Rise Up

Remember when I said yesterday, to not answer Matthew Henry’s question too hastily; to give it some thought as I did? We have become conditioned to say what all Christians around us are saying, whether it's true in our lives or not. We must stop that practice. We must not be concerned about what man THINKS of us, but only what God KNOWS of us. We must only AFFIRM what we KNOW to be TRUE.

When it comes to healing, as in so many other areas of our lives where faith is required, we come up against a lot of doubts. We believe somehow that all the conditions have to be perfect, that we have to be perfect, before we can receive from God, before God will WANT to give to us.

It is at that moment that we must grasp and hang onto this: GOD IS GOOD! Therefore all that He does is GOOD, even when He’s being a JUDGE of our hearts and our actions.

He has made promises to us that He Himself will fulfill in us. He says that HE will perfect us, it won’t be us doing it. Sanctification is in HIS hands, not ours!

In fact the scripture says, as we saw in the last posting, that “He HAS perfected” us already, we just can’t see the manifestation of it...yet! The perfection isn’t a work in progress, for it is already done. It is only the manifestation of the perfection (our SEEING of it) that is a work in progress, the uncovering of which is dependent upon the utilization of our faith. Listen to these scriptures:

“For by ONE offering He HAS PERFECTED FOREVER them that ARE sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14)

“and by His stripes we ARE healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Where does illness and disease fit into the word “perfected”? Why do we think that it has not already been done (ARE HEALED, ARE SANCTIFIED) when the Word of God which is absolute TRUTH tells us it has ALREADY been done? Why do we think that we must earn healing, along with so many other promises of God, when the Word of God tells us that it was ONLY the ONE sacrifice that accomplished all that can be accomplished! There is nothing more that can be gained for us, there is no further purchase required. It is done!

Now all that is required is that we believe that we HAVE it, and then we will, in fact, have it.

When we spend time in the Word of God, reading scriptures like the ones above, and reading them over and over again, meditating on them, it causes faith to rise up in us! We lack faith when we need it the most, because we have not spent time in God’s Word. We let distractions of the world rule over us, keeping us under its thumb, beaten down, not risen up in faith!

Instead we MUST be in the Word of God...that’s ABIDING in Jesus Who IS the WORD! Then our faith will rise up! And our frail and failing bodies must rise up accordingly! And in all areas of our lives, faith will receive for us what God has already provided but we have not taken because of our former unbelief.

So...right about now, you have a picture in your mind of some saint who is very ill or disabled or invalid even, and yet they are saints whom God uses amazingly in ministry. And so your thoughts ask: “But isn’t illness used for God’s glory sometimes?”

Absolutely.

There are times when God allows us to remain with a disability or holds back our healing for a time so that He can be glorified. Paul, we believe, is an excellent example of this. But that is the exception rather than the rule. Our lack of faith seems to make it the rule rather than the exception. (Think about it: how many examples does the bible give of non-healings versus healings?)

Scholars differ in their understanding of Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” I can see why it is not clear to them whether the “thorn” was a disability (poor eyesight) or a person (possibly Alexander, the coppersmith who did Paul “much evil” - 2 Tim. 4:14 – possibly having a hand in Paul’s imprisonment during which time he wrote the letters to Timothy), especially since the term “thorn in the flesh” is used elsewhere in the Bible to refer to a person.

But for the most part, because of Paul’s own statements in his letters to the churches, the thorn is believed to be an infirmity, most likely poor eyesight, which may be why so many others wrote Paul’s letters for him while he dictated:

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

"Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if [it had been] possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me." Galatians 4:15

Paul says in that last statement that the Galatians loved him so much they would have given their own eyes to him. Why would they even want to do that except that his eyes must have been bad. If the “thorn” was indeed his eyesight, a physical infirmity, then from Paul’s statement, we can deduce that infirmities come from the enemy, from “messengers of Satan” We also see that Paul asked three times to be healed from this “thorn”. And finally we see that God withheld healing from Paul in this area, so that the power of Christ within Paul could be better seen by one and all, divine strength coming from an infirm human body, thereby glorifying God not man.

But we are not to take from this that we are not to ask for healing, nor are we to think anything other than God WILL heal us, and HAS healed us already, when we pray and ask for healing, whether the healing is for us or for others.

I believe Paul BELIEVED consistently and unwaveringly for healing for his body, and it was only AFTER the Lord divinely revealed to him that he would not be healed and why, that he acceded to infirmity.

Many of us, however, accede to being infirm rather than exercise our faith. There’s nothing wrong in going to a doctor. The woman with an "issue of blood” had been seeing doctors for possibly 12 years and they were unable to help her. Jesus still healed her. He didn’t say, “How dare you see a doctor rather than come straight to me!”

Sometimes God uses doctors to heal, and sometimes God uses the doctors’ inability to heal for His own glory, as in the case of the woman we just mentioned. But in all cases, except those rare exceptions, God expects us to utilize the prayer of faith, go to the elders of our church, have them anoint us in the name of the Lord, and have them pray the prayer of faith over us. The “prescription” the Great Physician has given to each of us is James 5:13-16. It’s very simple really, if we would just do that.

But we don’t take the time to do that. We often don’t even remember to do that. We go the way of the world, running to doctors frequently for the cure, but never to God. And many of us, older folks especially, like to spend a lot of time talking about our aches and pain. In all of this, God is NOT glorified. Only the enemy is.

Will we allow the enemy to receive affirmation by our illnesses, by our lack of healing? The world loves to point at these things as though to confirm that God is neither ABLE nor GOOD, and with good reason. For our lack of faith, our unbelief, prevents not only US from SEEING the things of God, but also prevents the world around us from seeing the things of God.

The light of our testimony is hidden under the bushel basket of our own unbelief.

I pray every evening specifically for our nation, and the world beyond as well. I pray for mercy on our nation that is losing its VISION of who GOD is, and what His true name is. (It is NOT ALLAH!)

But I pray now that each of us believers in the ONE TRUE GOD, THE CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, would rise up in FAITH, and turn our nation of unbelievers TO GOD through our own TESTIMONIES of DIVINE POWER in FORGIVENESS OF SINS, HEALING, RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS...by the things of God being SEEN...even by the world...IN US!

“Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, [so] drive [them] away: as wax melteth before the fire, [so] let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.” Psalm 68:1-4

Let’s allow our faith to change our complaining of aches and pains into healing, REAL healing, not something imaginary, so that we may "exceedingly rejoice" about it.

Let’s allow God to arise IN US!

[NOTE: After writing and posting this blog, I happened to find a couple of articles regarding that might add food for thought to this posting. If they don't present actual links, paste them into your browser window.]

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20059690,00.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61261J20100203