In the last blog I said I was going to expand on the truth that God’s will for us is His Word and His Word says that by the stripes of His Son we are healed. So if this is true then why are so many people sick and why do people die sooner than we think they should? This is something I get asked a lot.
What I am not going to do in this blog is make a statement of argument against theological teachings. This would only cause strife and then I would be no different than a religious teacher who Jesus spoke against when He walked the earth. What I am going to do is give some insight and then you can choose what you do with it. What I have learned and lived may be different from what you have, and that doesn’t make me right and you wrong, and vice-versa. We have an individual responsibility to search the Scriptures, commune with God, and learn for ourselves. So what I write today is from my perspective and my intention is that it will stir up a desire for you to go deeper in your relationship with God and encourage you to spend more time building that relationship. My desire is that you will want to seek God’s wisdom and understanding with your whole heart as Jeremiah 29 talks about. We seek Him and find Him when we seek Him with our whole heart.
Here is my observation:
We live in a fallen world and there are natural laws in effect. If Adam and Eve would have not chosen to eat of the fruit we would all be living in a perfect world and these natural laws would not be present the way they are as we know them. Unfortunately that is not the case. As a result we live in a world that has sickness and premature death. I hear people say that God is Sovereign and He is, but these people say that in the context that God is in control of everything and that He causes everything to happen. This is not a belief I hold to and here’s why. God does have ultimate control but He does not use that control in an abusive way. God is not a respecter of persons and He does not choose to heal some while choosing to cause some to suffer and die prematurely. That would be cruel and contradictory to His Word, which would make Him a liar.
In John 8 Jesus said that satan is the liar and in fact, the father of lies. Through our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ we have been given the ability to be healed and to heal, yet so many people don’t see this covenant promise at work in their lives on a consistent basis. Why? I believe there are several reasons for this but I am only going to talk about a couple of them in this blog. One reason I believe is that we get overwhelmed by what our natural eyes see and oftentimes lose sight of the spiritual battle that is taking place in a realm that is beyond it. I believe that because of this it is easier to accept what is going on in our natural world and easier to say things like, “It must have been God’s will or it wouldn’t be happening or it wouldn’t have happened.” I also believe that for some people it gives them the right to blame God’s sovereignty when sickness and death occur. This kind of thinking gives satan a foothold in our faith and makes us question God’s Word. Both are destructive to our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
When Jesus walked the earth, healed the sick, and raised the dead, He didn’t heal everyone. In fact if you study out when and who He healed you will find that every time there was a measure of faith in the person or the people coming to Him that believed He had the power to heal. Those who believed were healed and those who believed were strengthened in their faith. But Jesus didn’t play favorites with the people He healed. There was something taking place that we have to study and understand if we are going to see the healing power of Jesus Christ working in our lives. One of those things is that with every promise there is a condition, and one of the conditions is acting in faith on the promise. We also have to understand that there is a natural realm and a spiritual realm and both are in effect in every situation. Sometimes there is physical healing and sometimes there is spiritual healing. And sometimes there is both.
This has played out in my life on many occasions. There have been times I have been sick and prayed and been instantly healed physically, while other times I have suffered for weeks. Why? Was God being kind on the occasions of instant healing and cruel during the other times? Absolutely not! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! He doesn’t change and He cannot contradict Himself. I believe that at times when I believe and act in faith I get physical healing accompanied with spiritual growth and at other times I get a spiritual healing and then my body recovers over time. So just my faith alone doesn’t assure instant healing and just because I have a lack of faith doesn’t mean I won’t be instantly healed. My responsibility is to allow God full access to my physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental condition and allow Him to work in me to bring the healing in my body.
My confusion or misunderstanding of God comes when I try to dictate the healing He needs to provide. When I surrender my will to His, I see healing take place every time. The healing isn’t always in the areas I feel need healing and when I let go of my control over the situation I see the power of Christ working in my life to bring the healing that was promised through His death and resurrection. I also understand that there are times when healing is instant and there are other times when healing is a process. So to say I didn’t have enough faith during the times I was sick for weeks would also be ludicrous!
