You Are Completely Forgiven:

I want to share this message of Cref.lo Dol.lar today, because it is so important that we all understand that we are completely forgiven of our past, present and future sins.  Jesus’ sacrifice was more than enough – He paid the penalty once for everybody.  The message is called The Overflow of Forgiveness and if you want to order it the order number is #1796C.

“Acts 16:30-31:  “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

What must I do to be saved?  He said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  How do you do that?  What must I do to be saved?  Well, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ…  Romans chapter 10 says that if you will confess with your mouth that the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart…  There it is again.  Believe what?

Well let’s look at 3 things that I know you have to believe in order for you to be saved.  What do I believe? Specifically what do I believe?

1. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Personal saviour who died for all of my sins on the cross.
2. I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and that once I receive Jesus I receive eternal life.
3. I believe that my sins have been forgiven, past, present and future.  That  on the cross at Calvary and as a result of it, today, God is merciful unto all of my unrighteousness and as far as my sins and unlawful deeds – He remembers them no more.

In fact that part is the last line of the new covenant in Hebrews Chapter 8 that says the only way you will benefit from the new covenant of grace is that you have to believe that He has been merciful to all of your unrighteousness and that your sins and unlawful deeds He remembers no more.  In fact if you don’t believe that God has been merciful to all of your unrighteousness and if you don’t believe that your sins and inequities and unlawful deeds He remembers no more the new covenant won’t benefit you.  You won’t benefit from the good and the blessings and the unmerited favour that the new covenant offers to you.  It won’t work.  At all…

So a whole lot of things working in our lives that as far as the new covenant is concerned and we will go over there in a moment but a whole lot of things working in our lives are going to be based on whether or not we believe it.  So when somebody says they believe in Jesus they ought to know what they believe…

He is my Lord and personal Saviour.  He died on the cross for my sins.  He is the one that allowed me to be saved and salvation can only be through Jesus.  We are not mixing all the religions together to please everybody – Jesus is the only way!  We can only be saved through Jesus, I have eternal life through Him, but now this third area is so important, and I am finding the more I preach this the more people are trying to come up with ways to say; “We really don’t believe that God has forgiven us of all our sins.”  I can’t tell you how dangerous that is to not believe that.

Now this is where the last clause of the new covenant applies, the part about believing that He has been merciful to all of your unrighteousness and your sins and inequities He remembers no more.   So what I would like to do is, let’s go to Hebrews Chapter 8 and kind of pull everybody up on this new covenant.  Let’s start at verse 6…  Man, I believe in Jesus, oh I believe in Jesus, Hallelujah!  Thank God for all of these wonderful principles we have learned of all of these years, but you know what, it’s going to come down to one person:  I believe in Jesus!  Turn to your neighbour and say; “Jesus did it all!”

Hebrews 8:6-7:  “⁶ But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.  ⁷ For if that first covenant…”  Now the first covenant he is referring to here is the covenant of law that came by Moses, “now if that first covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second.”

Well that makes sense; if there was nothing wrong with the first covenant then we wouldn’t be talking about a second covenant.    Now there was nothing per se wrong with the first covenant except the fact that it was so perfect that men couldn’t keep it.  So that was the fault that was found with it, it couldn’t be kept.

Hebrews 8:8-9:  “⁸ For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:”  So this is a new covenant we are talking about the old one is getting ready to pass away.  “⁹ Not according to the covenant that I have made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”

The amplified says; “It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers on the day that I grasped them by the hand to help and to relieve them and lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not abide in my agreement with them, and so I withdrew my favour and disregarded them, says the Lord.”  They did not abide in the agreement, so I withdrew my favour.  I’m not going to make a covenant where man’s faithfulness will determine My faithfulness.  I’m not going to do that.  This covenant is not going to be about man doing his part in order for me to do My part.  That is not what this is going to be about.

This is a new covenant and he goes on in verse 10:  “¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:” So here is God saying; “all right I’m going to write my laws in their minds and their hearts.  Well what is it?  Is He going to write the 10 commandments?  No He is going to write the law of love, the law of faith the perfect law of liberty, God is going to put it in there, by the Holy Spirit He is going to put it on the inside of you.  Romans 5:5 says; “He poured His love into your heart by the Holy Spirit.”  So the love of God is going to be written on your heart and not just on stone but in your heart He is going to write it, but now look what he says, Hebrews 8:10-11: “And I’ll be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:  and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his bother saying, Know the Lord:  for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”  God says I’m going to teach people to know me.  Isn’t that something?  God says in this new covenant, now this is going to be hard for you to hear this, “I’m going to be serving you.”  Yeah…  In this new Covenant I will, I will, I will…  In this new covenant I’m going to be faithful to you. In this new covenant your faithfulness doesn’t get the opportunity to determine my faithfulness.   In this new covenant I will and I will and I will…

All right, but watch this now:  In this new covenant God makes it very clear what our part is.  Our part is believing.  In this new covenant that is our part.  In this new covenant our part is believing – our part is to believe OK?  Hebrews 8:12-13: “For I will be merciful to their unrigteouness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.  Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”  All right now verse 12 is so important because this is where the last clause of the new covenant applies, in verse 12 it says, that He will be merciful to your unrighteousness and your sins and unlawful deeds He will remember no more.  And God is saying; “I need you to believe that.”  That the ignition to the new covenant working is going to be based on you believing verse 12.

Just like it’s important for salvation and being born again for you to believe what you believe about Jesus, in order for this new covenant to release the blessings of the new covenant, release the goodness of the new covenant, to release the unmerited favour of this new covenant in order for that to happen in order for this unmerited favour to be released in order for the blessings to be released in order for the goodness to be released He says you are going to have to believe that God has been merciful unto your unrighteousness and your sins and unlawful deeds He remembers no more.  If you don’t believe that you will short circuit and find yourself in a situation where you are not receiving the goodness, the blessings and the unmerited favour from this new covenant and it is all based on verse 12.  That is the trigger point.  That is the part he is asking you to believe.  He is not asking you to, with your self effort, to do what would happen in the old covenant – Do good, get good – do bad, get bad.  In the old covenant your faithfulness determined God’s faithfulness, in the old covenant what you did would determine what God could do, He said that’s passed away.  That’s decayed away.  He said what I’m going to do is  – if you would just believe that I am merciful unto your unrighteousness, and if you would just believe that your sins and unlawful deeds are remembered no more, then I can be your God and I can write on your heart and I can write on your mind and I can lead you and I can show you and I can teach you to know me and I can do all kinds of things I just need you – listen to this – to get out of my way!

I’ve been studying for some sermons on the Abrahamic covenant of grace and I went back and studied the Abrahamic Covenant and there was not one thing that Abraham did to deserve anything that God did.  In fact when God showed up to Abraham he was worshipping the moon!  He didn’t deserve anything that God did for Abraham, it was all unearned.  Nothing!  In fact you’ll find Abraham in the midst of disobeying God, in the midst of being dishonest and God blessing Him.  Yeah!  Yeah!

God said; “I want you to leave, go for yourself,” the amplified says, “get away from you relatives” and as he was leaving Lot was going with him!  Lot was right there with him and God said I’m going to bless you.  And then if you go on to the next chapter and they come before Abimelek and Abraham starts to rising a scheme, “You are a good looking woman so we need to get ourselves together, now lie about who I am.”  And God blesses Him!  And then in the next chapter there is strife between Lot’s camp and Abraham’s camp, there is strife there and God blesses them!  Then He goes and tell them that they are going to have a child out of your own bowels, you know you are going to be blessed with your own kid and they laughed!  They didn’t even believe it and God blesses them!  The only time God couldn’t do anything for Abraham was when he tried out of his own effort to make what God had promised come to pass – when they had Ismail.

And now you take that Abrahamic covenant of grace – I can’t help but give you a little bit of it, I’m so overwhelmed with this.  Part of that covenant of Abraham dealt with the slavery of Israel in Egypt so all the way up to Moses’ time when the children of Israel were being delivered out of Egypt He was honouring the Abrahamic covenant of grace.  The Bible says he brings them out of Egypt and there was no feeble one amongst them.  They weren’t even feeble!  There were nobody hopping, they were all straight, it was all good!  It was all good!  There was not even one feeble one amongst their tribe! Nobody died on that journey, nobody died!

If you will read it carefully, man, they got to the red sea and what are they doing?  Murmuring!  You brought us out here to die! It seemed like every fresh murmur produced a fresh mercy of God!  They murmured and look what God did!  He opened the red sea, and he dried it up because he didn’t want their feet to get muddy when they walked through.  What?    Then they got over there; “we are hungry!  You brought us out here to starve us!”  And they started raining down murmurings and guess what God did?  Rained down manna.  It was all grace.  It was all grace and it was all good in that neighbourhood and you know they were complaining and you know they had unforgiveness, you know they had problems with their leadership and God just kept blessing them and kept blessing them…

And look at His presence – His presence was right in the middle of their camp – a cloud by day and a fire by night right in the middle of camp!  The presence of God was right there, they murmured and the presence of God was still right there!

