have poise and confidence in trying circumstances. There may be increasing levels of difficulty that God will use to make you grow in Christ-likeness and in wisdom. 

It’s wise to realize together with Paul that there are some things that can only be learned. As Spirit-filled people, we believe in the miraculous. That’s a good thing, but it can deceive us where it concerns our character, because there are some things that can only be learned. They cannot be given. There is no laying on of hands that will cause us to be content in whatever state you find yourself. It can only be learned.

Paul also wants us to know that time is required. Implicit in the ideas of learning and going through a process is the requirement of time. The higher we go, or the longer we go along, the better perspective we have on where we’ve been. We may realize that some of the things we feared were not the real dangers. We may come to see that some of our connections and some of our ways of responding to things and people were harmful. In this way God helps us to do better as we go along. He helps us to see how we’re approaching things and reacting to frustrations. 

When you bake a cake you need the right ingredients — but the final step is one you can’t control; it’s a step you just have to trust. Heat and time are required to make it all come together before anyone can enjoy a cake, and it’s the same with us. 

What kind of state am I in? What am I experiencing right now? God is trying to teach me to be content in that state. I need to recognize it will be a process and it will take some time. There is no pill or prayer that will give me instant spiritual satisfaction in different challenges.

2. The second thing we need to see is that God has a plan of personal instruction, a plan that’s tailored just for me.

Paul says that he learned to be full and hungry, to abound and suffer need. This is actually a passive verb: it doesn’t say that he learned, it really says that he has been instructed. Most of the modern versions translate it as, “I have learned the secret.” And that’s a bit closer to the meaning. It means that he has been taught the secret.

This word is totally different from the one he had used to say that he had learned to be content. The Greek word is muéo, which doesn’t mean he learned something over time; it means he has been initiated into something. In the Ancient Mediterranean world, you didn’t just join a religion. You often had to be initiated into the religion.

The word Paul uses, muéo, is related to the word mystery. Many of the religions in the Roman world are called “mystery religions” because their beliefs were secret and you had to be initiated into the mysteries, into the secret ceremonies of the religion.

We don’t really have something like this in our society. Perhaps the closest thing to it would be a secret society, in which there are different levels. The people at the bottom don’t know what those who are higher up in the group are doing. And you can’t just join, but people have to sponsor you before you can become a member.

Only when you were initiated into the group could you begin to learn more of its secrets. And it’s interesting that Paul uses the same verb that a Greek person would use if he wanted to say that he had been taken into the membership of one of these organizations. It’s the only place in the Bible where this word is used, so we should give it some consideration.

Now, obviously the faith of Jesus can’t be compared to one of those religions. For one thing, we have no secret knowledge or beliefs. Whatever we do, as Jesus taught us, is to be done in the light. We are people of the light, not people of secret rituals.

But Paul’s choice of this word is important. He was giving the Philippians a picture that they could relate to from their own culture. And I think his use of this word shows us a couple of things.

First, I think he’s pointing us to his personal sponsor. Just as someone joining one of those cults might need a sponsor, Paul became a more mature believer because he had a personal sponsor who was interested in his development, and that was Christ. Jesus was committed to see Paul grow through a program of personal training that was crafted just for him. And it’s the same with us. My trials are not your trials, and vice versa.

And just as someone could not make progress in one of these religions by himself, Paul wants us to know that we can only learn our most important lessons at the feet of Jesus. We can never learn the great truths of our faith from the outside world. Sometimes it’s even hard to find Christians who can help us make progress.

But Paul says, I didn’t discover these truths on my own, and the grace I have didn’t just come to me over time or through learning – my personal sponsor had to bring me along and devise tests for me that would deal with the deficiencies that He could see within me. Paul was initiated into these things.

Paul wants us to know that Christ will train you in a variety of circumstances. You will have bad years and good years. The good years are also a test. They may not be a sign of God’s favor. Paul said he had been instructed in how to be full, not just in how to be empty. Prosperity can poison our spirits as well as poverty. Each comes with its own dangers.

Paul also wants us to know that this instruction from Christ is for every area of life, if you’re willing. He says he was instructed everywhere and in all things. There is wisdom from Christ, personal wisdom He has ready for us, in every situation of life. Our responsibility is to want to make progress and go to Him, asking Him what we can learn, as Paul says, everywhere and in all things.

Only Christ can instruct us in all these situations, because He walked in the greatest humility, and experienced the greatest humiliation. That’s why Paul says…

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I hope you enjoy this first audio podcast on Apostolic Purpose. This is a message preached at Harvest Time Church in Greenwich, Connecticut, from James 4:1-10 (see text below). If you enjoy it, please share to a friend and encourage them to subscribe.

In this passage James continues to expose the un-Christlike behavior of the believers to whom he was writing. His language is passionate, and he delivers one of the strongest calls to repentance in the entire New Testament.

To James’ dismay, Christians he loved were giving in to greed. Some were breaking out in fights. Some indulged the same desires as the pagans who didn’t know God. But James was steeped in the writings of the prophets, and he knew that God’s heart towards these struggling saints hadn’t changed. Knowing that God’s desire was to cleanse and to forgive, James wanted this fractured church to experience the God who gives more grace.

When we fall short, when we wander — or when we’re just not as close to Him as we’d like to be — how can we encounter the God who gives more grace? James gives us several keys, and I want to share them with you.

James 4:1-10 (NKJV)

1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, ​​but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

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