A close friend got in trouble with a church like this recently, who hired his company (and several others) to build a grandiose church with the best of everything.  The Pastor built the church in what he assumed was faith, but resulting in a several year long battle now over not being able to pay his builders.  The church is not paying my friend a massive debt that is owed, and is defaming the name of Christ with many other non-Christian companies that are owed similar size payments.  

Yes, God is the God who "speaks things that are not as though they were."  He asks us to pray with faith and believe what we prayed for is ours.  There is also a sense in the Bible where we can change God's mind or persuade him to take our cause and move on our behalf.  However, this kind of power in prayer does not come from simply saying the right word or believing our own prayers.  Power with God comes with our proximity to him - the health of our relationship with Him.

Acts 19 shares the story of God using Paul in some of the greatest known miracles of his ministry.  Hankerchiefs and aprons that touched Paul were "taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them."  The timing couldn't be any more perfect to contrast what happens next.  Some others who went around trying to "invoke the name of Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed.  They would say, 'In the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out' ... One day the evil spirit answered them, 'Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?'  Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all.  He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding." (12-16).  What happens next is wonderful, but you'll have to open your Bible to find out the rest.

Point being that there is NOT MIRACLE POWER IN OUR WORDS.  There is miracle power in our right relationship and closeness to our God.  In fact, for these men aforementioned, their naming it and claiming it actually got them quite a beating.

Also consider Martha and Mary.  Two of the most revealing passages in Scripture on this idea of proximity to God's heart.  One is a short, obscure passage tucked away in Luke 10:38-42, but can have great impact for our lives today: "As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.  She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?  Tell her to help me!'  'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about may things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.'"  In my own life, being worried and upset is often a direct result of not spending enough time at the feet of Jesus, through worship, prayer and time in the Word of God.

John 11:1-43 follows up this story some time later sharing of the death of Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus.  The sisters sent word to Jesus while Lazarus was still sick asking him to come and heal their brother.  Strangely, Jesus waited several days before he came to them.  His disciples wondered at his delay.  By that time Lazarus had already passed away when Jesus arrived.  In Jesus conversations with Martha and Mary the exact same words are exchanged with both women, but with one difference.  Mary had a heightened level of faith from her time at the Lord's feet.  She wept as she questioned Jesus, culminating in the shortest verse in the Bible in verse 35 - "Jesus wept."  Both Martha and Mary have the exact same exchange of words about Lazarus, but Jesus moved for Mary.  He raises Lazarus from the dead!  What seemed to be a divine delay turns around to bring great glory to God.  God may just have a similar plan in divine delays in our own lives as well.

Even Jesus did only what he saw the Father already doing.  May we never assume that is is OUR words that move the hand of God, rather it is our right relationship.  We must be careful to not live in self focused assumption, but rather God focused trust, depending on our relationship with the Holy Spirit for the impartation of God given faith - which is far different from our own feeble version, called assumption.  

Working with many denominations over the past years of ministry, it seems very few Christians question whether or not God's healing power is still active today - the difference of opinion usually resides in how frequently those healings or miracles take place today.  Bottom line - no matter how much any Christian disagrees that God still heals today, in their moment of need they are praying that He will.

In the charismatic and pentecostal streams of the Church, multitudes claim they have personally encountered the miraculous in the Name of Jesus and become convinced.  

There can also be abuses, however, for these camps.  Some who God has used to heal the sick teach that all should be healed.  This would be wonderful, and in eternity ... will be so for those who trust in Christ, but the Bible shows us differently:

Isaac, one of the fathers of our faith, was so blind towards the end of his life, that he gave the wrong son the birthright.

Jacob was given a perpetual limp via a broken hip by none other than an angel of God.

Elisha received a double portion of Elijah's anointing, but eventually suffered from an illness in which he died.  Later, interestingly enough, his bones raised a dead soldier back to life.

Job doesn't need to be elaborated on.  The whole point of his Biblical story was that the righteous may at times suffer for no other reason than to please God.  The other point of his story is that whatever we go through, it will be worth it all in the end, and God will make it up to us.

Many of Paul's companions were sick (probably because of eating foreign foods & drinking foreign water) during their missionary travels.  Paul left Trophimus sick in Miletus.  He encouraged his chief mentee Timothy to drink more than water because of his stomach and frequent illnesses.  He himself suffered from a "thorn in his flesh," although scholars debate whether this was a physical ailment or not.  We can be assured that Paul, who had seen great miracles and healings, and his team prayed for companions like Timothy and Trophimus..  However, their are times when God's Sovereignty rules against His miracle power through the righteous prayers of His people, because he has something better in store - something eternal.

Out of the Twelve Apostles of Christ (those most dear to Him), eleven were martyred and died terrible deaths rather than deny their Lord Jesus Christ as the Way to the Father.  Only the Apostle John was delivered twice from martyrdom and died of old age in his nineties.

And if only for Jesus, our Lord, Who gave His life for us in cruel execution on the cross.  He calls all who follow Him to carry crosses daily.  Some of these crosses may be at times physical pain, persecution or sickness.

The Apostle Peter explains: "Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God ... Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And,"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." (1 Peter 4:1-2, 12-19, NIV).

