Discover More: Crisis in the Church, Insufficient Power
Crisis in the Church: Insufficient Power
Tom Hill
“…this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17.21
The miracle in Matthew 17 pictures the condition of the Church of Jesus Christ in the world today. The boy illustrates the world. The disciples depict the Church. As the record reveals, the disciples could not cast out the demon from the boy.
Whatever they tried did not work. Neither could the culture, even the religious culture, bring relief to him. Both the disciples and the culture failed.
In like manner, the Church stands helpless in Her attempts to affect the world and the culture. The Church presents an ineffective influence upon them. She has failed. Evidence of Her failure abounds. I will cite only four clear areas of insufficiency:
* defection from the Church;
* disavowal of cardinal doctrines;
* difference from the New Testament Church;
* disobedience of the commands of Jesus Christ.
The disciples failed because of their unbelief. True, they did not totally lack all faith. They had little faith. Yet Jesus included them in His admonition recorded in Matthew 17:17:
“Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.”
Jesus saw the true condition of the entire crowd, faithless and perverse. (16) They lacked faith, showing themselves unresponsive to the evidences of Jesus Christ. As harsh as it sounds, Jesus call them twisted, contorted, and distorted in their unbelief. They rebelled against the truth of Jesus, each in their own manner.
* The scribes showed willful and persistent unbelief, because they continually sought a sign from Jesus Christ.
* The father revealed unwilling unbelief; he cried for help with his doubts.
* The boy exhibited innocent unbelief.
* The disciples exposed their unconscious unbelief.
Regardless of the degree or kind of unbelief, it still produces consequences. Unbelief lies at the root of all sin and spiritual failure. It blinds the eyes to the truth and to one’s real condition. Blinded eyes lead to ignorance of the enemy, too. It causes dependence upon human effort by giving place to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Thus, it relies upon prior successful means and methods as the basis for current efforts. It substitutes the fleshly, human effort for the Holy Spirit.
In the end, it prevents the intervention and expression of God's supernatural power. It fails to apply the indwelling power of Christ by the Holy Spirit to present circumstances, because it contradicts and opposes God. God does not sanctify nor bless unbelief, even if coupled with proper motives. Unbelief is disobedience, and disobedience is sin.
As a result, the disciples’ failure pictures for us the 5 deadly sins of the Church:
* the failure of the Church to affect the world;
* unbelief;
*an inaccurate diagnosis of the boy’s problem;
* an incorrect solution to the problem; and
* insufficient power to solve the problem.
Ultimately, the Church today fails for the same reason they failed, unbelief. We, too, fail to trust God completely and exclusively. We rely upon our own imaginations and abilities. It comes from our failure to seek God. We have become a people unable to think straightly, to feel thoroughly, and to act with rectitude…a people in which everything is wrong.
In addition, the Church today exhibits the same consequences that the disciples’ actions produced. It has developed into a crisis for the Church. These conclusions reveal the desperate need of spiritual revival. The Church faces a crossroads: She can continue in Her present downhill course, or She can correct Her direction by seeking God's face for spiritual reformation and revival.
This passage in Matthew 17.14-21 outlines the immediate steps that the Church must take to reverse the current condition. From this passage, I want to examine some particular absolute truths about the disciples’ insufficient power to cast out the demon from the boy and their implications for the Church today. I pray that the Holy Spirit will clarify for you the truth, convict you of its need in your life, and correct you to bring a spiritual revival to you and revolutionize and transform your life.
The boy’s cure
Although the disciples attempted to cure the boy, they could not. They failed. The boy remained in his sick condition. This circumstance differed from their earlier successes. They had cast out demons on previous occasions. Here their attempts revealed insufficient power to overcome the demon in the boy.
In sharp contrast, the Scriptures show the power of Christ. It says in Matthew 17.18:
“And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.”
Jesus simply spoke the word and the demon departed. The omnipotent power of Christ, God in the flesh, overpowered the limited power of the evil one. The compassionate Jesus, always loving, gracious, and merciful, proved His sovereign authority. With only a rebuke, Jesus restored the boy and relieved his affliction. Those who saw it wondered and marveled at the power of God in Christ. (See Luke 9.43.)
