A THOUGHT ON DIVINE HEALING

At the pool of Bethesda “lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lamb, and paralyzed”, and Jesus, without explanation, healed only one man. Often when Jesus arrived in an area all the sick and afflicted from the surrounding villages would come to Him. Scripture states at times He healed them “all”, and other times He healed “many”, but not “all.” There are nine passages where great multitudes of the sick and afflicted “pressed about Him (Jesus) to touch Him”, as with the women with the “issue of blood” who wanted to touch the “hem of His garment”, a direct reference to the rabbinical teaching that the Messiah’s Prayer Shaw would possess healing power – clearly misplaced faith. Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda and a man who was blind from birth, and scripture clearly states neither of these man knew who healed them -- knew who Jesus was -- so much for faith always being a prerequisite for healing. We will never understand... in this life, why God chooses to heal some...  and not to heal others, but we do know it is His choice... a purposeful choice.

We often try to qualify why God doesn’t meet our healing expectation that healing is an entitlement, blaming sin, lack of faith, sowing and reaping... judging ourselves or others when our expectations are in error. Sometimes God chooses not to reveal His works for reasons known only to Himself. We could speculate on why... but why does nothing to ease the pain and suffering even if we knew. Better to focus on Who... Who is with us: “Fear not, For I Am with you.” Our loving, caring Father is with us... now that is something to shout about! And know one very important thing: God will produce eternal good out of all that a saint suffers.  Rather than speculate maybe we should just take God at His word -- remember “The secret things belong to the Lord” -- thank Him for the opportunity to suffer for His namesake, and go forward with great expectant faith that God is not through with us yet... for He isn’t! And remember, we don’t know why Hebrews chapter eleven lauds as great people of faith saints who were tortured, scourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawed in two, slain with the sword, destitute, afflicted, tormented, and homeless. Even great faith does not provide an automatic exemption from hardship, trials, tragedy, adversity or affliction. God allowed the Apostle Paul to be afflicted with diseased eyes then task him with writing most of the New Testament. Remember this is the man whose sweat rags brought special miracles to the sick and afflicted -- who even raised the dead -- and yet he was reduced to using a scribe to record God’s word for mankind. We don’t know Why... But we know Who... And we know His grace is sufficient...

“THE SECRET THINGS BELONG TO THE LORD”

(Jn. 5:1-15, 9:1-40; Mk. 1;32-34; Is. 41:10; Rom. 8:28; Deut. 29:29; Heb. 11:35-40)

MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH

The nature of faith is to turn the object of faith – God -- into a present reality. God uses reality – our life’s circumstances -- to educate our faith, to test and approve it in the cauldron of adversity. Faith brings us into right relationship with God by coming against everything that contradicts Him: The World, Our Fleshly Carnal Nature… Self, and The Devil. The greatest expression of faith in the Bible was pinned by Job whose faith in demonstration exceeded even Abraham, the “Father of Faith”: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job lived this expression of his faith, so we need to meditate on it for understanding. First, faith requires some degree of doubt and is fermented... strengthened, in this struggle as we choose faith over doubt. Second, “God doesn't make all things good… God makes good from all things” (J. Chandler). Faith during adversity is to trust in God’s ultimate goodness in spite of any apparent evidence to the contrary, recognizing His ways are above our understanding. And third, faith is the steadfast pursuit of God even when everything around us says He isn’t here, “enduring as seeing Him who is invisible”, not merely pursuing an answer or desired outcome... but pursuing God’s presence. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” God just may... So we must...

The natural byproduct of adversity of any sort, whether physical, financial, relational or emotional, is fear.  Jesus was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief”, and the Apostle Paul said we saints are “appointed” to afflictions and adversity, proving this point by a life filled with pain, hardship, and suffering of every sort. We will all at times hit Speed-Bumps on The Way for God does not always give us overcoming life... sometimes He gives us life as we overcome. The spiritual precept for faithfully enduring difficult times was given to us in God’s word using the Imperative Indicative grammatical construction: A command followed by a statement of fact: Whenever scripture gives us a command it backs it up with a statement of fact that boasters and undergirds the command, making it a grace issue and not merely an issue of obedience to a command. You see, grace enables want it commands. For adversity and fear God’s Imperative Indicative is simple: Fear Not -- the command, For I AM With You -- the statement of fact.   Throughout scripture the Lord’s response to adversity and its step-child fear is the same: “Fear not, for I AM with you.” The grace of God’s presence puts fear to flight! This is why it is essential we pursue God during hard difficult times... during Bad, not merely pursuing an answer or desired outcome, but “enduring as seeing Him who is invisible” -- pursuing God’s presence. God seems to think His presence in the cauldron of adversity is enough to move the mountain of fear releasing in its place His peace that is better than understanding... that is better than knowing why. And He’s right...

Faith is the problem, not that we don’t have enough of it, but that it has become the whipping boy for our misinterpretation of scriptures. We concoct half-truth doctrines then blame our faith when they don’t produce the desired results, asking amiss to satisfy our Self’s lust. Faith is simply to believe in, trust in, rely upon, and cling to God. Having faith is not hard: God gives each of His children a unique measure of faith to enable the “Gifts, Callings, and righteous works” they are predestined to walk in. This faith is the foundation for our Christian life, and must then, of necessity, be inclusive of saving faith, justifying faith, and the condition for the release of divine power in the believer. And it only takes a mustard seed smidgen of faith to get the job done. When we get our doctrine right we will find we had “mountain moving” faith all along, we were just trying to move the wrong mountain: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” When we petition God according to our will and not His will our faith is reduced to wishful thinking, for He does not hear... and He does not answer...

