Being Sick

Over the last 2 weeks, my daughter has been battling a bad case of coughing, which in time turned into pneumonia. of which we needed to take her to the Hospital, and she stayed there for 5 days, on antibiotics This is challenging for someone who understands that as Christians, we have authority over sickness. The obvious question that our carnal mind jumps into asking is what happened? Why didn't it work? Was it unbelief? but more so new questions starts coming up, which are related to Does Jesus' stripes cover everything? or is it something only?

So I was asking God about this, and my understanding is, the devil is here to steal, kill and destroy, Jesus came to give us life, and life abundantly, (John 10:10). So surely coughing and having a fever is NOT life abundantly. So why is she not recovered, and at the same time showed signs of deterioration.

I was shown by the Lord, a game of Show hand. the devil has his hand, we had ours, we opened our 3, and the devil his, he had a pair of ace, and a king, and I had 2,4,6. so he calls the shots, he raises me half my stack, I followed and put in my chips. The next card rolls out. He gets another king, netting to a "2 pairs", and I am with a 3. I had really crappy cards, Devil's call again, he does an all in, and he is telling me I should fold, you win some and you lose some, cut your losses early. So in my mind the idea of yea, maybe you do win some and lose some, cut lose early, gain back on a better hand. But if I get a 5, it will be a 5 in a row, and will win his two pairs, but he just needs either an ace, or a king to do a full house. So contemplating a little, I wanted to stick to the game plan. Put it all in. and as the card was dealt, I get a 5, which gives me 5 in a row, and wins over the devils two pairs. 
The notion is that, whilst the devil looks to have the upper hand in between, but the game is rigged for you. 

The moral of the story, is we need to know what is reality, and make a stance on it. When the bible said, by his stripes you were healed, 1 Peter 2:24. Is he saying by his stripes SOME were healed? no the connotations is for all. all who believes. if you don't believe in it, you can't receives it. But I was believing, why didn't I see it healed immediately? this gave me a revelation of a few different things, which I will study further, and if there are others who has better revelation on this, do share in the comments.

1) The devil will fight you, primarily not for your health, he fights you for your revelation. He wants to steal your revelation, he wants to plant Doubts into you, on the following 3 things, God's promises, God's Nature, and Your identity.  it is his oldest trick. He wants to give you an idea that, well the Bible says, but not everyone can pull it through, there are limitations to God's healing power, it is a fallen world and decease and sickness are here because of Adam's fall, and you can do nothing about it. This is the message that he wants you to believe in, and as such puts you in a position of unbelief, of which he then gains grounds on you. 

2) The Devil has always had a limited budget, its all a facade. He puts up these big posters of bad report, telling you he is winning, he is here to stay, you can't do nothing about it. but in the background, he is struggling to lift these posters up, every time you hit him with the truth of God, he gets shattered, and new reinforcement needs to come in to hold up these bad reports. He is on a limited budget. 

3) We have a wrong definition of what is being "healed" is. Lets look at it this way. John Doe owns a property that under neath it had billions of barrows of oil, one day an oil company came by his house, and said they wanted to test to see if the ground had oil, of which if it did. they will buy it or go into a joint venture with John. and as they drill, the oil exploded out of the drill. and John Doe signed a contract with the company and receives 10 Million dollars and became partners in the oil company. 
Now did John Doe became a millionaire over night? or John was a millionaire because of what he had, but he just didn't know it?

Healing, came when we believe in Jesus, we already have it. The manifestation of those healing on the physical body comes because of that healing. It is the bases of what you believe, do you believe in the word of God that says you are healed, or do you believe because you see that this sickness is still on you, hence you call yourself sick? Think about this, this is profound. Do you reckon yourself to be sick, because there are symptoms of the sickness or bacteria on you? of do you reckon yourself well, because Jesus has healed you, and the sickness will have to leave, because you believe in God's word. Never take possession or identity in sickness. It is against everything of God. God wants you well. 

Back to where I am today, I also have the devil attacking me, with cough and sickness. It was trying to steal me revelation that I had supernatural immunity. I recall the days I use to get sick really easily, its like, on I have the flu AGAIN!, looking back, I have not had the flu on me since maybe a year ago, and at that, I took a day off, slept, drink water, and was out of it, by the next day.

So what to do if you are under such attacks? Draw near to God's words, anchor in deeper in the revelation of what Jesus has done. Make your reality based on the works of Jesus. Always remember this, the enemy has limited ammunition, he has limited budget, he is barely pulling through to put that sickness on you. He is one step away from it all falling apart. Don't give room for his evil doctrines, if you believe in his lies, he gains ground, and uses that against you. Get into the word of God.  Then the next thing that the bible tells you to do is do this,

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2 Corinthians 10:5

Think about what this scripture is saying, casting down imaginations that exalt itself against, the knowledge of God. 

in relations to sickness this is about sickness being more powerful than what Jesus has done. 
What do you do? you don't let it slide, you grab that thought by the throat, and you bring it down to the floor in submission to the obedience of Christ. Sickness, in Jesus name, Submit to the authority of Jesus Christ, get out of my Body in Jesus name. 

Can you feel the warrior nature of the Holy Spirit, coming against the things he hates? 
Everyday your sickness drags, as you are commanding the sickness to go, we are using up the limited ammunition of the enemy, he is thinking, I don't know how long we can hold on here, these children of God are getting aggressive. Know who you are in Christ. Righteousness of God.