Consider that all those who are healed in Jesus Name will eventually die.  God gives us His healing power to show us His love for us and to draw souls to greater faith in His saving power in Jesus for eternity's sake.  Yet, when we are still sick after prayer, we can trust that He has good reason and knows what's best for us.  We should remain humble and dependent on Him.  We should continue to pray for His healing power without wavering, yet with a childlike trust that He will Sovereignly care for all our needs, whether or not we see the miracle realized in our lifetime.

I am extremely grateful to so many people who helped me get to this point - we have depended on the wisdom and support of dozens of people to even get to the point of finishing Revolutionaries.

It never feels good to get a no.  Honestly, with so much enthusiasm about the book from people I respect - I thought there was a chance that I could get really far with little effort.  That rarely proves to be the case in life, however.

I also understand that I'm in good company:

-A friend and mentor, Jason Frenn got turned down several dozen times over a period of two years before landing an incredible publishing deal for his new book Breaking the Barriers.  By that point, he had already sold 100,000 copies of his first book - yet still had trouble finding a publisher.  

-New York Times bestseller, The Shack author had trouble publishing his first book.  He got several dozen "No's" from Christian publishers before he and two Pastor friends conceded to publishing themselves.  They sold a million copies that way.  They were finally published by one of the best publishers and have now sold over 7 million copies.

-The Chicken Soup for the Soul authors had trouble finding a publisher or even selling their first Chicken Soup book.  For two years they worked their tails off doing several small things a day to advance and promote the book wherever possible.  It finally took off.  To date they have sold 117 million copies of the Chicken Soup franchise books.

Bottom line: No is never the final word if we are willing to keep on keeping on as the Lord directs us!

There is an interesting paradox in missions.  Missions seems so glamorous in the idea, planning, storytelling and calling stages.  In reality, however, when missionaries and ministers are getting ready to head to the field, it is extremely tough.  The furthest feeling from glamorous.

Michelle and I have realized this over and over again.  Not only with our own trips, but in our friendships with full and part time missionaries in many areas of the world.  The missionaries stories of God "coming through" for them and their families on the field are too numerous to count and inspire us and challenge us to make our lives count for God.

But the reality is also that missionaries have to go through the thick of it.  They have chosen a life that is not comfortable.  Whoever said God's call would be easy was wrong, many times it messes people up.  (BTW, In light of eternity, God's call is always by far the most glamorous choice).  But here on earth, missionaries sacrifice the most, hurt the worst, are barraged by questions, toils and troubles.

That's why we need to remember to pray hard for missionaries.  We need to cry out to God for them every day.  I love what my brother Jon and his wife Janet do - they teach their two daughters to pray every night for the missionaries they support around the world.  Pray that they would be covered in the protection and mercy of God.  Pray that their families would endure and be full of the fruits of the Spirit.  Pray that God would be overwhelmingly evident in their hearts at every step of the journey and that they would sacrifice gladly in light of the cross.

They will go down to save others ... if we will hold the ropes (through frequent prayer and financial support).  

"Reached into my satchel for a book I was reviewing called Questions of Life by Nicky Gumbel.  Gumbel started the Alpha course, an introduction to Christianity, which began in Great Britain and has now grown around the world.  In his book, Gumbel makes a succinct argument for the reliability of the accounts of Jesus' life.  Not proof, but good evidence.  I thumbed through it quickly and found a chart he present comparing the records of Jesus with those relaying other "facts" of ancient history.

"We believe that Julius Caesar was a real person and that what we know about him is mostly accurate history, right?"  

"I suppose," Andrew conceded. 

I turned the book toward him so he could make the comparison.  "We have ten manuscripts of Caesar's Gallic War, and the oldest is dated AD 900, nearly one thousand years after the actual events.  Livy's Roman History - we have twenty manuscripts dated from around AD 900.  We accept our knowledge of ancient Greek history from writers like Herodotus.  But we have only eight texts of his works, copied thirteen hundred years after his death.  Compare these to existing copies of accounts of Jesus' life and teachings.  We have nearly twenty five thousand manuscripts of the New Testament, all nearly identical in content, dated within three hundred years of Jesus' time.  Any objective historian would say we know more about Jesus than any other person in antiquity."

"Even so, he didn't write anything himself," replied Andrew.  "These stories were spun by people with an agenda to protect their own power base.  They aren't objective."

"Okay, the New Testament is biased.  But the writers never claim objectivity.  They are advocates, and say so.  But these writers aren't out to protect their own reputation.  They depict themselves in the stories as bumbling clods.  It's Jesus, by contrast, who looks, well, perfect."

"Proving?"

"Nothing really.  But if the New Testament is all spin, what is the agenda?  What's the spin for?  If these texts intend to bolster the authority of church leaders, they fail hands down.  Front to back it casts light on Jesus alone.  'Heroes' like Peter and John come off as cowards and dimwits.  Jesus alone is the agenda!  Yet as you said, he's not the one writing.  It's biased with no benefit to those being biased.  Quite the opposite: The better they make Jesus look the more threat to their lives.  After all, they're associating themselves with a convicted criminal and leader of a movement at war with a powerful establishment.  Writing good words about Jesus brought these guys nothing but trouble.  They must have believed their propaganda.  At least it smells authentic" (101-102).  GET THE BOOK! and DUMP YOUR KARMA!