Tag Archives: Mark

To Reject Healing Is To Reject The Kingdom

To Reject Healing Is To Reject The Kingdom

Jesus did not hand the seventy-two a clipboard titled “Repent of Your Sins or Burn” and send them out as traveling guilt machines. He told them to walk into the house and drop an authoritative pronouncement: “Peace to this house.” If a son of peace is there, the blessing stands. If not, it returns to you undiminished. Stay. Eat their food. Heal the sick who are there. Then announce, “The Kingdom of God has come near to you.” Matthew stacks the power works right after the announcement—heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received; freely give. The direct words Jesus gave them do not open with “tell them to repent of their sins.” Mark later summarizes what the disciples actually did, but the commission itself packages the spoken blessing, the healing, and the Kingdom announcement as the entry point. That is the picture.

The rejection that gets the dust wiped off the feet and Sodom-level judgment is rejection of that package. The messengers brought an authoritative peace that touches material life, demonstrated the Kingdom by healing the sick and breaking Satan’s oppression, and announced that the Kingdom had drawn near in connection with those works. People get offended at God wanting to bless them with physical wholeness and material goodness. Think about that for two seconds. The faithless preach the opposite. They act like the core charge is “repent of your sins or you’re toast,” and treat healing and material blessing like optional extras or even spiritual dangers. But in the text, the Kingdom comes near by healing the sick and casting out demons. The authoritative peace is loosed over the house. What you bind on earth is bound in heaven; what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. You go in and loose the blessing of God for healing, goodness, and prosperity in that life. If they reject that, they reject the King who brings those things.

Jesus answered John’s disciples the same way. They asked how they would know it was Him. He did not send back a hellfire pamphlet. He said, go tell John what you see and hear: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Then He added, blessed is the one who is not offended because of Me. He was not warning people against being offended at a sermon about sins and hell. He was warning them against being offended at the good things—the physical and material blessings God was doing. The faithless get particularly unbelieving right there. They can talk about spiritual goods all day, but when God shows up to heal the body, cast out the demon, and speak material peace and wholeness into a life, they flinch. That is the offense. And the judgment still stands.

The gospel is a whole package. Good things, both spiritual and material. Forgiveness is in it. Righteousness is in it. The blessing of Abraham is in it. Healing is in it. By His stripes you were healed. The same blood that purchased the removal of the record also purchased the removal of the curse, including sickness and poverty. God wants to give these things more than you want to receive them. The initial breaking-in is the healing and the blessing. You demonstrate that the Kingdom has come near by the power works. Then you tell them, you see all these good things—the healings, the peace, the demons fleeing—you cannot have the fullness of this unless you repent and believe, and then all those good things are yours. Enter in. But the proof that the Kingdom has drawn near is the healing. The way the Kingdom proves it has come near a person is the sick rising and the demons leaving.

Our responsibility is still to do it. Go pronounce “your peace” in authority. Heal the sick. Cast out the demons. Announce that the Kingdom of God has come near. If a ministry refuses to do this, boycott it. Reject it. They are a ministry of the faithless doing faithless things. They are not advancing the Kingdom; they are stalling it while Satan uses the body as a middle finger at the finished stripes and the enthroned Christ. The dust is for those who reject the package. For those who receive it, the peace sticks, the sick rise, and the Kingdom expands in power, not just words.

Speak the peace. Command the healing. Receive the good things God already purchased. The Kingdom has come near. Do not be offended at it.

The Prayer Exam: Jesus’ Real Creed of Orthodoxy

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:7-8)

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

See also Matthew 17:20, 21:21, Mark 11:23, Luke 17:6, and a whole constellation of others.

There it is—straight from the King’s mouth. Not some footnote in a creed. This is the creed. Jesus didn’t hand us a theology pop quiz as the test of orthodoxy. Nope. He gave us a prayer exam. Answered prayer is the ultimate litmus test. You will do greater miracles than Me. Abide in Me. My words will abide in you. Ask big, get big. Boom—you’re proven Mine.

Jesus created a creedal test that only real believers can actually pass: greater works and answered prayer. The faithless cook up creeds that even their total depravity can still clear like a low limbo bar. But Jesus wrote His creed in the stars so that only the righteousness of God can reach it. Mortals design hurdles the old flesh can still hop over. Jesus built a creedal hurdle that only Spirit-empowered super-humans can clear.

Vincent Cheung nailed it: 

“Most Christians find this basic gospel doctrine very strange. Just weird. In fact, except for those associated with the “faith movement” or “word of faith” theology, it seems almost all Christians would consider this biblical doctrine outright wrong. In other words, it appears almost every person who calls himself a Christian also considers Jesus Christ a false teacher. From the intellectual perspective, and when it comes to concern for orthodoxy, the teaching is highly revealing. The controversy shows that the critics affirm an essentially non-Christian worldview. Any worldview that disagrees with the “faith confession” doctrine is not a Christ-view, and contradicts Christ’s view of reality. Thus it in fact qualifies as one test of orthodoxy.

Jesus did not think it was strange to tell a tree to die, or to rebuke a fever or a storm. This was his view of reality, and it makes perfect sense to me. It is normal for me to tell a sickness to get out or to tell a body part to change a certain way. And if someone is willing to accept it, I can do it for him. It seems rather funny to me, in fact, that a person could call himself a Christian and not live this way. This is an ordinary aspect of the Christian worldview, and anyone who calls himself a Christian should take this for granted,”
(Vincent Cheung. The Extreme Faith Teacher).

