Saturday, December 20, 2014

A Condemning Heart Blocks Receiving Healing

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." ~ 1 John 3:18-22

There are so many things that can stand in the way of receiving blessings in our prayers. The Lord wants to always say "Yes", (For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; 2 Corinthians 1:20and He will say Yes, as long as we are praying the will of God, and that means praying His Word.

I was taught most my life that the Lord answers Yes, No and Wait - I've come to believe now that such a doctrine is a teaching that reduces God to a miserly parent who doesn't really want to give good gifts to his children as Jesus promised (Matthew 7:11) unless the child of God happens to hit the "answered prayer" lottery.

But I digress. In this passage, John distinctly says "whatever we ask we receive from Him." Again - as in The Power of Your Words- do we REALLY believe the Word of God? Does Jehovah Jireh REALLY want to provide "whatever we ask" to us? Either God is true and every man a liar, or this passage of receiving "whatever we ask" is not true.

What we fail to remember, at times, is that there are proviso's to us "receiving" God's Word in our lives through answered prayers. In this case, John says, "if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God" and THEN whatever we ask we receive. 

This is the challenge, is it not? That I can actually go before the Almighty One and ask confidently without condemnation in my own heart for whatever I ask and that I will actually receive it. (And, of course, there's another proviso - if you're praying the Word - you will be asking and praying before God HIS will and then He will answer YES.

Until next time...




Sunday, November 16, 2014

The Power of Your Words

"The good man from his inner good treasure flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things. But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak. For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced." ~ Matthew 12:35-37

Your spoken words have power, both in the spiritual and physical world. The question is do we really believe the Word of God? Or do we apply it as if it is figurative? This verse says my words have power, do I believe it?

Psalm 105 says, bless the Lord, "who forgives all our iniquity" is easy to pick up and believe because I only need to speak that I am saved and those around me, and myself,  can either believe it or not.

But then the verse continues, "who heals all my diseases" and this is where it gets tough! Am I really healed? I still have the sickness, the disease, the flu= hmmm, This verse must not mean what it says.

It does mean what it says, but the Word also says, if a man doubts, then he'll receive nothing, wavering, in James. We can't doubt God's Word, instead we should look at whether we really believe the Word, and is that why my healing is not manifesting? Do I believe the Word or my physical condition?

Again, the Word testifies: "For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced."

Until next time...

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Jesus Healed Them All...

Any time Jesus is healing people He heals them all...all who came to him. When I'm talking with a friend today who has not come into this revelation yet, they will make a mistake in filtering the Word of God through their experiences instead of filtering their experiences through the Word.

Jesus Healed them all. He didn't check their Christian card first, or what denomination they were in. He didn't even ask them to repent from sin first (though there seems to be a pattern between healing and repentance), He just healed them according to his power and their faith.

http://bible.com/59/luk.6.17-19.ESV And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. Bible.com/app

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

"Who heals all your diseases..."

In 2012, my wife was delivered and healed from chronic depression and anxiety. Gone were the unsure days, cocktail of prescription drugs - and - I got a pay raise: once she was off the drugs, I received a prosperous dividend of about $600 per month for prescriptions I didn't have to pay for anymore!
Psalm 103 played a huge part in this new chapter of our lives: Verses 2-5 lay out a very stark but life-changing truth:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
We both came to the realization that what we had believed the last several decades was not accurate -- that God heals some of the time, if it’s in His will. What we've learned through a serious search in the Word and not filtering it through unbelieving teaching is that God loves us – He’s a good God – and His Word means what it says. What withheld our healing and deliverance was our ignorance of His Word and our unbelief that it means what it says.
Join us in this transformation through the "renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2) and learn in these last days that we have authority as fellow laborers with Christ (1 Corinthians 3:9) to carry out His purpose to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and those are the works that affect your spirit, soul and body. 
 These are also the testimonies of how God has delivered my family from anger, distrust, impatience, judgement, accusation and a host of other negative emotional and spiritual curses that have followed us through our lives. We never knew we could have as free-living life that we now have.
But of course – that’s what our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ promised when he said, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).