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PREVIEW
Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Softcover Jack Deere
PREVIEW
The City of Elohim Augustine PREVIEW
Confessions of St Augustine
John 9:1-7; Acts 19:11-17, 2 Kings 13:20-21 (quoted herein)
Here’s your quiz: which city is purported to be the second oldest in
the state of Florida? (Pensacola) Now which city is the oldest? (St.
Augustine) Now for the hardest question of all: St. Augustine, Florida,
is named for what person? Think! That’s right! Since he’s a saint, we
should learn a little about him. (St. Augustine, that is.)
Aurelius Augustinus
Saint Augustine
(Aurelius Augustinus) became the Bishop of Hippo in North
Africa in the year of our Lord 396. Augustine had a Christian mother but,
when he went to study in Carthage, he turned to paganism (Man·i·chae·an·ism)
in his quest to find the solution to evil. You see, he was quite devilish
himself. But despite his ways and in spite of his false gods, Augustine’s
heart longed for the holy tabernacle of Yahshua in which his mother had
raised him. One day in his apartment, he was so convicted that he began
to weep and wail over his sins, for they were great. In the course of
this demonstration, he caught the sound of a child singing next door,
“Lift it; read it! Lift it; read it!” The child sang the song over and
over again. Augustine understood this little song to be a divine command:
that he should pick up the Bible and read whatever verses his eyes fell
upon. This he did, and the passage he found was
Romans 13:13: “Not in reveling and
drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and
jealousy. But put on the Lord Yahshua Christ, and make no provision for
the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
This incident led to Augustine’s immediate,
miraculous conversion (for he had been guilty of all these sins). He
writes,
“Instantly, as the sentence ended, there
was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty
and all the gloom of doubt vanished away” (Confessions 8:12:29).
(It reminds us of Wesley’s Aldersgate confession.)
Eventually, Augustine was consecrated a bishop and
after his death, a saint. He’s now considered one of the “Fathers of the
Church” (so called) – and possibly the most influential of them all.
Christian doctrine for centuries would look to his writings, his
Confessions and his City of Elohim.
His conversion:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aug-conv.html
The City of Elohim:
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm
But despite his miraculous conversion, Augustine
taught that miraculous events had passed away with the apostles. How
could he believe such a thing? Because he hadn’t seen any
miracles. So since he hadn’t any experience in the miraculous, he
chose to teach from his experience (or lack thereof) rather than
from the plain truth of Scripture.
Such is the case for many today who have a problem
with the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because they haven’t
seen anything miraculous, what they haven’t seen simply
can’t be so. And what they believe isn’t so, isn’t worth
investigating, either. Yet miracles are reported all over the world
every single day by reputable witnesses, and Yahweh is using very creative
surprises to bring signs and wonders to the people he’s in the process of
saving. Augustine was no exception. Something would soon happen to open
his mind to supernatural possibilities.
Bones of Stephen
In the year of our Lord 415, after Augustine had
been bishop for 25 years, the bones of the martyr Stephen were
discovered. We remember Stephen from Acts 6, which relates, “Stephen,
full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people”
(vs. 8). The religious leaders didn’t believe in that kind of thing, so
Acts 7:58,59: “they cast him out of the city
and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of
a young man named Saul. But as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord
Yahshua, receive my spirit’.”
Stephen’s bones were taken on a tour to Africa,
where Augustine had his bishopric. A throng of people met the ship with
the bones aboard. Augustine writes that a blind woman begged to be taken
immediately to the bones, and she was. But the man in charge gave her
only the flowers that were on the bones. She put the flowers in her
eyes and her blindness was instantly healed. These flowers were put under
the pillow of a notorious heathen. The next day, he discovered he’d been
converted in his sleep, and awoke full of love, speaking the words,
“Christ, receive my spirit.” Those were Stephen’s last words,
too. Even the flowers that were near the bones were endued with the
martyr’s holy power.
Another man was instantly healed of a cancerous
lesion when he carried a bone. A priest, dead and being bound up for
burial, was brought back to life when his friend applied a bone.
Augustine personally witnessed other healings and conversions that took
place through these bones – he reports healings from gout, pain, crushing
– and several resurrections – and many, many more miracles. In fact, St.
Augustine wrote, “Were I ... to record the miracles of healing which were
wrought in the district by means of the most glorious Stephen, they would
fill many volumes.”
It’s a miracle in itself that one so auspicious
and influential as Augustine might be converted to a supernatural faith
through finally experiencing extraordinary events; he saw so many that
though he tried, he hadn’t time to record them all (City, 22:8).
Bones Have Power?
OK. I suppose you may be wondering if such things
as blessed bones can really have any power. Isn’t this Catholic
superstitious nonsense? Many have dismissed Augustine’s testimonies of
miracles because, they say, he was old and had become religiously
sentimental. They’d rather read that he didn’t believe, as in his
early life, than that he did, as in his later life. Those
skeptical of the power of the Risen Yahshua are so because they’re not
gathering around where he’s working.
