Rousing Her Radiance: Day 32
Author: Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2023
Contending
for the Good News
‘Our
Gospel came to you, not simply with words, but with power, with the Holy
Spirit, and with deep conviction.’ -1 Thes.1:5
Leanne
Payne preached the Gospel eloquently and profoundly that evening in England:
she made clear how the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit,
could love us deeply in the gaps of our wounded early lives, so much so that we
could rise out of our arrested development.
While
she taught, I looked around the room and saw dozens of young adults ‘stuck’ in
their teen years, unable to move into the real challenges of moral and
psychological maturity. And I ‘saw’ the Holy Spirit resting upon them. I asked
her if I might express this leading and ask those on whom the Spirit rested to receive
prayer. She agreed.
About
a dozen young men and women came forward. We prayed and the Spirit moved like
fire upon them—descending and ascending as if routing barriers to their
‘becoming.’ God’s ‘deep’ summoned theirs and cleared out unseen channels where
they were blocked by trauma and lies and compensatory sins. It was a marvel of
the Father’s love: the Gospel preached with signs and wonders following! God manifested
His power tenderly at the core need of disempowered lives.
Something
shifted in these ones, a qualitative difference that opened eyes and hearts and
wills to ‘more,’ the next steps they could now take to maturity. And isn’t that
the goal of Christian sexual integrity—the choices we can make to love
decisively, solid within and clear without?
Our
kerygma—the declaration of Christ Crucified and Raised—has power. Our Gospel probes
the depths of young lives and frees them for their ‘yes’ to whole sexual
personhood. We need to reclaim that Gospel today. We declare the good news, and
we manifest spiritual authority in ministering His healing Presence.
‘A
new teaching, and with authority!’ (Mark 1:27) declared those who first heeded
Jesus’ Kingdom call. We need no less today: we preach Jesus, and He gives us
power to manifest His message. Most, at core, believe that Jesus is the answer
to our sexual crisis. They just doubt the Church’s authority to do much about
it. Jesus says differently.
Renewal
pioneer (and good friend of the late John Wimber!) Ralph Martin stirred us with
His ignited ‘kerygma’ last week in Kansas City. He opened a conference of which
we were a part with three words: ‘Jesus is Lord!’ then explained deftly (this
guy is brilliant) the relevance of a renewed Gospel to a Church sleeping in the
light. He employed Francis’ confusing approach to LGBTQ+ issues as a sign of
our impotence.
Jesus
is Lord. While Martin taught, I saw a pier jutting out into the ocean with one
of its main pilings (heavy support posts underneath the water) rotting and
about to give way. Like our sexuality, pilings are hidden yet essential to the
integrity of the structure.
It
was an invitation to holy fear: I, we, could be lost! And an invitation to
hope. What we expose He will reinforce and restore. I stood up and asked anyone
who needed to repent to come forward. I then invited our LW team to come
minister.
Jesus
is Lord. Ralph empowered us to contend for ‘good news’ endowed with Holy
Spirit. May our holy words and prayers manifest fire.
‘Burn
off intimidation and enliven us at core, Holy Spirit. Take our weak words and
ignite them for Kingdom purposes. “Now Lord, consider their threats and enable
Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to
heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant
Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).’
‘Father,
we thank You for Jesus who established the Church on a Rock against which hell
will not prevail (Matt 16:18). We pray for every Christian leader to build on
Her firm foundation of sexual clarity and integrity. Father, unmask the
deceiver and divider of Christians and unite us in one Spirit. As weak members
of Christ, we ask for truth to guide our pursuit of sexual wholeness, for grace
to sustain it, and for spiritual power to transform us. May we reflect the
chaste radiance of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18) as we “shine like stars in the universe,
holding out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16) to a lost and hurting world.’
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