Jesus Every DayНамуна

Don’t Stop Them

“Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me.”
Mark 9:39, NLT

The Bible tells it the way it is. One of the uncomfortable facts it reveals about Jesus’ twelve disciples is that they had wrong attitudes and perspectives on a lot of things.

The disciples wanted to keep children away from Jesus because they thought blessing them would inconvenience him (see Matthew 19:13–15). They wanted to call down fire on a village because its people rejected Jesus (see Luke 9:51–55). When they saw a man they didn’t know casting demons out of people in the name of Jesus, they forbade him because he wasn’t in their group. “Leave the demons in those people,” they basically said. “Don’t do that in Jesus’ name. You’re not part of our crowd” (see Mark 9:38–40).

How hard it is for many Christians to be happy about God blessing local churches other than their own!

The spirit of denominationalism is a horrible thing. The Lord doesn’t want us to be Baptist, Charismatic, or Reformed. He wants us to be Kingdom people—New Testament Christians. That’s why Jesus told the disciples, “Don’t stop him! . . . No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39–40, NLT).

We should obey the Lord by rejoicing when other believers rejoice and mourning when they’re sad. Jesus prayed that his followers might be one as he and the Father are one (see John 17:21). But God’s people, sadly, are divided. The church is not like the National Football League, where it’s the Bears versus the Lions. There’s only one team, and we’re all on it.

When I was in my first year of ministry, an older preacher took me out to lunch. He was one of the few people who would come and preach in our depressing, run-down building. He gave me some very important advice.

“Listen, Jim. You’re going to meet three kinds of people among Christians.

“First, you’re going to meet people with a local church spirit. ‘My pastor said . . . ’ ‘My church . . . ’ ‘I don’t know about that church across town . . .’ In other words, for these people, the local church is their only world. It’s all they can see.

“Second, you’ll meet people with a party spirit—five-point Calvinism, Pentecostalism, Methodism. To them, nobody else exists. When they say ‘we,’ they won’t mean you, Jim. They’ll mean only them.”

Then he said, “Third, if you’re blessed, you’ll meet people with a Kingdom spirit. They don’t know walls, party spirit, local churches. They’re just out for Jesus and the extension of his Kingdom. Wherever the Lord is glorified, they rejoice. Wherever the Kingdom is hurt, they’re sad, and they want to pray.”

That has come true. The man was prophetic. Sadly, too few people I have met have had that Kingdom attitude.

At that time, I started praying, and I still continue today, “God, make me a New Testament Christian who loves the body of Christ.” We can be Kingdom people today. Let’s break down fences that divide believers in Jesus and hold back the work of God.

God, let me see the body of Christ the way you see it. Let me rejoice with my brothers and sisters in Christ and help them as they do the work of the Lord.