The Church’s condition
This incident exposes mankind’s condition before God, too. It shows the glaring unbelief of all the participants in this event. It also demonstrates humanity’s complete helplessness in and of themselves. None of them could help the infirmed boy, including the disciples.
Like those early disciples, failure because of unbelief characterizes the Church today. Thus, we, too, stand helplessly in the face of our circumstances. The Church, including you and me, lacks sufficient power to overcome the interference, influence, intimidation, and interruptions of the evil one in the world. Abundant evidence confirms it.
The rise of mechanisms for conservation and defense, used by believers and the Church in an attempt to preserve spiritual gains, reveals a disturbing lack of the power of Christ. (17) These schemes embrace a variety of forms and expressions.
The following list records some, but certainly not all of them. Since I described them previously in detail, I mention them again in summary to show their contrast to God's power.
* a confidence in programs, productions, and procedures to attain stated plans; a smooth running, well organized church does not guarantee God’s revealed presence; it may, in fact, prove the opposite;
* a reliance upon the personality of the pastor to motivate and manipulate the congregation;
* the use of polls to determine the plans for the Church; too often they prompt the Church to depend upon the number of people in support of a given idea, as if God reveals His will by majority rule; frequently people of position in the congregation unduly influence the results, too;
* the promotion of false solutions, e.g., apologetics, advertising, and psychology.
In recent years, the Church has tended to adopt these mechanisms, attempting to defend God, Who needs no defense, and to retain spiritual gains. As the Church has implemented them, their supporters have relied upon certain effects of these means and methods as evidence of God's blessings upon them. In their minds, the presence of excitement, enthusiasm, combined with church wide effort signals God's confirmation.
Granted, the Holy Spirit can bring excitement, enthusiasm, and wide scale effort to fulfill God's plans and purposes. However, the mere presence of them does not automatically authenticate God's presence. In fact, the world generates these same effects in its activities.
The world follows a definite pattern to promote them. It uses these 9 steps to accomplish it:
* set a goal(s);
* write a slogan that embodies it;
* establish an organization to promote it;
* include people of reputation and prominence in the organization;
* use meetings to influence the populace to adopt your goal(s);
* raise money to pay for the process, including the fulfillment of the goal(s);
* make it popular;
* distort and defeat all opposition against the plans, even if relevant to the goal(s).
Even a cursory review of this process will remind you of occasions when you have seen it in operation. Businesses of all kinds, even politicians, use them. Sadly, you might also recognize them from their use in the Church as well. They frequently comprise the battle plan recommended by Church growth proponents to effect the changes that they recommend. I have personally seen it in operation in churches.
Too often, the flesh manufactures and manipulates them. When that occurs, the works of the flesh oppose God. He neither uses the efforts of the flesh nor blesses them. Further, He does not cooperate with them either. In fact, the Scriptures instruct us to mortify and kill the flesh with its passions and lusts (Galatians 5.24; Romans 8.11-14).
Before the Church and individual Christians can ever experience the overwhelming power of Christ in revival, they must first become aware and convinced of their true condition and need. (18) The flesh strongly resists the evidences of spiritual failure. Pride blossoms and points to apparent “successes.” Self-righteousness boasts: “We’re OK; I’m OK. We only need a little improvement in a few areas.”
Some may present evidences of God's power at work in various places. I, too, have read of these accounts with gratefulness to God for His grace and mercy. However, these have occurred in isolated instances for brief periods of time and have not affected the Church as a whole. Granted the Bible counsels believers not to despise small things (Zechariah 4.10). At the same time, the Church must realize that today is the day of small things.
Many years ago, Dr. Tozer commented on this very condition. He stated that they revealed nothing more than “the twitching of the muscles of a sleeping giant too drowsy to care.” (19)
At best, the Church fits the description in Paul’s warning to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:5:
“...Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof...”
