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SET OUR HEARTS ON FIRE Chapter 12
Free the Captives
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." John 20:19-21
The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. This encounter with the risen Lord was revival in the purest sense. The disciples were brought back to life by the sight of the Master and the sound of his voice. But before they could relax and revel in the experience, Jesus gave them orders: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."
Revival is a work of the Holy Spirit in which our hearts are set free to live consistently in God's redemptive will. And God's redemptive will is revealed in the ministry of Jesus:
The Sprit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19
Jesus spent his entire ministry fulfilling those words and now his mantle has fallen to us. We have been revived to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed and hope to all who languish in despair.
Multitudes out there have never tasted the love of God. We have been empowered to manifest that love. There are men and women in our immediate circle of friends who have no idea how good life could be if they were released from their fears or resentments or whatever other chains sin has wrapped around their hearts. We have been empowered to set them free.
The Power of the Keys
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt 16:19).
When Jesus gave Peter the keys of the kingdom, he did not say, "Now, Peter, hang on to these keys; they belong to you alone." Nor did Jesus say, "Make sure, Peter, that these keys never fall into the hands of any except the ordained clergy." Nor did he say, "These keys represent apostolic succession." The keys were for Peter and for any man or woman who, like Peter, confessed Jesus as the Messiah.
Evidence that the privilege – and the responsibility – of binding and loosing is given to the body of Christ on earth appears in Matthew, when Jesus, speaking to all his disciples, says:
Truly; I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:18-20
I remember watching this power restore life to a man for whom the experts held out little hope. For thirty-one days Don lay in the ICU. The prognosis was bleak. At first it was, "He probably won't make it." Later, "Expect brain damage, if he emerges from the coma." Every time I came to visit Don, his son Len and some friends would be off in a corner of the hospital lobby, praying.
"Don, you're going to rise out of this death to a new life." Shaking her head in pity, the nurse approached me, "You're wasting your breath. He can't hear you."
One day Don responded by squeezing my hand. A few days later speech returned. His mind was clear. Through all those weeks, Len and his friends kept their vigil in the lobby. They prayed for Don's complete recovery. They were young and bold and, some would say, a little crazy. Were they crazy to hang on to the promise that they could move heaven to break through the crust of this age with a sign of the kingdom?
The keys of the kingdom of heaven give us access to an invisible door that opens on heaven, wherever we happen to be on earth. When we open this door, the powers of heaven respond to us and cause things to happen on earth that can only happen by heaven's command.
I'm not talking about magic. Magic is when a human presumes to take control of something in the supernatural world by "paying his dues" to the kingdom of darkness. I'm talking about something completely different: about the living God giving us the privilege of serving him in the capacity of sons and daughters, in such a way that we become channels through which the power of the cross of Jesus binds the demons and frees the captives.
When we have the keys, we bind the demons, and heaven says, "Yes, they're bound." And the demons can't move. We loose the captives, and heaven says, "Yes, they're loosed." And the captives walk into freedom. When we have the keys.
Without the keys, we can rebuke the demons all day long, and they laugh in our face. We can put on a show of loosing the captives. But when the show is over, the captives are still bound.
The men and women who have the power of the keys and use it are marked by the same two characteristics that marked the apostles: (1) they are radically committed to Jesus; (2) they have accepted Calvary as their destiny.
Keys for the Committed
"Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, 'If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple'" (Lk 14:25-26).
It comes down to a very simple question: who or what comes first in our lives? On what center are our hearts fixed?
I remember a man who put those questions to me with burning power. It all began with a strange little radio broadcast. "I don't know if this guy's on the level", I'd say to myself, "but when he talks about Jesus, he feeds my soul." I'd turn on the radio to hear Dr. Michaelson each morning at 6:45. The program lasted fifteen minutes.
Between selling maps of Palestine and raising money for the hungry Jewish children in Algeria, Dr. Michaelson would talk about Jesus. And his words about Jesus seemed to burn with holy fire. He would describe his life in Judaism. How Jesus became his Messiah, always against a background of deep love for Israel, his people.
Shortly after we moved to Detroit, it was announced that Dr. Michaelson from California would be speaking Sunday afternoon at a church on the east side. Here was a chance to see the man and check him out.
