Strong Churches, Weak Churches

No church is a perfect church. But what do you do when things seem severely less than perfect?

The Early Christian Church was Marked with Love.

  (By Unknown Illustrator, www.artbible.net)

Mary and I saw problems as we strived to serve one church ministry. We labored and toiled to affect this ministry, but as the months passed on, most results seemed hopelessly futile. We could not please the people no matter how we tried. The congregation's agendas were very different from our own.

A ministry's true condition will ultimately reflect in its finances. That's where you meet weakness, failure, and problems head-on. However, the main point is, God did not leave us in the face of these tribulations. He worked with us. Wonderfully, a few Christians responded to grace and stepped forward to help us.

For one, a retired couple in the town noticed our low salary levels and supplemented our monthly income with a personal gift. This couple's generosity blessed us month after month as we worked through our trials. They were a very gentle couple, and unknown to others, they determined to help.

Praying the Money in.

I resolved, most of all, to pay our modest monthly payroll with God's help on time. I felt it would be unfair to have our self-sacrificing staff miss a paycheck. Well, I learned to work together with God. I found myself with no other recourse than to pray the money in. Invariably, payday after payday, the ministry checks arrived in the last nick of time.

Up and down I would pace the institution's hallways praying for hours "storming heaven's gates," spiritually commanding the checks to come in. Pentecostals call this "praying through." I found out it works. Sometimes, the funds totaled the day before payday. Sometimes, the checks arrived in the evening when people drove by and noticed the lights still on. Sometimes, the money wouldn't arrive until that very payday morning. God tested my faith. But payday after payday, month by month, I prayed the receipts in.

Never did the Funds fail to total.

The miracle was this. Never, ever, did the funds fail to total so I could pay the staff on time. God never failed me, not even once. I learned how faithful God is in answering prayer.

There was one family that shone with the extreme light of kindness and love. In my most solitary and lonely times when I was most discouraged, this bright, cheerful woman would unexplainably show up with her daughter, her son, or her gentle, executive husband to share wise advice or a cheerful word. She was a beautiful angel who came at the dreariest of times. Each time, my face and heart warmed from her Godly love as she departed her visit.

She'd cast Love as a force.

Her children and her husband always wore joyous eyes, blessed with this amazing kindness. She'd cast love as a force and leave it clinging to my person as she left. I knew God sent her each time.

"By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35 NIV)."

Yes, there are healthy churches and there are sick churches, and there are churches somewhere in between. The two great commandments give us the first standard of measure, love. I remember our favorite small churches and our favorite large churches. Great love supernaturally marked these.

Like Early New Testament churches, some churches we served were small home churches and some were large like Antioch and Jerusalem. These churches built on the manifestations of the person of the Holy Spirit. They functioned in the fruits, gifts, and ministries. I experienced the building of the Body of Christ as the work of the Holy Spirit.

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4: 3-6 NIV).

--Bill Hunt

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Give it All to God, it's Only Money!

You're on a ministry trip, calling people to faith. Your travel 

funds run short. Unexpectedly, you meet friends with more 

severe needs than your own.

"Faith expresses itself through Love." (Photo by Bill Hunt)

 

On our ministry trip north, we prayed over a gentle, elderly couple. He fell off scaffolding and suffered pain along his backbone. His wife suffered severe pain in her arthritic knees. Both were under a doctor's care. Mary and I commanded God's healing. He healed both of them. All pain stopped.

On Thursday afternoon, we visited another very humble pastor friend and his lovely wife, Ron and Jeanne. A very spiritual couple, we always enjoyed just sitting with them and talking about the Lord around their kitchen table.

This time, we heard a tale of woe. Pastor Ron had undergone surgery and was unable to maintain his side job for income. They were short of money.

Unobtrusively, I wondered around the kitchen and then glanced in the refrigerator. A shiny light bulb glowed, but the box is empty.

Their refrigerator is empty.

The Holy Spirit prodded my heart. Mary and I counted very little money after our trip north. Only a hundred dollars was left in my wallet. But here I could see my brother had no income, no money, and no food to provide for his wife and three little boys. His need was greater than mine.