And watch when it changed… When they said; “we can do all that you said.”  Immediately everything changed.  The cloud got thick, God said now tell them they can’t come here no more. If they touch the bottom of that mountain they are going to die.  No, they can’t hear from me no more, because you want to judge you based on your own merit, all right I will give you the law!  This law will bring you to an end of yourself.  Just like with Abraham when I waited 13 years from 86 to 99, when you don’t have any more self effort to depend on and then you are going to have to depend on me and then I will introduce myself to you as the God who is mighty in every area of your life!

I don’t want us to make the same mistake!  Religion keeps telling you to get in God’s way, religion keeps trying to tell you that you need to do these things in order for God to this, religion keep trying to tell you you’ve got to do all of these requirements to do that and God is saying I can take care of all of that.  God is saying, listen, I can help you to fulfil all of the law, and all you have to do is receive my love.  I didn’t tell you to act like a fool!  I’m telling you to yield to me so that I can lead you and guide you in the way that the law has tried to lead you and guide you and you keep trying to come up with a way to help me.  Don’t you know who I am?  Don’t you know where I bought you from?  Don’t you know there are a 1000 ways for me to knock you off before 8 o’clock tonight!

Would you please believe me!  Believe me!  Believe me!  I sent you a helper.  Are you trying to help me?  Believe me, let me do my thing… Then go and tell somebody about it.  How hard is that?  Obey my voice.  Walk with me.  Talk with me.  Fellowship with me.  I’m going to show you things that you know not off.  That is why He wants you to walk with him.  So that He can show you.  So that He can talk to you.  So that He can say it to you.  We are coming to a very rich tender time in the anointing where if you will give the Holy Spirit the opportunity, he is going to lead you and guide you to some truths that is going to take you in places that there would be no way for you to get there in the natural if you will begin to trust him.

But here is the thing you’ve got to trust more than anything: That God has been merciful to your unrighteousness.  You know when it comes time to get healed you cannot be sitting up there thinking about maybe this is a get back for something I did 2 years ago.  When there come times when there is a shortage in your life and the money is not there you cannot be sitting back there thinking about that it was something that I must have done last week.  You can’t do that, because it immediately short circuits what is necessary for that new covenant to begin to operate.  That’s got to be a settled issue.

Then you see Jesus in the gospels trying to demonstrate over and over again when it came to this man that appeared before him who was sick and he went up to him and said your sins are forgiven, and then the church folk had a fit; “who are you to forgive his sin!”  And Jesus knew this and you see this pattern all through the Bible even in the book Psalms (103) you see this pattern where there is forgiveness first and then a great healing took place.  Forget not our benefits, who heals all of our diseases… Yeah!  Who forgives all of our iniquities, well which comes first?  The forgiveness of all of our iniquities and then the healing of all of our disease and then our life being redeemed from destruction and then he crowns our head with tender mercies and loving kindness and then he satisfies our mouth with good things so that our youth is being renewed like an eagle.

But where did it all start?  It all started with you first of all understanding that He has forgiven you of all of your iniquity and then he will heal all of your diseases.  Because the issue that keeps so many people down is they don’t believe that God has forgiven them and you know what happens?  You vacillate from deliverance to bondage because you are not sure that this is the truth.  Every night you go to bed clean.  Every night you go to bed pure.  You live your life under a waterfall of forgiveness.  Do you understand me?  That is how you live your life.  If you keep going back to maybe there was something I didn’t do that is blocking this blessing from my life, you are dealing with a major issue of the new covenant not being able to function in your life.  God is not trying to get you back for sin that Jesus has already paid for.

Based on the new covenant of Grace what does God want you to believe?  He wants you to believe with all your heart that he meant every word when he said I will be merciful to your unrighteousness and their sins and their lawlessness deeds I will remember no more.  In the new covenant there is nothing for us to do but to believe this (gesturing to his Bible)

So its time for you to be healed.  Lord I thank you!  I believe that you have been merciful to my unrighteousness and my sins and iniquities you remember no more.  Hallelujah!  Thank you for healing!  That is all that is needed!”

Read Full Post »

Believing in healing for others:

Last night I was having some quiet time with God and I had this overwhelming desire to talk to Him about how it must grieve Him that we as Christians don’t walk in the victory He wants for us.  I felt that Jesus must be so sad that He made such a huge and terrible sacrifice for us, but most Christians have no idea of all He did for them.

I only found out less than 2 years ago about the atonement and what is covered by it.  Like most Christians I only knew that Jesus died for my sins, not that he took all curses upon Him, and that I don’t have to be cursed (Gal 3:13).  That by His wounds we were healed, so we don’t have to suffer with illness, pain or infertility (1 Peter2:24).  That Jesus delivered us from evil (Gal 1:4) and that God wants us to prosper (2 Cor 8:9).

Two true stories came to my mind, and I want to share it with you.

First, there is this couple we met quite a number of years ago who are Christians and have a wonderful personal relationship with God, but their daughter has this debilitating disease that I don’t think is curable according to the world’s standards.  I got the feeling that this couple, although they believe in God, they don’t believe that God can miraculously cure their daughter; instead they trusted completely in the doctors and medicine and prayed that she would somehow be healed that way.  I might be wrong, but that’s the impression I got from what they said and what they asked us to pray for.

This was long before I even knew about the atonement and that Jesus already healed us, but I just believed in my heart that miracles can still happen today.  I just felt that if it’s in the Bible and that other people in the Bible besides Jesus was able to heal then it should still be possible today.  One morning while I was praying I asked God that if the parents of this little girl could not believe that He can heal her, will it be enough if I believed in her miraculous healing?  Right after that I opened my Bible for Bible study and I got the answer.

The passage that I read was about the paralysed man whose friends had lowered him through the roof, because they could not get into the house Jesus was in.  Luke 5:19-20 (NIV):  “¹⁹ When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.  ²⁰ When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.”  In my study Bible the explanation for these verses is the following:  “Jesus was not hit by the sick man’s faith, but by the faith of his friends.  He responded to their faith and healed their friend.”

Wow!  I cannot tell you how dumbstruck I was to get an answer immediately after I prayed.  I can happily say that this girl, last time I heard, was in remission according to her doctor.  I believe she is healed, but the doctors will probably not say it out loud.

The other story I want to tell happened a couple of months before I got pregnant with baby G.  I knew some truths, but not yet all, but I definitely knew that that God wanted to heal us and I knew the power of confessing God’s word, so I wrote on a piece of paper a whole lot of healing scriptures that I not only confessed over myself but also over other people.  After a week or so I knew most of what I wrote down off by heart so I only occasionally glanced at my list.

There was one lady whose blog I read who went through a really rough time with several IVF’s and I put her name on the list.  The only problem is I kept confusing her name with another lady, also someone whose blog I read, but she was in the process of adoption and had given up completely on IVF and TTC.  The only similarity in their names is that it starts with the same letter.  At first I did not realize that I kept on saying a different name, only after a few weeks, and then I still accidently sometimes slipped up and said the wrong name, but I usually corrected myself, when I realized what I did.

Well, much to my surprise the lady who was in the process of adopting miraculously got pregnant.  At first I was shocked, and a bit mad, because she was not a Christian, and here I believed for a miracle, but I wasn’t pregnant yet.  Then I thought; “What if it wasn’t a mistake on my part?  Maybe God wanted me to confess healing over her, and that it worked?”  I guess I’ll never know for sure, but I choose to believe that God did heal her and that is why she got pregnant.

After that I kept on confessing things over the other lady, at that stage I thought she deserved it more, as she is a Christian, and I’m happy to report that she too got pregnant, not from her IVF’s, but also miraculously when she least expected it and her baby has been born already.

As a matter of fact, when I thought back on it, there are only 2 ladies that were on my list that haven’t gotten pregnant yet.  All the others are either pregnant and far along or have had their babies already.  So last night I felt this strong compelling feeling that I must do this again and a number of names came to mind immediately, the original two and a quite a few new names.  I just knew that even though these people might not know what Jesus did for them, Jesus still cares about them, and the least I can do is to confess healing over them.  I really think this is what Jesus wants me to do and I’m already anticipating good news in a few weeks time!

So from today I want to concentrate again on all the people I know off who need healing and who long for a baby and confess healing over them.  If you want me to include you, please leave a comment or if you don’t want others to see your request you can send me an e-mail to marion.kmeoj@hotmail.com.

