PRESCRIPTION FOR THE CHURCH  Larry W. Peebles  August 27, 2021  21.33

When I was a boy, I was prone to ear and throat infections.  In those days, the common fix for this chronic problem was to remove the tonsils.  I never had that procedure.  Lack of money and insurance may have been the problem, but I’m not sure.  If I had a fever and was too sick to go to school, mom would call the doctor, and he would make a house call at noon for five dollars.  Mom would come home from work (Mom and Dad both worked), and meet the doctor on her lunch break at our house. Thank the Lord there were doctors who made house calls in those days.  He brought his leather medical bag, and made the required examinations using his pin-point light and tongue depressor stick.  He would listen to my chest for breathing, and look into my ears.

Penicillin was the popular antibiotic in those days, and the house call usually resulted in my getting an injection of that drug.  Sometimes oral medicines for the throat or cough were also prescribed, but the shot of penicillin always brought quick relief.  The fever and sore throat was usually gone the next day, and I was back in school.  Longer term, I seemed to avoid the serious side effects of penicillin, considering how often I took it.  For that I am also grateful.  I still flinch at shots, even though the needles today are much smaller and sharper.  At the end of the day, the doctor’s house call, examination and prescription fixed the problem.

The church today has a problem, and is in need of a fix.  Its condition is worsening, and unless a cure is prescribed, the prognosis is not good.  I will not cite a page full of statistics, except to say two things.  First, the number of people in America who identify as Christian has declined approximately 10% per decade for the past 60 years, down to its currently alarming level of only 25% of the population.  The one category that is growing is “Do not identify as religious.”  This is according to Gallup Poll, which began surveying this topic annually in the 1930s.  It is especially sad and eye-opening that this decline has happened in my life-time.  The percentage is higher among my Baby Boomer generation, but has progressively declined in each successive generation—Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z.  Second, a 2020 Probe Ministries survey of 3,000 “U.S. born-again Christians” indicated that 60% of those ages 18-39 believe there’s more than one way to salvation, including Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad.  Scripture is clear that “No one comes to the Father except through Me [Jesus].” John 14:6.  Where has the church failed? 

That is a detailed topic, the subject of many contemporary studies.   I am no expert on church growth, or lack thereof.  This article is hardly space enough to explore the topic in the depth to which it has been studied (or ignored).  That being said, I do know that sometimes the answer can be found by going back to the beginning.  I’m not talking about going back to the days when doctors made house calls.  I’m talking about going back to the Book of Acts, in the days of the disciples and the early formation of the church.

Consider Acts 4:29-31 (NPT)-“So now Lord, listen to their threats to harm us.  Empower us as your servants to speak the Word of God freely and courageously.  Stretch out your hand of power through us to heal, and to move in signs and wonders by the name of your holy Son, Jesus.’  At that moment the earth shook beneath them, causing the building they were in to tremble.  Each one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaimed the Word of God with unrestrained boldness.” 

Peter and John had just been arrested by the religious leaders, questioned, threatened and released.  A crippled man they had just healed stood with them.  The council of leaders, scholars and elders could find no specific charges, but warned the two not to preach Jesus’ name again.  The church was young and just getting on its feet.  Should they conform and obey?  When Peter and John met with the other believers after their release and gave their report, they prayed the prayer quoted above, with the amazing results cited.

In an environment where they were threatened by the authorities for what they knew and preached (sound familiar?), they stood unafraid of man and prayed for three things, and saw three results-

