The Holy One calls to me this morning. His companionship is so welcome at first light. He is always present and does seem to watch over me when I sleep. It doesn't matter what time on the earth clock I open my eyes, I sense His Presence and know He is with me.
While He speaks his Word to my mind and causes me to recall what has been written, His counsel will often come in the form of visual images that carry His point. I have always said that for me to understand some of the deeper things, He needs to draw me a picture. The fascinating truth is that He does.
Lately I have been given an image of my Savior on the Cross. The tortured body and wounded flesh in the past has caused me to recoil at that picture in my mind. The Holy One has given me a new picture as I meditate on His words in Isaiah 53:5, "But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed." Just to be clear that word healed, means "to cure", "to repair thoroughly", and "to make whole".
I see a picture of the Lord's body of death with all the sickness and diseases that we carry around in our flesh bodies covering Him. I see Him with all the toxic elements of this fallen earth hanging on His body broken and then slain for me. In the death He suffered, He took upon His flesh all that is capable of killing me.
My carnal mind starts to debate, "But something has to take out our flesh bodies and catapult us into eternity". But then He answers my probing questions and lingering doubts, "Whoever told you that you can't just go to sleep here and wake up in eternity? Whoever said you have to succumb to a disease or accident and not just go to sleep one night and wake up in My presence?
I cannot argue with that Truth. Somewhere along the line I have resigned myself to that justification for sickness as the Lord's only way to take me out of my earthly tent. Jesus died so that I can live free, not just in the sweet by and by, but also in the difficult day to day.
I think of that provision for His people while the nation is struggling with out of control health "care" costs. His promise of Divine healing claimed and experienced diffuses all the fear of having no insurance or worrying about having to pay big bucks for health care. While the enemy of our souls has most of the nation focusing on the disease, we possess the cure as our inheritance.
The only thing that can fail is if our inheritance remains unclaimed. God's Word and His promises speak to our life here and not just post death into eternity. Jesus Life brought hope for the infirmed as well as relief for the sinner.
And before He left planet earth, He spoke to His followers (us):
John 14:11-14, "Believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, Anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things that these because I am going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask in My Name, so that the Son will bring Glory to the Father, you may ask Me for anything in My Name and I will do it."
We see what Jesus did in Matt 8;16, "When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to Him and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick".
The Holy one grips my heart and mind with the magnitude of that promise. I am on a serious learning curve in this new season of my life with the Lord. While the enemy is alive and well on planet earth, Jesus made it clear that the devil's power is no match for the power and authority of the Creator and His Son, who brought the knowledge of God's love to the world of men.
It is humbling to think that, while all the wonderful promises of the Creator of the universe stand ready to be claimed, humanity suffers in resigned defeat for faithless failure to take God at His word.
In the natural arena of life, if we were told that the wealthiest man in the word left us with an inheritance and we said, "No thanks", without even attempting to take claim to what he left for us, we would be considered foolish indeed. Yet that is what so many do with the promises of our God.
I understand that the promises are personal and corporate. James 5:14-16, gives a prescription for healing. The Lord, in his Word exhorts any who are sick to seek out the elders, who should pray and anoint them with oil in the Name of the Lord. "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up."
There doesn't seem to be any qualifier to that promise, and it is clear that it's not the "prayer" that will raise him up but the Lord. We seem to get hung up on finding an excuse for our lack of patience in waiting upon the Lord to raise us up. Scripture doesn't tell us that it will be in an instant or in a week, but only that it will happen.
The lag time between petition and answer is where we fall victim to faithlessness, and were the Lord takes us from mental faith to heart faith. Mental faith "knows" the Lord CAN do anything, but heart faith sees it as done.
Taking claim to God's promises is a vigorous discipline. Many of us give up in the first mile of the race, when things don't look so good for the home team.
Not too long ago, in regards to an extended and bitter trial, the Lord spoke to me and said, "Don't believe Satan's lies or even your own eyes, believe only in My Word". God's Word is His Will.
If Jesus had left one person in sickness, we could think that God's will is for some to be left sick, but that is not the case or what is written in the Word. God's Word says Jesus healed ALL the sick who were brought to Him. Jesus came as the Word of God in a flesh form and modeled God's Will. Jesus reversed the curse of the fall and re-instated man's dominion on and over the earth. Jesus came to show us and remind us of our outrageous inheritance.
His words of encouragement hit my heart and mind like a tazer. The shock has a perfect result and puts me back into the place of visions of "Heaven's reality"; "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven", where the anticipation of good things that I can ask for and expect to receive from my Lord begins to grow; where faith rises up like the sun.
