Most of my recent posts don’t have much to do with grace as they have to do with healing (mainly) and other charismatic issues. But I’m still very interested in grace. And even as I explore New Covenant messages and teachings on healing by Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack, Roger Sapp, Bill Johnson, etc.,  I learn more of how grace and God’s love for us is really a foundation for all the healing and supernatural stuff we do. Too heavy a focus on obligations and imperatives and we become sin-conscious, guilty and tend to disqualify ourselves from receiving healing/blessings and moving in the supernatural.

In my many posts on grace and New Creation Church (and Pastor Joseph Prince) in the past, I quoted many people from the Reformed (Calvinistic) tradition in defense of the message of grace. Michael Horton was the first person who actually awakened me to my understanding of grace and the gospel about 10-15 years ago as I grappled with the “Lordship Salvation” controversy. I’ve quoted Reformed authors in defense of my view of grace not because I think the Reformed tradition is very grace-based.  In fact, I’ve always maintained that I think there’s a large section of the Reformed tradition that tends to legalism. I say this from experience because before I read Michael Horton, I read many other Reformed and Puritan authors and they were saying really different things from Michael Horton! So there’s that divide in this tradition.

They say history repeats itself. And it’s true in this matter of grace, antinomianism and legalism. When people accuse New Creation Church and Joseph Prince and other grace-based preachers of “antinomianism”, guess what – it’s happened before. Down the centuries, people have come up on different sides in the Reformed tradition on these matters. And even as I speak, things are hotting up in the blogsphere and in the Reformed world. People (many Reformed Christians themselves) are challenging some Reformed Christians (like Michael Horton) on the way they preach the gospel and grace. Too much grace, they say. Gotta beware of antinomianism. Same charges that have been thrown at Pastor Joseph Prince and many others.

For those interested in grace and want to know what’s been happening in the Reformed world, the rest of the post deals with some stuff among Reformed Christians regarding grace and antinomianism that have been going around the Internet and blogsphere the past week:

It probably started with Jason B. Hood’s article in Christianity Today. Partly in response to Tullian Tchividjian’s article Don’t create a new law for yourself, Jason B. Hood wrote Heresy Is Heresy, Not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching in Christianity Today:

Antinomianism is lawlessness, believing and teaching an obligation-free version of Christianity. In certain quarters of the evangelical world, being accused of antinomianism is increasingly considered to be a symptom of a healthy ministry. This belief has a long pedigree; no less an authority than Martyn Lloyd-Jones believed there was “no better test” of gospel fidelity than the accusation of antinomianism.

Basically, Jason challenges Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ belief that there was “no better test” of gospel fidelity than the accusation of antinomianism. I wrote positively about Lloyd-Jones’ belief in my Thoughts on New Creation Church – Accused of Antinomianism post – so obviously I disagree with Jason.

Two good responses to Hood’s article:  The Radical Gospel, Defiant and Free by Dane Ortlund and Two Ways To Realize Radical Obedience: My Indirect Response To Jason Hood by Tullian Tchividjian. I really, really liked portions of Ortlund’s response so I’m going to quote some chunks of it:

The gospel of grace is so radical, so free, so counterintuitive, so defiant of all the entrenched expectations of our law-marinated hearts, that it would be surprising indeed if our preaching of this gospel is not met with the objection anticipated by Paul—“are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (Rom 6:15; cf. 3:8; 2 Pet 3:15–17). The question is not whether Paul stood squarely opposed to “lawlessness” (your definition of antinomianism). On this you and I (and Paul, and Lloyd-Jones) are happily agreed. I am puzzled at the need you feel to explain at length that Paul opposed lawlessness. Of course he did.

…You underscore the way Paul vociferously refuted antinomianism, as if this refutation deflates Lloyd-Jones’s suggestion that charges of antinomianism may be compatible with gospel faithfulness.

Ortlund is spot on here. This is where I think Jason B. Hood misses the point. When Lloyd-Jones or whoever says that good, authentic and biblical gospel preaching will cause you to receive accusations of antinomianism, we don’t mean that we are for antinomianism or lawlessness! No, we aren’t. As Ortlund suggests above, being against antinomianism (lawlessless) is not inconsistent with your gospel preaching receiving charges of antinomianism. I know – this is profound. I’ll give you time to think about that…

We revel in that charge of antinomianism not because we advocate lawlessness, but because the radical preaching of grace and justification by grace alone through faith alone will make people think that we’re advocating lawlessness. But we’re not advocating lawlessness – just that you don’t get saved by your obedience or keeping the law.

Ortlund continues:

The real question is not whether Paul opposed lawlessness, but (1) why the charge of antinomianism was raised in the first place, and (2) how Paul handled it. As for the first question, surely the answer is the sheer gratuity—the puzzling, head-scratching, wonder-producing scandal—of free forgiveness won for us by another. Forgiveness not only of our rotten badness but also our rotten goodness.

…The next and most important question, then, is how this radical obedience and personal holiness are to be encouraged. And here we come to the real crux.

One way is to balance gospel grace with exhortations to holiness, as if both need equal air time lest we fall into legalism on one side (neglecting grace) or antinomianism on the other (neglecting holiness).

The other way, which I believe is the right and biblical way, is so to startle this restraint-free culture with the gospel of free justification that the functional justifications of human approval, moral performance, sexual indulgence, or big bank accounts begin to lose their vice-like grip on human hearts and their emptiness is exposed in all its fraudulence. It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

So the charge of antinomianism was raised in the first place because the radical grace and forgiveness offered through the gospel of Jesus Christ means that we don’t earn our forgiveness but Christ earned it for us! But how did Paul address this charge, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). Did he try to use a bit of fear so that Christians don’t be too lax and continue to sin? Did he try to balance grace with adding some law? That’s what many people think would cause Christians to flee sin. They think that too much grace and you’ll give them a license to sin. We need some godly fear to motivate them to live holy lives! John Wesley wrote:

If we took grace too seriously especially the doctrine of election it would undermine our only basis for pursuing a holy life, fear of punishment and hope of rewards.

But did Paul think like that? Did he try to temper the free love of God with a bit of fear and lots of focus on doing good? No! He actually counters charges of antinomianism by preaching more GRACE! This seems so counter-intuitive and backward. Surely we promote holiness by preaching holiness and the fear of God and all those kinds of things right? WRONG! As Ortlund wrote and this bears repeating again (bolds too),

The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

Or as Michael Horton wrote in The Fear of Antinomianism in response to Hood’s article and also this recent attack on his teachings,

What’s striking is that Paul answers antinomianism not with the law but with more gospel! (Rom. 6:2-4)  In other words, antinomians are not people who believe the gospel too much, but too little!  They restrict the power of the gospel to the problem of sin’s guilt, while Paul tells us that the gospel is the power for sanctification as well as justification.

…The ultimate antidote to antinomianism is not more imperatives, but the realization that the gospel swallows the tyranny as well as the guilt of sin.  It is enough to save Christians even in their failure and not only brings them peace with God in justification, but the only liberation from the cruel oppression of sin.  To be united to Christ through faith is to receive everything that we need not only to challenge legalism but antinomianism as well.

Or as Tchividjian wrote:

The irony, in other words, of gospel-based sanctification is that those who end up obeying more are those who increasingly realize that their standing with God is not based on their obedience, but Christ’s.

To summarize, the true radical biblical preaching of the gospel should (as Paul’s gospel preaching did) attract accusations of antinomianism. That doesn’t mean we’re promoting antinomianism or lawlessness. One can be against lawlessness yet be charged with preaching a gospel that seems to promote lawlessness. Paul is definitely against sin and lawlessness but he understood that true gospel preaching will attract such charges. When he was accused of antinomianism, he didn’t soften the freeness of the love and grace of God in Christ in order to prove that he’s against sin. He didn’t start balancing grace with law. He didn’t pull back and start to preach holiness or fear or whatever. Rather, he preached more grace and gospel. In fact, he preached identity and union with Christ (which is for another post altogether). He preached more indicatives before later going on to imperatives. But he preached enough grace and indicatives before he moved on to the imperatives so his audience clearly knew that all imperatives and calls to holiness are totally grounded in the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ. As Horton wrote:

We need imperatives—and Paul gives them.  But he only does this later in the argument, after he has grounded sanctification in the gospel.

P.S.: For those who have read this blog and my many posts in the past regarding grace, you’d realize that I quote from a lot of Reformed Christians like Michael Horton on grace and the gospel – often in the context of demonstrating that people like Joseph Prince who preach grace and the gospel radically are not alone. However – and I’ve mentioned this before – that doesn’t mean I think Michael Horton and Joseph Prince would have a lot in common or that Joseph Prince is Reformed in theology! Not at all. Well, I do think Joseph Prince is teaching good Reformed and Reformation theology when it comes to the doctrine of justification. But other than that, Michael Horton would be against Joseph Prince’s view on things like prosperity and healing. Michael Horton, contra Joseph Prince but like most Reformed Christians, would also believe in the third use of the law, viewing the 10 Commandments as a guide for the Christian. However, in an essential aspect of the gospel and grace message (and the doctrine of justification, not sanctification), I would argue that Joseph Prince and Michael Horton are pretty much on the same page. In addition, I think both would be in agreement on the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ being central to Christian preaching and the whole Christian life, and the fact that it is the supernatural wisdom and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ (not good advice, psychology, principles or law) that transforms and empowers the Christian to live for God and man.

P.P.S.: The conversation continues with Jason B. Hood responding to Dane Ortlund with his We Who Have the Spirit Have the Power to Change and Dane having the last word with his Major Agreement, Minor Disagreement, Moving On. I hope to address these posts and this topic once again in a future post on grace-empowered sanctification.

An overview of the meeting

We had an awesome meeting on healing and JGLM last Saturday with a whopping 65 people turning up from different churches – of which probably half are either from New Creation or formerly from New Creation. I shared a little about my journey into healing and my experience in the States meeting different groups of young people living a lifestyle of healing, then Alastair and others also shared about their journey and involvement with John G. Lake Ministries (JGLM). We also shared a bit about what we learned from Curry Blake and the sacred cow doctrines related to healing he destroyed for us – and how that affected our thoughts on, and practice of, healing. We had a time of Q&A, prayer for healing and then most importantly a time of fellowshiping and connecting with others interested in healing.