Journey 4: Grace

Through the searching of healing teachings, I was lead to hear this guy by the name of Andrew Wommack. I think it was on you tube. I was hearing him on the topic of "God wants you well". He had a strange voice, mid Texan maybe, sound a little like Zig Ziglar when I first heard him! The message was very encouraging. Reinforcing the notion that, sickness does not come from God, it is not there to make you learn anything, it is sent to steal from you, destroy your family and to kill you. John 10:10. Then I found his site, and to my amazement, he has an abundant of teaching, for FREE! it has really interesting topics, so I started downloading his podcast, and started listening to them again, all free, and available if you just search for Andrew Wommack. There are a few that are there, some are his radio stuff, which is shorter, but if you are after a full teaching, search for the pod cast that is named "audio teachings", I couldn't encourage you enough, his stuff is all good news.

So whats so cool about this guy? well the perspective that he has on topics is really new to me, but more so than that, it again makes a lot of sense. its crazily simple, and as the content was really thought intriguing. Slowly I have started to find out that there are different flavor of Christianity as we know it. Obviously God didn't mean it to be in various flavors. But the spread of Christendom is so wide that on one end, you have people who are believing in things which the other end is not believing in at all. I had no idea this was so, and thought all brothers and sisters, were in fact connected by one common belief. but in fact we are not. I didn't understand this, and only on hindsight, did I figure out that some preachers talk about this, and I didn't understand what they were talking about. Nicky Gumble from Alpha course talked about a hypothetical story about two christians discussing what they believe, and until they get to one very minute difference in point, they started to fight. And then Curry Blake was talking about, I can't comment on why people do what they do, because he don't know what they believe. this was such an eye opener. I had no idea Christianity was at such a gap. I thought okay you have the baptist, the methodist, evangelicals, the pentacostals/charismatics. but basically they believe in the same stuff! but NO this is not where the dividing line is. But an understanding of what the Gospel really entails.

So where am I trying to get at? well lets approach it this way, I will explain what I used to believe, and then now what I believe, and why I believe in it.

I have been a "Christian" for more than 20 years. and I thought I knew what Christianity is all about, but now looking at it, I had no idea what believing Jesus is about. This was my believe; that as a Christian, when we believe in Jesus, we get to go to heaven when we die. we spend eternity with God. all sounds good so far. So when you believe, all the sins you have committed up to that point, are all forgiven! Horray! Now you start this road of santification, where you leave your sinful ways, and start stepping towards the holiness that God has called you to be. if this is you read on! if not, share what you believe is Christianity.

God was a distant character, big, vague, and loves me, with a love I don't really understand. But more so than this, He is Holy. holy like, if us sinful creature touches him, we are zapped. like Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6:7, you can do it with best of intentions, but God is holy and humans just can't touch this. The relationship with God was, God is big, his ways are mysterious, because his ways are higher than my way, what he said is good, must be good. and I don't understand it, because he is God and I am human. There is a longing to please him, first because he has some goodies for me, if I am good, but also he is a God who zaps, if I fall out of line, not only I lose my goodies, but man there is PUNISHMENT to teach me a lesson, so that I can be "good", for the general good in an utilitarian term, but more so good for my ownself. My relationship with God was, based on the basis that I am to strive and do good, this pleases God, after all he provided the ultimate sacrifice, if he did this much, shouldn't it be right for me to do my best in turn to honor him, please him? He is holy, therefore I must be holy. So here I am trying to do my best to please God, but God damn it, I really fall short, I promise to read the bible, the devil steps in, and instead of reading the bible, I started playing my Playstation. At that stage, I repented, felt sorry for myself, God forgave me, and I am on the okay page with God again. Then I did the same thing the next week, and God was patient with me, and I was forgiven and then the week after that I did the same. I promised God I will read the bible in a year and in December I am hardly over Samuel. Falling short for the 50th time in the year, I started thinking God, you better not forgive me, I deserve to have this sin on me for a while, so I can reflect, contemplate, be serious about my promises to God. and after a while, I would ask God for forgiveness, but at that time, feeling shameful in front of God.
Then on some good days, I would be doing really well, reading 10 chapters a day, completing these amazing fasts that goes for days, and feeling I am getting pretty high on the holy scale, and I would be praying to God, asking God for things, bargaining with God, saying I have sacrificed so much, I have performed so well, in the past week, I must be getting holier, and hence God, I ask, and I shall receive! trying to bend God's arm to do what I think God wants us to pray for. This was my perspective of God, and my understanding of his relationship with me. Its about us wanting what we think God wants. After all, arn't we suppose to seek his "kingdom" first, and his "righteousness", then ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED UNTO MMMMEEEE!!! But wait there is more, apart from this performance based idea of pleasing God, in Mathew 7, there are those who did all these wonderful things, casting out demons, doing miracles, prophesying, but at the end of the day, they get to Heaven, and Jesus said, I never knew you. and castes you out to where there is gashing of teeth. Holy! that better not be me! So I must obey God, and all his commandments, better not judge others, then thinking in my mind, but that prick of a brother over there, he gets me to do all the work, then he shows up to take all the glory. and that sister over there, always comes late to lead bible study, doesn't she know that there are unbelievers here trying to learn about God, where is her heart? This guy, why does he always sleep in services? that is so disrespectful to the pastor, but more over disrespectful to God. and him, sold me this dud of an insurance plan, got me stuck at these non-performing crap, and say I am your brother I will take care of you. Wait Wait, all these thoughts, so wrong, God is not pleased when I am having these thoughts, must repent. So this is a glimpse of the relationship I had with God. Trying to improve myself with the help of Jesus. not being very successful. But all in all, God looks to the heart, he knows I try, but I am only human.  So here I am going to people trying to "Convert" them to Christianity, with this really bad news, which I called the gospel. and I was so blind that I don't even see why non-christians are not interested. If you do not understand what I am talking about, its a dud insurance plan that claims to payout at the end of your life, but there is no evidence that it has the power to follow though, and what it is selling has as high a chance of achieving this goal as flipping a coin.