Here’s the heart of it: Jesus flat-out declares in John 14:12, “Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…” Right before the mountain-moving line in Matthew 21:21, He’s commanding fig trees to wither with a word. That’s not “more sermons” or “bigger crowds.” That’s greater quality and power of miracles—through faith, done by Jesus Himself working in “anyone” who believes. Not just the apostles. Not just the first century. Cheung shows how mainstream orthodoxy (Reformed, Evangelical, the whole crew) twists it smaller to protect the system. Why? Because admitting the plain reading would mean everyday believers wielding that kind of authority in Jesus’ name—and that scares the socks off a man-centered setup that secretly worships the apostles as untouchable mini-gods while keeping the rest of us on a short leash.

Now picture Jesus literally flipping through one of those dusty historical creeds—Apostles’, Nicene, Westminster, whatever you’ve got. He scans the sections on God, salvation, Trinity… and finds *zero* mention of the greater-works and answered-prayer test He just spelled out as the disciple-prover.

How does He respond? 

Same way He always does with false teachers: zero sugar-coating, full harsh-rebuke mode. He’d look up and drop something like, “You are greatly mistaken. You brood of vipers don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God” (echoing His Mark 12 mic-drop on the Sadducees). Why? Because skipping His own litmus test creates a flat-out contradiction in their document. They claim to follow Him but left out the very proof He built in. Omitting it isn’t a harmless oversight—it’s rewriting the Owner’s Manual while pretending it’s still His book.

The faithless hand us a user agreement demanding we confess and  “follow the CEO,” but they quietly deleted the one job requirement Jesus posted in bold letters. Jesus’ extreme faith dogmatic is not only His creed, but the litmus test to determine if a person or a supposed document is orthodox. The creed either lines up or it doesn’t.

Only someone who truly trusts the finished work of the cross passes this test. Jesus became sin so we could become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). He became curse so we could walk in blessing (Gal 3:13). He became poverty so we could walk in prosperity (2 Cor 8:9). Isaiah 53 spells it out: by His stripes we are healed—present tense, New Contract normal. When you believe that exchange actually happened, self-condemnation shuts up. You stand there like a son, not a beggar, and sickness hears your voice and packs its bags. Rain obeys. Mountains move. That’s not “name it and claim it” hype. That’s New Contract baseline.

The faithless can fake “cross-centered” language all day, abuse us with give self-deprecating sermons with tears, quote creeds and scripture in perfect ESV, and still have zero power. But they can’t fake results. Faithless people fail this test by definition—because it demands faith, not self-deprecating statements. You either abide, ask, and receive… or you don’t. Jesus said the unfruitful branch gets cut off and thrown into the fire (John 15:6). Brutal? Yes. Liberating? Absolutely. Do the  same and cut them out of your life.

And that’s exactly why the creeds, seminaries, and half the pulpits quietly buried Jesus’ test centuries ago. If John 15:7-8 was the standard, the fraud would be visible in 4K. No power? No fruit? No answers to prayer that actually move reality? Not My disciple, says Jesus. The modern church swapped the prayer of the righteous for the prayer of the “humble realist” who hedges every request with “if it be Thy will” like the sovereign God needs an escape clause. They turned petition into polite suggestion and then act shocked when the weather doesn’t listen, the sick stay sick, and the lost stay lost.

The faithless of Jesus’ day had the right paragraphs about the Messiah. They could debate atonement theology until the sun went down. But when the real deal showed up healing the sick and raising the dead, they called it Beelzebul, committing the unforgivable sin.

Any so-called creed that fails to include or bow down to Jesus’ own test of orthodoxy isn’t orthodox, no matter how many fanboys defend it. If any creature in heaven or earth insists that some man-made confession is the standard of sound doctrine while ignoring the King’s litmus test of abiding, asking, and receiving undeniable answers, and doing greater works they’ve just lifted their skirt and exposed their spiritual filth and adultery before your eyes. Cut them out of your life, the way the Father cuts off unfruitful branches.  Excommunicate them. Boycott.

Jesus created a dogmatic test that only believers can do. Greater works and answered prayers. The faithless create creeds that humans in their today depravity can still perform. But Jesus gives a creed that only the righteousness of God can perform. Faith-fumblers pledge allegiance to a creed that the old-flesh can sing to. Jesus gives us a dogmatic that only a saint who is born-from-above can arrange into joyful melodies. Mortals design a creed so that human limitations can still jump over it. But Jesus wrote a creed in the stars that only Spirit-empowered superhumans can aim for.

Your Father isn’t limiting you—He’s waiting for you to stop limiting Him. Faith to move mountains isn’t optional; it’s the proof you’re walking in your new identity. The atonement didn’t just forgive you—it qualified you as a prince of heaven. The cross didn’t just save your soul—it empowered your mouth. The Contract didn’t just cover sin—it clothed you in God’s righteousness that does greater works. This is why the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Not because you’re sinless in your old-man, but because the old-man is dead and gone. Now you’re a new creation, empowered and righteous in Christ. When you pray, miracles happen.  That is Jesus’ extreme faith dogmatic. And it’s the orthodoxy that glorifies the Father.