The idea of an informal meeting first came about when I asked Curry for his contacts in Singapore so I could find people to learn with and put into practice this message of healing – and also with whom I could invite Curry to Singapore in future. Curry referred me to Alastair (an Australian who’s the representative for JGLM for Western Australia and Asia) who said he’d be coming to Singapore. He knew a group of Singaporeans (including Michael, Wilfred and Eddie who shared on Saturday) who had been to a Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training in Perth in May. He told me to organize an informal meeting for those interested in Curry’s teachings and so I planned for a meeting and invited some of my friends – some are familiar with Curry’s teachings, but most had only heard a bit about Curry through me. I’d initially planned for about 15-20 people, but many more than expected showed interest and people started to invite their friends and there were a few who came (whom I didn’t know before) who got to know of this event solely through this blog. There were people from around four independent (inter-church) cell groups, two of which focused on the prophetic, another on grace and another on healing. Then there were people who came who were involved in the School of Supernatural Ministry. While not everyone knew much about Curry and JGLM, I think almost all knew of Bethel Church and Bill Johnson – and John G. Lake. We had a few students who are either starting or continuing Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry this coming school year and some who are going to Randy Clark’s School of Healing and Impartation in Sydney later this month where Bill Johnson will also be ministering.

Steps forward: Active encouragement of each other

Some people have asked me what’s next and Alastair and some other Singaporeans who have been influenced by Curry’s teachings have discussed how we can go forward from here. The turn out showed that there are quite a number of people interested in learning more about healing and practicing it too. I think this is super exciting – I believe it’s only in the past 5 to 10 years, and especially in the past year or two, that many Christians (especially internet-savvy ones) throughout the world have come to realize that God can use them to heal people. I think Bill Johnson and Bethel ought to take a lot of credit for that as they’ve influenced so many Christians around the world. Nowadays, you’ll be able to find tons of people who have posted YouTube videos and/or written blogs (see below) sharing how God has used them to heal people on the streets.

I’ve had quite a few people tell me that they are interested to go to the streets to pray for people. My heart is to see people encourage and challenge one another to learn more about healing and practice it in the streets and as a lifestyle. It took me more than two years from the time I started to get into Bill Johnson’s teachings to step out onto the streets and to do this as a lifestyle. Two things helped me in stepping out: 1) Curry Blake’s teachings which totally destroyed everything in me which said that I can’t or wasn’t ready yet to heal the sick 2) Being around people (in America) who were living the life, going to the streets and practicing healing as a lifestyle.

Before encountering Curry’s teachings and doing it with my friends in America, my mindset was pretty much:

This thing works but I have to learn more, pray more and work on this and that in my spiritual life. Without all this, I’m not going to get much success. I need a while more to do all this then I’ll feel ready enough and I’ll come out with a blast!

Now it is:

I am ready already because I have all things in Christ (authority, anointing, presence, open heavens, etc.) and even if I step out now and don’t see many healings, I’ll be learning along the way and perhaps the best form of learning is through practicing. I can’t wait to step out everyday and pray for everyone I see who is sick!

I am just beginning on this journey and still learning tons from other people besides Curry. But I’m still going to the streets to put into practice all I know because I don’t think I have to know it all or reach some spiritual level before going out and seeing people healed. And through going out and putting into practice all I know, I know I will learn even more.

I’ll be arranging for a gathering of Christians (I’ll post about this soon) interested to learn more about healing and also going to the streets to practice healing. I’d like to create an environment that includes the two things above that helped me greatly to step out – 1) Studying good teachings on healing (e.g. from Curry Blake, but also from others like Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson) 2) A community that will encourage and challenge each other to step out. It’s all about learning together, encouraging and challenging each other. No one is an expert, but we don’t have to be an expert for God to use us because this is for every Christian :) That’s what makes it so exciting! We just have to keep renewing our minds by learning about healing and meditating on Scriptures and practicing it. Before long, we’ll be doing things that most Christians would never expect we could do. And we can do it simply because Christ is in us and we have His anointing that abides. Hallelujah!

Steps forward: Resources

Here are some resources that have been instrumental to my learning – and they are all free!:

1) Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training. The best foundational teachings on healing around. It’s long, but I think everyone who has heard it would say it’s well worth their time. Will transform your thinking on healing! By the way, those interested in more of Curry Blake’s stuff can email me at idealist at stillhaventfound.org and I could send you more stuff.

2) Andrew Wommack’s God Wants You Well, The Believer’s Authority, A Better Way To Pray and You’ve Already Got It. Also check out Killing Sacred Cows and Living In The Balance Of Grace And Faith.

A lot of what Curry Blake teaches in the DHT are in the above teaching sets by Wommack. There are nuances between the two on healing – I’m more with Curry when it comes to healing. But Wommack is stronger on grace and he’s probably my favorite teacher/preacher overall.

I’ve listened to most of the above teaching series at least twice. It takes time for all these teachings to sink in especially when you don’t hear all this often in churches – in fact, you hear a lot of the opposite. It’s really all about adopting a New Covenant mentality/identity in relation to everything – including healing. The church is filled with teachings based on the Old Covenant mindset and way of doing things – even the charismatic and prophetic sections of the church. The Old Covenant is all about lack, disqualification and asking for something that we in the New Covenant actually already have in Christ! Focusing on the Old Covenant doesn’t give us the faith to believe we can heal whereas understanding the New Covenant and who we are in Christ encourages to believe that we can heal people. By the way, Pastor Joseph Prince doesn’t talk a lot about healing but his whole ministry is focused on the New Covenant and that has also helped tremendously.

3) Blogs: Ryan’s Revival or Riots Ministries, Brandon’s I am a Spirit, Michael’s The Jesus Method and Nick’s Lyfestyle Ministries. I met all of them when I was in America and they’ve all influenced my life. Thank you guys and keep living it out!

4) YouTubes: There are tons of YouTubes on street healings and other good healing stuff like from Revival or Riots or Whizzpopping (Brandon above). Or just search for “Todd White” or “Pete Cabrera”. My favorite (everyone’s favorite?) is probably the disneyland healings.

5) Healing Forums: Two forums on healing that I sometimes go to are JGLM Life Teams Forum and Roger Sapp’s Christian Healing Forum.

Curry Blake’s coming to Singapore!

Yay! The date would be around Feburary 2011 :) Churches or Christians interested to be involved with his meetings here or getting him to teach at your church can talk to Alastair. Email me at idealist at stillhaventfound.org and I’ll put you in contact with him.

After attending Bethel Church (Redding), I spent nearly two weeks in Colorado. I’ll share more about that next time but fresh on my memory now is my time in Arkansas for Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training from 8th to 10th July.

I’ll start by saying that my three days in Arkansas for this training contained times that were easily some of the best of my trip – and perhaps in my life – and yet also some of the worst of my trip.

A great bunch of friends

The night before the training, I took a flight from Colorado Springs to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) in Arkansas and arrived about 11pm. Visiting a small city in America without a car sucks. My cab ride to the hotel cost me a good US$40! I prayed that I wouldn’t have to take a cab each day to and from the meeting place as the trip would probably cost about US$30-US$40 each way! Arkansas isn’t exactly a place to go for tourists – the most famous thing about Arkansas is Bill Clinton, who was a former Governor of Arkansas. There’s pretty much nothing to do in that part of Arkansas (except that the headquarters of Walmart is located here) and there isn’t much public transportation. I was hesitant to arrange a trip to come to this training – I knew it’d be very costly (not just air ticket but also hotel and transportation), but I guess I really wanted to come because of the impact Curry has had on my thinking. And I’m definitely glad I came.

On the morning of the first day, I got up early and waited at the hotel reception. I knew that more than 20 people staying at the hotel were going to the training so I was going to ask for a ride. Eventually, I got a ride with a group of four fantastic people (Michael, Ashley, JD and Caleb) – a truly awesome bunch, without whom my time in Arkansas would have been so much less meaningful. They were in their twenties and were from various parts of America – one completed an internship at Mike Bickle’s International House of Prayer (IHOP), another spent the previous month at Bethel Church in Redding and a couple leads a house church in Kansas City. Here they are with Curry:

Throughout our time there, we went everywhere together. We chatted extensively throughout this time about healing and all. We talked about Curry Blake’s teachings and on healing how it compared to Bill Johnson’s – I really enjoyed this part because I had been thinking a lot about all this (like in my previous post) and our conversations helped refine my thinking. They were people who prayed for people on the streets – some with more success and some with less. When Michael, the driver of the car, first heard that I wanted a lift, he asked me if I had uneven legs (legs of uneven length) because he doesn’t allow people with uneven legs to ride in his car. I knew what he meant – if I had uneven legs, he would pray that God would grow and even the length of my legs. He had grown the leg of the receptionist the night before when he first came into the hotel. I was really excited when I heard all this as this was what I wanted: to be around people who do the stuff so that I can be challenged by them and do it together with them. I wanted to do that during the Bethel Conference though there wasn’t much time in between sessions and sessions ended too late. And I really wanted to do it during this Curry Blake training too. I didn’t just want to just learn and not go out to the streets to heal people. God answered my prayer by giving me a great bunch of friends to be with the whole there days.

Conversations about healing and the prophetic

We had great conversations. Conversations I dream of having with friends, but I don’t have many Christian friends into healing and the few into healing are not familiar with Curry Blake or what he teaches. We had very constructive and thought-provoking discussions after the sessions. We analyzed Curry’s teaching (agreed and disagreed here and there), honestly wondered why some of us had so little success, wondered how we could grow in this area, etc. One guy talked about how when he was at Bethel, some students used the power of God to stick coins on the wall! I think this is probably some stuff students do and not endorsed by the leadership and I think it’s probably an immature way to use the power of God, if it’s indeed the power of God – see this video by a bunch of guys I met and stayed with after my time at Arkansas and before I returned to Singapore.

I talked with them about my struggles in moving in the prophetic and one of them shared about how a friend of his made him move out in faith by telling someone that he was gifted in the prophetic – which pressured him to step out and listen to God to give that person a word on the spot. He learned through being pushed to take risks and he suggested that I give him a word there and then. I turned the tables and asked him to give me a word (ya, I wasn’t willing to take risks in this area – I need to learn to do that!). He gave me a word and it was a pretty accurate word of knowledge. Another guy also told me about a picture he saw of me and that was pretty accurate too.

