Spiritual Power

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast

you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Our Bible reading

today comes from Acts chapter 9, verse 32 to

Acts 9:32–42

42. Meanwhile, Peter travelled from place to

place, and he came down to visit the believers

in the town of Lydia. There he met a man named

Aeneas, who had been paralysed and bedridden

for eight years. Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus

Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your sleeping

mat. And he was healed instantly. Then the whole

population of Lydia and Sharon saw Aeneas walking

around and they turned to the Lord. There was

a believer in Joppa named Tabitha. Tabitha? Tabitha.

Which in Greek is Dorcas. She was always doing

kind things for others and helping the poor.

That's nice. About this time she became ill and

died. Her body was washed for burial and laid

in an upstairs room. But the believers had heard

that Peter was nearby at Lydia, so they sent

two men to beg him, please come as soon as possible.

So Peter returned with them. And as soon as he

arrived, they took him to the upstairs room.

The room was filled with widows who were weeping

and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas

had made for them. But Peter asked them all to

leave the room. Then he knelt and prayed. Turning

to the body, he said, get up Tabitha. And she

opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat

up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. When

he called in the widows and all the believers

he presented her to them alive The news spread

through the whole town and many believed in the

Lord This is the word of the Lord Thank You Ash

One of my core memories is I was 18 and I watched

my friend jump from and repeatedly jump from

a a staircase landing, which was maybe six or

seven steps high, onto the ground, just over

and over and again. And I remember it to this

day, and it doesn't sound like a very significant

memory, does it? Until you know what happened

before that, because five minutes before this,

this person was in a moon boot, like verifiably

fractured, like six -week recovery kind of injury.

It was so bad, they were just hobbling around

even on the moon boot, you know, it tends to...

Support you a little bit. It was so painful.

But now the ankle was completely healed And it

was all because we were bored at a retreat and

it was a Christian retreat And so what else was

there to do but to pray for people to be healed?

And minutes later they're jumping off this staircase

just to test it out Which is wild Now I lived

this but I wonder how you make sense of hearing

this Because it's frankly miraculous. Do you

believe me? Do you believe me because you know

me and you trust that I wouldn't lie to you?

Or do you believe me because you believe that

miracles do happen? Or do you think I was mistaken

or misguided? Maybe the injury wasn't that bad.

Or do you not believe me at all? You know, whether

or not you believe me, funnily enough, has something

to do with your generation. If you're a Gen Z,

15 to 30 -ish, you're actually more likely to

believe me because you're more likely to believe

in miracles. There's an article published on

the ABC which is up there. What young people

believe. 44 % are sure that miracles happen.

A further 28 % are open to it happening. So that's

almost two thirds between those two categories.

And a further 20 % would say that they just don't

know that it could happen or it could not. happen

and only nine percent nine percent of gen z's

who were sampled said they think it's unlikely

or no way the miracles have nine percent so the

cumulative openness to the existence of miracles

is really astoundingly high but by contrast to

this the oldest bracket researched which was

76 years and up significantly more skeptical

about the existence of the supernatural So how

do we make sense of this? You know I had a great

quote this week, and I think it sums this up

But I can't remember who said it or if I'm quoting

it right, so I'm just gonna try anyway Gen Z

have feasted on secularism, and they've had a

gutful somebody probably said that Thank you

You see, Gen Z have taken in everything secularism

has to offer. And it's mainly this naturalist

philosophy that says that all there is really

in this world is what we can touch, see, examine,

measure, and understand. That there really is

nothing supernatural, nothing other. There is

only the natural. But the longer you live into

a natural is all there is world view, the more

you see its limitations. We don't actually have

explanations for everything. Things exist that

we cannot measure or completely understand. And

one enormous hole is human consciousness. So

I've got a quote here from an Australian philosopher

who's an expert in this area, not a Christian,

wouldn't say he's religious or spiritual at all.

He said, this is the problem of consciousness.

It's widely agreed that experience arises from

a physical basis. So we have a brain, but we

have no good explanation of. why and how it so

arises. Why should physical processing give rise

to a rich inner life at all? It seems objectively

unreasonable that it should, and yet it does.

You're probably not a secular cognitive scientist

struggling with the hard problem of consciousness.