Jesus said, "You may ask Me for anything in My Name and I will do it".
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him? Today I plan to take Him at His Word.
While He speaks his Word to my mind and causes me to recall what has been written, His counsel will often come in the form of visual images that carry His point. I have always said that for me to understand some of the deeper things, He needs to draw me a picture. The fascinating truth is that He does.
Lately I have been given an image of my Savior on the Cross. The tortured body and wounded flesh in the past has caused me to recoil at that picture in my mind. The Holy One has given me a new picture as I meditate on His words in Isaiah 53:5, "But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed." Just to be clear that word healed, means "to cure", "to repair thoroughly", and "to make whole".
I see a picture of the Lord's body of death with all the sickness and diseases that we carry around in our flesh bodies covering Him. I see Him with all the toxic elements of this fallen earth hanging on His body broken and then slain for me. In the death He suffered, He took upon His flesh all that is capable of killing me.
My carnal mind starts to debate, "But something has to take out our flesh bodies and catapult us into eternity". But then He answers my probing questions and lingering doubts, "Whoever told you that you can't just go to sleep here and wake up in eternity? Whoever said you have to succumb to a disease or accident and not just go to sleep one night and wake up in My presence?
I cannot argue with that Truth. Somewhere along the line I have resigned myself to that justification for sickness as the Lord's only way to take me out of my earthly tent. Jesus died so that I can live free, not just in the sweet by and by, but also in the difficult day to day.
I think of that provision for His people while the nation is struggling with out of control health "care" costs. His promise of Divine healing claimed and experienced diffuses all the fear of having no insurance or worrying about having to pay big bucks for health care. While the enemy of our souls has most of the nation focusing on the disease, we possess the cure as our inheritance.
The only thing that can fail is if our inheritance remains unclaimed. God's Word and His promises speak to our life here and not just post death into eternity. Jesus Life brought hope for the infirmed as well as relief for the sinner.
And before He left planet earth, He spoke to His followers (us):
John 14:11-14, "Believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, Anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things that these because I am going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask in My Name, so that the Son will bring Glory to the Father, you may ask Me for anything in My Name and I will do it."
We see what Jesus did in Matt 8;16, "When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to Him and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick".
The Holy one grips my heart and mind with the magnitude of that promise. I am on a serious learning curve in this new season of my life with the Lord. While the enemy is alive and well on planet earth, Jesus made it clear that the devil's power is no match for the power and authority of the Creator and His Son, who brought the knowledge of God's love to the world of men.
It is humbling to think that, while all the wonderful promises of the Creator of the universe stand ready to be claimed, humanity suffers in resigned defeat for faithless failure to take God at His word.
In the natural arena of life, if we were told that the wealthiest man in the word left us with an inheritance and we said, "No thanks", without even attempting to take claim to what he left for us, we would be considered foolish indeed. Yet that is what so many do with the promises of our God.
I understand that the promises are personal and corporate. James 5:14-16, gives a prescription for healing. The Lord, in his Word exhorts any who are sick to seek out the elders, who should pray and anoint them with oil in the Name of the Lord. "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up."
There doesn't seem to be any qualifier to that promise, and it is clear that it's not the "prayer" that will raise him up but the Lord. We seem to get hung up on finding an excuse for our lack of patience in waiting upon the Lord to raise us up. Scripture doesn't tell us that it will be in an instant or in a week, but only that it will happen.
The lag time between petition and answer is where we fall victim to faithlessness, and were the Lord takes us from mental faith to heart faith. Mental faith "knows" the Lord CAN do anything, but heart faith sees it as done.
Taking claim to God's promises is a vigorous discipline. Many of us give up in the first mile of the race, when things don't look so good for the home team.
Not too long ago, in regards to an extended and bitter trial, the Lord spoke to me and said, "Don't believe Satan's lies or even your own eyes, believe only in My Word". God's Word is His Will.
If Jesus had left one person in sickness, we could think that God's will is for some to be left sick, but that is not the case or what is written in the Word. God's Word says Jesus healed ALL the sick who were brought to Him. Jesus came as the Word of God in a flesh form and modeled God's Will. Jesus reversed the curse of the fall and re-instated man's dominion on and over the earth. Jesus came to show us and remind us of our outrageous inheritance.
His words of encouragement hit my heart and mind like a tazer. The shock has a perfect result and puts me back into the place of visions of "Heaven's reality"; "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven", where the anticipation of good things that I can ask for and expect to receive from my Lord begins to grow; where faith rises up like the sun.
Jesus said, "You may ask Me for anything in My Name and I will do it".
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him? Today I plan to take Him at His Word.
No comments:
Post a Comment