So what about Stephen? In his case, the
Scripture attests that he was full of grace and power. I would suspect
that this power could extend to his very bones, wouldn’t you? But
even after he was dead, would his bones retain the spirit of holiness that
would turn folk’s faith godward enough to heal and raise the dead? Are
holy bones scriptural?
There is indeed a Bible story that gives us a
theological basis for blessed bones. Consider the bones of Elisha, the
great prophet of Yahweh.
2 Kings 13:20-21 20. Elisha died and they buried him. Now
bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. As a
dead man was being buried, a marauding band was seen and this man was
thrown into Elisha’s grave. As soon as the dead man touched the bones of
Elisha, he came back to life and stood up.
You might remember that Elisha had “a
double-portion anointing as he flowed.” The prophetic mantle of Elijah
evidently didn’t just hang from his shoulders, but it saturated right into
his bones by way of the righteousness of his flesh! Even after he died,
his flesh eaten away, his brain evaporated, those bones retained enough of
Yahweh’s double-portion anointing to bring a dead man back. We can’t
explain the mystery behind it, but we do believe that Yahweh is sovereign
and he can do as he will any way he pleases. Maybe this story is recorded
just so we won’t forget that fact.
Examples of Anointing Objects and People
Actually, miracles wrought by blessed objects are
common in the Scripture. Let me give you several quick examples from the
New Testament. Yahshua made clay from dirt and spit, conveyed power to
that concoction, stuffed it in a blind man’s eyes, then told him to wash
it off in a pool. The man did so and came back seeing. Power was
conveyed to the clay to heal, but only through the faith and obedience of
the formerly blind man. Do you believe this account?
A sickly woman only touched Yahshua's tunic and
received her healing – and he felt power going out of him even though only
his clothing was contacted. This is because Yahshua's clothing was
anointed by his righteousness, and the woman was healed by her faith in
Yahshua's second-hand touch. Do you have faith?
Yahshua also conveyed his authority to people –
his disciples in particular. He laid his hands on them, ordained them
and sent them out to do the same works he’d accomplished, and even greater
works. Those he send, in turn, laid their hands on other disciples
and thus passed on his same holy anointing. This process has
continued on ever since that time, and we still use the laying on
of hands now to convey the anointing of Yahshua. We do this from
the most emotional and disorderly country churches right on up to the
great, staid ordination services at Annual Conference. The anointing once
bestowed by Yahshua upon a chosen few two thousand years ago has been
conveyed person-by-person, hand-by-hand, touch-by-touch, down the
centuries in uncountable numbers of places. That anointing and its power
are still felt strongly in our day. And, if you have faith in Yahshua,
even when I lay my hands upon you, that very same anointing is
conveyed you-ward to some extent.
James, Yahshua brother, calls for the sick folks
to come forward in the assembly to be anointed with oil, with
prayers. The oil anointing is not just a ritual, nor does the oil have
that much healing power in itself, though it has some. The oil is a
physical representation of the sacred name Yahweh, and it acquires the
power of Yahshua's robe or Elisha’s bones when it’s blessed by one of
Yahweh’s children. And, if there is faith in Yahshua present, blessed oil
(or any other blessed object) may convey a miracle from the storehouses of
Yahweh’s goodness.
Consider also the case of the apostle Paul in Acts
19:11,12 – he was so anointed with his mission of signs and wonders to the
Greeks that they took his hankies to their homebound; and they recovered.
Even more remarkable, Acts 5:15 implies that people on stretchers were
healed just by the shadow of Peter falling upon them. Do you have faith
in Yahshua to believe that?
Now think of the loaves that Yahshua broke,
blessing his Father, blessing the bread, then watching them feed over nine
thousand people – and this conveyance of power and abundance happening not
once, but twice. This “bread anointing” was extended to that famous
Passover meal, when Yahshua blessed it, blessed Yahweh and pronounced it
to be his body for all generations. And Yahshua was revealed to his
Emmaus disciples through the breaking of blessed bread, don’t forget.
This blessing and breaking of bread was practiced throughout the apostolic
years and written up by Paul as being able to prevent death
(1 Corinthians 11:30). Down
through post-biblical times, when medical care was either non-existent or
what we might consider butchery, this consecrated “bread become
body” was hidden away at the Communion rail by poor people, who used it as
medicine for their homebound sick.
Still today, frequently, we bless the bread
and wine, bidding Yahshua to make it be for us his very body and blood
(howbeit in a spiritual sense). Communion is much more than a ritual;
when the elements are blessed and this little altar rail is approached in
faith, Yahshua himself is again present to make the wounded whole
and raise the dead. We also still anoint and bless hankies and take them
to the sick so that they may have the benefit of our previous blessing,
anointing and touching. When such articles like the blessed Communion
wafer and the blessed prayer cloth and the blessed unleavened wafer are
received with faith in Yahshua, tremendous spiritual power may be
conveyed. Something inside may be addressed. Again, it’s a matter of
faith.