Here is a truth I have discovered that I want you to understand. We cannot peer into the spiritual realm and the truth of God’s Word in our natural mind and with our natural eye or we will go crazy trying to make sense of it all. We have to set aside our limited understanding as Proverbs 3 talks about and trust in God, acknowledge Him in all our ways, and submit ourselves to learning about Him for ourselves. This is the only way we will be able to accept Christ as our healer. This will also keep us from becoming embittered or feeling condemned if we or someone we know is suffering from sickness and they are not recovering or if someone dies prematurely.
Christ took on the stripes of sickness and death at the Cross and we have the promise of healing and if we are going to see that promise take root in our lives , we have to go deeper in gaining wisdom and understanding in this area. The first step is to trust in God. If we lack trust then when we learn a truth about healing we will instantly question that truth. This will cause us to counter that truth from a human prospective and stunt our growth in gaining wisdom and understanding. This is the enemy’s first tactic in getting us to accept the natural realm as a fact of life, and get us to question the truth that Christ is our healer. Isaiah 53:1 says, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” So the first thing we have to do is choose whose report we are going to believe. Before I write the next blog this is the question I want to pose. Whose report do you believe?
Here is something else I want to ask you before I write the next blog. Do you believe that God’s desire is that everyone should come to a saving knowledge of Christ and be saved? Do you believe that Christ died on the Cross so that all could come to a saving knowledge of Him? Do you believe that Christ paid the price for sin? Do you believe that God causes people to sin? Do you believe that the Cross is the finished work of God and that at the Cross Jesus overcame the world and that God made a new covenant with His people through Christ’s death and resurrection? Do you believe that people have to have faith and believe in Christ to obtain the promise of salvation?
I know this may sound like it is off the subject but it isn’t. There is a reason I am asking these questions and in the next blog you will understand the reason for them. Again, this blog series is written to encourage you to go to the next level in your walk with God and intended to stir up a desire to grow more intimate in your relationship with Him. Be blessed and may the peace of God reign in your heart today.
To be continued………………………………..
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Own Your Life, Live On Purpose, Part 2
If God promises that He will turn the bad into good, our pain into power, and apparent defeat into victory why do so many people still live beneath their potential? Why do they dwell on the past, speak negatively, and continue to sabotage relationships? I believe they do this because they have never fully understood the sacrifice that Christ made on Calvary that gives us the opportunity to live an abundant life on this earth.
At Calvary Christ took on all of the sins, pain, suffering, injustice, malice, and trauma of this world. Before He was arrested Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Luke 22:39 – 44 NKJV says, “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Sometimes I think we take the sacrifice that Christ made on the Cross too lightly and because of that we don’t experience the full impact of that sacrifice in our daily lives. The pain and trauma Jesus was about to experience at the point of impact when the nails pierced His hands was going to be so great that even He didn’t want to go through it. Do you realize how much effort it takes to sweat blood? Have you ever considered this? He cried out to God to take the cup from Him! We always think of Christ being God’s Son and being able to do anything, but this Scripture proves different. He was fully man and the pain He knew He was about to experience was going to hurt incredibly!
“nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” This is one of the most powerful verses to understand if we are going to learn how to own our lives and live on purpose! We have to come to the place where we are willing to let go of our past trauma or our fear of an uncertain future, so that God’s will can be done in our lives! The woman I spoke about in the previous blog came to understand this and as a result she is becoming a woman living life on purpose! Believing the truth of God’s Word over the lies of the enemy is difficult. Satan has a plan to destroy our faith and oftentimes he uses our memories of past hurts to get us side tracked!
Christ knows your pain intimately and He understands the trauma it caused your heart and mind. I want to encourage you today to study exactly what Christ suffered on the Cross for you so that you will be able to take back what the enemy has stolen from you. This is the first step to owning your life and living on purpose. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Our souls are made up of our mind, will, and emotions and this is where our battle is when it comes to overcoming our past. God has a purpose for every one of your lives and when you can understand this and learn from Christ’s death and resurrection as it pertains to your life, you will begin to live life on purpose. This is when God turns the bad into good, the pain into power, and apparent defeat into victory. In the next blog I am going to write out the details of what Christ did for us at the Cross.
