I just received an email from some dear friends serving in the country of Hungary. They’re missionaries serving around Budapest with their son and daughter. They are wonderful people and I love them.
In the email I was asked (along with others) if I would pray for their Mom. She has some type of paralysis in her face and went to a neurologist. I promptly sent them information on an alternative treatment that I believe will be very helpful…
Anyway, I began to think about the things Jesus said in the gospels. One verse has always haunted me… Luke 18:8. “But when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?” This is a scripture that makes my heart sorrowful. Really it does.
Earlier, Jesus had been trying to teach the disciples a lesson about trusting Him. In the verses just before verse 8, in verse 1, He tells the story of the “unjust judge” and the lady that kept going to him for justice… It says, “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up.”
Well, what I see is the church “giving up.”
We pray for God to heal us, but then we add, “I know that God allows in His wisdom that which He could easily prevent by His power.”
I’m sorry for all those I may offend with this statement, but Jesus is the one that said, “I assure you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, `May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,’ and it will happen.” “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
There is something we as believers need to be doing… “building up our most holy faith.”
1Pet 2:5 says, “And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ.”
Is it because we don’t really understand who we are in Christ? What are the “spiritual sacrifices” that please Him?
The Greek word “spiritual” here means, “relating to the human spirit, or rational soul, as part of the man which is akin to God and serves as his instrument or organ, that which possesses the nature of the rational soul.” “Belonging to the Divine Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, one who is filled with and governed by the Spirit of God; pertaining to the wind or breath.”
This doctrine of sometimes God doesn’t really mean what He told us while He was here on earth, I believe is a “doctrine of demons.” Why should we trust God when it seems that God could have just stopped it dead in it’s tracks if He wanted to. Does that even really matter? What really matters is, will we offer the sacrifices of praise because we are “God’s holy priests.”
Jesus NEVER said, “There may be times when it’s just not my will, that you as my child are healed!” Don’t believe the lie the enemy is trying to propagate on the church! It seems that some things haven’t changed for thousands of years. The prophet Hosea said, “My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. It is all your fault, you priests, for you yourselves refuse to know me. Now I refuse to recognize you as my priests.”
We have NO excuse for “unbelief.” Jesus himself walked and talked and performed miracle after miracle while here as a man… as a human being.
Are there children of God suffering persecution? Yes. Are there saints suffering at the hands of ungodly people? Yes. Have we experienced pain and suffering from our own foolishness? Yes. I have many times. But, to excuse our “unbelief” and “lack of trust” in the Son of the Living God is only our fault. And our God is NEVER the source of sickness, disease, pain and suffering upon the life of a Spirit filled child of God. If you believe otherwise, you simply haven’t read the scriptures and don’t know Him that well yet.
Show me one scripture on which anyone can base that doctrine and I’ll show you dozens to prove it a lie! Jesus is not like a man that He should lie.
“I assure you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, `May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,’ and it will happen.” “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
God is not like some malicious dog trainer, holding out a treat on a stick and string, only to pull it away when we reach for it. Saints, lets trust Him and ask and believe that we receive everything we ask for, no matter what the devil, the world, our understanding or anything else tries to convince us of.
I leave you with part of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.” “Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.” “Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused.”
God’s very best for all my brother’s and sister’s in Christ,
Steve
One of the greatest problems regarding Christians believing the teachings of Jesus comes from misunderstanding and mixing the teachings of the Old testament, the Law, and the teachings of the New Testament, salvation by the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus cried, on the cross just before He died, “It Is Finished,” it was! Salvation, justification before God is a done deal. All we have to do is believe it. We are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.
But many believers can’t let go of the law keeping required by the OT and so we become confused and land somewhere in the middle (mainly because that’s how the preachers preach it) and we never quite arrive at a purely faith position … Jesus said it therefor it must be the truth.
There is a story in the book of Acts, the 8th chapter, about a man named Philip who, after the great scatter, went to a city in Samaria where he preached the gospel and healed the people of their deseases and demons and as result there was great joy in that city.
It occurs to me that we could use a little of that kind of joy in our cities.
Philip believed the teachings of Jesus and acted out his calling to go and do like He did.
We need more Philips who will come away from the four walls of the church building and go into the communities where the lost people are and where people will listen to truth backed up by the miraculous.
Then the disciples went out and preached
everywhere, and the Lord worked with them
and confirmed His word by the signs that
accompanied it. – Mark 16:20
Keep up the good work!