Risking My Reputation
Wednesday night several of us were in church at
the Ebenezer Assembly of Elohim, way out in the country (7/9/03). At the
beginning of the service, a blind man stood up and shouted as loud as he
could, “I’ve got a word for this Methodist preacher in here -- ‘Woe to
you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false
prophets.’” He didn’t know I was sitting right behind him. Friends,
I’d take the chance of judgment if only everyone would speak well of me.
But at the risk of fulfilling this fellow’s prophecy and tarnishing my
reputation, I’m going to share a little Communion miracle I experienced
and encourage you to tell anyone you want about it.
I have a high view of Communion. When properly
blessed, approached and consumed in faith, I believe that the bread and
wine may actually become the real body and blood of our Savior
(in a spiritual sense, per
The Book of Discipline
(1980) pp. 64,65). During a hard time in my life, we were
attending St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, living from Sunday to Sunday,
Communion to Communion. I gained a great deal of strength from receiving
Communion, and I always approached the altar in the faith of repentance.
Something very mysterious began to happen. One Sunday, I wasn’t able to
chew the blessed Communion wafer – it had become like a piece of skin in
my mouth. It was impervious to my teeth. But the experience wasn’t
unpleasant, only puzzling.
At the next Communion, the same thing happened. I
realized that Yahshua was giving me a supernatural sign of his presence,
confirming my faith and turning my mind him-ward. I was getting blessed
and healed. This miracle of the Body of Yahshua continued for at least
four weeks before the wafer seemed to become just a wafer again. This
is my little miracle. But the greater miracle is that I can
tell you this and you believe me. You do believe me, don’t you?
The Anglican Church believes that the real Yahshua
is present in the properly blessed elements of the Communion; so did John
Wesley; and so do I. (But in the low church, we’ve discarded this
blessing as superstitious.) I thought surely everyone in that Anglican
church would believe my testimony of the “wafer becoming flesh” because
the minister taught this view every single Sunday. So I confided
in the head deacon -- that after the minister blessed the wafer and when
he placed it on my tongue, it seemed to become flesh. This happened for
several weeks. I couldn’t chew it, but had to swallow it whole.
This man of the cloth looked at me strangely for a while and said, “Hmm.
Stale wafer, huh?” “Stale four weeks in a row?” I replied. He didn’t
believe because it was outside his own experience: if it hadn’t
happened to him, then it simply hadn’t happened. A stale wafer was a more
plausible explanation than the statements of faith he confessed every
Sunday.
When Yahshua returns, will he find any real faith
on earth, I wonder?
With Your Permission
But we don’t want to be this close-minded. We
want to affirm that the Father and Son may have our permission to do all
manner of miracles and supernatural works without having to tell us
individually about each one. We affirm that we believe that all things,
with Yahweh, are possible, and that the fervent prayer of the righteous
avails greatly, and that the anointing of that prayer may be conveyed
through an object like a wafer, a prayer cloth, a bone or even a cassette
tape.
Let me finish this message with the words of St.
Augustine, who went from a skeptic to a believer in the miracles of Yahweh
through seeking them out. He said,
“Let us therefore believe those who both
speak the truth and work wonders. For by speaking the truth they suffered,
and so won the power of working wonders. And the leading truth they
professed is that Messiah rose from the dead, and first showed in His
own flesh the immortality of the resurrection which He promised should
be ours, either in the beginning of the world to come, or in the end of
this world” (City 22:10).
Today, we are bound to call down a blessing on
these tapes (or whatever) so that
they might be endued with the same gift that wrought miracles at the touch
of Elisha’s bones, Yahshua's robe, Peter’s shadow or Paul’s apron, and for
the same reasoning that Augustine explained – that sinners might be
converted and the name of our Savior glorified. So much that, with our
prayer, and through the laying on of hands, that whatever sinner’s
hands these tapes (or whatever)
eventually find, might be convicted, through the resurrection power of
Yahshua of Nazareth, to use those hands and the hearts that supply those
hands and the brain that instructs those hands, to glorify and serve him.
(The actual sounds that will be heard from
these tapes will be of small significance. The great significance will be
in the power they convey through touch.)
Now, with your permission, I want to assemble the
men and women of faith who will come to lay their hands upon these tapes
(or whatever) and pronounce a
supernatural blessing upon them, that each tape
(or whatever) will find the hands
it’s meant for and bring forth the blessing and conviction for which it
was created. {Bring the prayer warriors
forward for this. Here is a prototypical prayer:}
Hear our prayer, O Yahweh our Elohim: your Son once
laid his hand heavily upon us. Now we too lay hands on these your
creations of {water, oil, tapes, whatever}. We bless and sanctify
these objects to your use and service. Allow none of these
objects to fall on the trash heap, but place them into the hands of
hundreds of people. May all who receive them utilize them for your glory,
whether they know it or not. May they hear your word, feel your divine
protection and experience your unlimited grace. Now may the blessing of
Yahweh Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, rest upon these
objects and reside within them for the mission and ministry of
Yahshua of Nazareth, our Savior and Master. Amen. |
