Tensions

Excerpt from Matt Chandler:  Divine Tensions

Here’s what I’ve learned, even through this little journey, and I knew it to be true before. Keep in mind, I’m not teaching a new sermon here. You can go download this from October. My theology has not changed here. What I’ve got to experience is both through this. I get e-mails from people just going, “The Lord’s will be done,” and then I get e- mails from people going, “You just believe and the kingdom is here. Christ has already purchased your healing,” which is partly true. He has purchased my healing, but we’re still wasting away. Paul unbelievably clear about that. So you get these two camps. Do you see what’s happening? There’s, “We don’t need to bother Him. He’s going to heal Matt or He’s not,” or it’s, “We just need to pray enough.” There’s this draw in the soul of man to be Aladdin and make God Robin Williams, to rub the lamp and go, “Do what I tell You.” And we’ll lock up whether or not God loves us depending on if He responds in the way we want Him to. We make Him a cheap magician and not the God of the universe. And it’s a sad, horrible thing to condense and reduce God down to “He loves me if He does what I say.” That’s Willy Wonka, that’s Veruca Salt, that’s “I want the squirrel” or “I want the goose that lays the golden egg,” depending on which version you like. So in this, both are correct. You’ve got to watch your tendency to reduce. You’ve got to watch the tendency to go, “It’s just His will, and what He’s going to do He’s going to do.” And you’ve got to watch the tendency to go, “No, if we simply believe, we fast, we pray and we bother and He’ll answer.” You’ve got to resist polarizing in either one of those directions, because the truth is they are both true. The Scriptures are flooded with both of them.

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I think there are several other examples in Scripture that help us with this. I love Paul in Corinthians, who is far more powerful and I in regards to walking in the Holy Spirit. His handkerchief and apron heal people. A lot of times in the Scriptures, he’s not going, “Jesus, please heal this man.” He walks up and goes, “Get up and walk,” and the guy gets up and walks. Now that’s different, right? Because I’ve prayed for a lot of people while I was in the hospital, “Please heal. . .please heal. . .please heal. . .” I have never said, “Get up and walk,” and had someone hop out of their bed and walk. So this is a different level of power that I’ve ever been able to walk in, and I would contend that it’s greater than anything you have been able to walk in either. And yet on three occasions, Paul pleads with God, “Remove this thorn in my flesh. . .remove this thorn in my flesh. . .remove this thorn in my flesh.” And what’s the answer? “No.” God’s answer to him was, “No, I won’t. If I take this from you, you’ll boast in your exceedingly great revelation, and I’ve already said that the proud I know from afar. No, I will not heal you, but My grace will be sufficient for you in it.” But then you’ve got other times where God absolutely heals. In Philippians, you’ve got a guy, Epaphroditus, who gets really sick, and Paul and other apostles are praying that he’d be healed. But he keeps getting worse and worse, and they think he’s going to die. And then right near the end, all of a sudden, God heals him and it’s clear that He heals them in the prayers of the saints. So you start getting these pictures of, “No. . .Yes, but I’m going to let you suffer for a season,” and then sometimes it’s just immediate and miraculous. So I would say in all of this that even if God chooses not to heal, then we praise Him for all circumstances, knowing that He is sovereign, knowing that He is above all, knowing that He is in all and through all. There is a great C.S. Lewis quote in his book on grief where he talks about when you’re in heaven, when all of it is said and done, it’s not that you look back at all the problems and pain and go, “Oh, that makes sense.” Instead, you look back and there was never a problem to begin with. I’ve always loved that quote.