But for a lot of us, there comes times in our

lives when we realize that the best of secularism

and naturalism cannot help us. Sicknesses that

can't be treated, relationships that break down,

things that happen that we just can't explain.

And a purely natural worldview doesn't cut it.

We need the power outside of ourselves. We actually

need the supernatural. And maybe you've come

to that place yourself. And I would imagine,

and it's clear that our society has come to this

place because the rise of energy crystals and

psychics, new ages, angels, astrology, alternative

healers, it shows us that people are hungry for

a power outside of the natural. Hungry or desperate.

Because someone's sick, someone's hurting, someone's

estranged, someone's having a ridiculous series

of bad luck. What do you do? Today is the last

week of our six -week series, Evangelism for

Everyone. We looked at the habits of evangelism

that we can practice to share the good news of

Jesus. We've looked at hospitality, giving and

receiving of hospitality. We've looked at asking

great questions, being a Christian, inviting,

invitation, testimony. And this week we're looking

at spiritual power. And you might be wondering,

spiritual power as a habit. That's a bit interesting.

Now if you think about it, All of Jesus' ministry

and teaching came with demonstrations of spiritual

power. See, Jesus was constantly healing people

who were unhealable, driving out evil spirits

that had devastated lives for decades. Jesus

fed the multitudes, spoke words of supernatural

knowledge, and even raised people back to life.

Jesus had access to this spiritual power and

He used it in His ministry. And in our teaching

text today, we see Peter, a disciple of Jesus,

doing what his teacher did. Peter's traveling

to encourage the church and he comes to the town

of Lydia and there he meets Ananias. Dan, help

me out. Ananias. A man who has been paralyzed

for eight years. He's bedridden. And Peter says

to him, Ananias, Jesus Christ heals you. Get

up and roll up your sleeping mat. And he was

healed instantly. And what happens? Well, a man

who couldn't walk, who was bedridden, starts

walking around the town. You notice things like

this. You would pay attention to this. You look

at Aeneas wandering around and think to yourself,

hmm, something's changed. I just can't put my

finger on it. Maybe he's got a new haircut. There's

a man who was paralyzed walking around. This

would provoke questions for which the gospel

is the answer. And the text says they saw him

walking around and they turned to the Lord. And

meanwhile, a little further away, there's a believer

named Tabitha, a woman of godly character and

affection for the poor. She's died and her body

is ready for burial. But the believers, they

hear that Peter is nearby, and so they beg him

to come quickly, and so he comes. And he goes

to where Tabitha is resting. And they're showing

him all the things that Tabitha had made for

them, just to communicate how dear and important

this lady was. But the text says Peter just tells

him to get out. And then he kneels and prays

and he turns to the body and says, get up Tabitha.

And she opens her eyes. And then he calls all

the widows and the believers in and presents

her to them alive. So if you know that someone

has died and you've seen them prepared for burial

and there she is walking around, this is going

to provoke questions for which the gospel is

the answer. And the news of this spreads. And

it says that many believed in the Lord. So this

is one passage, two stories, two miracles that

causes people to believe. And this is what spiritual

power does. If you're skeptical about Christianity,

and you know someone who died a few days ago,

and then you see them at the grocery store, you're

like, what is going on? And they're like, oh,

well, you know, this guy brought me back to life

in the name of Jesus. You just might reconsider

your skepticism, wouldn't you? See spiritual

power, it cuts through whatever it is you might

think, feel or believe about Christianity and

shows it to be true. And this is what the miraculous

is for. This is what the miraculous has always

been for. In the Old Testament prophets, in the

ministry of Jesus and in the work of the disciples

and the sharing of the gospel today. It authenticates

the message of the one bringing the miraculous.

This is what John Wimber says, Christian signs

and wonders are beyond rationality. but they

serve a rational purpose to authenticate the

gospel. Spiritual power has always been a factor

in evangelism, the spreading of the good news

of Jesus, that Jesus reigns over the universe

because it authenticates the message. The gospel

of Jesus is not just one story amongst many,

one religion against many, one philosophy against

many. Spiritual power authenticates is a very

true story of the universe. Paul in his first

letter to the church in Corinth says, I relied

only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this

so you would not trust in human wisdom but in

the very power of God. This is Paul's church

planting strategy. He comes with the simple gospel

of Jesus Christ crucified and with spiritual

power. So they were trusting God and not in the

wisdom or charisma or whatever of Paul. If you

read church history, you see signs and wonders

authenticating the gospel over and over again.

