In Mark 6:56, we read that after hearing a woman had been miraculously healed by touching the hem of the Lord’s robe, many others did likewise. They thronged Jesus and also touched the hem of his robe – and “as many as did so were made whole”.
While ministering to the first in a line of young adults who had responded to a message I preached on the Sunshine Coast, he suddenly fell to his knees, sobbing. The act was sudden and unexpected. Then I remembered something Pastor Clark Taylor had said years earlier in a minister’s training session. “If you speak and something unexpected happens, try saying it to the next person in the line.” (Clark was very pragmatic about the ‘how’ of things: a “What works, works” when ministering.)
So, I repeated what I had said to the first person: “Lord, forgive him.” He too fell to his knees, sobbing. Seeing that, I repeated the words along the line, and over the many that lined up after them, and the same thing took place! Now, this is not a formula: what took place that evening resulted, I believe, from the many prayers that had risen to God in the weeks before the event had begun.
I am simply encouraging ministers to be open to a bit of ‘copycat’ ministry. After all, the NT Greek word “pragmatuomai” — translated “pragmatism” in Luke 19:13 — means “trade”; “do business”; “negotiate”. In the case of ministry, God alone knows the outcome.
Imagine yourself in the Middle East, negotiating the purchase of a fine Persian rug. The seller wants a higher price than you are prepared to pay. So, you both haggle! Finally, a price somewhere in between is agreed on, one that leaves both seller and buyer happy. Maybe the seller had more in mind and you had less in mind, but you managed to meet in the middle.
If a thing works once: i.e. if the Spirit of God appears to be working in a particular way — in a way unknown to you — then “Go with the flow”! It will not be a copycat thing now any more than it was when others followed the woman’s example by touching the hem of the Lord’s robe. We are about to move from healings to miracles, and if your desire is to be up front of what God will do, then you’d best be adept and adopt and adapt.
Results are what count in ministry. Not at the expense of doctrine, ethics or morality, and certainly not to glorify your gift instead of glorifying Jesus Christ — that will never work! Modesty in ministry is always a good thing. “Promotion comes from the LORD.”
But when the Spirit of God moves you to do a thing you’ve not done before — do it! God’s use of Peter’s shadow and Paul’s apron pieces to heal was unprecedented. As was the Lord’s healing of the man born blind. Religion copies because it can’t, but God’s anointed can. So, when the Lord does a new thing, copy it because — who knows? — He might well have more of the same in mind.