Read Full Post »

The spiritual world and the physical world:

Here is some more from the teaching of An.drew Wom.mack that I started yesterday:

“See God has already given, but we look at our experience – well, so and so died, it couldn’t be God’s will to heal everybody.  See here is the problem – most people interpret God’s word by their experience.  They say, “Here is what God’s word says, but here is what happened!”  What is the answer?  Well, they come up with all kinds of things.  “Maybe it wasn’t God’s will.  Maybe God says no.”

God will never say no to something He’s already said yes to.  2 Corinthians 1, I believe its verse 26 says, “All the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him amen unto the Glory of God.” That means they are all positive, they are already yes, anything God promised you when He says that it’s His will that you be in health and prosper even as your soul prospers then God has already said yes to that.  You don’t have to wonder whether God is going to say no.  It’s not God saying no, God said yes!

But here we’ve got a conflict – every one of us can probably see examples in our life where God’s word promised us something to the best of our knowledge, we did what God said, and we didn’t see it come to pass.  How do you harmonize the 2?    Well you start with the scripture that I used this morning, Romans 3:4 says, “Yea, let God be true and every man a liar.”  You can also put in there, let God be true and your circumstances be a liar.  Don’t interpret God’s word by your circumstances; interpret your circumstances by God’s word.

If you’ve got a circumstance that says, “well, I asked God, I believed with all of my heart, and yet it didn’t work…”  The natural conclusion is therefore, “it doesn’t work for everyone.  Not everybody gets healed.  It isn’t God will for everyone to be set free.”  That’s the natural conclusions.  You need to change that, you need to go to God’s word and say, “Can I find a scripture that says that God doesn’t heal every time?  That it’s not God’s will to heal?”  If you can’t find it, then you tell your circumstances that they are wrong…  Amen!

Here is an explanation of this:  There are 2 worlds, there is a spiritual world and there is a physical world, and most people aren’t really aware of the spiritual world and what’s going on in the spiritual world, but it does exist.  As a matter of fact the spiritual world created this physical world that we see.  It says in Hebrews 11, “We understand that the worlds were created by things that are not seen.”  It didn’t say things that don’t exist, they do exist but they aren’t physical.  Everything physical was created by something spiritual.  There is a spiritual reality for everything physical we see.

There is a whole spiritual world out there – did you know that the Bible says that there are angels assigned to each one of us?  Everyone of you have angels that are with you constantly, for your own protection, and I personally believe that in the Old Testament there was a 186 000 angels assigned to one person and if that is so, then what we’ve got makes that look like nothing in comparison!  According to 2 Corinthians 3, every one of us must have hundreds of thousands of angels to our disposal.

Now if you take hundreds of thousands and multiply it times the number of people in this room, then this room is crowded, Amen?  We’ve got all kinds of spiritual things in here but you don’t see it, and most of you, if you don’t see it you don’t think it, and you don’t believe it and you don’t know it exists and therefore you don’t draw on it.

Look at this in 2 Kings 6, this is an example of what we are talking about, this is Elisha, he was the successor to Elijah.  Elisha was a mighty prophet of God and the king of Syria was fighting against the Israelites and every time he would go down and set a trap for the king of Israel, Elisha would be told by God, and he would tell the king of Israel, the King of Israel would send spies out there and they would find that it was true and he would escape.  After a few times of this happening the king of Syria says, “one of us is a spy for the king of Israel.”   One of his servant girls, it was a captive that they’ve taken out of the land of Israel said, “it’s none of us, but there is a prophet in Israel that tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bed chamber.”  When this king heard that, he decided that he is going send his armies down and that he would capture Elisha.  So here is the story of it in verse 13, it says, “Go and spy where he is so that I may send and fetch him, and he was told, in saying, behold he is in Dothan, therefore send he forth horses and chariots and great hosts, and they came by night and encompassed the city about and when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold an host encompassed the city with horses and chariots and his servant said unto him, ‘alas my master, how shall we do?’”

That’s old English for saying, “Man, what are we going to do?”  And then he panicked – he saw these armies and he knew why they were there.  And look at Elisha’s answer.  He said, “fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

You know if you don’t understand that there is a spiritual world, and that it is real and it exists, just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it don’t exist.  Now if you don’t understand that, people would think that Elisha lied.  See a lot of people when it comes to confessing the world of God and saying, “By His stripes I am healed,” and any idiot can look at you and tell that you aren’t healed, Amen?  I mean you look sick, you feel sick; you act sick, anybody can tell that you are sick!  You’re just lying!  It’s just positive lies!

I don’t know if any of you have ever been taken to task for confessing the word of God when it didn’t look so, well, see people who would believe that way would say, “Well, Elisha lied!” He said that there were more with him then there were with the enemy.  And yet you could look out there and count the enemy by the thousands, 1000, 2000, 3000 and here Elisha was saying, one, two…  Amen?  And there was more with him than there was with the enemy?  How do you explain that?  The answer was, that there wasn’t more physically but see in the spiritual realm there were more.

It says in verse 17, “Elisha prayed and said, ‘Lord, I pray that you open his eyes that he may see.’  And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around about Elisha.”  Praise God!  He was speaking the truth.  A person that says that it is a lie to say that you are healed, when you don’t feel healed, what that means is, you’re only looking at the natural realm.  The only thing that you consider to be true is what you see, taste, hear, smell or feel – you’re 5 senses.  And if that is what you consider to be facts, then yes it’s a lie, because according to your physical senses there are times that you speak that you are healed and you don’t feel healed.

But see, one of the keys to walking with the Lord is recognising that you’ve got to walk in the spirit.  There is a spiritual world out there; there are spiritual realities you can’t prove in a test tube.  How do you know what spiritual realities are?

I mean if you want to see the physical truth, if you want to see if your hair is combed, you go look in a mirror.  I have no idea right now if my hair is combed.  I hope it’s combed, but you know I can’t tell by my 5 senses.  I have to look in a mirror and I’ve got to trust what I see in that mirror.  How do you know that mirror is telling you the truth?  You’ve never seen the top of your head, all you’ve ever seen is a representation of it, a reflection of it, you don’t know….  “Well, I’ve seen a reflection, well, I’ve seen a picture…”  You have to take by faith that what you are seeing is true.  Well, see the Bible says that John 6:63, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”  God’s word says that this is spirit, this is true.

What you read in the Bible is what spiritual truth is, so if you want to see if your hair is combed you go look in a mirror, and if you want to see what your spirit is like or if you want to see what is happening in the spirit then you hold the Bible up and look at it and whatever it says you just believe it.

The Bible says that Elisha had angels and chariots round about him and the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3 that, “What they had, had no glory compared to what we got.”  It says in Peter that, “They were longing for the day that we live in because what we got is so much better than what they’ve got.”  If Elisha had angels and chariots round about him, praise God, I’ve got at least as many as he had and more round about me!  If he was able to take an entire nation captive with the power of God, then praise God I can do the same thing.  There is a whole spiritual world that exists out there.

You know our sister that got born again this morning, praise God for seeing her today, I was talking to her before the service, and I said, you’ve now got Jesus living in the inside of you and the same works that Jesus did you can do also (John 14:12).  You can do all of these things.  She was just looking at me kind of stunned!  That’s the truth – she’s now got God Almighty on the inside of her and as much as she can renew her little peanut brain – I’m not speaking specifically about you – all of us have a little peanut brain – and as much as we can renew our little peanut brain, we can receive this life of God in the inside of us.

But see one of the things that limit it, is we only think in the physical realm.  We say the Bible says, “Ask and you shall receive,” “I asked and I didn’t receive…,” well how do you know?  “Well I didn’t see it!”  Just because you didn’t see it, does that mean God’s word isn’t true and that God didn’t do it?

I want to propose to you – and a lot of you never thought of this, that God can answer your prayer and you don’t even know it.  Because see, God is a spirit, John 4:24 says, “God is a spirit and those who worship him must worship Him and in spirit and truth.”  Did you know that when God answers your prayer He doesn’t give it to you in a physical form?  He gives it to you in spiritual form…  If you ask for finances, finances are material; do you know what God will do?  He will release the spiritual power that it takes to produce those finances into your life, and He will always do it.  If you ask, you do receive.  God gave it.  If you seek, God will give it to you.  God is faithful; God always, always, always answers everything.  If you prayed for healing – God gave you healing, but He gives it to you in spiritual form.  And God’s operation independent of you ends in the spiritual realm.

God is not the one that is going to manifest it into the physical.  Do you know what does that?  Faith!  Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance,” substance is talking about physical tangible reality. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Faith brings into physical tangible reality things that already exist in the spirit.  Faith doesn’t make things happen in the spirit.  They already happened by God’s grace, but your faith brings what God has accomplished into physical reality.  Is everybody following that?  God answers your prayers, but God gives it to you in your spirit and then your faith brings it from the spirit into the physical realm.  So if you’re praying for healing, God releases healing into you, but that don’t mean that you are going to see healing, unless you believe, unless you know how to co-operate.  Faith brings spiritual things into physical form.