The crowd was small. Dr. Michaelson was an old man. He spoke from a high stool to ease the pain in his crippled feet. He could not have skimmed anything from the funds he raised for the hungry Jewish children, since his clothes were worn; there was no limo in sight.
Dr. Michaelson needed a ride downtown to his hotel (one of the cheapest in the city). I volunteered, and on the way to the hotel it was like having Saul of Tarsus riding shotgun in the Volkswagen.
"Do you know Jesus? Do you love him?
"You're a preacher ... in a mainline church? Why are you wasting your time in a mainline church?"
What Michaelson was saying to me was, "Are you committed to Jesus all the way? Or are you playing church?" It was a question that ate at me for months afterward, because it seemed to me that the Lord himself was speaking to me through this crusty old disciple. And when revival hit our mainline church a few years later, Dr. Michaelson would have been pleased with the change.
Radical commitment to Jesus cannot be measured by the clothes we wear or the car we drive or the kind of church to which we belong. There were those who tried to measure Jesus' commitment to the kingdom against that of John the Baptist. John wore camel's hair and lived on locusts. Jesus wore a seamless robe and ate with tax collectors. Yet Jesus' commitment to the Father's will was total.
He requires of those who follow him a commitment so strong that, by comparison, every other human love becomes hatred. If we say, "Jesus is Lord," the proof that we mean what we say is that he is Lord over us – Lord over every part of our lives!
The growth of Peter's commitment is a pattern that is repeated in our lives. When Peter left his fishing to follow Jesus, he didn't know what he was getting into. Of course, he was honored to be called by the Master. But letting go of his old life was not that easy. Peter loved fishing. Fishing was his life. As he followed Jesus along the shore of Galilee, Peter would see old friends busy with their nets, and he would have to swallow the lump in his throat.
After the resurrection, for old time's sake, Peter decided to take a dip into the past, have a little taste of the life he once knew.
"I'm going fishing," he said to his fiends. "We'll go with you," they answered. That night they caught nothing.
"Children, have you any fish?" came a voice on the shore, as dawn was breaking.
"No," they answered from the boat.
"Cast the net on the right side of the boat."
Suddenly, fish everywhere! So many fish in the net, it was impossible to haul it up. What more does Peter need to remind him of his call? Jesus welcomes the disciples to breakfast.
After breakfast: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these [fish]?"
"Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." "Feed my lambs." Where is your commitment, Peter? If it's with me, it cannot be divided. I cannot use you in the service of the kingdom unless you are with me all the way.
The Lord puts the same question to every person who has tasted the renewing power of revival. Do you love me more than whatever else you love? Do I come first in your life, ahead of wife, husband, child, profession, wealth, name? Until revival ignites us, we are inclined to settle for a two-tiered kingdom. On the lower level are those who "believe in Jesus for salvation." They are satisfied to attend church and accept the doctrines. But they are not ready to give up their "fishing." They love Jesus, but not enough to make radical changes in their lifestyles.
"I may not come in for big rewards," they say, "but I'm saved, and that's what counts."
On the upper level are the gung-ho types. They're obsessed with Jesus; fanatics at prayer. They even give Jesus control of their finances.
"God bless 'em, they deserve the keys of the kingdom, but that's not my cup of tea," say the lower-level saints.
But revival opens our eyes to see that the kingdom of God is not two-tiered. To be born again of the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit into radical commitment to Jesus.
"Do you love me more than these fish?" "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
"Then feed my sheep. And to help you in your work, I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Keys for the Calvary Road "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Lk 14:27). Does bearing a cross mean martyrdom? Perhaps. Peter understood that that's what it meant for him. When Jesus said, "Follow me," to Peter for the last time, Peter knew he was pointing to a cross.
What kind of Calvary lies at the end of our journey is not ours to choose, and is rarely ours to know. It is enough for us to bear our own cross and come after him. To bear our own means that whatever road we find ourselves on will be a Calvary Road of some kind, because our lives are being spent for the Master.
When we submitted to the waters of baptism, we were joining ourselves to Christ's death. Crucified with Christ, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. And the Christ who lives in us teaches us how to carry a cross, how to lay down our lives.
People who observed Jesus dining with Simon the Pharisee or walking through the grain fields with his disciples on the Sabbath could have no idea that inwardly he was already carrying his cross. From the day Jesus emerged from his wilderness encounter with Satan the cross was there, planted in the depths of his soul. This cross released the power of the Spirit into the bodies of the sick and the eyes of the blind. Every day Jesus joyfully laid down his life for the sheep, pouring himself out in love, as he moved ever closer to his goal, where he would carry his cross no farther. It would carry him.
