Why Looks Matter

Literally worlds apart. Church today is so different from what Jesus, the apostles or the Acts church looked like and it doesn't seem to notice or understand the implications. If you don't look like Jesus then you look like the world. There's nothing in-between. No neutral ground here. Worse, you may even look like the devil, especially how he can appear as an angel of light--looking so nice and blessed.

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash.

The devil will never appear as his scary true self. He will always wear a "spiritual" disguise. Like topnotch churchmanship. In fact, a very spiritual appearance with matching acoustics (the low, modulated and formal voice), hair style and apparels. The dignified opening prayers and worship drama. Everything formal. 

It's just curious how God chose folks who were rejects and were kicked out of "church circles." The despised and the weak. The least in the eyes of men. This is God's next move in these last days--choose those who people see as losers and don't have what it takes. These are the ones God will empower supernaturally.

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This was how Jesus looked empowered with the Holy Spirit:

54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. [Mark 6]

Where is Jesus in Church Today?

You never see this in church today. People desperately carrying their sick to church to get healed with a mere touch? Never. But this was what Jesus and his apostles had. How come we're so different from them? And we call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ. I'm usually given grace to perform the miraculous in Jesus' Name, and often instantly at that, but it's still so far from what Jesus and his disciples had. I still miss the target now and then. But I don't buy the idea that sometimes healing isn't God's will or miracles have ceased. I believe only one thing, John 14:12:

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Which is corroborated by Matthew 21:21:

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.

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If you say these passages don't work anymore, then tear them out from all the bibles in the world. But even that won't nullify these promises of Jesus. God's Word is eternal and never changes. We followers of Jesus must also perform signs and wonders with perseverance (or continuity) as did the apostles, that is, if we have the same faith as theirs. Performing miracles now and then is not enough. We must hit the bull's-eye mark, not just a near hit. Jesus was accredited by the Father through signs and wonders, and so were the apostles. It was proof that they were from God.

"Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know." [Acts 2.22]

Nicodemus also acknowledged this proof of ministry. He told Jesus:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

We Are the World

And because churches today don't have this accreditation (and don't know how, even with their sophisticated human theologies, titles and degrees), they substitute it with good programs, activities, gimmicks, social work, feeding programs, concerts, sound systems, musical instruments and posh church facilities. Often, they copy from showbiz gimmicks. In all this, there isn't anything to suggest--even a hint--that the church is connected to Jesus' ministry as seen in the Gospel.

Even the way Jesus preached the Gospel was different from how we do it today.

We preach it the way politicians would campaign themselves during election time. We invite people and lure them with all sorts of perks or promises just to make them come. Sometimes, we attract people with popular or showbiz people, or a titled speaker from a popular ministry. We advertise and promote ourselves. We announce the names of our ministries. Then later we'd get people's names and contact numbers.

Jesus didn't do any of that. Sales and marketing companies do. Showbiz people and politicians do.

People were literally and desperately running after Jesus without being invited and begging him to let them touch him. Imagine, they carried their sick on mattresses while running to where Jesus was! You realize how hard that was? Try to imagine it. You're running after Jesus while carrying a patient? Try to picture that in mind or run a mental video. You see it? Wow! And Jesus says the same thing can happen to our ministries if we truly believe.

People won't do this today--run and carry their sick to be healed in church? No way. Instead, church members skip church when they're sick to get a check up or rest at home. They go see their doctors because they believe the prescription more than they do supernatural healing. And can you blame them? A lot of Christians put their hope desperately on a vaccine for Covid 19 because they expect less results from a prayer for healing and supernatural protection. 

On Anti-Covid Vaccines

At this point, you cannot pretend to have bold faith that makes vaccines totally unnecessary because of your belief in Jesus. A lot of believers have succumbed to Covid, believing the same thing, among them pastors. Before you imagine to have such daring faith, I ask you--when was the last time your prayer instantly healed a terminally ill or dying person? Or at least instantly stopped the common cold, headache or fever, on the spot? If you cannot believe healing for something so simple, what more faith against Covid? Be real.

If your prayers haven't been proven effective against simple sicknesses, what makes you think you have bold faith against Covid? The faith you think you have may only be an illusion, a figment of your imagination. A fancy wishful thinking. I have experienced healing illnesses on the spot a lot of times in Jesus' Name, aside from driving out demons. It's all his grace on me, not my own. Yet, I do not pretend to fight Covid with my faith alone. It's still too premature or precipitous. I haven't hit the bulls-eye yet and need more experience. 

And anyway, the bible says we must submit to the government, and government urges us to take the jab. Operating in signs and wonders follows some serious Kingdom principles and protocols like this. 

However, neither should we rest content with this thought--that our faith is not yet ready for fighting Covid supernaturally. We should press on until we hit the mark. How did men of God in the bible treat pandemics (or at least an epidemic)? Did they stay home? What did Moses do? He commanded Aaron to burn incense to make atonement for Israel's rebelliousness. And it worked.

He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped.

[Numbers 16:48]

Church Should Know What to Do

Real men of God knew exactly what to do and church should do likewise. It's God's will because the church is Jesus' body on earth. We have his miraculous hands and from our mouths we can release God's powerful, miraculous and creative spoken Word. Moreover, we have the mind of Christ. Yet, as it is, the church has so much to catch up with in terms of God's supernatural things because we have been wasting our time doing nice church programs, activities, seminars and "ministries," keeping church people busy with them than in learning how to use God's supernatural equipment.

This is why I think there's no real church yet, in the sense that the bible presents what church is. But that's just my opinion. What we see around are mere church organizations and religious NGOs at best trying to build their own empires. But Jesus will start his genuine church again these last days with believers who really submit themselves to Jesus' Word and ways, to his principles--the remnant who will submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit alone. Then the true glorious church of Jesus Christ, without spot or wrinkle or any blemish will appear.