Pastor Joseph Prince in America

Every city I visited in the States, I was pleasantly surprised to meet people who love Pastor Joseph Prince’s preaching (they watch it on TV).  The same was the case at Curry’s training. I’ve probably encountered about 15 people in total throughout my trip in five different cities (Redding, Denver, Colorado Springs, Bella Vista in Arkansas and San Jose). When they know I’m from Singapore, the first thing they ask is if I know Pastor Joseph Prince! One lady told me she wakes up 4:30am every morning just to listen to him. Another tells me of how she and a relative of hers have been healed through listening and applying the message (of confessing our righteousness of God in Christ). Another spoke of how he was liberated from condemnation and guilt. And another that both Curry Blake and Joseph Prince were his favourite preachers. By the way, I heard that Curry Blake is trying to hook up with Joseph Prince / New Creation Church and I think Andrew Wommack also. If this does materialize that would be super awesome! I’m hoping that both Curry Blake and Andrew Wommack would come to Singapore one day!

Success rates in healing

I don’t want to be a person big on numbers, but numbers are important. I don’t want to overemphasize numbers, yet on the other hand I don’t want to understate the importance of numbers. While I don’t like it when a Church keeps on focusing on numbers, I think it’s equally wrong to totally neglect numbers. To me, seeing the fruit is in a sense seeing the numbers.

Before I attended Curry Blake’s training, I read people saying that he had 85% success rate in healing, which was supposedly one of the highest around. During the training, one of my friends asked Curry what his percentage of healing was. My friend was uncomfortable with Curry preaching such an absolute message of healing without any compromise or toning down of how we have the power in Christ to heal all the sick and raise the dead, etc. So he asked Curry what his success rate was – believing it has to be 100% if he’s to preach such an uncompromising message of healing. Curry’s response was that he has between 94% to 96% success rate.

I’m not going to put down Bethel because I’ve learned so much from them and Bill Johnson and gang first got me into all of this. And I’ll continue to learn from them but I also want to learn from others and finally evaluate what I’ve learned by going to the Bible. What I heard through talking to some people is that Bethel’s Healing Rooms sees only about 5% success rate. While this is through some pretty good sources, feel free to take this with a bit of healthy skepticism (I do) – after all, in a sense this is hearsay. I’d also do the same with Curry’s supposed success rate. I wouldn’t want to compare Curry’s success rate with that of Bethel’s because besides not being 100% sure of the exact figures, I also think context is important. Furthermore, I didn’t see a great deal of healing during Curry’s conference – something I’ll write about later in this series of posts.

However, I’ve talked to at least four people in the States who got started in this healing business having been influenced by Bill Johnson and Bethel. But the moment they latched onto Curry’s teachings, they saw a dramatic increase in the success rate of their healings, which they attribute to understanding healing in the way Curry teaches – as opposed to the way Bethel and others teach.

Like I said above, I don’t want to be putting Bethel down and it’s not my intention to create division and pit Curry Blake against Bill Johnson. However, as I’ve suspected since I heard Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) mp3s online, there are definite differences in teachings. And Curry’s teachings have not only caused my faith to increase and inspired me to start stepping out more and more, but it’s also dramatically transformed the thinking and rate of success of others.

Dogmatic Curry

Curry is definitely dogmatic about what he believes in. I’ve listened to a few of his DHTs where you’ll hear him disagreeing with a lot of other ministers and popular teachings on healing – he’s not afraid to be outspoken and dogmatic about it. Being dogmatic isn’t necessarily bad. I’m generally not attracted to people who are too dogmatic, but I think Blake makes a lot of good sense and his message needs to be heard. A person being dogmatic wouldn’t make me not hear his message. Prophets were/are dogmatic and they were not nice people. During my trip, I heard two leaders who were prophetic in the sense of speaking forth an important but unpopular message that the church needs to hear. One was Curry and the other was David Watson, which I’ll write about in future. Like prophets of old, they have strong convictions (often politically incorrect) and tend to either piss people off or draw strong followers to their messages.

As Curry mentioned, one of the most powerful and faith-filled ministers, Smith Wigglesworth, was not a nice person and he didn’t have many visitors or friends. After all, these people aren’t out to win friends and be likable, but to speak the truth. Speaking the truth often means going against accepted wisdom of the day and being politically incorrect. Curry would probably acknowledge that he’s not a super friendly and sociable guy. He may come across quite arrogant to some and put a lot of people off with what he says and his teachings, but I’ve heard many have accepted his teachings after strongly disagreeing with them initially (because they went against a lot of things they believed in) and struggling with it for some time. I’ll definitely be writing more about Curry’s unique teachings on healing on this blog, some of which I’ve already touched upon in my previous post on two ways to minister.

An important theme on my mind going into the Bethel Church Kingdom Culture Conference (since encountering Curry Blake’s teachings) has been the issue of ministering (e.g. healing) to people through:

1) Praying for more of God (experiencing more of Him, His touch, His anointing, His leading) in order to be more effective to do His Kingdom work

versus

2) Knowing what you already have in Christ by faith (His anointing, His presence, etc.) and thus going out to do the work of the Kingdom.

As I’ll write more in future, I see Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack and Joseph Prince as emphasizing more of the latter (view number 2). Bill Johnson and Bethel seem to focus more than the above three on the former (view number 1), while not neglecting the latter (view number 2), as you’ll see below. I wrote a bit about this tension (though in the context more of sanctification than empowerment for ministry) here and also something similar related to healing (being led by the Spirit vs. going by faith and in the authority of the Scriptures) here. Three messages I heard during the conference made me reflect more about these two different ways of doing ministry or being empowered for ministry – or whatever you wanna call it.

Kris Vallotton on Desperation for God

In Kris Vallotton’s first message on Wednesday night (23th June), he touched a bit on this theme. This wasn’t the main point of his message – his message was on believing in people. But he mentioned about how Graham Cooke (a prophet) said out loud during a meal with many people (including Kris),

I don’t wanna be desperate for God.

Kris was struck by that statement and wondered what Cooke meant. I dunno if it was Cooke or Kris who gave the explanation, but it was this:

Being desperate means you have a dysfunctional relationship with God.

Kris mentioned that “The reason we have visitations (of God) rather than habitations (of God) is because we don’t think God can tolerate us.” He also mentioned that he couldn’t sing “I’m desperate for you” anymore – I think he was referring to this Vineyard song “Breathe” which I mentioned here.

Anyway, I think the whole point of it all (at least what I took from it) is that we need to recognize that God is always with us – that is, view number 2 above. His presence is always with us whether we feel it. And sometimes being too desperate for God (His presence, His anointing, etc.) can be reflective of the fact that we somehow don’t recognize that in Christ and by faith we’re already anointed, already have all authority and already have God’s presence in and with us always. God is already with us – it’s not as though we’re trying to get Him to come to us. He already inhabits us.

I’ve heard Bill Johnson say in a few of his past sermons something like in our private prayer with God, we can act desperate or hungry for more of Him and more breakthroughs. In public when ministering, we don’t show this form of desperation. Now, I’m paraphrasing him and I may be missing his point slightly but I think what he’s trying to say is that in public we thank God for His presence and we go by faith healing the sick – i.e. view number 2 above. Perhaps we shouldn’t always show that desperate side. In private times, we wrestle with God and cry out to Him for more victories and power – i.e. view number 1 above.

Bill Johnson on Rending the Heavens

Bill Johnson spoke on Thursday morning (24th June) and he said a lot of stuff related to the above theme. By the way, Bill Johnson’s sermons are fantastic. Sometimes you hear people speak about books in which every sentence contains so many insights that one has to read slowly and chew on each sentence. Bill Johnson’s sermons are kind of like that. A lot of sentences he says contain so much insight. His style is very different from Kris. Kris is more of a preacher and Bill I think is more of a teacher. Both complement each other well.

Anyway, Bill said stuff like:

The renewing of our mind in Romans 12 is to get our minds consistent with what we already have.

We need to learn to access what’s already been accomplished – it was done 2,000 years ago.

This reminds me of what some other speakers I’ve heard recently said. I believe it was Rob Hotchkin, who ministers with Patricia King of Extreme Prophetic, who said in Covenant Vision on 6th June that:

Fasting is to get things out of the way that is preventing me from knowing I already have everything.

And during the recent Asia Conference organized by City Harvest Church, I believe it was Reinhard Bonnke who said that we shouldn’t ask for Elijah’s anointing or double portion because in the New Covenant we have Jesus’ anointing. He also mentioned that according to Matthew 28, God’s with us always and so why pray for God’s presence to come when He’s always with us? Even if he (Bonnke) doesn’t feel anything, he still appropriates God’s presence by faith and thanks God for His presence. David Yonggi Cho mentioned that our attitude in our prayers shouldn’t be that of begging God for something we don’t have, but of proclaiming (the things we already have).

The above quotes from Bill, Hotchkin, Cho and Bonnke all emphasize view number 2 above. We’re not trying to get something we don’t already have as we already have it all in Christ. If only we knew what we already have in Christ, we would be able to do miraculous things. And I absolutely love the above way of looking at fasting. It isn’t to get more power or change God’s mind. It’s really more for our own heart and to position ourselves better to receive more from God. It doesn’t earn God’s favor or power – it merely gets rid of things that are preventing us from knowing and experiencing how much power we already have in Christ. Or as Curry Blake said:

Fasting doesn’t get you power. Fasting gets you out of the way so power can flow easier.

The power isn’t something you need to get but it’s already inside you – you already have it. Fasting merely gets you out of the way and allows the power from within to flow out more easily.

Bill also mentioned how it’s not totally accurate to ask God to “rend the heavens” because

…we already live under an open heaven.

The phrase “rend the heavens” comes from Isaiah 64:1,  “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down”. But that was in the Old Testament and before Jesus came. Jesus rended the heavens and tore the veil separating us from God on the cross! Understanding Biblical Theology (which I explain a bit more here) would help us to see the fulfillment of that passage in Christ and that we shouldn’t be singing or praying that verse as New Covenant Christians.

I mentioned singing because there are songs – e.g. Misty Edwards’ “Rend” and “Oh How We Want You To Come!” – that seem to use the “rend the heavens” motif to refer to either Jesus’ second coming and/or the Spirit coming down powerfully in revival. Now, I don’t know if such interpretation is good theology, but at least Bill did seem to think that in at least an important sense that the heavens have already been rendered in Christ’s first coming and that therefore it’s probably not appropriate to ask God for an open heavens when Christ already rended the heavens.