We must confess our failure and helplessness. Our ignorance of the enemy that we face has rendered us impotent. These indicate the need of the Church today. First, we must recognize our true condition. Second, we must rely exclusively and completely upon the power of God through the Holy Spirit to revive and to reform the Church for the Church to experience the manifest presence of God and His omnipotent power.
The Church’s confidence
Before His ascension, Christ gave His disciples two promises regarding the power that they would need to fulfill His command to make disciples in the entire world.
In Matthew 28.18, Jesus said that He had received all power. This power refers to authority. Christ had received all authority over all things, and sent His disciples to go with this power, or authority, and to teach all things that He had commanded. One promise of power, then, actually means authority.
Second, Jesus promised that His disciples would receive power after the Holy Spirit had come upon them (Acts 1.8). This power means ability. Jesus said that His disciples would have ability from the Holy Spirit to perform His commands.
In the example of the disciples under consideration, they had neither supernatural authority nor ability to cast out the demon from the afflicted boy, even though Jesus had given it to them previously. Their unbelief precipitated their failure. In like manner, the absence of the supernatural authority and ability of Christ characterizes the Church today. Failure stains us as well.
Jesus described the solution for the disciples to experience God's authority and ability over the enemy that had taken possession of the boy. To know God's power to cast out this demon required prayer and fasting.
The Church today faces an entrenched and defiant enemy, too. No simple solutions will remove him. Neither will the means and methods of the world work. Furthermore, our sins have prevented the intervention of our Sovereign, Omnipotent God.
We desperately need the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, to impose His supernatural authority and ability on our behalf to revive us and reform us. Only then, will the Church affect the world and fulfill the plans and purposes of Christ for us.
Like the disciples in their dilemma, we, too, have the power of Jesus Christ available to us. (20) According to promise, Jesus Christ indwells every believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. How, then, do we apply the solution that Christ gave to the disciples, prayer and fasting, in our lives and in the Church today?
First, we must repent of our sins. As described previously, unbelief permeates the Church. We have sought solutions from the world instead of Christ. We have elevated man above God. We do place greater confidence in the means rather than the God of the means.
Complete repentance depends upon thorough self-examination and mortification of our sins. Until we repent of our sins thoroughly, we will continue to flounder in the failures of the flesh. We have this confidence: God always forgives when His people repent of their sins. This will mark the beginning of a renewed relationship with the Triune God.
Second, we must recognize the existence and nature of our enemy. Neither the world and its customs, nor its regulations inhibit the Church. All of these sway under the direction of the real enemy, satan and his evil forces. The Church does not fight against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers of evil (Ephesians 6.12).
Therefore, before we can properly address the problems that the Church faces, we must identify correctly the enemy and his nature, evil, entrenched, and defiant.
Third, we must realize the impotence and inability of human efforts to overcome the enemy. Human abilities and devices are no match for him. Even Biblical means practiced in the flesh will fail. Apparent successes, accomplished by human effort, deceive us.
We think that we have God's blessing. But, God does not accommodate the flesh nor approve superficial and perfunctory prayer for His guidance and blessing. We must reject our inclinations to trust our flesh and its desires to fight with human devices.
Fourth, The Church must reckon the need for the intervention of God's supernatural authority and ability to overcome the enemy and to fulfill Christ's commands for the Church. Nothing less will do. The disciples’ failure, as well as our own, proves it.
Sincere people have attempted to accomplish the work of Christ without His power. They all have one thing in common: failure. We must learn from history and our own experience. We need God's supernatural ability and authority to fulfill His plans and purposes for us.
Fifth, the Church must request God's divine intervention by prayer and fasting. As I indicated earlier in this work, the Church thinks that it has sought God in prayer. Certainly, in some instances, She has. However, too often we have not truly sought the Lord of heaven in prayer. To seek God in prayer and fasting involves multiple elements.
To seek God requires one to search and inquire after Him. For example, it describes how someone searches and strives after something lost or missing. Another picture describes how someone seeks an audience or appearance before a king or person of authority who can help in time of need.