To follow Jesus is to follow him to a cross of our own. People who observe us driving down the road or feasting with our friends could have no idea that we carry a cross, that we are committed to laying down our lives in the service of our Master. But we are allowing the power of Christ's death to work in us, setting us free from ourselves, so that the life of Christ can flow out of us to others (see 2 Cor 4:10-12).
If you were looking at our friend Janice in the officers' mess, you would never have guessed that she was carrying a cross. Her husband was a high-ranking naval officer. She had a great sense of humor and appeared to be the life of the party. Yet, when someone's heart was breaking, Janice seemed to know what to do. When someone needed a place to stay, Janice's home was open. A financial crisis? Janice would be there with money. Few people even noticed that she was pouring herself out for people. She made it seem like nothing at all.
Janice's love for Jesus seemed almost matter-of-fact. But beneath the surface, she carried a cross. She knew that her life was not her own; it belonged to the Master. It was to be spent, offered up. Janice willingly allowed the death of Jesus to work in her, so that the life of Jesus could flow from her. Only the angels know the power that flowed through this woman's life. A trail of miracles followed her, and she never looked back.
The day Jesus gave Peter the power of the keys was the day Jesus began laying on Peter the news that a cross lay ahead not only for Jesus, but for Peter too. This was the day Jesus started teaching the disciples to take up a cross.
The keys of the kingdom and the cross that we carry are identical. When you see men or women who possess the power of the keys, you are looking at disciples possessed by an inward cross. They may look like beggars or kings, but they have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer they who live, but Christ who lives in them. And the life they now live in the flesh, they live by faith in the Son of God. By faith they follow in his steps. By faith they deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and bear it joyfully toward their appointed Calvaries. They may die peacefully in their own beds, but the lives they lived will have been poured out for others in praise to God. They were faithful unto death, whatever death God chose for them.
The Power of the Keys and the Mind of Christ
I caught myself thinking, Elsie will never change, and was convicted. How could I bring Christ's redemption to Elsie, when my mind had already tossed her in the recycling bin?
When Jesus looks into Elsie's soul, he sees her sins more clearly than I do. But he also sees wounds and fears and despair that I cannot see. He loves this woman. He will not say of her in this age of grace, "Elsie will never change." He looks upon her with hope. He knows how close she has come, during those lonely nights, to saying, "I give up. Here I am, Lord. I'm yours."
Who is shaping my thinking about Elsie, when I say to myself, Elsie will never change? Certainly not the mind of Christ. When a spirit of cynicism shapes my thoughts about this woman, my mind is "conformed to this world," and the keys of the kingdom would be unsafe in my hands.
"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2). But I can choose to allow the Spirit of God to transform my thinking about this woman, so that I begin to regard her from Jesus' point of view. Instead of saying, "Elsie will never change," I see her against the background of the cross. What Jesus did for me, he also did for her. I repent of my judgment of this woman and discipline myself to pray God's richest blessings upon her.
The keys of the kingdom are only given to those who allow their thinking to be shaped by the mind of Christ. "To set the mind on the flesh [resentment, suspicion, lust, greed] is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit [Jesus] is life and peace" (Rom 8:6). To live in the dimension of the kingdom where all things are possible is to choose to live with a transformed mind, with thinking that is renewed by the Spirit of Christ day by day.
Keeping the Mind Focused
I remember watching an evangelist demonstrate how to "name it and claim it." His eyes shut tightly as he pictured the Learjet in his mind. He claimed it in the name of Jesus and described how he already saw himself cruising at 39,000 fret. Hallelujah! It was his by faith, Hallelujah! Doesn't God want his children to travel first class? All things are possible to those who believe! Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
If the Lord is our supreme delight and the Learjet is somehow essential to our service to him –well, maybe. But we're on shaky ground when, as adult servants of God, our prayers are consumed with naming and claiming toys, or when money becomes the focus of our "vision."
Jesus' teachings about faith are given to disciples, committed followers. All things are possible for those who put the kingdom first. But to take Jesus' "faith principles" and turn them into a highway to prosperity and success, on this world's terms, is to imply that Jesus was wrong: that you can serve God and mammon at the same time. Every man or woman who takes that road will sooner or later end up a slave to mammon. Because the mind has lost its focus. It has become conformed to this world.