After all, I also knew a hundred dollars was never going to return us to Florida. Yes, I was apprehensive! With God's persistent nudging, I secretly emptied my wallet underneath the kitchen table. I placed the cash on top of the refrigerator as we left toward the front door.

Yes, I swallowed hard. I now had no money remaining for our trip home. In my flesh I was afraid.

"Now you've done it!" said the devil.

"God, we're in your hands," I prayed.

On that Friday, next day, while I was out, Mary visited with her mother at home. The elderly man who had fallen off the scaffolding telephoned and asked if he could visit. Mary's mother invited him to come.

"My wife is healed, and I am healed," he said when he arrived at the house, "Here's the money I would have paid to the doctor. I figure now that we are healed, I should give it to you."

Into Mary's hand he placed a roll of cash, two hundred and forty dollars. When I arrived back at the house, Mary gave me the cash.

It was the money we needed for

our return trip to Florida!

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Luke 6:38 NIV).

On Sunday, at Pastor Abe and Naomi's "Grace Chapel," our teens Monica and Brian each sang to the congregation. Then the whole family sang worship songs, glorifying God. Boy, was I thankful!

--Bill Hunt

Why not start a Jesus Prayer Support Group in your own home? Watch your Christianity come to life!

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Family Healing for God

Driving north for a family healing trip is a God time.

"Wonderful are the Active Healing Gifts of the Holy Spirit."

   (Photo by Bill Hunt c. 2011)

Now there is an art to loading six kids into the back of a station wagon for sleeping. You can pack more in by placing the three taller teenagers, Monica, Brian, and Emily, head to foot across the back sideways. Then place the smaller children, Joanna, Margaret, and baby Daniel, lengthwise up behind the parents' front seats.

We placed packing and mats throughout the back of our station wagon to level it and boarded all six kids for the trip from Florida to Upstate New York. We drove north on a family mission for God. This glorious trip was the one where baby Daniel noticed every passing truck with his own expression.

"Oof! Oof!" said baby Daniel 
in low horn tone.

Of course, his big brother, Brian, encouraged the act by pulling his imaginary truck horn with his fist and arm at the window. The big rig truck drivers noticed this ceremonious load of young expressions and honked their booming truck horns back at the kids.

"Oof!  Oof!" echoed the back end of  the car. Yes, this was a memorable trip all the way up the Eastern Seaboard. Upon arrival, we ministered on a Wednesday evening in our former neighborhood church prayer meeting.

We invited people to 
come forward for healing.

Five men, father, sons, and brothers, actually related to each other, came up at the same time. They decided to lock arms as we prayed for their individual needs. 

I laid hands on the first one in line. The power of the Holy Spirit flowed like an electrical current on his head. In fact, the power simultaneously flowed through the five men with locked arms. The fifth man in line dropped to the floor.

"Never, never put God in a box!"

You cannot limit God. One by one, we prayed over each of the men, and one by one they dropped to the floor! Never expect God to work in a set pattern.

Next up, we prayed for a dear lady friend of ours. Beautiful in her gentle spirit, she suffered for a time from hemorrhaging. Trying different medicines, her doctor had been unable to stop her bleeding.

Well, Doctor Jesus did. She felt the healing power and phoned us within a few days. She dried up, no more bleeding.

Next, came a humble mother of small children. She suffered painful tendinitis in her shoulder. I suspected it was caused by the loving carry of her children in arms.
The pain immediately stopped when the power of the healing Jesus touched her.

No more pain.

Last of all, we prayed over a gentle, elderly couple. He fell off scaffolding and suffered pain along his backbone. His wife suffered severe pain in her arthritic knees. Together, they were under a doctor's care.

Mary and I commanded God's healing. Jesus healed both of them. All pain stopped. 

On Sunday, at our friends' Pastor Abe and Naomi's "Grace Chapel," our teens Monica and Brian each sang solo to the congregation. Then the whole family sang worship songs, glorifying God.

At the end of the service, we called for a healing line. A mother and child with severe scoliosis in their backs came forward. They later reported healing to their pastor.

"It was definitely a ministry trip," said Mary. "It felt like a ministry trip. We came as a family to share healing gifts with the Body of Christ."

--Bill Hunt


Why not start a Jesus Prayer Support Group with friends in your own home? Watch your Christianity come to life!

For more information, click Healing.