It is an absolute riot that regenerated people spend practically all their inheritance on seeking solutions to problems, which are, admittedly, resolvable by a mere word, or by mustard-seed-sized faith. One person prays in the common language, another prays in tongues. One fasts in expectation of miracles, others rejoice in the sad circumstance, confident of God’s love and guidance. Another utters decrees which cannot possibly be fulfilled because they claim to do things that belong only to Christ and are only released by Him at the parousia . Some dance and whirl, others make a noisy and repetitive display. They stomp their feet and clap their hands. All the while they are claiming to be God’s children and agents, but in the absence of solutions one does not have to imagine God shaking his head in dismay. In what sense is this either deliverance or edification? Do people not believe that God is their Ever-present Help? Which part of the God-with-us reality do they not want to embrace? Is God’s precious love absent when we think we have a problem?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Rom. 8:35)

You know the answer. No-one! Not tribulation, not distress, not persecution, not famine, not nakedness, not peril, and not sword.

Are church-goers really that gullible? Or are we satisfied with the good feeling that comes from reading, singing and hearing “what’s possible”? Perhaps not.

Because faith is substance we would be negligent if we said we see results when there is no evidence of God fixing anything or everything. Is a miracle all there is to faith in the Son of God? After all the talk about what God can do, when all is said and done we should ask, “What did faith do today?”

Compared to what the 11th chapter of Hebrews reports as accomplished by faith we can say confidently “I did not see”, “there is nothing to report”, especially to the claim that all suffering is banished by virtue of our sonship and by virtue of the power to decree and declare. It is most problematic for a Christian to claim things that even Christ does not do. The kingdom of God is not “anything goes”.

Or are certain worshippers of the Fix-it God expecting us to have a faith that is not perceptible? Do they want people to just have faith? Do they have real information about what God is doing, when He will do it, and how He will do it? Prophets used to be acclaimed when their utterances come to pass, and they were in dire straits for being found to be false. Gospel ministers should subscribe to the same standard.

This kind of riot helps us along the road to unproductive fields. There ought to be a manifestation of honesty and clarity about God’s interest in our daily lives in addition to the long-term issues. To be sure, Christ did not promise you that He will remove your challenges and disabilities. You are mad and misguided if you, a child of God, go to church for a miracle sideshow, ritualistic prayer, and dead-end faith.

Lock your brain onto God’s grid! If the things we call problems are not problems to God why do we bother people with our fix-it routines? Since the things we typically call problems – tribulation, not distress, not persecution, not famine, not nakedness, not peril, and not sword – are not problems to God why bring the matter up as if we can be the fix-it guy? After all, are not these miracles part of the atonement?
A huge amount of Christian credibility is on the line every time we declare things that do not appear. When God said “Let there be…” there was. When Christ said “Your sins are loosed” they were loosed. When he said “Lazarus, come”, Lazarus came. You get the picture.

Fix-it or deliverance ministries ought to be just that. They ought to deliver people, not harass them with rituals and useless manifestations. They ought not to burden the sufferer with guilt about his or her little faith, for if a little faith and just a touch of the Saviour’s garment can do wonders why are we taken in by long prayers, fasting and healing services?

May God protect you the next time you go to church and encounter one of these fix-it agents. Let your faith be on the God who is with you, the God who hears your cry, who knows what you need, and who is taking care of you, no matter where you are or what you are going through. Our great God and Saviour is most certainly a healer, surgeon, and yes, we can say it, a fix-it Person who does much more than fixes things. He fixes people by transforming them.

Grace is greater than all our shortcomings!

Elbert Joseph, PhD