Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
To experience
the miraculous we have to live in God’s time zone. We live in the
past. Miracles and the gifts of healing were in the past. Most of
the churches I have gone to in the last several years do not teach the
miraculous and healing. Elders do not “lay hands on the sick” and do what
the Bible tells us to do in the book of Acts, James or Mark. Most
of the time now when I have an affliction, I lay hands on myself since it’s not
“practiced” in the church. Being a doer of the word of God is
actually practicing or doing the word of God.
they will pick
up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt
them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will
get well." Mark 16:8
Is any one of
you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint
him with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5:14
"Let me
have this power, too," he exclaimed, "so that when I lay my hands
on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!" Acts 8:19
I get rather disturbed
at things I hear at times, and I was flipping through the former television
show “Lost” where the man blames the boy Ben for killing his wife when he was
born. She died as a result of giving birth so he puts his bitterness of
losing his wife on his new son. My husband was born with chronic asthma
so I had this warning when I married him that his life was going to be short
when we were dating. I have a guy friend whose wife died of Cystic
Fibrosis, and he believes that God is punishing him by losing his wife.
The Bible covers
childhood illnesses that a person born blind, it was not the parents, nor the
person born who sinned. Jesus said the works of God had not been
manifested. What are the works of God? The divine works of
healing. Not many people even believe in the working of miracles and
healing for today after Jesus rose from the dead.
His disciples
asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind?" Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus,
"but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his
life.” John 9:2-3
Jesus said those
who “believe in him” would do his works and greater works.
I tell you the
truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.
He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
John 14:12
God’s realm is
faith and faith is now. If we are controlled all the time (chained is a
better way of putting it) to a certain way of thinking and to a church program
and ritual, than we limit God by our traditional systems. Jesus said we
“make void the word of God” by our traditions (Mark 7:13)
We are being
taught every Sunday by example that miracles ceased in the book of Acts,
because faith comes by hearing the word of God (hearing that miracles are for
today Roman 10:17). Miracles were a part of the service in the book
of Acts – the man that fell from the balcony---they raised him from the dead in
the middle of the service! If a man fell from the balcony in church
today, probably they would call 911. I don’t know how many people would
actually go lay hands on him and pray for him.
And there sat in
a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep:
and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the
third loft, and was taken up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young
man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said.
"He's alive!" Acts 20:9-10
Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
And without
faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
God knows we
“need” doctors and Paul had Luke with him, but doctors can’t do it all and Luke
did not do it all in the book of Acts. Many of us with afflictions that
are incurable find that doctors fail.
In the
thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet.
Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from
the Lord, but only from the physicians. 2 Chronicles 16:12
When the prophet
told Hezekiah he was going to die, and maybe a physician told you that you are
going to die, Hezekiah cried unto the Lord and God added 15 years to his
life—he sought God. (2 King 20:5-6)
I am not
particularly worried about the results as far as I will continue to go to God
in prayer for myself and others and I went to God in prayer when my husband
died in front of me of a heart attack. I have not given up faith
and hope in miracles, because I don’t get a miracle the first time. The
man that was blind in the Bible had to go to Jesus a second time to be healed
---he saw men as trees walking so if it takes a second or third prayer, I will
continue to thank God for my prayer request. It took Daniel 21 days to
get his prayer request.
I am getting
bolder about the “laying hands” on people and the Lord spoke to me that many
times I never even give God a chance in starting with praying for a headache—I
would just go pop an aspirin so I don’t carry Tylenol with me anymore. I was
not starting with faith for the little in “acting” or doing / standing on God’s
word even for a headache at times. If we don’t start with the little (be
faithful in the small)---how do we expect bulldozer faith for cancer and heart
attacks or men falling from the 2nd story balcony?
In my last blog,
I talked about how time does not hide sin. We see that in the case of
David as far as committing adultery and murder and then trying to cover it
up. Cain killed his brother Abel and God actually sought Cain out to
where was his brother and that is when Cain uttered the infamous words, “Am I
my brother’s keeper.” I gave the example of Joseph after 20 years in facing off
with his brothers. God is not bound by time and so God lives in the
present, but he can also see in the future and he knows the past. Forgiveness
is in the present. I’ll cover that in my
next blog.
It says that a
day is as a thousand years to the Lord. “Today is the day of
salvation.” God lives in the present. Faith is in the
present.
But do not
forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand
years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8 and Psalm
90:4
For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped
you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now
is the day of salvation. 2 Cor. 6:2
I miss my
husband in the present, not the past, and not the future because the future is
not here. Grief is getting through “one day at a time.” Jesus
talked about sufficient is the evil for the day (Matthew 6:34) so I consider
that when I have a day of depression that the next day can be better or it can
be worse. That is just the way grief is it’s not a straight line going
forward to healing, but is a jig-jag line like a jig-jag puzzle piece.
The Bible talks
about that God’s mercies are new every morning so I am looking for his love and
mercy is new. If I have an extremely bad day and maybe I sin by
complaining and cussing at something that happens to me and I feel overwhelmed
a lot. I know that God’s mercy is there for me to overcome my frustration
and anger today. Moses lived under the law and just one
time getting angry, he “missed the boat.” I don’t see that in God’s word
today. God’s spirit “strives” and is long suffering and we see the
patience and long suffering of Job and that you can mock and curse God now and
one particular thing does not say, “Hey your name is blotted out of my book.”
Saul lived in a period (season) of continued disobedience.
Great is his
faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:23
That does not
mean that I take “advantage” of God’s grace. It means that I am in a
process of trying to overcome this world, death, the flesh and the devil and
God knows that my flesh is weak at times. Jesus said, “the spirit is
willing but the flesh is weak.” This process of being an overcomer is daily.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother
Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 2 Peter 3:15
Or do you show
contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing
that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? Romans 2:4
The Lord is not
slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with
you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter
3:9
Jesus is the
Alpha, Omega, (the beginning and the end), the AM that I AM (the
present). He is the God of the present and he is living.
I am convinced
that many people don’t believe in a living God. I get a number of indecent
proposals (married men) through online dating. This is mostly the secular
dating sites compared to the Christian sites, although the quality of character
on Christian sites is lacking too. It’s married men that email me
and say they just want a sexual relationship, because their wife will not have
one with them. I used to ignore these, but lately, I’ve been saying I am
going to pray for them that they go get counseling and help, two wrongs don’t
make a right, and I will pray for them, because “It’s a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God.” Hebrews 10:31
Many people
don’t believe God actually intervenes or moves in the affairs of human
life. It’s like He is the Wizard of Oz (behind the scenes) in their
minds.
What agreement
is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of
the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and
walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 2
Cor. 6:16
Simon Peter
answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 16:16
I am the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of
the dead but of the living." Matthew 22:32
My soul thirsts
for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with
God? Psalm 42:2
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