When I go in faith for prayer for healing and it doesn’t happen, there are really two options. One is to praise God for the strength to carry on and continue to trust Him anyway, figuring that His grace is sufficient for me and when I am weak, then (in Him) I am strong,
OR....
The charismatic movement way, and that is to try to figure out why I didn’t get the healing. Is it me? Do I not have enough faith? Generational curses? Sin in my life? yada, yada, yada.... Or to blame Satan and try to figure out why he’s attacking me. Are there strongholds in my life? Sin? Generational curses? etc......
Now, it finally occurred to me what the big problem is. My way, of accepting the not being healed, leaves me free to praise God and continue to trust Him in faith. It keeps my eyes ON GOD and I have peace in the situation through trust in Him.
The other way takes my eyes off God and puts them on me or Satan. There’s stress and strife and worry and fear and guess who’s getting all the attention? It sure isn’t God. It’s on me, or even worse yet, Satan.
I’ve decided that anything that gets my attention off God isn’t of Him and does not, and should not, deserve my time and attention.
If the charismatics are correct and healing is part of the atonement, which I really do think that it is, since we are not saved by works, we are not healed by works. We ask in faith and leave the answering of that to God’s sovereignty.
I have not yet realized the fullness of my salvation that I do have in the spiritual reality. I can live with not realizing the fullness of the healing that I also have in the spiritual reality.
I can live in peace with trusting God. I’ve been reading Hebrews 11 lately and twice in there is says that those commended for their faith DID NOT receive the promises but died in faith believing for what they saw afar off but did not yet have. NOT the charismatic name it and claim it way.
I live in faith, believing in and for the spiritual reality which exists and have peace in it while still stuck in this world.
And that’s a lot of what faith is. Believing what exists that we can’t see but know to be true because God told us. When we have what we’re believing for, then it won’t be by faith anymore because we will have it and it will be by sight.
So
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
And yet......
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Hebrews 11:39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,....
Hebrews 12:1-3 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
God has used this food intolerance in a mighty way in my life. There's nothing quite like staring your own mortality in the face to cause you to pursue God with your whole heart and soul and mind and get your eyes of the world. This world has no more grip on me and I refuse to obsess with it, even in the realm of getting my own healing. I will give God the glory for the strength to deal with it and lose the *Woe is me* pity parties.
I Peter 1:6-9
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
A big, hearty, AMEN to that! The things (including bodies) of this world are passing away, so we are to store up our treasures in heaven. And anything that causes us to focus anywhere but heaven and the One who is enthroned there, is of this world and will pass away. Our peace, the peace that can't be understood, the joy that can't be expressed only comes when we are focused and are resting in Christ Jesus. All else is dung as Paul says.
God is sovereign over all our circumstances. Our choice is to either cry out for help to God to save our souls in whatever circumstance and to have complete joy in them because we have joy in Him, or to be miserable because we don't like what is happening. Simply translated, we are mad at God because he didn't do what we wanted - which is to have him be at our beck and call.
I had strange week. I found out that a small house I inherited that my aunt and uncle had since the 60's was set on fire. It is likely the house will have to just about be gutted and fully renovated. I had a long talk with the tenant who fiance had dumped him that same day. We talked about Job. He didn't understand how I could not be upset my house was deliberatly torched and that he was basically mad at this God of mine. I tried to explain to him that it was just "stuff" and whoever set it had their heart priorities in the wrong place. I found out later, that he is the most likely suspet.
Then just two days later, I was with people at the opposite end. I am highly involved in a new ministry at our church which is a bible study for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A room full of 30+ adults with Down's syndrome, autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc, who are FULL of the joy of God and live with their handicaps with joy. A young man with down's syndrome got up at the end and played a guitar and sang a song he wrote about God saving him. The chords were all the same, he sang off tune and nobody could understand what he was saying. Yet, some were singing with him and at the end, they just exploded in applause and praise for God. I am of the understanding that our bible study may be discussed on Joni's show in the future. It would be such a blessings if more churches did this!
My lesson for the week - sin is ugly, ugly, stinky smelly and the guts of the house (our heart) have to be torn out and redone although the outside looks fine. A few small fires ruined the whole house. As does sin. On the other hand, a house that looks broken is no reflection of the beauty that God puts within and a joy that can't be ignored. I myself have body issues and lately, a lot of circumtance issues that, but I will take broken down bodies and minds and circumstances all day if they lead me to a better knowledge of our Lord Christ Jesus in our life. In the end, we CAN truly say that we rejoice in our sufferings, for they produce endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and we know that hope will not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit! (Rom 5)