If you read stories of what the Spirit is doing

in non -Western countries, signs and wonders

over and over again. There's a book on the bookshelf

by Brother Ewan. Read it, you'll be amazed. You'll

hear stories of miracles and signs and wonders

authenticating the gospel. So the question is

then, why do we only very rarely hear stories

of signs and wonders in Western culture? Why

do we not see it so much? Here's what I think.

I think it's confronting because there's some

truth to it. We very rarely hear stories of spiritual

power because the church in the West has also

feasted on secularism. We have tried to reduce

the gospel down to, and even worse, Jesus down

to just rational, reasonable, this human teacher

had some pretty sweet teachings but couldn't

save a donkey let alone the universe. We've feasted

on secularism as the church in the West and as

a result I think that we have churches filled

with Christians who if they haven't given up

on the idea entirely They actually want to believe

in miracles. They want to see spiritual power,

but in their heart of hearts they doubt And hedge

their bets with their prayers Pastor John Tyson.

We were at a conference a couple weeks ago gave

us an absolute whack He said we tend to pray

prayers that are so like almost unanswerable

by God because they're so vague. Right? Like

God if you want to heal but no worries if you

don't like may you heal this person but you know

give them your peace even if you if you don't

want to like they're so vague and like not direct.

He said where's your faith? Where's your boldness?

Where's our confidence in Jesus? And I'm asking

friends like, I've seen this in my own heart.

I hedge my bets in my prayer. I have doubted

as I've prayed for healing. And I've held back

speaking out because of this soul sucking voice

of reasonableness. And I've had a gut full. Charles

Kraft, who was an anthropologist, he wrote a

great book, which I haven't finished reading,

but it's good, Confronting Powerless Christianity.

He says he came to this conclusion that the tradition

that he was brought up in was a rather secular

Christianity. Knowledge based and without power.

Knowledge based and without power. I've had a

gutful of secular Christianity, I wonder if you

have too. In a world of content overload, knowledge

fatigue, what the world needs from Christians

are not lofty words and impressive wisdom or

clever and persuasive speeches, but the simple

gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for you and

me in the very power of God. And I don't know

about you, but after a week in the prayer room,

I couldn't want anything more. I couldn't want

to pray full of faith and willing to bet it all

on Jesus more. And we've been talking about the

habits of evangelism, and this one is hard because

every other one that we can do, we can give and

receive hospitality. We can ask great questions.

We can be a Christian. We can invite people.

We can share our testimony. But spiritual power

is not like a kind of magic where we're in control

of how it's used. Spiritual power belongs to

God, but it can be used through us like a conduit

to do what God wants, which is to reconcile all

people back to Himself. So what does it look

like to practice this habit of spiritual power?

Well, I want to give you a framework and then

one practical thing that you can do. To practice

the habit of spiritual power requires a shift

in us in our mindset From to see ourselves as

being what Wimber puts it like this naturally

supernatural Requires us to shift into a mindset

that we are naturally supernatural To reject

the assumptions of secularism to reject the framework

that all there is is the natural and embrace

the framework of Jesus who to use an extreme

example found it completely natural to be confronted

publicly by demons. Completely natural. Here's

what secularism has done according to Leslie

Newbigin who was a missionary and I drew a picture

so you could see maybe there we go. Secularism

has taken the claims of faith which have forever

and today been seen by the people who follow

it as public fact or truth and it shifted it

into the realm of private opinions and values

you may believe that it is factual and i do and

true that jesus rose from the dead in his body

secularism says it doesn't matter if you think

it's factual that's your private opinion you

should keep it to yourself And this creates a

dissonance within us, a disconnect, especially

for those of us who've grown up feasting on secularism.

