Cutzu in Alabama picture taken,while in truck.
Before we can have a steadfast faith for the salvation of our spirit,soul and body we must be rid of all uncertainty concerning God's will in the matter. Appropriating faith cannot go beyond one's knowledge of the revealed WILL OF GOD. Before attempting to exercise faith for salvation, or healing one needs to know what the Scriptures plainly teach, that it is just as much God's will to heal the body as it is to heal the soul.Until we know God's will there is nothing on which we can base our faith on.Faith for the appropriation of God's promised blessings is the result of knowing and acting on Gods WORD. Rom.10:17 . The word of God is SEED, the seed of Divine Life. So in order to know that we can be saved and healed it is necessary for the SEED to be planted in our minds and heart. It is not planted until it is known and received and trusted. The SEED of God's Word must be planted and kept watered before it can produce its harvest.Instead of asking someone to pray for you , one should first ask that they be taught Gods WORD, so that they can intelligently cooperate for their own recovery. We must know what the benefits of Calvary are before we can appropriate them by faith. A living Church is the body of Christ, it is the LIVING CHRIST which lives and walks, doing through its members what He did in the days of HIS FLESH , therefore it must be a healing church as well as a soul saving church.
The first step of healing and/or salvation of our Souls is knowing the will of God in this matter.
God's WORD is the ONLY BASIS FOR OUR FAITH.We miss healing if we allow our symptoms to hinder us from expecting what the HIS WORD promises.
God heals and saves us by sending forth His WORD.
The second step towards healing is that we must be sure that we are right with God. Our redemptive blessings are CONDITIONAL. After we hear the Gospel the Good News, and know what it offers, Jesus says, "REPENT YE AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL". Only those who are right with God can follow these instructions. Until we squarely face and settles the question of OBEDIENCE to God, we are not on believing ground.In the letter of James it says that we are to Confess our faults to one another .....that we may be healed. It is God's WILL that we may prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers.If we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us. It is when our hearts do not condemn us that we have confidence toward God. There is something really wrong when we desire the blessing but not the BLESSER. It is never proper to seek HIS MERCY while rejecting His WILL.
The HOLY SPIRIT tells us to submit ourselves to GOD before HE says 'resist the devil' because none of us on our own can successfully resist the devil until we have submitted to GOD.
The promises of GOD are only to the OBEDIENT. It is to those who DELIGHT themselves in the LORD that HE gives the DISIRES OF THEIR HEARTS. Ps. 37:4.
GOD has not lowered HIS standard for the DAY OF GRACE.
In this day of ours we believe that we can follow God and receive all His promises without conditions and without obedience.
FAITH is a union of our hearts and wills with GOD'S will and purposes, NOT the other way around. This is a primary Spiritual Law , and sadly in this day and age we have been woefully blind to. GOD says , upon fearing the LORD and departing from evil, It shall be health /medicine to thy navel and marrow /moistening to thy bones."Pro.3:7,8
We must remember that FAITH always implies OBEDIENCE.
So when we come to God before seeking anything from Him we should yield ourselves to the first and great commandment which is that we are to Love the Lord our God with all our heart. God says, " Because He hath set His love upon me therefore will I deliver then.: Ps. 91:14. He keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and KEEP HIS commandments ..Deut. 7:9
Our bodies were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in our bodies and in our spirit which are Gods in the first place.1 Cor.6:20.
We are to present our bodies to God as a Living sacrifice which is our reasonable service. Rom 12:1
Our union to God is as real as the branch and the vine. All that is in the Vine including both spiritual and physical life, belongs to us the branches. The blessing of being right with God is a thousand times more desirable and enjoyable than the healing itself. We must desire God,for who He is, the healing is secondary.
The third step on how to appropriate healing is like playing checkers. So when God has provided healing, or any other blessing, and sent His WORD , it is our move before He will move again. Our move is to expect what He promises when we pray. This will cause us to act our Faith BEFORE we see the healing. The healing comes in the next move which is God's move.God never moves out of turn, but He always moves when it is His turn. Our fallen nature is governed by what it sees, by it's senses. FAITH is governed by the pure WORD OF GOD , and nothing less than expecting God to do what He promises. We are to EXPECT, not merely to hope.We hope for what may be possible, but we expect what must be possible, with that expectancy that shuts out doubt or fear of failure, and shows unshakable confidence.