An example of this is like radio.  Do you know right now we are using radio for you to hear me?  This microphone is a wireless radio, that’s what it is.  It’s broadcasting the signal over there and it picks it up and is broadcast over the speakers, but did you know that there is more than just this radio signal in this room?  There are literally dozens of radio signals and television signals in this room.  If you say, well, I don’t believe it, why?  Because I can’t hear it?  That doesn’t mean that they aren’t here!  That just means that you aren’t very smart!

There are things that exist beyond your capability to comprehend them with your physical natural ability.  You can’t hear radio and television signals even though they are in here and they are loud.  Do you know why you can’t hear them?  Because they are broadcast at a very high frequency, a frequency that is outside the human hearing range.  But they are in here and those signals are just as loud as this signal that we are tuned into.  There are many signals in here but the difference is that you can’t hear them; they are out of your range.  But they are here and they do exist and it is a physical, tangible reality.  But what happens is you get a receiver that can hear those things and it picks out an individual signal.  It can choose which signal it wants, it picks that out and then it re-broadcasts it, it demodulates it down a number of octaves and re-broadcasts it in a range that your ear can hear and that is the reason you hear me instead of all of the radio and television signals, but did you know they are also in here?

It’s just like God. God answers prayer, God will give it to you, but many people they don’t even know that God’s answered their prayer.  They aren’t able to perceive it, they aren’t able to get it and they aren’t able to put it down into the realm where they can perceive it and operate in it in their physical realm.  So they say, well, God didn’t do it.  Well, see the radio station is faithful.  The radio station – the signal is here – but whether you tune into it, turn it on, get it to the right frequency, whether you know how to make that thing work or not, has nothing to do with whether the power has been generated and whether the signal is released.

Did you know God has answered our prayers?  Anytime any of you have ever prayed for anything based on God’s word and you prayed in faith, God gave you your answer, but He gives it to you in a spiritual form, and whether you get it into the physical and whether you see it, is not dependent on whether God answers your prayer, it’s dependent on whether you can receive from God.  Amen?  That is important.

When I saw this, what it did – you see I had experiences in my life, like this girl I was telling you about that Jamie and I saw die, that really affected me.   And I guarantee you I had problems with it.  And I had a decision.  Was I going to get bitter and say, “God why didn’t you do it?”  Or was I going to hold on to, “God, you are faithful, You didn’t miss it, we missed it.”  I had a choice to make.  I just chose to believe that, “God I believe you answered our prayers, I don’t know why it didn’t work and it took me about 3 years before I began to find out some of the reasons why.

Every one of you have had instances where you have prayed or are in the process of praying for something and you haven’t seen it manifest yet.  You’ve got a decision to make.  Are you going to say, “Well, God why haven’t you done anything yet?”  The Bible says, “You’ve got to believe before you receive when you pray,” not when you see it, but when you pray.”

Read Full Post »

Some explanations of common misunderstandings:

Recently I listened to An.drew Wom.mack’s teaching on How to receive a Miracle again and I realized there are some awesome explanations in there of things that are often misunderstood by Christians, and that it will help a lot of you who are still waiting for your miracles.  It was also a useful reminder to me, I must admit…

“Mark 11, this is where Jesus cursed the fig tree and the fig tree dried up from the roots, the next day the disciples saw it, they were amazed, and they asked Jesus about it and this was His reaction, Mark 11:22, “He answered and said unto them, have faith in God, for verily I say unto you that who so ever shall say unto this mountain…,” who so ever, that means that this applies to every person in this room, “Who so ever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass, he shall have what so ever he sayeth. Therefore I say unto to you what things so ever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and ye shall have them.”

This passage of scripture’s got so much in it that we can teach on this for weeks, so I’m just having to hit a couple of things but one of the points I wanted to show you here is verse 24, He says, “what the things you so ever desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.”  You’ve got to believe you receive now and then you shall – future tense – have it. That future tense may only be a second, a minute, a week, a month, but you got to believe right now. You don’t believe when you see it, you’ve got to believe when you pray. Now that is so simple, and yet this is where a lot of Christians stumble.

I’m teaching on how to receive a miracle from God and I’m just teaching a lot of it out of experience as I’ve dealt with people. What is it that hangs people up? And do you know most people, when I pray for them and lay hands on them, by the time they hit the ground, if they feel healed, then they are able to believe. Most people can maintain faith for 5 seconds, but the problem is when you pray and you walk out and you haven’t seen it manifest. 99% of even spirit filled, tongue talking word type people, have their faith just to start decreasing fast as soon as they don’t see a manifestation. Most people struggle with it.

And see the Bible says that you’ve got to believe that you will receive when you pray and then you shall have it, so what I want to share with you tonight, are some simple things, explanations, again I want to make this point, that the word of God and the kingdom of God is based on laws. There are rules, there are ways that things work and you don’t have to be ignorant of the things of God.

Paul said, “I’d not have you to be ignorant concerning the things of God,” in Ephesians 5, yet most of us are ignorant. Ignorance is a breeding ground for unbelief and for problems, there are answers to things, and there is a reason why you pray sometimes here and it’s only here before you see a manifestation.

What I’d like to explain tonight is why sometimes there is a period of time in between when you say “amen and there it is.” That’s the terminology Jerry Seville uses. There are things going on – if you understand this it will take away anxiety, it will take away worry and care and frustration, it will help you to stand and be able to believe and it could make a big, big difference in your life.

Look at Matthew 7, this is a familiar passage of scripture that everybody knows and doesn’t believe. It says, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” This is an awesome promise in God’s word. Did you know honestly, if tonight we were just acting like we were brand new, like we have never heard this scripture before, or if this concept had never come to you, and if I was here speaking, “Thus sayeth the Lord, ask and it shall be given to you,” did you know most of you would say, “that’s too good to believe.” That would be hard to believe. This is an awesome promise, and yet most Christians know this, you can quote it, we sing songs about it yet we don’t believe it…

Do you know why? It’s because I asked and I didn’t receive, I sought and I didn’t find, I knocked and it wasn’t opened to me, and so we arrive at this problem – here is what God’s word says, here’s what my experience says… How do you harmonise the 2?

Most of us say, “I don’t understand and we just lose our excitement, our authority in the word of God and you wouldn’t sit there and openly say, “well I just don’t believe that scripture,” but in practise you don’t expect it to work like that, and we will develop an elaborate systems of doctrine to explain why it doesn’t work and religious systems come out and say, “well, not everyone that asks receives.” See the next verse, verse 8 that says “everyone that asks receives…” That’s not true! The Bible says that “everyone that asks receives,” but this person asked and they didn’t receive…

I remember a good example of a very good friend of Jamie and I, had leukaemia and I was with her when she died, and she believed God to heal her. She stood up and testified at one of James Robinson’s meetings, with over 4000 people that God was going to heal her and I mean it shook us when she wasn’t healed. We prayed for her to be raised from the dead for a long period of time and it’s a long story but I mean, we believed the best we knew how, and if you would have been there you would have thought that this girl believed with all of her heart, when she was dying she said, “It’s got to be soon… It’s got to be soon…”

She was expecting God to heal her at any moment, yet she strangled on her own blood as she haemorrhaged, and you look at that and you see that and I can tell you what her father’s reaction was. He came to me and he said, “Well, I think we were wrong. It couldn’t be God’s will to heal every time or she would have been healed.”

What he was saying was, she believed with everything she had. Well it looked that way, it really did and I guarantee you that at the time she died I didn’t have an answer. But I told people, I said, “look, God’s word promised that it was His will to heal her” and I said, “I don’t know what happened but God doesn’t lie. It was God’s will to heal her,” and I said, “maybe she missed it, maybe I missed it, maybe her family missed it, maybe all of us missed it, something’s wrong but it wasn’t God that was at fault. It was God’s will to heal her and I had people get mad at me, I had people reject me and it was 3 years before I found out what was wrong, but man, it was a miracle we got as far as we did!

God’s healing was in her body! It was supernatural and we short circuited it, we didn’t understand anything about how to walk in faith and we just allowed the devil to beat us on that one. Some of you are saying, “Well, that is terrible that you could do something that would actually cause a person to die.” Brothers and sisters it’s just the truth. You can go out here and fall asleep at the wheel and you can kill somebody. You do have responsibility in the kingdom of God. There is responsibility for us to believe God and God just can’t violate all of his laws.