Ok, so this was my past. Thank God, I now live different, and really would like to let others know of the amazing life that I now live. Ready to hear the good news?

This is the start of my understanding.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Hebrew 10:14,

if you are reading this, and it doesn't impact you. Read it Slooowwwly...
Here is the break down.

By one single offering:
Which offering is this?
Answer: Jesus

He has perfected:
Who is He who has perfected?
Answer Jesus

Perfected:
What means perfected:
Answer: Perfected, like the father's perfect.

For all time
What is ALL time mean?
Answer: All the time that is called time.

Those who are being sanctified.
Who are those being sanctified?
Answer: Believers!

What is sanctified?
Answer: Being set apart.

Okay still don't see it? If you see this as nothing out of the ordinary. You have missed the magic.
We are PERFECT!  Like the Fathers' perfect! in Matt 5:48.

How did we do that?
Jesus is the atoning sacrifice, He himself paid for my Sin. this is why I am perfect!

you may say, so what? I know this! Check out the scope of coverage.

Check out the tense, the time frame: We have been Perfected. Its a done deal. It was done at the time the sacrifice was made 2000 years ago. and the scope of coverage is for eternity. For All Time!

to give you a scope of this, it is forever till the heavens and earth will fade away, I am perfect.

Its all done! its Finished!

This is the goods news of Jesus Christ! This is the Gospel!

We are not trying to get to perfection, we are perfected needing a revelation of who we are, and then walking that perfection out. 

more to Continue

My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?

I have heard, and now am agreeing with the view that on the Cross, when Jesus was saying "God my God, why have you forsaken me!"

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?")

Matt 27:46 

 He was actually not saying that God the father forsake him. I have heard the following verse explained to me by Pete Cabrera Jr. and also to some extent something similar by John Crowder. that apart from the traditional view of Penal substitution. the verse actually meant something very different.

Let me explain, on the Cross, Jesus for the first time in recorded history called God God, He always addressed him as the Father, even from age 12, he was saying he was at his Father's house. He always addressed God as the Father. So why change now? some people say that it was his humanity side, calling out to God. and interpreting how big the extend sin was and its effect, that even the Father turned his face away from Jesus, when the sin of the whole world was pinned on Him. This actually sound pretty good, and I have no problem with people believing this, but I have found what I think is the better explanation.

Back in Jesus days, Scriptures were not chapter-ed nor versed. meaning the way to refer to a particular segment of scripture, you do so by reading out the 1st line, and you go on reading. its like this. "To be or not to be....." what is the next line to that, "that is the question" Mac Beth, Shakespeare. and people will be saying that to tell you they are reading Macbeth. In the same way, Jesus was quoting scripture.

if you google " my God, My God why have you forsaken me". and viola! you will find matthew 27:46, and then you will find Psalms 22.

Jesus on the cross, was more likely referring to his fulfillment of prophesy. He was letting people know, "guys, check this out, The scripture was talking about me!"

the punch line is on verse 24

For he has not despised or scorned

    the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

    but has listened to his cry for help.

Psalm 22:24

God, the good God that we believe in, never left Jesus, He was with him the whole way. God didn't leave Jesus there to hang and die, he was there with him taking care of the results of sin, which was death. This was the master plan of God, to take back the earth's dominion. Dominion was given to man, and man got tricked and gave it away to satan, and as such the dominion must be gained back by Man. Its a legality thing. Hence Jesus the sinless man, came to paid the price of death. all this was in the master plan of God, Jesus knows it, the Holy Spirit knows it, but it was a mystery to satan and to the world, satan thinking he got him now! only to found out that was the move before check mate.

 So why does all this matter? well one, I think because I think it is actually what happened, Jesus did intend to quote you Psalms 22. But more so than this, it gives you a better picture of the loving Father. Who sticks with you from the beginning till forever. When Jesus and the father was One, (John 10:30). The notion of ONE is not that it is One until something really bad happens, and we are no longer ONE. One is One. And as we are One like Jesus and the father is one. man! its depicts the Oneness we have with God. The father never leaves us no matters what! It gives a closer representation of the Good Father, our Good God.

How to read the Bible?

If you are having difficulty understanding the bible, and how some of the things it is saying sounds contradictory. I hope this following post can help clear things up. I had much misunderstanding in the bible, as some words are so harsh that your mind just doesn't compute and hence ignores it. Things like chopping off your hand, taking out your eye, as it causes you to sin... so here is what I have found to be useful, and reading the bible in this light made much more sense.