Again, he’s trying to emphasize point 2 above. It’s sort of like that quote:

I don’t pray/wait for revival. I am revival.

Or as William Booth said:

I am not waiting for a move of God, I am a move of God.

That may sound arrogant, but it conveys an important truth. In Christ, we have the authority and power to bring revival and a move of God everywhere we go. God’s asking us to go out and heal the sick and raise the dead, etc.,  and not to pray for revival to happen. When we step out in faith, we create revival around us. God has already rended the heavens and come down in the form of Jesus Christ and He lives in us through His Spirit. So we don’t need to pray that God will rend the heavens. Rather, we need to recognize that He already has done so and that we can be revival to this dying world.

Interestingly, Kim Walker (probably my favorite worship leader at the moment) sang Misty Edwards’ “Oh How We Want You To Come!” on Jesus Culture’s Everything album. Early on in the song, she said these phrases:

We invite Your presence in this place tonight, O God.

We’re desperate for you tonight, Lord.

This represents view number 1 above.

Bill Johnson on Operating out of the Presence vs out of Principle (of faith)

Bill Johnson spoke the last message on Friday night (25th June). Interestingly, here he seemed to be talking about the importance of the presence of God (by this I believe he means something close to the tangible presence and thus something close to view number 1) as he contrasted operating out of the presence vs. operating out of principle (of faith).

I have to listen to this message again, but I believe he’s giving priority to operating out of the presence (view number 1). At least, he thinks this should be normal. We operate out of principle (view number 2) only when we can’t operate out of the presence. That is, it should be normal for us to perhaps feel God’s presence or leading to pray for healing. But if we don’t, we go by faith and still pray and believe for the person’s healing.

Preliminary conclusion

I don’t think both ways of ministering are mutually exclusive, although I think Blake tends to see it as such – or at least he emphasizes view number 2 so much that it gives people the impression that he thinks only view number 2 is valid. However, it’s helpful to understand the distinction and to reflect where one is upon this continuum. In my own journey, I’ve moved from view number 1 towards view number 2. From the very beginning of my Christian life, I thought that only specially anointed leaders could do healing. And thus if I wanted to heal the sick, I had to really seek God a lot for such an anointing. That made me ignore seeking to do this stuff – better just leave it to the experts because they’re gifted in all this. When I read Bill Johnson, it moved me along towards view number 2. He’s trained so many ordinary Christians to heal the sick and there’s no reason why an ordinary Christian like me couldn’t heal the sick.  With Curry Blake’s teachings (and re-reflecting upon Andrew Wommack’s and Joseph Prince’s), something changed in me and I moved even further along the continuum towards view number 2 – as well as increased in confidence that I could heal the sick.

Perhaps my view is like this. Bill Johnson would say that operating out of the presence (view number 1) is normal but if there isn’t that sense of the presence, we should still operate out of the principle of faith (view number 2). However, at this point of my journey I would tend to see that operating out of the principle of faith (view number 2) as normal and if we happen to operate out of the presence and direct leading of the Spirit (view number 1), that would be wonderful, but it isn’t necessary.

Now I love Bill Johnson and I’m not sure if I’m representing him and his church correctly. But my experience is that those from the “prophetic” and “glory” camps (which Bill is partly in – at least he doesn’t disassociate himself from them) tend to prize some tangible anointing and leading of the Spirit in ministering above the authority that comes from the Word of God. My feeling is that while he tends to do this less than those in these camps he hangs around with, he does emphasize the importance of view number 1 more than say Blake, Prince and Wommack.

The danger of emphasizing view number 1 (or at least prioritizing view number 1 over view number 2) is that people don’t pray for healing unless led clearly by the Spirit to do so. Or at least (and here’s the important thing I think) they don’t feel that their prayers for healing would work unless they have some kind of clear leading from the Spirit. And so they don’t pray or they pray without faith and thus don’t see results. And I’ve seen a lot of this in my experience.

So at this moment of time, I see the dominant ministry model as operating out of faith and authority through knowing who we are in Christ and what Christ has already done for us (rended the heavens, given us authority, anointed us, etc.) – and not merely ministering healing (or whatever) only when we feel some “leading of the Spirit”.

Curry Blake once went to meet up with a man who later became his mentor, Lester Sumrall (who himself was mentored by Smith Wigglesworth). He had two questions on his mind that he wanted to ask Sumrall. One was “how to know the will of God” and the other was “how to be led by the Spirit”. Curry knocked on Sumrall’s office door, went in and even before he had the chance to ask his questions, Sumrall suddenly said:

To know the will of God, read the Bible. To be led by the Spirit, do the Bible.

To be led by the Spirit is thus to do what the Bible says. And if we believe the Bible says we’re to heal the sick (Matt. 10:8, Mark 16:18), then that’s good enough a warrant for us to go out and pray for every sick person and expect healing – not just those we’re specifically led by the Spirit to do.

Curry Blake says that:

The greatest faith is to be able to apply a general command to a specific situation in your life.

By this he means that (in the context of healing) faith is to apply the general command of healing the sick to every sick person we come across. This is what we should be doing and not waiting for a specific leading for God has already led us in the Scriptures to pray for every sick person we come across.

I’ll end with this seemingly blasphemous quote from Smith Wigglesworth which speaks of the importance of ministering to people (healing and other things) even when we don’t have a direct leading of the Spirit:

If the Spirit doesn’t move me, I’ll move Him.

This is not the end of my journey and therefore I’m still learning. Comments are always glady accepted.

PS: The above was written before I attended Curry Blake’s training. I’m in the midst of his three day Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training now in Arkansas and have talked about the above issue with many people – which they’ve been thinking about and grappling with too. I’ve also been with some friends to Walmart and we’ve seen healings and lives touched by God! How amazing is that!!! More thoughts in future posts :)

(Some of the above quotes and description of what was said by various people are all paraphrases from my notes because I don’t have the actual recording. Though they may not be the exact words, the concept should be more or less spot on, although do take into account my fallibility and that I’m writing from my own perspective and lenses.)

Bethel’s Kingdom Culture Conference is over and I’m in Denver now for another two conferences. I’ve had about an average of 4 hours of sleep over the past few nights! This trip has been and will be fun and exciting, but I don’t exactly have a relaxing schedule! Not complaining though! :)

Where do I start about writing about the conference? Let me just start and see where this goes. First, I wish I was able to spend a longer time at Bethel. I’ve told friends many times that if I were like 10 years younger, I’d love to attend the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) for at least a year, if not longer. Many people ask me why I don’t consider going to a Bible College or Theological Seminary. That was a dream of mine for many years beginning about 13 years ago. My response would be that the past 15 years of reading, writing, learning, serving, being in different churches and exploring different Christian traditions have been the greatest Bible College experience for me. I’ve definitely learned more through all this than I would from 3-4 years of traditional theological studies. I don’t need more of such knowledge. If I were to consider any “Bible College” or ministry school, it would be BSSM or Randy Clark’s Global School of Supernatural Ministry or some place similar like Andrew Wommack’s Charis Bible College. Once one has seen and heard the stuff that goes on in places like Bethel, I don’t see how one can go back to a form of Christianity that is without power!

Why would I want to spend precious hours reading, learning and writing a paper about some moot academic and intellectual point of Christianity or theology when I could be learning about how to activate my faith and move in healing and the prophetic? Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve spent the last 15 years reading a lot and learning so much. It’s served me well. Early on in my Christian life I struggled in relation to the issue of grace and that led me to believe in the message of grace and ignore a lot of “mixture” I hear from the pulpit. But even during this time, there were things I just wouldn’t go into because I think it’s just too academic and irrelevant to my Christian life and me making a difference in the lives of others. I’m glad for what I’ve learned and I think there’s probably a place for all that. But definitely not at the expense of seeing power in one’s Christian life. Why can’t I do what Jesus and the Apostles did? It’s easy for me to make up an excuse and say that all that probably isn’t for today because after all I haven’t seen all that taking place very often. You hear it preached, but when it comes to demonstration time, reality doesn’t live up to the ideal. I know charismatic Christianity. I was transformed in a Pentecostal church 15 years ago and so I’ve been a charismatic at heart my whole Christian life. And yet, hey, I haven’t seen much power even in charismatic churches. Christianity has to be filled with the power of God to transform lives – setting people free from bondages, healing of sicknesses, etc. This was the kind of power that Jesus and the Apostles demonstrated. I know the last few sentences may be a bit judgemental and critical of many churches and Christian traditions (hey, I’ve always acknowledged I’m fallible and so this is my own fallible and biased perspective – so those who disagree with me have gotta forgive me!), but after all my years of experience in different Christian traditions, the kind of Christianity in a church like Bethel, while not perfect, is very close to what I think Christianity should be like.

I would never say that God is totally absent from any Christian church or tradition. I think there’s truths deposited in all traditions. And I don’t think Bethel’s form of Christianity is perfect or that they can’t learn anything from other traditions. But I think Bethel has got a lot of things going right for them and I’m very impressed. They are very well grounded in the grace and love of God – and the importance of knowing one’s identity in Christ. Joseph Prince’s books are sold in their bookstore and some conference attendees I spoke to know and love Joseph Prince’s stuff. As I mentioned before, I first heard of teachings on the love (grace) of the Father from the Toronto Blessing (some call it the “Father’s blessing”) 15 years ago. This whole focus on the love and grace of God may not have originated from Toronto, but I know the segment of Christianity that some call the Renewal movement sees all this (the love and grace of God) as totally foundational to all that they are doing. It is not just a teaching, but a message that undergirds everything they do.

Yet Bethel goes beyond just the grace message – without leaving it behind. One of my favourite messages during the conference was Kris Vallotton’s afternoon message on Friday. He spoke about believing in people. By the way, Kris’ life message is all about our identity in Christ and how we’re children of the King and thus royalty. He came from a really terrible family background (with unloving and even abusive? step-fathers) and thus he knows the importance and transforming power of experiencing the Father’s love and knowing who we are in Christ – which is really what the grace message is all about at its core. Anyway, Kris’ message was a very moving and inspirational message about how we ought to believe in people and love them even if they don’t deserve our love – just as God loved us even when we didn’t deserve it. And through believing in people and loving them despite their faults, we help them achieve the wonderful destiny God has for them. I’m starting to like Kris more as a preacher and communicator.