Sometimes we think, “Then why didn’t God come down and intervene?” Because there are laws put down and God observes His own laws. He’s bound Himself by His own word, that’s gone out of His mouth when He says, “You have power to heal, if you don’t use that power to heal it’s not going to get done!” Again, people don’t like that. I had a Baptist pastor come to me one time and we were talking about this one girl that needed to be healed. He said, “Look if God wants her healed, she is going to be healed whether you or I pray for her or not.”

It’s not so. God’s will does not automatically come to pass. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, it says, “God isn’t willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” That is God’s will, but is every person going to come to repentance? No, because they have a choice in the thing, and also we have the responsibility to preach the Gospel, it says in Romans 10, “How can they believe if they don’t hear? And how can they hear except somebody preach the gospel.” Man, there is a responsibility on us. There are people dying and going to hell that were ordained, God loves them, He’s provided for them and yet, they aren’t going to receive because they didn’t hear.

People don’t like that so we make theology see, we just change our theology to fit the situation so that we will feel good but the truth is, God’s will doesn’t come to pass perfectly. Amen? I hope I’m getting you to think. Some of you are looking at me strange. “You mean God’s will doesn’t automatically come to pass in my life?” People preach the sovereignty of God, which I may be stepping on your religious toes right here… Sovereignty literally means independent, such as the United States is independent, we have declared our independence from Great Britain, and so we are now a sovereign nation. That means nobody dictates to us, but does that mean that we are without control, that we are without laws? No, we’ve got laws, there are restraints, we’ve got a constitution that dictates what this nation is like, but nobody else wrote it for us, it is not imposed upon us by somebody else, we wrote our own constitution. We’ve got limits but they are self imposed limits.

When we say God is sovereign people will say that, “well, you never know what God is going to do. God can do anything He wants to, God may do it this way one time, God might do it that way, God can do anything. If God wanted to he can come down and just heal you, whether you believe in faith or not!” That is not so! God has bound Himself by His word; I used that scripture this morning, Psalms 89:34, He said, “my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone forth out of my lips.” When He says, “You resist the devil and he will flee from you,” that means that if you don’t resist the devil, he won’t flee. God cannot rebuke the devil for you. And it’s wrong is you are saying, “O, God get the devil off my back,” God can’t do it. God gave you authority over the devil; you’ve got to learn what God’s given you. You’ve got to start exercising what God has given you. It’s not God that’s letting the devil run roughshod over you, it’s you that’s letting the devil run roughshod over you…

We are the ones that need to be turned on! God is not the one that needs to get stirred up. It gets me about intercessors today man, they’re just in there shaking God’s cage until He does something, “God, move, move!” God is not the one that we need to get motivated. You don’t need to beg with God to move in the Denver area, God wants to do something – He is trying to rattle your cage! To get you going! So much of our intercession, 90% of it is trying to motivate God to do something, God is more motivated than you are! You don’t have to pray for God to send a revival, God sent it 2000 years ago, what you need to do is get in there in the line of fire, amen, let some of it rub off on you, and God flow through you…”

Read Full Post »

Just a reminder for you:

I read these verses again this morning in my Bible study:  2 Corinthians 1:19-20 (NIV):  “¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not Yes and No, but in him it has always been Yes.   ²⁰ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are Yes in Christ. And so through him the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God.” 

Another verse I read this weekend in a book I’m reading, that goes well with the one above is:  Numbers 23:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?” 

For someone who has experienced receiving some of His promises these verses mean so much and one of my heart’s desires is that everyone who is hoping and wishing for a baby or healing can experience the same thing – because that is also what God wants for EVERYONE!  How do I know it is for everyone?  Because of Acts 10:34 (NIV):  “³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism.”  God wants the same things for all of us, because he does not show favouritism to anyone.

I know so many people don’t know what God’s will is, and I just want to remind everyone who is reading this to know the truth as it is written in God’s word.  Please know this is applicable to every single person on earth – it is freely available to you and all you need to do is reach out and receive it.

So what are God’s promises for everyone?

Promises of a family:

Genesis 1:28 (NIV):  “…Be fruitful and increase in number…”

Exodus 23:25-26 (NIV):  “²⁵ Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away  sickness from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”

Deuteronomy 7:13-14 (NIV):  “¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land— your grain, new wine and oil— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you.    ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young.”

Deuteronomy 28:1-4 (NIV):  “¹ If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands that I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.    ² All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: ³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.    ⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.”

Psalm 92:12-15 (NIV):  “¹²The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; ¹³ planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.  ¹⁴ They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, ¹⁵ proclaiming, The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Psalm 113:9 (NIV):  “⁹ He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children.   Praise the LORD”

Psalm 127:3-5 (NIV):  “³Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.    ⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.    ⁵ Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate”

Psalm 128:3 (NIV):  “³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots round your table.”

Isaiah 60:22 NLT :  “The smallest family will become a thousand people, and the tiniest group will become a mighty nation.  At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen.”

Malachi 3:10-11 (NIV):  “¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.  ¹¹ I will prevent  pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit, says the LORD Almighty.”  (“Cast their fruit before it’s time” refers, of course, to a miscarriage.” Supernatural childbirth – Jackie Mize)

1 Timothy 2:15 (NIV):  “¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing— if they continue in faith, love and holiness with  propriety.”

God wants to give:

Philippians 4:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 18:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”

Psalm 37:4 (KJV):  “⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Ephesians 3:20 (NIV):  “²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at  work within us,”

John 15:7 (NIV):  “⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”

John 16:23 (NIV):  “²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”

1 John 5:14-15 (NIV):  “¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.   ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us— whatever we ask— we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Isaiah 61:7 (NIV):  “⁷Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.”

Job 42:10 (NIV):  “¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.”

Zechariah 9:12 (NIV):  “¹² Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.”

Luke 1:45 (AMP): “And blessed (happy, [a]to be envied) is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of the things that were spoken to her from the Lord.”

John 20:29:  “… Blessed and happy and to be envied are those who have never seen Me and yet have believed and adhered to and trusted and relied on Me.”

Healing Scriptures:

1 Peter 2:24 (NIV):  “²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV):   “ ⁴Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.    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.”

Jeremiah 30:17 (NIV):  “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.”

Jeremiah 33:6 (NIV): “Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.”

Exodus 23:25-26 (NIV):  “²⁵ Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”

James 5:14-15 (NIV):  “¹⁴ Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.  ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.”

Acts 3:16 (NIV):  “… It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

Isaiah 58:8 (NIV):  “⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”

Malachi 4:2 (NIV):  “² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”

Psalm 107:19-21 (NIV):  “¹⁹ Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.  ²⁰ He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. ²¹ Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.”

Proverbs 3:7-9 (NIV):  “⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. ⁸ This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”

Isaiah 6:10 (NIV):  “… they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah 19:22 (NIV):  “²² … They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.”

Isaiah 38:16 (NIV):  “¹⁶ Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too.  You restored me to health  and let me live.”

Jeremiah 17:14 (NIV):  “¹⁴ Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.”

Other Promises of God:

Luke 18:27 (NIV):  “²⁷ Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

Mark 10:27 (NIV):  “²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Philippians 4:13 (NIV):  “¹³ I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

Psalm 37:4 (KJV):  “⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 139:14 (NIV): “¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV):  “⁹ However, as it is written:  No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him—“

1 Corinthians 6:17 (NIV):  “¹⁷ But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”

Romans 15:13 (NIV):  “¹³ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV):  “¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Psalm 103:8-14 (NIV):  “⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  ⁹ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; ¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; ¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

Ephesians 3:16 (Amp):  “¹⁶May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].”

Philippians 1:6 (NIV):  “⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

He helps you to defeat the enemy:

Romans 16:20 (NIV):  “²⁰ The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”

Isaiah 54:17 (NIV):  “¹⁷ no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

Luke 10:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”

Matthew 16:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 18:18 (NIV):  “¹⁸ I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Do not fear:

1 John 4:18 (NIV):  “¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV):  “⁷ For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV):  “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you”

Read Full Post »

Midnight revelations:

A few nights ago I once again had trouble sleeping. It took a while to get to sleep and only a few hours later I was awake again, and then it felt like hours passed before I fell asleep again just as the birds woke up. But that time was not wasted, because I was thinking about quite a lot of stuff, especially Shumi, and where I’m failing, and I got another revelation. I know it already, but sometimes one doesn’t see things clearly, especially when it concerns yourself… I think God has been trying to tell me this for a while already, but somehow I just didn’t listen, or didn’t want to listen maybe… I’ve realized there were signs or hints, which made me realize I had to attend to something, but I just brushed it away, and went on with what I was doing. Until that sleepless night when I had lots to think about and I could follow the trail until I got to the revelation, and I want to share that with you today – maybe someone else will also benefit from it.