In addition, to seek God in prayer requires humbleness. The Scriptures describe it, for example, in Psalm 34.18 in this fashion:
“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Again, in James 4.6, God gives grace, not to the self-glorifying, but to the humble. Brokenness and contrition lead to humility. We must deny all self and its multitudinous expressions and recognize our poverty before a gracious and merciful God. He rejects the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4.6) who calls to Him for mercy.
These illustrate how one seeks God in prayer. It demands that you draw near to God in prayer and supplication. You turn to Him stand before Him. You inquire diligently of Him. Tokenism will not suffice. This kind of prayer demands sacrifice of time and self. These reveal an attitude of determination and perseverance in seeking for God's intervention until it comes.
Further, seeking after God often includes fasting. In the example of the demon possessed boy, Jesus told His disciples that the child’s demon would only come out by prayer and fasting. To be honest, some translations do not include the fasting part of Jesus’ answer.
However, the Bible includes numerous examples of fasting as part of humbling and contrition before God in dire circumstances. The following list shows a sample of them.
* Moses, upon the sin of Israel making the golden calf, returned to God on the mount in prayer and fasting on behalf of Israel (Exodus 32.30-34; 34.28).
* Jehoshaphat, when the multitude of Judah’s enemies came against them, called for prayer and fasting to God for His divine intervention on their behalf (2 Chronicles 20.2-13).
* The prophet Joel called for prayer and fasting seeking God's intervention after the complete devastation of the invading armies upon the Jews (Joel 1.14.-2.17).
* Esther, upon hearing of the plot to kill her countrymen, called for prayer and fasting for God to intervene on their behalf (Esther 4.15-17).
* Nehemiah prayed and fasted when he heard the report of Jerusalem’s dreadful condition (Nehemiah 1.4-11).
* Daniel prayed and fasted in sorrow and repentance over the sins of Israel that led to their captivity in Babylon (Daniel 9.3-15).
* In Acts 13.1-3, we read the account of the believers in prayer and fasting when the Holy Spirit identified to them to separate Barnabas and Saul for a special missionary enterprise.
* Even Jesus fasted (Luke 4.1-2).
These examples reveal the exercise of fasting coupled with prayer, even though the Bible does not record any command to fast (except on the Day of Atonement as part of God's law to Israel). In each of these examples, God heard the cries of His people in repentance and for mercy and answered them.
However, contrary to some teachings, fasting is not a mantra nor an Aladdin’s lamp. No, God is not a jack-in-the-box Who jumps to answer if we turn the fasting handle. It is not a technique to adopt without serious contemplation. When the Jews used it in this fashion, God rebuked them for it. (See Isaiah 58.3-7, Zechariah 7.5, and Luke 18.10-14.)
Even though Jesus did not command fasting, He taught His disciples how to fast (Matthew 6.16-18). Later, when quizzed on why His disciples did not fast, He answered that they would fast after He departed from them (Matthew 9.14-15). They did fast (Acts 13.1-3), and so has the Church down through history.
I do not pretend to have all of the answers regarding this practice. However, I can identify some of the characteristics of true fasting when God heard the cries of those fasting. It requires concentrated seeking of God's face. It evidences true humility and contrition, calling upon God for mercy. It demands sacrifice and self-denial.
To those with significant health issues, please follow your doctor’s advice prior to entering a time of fasting. For some, it might not mean the complete absence of food. Rather, it could prove beneficial with partial or specific absence of some foods.
Fasting coupled with prayer that follows the Biblical examples can bring God's answers to our needs. To those who would ask, “If it is not specifically commanded, and it may not ‘work,’ why do it?,” I answer, why not? Do not you intensely desire God's divine intervention? How seriously do you want it? Do you want it to the extent that you will sacrifice and humble yourself contritely before God and beg for His mercy? Will you wait upon God and wait for Him? Perhaps, He waits to answer to see the seriousness of your desire (Joel 2.12-14).
Seeking God serves at least five purposes. It brings repentance. It restores the broken fellowship between God and His people. It promotes intense, concentrated, sacrificial prayer. Those who seek God fall in worship before Him. We receive direction from God on His plans and purposes and How He intends for us to fulfill them.