Historical Contexts
Firstly you have to understand that the Bible is a collection of books, written in different time period though out a spread of 1500-1600 years. If you can appreciate this, you will see how a book written in the beginning can has very different context as that near the end. But more so than this, apart from a historical time difference. there are differences in Era or dispensation which makes the whole applicability very different. Think about it this way, in Heaven how do you apply this verse.

Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering.

Leviticus 23:19

What about

"You shall not murder"

Exodus 20:13

Think deeper into this, and you can see how at different dispensation, the word of God has a different application. Is it correct that we should not murder, even in the new heaven, yes of course it is correct. but it has no applicability because it does not happen. you may say, that is in heaven, but we are still on earth, yes, this is to illustrate a point. In the same way, Before Israel had a king (ie before Saul), they need not pay taxes to the king. But in the era when a king is established, they needed to pay taxes, and it is wrong of them not to.


Imagine someone browsing a swimsuit magazine that is dated now, vs one written 60 years ago. One would be in shock as to why they wear so much cloth to the beach. But back in those days, they will see the material of today and consider it to be pornography. With the same view, you have to think about when the book was written, there was some 2000 years of history between it was written to when you are reading it now, and even further back for the old testaments. Merchants back then is not business man now. Priest back then is not Priests that you see at church now. They have different laws, different ideas on governments. medical, you name it.

Social / Cultural Context
Similar to the Historical, the Social and Cultural Context is very different also, ie if you are Chinese like me, you drink tea as your normal everyday drink, if you are American you might be drinking Soda or Coffee. and if you are italian you will be drinking wine. this is not a historical difference, but a cultural difference. The Jewish has a set of practice in living, that may very well be different to what we do or like to do.

Some were description of events.
It was a record of what people said, or understood at the time of writing, so for example, when Job said, "The lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed is his name" this is what Job said in history, meaning, in the history of this word, a man named Job, said the following words. But the following words, does not mean it is what the reality of God is. Think about it, when Jesus was here on earth, the exact representation of God in every way, did he ever give, and then he take away? NO! our God is not one who gives and take away. He Gives period. in the old testament, people had not had the revelation of the nature of God. It was only until Jesus came that they know that God is love. this is why they didn't recognize the son of God when the saw him.



Is it written to you? 
This is the biggest misunderstanding. and one if not cleared up makes the biggest error in understanding the bible. All books in the bible are written for a particular purpose. They are written as records, when they describe the chain of events that took place. But for instructions, they are written to a particular audience, but that audience might not be a global one, and more so might not be addressed to you.
Read the below scripture and Think about this,

The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
Gen 17:8.

When God was saying this. He was not telling you the american or the chinese to go and possess the land of Canaan, nor is he giving it to the canaanites back then. The Canaanites were being kicked out. in the same way. A lot of the things in the bible are not written to you, or for you. Think about Paul's letters, they were written to different churches, addressing the different issues they were facing. And when they are addressing those issues, the words, the illustrations, needs to be looked at with a perspective with such context. Ie when Jesus was speaking to the Rich young ruler, that he needs to sell everything, is that telling you, you need to sell everything?

Now some major dividing lines in dispensation needed to be understood. 

The Law given by Moses was given to the Jewish people. If you were in the historical context of that time, and you were a edomite, you will not follow the law of Moses, because its blessing and curses does not apply to you. if you were a philistine, you wouldn't do the law, the philistine knows it, the Israelite knows it. imagine this ,its like if you a Chinese person placing a mezuzah at your door, and every time you enter the house, you touch the mezuzah. The jewish people will think you are nuts! its not your custom, its got nothing to do with the Chinese. So in the same light a lot of the things spoken in the bible, we are not under any obligations to do. 



So think about this, do we have to do the law? (speaking as a gentile, and not a Jew), will address the Jew afterwards. This question was asked to the Galatians because the were a gentile church, some jewish people were teaching them that, as they believed in Jesus they need to follow the Jewish laws. Meaning, 1) the were not following the Jewish laws from the beginning, until someone said they also needed to follow the Jewish laws, and 2) Paul told them No! are you guy so foolish that you need to go back to the law? we are born of the spirit, and we are in Christ because of faith in him, not by the deeds of the flesh. So from a gentle concept back in the bible days, they never thought about going under the law, then some judaizer came and told them they had to, and Paul refulted it. If you are not a Jew, the old covenant never had you included. We have been invited to the new covenant, and that is one that is received by faith. you believe it you get it!

So the great dividing line is the beginning of the new covenant, which started in the last supper (not matthew 1:1), when Jesus said this is my body, broken for your sins. And when he has said it was complete, he came back after death. This is the great dividing line. Before this the new covenant, the better covenant has not started. After this, the message is, Its all finished, its all done, Jesus has DONE it ALL. your sins, are forgiven completely, past present and future, you have absolute righteousness with God, absolute relationship with God, all this is made available because Christ has completed his mission, and your key to getting this, is by believing. If you can understand this, you will also understand why jesus said somethings which are contradictory in essence to that of what the other books are saying in the new testament. ie, Saying we are no longer under condemnation, Christ has perfected us forever. This is in contradiction to ie the Lord's prayer, when he told us to forgive others, or else the Father WON'T forgive us. is our forgiveness based on our forgiveness of others? if so we are doomed! but the reason why Jesus said that was because, in the law, it was an eye for an eye, and in that dispensation, he had to say that to be sinless, Jesus was also under the law. The good news is, He came to Fulfill the law and the prophets. He came and did the law for you, and you scored perfect, because he scored perfect.  If you can see how this works, the bible will make so much more sense.