1. Empower us as your servants to speak the Word of God freely and courageously.  In spite of the warning, and in spite of public opinion, they wanted to preach even more freely and boldly.  God’s word is true and unchanging.  It does not bend with contemporary thinking, or the mores of a society.  Right is right, sin is sin.  When taught in its fullness, God’s word has the power to change lives.  Unfortunately, when it is not fully or correctly taught, when it is “adapted” to current thought, it also changes lives, but not for the better.  I believe this is the source of the downward trends in Christianity we see in this country today.
2. Stretch out your hand of power through us to heal.  Jesus came as a man to clearly demonstrate that if we live submitted to and walking with the Father, obeying Him in all things, the power of Holy Spirit is available to us to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons”.  Matthew 10:8.  This is His will and it is His command.  It is not His will to teach us a lesson with sickness, or to use sickness to allow us to strengthen our character to endure it.  Jesus never made anyone sick.  Rather, He healed all who came to Him.  He was the exact representation of the Father.  You may say I’ve never heard of healing, and I’ve never seen it in a church.  Keep looking.  We saw a young man get out of a wheelchair and run just this past Sunday at our evening church service.  God still heals, and He uses us to do it.  Healing did not cease with the apostles, as some churches teach.
3. Move in signs and wonders (through us) in Jesus name.  Healing is just one manifestation of the power He has given us.  My wife and I have laid hands on people and prayed in Jesus’ name as we ministered internationally.  We have seen people healed of heart disease and a blind eye opened.  We have also seen people get jobs they have been seeking for years, debts repaid they have been trying to collect for years, and babies conceived where the woman had been trying to get pregnant for years, to name only a few.  God still does signs and wonders, and He uses people to heal and deliver by the power of His word and the authority of His name.  Signs and wonders did not cease with the apostles, as some churches teach.  The Lord uses the healings, signs and wonders to demonstrate He is the one true God, that He is real and He cares about the individual, and that His word is true.  People are tired of the fake, impotent God presented in most churches.  He is not afraid to show He is who He says He is. 
4. The earth shook beneath them.  Following the three prayers, God gave them a sign and wonder.  He is in complete control of the natural world.  In Colossians 1:17, the Bible says it is Jesus that “holds all things [creation] together”.  I have personally seen the Lord hold back the rain from a cyclone (hurricane) in order to allow a three-day outdoor evangelism crusade in India to proceed on dry ground, and my wife and I have seen Him order us to publically declare rain in a drought-stricken area of Africa.  The rain drops started before we got back to our hotel that night, and the rain continued all night and for the next several days.  Through these kinds of signs and wonders the Lord is glorified and has the attention of the people.  If His Holy Spirit came as wind and fire at Pentecost (Acts 2), He can certainly cause the earth to shake.  He’s the real deal, and that’s what the church needs to present and preach.
5. They were filled with the Holy Spirit (again).  Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is an initial experience of His power and presence.  But the scriptures are clear we are to be continually filled (re-filled) with the Holy Spirit, according to Acts Chapters 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 13, and 19.  For this continual filling to occur, we must honor and actively pursue the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our church gatherings.  The purpose of the continual filling is to replenish the Holy Spirit we pour out on others.  “Out of your belly shall flow streams of living water.”  John 7:38.  “By this [living water] He meant the Holy Spirit.” John 7:39.  We are to receive the Holy Spirit, and then pour Him out onto others.  The process is continual.  Ephesians 5:18.  The process is faith-based, and begs for demonstration.  What if nothing happens?  For this reason, many churches would rather skip over this part of scripture.  They are skipping the very power source to demonstrate the truth of God’s word.  Their watered-down Sunday morning presentation is not appealing and lacks the power to endure.
6. They proclaimed the word with unrestrained boldness.  Their starting prayer in #1 above was answered.  They came full circle.  Their boldness was a result of their experience, and their experience (demonstration) produced more boldness.  I can teach that sodium (Na) combined with chlorine (Cl) produces salt (NaCl), but if I can demonstrate that by actually doing it in the laboratory, I can prove it.  My teaching becomes more confident, and my students become more convinced. I am actually demonstrating what is written in the chemistry book.  Without a demonstration, the teacher/preacher is relying on “persuasive words and excellence of speech”, as Paul said in Corinthians 2:1-4.  Paul preferred the demonstration over words and speech because the results are much more powerful and enduring.

In short, when Jesus left the earth after defeating the devil, sin and death, He said He would leave us with an “advantage”.  That advantage was Holy Spirit.  What is the prescription for the fix of the church?  When Holy Spirit comes to “fix” a person or a church, we must not be surprised if His presence comes with tears and wailing, shaking, laughter, repentance, and/or speaking in tongues.  When I read the accounts of John Wesley’s meetings (1700s), Barton Stone (Cain Ridge in 1800), or William Seymour (Azusa Street in the early 1900s), I find in all cases that people were literally taken to the ground by the power of Holy Spirit, and all these manifestations occurred no matter how outrageous or unorthodox according to church traditions at the time.  Holy Spirit is the doctor, and His prescription is best.  When we decide to control or limit how He comes to us, we do not experience His fullness, and He may not come back.  King David proved it is not our dignity that moves the heart of God, it is our passion to know Him and be like Him that causes heaven to encounter earth.  We are not so refined or educated in the 21^st century that we can refuse His proven medicine.

The church today must preach the truth of the word of God with boldness and conviction, and it must pursue (not ignore) the Holy Spirit.  The church must not compromise with the world’s “enlightened” thinking and demands.  Its efforts must return to finding the presence of the Holy Spirit, as it did in the early days (the ancient paths).  The church must not attempt to manage the manifestations of Holy Spirit when He comes.  If He does not come, there is no need for the church to meet.  It will only continue to struggle relying on the preaching and doctrines of man.  Either He is welcome, or He is not.  If He is welcome, He will come and stay, and signs and wonders will abound.