Finally, to employ Christ’s answer to the disciples (prayer and fasting) we must rely exclusively and completely upon God to work through the Holy Spirit to fulfill His plans and purposes. It is patently clear that the condition of the present day Church manifests the absence of the supernatural authority and ability of the Holy Spirit.
Several evidences of God's power by the Holy Spirit will arise that we lack today. (21) First, the Holy Spirit will raise Godly saints who do not have to resort to the Greek original to prove they are saints. At the subtle deceit of the enemy, holiness has become an option for the Christ-follower. Nowhere in Scripture does the child of God get such an excuse.
In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite. Believers are called to yield their bodies unto holiness (Romans 6.19,22). They call the child of God to “perfect holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7.1). The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4.24 described the new man as created in true holiness. Again, he reminded his friends in Thessalonica that the Lord would establish them unblameable in holiness (2Thessalonians 3.12-13). He further reminded them that God had called them unto holiness (2Thessalonians 4.7).
Godliness and holiness have fallen upon hard times. It has virtually no emphasis in either the pulpit or the pew.
Yes, we are called unto holiness without which we cannot see God (Hebrews 12.14). Only the Holy Spirit can produce true saints. The Church misses them and needs them desperately.
Second, the Holy Spirit will return anointed preaching to the Church’s pulpits. In our day, I suspect that the average pastor spends little time everyday in prayer. That cannot produce preaching under the power of the Spirit. Preaching without the Spirit’s power produces spiritual deadness.
Few preachers today follow the example of Paul in 2 Corinthians 2. He spoke of resting entirely upon the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, not popular, effective speaking techniques. Worse yet, even fewer people in the pew can discern the difference.
Someone has remarked that the Church today is a mile wide and an inch deep. Whoever said that was an optimist. It is neither a mile wide nor an inch deep. Too much reliance upon the latest online sermon notes and stories has contributed to the spiritual decline in preaching.
It has become a part of the cause in the spiritual decay of the Church. We need Holy Spirit anointed preaching to convict us of our sin, to challenge us to walk in holiness, and to convey the truth(s) of Scripture to our hearts and lives.
Third, the supernatural authority and ability of the Holy Spirit will result in spiritual unction in worship. Too often today, churches use music as the magic tool to produce “worship.” This has failed for several reasons. Excitement and enthusiasm manipulated and manufactured by loud and lively singing encouraged by bands and chorus leaders does not equate to spiritual unction in worship. Often these groups include unbelievers who do not know Christ. How can they, then, lead anyone in worship of God, Whom they reject and defy? They cannot.
Enthusiasm and excitement are not spiritual unction. Neither is a warm feeling. Again, few can distinguish the difference. His manifest presence brings a heavenliness to worship that surpasses enthusiasm, excitement, and warm feelings.
Further, the words of many popular songs used to “worship” contain false doctrine and/or untrue statements about God. They cannot bring spiritual unction in worship. For too long, we have let our hymnology direct our theology.
Again, music is not the only vehicle of worship. The reading of Scripture has almost disappeared from Church services. Sometimes, it has no place in the service at all. The Spirit can use mightily the reading of the Word to encourage true worship of God. Only the Holy Spirit can produce true worship, whether in music, quiet contemplation, or the reading of Scripture.
Fourth, the supernatural authority and ability of the Holy Spirit will reveal an overwhelming sense of God's presence. Accounts of revivals in history record this evidence. A holy hush, a reverent awe, a recognition of God's manifest present pervades the meeting. Words cannot describe it, but it differs radically from the manufactured enthusiasm and excitement prevalent today. It brings a fear to interfere with God's activity and presence.
As so often happens with music, enthusiasm, excitement, and warm feelings make us feel that Christ has manifested Himself. However, these expressions fall by the wayside when Jesus makes his presence known. Words cannot describe it.
