After a long stay in Moab, Naomi returned to Israel emotionally broken because of the death of her two sons and husband. The only bright spot in her life was her daughter-in-law, Ruth. With hopes of a good and fruitful life deferred, she bore the name of her defeat:
Mara, bitter against life. She and her daughter-in-law returned at the beginning of the barley harvest. According to the Mosaic law, rich land owners were not allowed to cultivate their fields a second time which insured enough grain left on the ground for the poor to gather as they followed behind the reapers. Naomi sent Ruth into the fields of Boaz, a distant relative, to glean from his field. It was in this field that Boaz noticed Ruth. Because Boaz was obedient to the laws of God, his acts of compassion provided for the healing and restoration of Naomi.
In His earthly ministry, Jesus restated the principles of this law.
In Matthew 22:34-40, the Pharisees asked Jesus which was the single greatest commandment in the law. Jesus surprised them with His answer. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”. Loving the Lord and loving your neighbor are synonymous. Many of His parables and the recorded history of His ministry emphasized the close relationship between loving God and loving each other.
1 John 4:20-21 makes the interdependency clear: “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother”. The Church, the body of believers, plays no small part in the Ministry of Resurrection. We are commanded to become partners in faith, a people bound together by the blood line of faith for the edification of the body. We are a family that is commanded to get up close and personal! Four ways to accomplish this task upon the hurting and wounded among us will be discussed. And still, I’m confident that we will have only scratched the surface of God’s commandment to love our neighbors.
Prayer
When the flesh is raging, it is almost impossible to accomplish a spiritual task. But God is the Creator of the physical and spiritual realms that we live in. He is in full control of his body, the Church. Each member has a purpose to fulfill. Through our spiritual connection to the Giver of Life, we can regenerate life in someone else.
“I’m praying for you.” While we should never minimize the weight of those words, the impact is sometimes lost on the recipient. We learned that the very nature of a trial is that it affects the emotional well-being of the sufferer. Although these words carry a certain degree of sympathy or empathy to the recipient, the effect of those words may fall on deaf ears because he or she is in an emotional upheaval. Faith produces action.
Several years ago, my husband lay in ICU with blood clots filling his lungs. He was at a crucial juncture hanging between life and death. I got a call from my pastor’s wife. She said that she’d been up all night praying. My immediate response was, “What did God tell you?” I needed to know what the Spirit was saying to the body on behalf of my husband! She carefully related that she got the feeling that everything was going to be fine. The pastor emeritus was standing beside me when I got off the phone. He told me that he didn’t feel like we were on a death vigilance, and he thought that everything would be alright. Before I talked to them, I’ll admit I was desperate! But my spirit connected with the words that they were telling me that morning, and a peace overwhelmed me. Within hours my husband made a complete turn around and was on the road to recovery.
Now I understand that we have to be very careful. I also have a friend that was told that her son who was dying of leukemia would be healed, and he died. She was devastated. So, to be sure, we must be responsible with the power that God has given us. Yet we know that prayer brings power; and power brings faith; and faith brings hope; and hope is not ashamed! The body of believers is an important contributor to the faith process if we will allow ourselves to be used by the Master.
Kind and edifying words
The lesson of the Good Samaritan teaches us that the virtue of a good neighbor is that he takes time from his busy schedule to bind up the wounds of another and make provisions for another’s care throughout his affliction. Proverbs 16:24 says, “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Like the Good Samaritan, pleasant words can bind up wounds and nurse the brokenhearted back to life. People experiencing pain in their lives tend to see themselves only through the distorted lens of negative life experiences. They feel lonely, rejected, and isolated. Kind and uplifting words can break through that barrier into the sunlight of God’s hope.
I read recently in one of our church publications about a minister that has devoted fifty years of ministry to touching people’s lives by speaking encouraging words. He said in an interview, “It has been my joy to write from 5 to 20 letters per day for many years. There is tremendous power in communication.” It was estimated that during his ministry he’s written over 175,000 letters of encouragement in addition to countless phone calls and visits. Proverbs 25:11 declares, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver”. Gold and silver are recognized as the two most precious metals in the world. This Scripture brings to mind how precious our communication is to each other. Speaking words of hope, words of faith, and words of love is an important component in the ministry of resurrection.