A SMIDGEN OF FAITH GETS THE JOB DONE

(Job 13:15; Rom. 8:28; Heb. 11:27; Is. 41:10, 53:3; 1 Thess. 3:3; 1 Jn. 5:14-15; Matt. 17:20; Rom. 12:3-8)

PURPOSE DRIVEN LOVE

From beginning to end it’s all about love. God loves us to much to leave us the way we are, so He gives us His Spirit to manifest His nature in us. The Apostle Paul called it being “conformed into the image of His Son”... to be so molded and shaped inwardly by the implanted Christ-Life that our outward expression becomes a reflection of His life. Much like the sun reflecting on the water, we reflect the derived likeness of Christ: From a transformed heart we express His nature, His character, virtues, values, and attitude in our thoughts, words, and actions. Only in Christlikeness can we truly love with agapao love and fulfill the two great commandments to love God and love others. I don’t think God is much concerned with what label we impose upon ourselves, whether we are a vanilla or chocolate denomination, movement X or independent Y, the only real abiding issue before our loving Father is how much do we resemble His Beloved Son. This God of love, who paid such an unthinkable – horrendous -- price to draw us to His side and release His DNA in us, do you really think there is anything more important to Him then seeing the nature of Jesus take root and blossom in us, His blood bought children. Nothing can separate us from His loving work in us, willing and doing His good pleasure in our lives... nothing but our volition! Nothing but the power of our will to conscious choose to maintain Self on the throne of our heart, refusing to align our heart with His heart while we willfully choose to pursue lovers less wild, can separate us from the love God wants to bestow on us...

It should not surprise us that the narrow straight way to eternal life is difficult and wrought with trouble, adversity and pain – in a word, bad -- for these are the Grace-Builders that enable the crucified life, that in death of Self Christ’s new life might spring forth. The roaring lion still prowls earth but he must make a road trip to the throne of God before he can devour anything... before he can so much as touch a numbered hair. God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent in His power. Job understood  the “givings” and takings” of the Lord, accepting both good and bad providentially, with “though He slay me” trust, and never sinned with his lips by blaming  God. Job understood... we need to understand also. The Master Potter’s love is released in the creative pressure of His hands... ever molding... always shaping, nothing in our life is without purpose, for God never wastes bad. We need only gaze upon the baffling, horrendous cross of our Savior to understand we are Bone of His Bone and Flesh of His Flesh: We are Baptized into Christ... baptized into His death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of His resurrected life... conformed into Christlikeness. God never said it would be easy, but He did say we would not have to walk this way alone...

“FEAR NOT, FOR I AM WITH YOU”

(Matt. 7:14; 1 Peter 5:8; Job 1:21-22; 2:10; 13:15; Rom. 6:3-4, 8:29; Is. 41:10)

”PULL ME A LITTLE CLOSER... DRAW ME A LITTLE DEEPER... I WANT TO KNOW YOUR HEART…”

We love to express our hunger for God in worship, especially during tender moments of corporate worship... Goosebumps all aglow. Hunger for God is described in the Beatitudes:”Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” In the Greek this passage expresses a dichotomy between the two states of “unquenchable desire” and “complete satisfaction”, portraying a deep consuming growing hunger, abundantly satisfied yet never relieved... the hunger growing with each filling. This dichotomy where opposites occur simultaneously can only exist in the Kingdom. “Spiritually prosperous are the ones who continually crave right standing with God, because they themselves shall be filled so as to be completely satisfied, while ever wanting more.” (Matt. 5:6, John’s translation).

So… are these worshipful expressions of hunger indicative of true spiritual reality or spiritual blindness: Have we reduced our hunger for God down to a few moments of weekly worship? Just how hungry are we? How we spend our time is a good prognosticator of where our heart is, telling the real story of our passion for God. Am I passionately pursuing God in worship, prayer, and study of His word, mind set on things above... preoccupied with God and His Kingdom 24/7? Do I have righteous fruit bearing witness to my hunger for God? Or am I a Sunday Wonder, preoccupied with watching TV, playing with my toys, having the good life now? “Talk is Cheap”, as they say. But God is saying, “Draw near to Me, and I will draw near to you.” 

A heart set on the riches, pleasures, non-spiritual desires and cares of Earth-Life is not hungry for God – these pursuits will soon suffocate the Kingdom-Life within. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. When we pursue the one pursuing us... we run into His open arms. Without pursuit... without hunger, we are running away from God’s pursuit -- running from the lover of our soul. We deceive ourselves if we think lip service will fool God -- that Goosebumps are some kind of affirmation of our life -- that professed hunger without the accompanying works and fruit demonstrating real hunger... is somehow OK. Faith without works is dead... ditto hunger. Saints, it is time for some Self examination... time to drag Self screaming and whimpering to the Cross of Christ, for God is saying: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” God is seeking God seekers, and He rewards them by being found… with His presence!

SPIRITUALLY PROSPEROUS:

UNQUENCHABLE DESIRE MEETING COMPLETE SATISFACTION

(James 4:8; Rev. 3; 20; Heb. 11:6)