What do you say at heavens door.

The story goes, you live a life that is amazingly well lived, you do your best, and trust god to do the rest, you, go to church every Sunday, irrespective if it was raining, snowing, freezing, sunny, or smoggy. You pay your tithe, and everytime you see someone you tell them about Jesus and the need to get saved. At the end of your life you reached the pearly gates of heaven, and an angel at the door asks you a question, "hello there! Welcome to the gateway, today you will be taking the exam, and according to how you answer, it will determine if you get to go to heaven, or you are going to hell., you ready for the exam?" You anxiously opens the paper. "what have you done that you think you can get to heaven?"

This is a question, I feel that we all need to prepare our exam for. What is it that will get us eternal life with God, or put it another way, what is it that will take us to hell? The answer to this is very revealing. You have to be absolutely honest to yourself. Because If you do not know the answer to this question now, you probably won't know the answer to it at the gate.

I have always thought that I was going to heaven, it was just natural, I mean I didn't murder nobody, I am a pretty good boy when I was young, and in a relative sense, I was very much at the 98 percentile on the good side, rather than the bad. Okay, I am no mother Teresa, nor Martin Luther King, but I am pretty high up there, after the elites, who knows I might become an elite one day.

This was when I was young. But then I heard the church message, and became a Christian, and knows that if I believe in Christ, he saves me! I am saved. I am going to heaven!!!!

All sounds good right? Yep, all is good until, you did something bad, something that you are not suppose to do, something you know it was wrong. Then its bad news, you are now feeling guilty and condemned. 

At that stage, I repent, repent in the sense that I am mega sorry for doing this wrong thing, and I ask forgiveness from Jesus, and he forgave me, and viola! I am back on the save side of Jesus! Sin taken care of, I am all good....

Well all good until the next sin that I commit, back in to guilt, back into condemnation, feeling sorry, feeling regretted, I ask God again for forgiveness, and viola! I am back in with God. But after the 60th time, doing the same sin, that forgiveness from God seems a little tiring if not for God, at least for me, how the hell do I fail so many times. then you say to God, God you know what, there is something wrong, before I ask you for forgiveness, I am going to contemplate about this, think Hard, do some reflection, so that when I do ask, I am going to be serious. so I stay in this sorryful state for a day or two, then goes to God, yep I am ready for your forgiveness. I repent, promise I won't do it again. all great until the next time I commit the same sin! Sounds familiar?

Okay here is the question? what will happen to me if I immediately died of a heart attack, or crossing the road and hit by a car. during one of these episodes of guilt treatment? Where do I end up? At heaven's gate, does the angel look at you and say, well hello Albert, you should have asked God for that forgiveness when you had the chance. Or lets think of another scenario, what about you were diligent in confessing all the sins that you think you did. But then there was one that you forgot, and you did not ask for forgiveness from God. where will you be? the angel points out to you, well Albert, all well done, except! you forgot about this one when you were young, you stole someone's pencil because it had mickey mouse on it, and you really liked it. unconfessed sin buddy. 

Put your hand up if you had been through these thoughts, If you have had such questions before, welcome to Christianity as many may call it. So if you were one of the above, what will your answer be at the exam?

1) well I think God sees that I tried, and did my best, he will judge.

2) well Jesus saves me right, I have tried my best to follow his commandment. I guess I will be okay God is to judge?

With both those answers, you are not really sure what is going to happen 100% ? Being truthful, are you sure you have tried your BEST? what if you did a relative best? what will happen? you are 99% sure, or even 99.9% sure. But that is in fact a oxymoron. "Sure" by definition is not a relative, its a 100% thing. and 99.9% is not 100%. do you get the magnitude of this problem. Holy! Even if you did your best, you might not even be going to heaven. after all God is the Judge and he is love, holy, but Also JUST! 

JUST!!

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 

Matt 7:22-23

Scary stuff, this scripture. That better not be me! but who knows, it might be me, they prophesied, they casted out devils and did many wonderful works. But more so if they did all these and can't get in. because they might have a wrong heart, who is to say I have a perfect Heart for God. my chances are probably not even 99.9%.. 

Ladies and Gentlemen. I hope I have not brought to you a frightful picture. But if I did! don't worry, I did it for a good cause. I bear good news. The above perspective is not a biblical way of what God is saying. I have the answer for the exam that will guarantee a pass at heaven's gate!

And here it is!

—¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
—¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
—John 3:16-18

Whoever believes in Him, will have everlasting life. He who believes is not condemned. Here is the truth right here. Just in case you don’t see it. The criterion is you believe. You may say. This is a waste of time, you are telling me nothing new. Well I am, if you are not sure of your salvation, it is because you do not believe. But if you do believe, it is a 100% pass! If you are believing “you might get Eternal life.” You are not believing the above because there is a doubt inside you, and as such you do not literally believe in what is written in John 3:16!

But what about the people spoken of in Matt 7:22-23? They did all the miracles, they weren’t sure, in fact they were surprised? What about them? Well they are probably not going to make it. I feel sad for them, and so does God. But see this profound truth.

