Fanning the Flames

When I took my first full-time job out of college, we moved to Dallas, Texas, the prosperity teaching capital of the world.  This health and wealth gospel was foreign to me and to the auto workers and farmers and bus drivers I had grown up around in Northern Indiana.  I was interested in getting in on this deal; you know, with the more money and all.

Soon, two situations had me running for the exit.  First, as I began to receive literature from these prosperity teachers, I noticed a curious pattern.  Based on the testimonials, it seemed God’s financial blessing only worked for those on a variable income.  For some reason miraculous increases in wealth came to realtors, salespeople, business owners, and, of course, the prosperity teachers themselves.  No testimonials from hourly employees or those on a straight salary.  And much to my chagrin, no geophysicists.

I also encountered a personal situation that flew in the face of prosperity teaching.  A family friend, a young wife and mother of two children, died of stomach cancer.  Shortly before her death, she said, “I’ve confessed every possible sin I can think of…I’ve prayed with all the faith I can muster…It’s not happening for me…I’m dying.”  Something isn’t working when only those on commission and tele-evangelists are getting rich and believers are dying young.

At some level our theology has to agree with the realities of life.  In fact, the observation that what God says in the Bible explains so much of the reality I experience is the apologetic that sealed my choice to become a Christ follower.  If your theology says all people are under six feet tall…well, it’s just not true.

The key to unlocking the the true meaning of the apparent prosperity teaching of the Bible is to understand the difference between the Old and New Testaments, the old and new covenant, the old and new arrangement between us and God.  The most casual reading of the Old Testament suggests that prosperity is a common picture of God’s blessing.  From Abraham to Jacob to the Israelites to Job to the Proverbs, God’s blessing (and punishment) was generally vary tangible, immediate, and temporal.  God’s blessing and curse were clear and right out front for all to see.  This is the testimony of the Old Testament.

But something changed at the coming of Christ.  God’s character; God’s incomparable greatness and His care for His people (see Isaiah chapters 40-66) did not change.  But how He demonstrates His care changed dramatically.  Remember the word testament means covenant or arrangement.  Something changed in our arrangement with God.  Just as our tendency is to add Jesus to the Old Testament in the area of the law (legalism), we also are inclined to add Jesus to the prosperity teaching of the Old Testament rather than recognize the new arrangement.

Francis Bacon summed it up well in 1512 when he wrote, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.” Our facial expression becomes quizzical as we think about that thought.  Could adversity really be the blessing of the New Testament?  I believe it can and it is.  In fact, a careful study uncovers Scripture from every book of the New Testament that supports this idea.  In the interest of space we will only mention two.

In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom of God with a farming story.  Going straight to Jesus’ own interpretation (Mt 13:24-30,36-43), let me summarize the story.  The farmer (God) planted the good seed (His people) in the field (the world).  His enemy (Satan) secretly sowed some tares or weeds (sons of the evil one).  That the two were planted together was unknown until they began to grow.  God’s workers (the angels), upon seeing the weeds growing with the wheat said, “Should we go yank out the weeds (destroy your adversaries and the adversaries of your people)?”  In other words, “Should we employ the Old Testament method of destroying evil on sight, in the here and now (and by implication allow your people to prosper)?”

God’s surprising new covenant reply was, “Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ” (Mt 13:30).  In the church age, our present situation, righteousness and evil are growing together and results in both adversaries and adversity for the new covenant believer.

There are many other New Testament passages which emphasize the adversity we face waiting for our eternal reward.  The temporal and immediate reward system of the Old Testament has been replaced by something new.  This new system was recognized by the apostle John even in his greeting to the churches in the book of Revelation.  “I, John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 1:9).  A fellow-partaker in tribulation.  A prisoner in exile because of his allegiance to Jesus.  Not exactly the good life.

But the story of John and the story of the early church is a testimony to words that John heard with his own ears in the upper room.  Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).

In the Old Testament, the experience of God’s presence was largely geographic.  He appeared in the Holy Land, the Holy City, and the Holy of Holies in the Holy Temple.  On more than one occasion, God’s presence was indicated by fire.  For example, God spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  “[Moses] looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed…When the Lord saw that Moses turned to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ and he said, ‘Here I am.’  Then God said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ ” (Ex 3:2,4,5).

After Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, God again appeared in the form of a fire.  “And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.  He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people” (Ex 13:21-22).

God appeared again to the Israelites in a fire upon Mt Sinai at the giving of the ten commandments.  Moses recounted the experience in Deuteronomy 4:11-13, “And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens:  darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.  Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form – only a voice.  So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the ten commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.”  Later, in the chapter, Moses highlighted the uniqueness of that experience with a rhetorical question, “Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived?” (Dt 4:33).

In the New Testament, under the new arrangement of the new covenant, God again appears by fire but in a very different way.  “And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-4).

God again makes an appearance by fire.  But instead of being confined to a burning bush, a pillar by night, or a mountain enveloped by smoke, God’s fire is now distributed upon us, His disciples.  Can you believe it?  God Himself – the speaking fire, the guiding fire, the powerful fire – is resting upon you.  Not only on you, but in you through the filling of God, the Holy Spirit.

You carry the flame of God’s supernatural life within you.  Our prayer is that in some small way we can fan the flame that already exists in the new you.  Won’t you join us in being spiritual pyromaniacs, if you will, for each other.  I think that is the spirit of Hebrews 10:25, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”  Get out that big piece of cardboard and let’s fan the flames together.

The most succinct summary of the gospel message starts with, “For God so loved the world, that…” (Jn 3:16).  God’s immeasurable love for the world drove Him to complete the verse with “…He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  God is clearly the subject of this verse.  God loved.  God gave.  But notice the object of the opening phrase: “the world.”  Yes, you and I are the direct objects, to use a grammar term, of God’s incredible love.

In our consumerist culture and selfish society, we feel a responsibility to drive home the point, “It’s not about us, not about you, not about me.”  But putting theology and good grammar together, it is about us.  It is about us.  This in no way diminishes the greatness of God.  The greatest being you can imagine would still fall short of the God of the Bible.  He is singularly unique, holy, and off-the-charts righteous.  What makes us so special is not our inherent worth by comparison or what we contribute to the relationship.  What makes us special is that we are the objects of God’s unlimited love.

God is love in His essence (I Jn 4).  It is His most outstanding and incomprehensible attribute.  (His holiness is not so much an attribute as a definition of His singular uniqueness.)  Can you imagine how deep, how high, and how wide the love of God is?  Paul says that its “breadth and length and height and depth…are beyond comprehension” (Eph 3:18,19).  The writers of the Bible, religious scholars through the ages, and songwriters all struggle to describe the vastness of the love of God.

And that love is directed like a lasar beam upon you.  When you embrace the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you join into a marriage relationship with Christ.  You join the literal bride of Christ, the universal church.  It would have been foolish during the recent royal wedding for a commentator to say that this wedding ceremony and celebration has nothing to do with Kate Middleton since she is only joining the royal family by marriage.  Did you watch the television coverage?  It was all about the bride.  Why?  Because she was the object of the prince’s love and that was enough to lift her to prominence.

You are the object of a prince’s love.  “The Prince of Peace, the Eternal Father, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God” (Is 9:6).  As the object of His love, you are indeed special.  Not just the Mr. Rogers type special, but really really really special.