There were 3 separate incidences that I can identify as signs or hints, because they all had to make me think about the same topic. I can’t really recall which happened first, and I guess it doesn’t really matter. One instance was a comment made on this blog about salvation and keeping the Law of Moses. That comment was in response to me saying that I know God does not want to punish me for every wrong thing I do, because I know that the punishment was already fully taken by Jesus through His sacrifice. I answered on that comment, but there was a lingering feeling that maybe I didn’t follow the trail of thought through fully and answered completely, but I brushed it off and forgot about it.

Another thing that bothered me a bit was a comment DH made to me once. At the time I didn’t realize it, but I’ve had some unresolved anger building up in me, especially lately, and I think it has to do with my mom’s death and Shumi’s illness. I tried to suppress it, and generally I never take out my frustrations on loved ones, so it came out in other ways. One way was when I got so upset about my new debit card not working – I really got so angry, like I haven’t been in a long time, and I let the call centre operator hear it! There is one other person though, someone I get to deal with on a weekly basis, that somehow rubs me up the wrong way, and I never let her see it, but later at home I can’t help making comments and sometimes they are nasty… DH heard me mutter something, and immediately he said, “What has S done this time…” I immediately felt bad, because I realized that I was complaining a lot about this person, especially lately, and maybe I’ve been too hard on her, but I once again did not think about it for very long.

The last message was the fact that I started reading the book of Romans since last week in my Bible study time and really a lot of it has to deal with the law again, and how we are saved by grace through faith and not through works like keeping the law. During the night while I was lying awake I realized that I’ve been focussing on how God does not want to punish us, because Jesus already carried the punishment for us, long before we even sinned, but I conveniently ignored the law. I knew it was still important to keep the law, but why?

For some reason I thought back to my last IVF last year, and how I did not understand things so well then compared to what I know now. Because I did a mini IVF, I didn’t get my stimms from my fertility clinic like I did with my other IVF’s. I bought it at Dis.chem since their price was a bit cheaper than what my clinic would have charged me. They didn’t have all the injections that I needed, but they did have a few and enough to get me started. Somehow the pharmacist made a mistake and charged me for 1 less injection than she gave me. When I paid I realized that the total was less than what I worked it out in my mind, but I paid and left the shop.

All the way home it bothered me and I couldn’t figure out where a mistake was made. When I got home I looked at the slip and only then did I realize what had happened. I immediately felt guilty and felt like I stole that one injection. The second thought that came into my head was, “I hope God does not punish me for this by ensuring that I don’t get pregnant.” Like I said – I still had a lot to learn.

The fear of punishment prompted me to phone the pharmacy and speak to them and rectify the mistake. The poor pharmacist was so happy I phoned and pointed out her mistake and she made a note on the computer that I must pay for the other injection when I come to fetch the last few. I’m sure she would have been in some kind of trouble if I hadn’t come forward and offered to pay, because she kept on saying, “thank you so much for calling and rectifying this.”

While I was lying in bed thinking about all this, I realized – “No, God would not have punished me by giving me a BFN.” I was totally sure of that fact, but then something else struck me. It could have ended in a BFN, but it wouldn’t have been caused by God. I would have given power over my life to the devil and through me handing him that power, he could have killed our embies and caused a BFN.

That was when I realized that the only reason we shouldn’t sin is because that is one way of giving power to the devil. We might believe that God has saved us, we might believe that God has healed us, but if we keep sinning we will never defeat the devil. I saw so clearly that I need to let go of certain sins, and if I do that the power of the devil will decrease. It’s all things that I knew, that I’ve practised a while ago and even had some victory over, but I got lax and I let small things slip, and then it got worse and worse again…

We had one victory, our pregnancy, and I just assumed that the rest will fall into place as well. Then my mom passed away and that shocked me so much! I lost some confidence and I let the devil lie to me again, believing that cancer is different than infertility and much more difficult to get healed, when it shouldn’t be. It’s the same principles that apply, and that works for every kind of illness, but my faith was shaken.

I also gave power to the devil in another way – fear. By being fearful I allowed things to get even worse, I got upset and at that point was where I was tearful at even silly things that should not have upset me at all. I felt like I could not deal with normal daily challenges that usually don’t upset me at all. That was when Shumi’s swelling was at its worst.

Fortunately the swelling has come down a lot, it’s not gone completely, but Shumi looks a lot better again, so much so that I do not contemplate euthanizing him. He is playful again, and he is interested in what goes on around him, he eats well and he just wants love, love and more love from us.

The devil is defeated – Jesus defeated him, and he cannot take Shumi’s life without my permission or co-operation. I’m sure he tried to convince me that euthanizing Shumi would be best, and then we would do the work for him, but I’m not co-operating with that! I keep on reminding myself that God is good, He wants Shumi healed and He has made provision for it already. I must just receive it on Shumi’s behalf. I know it does not look like Shumi is healed, but I don’t have to go on what things look like, when I know that God’s word is true, and when I know what His will is. I must just keep on believing in God’s promises, and not let circumstances sway me or weaken my faith.

I also like to remind myself that the vets gave Shumi a couple of months to live more than a year ago. His life expectancy is already like that of a dog who has received radiation therapy for the cancer, even though Shumi has not received any treatment. So that means that the devil has been hindered in his job – he couldn’t kill Shumi in the normal course of the disease so far, and I fully intend to make it even harder for him from now on.

Satan also tried his very best to make me feel incredibly guilty for my mom’s passing, but I’ve realized that with my mom, it wasn’t just dependant on DH’s and my own faith, because we believed, until the very end. The hard reality is my mom couldn’t believe in her own healing – even when I spoke to her about my miracle pregnancy, I could see in her eyes that she could not believe for the same thing. I gave her books to read, messages to listen to on CD and in MP3 format on her phone, but today I’m sure she didn’t do any of it. Yes, I think I must have discussed it more with her, but an old school friend of my mom’s told me at the funeral that my mom phoned her about 2 weeks before her death and that she could hear my mom had given up on life. That was before she even went in to hospital and I had no idea of any of that!

At the hospital itself we were also surrounded by people who believed the end was near, from the nurses and doctors to visiting family and friends, and no matter how many times DH and I tried to say, “but we have faith that my mom would get healed”, we were met with resistance and comments like, “but you have to be realistic!” Our faith was just too little compared to all the unbelief surrounding my mom…

Fortunately with Shumi’s situation, it’s different. It’s mostly just up to DH and I to believe in Shumi’s healing. We don’t get to deal with other people’s unbelief so much and then only when they come to visit us at home and they see Shumi. I keep on telling people that he is doing well, and what the vet’s diagnosis was over a year ago already, so that helps a little to get them to believe that maybe he will be healed. A lot have had theories like, maybe the diagnosis was wrong, (even our own vet has also wondered about this aloud, that maybe he has a benign tumour), and there was even one theory where they believe his problems are because of a tooth that needs to be pulled. Unfortunately it is very hard for people to believe that God still heals in this day and age, they always try to get some other explanation as well…

Read Full Post »

Some more on healing and the atonement:

I want to continue on with An.drew Wom.mack’s teaching on the atonement called:   Healing is in Christ’s Atonement, but this part is more to do with healing in specific.  It gives more scriptural proof that Jesus really paid for our healing too:

“Jesus didn’t just die for our sins, and then healing is something He could do if He wanted to, but no, He paid for the healing of our body as completely as He paid for the forgiveness of our sins.  Let me give you some scriptural references that put forgiveness of sins and healing of our body in the exact same verse, it claims it all as the one atonement of Jesus, that Jesus purchased it all at one time, and this is a different concept than what our modern day church is presenting.

Psalm 103:1-3 (KJV) says, “¹Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  ²Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:  ³Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;” Right there in the same verse it says that the Lord forgives our sins just as He heals all our diseases, in the same verse.

Here is another witness that goes right along that: 1 Peter 2:24 (KJV), it says, “²⁴Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”  It talks about, “He bore our sins, we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed.”  It puts forgiveness of sins and healing of
our physical body in the same verse.

The scripture does not separate what Jesus did, into, “well let’s just talk about forgiveness of sins.”  I’ve had people talk about, “well let’s not talk about healing, deliverance, prosperity, let’s just focus on forgiveness of sins, that’s the part that everybody can agree on, that’s what’s part of the atonement and all of these other things are like fringe benefits.”

I tell you, I believe that is an offensive concept to God.  Look at it this way, if I came and somehow or another I could die for you and literally take your sins, and forgive your sins, if I could have been Jesus, I can tell you that if I not only died for your sins, but if I also bore stripes on my body to produce healing for you, and if I was separated from God so that you would never have to be separated from Him, if I became poor so that you through my poverty might be made rich, if I did all of these things and then for you to come and say, “Well I thank you for what you did, but you know what, I’m only going to take one fourth of it, I’m going to say that the forgiveness of sins is the most important and that’s what I really want to focus on, and I’m not going to take advantage of the healing of my body, the deliverance form all the oppression and depression and the financial blessing, I just don’t want those things, you did more than enough for me and so I’m going to humble myself and only take one fourth of what you did.”  That wouldn’t please me.  It would make me feel like, “then what was the point of me doing all these other things!”