Jesus' Name, Jesus' Mind
"Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (Jn 16:24).
"In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!" said Peter,
as he grasped the man by the right hand and raised him up. How could this man, who had been lame from birth, suddenly begin to walk? Peter explained to the crowd that it was the name of Jesus, whom they had crucified, which had healed this man. "His name ... has made this man strong whom you see and know" (Acts 3:16).
To be able to use the name of Jesus with such power, to pray in Jesus' name and receive answers, presupposes that Peter and John had come into Jesus' mind. Their minds were at one with their Master's.
When the ambassador speaks in the name of the king, he speaks for the king. He expresses the king's mind. When the believer speaks (or prays) in the name of the Lord Jesus, he speaks for Jesus. He expresses the mind of Christ.
Merely tacking "in Jesus' name" to the end of our prayers does not, by itself, clothe them with the authority of Jesus. But when we have Jesus' mind, then we can speak in his name, pray in his name, for our words are in harmony with the mind of the Master. If Jesus' mind is set on a Learjet, then we should be able to pray with ease for a Learjet and a hangar to house it. But if Jesus' mind is elsewhere, our prayers and desires will follow his lead. If I pray in Jesus' name or even cast out demons in Jesus' name, without having Jesus' heart, Jesus' mind, I may one day have to hear him say, "I never knew you."
If You Abide in Me
Don't worry about producing miracles. Miracles will come by themselves. Signs of the kingdom will flow from your life as naturally as grapes form on the branch. The branch doesn't strive to produce grapes. The branch simply maintains a living connection with the vine. From the vine the branch receives power to breathe and drink in sunlight. Nourished by the life of the vine, grapes begin to form.
Our job is to stay focused on Jesus, to make sure that we are abiding in him and his words are being lived out by us. That's all we have to worry about. If we abide in Christ and he in us, we will bear fruit. We receive life from him as we keep our minds stayed on him. It's his program, not outs. All we do is fit into the program, as he makes it clear. He tells us that Elsie can change, and we believe him. He begins to put his finger on attitudes and murky regions of our own hearts, and calls us to repentance. And we obey him. He teaches us from within that the Father desires mercy and not sacrifice. He commands us to take the love which he pours into us, and start pouring it out toward each other, and toward all people.
As we keep bringing our hearts out of darkness into the light and yielding to his will, our fellowship with Jesus deepens. We are abiding in him, and he in us. We are exchanging our hearts of stone for his heart. His mind is being formed in us.
Ask Whatever You Will
You want the revival to spread? Ask for it, and it will be done for you. Don't be timid. Ask! Of course, there is the eternal condition: "if you abide in me and my words abide in you" (Jn 15:7). To abide is to dwell. To stay. To live in Christ – to eat, sleep and drink Jesus. To wake up in the night and bend our thoughts toward him. To rise in the morning and place our lives at his disposal. And to have his words abiding in us is to allow his words to reach our hearts before they fall out of our mouths. To trust his words to the point of obedience, even when it costs us.
"Forgive."
"Give to him who needs."
"Go, make disciples."
"Seek the kingdom first."
"Take up your cross daily."
"If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."
Jesus' words abide in us only by becoming incarnate in our flesh.
Who of us can presume to claim that Jesus' words are abiding in us without interference from our egos and our fleshly fears? Yet as we pursue the vision of what our Master expects us to be, help comes from above. The fire of heaven begins to burn out the dross and warm the fear-chilled corners of our hearts with hope. We pray, and the Lord himself prays within us. We ask what we will, and what we will begins to approach what he wills. Doors open. All things become possible
Free the Captives
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Lk 11:21-23
Jesus entered Satan's "palace" when he came to this earth. He overcame Satan and removed his armor through his death on the cross. But millions are still prisoners of Satan's lies. They have yet to experience the redeeming power of the cross of Christ. "Are you with me?" says the Master.
"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters" (Lk 11:23).
Cleansed by Jesus' blood and revived by his Spirit, we are sent to free the captives: men and women who live near us, work next to us. Friends from school. Relatives. "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (Jn 20:21).
From "Set Our Hearts On Fire" published by Servant Publications 1998
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