Thank God, these people aren’t us, if we believe in John 3:16. Then, there is not a possible way that we don’t get eternal life. I am not basing my salvation on my action or inaction, but I am basing it on God and his promise. A God who is ever faithful, not a liar, never goes back on his word. (more qualifications is needed on this, will post in another post). I am trusting in what he said he will carry through, and when he said it he meant it, he has the intention, but more so than this, he has the ability to bring it to pass.

But what about if I believe, but I did some really bad stuff, and I didn’t ask for forgiveness, in fact I have unforgiveness! Its not something I forgot, but I intentionally don’t want to repent? Oh no! what will happen?  

The question to you is, will this make the word of God void?

No? You are correct! It changes nothing!

What about if it was a maturity issue, when I was young I don’t know better, but now I have been a Christian for so long, I should know better, more is expected from me. Question again, does this make the word of God void? NO!

What about……

When you think deeper, you see the truth of this. It is not dependent on your action, or inaction, but it is based on the promise of God, and what God has already done. If you are the best person in the world, but you have sinned unless you believe in Jesus, wanting to, and able to, and having taken away your sins, you receive it by believing it, according to John 3:18 you are already condemned. But if you are the worst person in the world, and you have sinned the size of the Himalayas, and you didn’t even repent for all your sins, since they are so many, and you habitually still sin, but you believe that God meant what he said, and did what he did. You approach heaven’s gate. And you answer to the question:

"what have you done that you think you can get to heaven?"

And you say to the angle, I have not even done half the good that I can do, did more evil than I ever knew I could do, but I am going in, not on my own account, I go in because the dude behind you, said he if I believe in him, I am not condemned, but have eternal life. I am going in, on his ticket.

If this is your answer. Congratulations, get your party boots on, we are partying on the same floor! For eternity!

Do we pray for the sick?

Off the bat, this is going to shock you. Now, I have learnt actually not to pray to God for the sick. 

Let me explain this... In a typical scenario, we have the following parties when we are in a situation where there is a sick person. 

1) The Sick person (the patient)

2) The administer (the person praying)

3) God

The contemporary teaching ( and I say contemporary, in that what is mostly held by the body of Christ today) is that The administer speaks to God, and ask God to heal the sick person of the disease. Put your hand up if this is you. Well this was me. We go up to someone who is sick, and we ask God to heal that person. All sounds good, We give it to God, and if he decides to do a miracle, its up to him, I have done my part, the ball is in His court. But I have never had any results praying to God this way. This is a very blanket statement, and I am not saying you may not get results this way, and if you are getting some results, I have a position of which I think I can explain why you do get results. If you are not getting results, I can suggest a better approach to it.

Lets start off by saying why I don't pray to God when I pray for the sick. The word "pray" in today's context has a double meaning, I would like to clarify this first. 1) Praying to God, could be about the notion of speaking to God, asking God, communicating with God. But 2) Praying for the sick person, can some times refer to the act of administrating some form of divine involvement or activity upon that person. So when I say I don't pray to God for the sick, I am stating that I do not speak to God, or talk to God or Ask God to heal the sick person. You may ask Why not? Well, its not how they did it in the bible., and in context of how God has set it up, its not done that way. Lets go though some of the verses.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. 

Matt 10:8

You may ask, why quote this bible verse? This is profound, because I used to read this verse, and think nothing of it. Because I use to read it with a wrong assumption. ie Go pray for the sick, raise the dead (don;t even know what that means and if it applies today), leprosy is already dealt with with medicine, and then drive out demons by asking the pastor to come along if something fishy is happening. Okay ready for the Viola moment? it said Heal the Sick.  YOU heal the sick! Freely you have received, freely give. (this actually applies to the dead raising also). not seeing it yet? check out the below scripture.

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
Matt 10:1

See Jesus gave the disciples the authority to do it. They have been given the power to heal and take out the bad dudes. This is why we can do it.

Is this given to the twelve ? or only the 72? 

This was my initial response when I saw this verse, because, you can understand the bible saying that the 12 were able to do it, but that doesn't mean we can do it. or even should do it. So lets check out the below scripture.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matt 28:19-20

This is spoken when Jesus was being raised up back to heaven, and giving the commission to tell the disciples to make disciples. Think about what this means. To make disciples, was memicing what Jesus was doing, leading, teaching, showing the 12 to do things that Jesus himself was doing. So making disciples, is asking the 12 to replicate themselves, and teaching and training their students to be like them. it is a perpetual replication process of themselves, about the teaching of Jesus, the works of Jesus, but more so about the relationship to God, the reality of what has happened, what was accomplished, and what the World actually is like. So how does this apply to praying for the sick? well, if the new disciples were to do what the 12 were doing, they have to go to the nations, and heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons.

But how does one do that? 

Imagine, Peter telling a new believer. "Phillip, Stephen, come here, When Jesus was still on earth, he went about healing people, he sent us to do the same, so I am going to send you guys out also, as part of the discipleship program." What is Phillip and Stephen going to say to that?.. Hold on Pete,  How do we go about doing this? 

You see at this point, something supernatural has to take place, you can mimic a sermon or a teaching, But for the signs and miracles, This has to be God. The supply has to be there, there is nothing man can do to generate it. 