Words like “I’m sorry” or “Good job” are like honey. They are soothing and sweet to the soul. Several years ago when my son was in high school, he was convinced that one of his teachers whom he admired didn’t like him. This seemed to bother him a lot as he saw everything that teacher did as adversarial. I talked to the teacher about it. Of course, there was no foundation to my son’s accusations. I just encouraged the teacher to give him a pat on the back or a kind word outside of class time. It still amazes me how quickly perception can change with the attention of gentle words and actions. Many years later my son still considers him a valued friend.
Have you read the paper lately? Have you walked down the halls of your office building or the place where you work with your spiritual ears open? There isn’t a lot of positive communication going on these days. Problems in relationships, problems in the world and problems in our homes consume our daily conversation. And yet Jesus said that they’ll know us by our love one to another. In Corinthians the writer teaches that some will be saved by godly communication. Wow! That’s a mouthful! We can resurrect someone’s faith into positive action by the words that we speak.
Carry them into a trusting relationship with Christ
Faith imparted to the hurting has to reach past the wounds and scars. It must lay hold on the healing and delivering power of the infinite amount of possibilities in Christ. It would be impossible to understand every problem that people encounter. Even when we can empathize with their malady, as individuals it would be impossible to grasp the complexity of every variable in each situation. I’ve had cancer and that helps me to empathize with someone else facing the challenges incurred by this disease. However, even with that fact in common, the details can be so varied that it would be impossible for me to fully understand the nature of this disease’s impact on a particular individual’s life. As the body of Christ ministers to the hurts and needs of its members, we want to show them that although we may not understand the nature of their problem, we do understand the nature of our God! It is only through this perspective that the body can minister; the focal point must be on Jesus, not the problem.
Again, the struggle is one of perception. That perception can be changed by the conscious acknowledgement of God as a good God and by an understanding that His gifts are without repentance. These things are seen clearly in His presence. There are so many examples in the Bible where victory from thoughts of defeat began with a revelation of the power and might of God.
Naaman was afflicted with leprosy. There was, however, within his household a servant girl who trusted in the healing power of the one true God of Israel. She guided Naaman to the prophet Elisha for his healing. When the prophet told Naaman to dip seven times in the dirty Jordan River, his pride caused him to rebel in anger. It was his servant who reasoned with him to trust the God of the Hebrews, and thus led him back to where God’s healing power dwelt. True deliverance is being changed in the midst of the struggle. The believer is sustained by the understanding that God’s nature is one of love. He is our protector, our healer, our power to overcome difficulties and our provider.
In the New Testament, a man went on a long journey and entrusted his property to his servants. When he returned all of his servants had multiplied the talents that were entrusted to them except one. The servant perceived the man as a hard task master. He feared the master so much that he took the talent and buried it. His false perception of his master paralyzed his faith and brought destruction upon himself (Matthew 25:15-30). We are commissioned to bring the good news of God’s goodness to the hurting.
Encourage them in the presence of God
The struggles of life have no affect on the power of God. His power supersedes the presence of any hindrances. We’ve learned that perception of the problem is the greatest hindrance to overcoming thinking. Faith has to be in the power of God not in the power of men. In the midst of worship, praise and the Word of God, we see things through His perspective not ours. The presence of God creates faith and expectation. Faith gives you a new way of responding to problems. God’s Word is the substance of your expectation. It can not fail!
Some of our deepest pain can be brought to the surface in faith with the help of a Spirit filled guide. Our church has a “Moms on a Mission” prayer group that meets every Thursday morning. During that time, moms gather to pray for their children and the needs of children in the congregation. During one such meeting, I was praying for the needs that were brought before the group when a sister that I hardly knew approached me. She held in her hand a booklet of about four pages of prayers for unsaved children. She told me that she needed to agree with me in prayer for my own unsaved daughter. At first, I was overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of the task, but I agreed and we began. I prayed, and she supported me as we scrolled down through the Scriptures. It wasn’t long before we were immersed in the Spirit. I not only felt the power of the spoken Word, but her presence beside me seemed to magnify and multiply the words that I was speaking. As the Spirit led us deeper into prayer, many names came before His throne. I felt the pain of many brokenhearted parents and their relationships with unsaved children rush out of my mouth in waves of Scripture inspired faith. Together we were wielding the Sword of the Spirit in effective and powerful intercession. It is an experience I will forget! The Word of God attacks the foundations of the negative issues in our lives.
