When Jesus healed a man who had been born blind, people did a great deal of talking about it.
“This man who can see is not the same man,” some said.
“Just how is he able to see now? The fellow who healed him can’t be from God,” said the Pharisees.
This healing (John 9) didn’t fit within the parameters that others had already set for how God works. They believed 1) the blindness was a result of sin, either the man’s or his parent’s, and 2) healing done on the sabbath was sin.
The healed man, however, stuck to what he had experienced: “All I know is this: I used to be blind, and now I can see.”
So he was kicked out of the synagogue by the religious community for being healed of blindness and refusing to back down on what had happened.
Perhaps today we, too, sometimes fail to see that God can work in ways we neither expect nor experience for ourselves.
You have probably read about the movement of God at Asbury University in Kentucky. It started February 8, 2023, after chapel service when some students stayed in the auditorium, continuing to worship.
“They were struck by what seemed to be a quiet but powerful sense of transcendence, and they did not want to go,” writes Tom McCall, a theology professor at Asbury Theological Seminary across the street.
“They were praising and praying earnestly for themselves and their neighbors and our world—expressing repentance and contrition for sin and interceding for healing, wholeness, peace, and justice.”
The nonstop worship went viral on TikTok through student-posted videos, resulting in thousands of people traveling to join the gathering.
While the spirit of God moved in a powerful way at Asbury, there are still a few Christians who questioned and even criticized what God did there. Some declared that “revival” was not a part of their spiritual practice. Some questioned whether emotion should have been part of it. Some cynically asserted that only time will tell if people’s lives were changed.
In other words, they saw the rabbit and missed the duck.
May we never limit God by parameters we ourselves set!
Jesus’ disciples tried to do just that when they saw someone “not of us” using Jesus’ name to drive out demons.
What did Jesus say to that?
“Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39-40).
We can be so quick to box up God and tie a bow on what we think is the best way to follow him.
Yet even Jesus’ miracles had no set formula.
Sometimes Jesus referred to the faith of the person being healed. Sometimes he referred to the faith of an intercessor, but sometimes there was no reference to anyone’s faith.
Jesus healed those who touched his garment and those at a distance. He healed those who requested healing and those who did not.
People were healed with his words, his touch, and even his spittle.
We can say “Jesus healed” but we cannot say “Jesus healed only in this way according to these circumstances.”
Jesus didn’t limit the power of God to how he healed or to who could heal in his name.
Let us be similarly generous. When the Holy Spirit moves today, let us not get in the way!
As suggested by N. T. Wright in John for Everyone, may we never allow other people to re-interpret how God is working in our lives:
People try to interpret your experience for you, to put you in this or that category, to label you. Often this is so that they needn’t take you quite seriously. What you must do is to stick to what you know. ‘I used to be blind; now I can see.’
Lord, open our eyes to your extraordinary, indefinable power and goodness.
Great read! This has been my exact thought while following this revival. I think that “the church” would see such a great move of God if we would just get out of the way and stop putting limits on how we think God should move and who we think He should move on.
Jackson, thank you for sharing!