I loved his message, but here’s the point I want to make – which I’ll develop slowly. New Creation’s messages are focused solely on the grace of God (the indicatives of Scripture). Most other churches like City Harvest Church would focus primarily on what we ought to do for God (the imperatives of Scripture). I’ve argued on this blog (see here) that our preaching should not focus solely on the imperatives of Scripture – yet it also shouldn’t focus solely on the indicatives of Scripture. If I had to choose between a church that focuses solely on the indicatives and one that focuses solely on the imperatives, I’d choose the former – that’s why I appreciate New Creation so much. But I’ve also argued that I think Paul and the Scriptures don’t do an either-or thing. They talk about both. And it’s not just about preaching both in any fashion. The important thing is getting the relationship between the two correct. The imperatives ought to be grounded in the indicatives – the power to live for God and love Him and people comes from knowing how much God loves us. That’s the way Paul wrote his letters – e.g. Ephesians 4-6 (imperatives) come after Ephesians 1-3 (indicatives).

I don’t think we should ever have the imperatives as the dominant focus of our ministry or preaching. If we always hear about what we have to do for God and what God expects of us, we’re not going to live victoriously. And the sad thing is that most churches do preach a steady diet of imperatives after imperatives. That’s why New Creation exists and is so popular – that’s why so many lives have been transformed there. On the other hand, I also believe that we shouldn’t just focus on indicatives always. That’s equally unbalanced (by the way, this has nothing to do with mixing law and grace for I’m not saying we have to balance law and grace!). Some may argue that preaching the indicatives and grace will automatically result in transformed lives. That is, we don’t need to hear preaching on the imperatives because that will happen automatically. Well, I totally agree that preaching grace will transform lives. But Paul obviously thought that something more was needed in his teaching/preaching than mere indicatives because he didn’t just write Ephesians 1-3, but wrote Ephesians 4-6 too!

Now, my point is that there has to be a way that avoids both extremes of focusing almost solely on the indicatives or focusing almost solely on the imperatives. Could we preach in a way where we talk about what we should do for God yet do it in such a non-condemning way that people are inspired to live for God and become more like Christ? If in our minds the greatest accomplishment in preaching is to ensure that legalism and condemnation is totally avoided, then we’ll constantly make sure that our messages are totally devoid of any form of imperative because that could be dangerous – as is commonly thought. But I think Paul saw it differently. Constantly on his mind wasn’t the fact that legalism and condemnation need to be avoided. Yes, the grace and love of God is a totally fundamental message we need to keep returning to. There will never be a time when we never need to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, there are many other things in Scripture that would not be touched upon if we only talk about the gospel and the grace and love of the Father. To be sure, these (love and grace) ought to always undergird every other message. But we don’t have to be afraid of preaching the imperatives, or the “law of Christ”, as some people call it. These have nothing to do with the law of Moses. In the New Covenant context, there are lots of exhortations and imperatives made by the Apostles – and these are made to New Covenant Christians! Preaching them isn’t mixture if we properly bring out the fact that they do not save one and that the empowering to do them is found in the gospel and the grace and love of the Father.

When I hear messages from Kris Vallotton (e.g. like the above) or Bill Johnson or Andrew Wommack, I don’t feel condemned. They preach messages that touch on the imperatives and other things that may not be directly related to grace, yet it’s not in a condemning or negative way because the message of the grace and love of God (indicatives) is always there empowering our actions (imperatives). In fact, such messages inspire me to become more like Christ and I’ve learned tons from them.

I see in Bethel a church totally immersed in the grace and love of the Father and one that prioritizes intimacy with God and prizes His presence. There’s no hint of legalism, serving God through self-efforts or exhausted worn out Christians there. Messages aren’t focused solely on winning the world or serving God. But along with a culture that values intimacy with a loving and gracious Father and His transforming presence is a strong belief that we receive from God in order to bless others and the community. And the members actually do that as anyone who knows a bit about Bethel would know. Many non-Christians I talked to know Bethel and have only positive things to say about the church. They know the people are blessing the community and doing good. Members go out to pray for people and demonstrate the power of the Kingdom of God. They do so not out of obligation, hope of reward or fear of punishment, but out of an overflowing of God’s love for them and in anticipation and expectation that God would demonstrate the power of His love to the lost. I can’t help but feel this culture of joy and excitement. It’s a culture that not only believes in receiving from God, but also in giving it all away. It’s emphasized there that God doesn’t show His power and love so they can keep it for themselves or keep it in the Church – but so that they can give it to the world. Freely you have received, freely give. It’s such an exciting culture and perspective they have.

So here’s a church totally saturated with the grace and love of the Father, yet one impacting its community and the world in a tremendous way. It shows that it’s possible for a church to be grounded in the radical grace of God in a way that doesn’t result in passivity on the part of members, but rather in them freely giving away what they’ve freely received.

I’m not from City Harvest Church (I attend New Creation Church) although I attend their meetings occasionally. I attended the Asia Conference last month and was very inspired by it. In this blog, I’ve always maintained that I think City Harvest is an amazing church and that I respect Pastor Kong Hee a lot. I disagree with a lot of things they do too, but that would not take away the great respect I have for them.

I’m writing this post for the same reason I’ve written a lot of posts on this blog in defense of New Creation’s teachings – because I think there’s been a lot of unjust criticisms against the church and the pastor. I definitely believe there’s a place for constructive criticism – and I think I’ve done a lot of that in relation to New Creation’s teachings, whether one agrees with my views or not. So it’s not that I don’t think there’s a place for criticism. But I’ve just seen too many negative criticisms and words going around – especially by fellow Christians – and so feel compelled to write this post and more importantly write a positive prayer of blessing for the church and the pastor, as well as invite others to do the same.

I personally believe Pastor Kong Hee is innocent – this is relating to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) investigations. I do so because I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. I’d be surprised if a pastor like him was out to make money. I believe his vision for God’s kingdom trumps his desire for person gain. On the other hand, if he’s found out to be involved in intentional deception for personal gain, then I wouldn’t be too surprised because I’ve been a Christian long enough. People fail – just look at you and me. Great leaders fail too. I respect and honor him and Pastor Prince, but my faith is not in them or any human leader.

If Pastor Kong Hee is guilty, then I would still support him, as I would support any other Christian leader in the same situation. Support as in pray for him and honor him for the work he has done – not agree with what he did. I’d welcome him back to ministry (perhaps after some time) if he repents. But if he doesn’t repent, then I’d still love him as a brother, pray for him and speak positively about him, while of course hoping he repents. There’s no need to cast more judgments upon him. God’s love to me is unconditional and we’re called to offer that unconditional love to all. That’s what grace and mercy is about.

Now isn’t really the time to come to premature conclusions as many are already doing. We should be praying for him and especially his church. If some of his church members seem immature in idolizing him, seeing him as infallible and the investigations as purely the work of the devil, well, then disagree with them but pray for them. Many young people in New Creation idolize (or seem on the verge of idolizing) Pastor Prince too – but I wouldn’t want anyone to stop listening to Pastor Prince’s sermons because of that. In the same way, let’s not be too critical of City Harvest because of some overzealous members when we can channel our energies positively to pray for the church.

While I think it’s an over-reaction to say that this investigation is purely the work of the devil, it’s equally an over-reaction to say that the devil has absolutely no role in this matter. We’re fighting a spiritual war, not one against flesh and blood. Nobody knows the proportion of the devil’s involvement in all this. And we don’t really need to know. We can be sure God will work things for good and we should just be praying for the church and the people involved.

Whatever happens, I really hope City Harvest continues on with their great vision to impact the world. I’ve always said this to my friends: I see in City Harvest Church people that I know no other English speaking middle-class church could reach out to. And I thank God for their ministry. We definitely need churches like City Harvest in Singapore and it has been a huge blessing to Christianity in Singapore and the world. May they continue to do so with or without Pastor Kong Hee.

Let me end with a prayer for Pastor Kong Hee and City Harvest Church:

Dear Father, I thank you for City Harvest Church and Pastor Kong Hee. I know the church and him are precious in your eyes. They are as much your children as other Christians from other churches. And I know you grieve with them because of what some of their leaders are going through.

I don’t know whether Pastor Kong Hee is guilty or not, but bless him mightily during this time. May he stay faithful to you and draw closer to you. If he has done wrong, may we all know there is always grace available for where sin abounds, grace superabounds – and may that grace lead him to repentance. Whatever happens, just pour out your grace and love upon him and the other leaders and the church in a tangible way. Cause them to come out of this situation even stronger for Your Kingdom.

May City Harvest Church continue to grow. Let no member fall away whatever the outcome of the investigations. While they continue to give their support and appreciation to the leaders under investigation, cause them also to look only to, and trust only in, the One who is all perfect and all beautiful – Jesus. May Jesus be glorified in all this.

I speak good and wonderful and beautiful things to City Harvest Church. Bless each and every member in the church. May the gospel of Jesus Christ continue to shine forth from them and may they continue to be light in a dying world.

In Jesus’ most precious name. Amen.

I invite anyone through the comments section to write a prayer of blessing upon Pastor Kong Hee, the leaders under investigation and the church as a whole.

I recently finished all 19 sessions of Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) course (downloadable from here) and I’ve been so impressed by what I learned (I finished it in just over a week) that I’ve decided to go through the series again and share some notes and reflections.

Let me give you a bit of context as an introduction to this series. God first changed my life in around 1995 in an Assembly of God church and I remember that I started to read and watch Kathryn Kuhlman (I bought some old videos of her miracle crusades) and Benny Hinn and was simply amazed at how God used them to heal people in their meetings. Benny Hinn and Kathryn Kuhlman conducted mass healing crusades. In their healing services, they preach the Word to build up faith and worship till the “anointing” comes then pray for healing from the platform. People get healed and come up to the platform to testify of God’s miraculous healing. Many people also “fall under the power” as they pray for people on stage. Around this time, the Toronto Blessing came to Singapore and I was again amazed at the manifestations (falling, laughter, etc.) I saw (I never experienced any personally) during that time – especially when Rodney Howard-Browne came to Singapore.