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Mark 16:17-18

See most of us read the above verse with little impact. Think about it. We don’t expect the signs to follow us for some reason. And most probably that reason is because we don’t see it happen often. Or we have been told that it doesn’t happen now. But this is not what Jesus is saying. He is telling you if you believe in me, these things should be manifesting. Mark was estimated to be written after the destruction of Jerusalem, scholars estimates it to be around 65-75 CE. In order for Mark to be recording this, he must have seen the signs to be prevalent in the church, at least for the 30+ years, after Jesus ascended. Imagine what the early church must have been doing, making sense?

Imagine the conversation between Stephen and Peter, "Stephen don't worry, you just go heal them in the name of Jesus, the authority is already given to us by Jesus himself. We tell the demons to go, and they go, you tell the sickness to go, they go! Check this out, see my shadow? BAM! Your knee is fixed! See it’s a done deal! Jesus was whipped, so we are all healed! We just tell the sickness to go, try it, put your hand on the sick people, and they will be healed". 

Non-apostles did it in the bible!

Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

Acts 6:8

When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many,and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
Acts 8:6-8

(Philip in Acts 8, should not be confused with the apostle Philip) And today you will see that this could be done by any believer, me included and if you believe and act upon it, you will be able to do it too.

See How Peter administered healing

⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Acts 3:6

¹⁶ By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Acts 3:16

and Peter said to him, 'Aeneas, heal thee doth Jesus the Christ; arise and spread for thyself;' and immediately he rose,

Acts 9:34 (YLT)

See how it is NOT about pray! Its about Jesus’ name, and about faith in the name of Jesus!

Brothers and sisters, try it out, take Jesus’ authority out for a test drive. If you want to do the will of the father, do what Jesus did! There is something way deeper here. The point is, we are not healing the sick because it looks all cool and spiritual (which it is!), but we go about it, because in the plans of God, he wants everybody healed, sickness is part of the decay that sin bought, and it doesn’t come from God, it comes from the devil. The Father Loves us and hates the works of the devil, inflicting on us. This is why Jesus had compassion on the people and healed them. You have to recognize that healing is part of the father’s love. Its part of who he is, it’s the nature of God. It is God's will to heal. Write a testimony if this has helped you understand more on God’s healing. 

God's Will on Healing (Isaiah 55:8-11)

The 1st mindset which I would like to address is the notion of

"God sometimes heals, and sometimes not. its up to his will, and his way is higher than my way." 

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,So are My ways higher than your ways,And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there,But water the earth,And make it bring forth and bud,That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void,But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.Isaiah 55:8-11

The above notion of God heals and he heals not, its up to him, initially sounds really good, and with a bible scripture that looks to say that His way are higher than our way, kinds of seals this with a fulls stop.

Well fulls stop until you think it through. How does this passage reflects what Pleases God? Or in fact how does it reflects the "Will" of God at all? Is the passage saying it shall accomplishes whatever He pleases, and refers more to how he operates, but does not reference at all to what pleases God.

Where am I trying to get at? Well I think in all things, as a Christian, you would agree you would want to do things that are inline with the "will" of God. I don't think there is much disagreement here. So in regards to all things, we must look for the will of God, or what pleases God.

The life of Jesus, the expressed will of God

When we are looking for the will of God, in my christian walk, I had rarely looked to the life of Christ for inspiration. I mean after all, he was on the earth 2000+ years ago, He lived in a different social context, but more so, He is God himself. We are kind of not on the same page. He has a direct line to the Father which is available to the son, and the son only. Well that's what I thought initially. But when we study the bible. The picture that God is trying to say to us is in fact very different. Lets look at it from a few different angles. Yes, Jesus was God. So what he does actually reflects what God "wills". So think this through with a "if you are in his shoes" type of a deal. You are God, you are faithful and never changing, and as you are no hypocrite, you do what you say, and say what you do, you do what you believe, and you believe in what you do. So the life of Jesus is the expressed will of the Trinity. But some may say, Jesus whilst was fully God was fully man also, he is limited by his earthly body, so he might not understand completely what the father does. (I am not saying that this is the case or not the case, but in case that this is the case). We read in the bible, that Jesus does not do his own will, but the will of the father, The son does not do nothing of himself. So the association here is, Jesus does the will of the Father,  and as such, if you look at what he did, you should find what is the will of the father. Makes sense?

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 6:38 

Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

John 5:19

So What did Jesus do?

15 But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes[a]followed Him, and He healed them all. 

Matt 12:15

If we saw the life of Jesus, We saw that about 2/3 of it that was written was about him healing people, teaching people, and then healing more people. if we look at John 6:38, we see that Jesus does God's will. It would be logical to conclude that on the topic of healing. Jesus heals, because it is the father's will to heal. 

Did he heal all?

Okay, Okay, I think there is no dispute here that at times we see God's will is to heal, his name is Jehovah Rapha. Meaning Jehovah the one who heals, But is it true that he wants to heal everybody!!! there are so many people that are not healed. 

This is what got me, Jesus healed everybody that came to him seeking for healing. check out the below scriptures. 

And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

Matt 14:14

Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. 