David said, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord”(Psalm 122:1). Another psalmist lamented that he had almost slipped until he went into the house of the Lord. His problems became so large that all he could see were his endless calamities. Nobody’s life seemed as dismal as his own; in fact, the wicked seemed to be prospering at the same rate as his own descent into the mire of destruction. Everyone else was happy, healthy and carefree even as they lauded themselves in their own arrogance and self-righteousness. He convinced himself that there was no benefit in being faithful to God and His commandments. Then he went into the house of the Lord and his whole outlook changed. “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:23-26). That was quite a dramatic change of perspective by just going into the house of God.
Psalms 22:22 gives clear direction to the believer on behalf of the hurting and afflicted: “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.” We have an awesome opportunity to raise the level of faith in the congregation by the simple act of worshipping God. We become fire starters that ignite the flame of deliverance and hope. Many are wounded among us, but that’s not a sign of defeat. It is an invitation to victory.
Together we stand as an ecclesia, the called out ones. The Lord of the harvest commands us to go into the fields and throw out “handfuls of purpose” into this world, handfuls of hope, handfuls of healing from emotional wounds, handfuls of salvation, joy and peace. This is what the true worshipers of Christ have to offer. That is the Ministry of Resurrection!
This summers’ Apostolic Crusaders Youth Corps missions’ trip to Jamaica was a great success! We created new friends, drew closer to God, and had a lot of fun in the process. From the very beginning of the trip all the way to the end, the Lord kept his hand upon us. I am so thankful God allowed us to make this journey and for His blessings He continually poured out while we were together.
General Ministry Conference 2008 convened the last week of June in Louisville, Kentucky at Louisville’s only waterfront hotel property, the beautiful Galt House Hotel. The 2008 Conference had the earmark of missions with reaching the global harvest of the end time. The attendance to this conference was tremendous as our main focus was on hearing from God and organizing our efforts to meet the directives given to us of the Holy Ghost.
It was just another ordinary day in my life. I tapped the snooze one last time as I rolled over to eye the alarm clock which shouted at me that it was 5:30 A.M. As I stumbled in to the bathroom to begin my personal preparations for the new day, the Lord spoke to me just as clearly as a person standing next to me. He said, “You’re going to Africa.” I have heard the voice of the Lord a few other times in my life, enough to realize that this was Him speaking to me. I was so sure that it was the Lord, that I woke up my sleeping husband and told him what the Lord had told me. I wanted to tell him right when I heard those words, right at that exact time because I knew as well as he that the likelihood of either of us going to Africa was extremely remote. As the months passed and even the years, it became a bit of a friendly “tease” between my husband and me.
If God be for us, who can be against us? The gates of Hell cannot prevail against the church of the living God. Hell may parade in the streets, petition the courts, protest at the steps of the capitol, invade the school systems or even try to muzzle our pulpits, but I’m here to tell you Hell is not going to succeed. Not as long as there is a body of believers who will boldly say, “the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me!”
Today, she still struggles with old drug habits and lifestyles. Much of the time after her conversion has been spent in prison. Except for not seeing her children, Marie says she didn’t mind the time in jail because that’s when she’s closest to God. “I need boundaries,” she says. “I want to do the right thing.”
The cross is spoken of some 28 times in the Bible – all in the New Testament. The cross was introduced to the world as a means of capital punishment for the scum of the earth. Paul stated in Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” This was the stigma that was attached to any who were executed by being hung on a cross. The cross was a horrible means of death. The cross many times was made up of two pieces of wood (or tree limbs) bound together to form the shape of a cross. Some crosses looked like giant X’s. Others had the cross member connected across the top of another piece of timber. The victims were tied or nailed with arms outstretched on the cross member. In some instances there was a block of some sort right below the feet upon which the victim could push himself up with his feet. But he could do this only so long until his strength would give out and then he would sag under the weight of his body and his weakness. There were times when the victim would hang on the cross for days before they would finally expire. It was a very cruel means of death.
Can you say “Amen” to your life’s works? Can you say “Amen” to the day you just lived? We are only given one life to live. There will be no re-runs after this lifetime. This is not a trial run! Life is a serious business! We will not be allowed to look back some day and pick out certain things that we would like to have changed on our record. That is why it is so important that we try our very best to make sure that every day is spent so that we can look back on it and declare: “Amen!”
This year has been a very exciting year for the Foreign Missions Department of the Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ! Reports from our missionaries are encouraging to know of how God is moving in their areas of labor.