Fire Station ~ By Alicia Kanode

Deanna led us in worship on Friday night, singing amazing songs like “God of this City,” “Consuming Fire,” and one she wrote herself called “Prepare.” We are continually blessed by the new worship songs that God is birthing among us! We truly believe that “greater things have yet to come,” as Chris Tomlin says in “God of this City.” After worship, a couple people shared pictures and words that they felt the Lord gave to them, as well as numerous testimonies of healing and of God’s goodness!

Then Sean and Jen led a Question and Answer time, during which anyone could ask questions about revival, healing, deliverance or the gifts of the Spirit. We ended up focusing mostly on healing and spiritual gifts. A number of questions were asked and answered. I will try to summarize some of those as best as I can.

Q: Why doesn’t everyone get healed?
A: We don’t always know. We do know that everyone who came to Jesus was healed. There are numerous examples of this, including Matthew 8:16 and Luke 4:40. However, there were also times when a lack of faith prevented this: “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith” – Mark 6:5-6, NIV). Sometimes, but NOT always, sin issues prevent healing. Other times, it may be that we simply have not pressed in enough. Jen shared a story from Mozambique where God told someone to go and pray for a person who had died. They were raised from the dead – after seven or eight hours of prayer! How often do we continue to pray until we see the answer? Jen said, “When I see it [healing, answer to prayer], I’ll praise God. When I don’t see it, I’ll keep pressing in.”

Q: How should we respond to friends, especially unbelievers, who have lost loved ones and are looking to us for answers?
A: Jen pointed out that when something bad happens, we tend to point at God, but we don’t often acknowledge Him for all the good things in our lives. We often hone in on one difficulty, instead of seeing the good. None of us would even be alive without God giving us breath. She also said that our friends don’t always need the “right” answers as much as they need to see God’s loving care in us. Sean talked about how God gave us the ability to choose between Him and evil. Sometimes there are natural consequences – either from our actions or the actions of others. As Sean said, if God had taken away our ability to choose evil, He would also have removed our ability to choose Him. Finally, Jen shared a revelation that God had given her, that death is not the worst thing that could ever happen to a person. She told us about one of the Firestarters board members who lost both her husband and son. As she was heavily grieving, her son actually appeared to her and told her, “Mommy, stop calling me back! I love it here!”

Q: You seem to say that anything bad is from the devil. What is the difference between what you are teaching and prosperity theology? How do we classify what is “bad”?
A: Jen said that many people accept any hard situation, illness, etc. as being “God working” in them. She referred to this as a fatalistic mindset. She also said that because many people don’t see healing, they try to create a theology to explain why. Her take is that if our experience level doesn’t match a Biblical level, we still need to keep our theology at a Biblical level. As she has done that, she has seen her level of experience rise. However, she was quick to say that not everything is a demon and mentioned how sometimes when she prays, “God, heal me,” she gets a response like, “You’re not taking care of yourself.” Sometimes, there is a demonic attack that we need to rebuke and sometimes there is a natural cause that we need to address through lifestyle change, etc. Jen and Sean clarified that they do not believe in some of the extremes taught as prosperity theology, but they also want to leave behind a poverty mindset. As believers, we are to set our standards high – “Our Father in heaven…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10, NIV).

Other questions dealt with the gifts of healing and prophecy. After the discussion was brought to a close, Sean and Jen offered a time of prayer and personal ministry for anyone who wanted it. God truly used the evening to bring truth and build faith! Praise Him!