Because I've seen miraculous healing. God speaks

to me when I'm hanging out the washing. I have

felt the literal hand of God touch me. And I've

had all these spiritual experiences that are

true and factual, and I imagine you've had some

yourself. But I feel like I have to keep these

to myself as my private opinion. I feel like

I can't talk to people who don't have faith.

with the about these things because those experiences

they make claims about reality that belong belong

in the secularism category of a private opinion

not to be shared so if i say god healed my friend

and i had a radical encounter with jesus as a

teenager and god speaks to me i'm making claims

about the existence of a jesus who does who does

that but new begin argues and i'm synthesizing

this here the test of our belief in anything

is our willingness to publish what we believe

and to invite others to consider and accept it.

The test of my belief in what I know to be factual

and true that the good news of Jesus is the true

story of the universe, is my willingness to publish

that belief and invite others to consider and

accept it. And this is the framework shift we

need to make. To see talking about, practicing

and engaging with our faith publicly as a good

thing, not an arrogant imposition. but as publishing

what we believe and inviting others to consider

it, and maybe even accept it, which they may.

And this is how we become naturally supernatural.

We don't bury the supernatural worldview that

comes out on a Sunday here at church on a Monday.

We let our Sundays invade our Mondays. You can

tick that off the Encounter Bingo. Here's how

this plays out. Last night, Ash and I, we had

dinner with Judah's best friend's family. These

are great people. We're trying to get to know

them. We're trying to invest in them because

our boys are beautiful friends and our daughters

have scarily similar energy. Like, oh, they're

in a class together. Pray for that teacher. And

because I tend to obsessively reflect on social

situations, I was reflecting last night afterwards.

And there were multiple times where I was talking

to the dad. and he asked a specific question

about faith or my work or how I got into ministry

or he shared something of his own experience

and I answered truthfully and honestly but I

held back I held back I didn't ask the next question

I didn't give a full -hearted authentic response

I tried to overly translate the Christian or

worse of all I changed the subject because I

anxiously assumed that he was just humoring me

and wasn't actually interested instead of publishing

my beliefs for him to consider instead of being

natural about the supernatural things that I

believe. For being willing to publish your beliefs

to each other is actually the only way for you

to have an authentic and genuine relationship

with someone else. Now here's how I know it's

gone too far in me. I would tell you people in

this room who are part of this church with more

excitement and more detail about what God did

in my heart in the hours I spent in the prayer

room this week than what I would have shared

with that dad. See, my framework has to shift

from being publicly natural and privately supernatural

to naturally supernatural. So here's one thing

you can practically do to be naturally supernatural.

It's this. Practice reflex prayer. You might

be wondering, what is reflex prayer? Thank you.

See, when anyone, Christian or not, When they

express a need to you when you're talking to

them, their kids are perpetually sick, their

family members are struggling with their mental

health, they're struggling to pay the bills,

their workplace is horrid. Reflexively, meaning

immediately and on instinct, offer to pray for

them, then and there. It doesn't have to be long

and flowery, it can be very simple. Come Holy

Spirit this week, please give them unexpected

money to pay the bills, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Come Holy Spirit, please heal little Johnny,

in Jesus' name, Amen. And they may say no to

the offer and that's fine, but my experience

is they almost always say yes. So why do this?

There's two reasons. By doing this, you publish

your belief that Jesus has the power to intervene

in their lives. This is why it's powerful and

also why the thought of doing it may seem extremely

scary to you. You're inviting them to consider

your belief that Jesus is real and can work in

their lives. And the second thing is this, when

we pray for someone, we're inviting Jesus to

work in their life. Wimber said, we don't seek

God's power. We seek His presence. His power

and everything else we need is always found in

His presence. By praying for someone in the name

of Jesus, we invite the presence of God to come

into this person's life. And where God's presence

is, so is His power. And this is the example

of Peter. In our teaching text today, both examples,

he brings the presence of Jesus by prayer or

by declaring healing in the name of Jesus. When

you pray for people by reflex, for those around

us, Christian or otherwise, we simultaneously

publish our belief that Jesus is alive and active

and we bring that person into the presence of

Jesus who can work his spiritual power to bring

about faith and the miraculous. So this is your

Henley homework for this week. And Isaac, you

can come up if you like, please do some little.

Things, little tinkly things. This is your Hanley

homework this week. And you're gonna listen because

it's gonna be, I'm gonna share it with you with

the sound of music behind me, which just makes

it way more powerful. When someone expresses

a need, offer to pray for them then and there.