To be continued………..
At Calvary Christ took on all of the sins, pain, suffering, injustice, malice, and trauma of this world. Before He was arrested Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Luke 22:39 – 44 NKJV says, “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Sometimes I think we take the sacrifice that Christ made on the Cross too lightly and because of that we don’t experience the full impact of that sacrifice in our daily lives. The pain and trauma Jesus was about to experience at the point of impact when the nails pierced His hands was going to be so great that even He didn’t want to go through it. Do you realize how much effort it takes to sweat blood? Have you ever considered this? He cried out to God to take the cup from Him! We always think of Christ being God’s Son and being able to do anything, but this Scripture proves different. He was fully man and the pain He knew He was about to experience was going to hurt incredibly!
“nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” This is one of the most powerful verses to understand if we are going to learn how to own our lives and live on purpose! We have to come to the place where we are willing to let go of our past trauma or our fear of an uncertain future, so that God’s will can be done in our lives! The woman I spoke about in the previous blog came to understand this and as a result she is becoming a woman living life on purpose! Believing the truth of God’s Word over the lies of the enemy is difficult. Satan has a plan to destroy our faith and oftentimes he uses our memories of past hurts to get us side tracked!
Christ knows your pain intimately and He understands the trauma it caused your heart and mind. I want to encourage you today to study exactly what Christ suffered on the Cross for you so that you will be able to take back what the enemy has stolen from you. This is the first step to owning your life and living on purpose. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Our souls are made up of our mind, will, and emotions and this is where our battle is when it comes to overcoming our past. God has a purpose for every one of your lives and when you can understand this and learn from Christ’s death and resurrection as it pertains to your life, you will begin to live life on purpose. This is when God turns the bad into good, the pain into power, and apparent defeat into victory. In the next blog I am going to write out the details of what Christ did for us at the Cross.
To be continued………..
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Own Your Life, Live Your Purpose
I was talking with a woman the other day who was telling me the reasons why she couldn't move forward in her life. She gave me a detailed list of reasons. She said she was abused when she was a young and she was raised in a religion where the people were mean and abusive. She told me story after story of her painful experiences and as I sat there listening I tried to stay focused on her words but I found myself praying more than I was listening. I knew her pain was real and the trauma had obviously left some deep seeded wounds that had never healed, but it just seemed like something was wrong with our conversation. I didn’t know what it was and so I continued to pray. I was compassionate towards her but at the same time I began to get annoyed as I listened. I wasn’t annoyed at her, I was annoyed and angry at the enemy of our souls.
As I prayed the verse that kept coming to mind was John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Here I was, sitting with a woman who had been a Christian for decades, who had never found her purpose for living because of her past trauma and she felt helpless. The enemy came in through these traumas to steal, kill, and destroy her life and render her ineffective for the kingdom of God by getting her to focus on her pain more than God’s purpose for her life. He was able to get her to turn her eyes inward to the reality of her pain which blinded her from seeing Christ in the midst of it and the truth of Romans 8:28 in operation in her life. That verse says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
I see this scenario play out in the lives of people ever day and it frustrates me. If Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full why are so many Christians living half empty lives? I believe the answer is that they have never realized the need to own their lives by taking a stand against the enemy who has tried to destroy them. They haven't discovered their purpose and they feel like they are wandering aimlessly through life. They have believed satan’s lies over the truth of God’s Word and it has crippled them and kept them from being effective for the kingdom of God. What we believe and act upon we become. If we believe the enemy's lies and walk in defeat we become paralyzed. If we believe in God’s promises and act on them we become conquers who live abundant lives of victory.
We develop certain beliefs systems in life based on what we were taught, the family we were raised in, the church we belonged to, the education we received, and what we have experienced, just to name a few. These belief systems determine how we think, our ability to dream, and how we act and live. A healthy belief system allows us to become everything we were created to be in life. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Before you were born God wrote a book about your life. He designed a perfect plan for you that would give you peace, joy, and fulfillment. In a perfect world this plan would have been executed and you would have fulfilled the perfect plan God designed for you.