Matt 15:30

He healed, them, was not he healed some of them, or most of them, he healed THEM. THEM That are sick. This struck me, because I didn’t think Jesus healed everybody, (well everybody that went to him). in my mind, I didn’t focus on this point, and has naturally assumed that he must have healed some only to prove his identity. But the bible is actually clear on this, if you read the word in detail. This is profound. Think of it. everybody that went to him got healed. it sounds nuts, but if you think about it, its actually more logical than you think. Imagine the lame man, hopping to see Jesus, he gets in front of  Jesus and says, "Lord, have mercy on me, heal me and make me whole" Okay, what is Jesus going to say to that? Nope sorry today its not your day? I mean what can he say? He literally can't turn the man down, because of who HE is. it makes sense right?


lets paint a picture..

We do not know how big a “multitude” was in the bible. But it wasn’t a few people. So at Jesus time, Jesus the man of God, was a rabbi, walking around teaching people, and doing signs and wonders, healing the sick casting out demons, so a group of people started following him, because he delivers. So within these people, some were sick, some were friends of the sick, like the dude being carried down from the roof. But a small guess of multitude would be a hundred+ people, but a “Great Multitude” should be talking much larger numbers. and in that Jesus healed them all.

So where am I trying to get to with this? This is the point. If Jesus did the will of the father, and what he did was healed everybody that went to him, then based on this premises, God’s will is to heal ALL that went to him for healing.

To strengthen my stance on this, check out the below scriptures.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

Colossians 1:15

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Hebrew 1:3

If we want to know what God’s will is, and what nature he is, we have been praying and asking God for his will, or to reveal himself, this is all a less superior way. If we see the truth of the above scripture. The key to understand God’s will is, is to look to Jesus the Christ, the expressed image of his (God)’s person, the expression of his Will, his Nature, as Jesus and the father are one. This has a much bigger implication than that of healing alone. It is how we are to know God. I will write another post on this topic, the nature of God. All of the revelation and understanding of God, from the bible, our everyday experience, and other people’s experience is all through the lens and the perception of man, and as such, it is limited, but more so it can be just wrong.  The only true representation of God, and who he is, is in the person of Jesus Christ, he is the only guy who ever lived, who has a clear understanding of the father, and he himself said, if you have seen me, you have seen the father. anything other than that of what Jesus is. is not a correct understanding of God.

God our Father and his nature

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:9-11

establishing that the will of God is to heal all who goes to him. I want to explore apart from the will of God, (God’s intentions.) I want to go deeper and ask, Why does God heal? And this is to understand who God is, and at the same time who God is not. The revelation that Jesus bought to the Jews when he was on earth was. Guys, God wants to relates to us. As Father and son. This is the reason Jesus in the Lord’s pray, say “Our father in heaven”, meaning God the father relates to Jesus as that of the father, and we he shares this same privilege with us now. You will ask Wooh Wooh, wait a minute. That makes Jesus our brother? That can’t be right!!?? He is too holy, we are too sinful! But look at scripture, and you will see that, that’s How Jesus relates to us, if you don’t accept it, its your intention, its not biblical and its not God. Dwell on this a little, as if we are the children of God, and it is not one of a badge on a name tag, but our identity. 

Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Matt 28:10

Going back to God our father. This tells us so much about what is going on. God loves us. We don’t understand what this means, because we base our relationship with others, using our version or understanding of Love, its all conditional. But God’s love is unconditional. But it is the closest thing God’s can illustrate on this point. Parental love, is probably the most powerful love we can associate with. All Parents love their children, and they want their best. So God goes to demonstrate, if your child comes up to you, and ask you for bread or fish, you would give it to them, and not give them something that is bad to hurt them. (ie a snake, scorpion) This is absolutely understandable across the board, irrespective of culture, religion, demographics. So imagine this hypothetical scenario. You daughter comes to you the parent, and she has cancer, she asks you for some money to go get medical help. Will you as a parent give her the money if you have it? You will borrow money to give to her if you have to right? This is the heart of a father/mother. Now imagine same scenario, the daughter approaches the parent, and say, I know you have the money, but mum/dad, are you willing to give me the money to get me healed? As the parent, you might think, what have I done wrong that my child will question my intention and motive? This is exactly what we are doing to God. When we say, God I know you are able to heal, but I don’t know if you are willing. The body of Christ at large, question on God’s will to heal, but never doubted his ability. 

Listen to this, as the parent will feel sad that his/her child will even think that they won’t be willing to help them. Father God is feeling sad, when we believe God can heal, but we don't blieve that he is willing to heal.

During the last 2 years, I have started to understand who God really is. He is a good God, he is my father, the one who loves me and cares for me, he has my best interest on the top of his list. If you think through the above, you will know that throughout history, God has been misrepresented. The Devil has deceived us, the devil actually has limited resources, his most used trick is that of deception, and he pulls you away from God’s providence by introducing doubts of God’s character, goodness and love. This is what tricked Eve. God wants us well. He wants us whole, and his take on healing, is like that of Salvation, he wants none to perish, he wants all to be well. The price is paid, Jesus died, he became a curse for us, He was nailed for our sins, and he went through being whipped so that in this life we get our healing. NOW!.

If you are in need of healing. Feel free to comment on below. I have seen so many manifestation of God’s healing to be true, I can help you to receive the healing, but more importantly is that you get a revelation for yourself of the truth in this, because once you see it. There is no going back. You will see God in an absolute new light, and you will find that it is in God’s goodness, that leads people to repentance.