While interest in these charismatic leaders and phenomena slowly faded as I explored the world of the Reformed faith (Calvinism), social justice and then more progressive and post-evangelical (not liberal) theology, I never ceased to be a charismatic at heart. I would occasionally speak in tongues, but I never thought I could move in healing or prophecy or the power of the Spirit or the anointing of the Spirit like those big shot charismatics. I’m just not gifted in this area, I thought.

About 2 years ago, I was introduced to Bill Johnson’s ministry and that’s transformed my thinking. He’s teaching people to do the stuff Jesus did – to go out to the streets and heal the sick. It’s not only for the elite Christians (the Benny Hinns and Kathryn Kuhlmans) to do this, but for every Christian. Learning from him was instrumental in changing my mind to think that maybe I don’t need to be a superstar Christian to do all this. You and I could do it too. After all, so many people who’s been trained under him and his church people have been doing the stuff on the streets!

The conference I attended recently has also furthered my interest in healing and renewed my interest in the Vineyard heritage. John Wimber, a founder of the Vineyard movement/churches, was probably one of the first prominent leaders of recent times (the last 20-30 years) to teach that every Christian can do the stuff and heal – that’s one of the distinctives of Vineyard.  Bill Johnson is probably the successor to Wimber in the sense of his great influence today in equipping the church (lay people) to heal.

An even earlier pioneer of this view of equipping the saints to do the stuff Jesus did was John G Lake (1870 – 1935). In 1915, Lake started training Christians to heal – he called them Divine Healing Technicians (DHTs). From 1915 to 1920, Lake and his DHTs reported over 100,000 confirmed healings. He also started the first Healing Rooms which inspired the later formation of hundreds of Healing Rooms all over the world, four of which are located in Singapore (these healing rooms are not affiliated with the John G. Lake Ministries and actually operate according to a slightly different healing philosophy from them – they’re more in line with say Bill Johnson’s view on healing).

Let me just say that it is a big deal when you have people like Lake, Wimber and Johnson believing in equipping the church to do the stuff Jesus did. There are many great men and women of God who moved in the miraculous, but it’s something else for these leaders to be able to teach others to do the same things they do and the same things Jesus did. John G Lake reproduced himself, unlike many great men of God. When I see Benny Hinn, I stand in awe of him (yes, there are lots of flaws in him but God uses him mightily). You hear wonderful things about Smith Wigglesworth too. But these people take center stage and don’t teach others to do what they do. And you get the feeling (at least I did and I think many people do) that you’re just not anointed and gifted like they are and probably would never be able to do what they do – and that somehow the promises of Jesus of healing the sick and all are for people like them, and not ordinary people like you and me. You also get the feeling that such wonderful miracles would only take place in an atmosphere for healing where the anointing is strong and all – it probably wouldn’t happen without such an atmosphere like on the streets or in the supermarket! But when I look at Lake, Wimber and Johnson’s ministry, it’s so different. Your perspective changes. When I look at the impact they have had on other normal Christians like me, I begin to have hope that I don’t have to be a big shot to be used mightily of God.

So what about Curry Blake? Well, he is the overseer of the John G. Lake Ministries and he’s one of the foremost authorities on John G. Lake. He is also the successor to Lake that Lake prophesied about. Now, I don’t really care about all this except that if John G. Lake was one guy used so mightily of God to recover the vision that every Christian can heal and Blake is his prophesied successor carrying out the same vision (Blake has trained tens of thousands of DHTs who are seeing tens of thousands of healings per month), I think Blake would have something to teach us. Furthermore, if it’s true that he has one of the highest success rates of healings (this is what I read about – I always take things with a pinch of salt, yet am open), then maybe he has some important insights to share that I want to know.

Bill Johnson’s hero is also John G. Lake – unsurprisingly since Bill Johnson’s ministry also involves training people to heal. The very interesting thing for me is that Curry Blake actually teaches certain things on healing that are different from Bill Johnson. I’ve learned a lot from Johnson and will continue to do so but I feel Blake has taken me to another level of faith through just one week of listening to him and recognizing where he differs from Johnson and how I can learn from such differences.

A bit on New Creation Church here. I think New Creation’s view (theology) of healing is actually closer to Blake than it is to Johnson. The difference I see between Blake and New Creation is twofold. Firstly, Blake equips members to practice healing which New Creation doesn’t really do, as I’ve mentioned here. Secondly, from my observation, I don’t see a lot of healings in New Creation for a huge mega-church of 20,000 – as compared to the reported tens of thousands of healings by DHTs. I guess the low numbers are not surprising because members aren’t taught to heal. Even in their healing meetings, you don’t see many being healed. Now, I know what I just said is going to get me in trouble. But that’s my honest assessment and observation. It’s not an indictment upon New Creation because I love the church and the church is gifted in other areas like the teaching of grace. I don’t see the prophecy supposedly given to Pastor Prince that the church would be a miracle/healing center fulfilled just yet – but I hope it does in future and I hope we see all Christians in New Creation being equipped to do healing because New Creation has a fantastic foundation (the message of grace) to build on for people to start moving out in healing. Having said that, I do note that most churches don’t see a lot of healing anyway so it’s not as though New Creation is odd. But I’m not going to pretend that I don’t wonder why I see so few healings in New Creation (for a church of 20,000, I stress). Bill Johnson and Curry Blake grew in their healing ministry because they first acknowledged that the results they were seeing wasn’t good enough – it wasn’t up to the standard they saw in the Bible. If we want to learn, improve and grow in any area, I think the first thing is to be dissatisfied with status-quo, not be comfortable with it. I want to be honest enough to acknowledge that if Jesus said we all can heal the sick like Lake, Wimber, Blake, Johnson (and even Pastor Joseph Prince) believe, then surely there ought to be more healings than I’ve been seeing in the past 2 years in New Creation and in the church in general. In Blake’s and even Johnson’s ministry, healings are taking place like nobody’s business. I’m here to learn from people like them and find out why there’s such a difference between what’s proclaimed that can happen because of Christ and His finished work and what actually happens.

My thinking is very simple. If the Bible says that we shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, if we’re called to go out and heal the sick, if Jesus says we can do his works – and even greater works because He goes to the Father and He’s given the Holy Spirit to us – if it says all this, then something is wrong in Christianity today because we’re simply not seeing the kind of results that the Bible says we can see or should be seeing. It’s very simple. It’s either that there’s something wrong with the Scriptures or with our interpretation of it or with us – our faith or unbelief or whatever.

And so I’m on this journey and open to learn from different people on healing – especially those that see results and train people to see results. That’s why I’m very attracted to Blake’s take on healing and that’s what I hope to share in future posts.

PS: Curry Blake’s teachings on healing can be found on this healing resources page.

Throughout this conference, I tasted a form of charismatic Christianity quite different from the kind in New Creation Church. In fact, Vineyard and many charismatics would differ from New Creation on things like physical healing, inner healing, prophecy and deliverance. Not a huge difference because New Creation is still a charismatic church, but a big enough difference for people to note that New Creation does do things quite differently.

I think it’s what Pastor Prince and others (maybe pastor Henry?) have experienced early on in their charismatic Christian lives that have shaped their thinking and practice today. And I’ve heard enough through Pastor Prince’s sermons to know that they are wary of what they feel are extreme charismatic practices – he often makes fun of and disagrees with some common charismatic beliefs and practices related to prophecy, demonization and healing. I appreciate the discernment they’ve tried to show as there needs to be a lot of discernment in the charismatic movement! I do agree with some of the criticisms Pastor Prince has put forward and am challenged to think more about others which I may not agree with. Sometimes, however, I do feel that he’s tended to over-react in the opposite direction, but I’ll not be dogmatic about my disagreements because I’ve still much to learn and am open to learn from him and others.

So while I’m certainly no expert in all of this, in this post and the next one I’ll write down some thoughts (and questions) that have been on my mind:

I think one of the major differences I see between New Creation Church on the one hand and say Vineyard churches and churches like Bethel Church in Redding (pastored by Bill Johnson) on the other is in terms of equipping. John Wimber, a founder of the Vineyard, believed that “everyone gets to play” – i.e. lay people get to do the stuff like healing and deliverance and not just pastors or leaders. John Wimber and Vineyard thus believe in equipping and teaching the whole body of Christ to move in the gifts of the Spirit. They don’t believe we need to go to some anointed leader for ministry because God can use everyone and each of us (not just leaders or pastors) should seek to be equipped so that we can bless others. In the same way, Bethel Church is famous for equipping people to move in the Spirit – not just within the church walls, but especially so outside the church walls as in these testimonies of healing happening in a grocery store and at Disneyland. This equipping emphasis is the same for Curry Blake’s ministry.

New Creation Church is probably the best in the world for the preaching of the message of grace, but it’s very much focused on one person and the teaching/preaching gift of one person. To me, this has resulted in the neglect of equipping the lay people to move in the various spiritual gifts. To be sure, New Creation doesn’t believe that only Pastor Prince or the pastors are anointed to heal, but that every member can heal. But they definitely don’t equip them in this area or provide opportunities for members to practice the various miraculous spiritual gifts.

Through speaking to many New Creation members (past and present) and through my own experience in different cell groups, leaders and the members aren’t encouraged to move in the spiritual gifts, nor is time made available for it – the main focus of the cells is the teaching. Pastor Prince and other top leaders seem to be able to move in the various gifts, but it seems to stop there and not go down to the cell leaders or even more importantly the cell members.

Pastor Prince has mentioned before (something like) that there’s no need to teach or learn about hearing God’s voice because we all do hear God’s voice if we’re Christians. In a sense, that’s totally true. I believe we all do hear God’s voice. But that’s not really the issue. When Christians say they don’t hear God’s voice, the problem is that they find it difficult to distinguish between their thoughts, the devil’s voice and God’s voice and many Christians (like myself) desire to grow in this area and move in the prophetic gift (following 1 Cor. 14:1). There is a need and a place for teaching on this subject and encouraging Christians to practice hearing (discerning) God’s voice for it’s not something that happens automatically. So I disagree when the need to be taught about hearing (discerning) God’s voice (and the need for practice) is dismissed so easily and Christians are not equipped to move in this area.

The same for prophecy. I think it can definitely be unhealthy if everyone goes to seek out another person who is gifted in prophecy for a word for their lives, but the solution isn’t to neglect prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1). The potential abuse of a gift should not result in the neglect of it, but rather the proper and biblical use of it.