Faith never waits to see before it believes .Faith comes by hearing about things yet unseen, faith is the evidence of things not seen.All faith needs is to know that God has spoken, so it is so. Faith always acts first, it's our move, then the next move is Gods. We must not miss the healing waiting on and confining God to a Miracle.Christ's promise is that "they will recover" but that does not necessarily mean instantly. The 'symptoms of life' remain in a tree long after the tree has been cut down.We believe because God's word is already settled.
2000 years ago God put away sin,God laid the iniquity of us all on Christ, Christ took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses, this is all a done deal, God made his move, now we must make ours.But again we must remember, that Christ obeyed God, and we can do no less.
Jesus declared ,'The WORDS THAT I SPEAK UNTO YOU 'THEY' ARE SPIRIT AND THEY ARE LIFE." John says, 'THE WORD WAS GOD." To receive the written WORDS OF CHRIST as the direct message to us is FAITH.
So while you are still sick, praise Him because you are going to recover according to His promise, with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.
Remember that every sick Christian has more to be thankful for than a cheerful and well sinner!
IT IS WRITTEN , IT IS WRITTEN , IT IS WRITTEN, that is how Jesus Christ won his battle over Satan, and it is the only way we will too.This was how Jesus did it, this was his only way, it is the most successful way of resisting the lies of the devil.
We have no more reason to doubt than we did when we were sinners and repented and asked for forgiveness of our sins.
Looking unto the promise of God we must wax strong in faith being full persuaded, absolutely certain that God has fulfilled His promises.We do not base our faith on our improvement or lack of improvement, we must not be affected by our symptoms, or by what we see or don't see, feel or don't feel, our faith must rest on God alone and his WORD.
We must continue to look unto God, we must be occupied not on our symptoms but on God and His WORD.
We must consider that after we come to God for our healing that God finds us more encouraged by our improvement than by His WORD, God may find it necessary to try and test our faith, to teach us the glorious lesson of believing His WORD, when every sense tells us differently, FAITH HAS TO DO WITH THE WORD OF GOD and nothing else.The test of God is perfecting our faith not destroying it.
One might ask how long will it take? As long as it will take for us to be fully persuaded and learn the lesson of Faith.
To learn how to believe that God hears us when we pray is by far the greater blessing than our healing itself. Then the prayer of faith can be repeated many times for ourselves and others. In this way our whole life can be spent by obtaining the fulfillment of divine promises.
We must learn that faith is saying and believing what God says, and then acting accordingly. God says through Peter in 2Peter 1:3 that He has ALREADY given us the things that pertain to life and to godliness, this includes all we need for spirit, soul and body for this life and the one to come. He has already given that to us, may we now believe that it is so and thank Him for his rich mercy, love and blessings to us. Remember that we must learn to cease to be anxious about the condition of our body. After you have committed your body and it's healing to the Lord we must know that He has already taken the responsiblity for that healing, we are then to be happy and restful in that matter, we know from His word that God takes responsiblity for every thing committed to Him. A steadfast faith for what God has revealed to be His will for us is our whole duty.The law of the Spirit of Life which heals our very souls and body is much stronger that the law of sin and death! Remember that sickness, from which we have been redeemed, does not belong to you as a Christian, but Healing does.
Being governed by our natural sight is unscientific because it does not take into account all the facts!!
In closing, we must remember that God wants us all to appropriate the past tenses of His Word regarding His redemption of our souls and our bodies from sin ,sickness and disease. He wants us to go forth in obedience acting as if we believed Him. When God puts a promise in the past tense, He thus authorizes and expects us to do the same. Nothing short of this is appropriating faith.
So have I obtained all that I have asked for, no, does that make the word of God untrue, no, because as I am learning, faith also requires obedience and so in my own walk, I know that I am not quite there. I am a WORK IN PROGRESS, and I will not come across in this blog as someone who has done all these things and it worked, I know that I have not been obedient in all that I should be, and I am working on this, I am learning by the Spirit what in my life is not in line with God's will, it is a process and I am doing my best to cooperate with God in this area. But if I am to be a Christian I must believe what the word says, and I know that God is still in the healing and salvation business even if many churches tell you differently. I know Jesus heals, then and continues to heal all, just because I have not obtain that healing in no ways makes the Word of God false, I know the blame lies with me and my stubborn nature to hold on to self. May God help me to give all my life to Him, so that I might know Him and love Him and serve Him all the days of my life, amen.
Shalom in Christ.
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