And if they say yes, then actually do it. Pray

for them then and there. Invite Jesus to work

in their life. I've called this reflex prayer,

But the reality is it doesn't become reflex unless

you push yourself to practice it. When Isaac

over here plays cricket, he plays a cover drive

reflexively, don't you? That's right. Why? He

plays it on instinct because he has practiced

that shot over and over again. Right, Isaac?

That's right. He's practiced the cover drive.

Your brain won't do anything by reflex it's never

done before. You must practice, practice, practice

them. If I got out there in the middle of the

wicket and tried to play a cover drive with no

practice, I'd get clean bowled. Friends, we must

practice offering prayer in the face of need

until the groove in our brain, the new groove

is a highway and you offer it automatically without

thinking about it. Do you realize that this practice

Practice, practice, practice until something

is automatic by reflex. This is the reason why

Peter can do what he does in our teaching text

today. You think about the two miracles he performed

in the name of Jesus. He heals a paralyzed man

who he tells to get up and roll up your sleeping

mat. And he tells the body of a woman who's died

to get up and she does. And Peter's actions are

strikingly similar to what we see Jesus doing

in the Gospels. Jesus tells a paralyzed man to

pick up his sleeping mat and go home. as he heals

him. He does it in gospel of Mark and Luke. Jesus

tells a little girl to get up after she's died

and she comes back to life in both Mark and Luke.

Peter's simply doing what he has seen Jesus do.

He's doing what Jesus has trained him to do.

Peter's one of the 72 that Jesus sends out town

to town to heal the sick and announce the good

news that the Kingdom of God is here. Jesus has

trained Peter. His neural grooves of spiritual

power are highways. So he doesn't hesitate. He

doesn't think about it. He just calls on the

name of the Lord. He calls the name of Jesus

to heal the sick and raise the dead. I just wonder

if, thanks to this gutful we've all had of secularism,

we make this way more complicated than it needs

to be. John Wibber says this, we can't learn

how to heal the sick by reading a book. I feel

personally attacked by that. or mastering a technique.

You believe what Jesus promised and then you

get out and you do it. This is what Peter does.

He saw what Jesus did, he believes what he said

and so he goes out and does it, gets on with

it. And I wonder what God would do in you and

through you if you did the same. Earlier this

year I had a layover in Sydney and my friend

Sam, who I've spoken about many times before,

He came to the airport to see us and Sam is one

of my best mates. He's not a Christian. He's

been having an issue with his health and he shared

it with me. It's a scary new issue he's been

having. And so I did what I've been practicing.

I offered to pray for him then and there. And

that is the first time that I've ever done that

in the 15, 16, I don't know how old I am, years

that I've known him. And to my surprise, he said

yes. And so I prayed for him. And nothing happened.

And I share this with you because spiritual power

is not magic. It's not our power. It's God's

power to work in His time and in His ways. And

this is the way it should be. And so you'll pray

for people to be healed and they might not be

healed. And that's okay. I believe in Jesus'

promise. I believe He still heals people today.

We've seen this at church. And I've seen Him

heal people today. But with my best mate in that

moment, I published my belief to him that Jesus

heals today. And the rest I leave up to God.

I am just, after all, a conduit of his power.

God knows Sam better than he knows himself. God

loves him more than he could ever hope or imagine.

And of sheer grace and love, Jesus willingly

went to the cross to die for him. God's going

after him. He's inviting him home to come home

to him to find life and life to the full. I don't

leave that with him. Spiritual power authenticates

the message of the gospel. Because I can't control

whether God moves in power here or there. But

I can control what I do. And you can control

what you do. You can publish your belief. You

can be naturally supernatural. You can invite

the presence of Jesus into someone's situation.

Because friends, if you pray nine times and on

the tenth you saw a miracle, would it be worth

it? If you prayed 99 times and on the 100th you

saw a miracle, would it be worth it? Yeah. Yeah,

it would be. Friends, we've been called out to

be a conduit in which the spiritual power of

God can flow out to the world. And the church

is only the church when it exists for others.

And the spiritual power of God is there to show

the world that the gospel is true. But today,

you might need to hear that God's power is there

for you too. Healing is there for you as well.

Grace is there for you as well. Provision is

there for you as well. The miracle you need to

see is there for you as well. Thanks again for

listening. God bless you.