As Christians we are told by our Savior that those who seek a sign are a wicked generation–but the spiritual gifts given at Pentecost have not gone away. Last summer my roommate prayed for a pain-stricken woman who was instantly healed, and one of the students I help lead encountered a demon that was beaten back by prayer and dependence on Christ’s power. Neither of these instances involved spiritual power being wielded by humans, but simply followers of Christ depending on His power for providence and protection.
There are those in the Christian church today, many well meaning, who teach that spiritual gifts and miracles such as these no longer exist, that God speaks only through His word now and it is the only gift and miracle we need. I used to rest in this camp, but I can’t experience what I experienced last summer and write it off as plain emotionalism. My church visited a people who believe in the power of evil spiritual forces, and Christ manifested His power to show that He has the ultimate authority, even over those rebellious spirits.
One night I slept in fear because I had begun to give into the temptation to believe that demonic powers were able to harm me even as a child of God. Another night I slept in peace, remembering the promise that “He that is in me is mightier than he that is in the world.” One night I was troubled by spiritual forces attempting to harm me, another night I rested in and was refreshed by the good God who cares for me and protects me.
Today I’m back in the morass of middle class American consumerism and I’m already doubting what I saw with my own two eyes. It’s easy to see salvation as a logical choice that stems from having a relationship with a Christian who reasons with you until you gain an understanding of the gospel and repent and accept Christ’s working. Though this is a totally legitimate process of salvation, it’s not the only one. Where my church visited we saw men saved by intimately repenting and the demons in them fleeing. We saw people gain an understanding of the gospel in minutes rather than long years.
The reason I think we Western Christians have such difficulty in accepting the miraculous side of our faith is because we can’t see it for what it is: the spiritual and the mundane side by side. Either we want to live our lives in the mundane, thinking of Christ and His kingdom as logical realities to be reasoned through, or we want to live only in the spiritual realm, looking for miracles around every corner and thinking that our salvation is defined by how much power the Holy Spirit works through us. The hard truth is, to get to the home of the demon possessed man you must first wake up, thank God for the morning, take a shower, eat breakfast, and drive over. Maybe breakfast is late, maybe your car breaks down–God cares just as much about these physical realities as he does about spiritual realities. When you are able to cast out the demon in the name of Christ, the formerly possessed man may still need food, shelter and medical attention.
This isn’t as exciting or sexy as living in a purely spiritual world, and it’s more messy and emotional than most scholars would like, but this is the world God calls us to live in–a holistic reality where we care for both the body and the soul, God’s current creation and the new one to come. I want to stop doubting and accept both God’s miracles and His hard truths.