My idea of a local church isn’t that of a group of people centering around the gifts of one person, or even the gifts of the leaders. Every member should be equipped – they should be taught to pursue them and they should be given opportunities to develop and practice them and move in their various gifts in ministry to the rest of the members. I mentioned before what happened in a service at Church of Our Saviour (COOS). I think it’s wonderful when the youth were used by God through Words of Knowledge and Gifts of Healings to heal the sick. That’s the body of Christ functioning – each playing a part. No one is a spectator when everyone is equipped to move in the gifts God has given them. But first they have to be intentionally equipped.

The many practical things I’ve learned since the conference have all been due to the leaders I’ve encountered understanding the importance of equipping the body of Christ. The leaders I’ve met have all acknowledged that we can all do the same things that they do. They’ve acknowledged that we all have different gifts which we can use to serve each other.

To be sure, understanding the Word is important for a Christian’s growth, but there’s more to doing church and blessing others than understanding the Word of God.

In the next post, I’ll share a bit of my thoughts on common charismatic practices like generational curses, conditions for healing, inner healing, intercessory prayer and the desperate attitude (for God’s presence and just more of Him) common in many charismatic churches – as it relates to New Creation view of things.

On to the conference and things after: The day before the conference started, I ended up bringing the three speakers to New Creation’s healing service by Pastor Henry (24th February). My friend who organized the event mentioned that they had heard about New Creation and wanted to attend the healing service. After all, the whole conference they were doing was all about healing (inner, physical) and this was the area that they were into. The leader of the group didn’t really know about Pastor Prince but wanted to check out New Creation because one of his close friends highly recommended Pastor Prince’s ministry, mentioning him as the “Apostle of grace”. Since no one was actually going to bring them to New Creation, I gladly gathered some friends to show them some Singaporean hospitality :) Of course, I was also greedy – greedy to learn :) I wouldn’t have passed up the chance of getting to know these people from whom I could learn much in the things of the Spirit. After all, I would never be able to get to know the leaders from my own 20,000+ member church and learn much from them personally. And New Creation did things quite differently from the typical charismatic church. The leaders of the cell groups I’ve been to were never taught to move in the Spirit in the kind of way I’d be learning in the conference – more on this in the next post.

So anyway, having got to know the speakers for just a few minutes and lining up for tickets to get into the main auditorium at around 5pm+, Ron (the leader of the three and the one with healing gifts) asks there and then in the queue if he could pray for a friend who was clearly in pain in her foot. He prayed a short prayer for healing, asked if my friend got better (there was a bit of improvement) and then asked if she would be willing to spend about 5-10 more minutes so he could pray for her complete healing. I was quite impressed. This is what we Christians should be doing, isn’t it? Praying for the sick and believing God will heal as we pray. We don’t need to wait to get into a healing meeting to receive our healing. And we could pray for healing anywhere. And Ron prayed really believing that God could heal my friend there and then. And even if it didn’t happen the first time he prayed, he believed that the healing would come as he continued to minister to her and pray for her in the next 5-10 minutes.

More on the pain in the foot and healing later, but during dinner in the food court at the basement, the speakers started ministering inner healing and deliverance to my friend. The food court was getting crowded and this was getting exciting. Exciting because I was already beginning to be in the midst of people “doing the stuff”, as John Wimber of Vineyard would say – i.e. doing the stuff Jesus did like healing and deliverance, etc. I wanted to learn and I was already learning even before the conference started. And this was a beautiful start to the rest of the week when I had ample opportunities to learn – observe, ask questions and practice.

It’s not that I had never encountered all this before. I had been a charismatic Christian for 15 years and had been to many charismatic services and attended a few charismatic churches. I had been to teaching sessions and knew a bit about all this stuff. But I never really practiced all this. Partly because even in the charismatic churches I attended all this was never a huge part of what a Christian ought to know and practice. Maybe the leaders knew and practiced all the stuff, but the laypeople were never equipped to move in this area.

And I learned a lot also because the group was really small. The average number of people who attended the 9 sessions over the three days was probably around 10-12 per session. This allowed me lots of time between and after sessions and even after the conference ended to get to know the speakers personally and to learn from them. Not only was I able to pick their brains and ask them hard questions, but Ron was like a mentor to me during this short time. He didn’t just do the stuff and pray for people. He got me to practice what I was learning. He got me to pray for the sick and taught me along the way. He even had little debrief sessions after ministering to people and explained what happened and why he did things the way he did. It was altogether an awesome learning experience that a layperson like me would never have been able to get if the conference was attended by 50 or 100 or thousands of people.

One of the highlights of the conference for me was on the first day when Ron started to pray for people. There was some time left after the teaching session and he decided to call people up to pray for them to show us how he ministered and prayed for people. I was the third person called up and he prayed for me and spoke words over my life that resonated deeply with my heart and were quite accurate. I didn’t feel anything great and there wasn’t any great manifestation. But I was touched by the words he said and felt it was God affirming my gifts. It wasn’t just some general words that could apply to everyone, but the words were quite specific and I knew he couldn’t have known them apart from really tapping into what God was saying. I’ve never had anyone speak over me like that. Maybe I’ve had some general words of encouragement which I don’t remember and which didn’t impact me that much, but nothing that touched my heart like this.

I also had other words spoken to me during the conference. Some are accurate, some not so and some I don’t know. But I’ve recorded in my prayer journal all the words spoken over me and will continue to pray through them and am open to see how God speaks to me through them.

The day after the conference, which was a Sunday, two of the Speakers wanted to visit Church Of Our Saviour (COOS). Unsurprising since COOS is definitely a church to visit with regards to healing – they have been greatly influenced by Bill Johnson and his church – Bethel Church. That Sunday, the focus of the service was on youth and youth ministry. Before the sermon, about 20 youth or so gathered in front of the church and gave Words of Knowledge regarding what God wanted to minister to. Many people went to the front and were touched by God as the youth prayed for them. The senior pastor, Derek Hong, also had this prophetic vision of someone nearly drowning years ago and God wanting to heal the person of that experience. This was of course a very specific vision and someone came forward to him to be prayed for. It was a great experience to see God using young people. I dunno if they allow the gifts to flow like this every meeting, but I think it’s wonderful to see lay people encouraged to practice these gifts and God using them to touch lives.

During the conference, I got to know a young guy who’s hoping to go to Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry this year. (I’m very envious of him – if I were much younger, I would probably go and who knows, God may make a way for me to go one day!) He’s a young prophet who’s being mentored by Rusty Russell. After the conference, I met up with him and talked a lot to him about the prophetic. He introduced me to a cell group he got to know and has been attending recently. The leader of this group is also a student of Rusty and was a cell leader at New Creation many years ago. His cell broke up when he left the church but recently many of them got back together and have been meeting at least once a month. It’s not your typical cell as the focus is just seeking God, receiving from Him and prophesying – and encouraging everyone to move out in the gifts and minister to each other. I’ve been there about twice and had some words spoken over me. I’ve also spoken a lot to the people there about the prophetic and healing. I’m quite excited to continue to attend and learn to move in the Spirit there.

Since the conference, I’ve been mostly attending New Life Vineyard (where the conference was held in) in the mornings and New Creation in the afternoons. New Life Vineyard is a really small church of about 10-15 people. I’ve been experiencing first hand how Vineyard does things and I quite like it. It’s nice to have a small community too, something I’ve been looking for for a while. I’m still not sure if I’ll attend this church but will see how God leads. I also don’t know if I’ll continue to attend New Creation because it can get quite tiring to attend two churches. If I’ve learned anything the past two months, it’s that I need to spend less time outside and more time with God alone if I’m to know more more intimately, hear His voice and move in the Spirit. Even if I don’t go to NCC so often, I’ll still continue to buy Prince’s sermon CDs. Anyway, the past two months or so I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a few Vineyard pastors (from here, Australia and Thailand) and have been asking lots of questions, discussing and learning a lot – and doing a bit of practical stuff too.

A bit about the Vineyard church association and tradition. Not that this conference was a Vineyard conference, but since the model of charismatic Christianity promoted during the conference I think is very Vineyard-like (and though two of the three speakers are not from Vineyard, they do have relationships with Vineyard churches) and it was held in a Vineyard Church, I thought I’d write a bit about it. I mentioned here that I thought John Wimber, one of the founders of Vineyard, would probably be remembered as the most balanced, respected and loved charismatic Christian of modern Christianity. I followed Vineyard from the earliest years of my Christian life until Wimber died in 1997. Vineyard’s worship at that time was awesome and like what Hillsong is today. But what was really so wonderful about Vineyard is that it brought together the best of the charismatic and non-charismatic Christian worlds by introducing a more biblically balanced form of charismatic Christianity to the Christian world. And this is what I’ve always admired of the Vineyard. It was probably them that stirred my desire for many years to become a Bible College lecturer specializing in bringing together the best of both the charismatic and non-charismatic worlds. But I have to acknowledge that from after Wimber’s death in 1997 until the conference, I hadn’t really kept in touch with what had been happening in the Vineyard. After 1997, I moved more into Reformed theology, then social justice issues and emerging church Christianity, then missions, then New Creation’s grace teachings – though all the while never forsaking my interest in charismatic Christianity. I’m pleasantly surprised that Vineyard has been going strong all these years and that one of their distinctives besides “doing the stuff” is their passion for social justice. There also seems to be some Vineyard leaders/churches quite progressive in their theology and into the emerging church movement – which I’m a bit surprised (pleasantly, I guess) because this means there’s a bit of diversity in the Vineyard. I wonder how the Vineyards which appreciate the emerging church tradition combine that with “doing the stuff”.

One thing I really appreciate about the Vineyard besides their balanced charismatic practices is that they are very strong on grace. In fact, my first encounter of teachings on the Father’s love came from Vineyard. The Toronto Blessing (closely related to the Vineyard because the church associated with it was once a Vineyard) I think was really an emotional/inner healing revival. Unlike many other revivals based on a strong conviction of sin, repentance and weeping, the Toronto Blessing’s characteristics were the focus on the Father’s love and laughter. Lives were transformed through encountering the love of the Father healing the wounds of people. And so the Vineyard form of charismatic Christianity is very grace-based and I was very happy when Ron (though not a Vineyard pastor) preached during the conference that Christians have even their future sins forgiven – good stuff! Of course, Ron just said that that’s no big deal as that’s mere classical Christianity – and the guy has a PhD from Oxford in Historical Theology so I think he should know! But still many Christians still don’t live with assurance that their future sins are also forgiven.