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and were banned from the Garden of Eden everything changed! We would not have the opportunity to live in a perfect world any longer. Every life born after the fall was born into a fallen world that has another plan at work. That plan comes from the enemy of our souls. Satan wants us to give into the pressures of daily life, wrap our minds around our pain, and be controlled by fear.
The Bible plainly teaches us that we were not given a spirit of fear, 2 Timothy 1:7, but instead we were given a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. That means that fear comes from the enemy and when we are led by fear we give him authority to own our lives and defeat our purpose.
In order to take back what the enemy has stolen, own our lives, and live on purpose we have to stand firm on the Word of God, allow the Holy Spirit to teach us, and allow Christ to live through us. This is the only way to live life on purpose and not succumb to the enemy’s attack of distraction and defeat! We have all suffered in this life but remember what Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
God promises to turn the bad into good, the pain into power, and defeat into victory! What we have to do is give Him the permission to do it by renewing our minds to the truth of His Word and remind ourselves that we fight from a stance of victory! We fight a defeated foe! If you want to own your life and live on purpose begin today to ask God to reveal His plan for you and to give you wisdom and understanding according to His truth so you can become effective for the kingdom of God.
To be continued.............
As I prayed the verse that kept coming to mind was John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Here I was, sitting with a woman who had been a Christian for decades, who had never found her purpose for living because of her past trauma and she felt helpless. The enemy came in through these traumas to steal, kill, and destroy her life and render her ineffective for the kingdom of God by getting her to focus on her pain more than God’s purpose for her life. He was able to get her to turn her eyes inward to the reality of her pain which blinded her from seeing Christ in the midst of it and the truth of Romans 8:28 in operation in her life. That verse says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
I see this scenario play out in the lives of people ever day and it frustrates me. If Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full why are so many Christians living half empty lives? I believe the answer is that they have never realized the need to own their lives by taking a stand against the enemy who has tried to destroy them. They haven't discovered their purpose and they feel like they are wandering aimlessly through life. They have believed satan’s lies over the truth of God’s Word and it has crippled them and kept them from being effective for the kingdom of God. What we believe and act upon we become. If we believe the enemy's lies and walk in defeat we become paralyzed. If we believe in God’s promises and act on them we become conquers who live abundant lives of victory.
We develop certain beliefs systems in life based on what we were taught, the family we were raised in, the church we belonged to, the education we received, and what we have experienced, just to name a few. These belief systems determine how we think, our ability to dream, and how we act and live. A healthy belief system allows us to become everything we were created to be in life. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Before you were born God wrote a book about your life. He designed a perfect plan for you that would give you peace, joy, and fulfillment. In a perfect world this plan would have been executed and you would have fulfilled the perfect plan God designed for you.
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and were banned from the Garden of Eden everything changed! We would not have the opportunity to live in a perfect world any longer. Every life born after the fall was born into a fallen world that has another plan at work. That plan comes from the enemy of our souls. Satan wants us to give into the pressures of daily life, wrap our minds around our pain, and be controlled by fear.
The Bible plainly teaches us that we were not given a spirit of fear, 2 Timothy 1:7, but instead we were given a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. That means that fear comes from the enemy and when we are led by fear we give him authority to own our lives and defeat our purpose.
In order to take back what the enemy has stolen, own our lives, and live on purpose we have to stand firm on the Word of God, allow the Holy Spirit to teach us, and allow Christ to live through us. This is the only way to live life on purpose and not succumb to the enemy’s attack of distraction and defeat! We have all suffered in this life but remember what Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
God promises to turn the bad into good, the pain into power, and defeat into victory! What we have to do is give Him the permission to do it by renewing our minds to the truth of His Word and remind ourselves that we fight from a stance of victory! We fight a defeated foe! If you want to own your life and live on purpose begin today to ask God to reveal His plan for you and to give you wisdom and understanding according to His truth so you can become effective for the kingdom of God.
To be continued.............
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