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, for what purpose?  It’s not only so that people wouldn’t go to hell, but it was so that they could be saved, not only from sin, but from sickness, from disease, again I refer you to Galatians 1:4 (KJV) that says that Jesus “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world,” and there are just many other scriptures that go along with it.  If I suffered for you and you only took advantage of a portion of it, that wouldn’t please me!  Now if I could be like God, I’m sure that I would still love you, but it wouldn’t please me.

I’m not saying God is angry with people but it’s disappointing, I’m sure that God provided all for us and people aren’t taking advantage of it.  Basically Christianity has preached that forgiveness of sins is all that Jesus atoned for and, off course, “since God is God He could heal if He wants to, but that’s like icing on the cake, that’s extra, that isn’t a part of the basic package.”

I’m saying it is.  I’m saying that healing is in the atonement just as much as forgiveness of sins and if you would look at it that way then this would cause you to reject a lot of false teaching, like say for instance that God is the one who puts sickness on you.  God causes people to die and things like this, because God is trying to humble people, work some redemptive purpose, perfect them through all this stuff…  No!  If Jesus died for the forgiveness of your sins and for the healing of your body, and if they are all part of one atonement, well then that means that Jesus would no more put sickness on you than He would lead you to sin.

If you’ve got that attitude and say that I won’t submit to sickness anymore than I would go out and yield to sin, then you know what you would start seeing healing manifest in your body.  One of the reasons that a lot of people don’t see a greater degree of healing is because they aren’t committed to it.  They embrace it, thinking well this is just natural, or even worse, many times they are told that it’s God making them sick, and the Bible makes it very clear in James 4:7 (KJV) that, “⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”   The word “resist” means to actively fight against.  How can you actively fight against the devil, sickness that comes from the devil, if you think God is the one that is making you sick?  If Satan can convince you that God wants you sick, that it isn’t a part of what He purchased, that He want you to be sick, then you won’t fight against it, you might ask for deliverance, but you won’t fight against it and claim it  and stand for it, but you need to get the same attitude towards sickness that you have towards sin.

I’m not condemning you if you get sick, anymore than I would condemn you if you would sin.  Christians are redeemed from sin, now the power of sin has been broken over us and we are dead to sin, we should not be living in sin.  But you know what, there is forgiveness and there is grace if you sin, and so I’m not condemning you.  I think every born again Christian has had to deal with the fact that we have not lived up to what we want to do, and I’m not condemning you for that, and likewise I’m not condemning a Christian who is sick, but I am condemning the attitude that would say sickness is something that God wants for us, that attitude is just as bad as saying that sin is something that God wants for us.  That’s wrong, Jesus redeemed us form sin and He also redeemed us from sickness.

Now can you learn something if you go out and sin?  You certainly can!  You go out and  take drugs and you can blow your mind, you can do stupid things, you can get in car wrecks, you can get arrested, same thing with alcohol, sexual perversion, you can get sexually transmitted diseases, you can learn something through that!  You can learn that that is stupid!  You can learn that there is something better to do and yes, you can benefit from it, but did God want you to go get drunk and have a car wreck and kill somebody to teach you that you should be seeking Him more?  Now you could learn that from that, but did God want you to do that?  No!  Nobody would say God made me get drunk, made me get high, and made me kill this person so that He could humble me.

See you wouldn’t say that because we recognise that Jesus died to set us free from sin, I’m saying that in the same way Jesus died to heal your physical body, therefore He is not the author of the sickness that comes against you.  In Acts 10:38 (KJV) this is very clear, this was the apostle Peter preaching to Cornelius and he was preaching the gospel and he was summarising the life of Jesus and he said, “³⁸How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power:  who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”   Notice it says that when Jesus went about healing people, that it was good.  Some churches today are saying that people who pray for people and claim that they are healed, that that is of the devil.  Well Jesus healed the sick and it says that that was good.  It brought glory to God, things that bring glory to God and draw people closer to God is not of the devil, the devil is not out healing people.   Jesus “went about doing good and healing all that where oppressed of the devil,” and not oppressed of God, God is not the author of sickness, He is not the one who makes you sick, that is not true!

Look at this passage of scripture in Isaiah 53:3-5 (KJV), I wish I have time to put it all in context but this is definitely prophesying about the Messiah and what He would do.  It says that, “³He is espised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  ⁴Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Now, I’ve heard this scripture all of my life changed and interpreted in a way that says that this isn’t talking about physical healing, this is talking about emotional, spiritual healing.  That in a symbolic sense we were all cripples, we were limping through life because of the damage sin has caused in our life and Jesus set us free from that.  But if you study up the words in the Hebrew here especially in verse 4, the Hebrew words that were used in Isaiah 53:4 where it says, “surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,” those words are referring to physical healing.  Now, I could go into the Hebrew and show you that but I’m telling you that here’s a very simple way for those of you that aren’t familiar with Hebrew.  I’m saying that here is a way that even people that don’t know Greek and Hebrew can learn this and in Matthew 8:16 -17 (KJV) it says, “¹⁶When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:  ¹⁷That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”  That is a quotation of Isaiah 53:4, where it says He bore our sorrows and carried our griefs.  In Matthew 8 under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost this is scripture, it interprets those griefs and sorrows as being infirmities and sicknesses, it makes it clear that it was not talking about spiritual, emotional healing, it includes that but it’s specifically talking about the physical healing of our bodies.  You can see that by the context – it was when he was casting all of these demons out and He healed all that were sick and this was the fulfilment of that prophesy.

I’ve already used many scriptures that clearly relate physical healing to being a part of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore it’s not optional, therefore it’s incorrect to say, “Let’s not preach healing, let’s just focus on the forgiveness of sins, that is dicing up, slicing up the atonement of Jesus into different parts and saying some parts of what Jesus did were important and others weren’t important.  That is not true it’s all important and we are not honouring God to pick and choose – we are presenting less than a true picture of the message of what God really wanted to communicate, we are not glorifying the Lord and because of that we made the message of the gospel irrelevant to some people because they see it as only applying to the future and having no relevance to our present day situation and that is just absolutely incorrect.”

Read Full Post »

What is covered by Jesus’ Atonement?

A year ago I didn’t even realize what Jesus’ atonement meant, until I started to listen to An.drew Wom.mack’s teachings and at first I heard him mention it a couple of times, and then I started to wonder, “but what is this atonement and how does it affect me?”  I recently listened to the teaching of An.drew Wom.mack, “God wants you well (part 1)” again.  The title of this specific teaching is Healing is in Christ’s Atonement and I want to quote a bit out of it for you:

“Healing is not just an add on, it’s not just an added benefit that only happens sometimes, but it is an essential part of what Jesus came to do.  Jesus died for our forgiveness of sins and He died for the physical healing of our body.  Another way of saying this is that Jesus purchased healing for us, just as He purchased forgiveness of sins.  It’s all a part of Christ’s atonement.

I know that, that is not a main stream doctrine today, but that is one of the reasons that so very few people operate in healing, because they look at it as, “certainly, God could heal if He wanted to,” but they don’t see that God has already redeemed us from sickness and disease.  They look at it as something He can do, but they don’t know for sure that it’s His will.  If you recognize that healing is a part of the atonement, then you recognize that the Lord has already healed us, He’s already purchased that, the power has already been generated, healing is a done deal and it is available to us exactly the same as forgiveness of sins is.

Now again, I know these are radical statements but let me show me some things that will prove that.  The Greek word that was translated, “save” and “saved”, a kind of all encompassing word for “salvation,” you know, hundreds of times in the New Testament is the Greek word “sozo”.  It literally means to, “save,” that is “deliver or protect literally or figuratively.”  But when you look at the way the word was translated it’s very obvious that this deliverance and saving is not only from sin, but it’s also from physical problems.

Like for instance in Galatians 1:4 (KJV):  “⁴Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world…”  Not just the world to come, but this present evil world.  That is a tremendous statement.  Again, many people see what Jesus produced as only affecting the spiritual eternal realm and because of that we come up with songs like, “when we all get to heaven, what a day that will be…”, and even though I’m not diminishing that it is going to be glorious in heaven, Jesus also came to deliver us from this present evil world not just the one to come.   The word “save” here isn’t only talking about “saved us from hell,” He saved us from our sins and future punishment but Jesus also came to save, deliver and protect us in this physical world.

