'Supernatural Discipleship' Is the Key to Unlocking God's Healing Power, Says Millennial Author
A new book by a millennial lay minister and entrepreneur contends that Jesus not only still heals miraculously today but that it's His heart that all be healed. Those who follow Him should believe with that same heart today and the key to that kind of faith is what he calls "supernatural discipleship."
To Anton Luse, 36, author of Supernatural Discipleship: How You Can Follow Jesus and Give Healing Grace to the World Around You, when it comes to moving in the supernatural, especially the ministry of healing, Christians can become distracted and place their focus on the gift instead of the Giver of those gifts. Aberrations and abuses happen as a result; Luse's book aims to set that aright.
"For me, healing isn't about healing any more than evangelism is about preaching," Luse said in a recent interview with The Christian Post.
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These things, he said, "are about revealing Jesus."
"I find myself continually bringing people back to the place of not just His model [for ministry] but His life, and depths of who He is," Luse added.
Such a distinction is critical and is key to flowing with and ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit in everyday life, Luse says. He explains that in order to do this one must be discipled by Jesus and learn from notable people in Church history who, as he writes, not only moved in a powerful anointing to heal but also "had come to know the Living Christ in such a way that His attributes were seen through them."
In the introduction, Luse notes that though the ministry of healing in the Church has been around for a while, its theological opponents remain, foremost among them John MacArthur, lead pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. In 1993 MacArthur authored the book Charismatic Chaos which strongly criticizes the charismatic movement, something MacArthur continues to do to this day. But ironically, when Luse stumbled upon MacArthur's book it had an interesting effect on him.
MacArthur points out in his book that, unlike charismatic "healing services," in the Gospels all who came to Jesus were healed. Because of this disparity, he argues that the gift charismatics promote is not the same grace that Jesus ministered in and is therefore unbiblical.
MacArthur was correct about the ministry of Jesus in that all were indeed healed, Luse says, he just came to the wrong conclusion. But unwittingly, MacArthur's conclusion reinforced Luse's belief that it was God's heart for all to be healed. Although in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 5 the story is told that Jesus could not heal people in Nazareth due to their lack of faith, everywhere else when people came to Jesus they were cleansed.
Those like MacArthur who hold to cessationism — the belief that supernatural gifts of the Spirit like healing are no longer in operation today — and those who say that only some get healed, are effectively basing their theology of healing on personal experience and not on the authority of the Bible, particularly when one examines the life and character of Jesus, Luse says.
The life of Jesus is our model for ministry, and it really is all about Him, not us.
Luse told CP that he routinely ministers to people, praying for healing outside the four walls of the church, in coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores and he sees God's healing presence manifest. As God shows up, his faith deepens that one day he would see all healed, and believes that is the standard set forth in Scripture for which the Church should aim.
And the good news for Christians, he says, is that God has a habit of using flawed people to minister healing supernaturally.
Throughout the book Luse highlights the stories of colorful, imperfect people in Church history like William Branham, Lutgarde of Aywières, Martin de Porres, and even the Apostle Peter, all of whom not only knew God and were used mightily to heal, but also struggled with sin and life challenges. And people, even the godliest among them, are not the example.
"We aren't to be like Billy Graham in this world, or Mother Teresa, or Heidi Baker, or the Apostle Paul, or even Mary, the poured-out lover. We can follow them, but in the ways they follow Jesus. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, the complete example of discipleship. This is the Jesus who meets us where we are, not another 'Jesus' or 'Christ' who distracts us from our simple devotion with a speaker's oration or prophet's effusions," Luse writes in Chapter 4, "The Power of Imperfection."
Luse told CP that an objection he often hears is "What about people with bad theology, what about all these wackos?"
"I would propose looking at Peter's life, whom Paul had to confront pretty severely," Luse said.
"And yet we still read Peter's epistles and the story of Peter's discipleship, life, and ministry in Scriptures and we need to learn from. And we believe that the Holy Spirit put them in the Scriptures despite Peter betraying Jesus three times before the cross, and despite him basically walking over the Gospel and going back to Judaism, at least for a time."
"So God wasn't afraid of using Peter to lead the early Church even though he knew Peter would eventually [fail] again."
Readers of Supernatural Discipleship will observe that Luse draws upon a wide range of theologians on the subject, like Pentecostal John G. Lake, who lived from 1870 to 1935 and is widely considered the forerunner for the ministry of healing in modern times and one of today's most prominent Reformed theologians John Piper.
Some Christians default to thinking anything. But knowing the person of Jesus is central, he reiterates.
"Everything about the Gospel is personal," Luse writes in Chapter 8, titled, "Empowered Disciples."
"This intimacy distinguishes Jesus from every other pseudo-god and philosophy on the planet. Jesus became more real in one moment, in a manger in Bethlehem, than the law was over hundreds of years. His method, if it could ever be called that, fiercely strips away religious methodology and refuses to be distracted by it. Jesus' method is personal contact with a personal God, with His life as the vessel," he adds.
When CP asked Luse what he hopes Christians take away from his book, he replied, "I hope parts of the Church learn to embrace healing with expectancy — that it exists for right now, in the moment, not just today but in the moment on this day."
"But I also hope that for other parts of the Church, healing ministry will no longer be about manifesting ones own gift."
Most of all, "I want people to be on fire, passionate for Jesus, and not be swayed by anything else."