Yes, Ron moves in the Spirit and has a PhD from Oxford in theology – I really, really like that combination! We need more of such people strong in the Word and Spirit. I’m going to stop this post here because it’s getting long. If anyone is still following, my next and probably final post in this series would kind of bring together all my experiences regarding healing and the prophetic and offer some thoughts and questions – especially regarding the differences in charismatic beliefs and practices between New Creation and Vineyard (which I’ll take to represent many other charismatic churches).

I only started writing in this blog a lot about New Creation Church and theology related to grace the past 2 years or so. That’s because I started attending New Creation more regularly 2 years ago. I felt that because of my theological struggles and interest in the topic of grace (Lordship Salvation, etc.) that started years ago, I had something to contribute to the discussion and so I started writing all these posts related to grace. And the more I started to attend New Creation and the more I started to learn from Pastor Prince and New Creation and the more I started reflecting on everything I’m hearing at Church, the more I blogged on these topics.

But if anyone ventures beyond my blog posts on New Creation and grace to the other parts of this website with all my previous articles and biographical writings, you’ll see a different side of me. That’s the social justice / missions side which I’m hugely passionate about. Maybe it’s taken a bit of a backseat the past 2 years as I focus more on grace. But I’ve also purposely not mentioned a lot of things happening in my life on the blog because I know how controversial it is to write posts about New Creation. Most of the posts about New Creation’s theology has been more positive in nature. And New Creation Church is still very far from being accepted in many places – though things are slowly changing. Therefore, I’ve kept my identity mostly a secret here and not written about other aspects of my life because many Christians still can’t accept someone from New Creation.

I know a lot of people wonder why the name of this website is stillhaventfound. After all, haven’t I already found everything in Christ? Well, the reason for the name is here so I won’t elaborate further suffice to say that the reason has to do with my interest in social justice and seeing this world become a better place – and of course, Christians have a role to play in that. The truth is that a large part of my life concerns social justice (and also missions). Read my past articles on social justice issues like poverty (e.g. Encountering Peter Singer which explains my view of what the Bible says regarding helping the poor) and you’ll understand why some friends who know me from old wonder if I’ve lost that passion for social justice. They wonder about this because recently I’ve been writing so much positively about New Creation and grace and the New Creation message seems so self-centered and prosperity-centered and a contradiction to the altruistic, other-centered, social justice mindset I’d been advocating in my previous writings. What gives? Have I completely changed my mind on this issue?

Well, a big “NO”! The purpose of this whole post is actually to explain how I reconcile my recent writings in defense of New Creation’s theology with my old writings on social justice and helping the poor. To start, let me first talk a bit about the issue of prosperity (and blessings). I believe God desires to prosper us but it’s not always true that those who don’t prosper lack faith. I think a lot of it has to do with unjust social structures and I’ll leave a part of it to the mystery of God. But this doesn’t mean we have no responsibility to exercise faith and ask and believe – faith plays a role and a lot of times we don’t get because we don’t ask. (Regarding the issue of suffering, I’m still reflecting how that fits into the Christian’s life).

I’ve never written much in support of New Creation’s view of prosperity. Nor have I written much against it. I strongly disagree with using so much money on a new building, but what would I know anyway and you can still respect and honour the leadership while disagreeing with certain things.

I’m against Christians living extravagant lifestyles. I dunno about New Creation’s view on this. But I disagree with Christians being too rich not because it’s a sin to be rich. It’s definitely not! It’s just that it’s way better (i.e. more loving) to live more simply and give your additional money to bless those who need it. But if prosperity preachers could be faulted for living too extravagantly and not thinking about better ways of using their money (instead of using it on themselves) like using their money to bless others and reach the lost, let me just say that to be fair the same accusation can to be leveled against most Christians in the developed world – most of whom are middle-class and can easily do more to help the poor and contribute to missions. But of course we don’t look at it this way, do we :) We love to take pot shots at churches like New Creation and City Harvest (which, by the way, easily talks more about prosperity than New Creation), but the truth is that all Christians fall short of the ideal.

I may not be entirely comfortable with New Creation’s teaching on prosperity, but it’s not because they are like the extreme prosperity (tele-evangelistic) churches / preachers. They aren’t – they are much, much more moderate and those who lump New Creation in with the other prosperity churches / preachers have no clue what they are talking about. And there happens to be many such heresy hunters and self-proclaimed watchmen of God out there who have no understanding of the nuances involved, but just love to criticize New Creation and pronounce guilt by association. No doubt New Creation would claim to be of the Word of Faith (Prosperity) movement, but they are of a very different kind. New Creation doesn’t continually ask for money or manipulate Christians to give (see here). If it does, I wouldn’t be there listening to Pastor Prince and I would suspect the majority of the church wouldn’t be there too. We’re there because of the strong preaching on Jesus and God’s grace and love and this helps us see the beauty of Jesus. That’s why we’re there for.

Yet still I’m not entirely comfortable with some of the teachings on prosperity in New Creation. But neither am I entirely comfortable with the Methodist Churches (English speaking) which contain easily the richest Christians in Singapore. The preaching may not be prosperity-centered one bit, but it’s not about the preaching, but the lifestyles of the Christians.

Here’s the kind of prosperity teaching I believe in. While New Creation isn’t like the extreme prosperity preachers, I don’t think it’s up to this level yet either. I’ve spoken approvingly of Andrew Wommack’s view of prosperity (Wommack comes from the Word of Faith / Prosperity tradition) when he said:

Prosperity is how much of a blessing are you to someone else. That’s the way that God evaluates it.

When you get to where the priority on your finances isn’t for you, but rather it’s to bless someone else, then God will assume the liability of taking care of you.

I’ve also quoted approvingly of P.G. Vargis (another prosperity dude):

I live a simple life. Do not misunderstand me – I am not preaching a poverty gospel, neither do I practice it… I spend money if it is really necessary. I have not saved any thing [sic], money, land or a house for me or my children. Whatever I get for the ministry is put into the ministry… Live a simple life and give all the rest to the mission – that is my policy.

I think the above two people are wonderful representations of the so-called Prosperity Gospel. They may preach that God wants to prosper us, but that’s not wrong when they truly believe in prosperity for a purpose, money for missions and blessed to be a blessing. Now, these are wonderful phrases that many prosperity churches like to throw around, but I know very few that actually truly believe them to the extent that it’s so clear through how their lives are lived. From what I know of the above two people (admittedly not a lot so I may be wrong), I think they truly try to live those phrases out – at least to a much greater extent than other Christians, whether from the prosperity tradition or not.

In my opinion, a person who truly believes all the above phrases would live a simple life, just as P.G. Vargis put it. As I argued here,

In the light of almost unending poverty in the world and endless opportunities to help the poor, what justification do we have to live a luxurious lifestyle when by cutting down on such a lifestyle we could bless and love the poor?

I would add to the above giving to missions to reach the lost – not just helping the poor. To me, then, living up to the ideal that God calls us would require us to live a simple life. This doesn’t earn us favour or blessings or salvation for that is all for us in Christ. We ought to strive to such a life simply because we desire to love God and people. Even if we fail, that’s OK. We all will. God won’t punish us. There’s always grace available. So this isn’t something that’s meant to be legalistic. We will never attain the ideal because we’re not perfect. But, on the other hand, let us not deceive ourselves to think that we can be passive and it doesn’t matter how we live. We still ought to strive to be Christlike in every way, even though we will fall short. In this regard, prosperity church or not, we’ve all failed. The majority (if not all) of middle-class Christians in Singapore have fallen short of this ideal, whether your church is for or against the so-called prosperity gospel.

So me being in New Creation doesn’t actually reflect that I’ve changed my view from old that we Christians as a whole have failed terribly in helping the poor and reaching the lost and that we can and should do a whole lot more in this area. I still believe that. If I were in any other church in Singapore, I’d still be faced with Christians who live the middle-class, me-centered lifestyle, in spite of what is preached in the church.

(Perhaps the Christian tradition that most identifies with social justice and poverty issues is the emerging or emergent church movement. Their passion for social justice is admirable, but many verge on compromising the gospel and that’s something I can’t accept.)

I still have my passion for social justice and missions. I still wanna see more Christians standing up for the rights of the poor and marginalized and oppressed and giving their lives to reach the lost. I like the radical message calling people to give up their lives for the lost and dying. Oh, we need more preachers who preach the radical message of self-sacrifice and other-centeredness, who will preach on the Christian’s responsibility to missions and social justice. Surely that will transform the church into other-centered Christians who will do God’s work even if it cost them everything… Or will it?

And here’s the crux of the matter. This is what I’ve been reflecting a lot upon: If your preaching focuses more on calling Christians to sacrifice and to help the poor and do missions, will it actually result in that happening? I don’t think so. As I reflect on my life and talk to people, I find it’s not preaching such messages that will transform lives. It’s not harping on the fact that Christians should work out our salvation that will result in transformed sacrificial lives. I don’t even think that was the focus of the New Testament Epistles in the first place. Instinctively, we think that telling your members that they should do more will change their minds and their lives. But really, does it?

My passion for social justice came through reading secular books and understanding the world. My passion for missions came through understanding more about grace. I’m sure other people will have different experiences but I certainly don’t want to go to church and listen to the pastor telling me how much more I should do for the poor and the lost. Why not? Because I ALREADY KNOW THAT! And for those who don’t already know that and don’t have much concern for the poor and lost, I don’t think it’ll help if we keep on reminding them what the Bible says about this area. There’s a place I think to preach what the Bible says about all this every once in a while, but I think it’s really understanding and experiencing grace that empowers Christians to do the above.

Some people have told me they’ve appreciated some of the articles I’ve written on poverty as it’s challenged them. That’s all good. But challenging them to think is one thing. It’s a good start. But that doesn’t empower one to take action – the gospel does. And that’s why we go to church – to listen to the gospel that empowers us, more than to listen to what we should do and how short we’ve fallen (we already know all that).

I think together with the empowerment that comes through hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, we need opportunities to experience serving. This is where I think New Creation is extremely weak in for a church of 20,000 people. City Harvest Church is a model for providing myriads of opportunities to serve. If we could somehow bring together New Creation’s gospel empowerment with City Harvest’s opportunities and passion for serving, that would be way awesome!