There are 38 times that the word “sozo” was translated “save” in reference to the forgiveness of sins, I’m not going to take time to list all of those but you can search this out and find it.  Some examples are Matthew 1:21; 1 Corinthians 1:21; Hebrews 7:25, there are just a lot of them.  There are also 53 times that this same Greek word “sozo” was translated “saved,” past tense, referring to forgiveness of sins, but there were also times when this exact same word was translated “healed.”

For instance in Mark 5:23, where it was talking about Jairus’ daughter, Jairus was the ruler who came to Jesus and asked Jesus to come heal his daughter, and it says in Mark 5:23 (KJV):  “²³And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.”  That word “healed” right there is this Greek word “sozo”, and it’s referring to physical healing, it’s obvious, and the story goes on that the little girl actually died and Jesus raised her from the dead and that was referring to physical healing, physical resurrection from the dead.

Also in Luke 8:36 (KJV) it says:  “³⁶They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.”  Now, this is talking about the man who was commonly called the Gadarene demoniac, who was bound with chains, and nobody could hold him, he’d just break the chains, Jesus set him free and it says here in scripture, Luke 8:36 that “he that was possessed of the devils was healed.”  That word is “sozo”, again the word that is used for forgiveness of sins, but that exact same word is also applied to physical healing.  That’s the second instance I’ve given you.

The third is in Acts 14:9 (KJV), this is talking about a cripple, that Paul healed when he prayed for him, “⁹The same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,” this is talking about Paul “Beheld this man,” who was going to be healed and he perceived that he had faith to be healed, that word healed there is the Greek word “sozo”,  the same word that was used talking about forgiveness of our sins.

The same word was also translated “save” in reference to healing and the save here was definitely talking about more than forgiveness of sins, it was talking about “healing”.  A classic example is James 5:15 (KJV) and it says there “¹⁵And the prayer of faith shall save,” that is “sozo”, “the sick,” the same word that used for the forgiveness of sins, “and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have ommitted sins, they shall be forgiven him.”  So this is another reference talking about how the word for salvation, “save,” is talking about more than just forgiveness of sins but rather it is talking about healing of your body.

It goes on to say in Luke 6:9 (KJV):  “⁹Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?”  Now He was talking about healing a person on the Sabbath day, and when He was referring to healing this man, he says, “is it right for me to save this life? And He wasn’t just talking about forgiveness of sin, but He was talking about healing of the body.

This same word was translated “made whole” in reference to healing.  In Matthew 9:21 (KJV) it says:  “²¹For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”  That was the woman who had the issue of blood and came up to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment and she used this word “sozo”, which was synonymous with forgiveness of sins, she also applied that same word
to being healed physically.  The same thing is said in Mark 5:28 (KJV):  “²⁸For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”  This is the same instance recorded in Mark’s gospel, again that same word was used, it was translated “made whole” eight times in scripture.

Matthew 9:22 (KJV) says, “²²But Jesus turned him about,” this is that same instance with the woman with the issue of blood, “and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.”  The word for “whole” in this instance is “sozo,” the same word that is used for forgiveness of sins showing that all of this Greek word is not limited to forgiveness of sin.

The same thing is done in Mark 6:56 (KJV) where it says:  “⁵⁶And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.”  That’s that Greek word “sozo”.

The point I’m making through this is that the word for salvation does not only mean forgiveness of sins, it literally means “forgiveness of sins, healing of your body, those are the scriptures I’ve emphasized, but if you were to study it on out, it also is translated deliverance in Acts 13, and it also means financial prosperity.  So the Greek word for salvation does not refer only to forgiveness of sins, that’s the way it’s been interpreted and presented by the modern day church but that is a misrepresentation of what Jesus did.

Jesus did not only die for the forgiveness of our sins, it included that and that is certainly a center piece of what He did, I’m not minimizing the forgiveness of our sins but I’m saying at the same time that He bought and purchased our redemption from sin, He also freed us from sickness, He also freed us from depression, deliverance from the devil, and He also freed us from poverty.  2 Corinthians 8:9 (KJV) says that, “⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

This is where the denomination called the “Four Square Gospel” comes from.  They literally went to the Greek word “sozo” that was translated “save, saved, salvation,” all of these different ways, and they looked at what the word literally means, and it means forgiveness of sins, healing of your body, deliverance from all kinds of demonic oppression, depression, and financial blessing and prosperity.”

Read Full Post »

More on my mom:

Yesterday morning when we got to the hospital, my dad got a message that the oncologist wanted to see him immediately.  So he went to the consulting rooms while I waited with my mom in her room.  She was asleep and not aware of me at all.  When my dad came back he was quite upset.  The doctor told him that they are giving up with all treatments as there is nothing they can do for my mom anymore.  He said that they will keep her comfortable, but they cannot give her anymore chemo or radiation because she is just too weak.

My cousin J was also there and she wanted to know if my mom could get a different drip that would feed her as my mom was looking skeletal and since she was just sleeping she could not eat at all.  The sister came to talk to us to explain that the saline drip is sufficient for her in her state and that we must basically must make peace with the fact that is going to get worse and worse and that we must start thinking of letting her go.  She said that she will be home with Jesus soon.  After hearing that so soon after my dad’s news all of us were quite emotional and upset.  So the nurses and doctors have given up all hope of her recovering from this.

A lot of family came to visit and among them my one cousing T who is a medical trauma doctor.  She said that my mom will go into a coma and that she will soon just slip away painlessly.  That was so hard to hear!  She also said that my mom will not wake up again.  I did not like hearing any of these things and I just said to myself that I will not accept that as a final decision!

Moments later we went back into my mom’s room and guess what happened!  For the first time yesterday she actually woke up!  She looked around at each one of us in the room and I could see her recognising each person!  My cousin was speechless, but I’m sure very glad to be proven wrong.

Today she was awake a bit more than yesterday and although she still looked very weak and asleep most of the time she did look a bit better to me.  When she woke she again looked at everyone and she even smiled a little once, and seemed to be interested in some of the conversation in the room.

My mom is one of 8 children and the third youngest, and all the others are still alive and well.  Her 2 sisters live in the Netherlands so they cannot come and visit, but all my mom’s brothers live here in South Africa.  All of my mom’s brothers came to visit her except 2 who live in the Cape, but they will see her tomorrow.   The one is flying in tomorrow and the other one apparently drove up today – I hope they came here safely because I heard a lot of roads and mountain passes were closed due to snow.

A lot of my cousins also came to visit and some of them I haven’t seen in years, so it was so good to get to see them again!  But like my DH says it’s sad that we get together at terrible times like these and not in happy times.

Although a lot of people think my mom is dying, I just cannot accept that at the moment.  I still have hope that my mom will recover.  I believe in Jehovah Rapha, I have experienced one miracle already so I know another is totally possible!  I know it’s not God’s will for her to be so sick, and I know its not His fault or that He caused it.  I also know Jesus paid the price a long time ago already so I will anticipate things to get better and better and that she will be healed.  Some people say I must get realistic, but I just cannot give up on my mom!  With God nothing is impossible and I will rejoice and praise His name, because I know He is faithful!

Thank you all for your prayers and messages of support – I realize that I have made some absolutely awesome internet friends who are such a great support to me!  You have really helped me over these last few days and I needed it soo much!  You are all awesome!

Read Full Post »

What a terrible weekend:

My mom has deteriorated so much in 2 days it’s unbelievable.  On Friday I spent the whole day with her, my sister and my cousin J were also there with my dad, and although she could not walk much she could still talk to us.  Thursday night two ureteric stents were placed between her kidneys and her bladder and she got a catheter in the hope that it would help with the swelling.

This morning my mom could not speak anymore and she can barely move her arms.  She cannot feed herself anymore and they took out the catheter and she’s on adult nappies now.  When I said earlier this week that my mom was thin I could not believe that she can get any thinner, but at the moment har face is so sunken in that you basically just see eyes and teeth when she opens her mouth.  I was able to encircle her upper arm with my thumb and index finger, so thin is her arms.  She looks like she is just skin and bones in her upper body, yet her abdomen and legs are more than double what they normally were.  She needs oxygen to help her breathe and later in the day it even seemed she could not swallow her food anymore.  I cannot explain to you how drastic she has deteriorated in 2 days.  It is incredibly scary, and my poor dad could barely sleep last night because he kept on expecting the hospital to phone with bad news.

We still don’t know what is going on – why she is so sick and deteriorating so much.  I don’t even know if the doctors know, and they don’t really tell us much.  As far as I can tell they have only given my mom some pain medication, some more blood and some medication for the swelling, and she is still deteriorating.  I cannot see how they can save my mom’s live with what they are doing.

My only hope is with God – I know He can and wants to heal my mom.  But it is so hard to believe for healing if you see your own mom looking so bad.  I need help here, please, please believe with me for healing for my mom.  That is all I can trust in at the moment…

Read Full Post »