Presence and manifest presence are not the same. The mere fact that He is present, which His omnipresence promises, does not automatically guarantee that He makes His presence known in experience. In fact, the Church today carries out Her affairs with little regard to the manifest presence of the Lord of the Church.
The manifest presence of the Lord of glory results only from deep desire. (22) This deep desire reveals itself in the Christian by prayer and self-denial. Although hard to describe, the presence is palpable. I have attended meetings of this unusual kind as well as many of the false. From personal experience I can confirm that there is a difference. Nothing compares to a service when God manifests Himself present. The Church urgently needs God's manifest presence today.
Last, the supernatural authority and ability of the Holy Spirit will manifest itself in ways that will evoke, “God did it.” One of the great problems of the Church today is that She can be explained. The truest evidence of the lack of His presence is the absence of the supernatural.
Everything about the Church today, even individual Christian lives, can be explained, the surest proof of the need for spiritual revival. We explain the Church in terms of purposes, plans, people, programs, property, and personality. The Church today avoids, even sometimes condemns, the supernatural work of Christ.
Seldom do we point to occasions when we declare, “God did it.” Everything about the Church and the life of a Christ-follower is supernatural. We can explain nothing of it in human terms. It is all of grace. The supernatural regeneration of lost souls leads to true trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
The current emphasis of urging people “to decide for Christ” bears little resemblance to true Biblical salvation. Salvation is promoted as a solution to life’s mumps and measles and little more. Life is bad, so why not try Christ? It demands no repentance and requires no sacrifice.
His presence brings true conviction of sin, repentance, and faith leading to salvation in Christ. Whether salvation, sanctification, solutions to the impossible, or the saturation of God's presence in believers’ lives, it all results from the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately, we have thrown the baby out with the bath water by overreacting to the false representations of the Holy Spirit. The Church has succumbed to these errors and in fear avoided the pursuit of the proper power of God. The enemy has perpetrated a fraud, and we have bought it. We cannot flounder any longer in reliance upon human means instead of God.
We need a revival in the Church in which God by His Spirit unleashes His supernatural authority and ability. He will confirm Himself and His people to the glory and honor of the Triune God: Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit.
Zechariah faced a time like ours. God had called him to perform a task that he could not fulfill. God reassured Zechariah with this promise recorded in Zechariah 4.6:
“…Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
It sounds like a duplication of terms: might and power. But, that is not the case. They have different meanings. “Might” describes strength from many. It might express an army. It can also picture the potency of popular opinion, the strength of many, which frequently carries undue weight in the Church.
In the opposite, the word “power” refers to the force of one. The Philistines relied upon this kind of power when they depended upon Goliath. Perhaps you have observed this fallacy in practice, frequently shown in politics and business. The Church fails its mission when She promotes policies and people based upon persuasion from a prestigious, pleasing personality.
The warning of God to Zechariah rejects both kinds of power. God called Zechariah to trust the Spirit of God. He would win the battle. In our battle against spiritual powers greater than human abilities, we, too, must rely upon the Spirit of God to interject His supernatural authority and ability to fulfill Christ's purposes for the Church.
In His answer to the disciples for their failure to cure the sick boy, Jesus told them in Matthew 17:21:
“Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”
It is vital to seek the supernatural authority and ability of Christ by His Spirit in our lives and in the midst of the Body of Christ. Jesus gives us the reason in John 15:5:
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
Neither individually nor collectively can Christians accomplish God’s purposes without the manifest presence and power of Christ. True seeking after Him will produce evidence of His presence.
References
16. Morgan, p. 200-202.
17. Lloyd-Jones, p. 15.
18. Tozer, A. W., D. D.. Paths To Power. Christian Publications, Inc., Harrisburg, PA; p. 8-9.
19. Ibid, p. 8-9.
20. Spurgeon, Charles. Spurgeon’s Sermons. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI; 1985; Vol. 2, p. 309-310.
21. Tozer, p. 10-13.
22. Spurgeon, Charles. Spurgeon’s Popular Exposition Of Matthew. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI; 1962; p. 145.
? Thomas P Hill.
Master Ministries International, Inc.: www.masterministries.org
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