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NS A IGREJA
When Constantine converted to Christianity, he made the official Roman
religion Christianity. But, in so doing, he took a lot of the pagan practices
that came before this time and made them a part of Christianity. One of
these practices was building a large building to honor their god. Before
Constantine, Christians met in small, humble homes, and they understood
that they were the physical church and not some building. After
Constantine, large cathedrals were built to honor Jesus, and the buildings
became the house of God.

The Anabaptists understood that the building is not the church. The Greek
word for church is ekklesia which means the called out ones. When the
Bible talks about the church, they are talking about the people of God and
not a building. And even though large buildings inspire awe and beauty, it is
really our lives that are to inspire these things.

In Christendom, there was always a special class of people that were the
holy ones. These were the priests, monks, and nuns who devoted their lives
to being holy. They believed that this type of calling was too great for the
masses, and only a select few were to live like this. The masses were to be
good citizens while the select few were the holy ones. These communities
would create monasteries which would house these people away from the
rest of the world. They were to forsake pursuing riches, live simply, and
serve the poor. And while a lot of good came from these communities, the
entire church is called to live this way, not just a select few.

In fact, the Anabaptists made no distinctions regarding who was to work in
the church. It was the rule that only men could be preachers and leaders
within the church of that time. However, the Anabaptists made no
distinctions when it came to gender. They had many women preachers,
including Margret Hottinger. She was a woman who attended Anabaptist
bible study, and she eventually felt the call to preach. She began preaching
the next day, was arrested and imprisoned for a year. When she was
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released, she began preaching again and eluded the authorities for three
years. When she was caught, they took her out in a boat and drowned her.

Dirk Willems was another example of how we can live a life that shows the
beauty of the Church. Dirk was an Anabaptist preacher who was arrested
and imprisoned. He was locked in a tower, but one day he escaped. As he
was running away, a guard was chasing him. They ran across a frozen
body of water where Dirk got across but the guard fell through the ice. Dirk
turned around and saved the guard. The guard then re-arrested Dirk and a
few days later, Dirk was executed. The self-less giving of his life for
anothers life was an example of Gods love for people and how we are to
love one another.

At Woodland Hills, we also believe in the Church as a body of believers and
not some building. Its why we didnt need to build some awe-inspiring
building. We also believe that there is no distinction between genders,
races, and socioeconomics of people. We believe everyone is called to live
out their gifts for God. This is the way that the Church was formed under
Jesus, and we aspire to uphold that.

Greg began by pointing out that the woman was crippled by a spirit and was
not crippled by any fault of her own. He reminded us that this world is under
the authority of Satan and the spirits that are loyal to Satan oppress all of
creation, including folks like this woman. The reason Jesus came was to
break this bondage and bring freedom and life back to creation. As the
churchthe Body of Christwe too have the same mission. We are to
bring freedom and life to the world around us. One way Jesus did that is
through physical healings as we have seen in our passage today.

Greg spent some time showing that Jesus didnt actually ask God to heal
the sick or cast out demons. Jesus did these things on his own authority.
What was perhaps surprising is that this authority is not related to Jesus
being God, but rather the perfect human being. God intended humanity to
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have dominion over all creation. We were designed to be stewards and
caretakers, but we forfeited our authority to do this when we sinned. Jesus
corrects this situation and is the first human to walk in truly right relationship
to God. But he is not supposed to be the last! We too are to walk in the way
Jesus did. We see that Jesus disciples did this and they cast out demons
and healed the sick. Greg pointed out several texts that make this clear like
Luke 9:1, Luke 10:19, John 14:12 and Acts 3:6. From here Greg focused on
the connection between power, authority and the spoken word. In Matthew
8:8-9 the centurion got it right. He knew that Jesus had the authority to heal
his servant, but he also knew that the power would not be released to do
the healing unless Jesus spoke the words. Greg then discussed the abuses
that are common in some circles when it comes to naming it, and claiming
it.
The four dangers Greg identified that are common to the Word of Faith
and Positive Confession groups were:
1. It fails to no levar em conta os contextos Jewish hyperbole (stating
something in extreme and
unqualified terms for emphasis.)
2. It doesnt adequately take into consideration all of the Bible.
3. It tends to embrace and even Christian-ize Western consumer values.
4. It asks people to pretend.

But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, Greg was quick to
remind us that there is a profound truth in this movement that we often
overlook: When we are submitted to Gods reign, we have authority to
speak Kingdom wholeness into all that is broken in Jesus name. What we
believe about our authority and what we speak with authority is vitally
important in determining how much of the Kingdom will be manifested in us
and through us.
This awareness of the power of our words is a strong theme in Scripture.
James 3:4-5 and Matthew 12:36 clearly show that we need to be mindful of
how we use our tongues.
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As he wrapped up, Greg gave us a pattern to live by: remember, imitate,
speak. We are to remember the authority we have in Christ, and how we
are called to live. We then are to imitate Jesus in our actions in response to
whatever we encounter in life. And we are to speak the truth in love, which
includes speaking wholeness and healing in our own lives and the lives of
others.