My husband and I were preaching in a small village in Mexico. At one of the meetings there was an elderly man who could not walk. He listened to the Word of God and heard that Jesus was still alive and that He loves and heals. Nobody prayed for that man; nobody touched him, and suddenly he jumped up and began to sing and dance, because God touched his body and healed him!
Dear friend, I want you to know that that precious old man from Mexico is not any different from you. Jesus loves you so much that He gave His life just for you to be healed! God loves each one of us so much that He Himself dwells among us and heals us. And if today you need healing, He will heal you. All you need to do is believe!
Sickness and disease are the precursor to death and all are a result of sin. When we see a miracle in operation, once again we see God initiating good. Anything you can do sick you can certainly do better healthy! His miracles are confirmation to us that He restores life.
In the beginning when God said “and it was good,” sickness and death were not a part of His original creation. So now when we see a miracle in evidence, we recognize that miracles come to us as a demonstration that God is with us, and His will to do good and not to do evil, to be a blessing and not to harm, to give life and not to curse; He is for us and not against us!
When I receive Jesus into my heart, He lives in me — His Spirit, His holiness, and His righteousness live in me. When I walk, He walks, and when I talk, it’s like He’s talking through me. When I heal or I lay my hands on someone, it’s like He is touching that person through me.
According to Colossians 1:27: “Christ now lives in you.” So where is the presence of God? I’m not looking forward over here or looking backward over there, or begging for it up there. I am relishing the abundance and living in the glory of His love and His life and His Spirit in me, right now. I come boldly to His throne of grace and receive what I have need of from Him. I recognize that He lives in me, I live in Him, and His presence surrounds me.
This is one of the foundational premises for our miracle life, practicing and recognizing the presence of God!
Right now you and I can embrace the perspective which says, no giant of sickness and disease, no giant that comes against the living God, can exist in the presence of the One who lives in us, who believes in us, and who goes about doing good and healing all who are oppressed of the devil.
Jesus said in John 6, “I am the bread of life, and whoever comes to me will never hunger, and the one who believes on me will never thirst.” Have you pulled up to the table today? Have you taken hold of the promises that God has for you?
God’s original dream was to start a family with the potential to walk and behave like Him. Adam failed. He disobeyed God and did not fulfill God’s dream. But God sent Jesus, whom Scripture calls the last Adam, and He did not fail. Jesus is the model for us to follow.
How do we model ourselves after Jesus? Do we wear long robes with long hair and beards? It is interesting that in the four Gospels the writers did not talk about His appearance; His nose, the color of His eyes, His muscles, his height, His posture, or His hair. This is how popular writers describe their heroes in the books written today, but the Gospels are different. They are full of His words and His wonders. He is our model in response, action, compassion, authority, wisdom, purpose and power. We duplicate Him through the power of the new birth! The new birth is the ability to become God’s children. To as many as received Him, He gave power to become the sons and daughters of God. Paul tells us to put on this new man that is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him.
All the potential of Jesus as the Son of God was placed, in seed form, into you as a child of God!
Many have found Jesus as Savior, but are not aware of His healing power. God said in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Even today some church leaders are offended by miracles, saying that miracles have long passed and are no longer part of the Christian life. That could be true if God has changed or Jesus has changed, but the authority of God’s Word says that neither one has changed. In fact, God says of Himself, “I am the Lord and I change not” (Malachi 3:6).
Jesus knew His mission. He was set to go to the cross, and on that cross He would pay the price for our sin, for our peace, for our sicknesses, and for our diseases. He took upon Himself all our punishment on that cross.
Remember, the miracle of salvation occurs without a touch. What happens to the body when the Spirit of God, Who created the whole universe, fills it? Our bodies need life just like our spirit needs life. When we respond to words that heaven backs up, then Life infuses our system and oftentimes, without even a prayer, transformation occurs. Scripture tells us that the same Spirit which raised up Jesus is now making our mortal bodies alive (Romans 8:11)!
Many years ago I was in the nation of Côte d’Ivoire. As I was standing on a great field with nearly a quarter of a million people, there was a woman on the very edge of the crowd, listening. Actually she was in the throes of death, lying in what we would call a wheelbarrow. I didn’t know she was there. Her family had carried her a great distance just to get her in the presence of that meeting. And as she heard some words of life something very special happened to her.
The meeting went long and miracles were happening all over the field. We couldn’t even control the platform; there were so many people rushing it from both sides to give their testimonies. I would run back and forth from the left side of the platform to the right to let people give their testimony in the microphone. I remember one young girl dressed in white, and her mama looked at me and said, “My daughter is healed. She could not hear, she could not speak.” I said, “Mama, how do you know?” And right at that moment the little girl just looked up at her and said “Mama, Mama,” and her mother broke into tears right there on the platform.
At that moment on the other side of the platform, someone else rushed up and the whole crowd began shouting “Jesus! Jesus!” I ran over there to take the testimony, and discovered a man who had been chained to a tree because he was dangerous to himself and others. He had just been set free! They had taken the chains off him and now he was walking about totally healed, in his right mind! And yet, in the midst of all these miracles, there was that woman on the outside of the crowd that I didn’t even see, nor did she testify, but I heard much later that on the outside of the crowd it was also her day to receive her healing from God!
I can’t see you face-to-face, nor can you see me, but I know this—I have been sent by God to declare to you that the foundation for your miracle is solid when you understand that God is willing, God is able, and right now God is ready to heal you!
There is nothing better than a good piece of toast with coffee in the morning, but our daily bread is much more than that. What is our daily bread? In the story of the Exodus as the children of God were deciding whether or not to cross the Jordan River and fight, Joshua shouted out to those who were backing out of the idea. He said the call of God to possess the land made every giant in the land as BREAD for them.
“Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Numbers 14:9
There was no protection for their enemies as they pursued the will of God!
With this truth on our side, we in the 21st century can look at the giants that stand before us and say they are bread for us. We are not to be worried over as problems, mountains, or impossibilities. We eat them as bread!
Our victory nurtures us for future conquest. Your giants are nothing before your God! Your God lives in you, so there is defeat in the heart of your enemies who stand before what God wants to accomplish in your life. Rahab said to the spies that they had dreaded the day when the children of God would cross over. Defeat was already in their enemy’s heart.
We are seeing Europe and the republics and regions of the former Soviet Union experience a great revival through bold evangelistic tent meetings, and we continue to expect the grace and favor of God on all who make those giants as bread for these dynamic evangelists!
Is there a difference between Saturday and Sunday? There doesn’t have to be. What makes Sunday feel different is the act of sitting under a Word of God that fills you up. For 22 years I sat under a Word that made no difference between Saturday and Sunday, but once I saw that the Word was alive, Sunday became much more heightened experience.
Why isn’t every day a refreshing, exciting, stimulating, creative experience? The problem is that we are all CRACK POTS. In Bible words, we are vessels of clay that are leaking; so Scripture tells us that faith comes by hearing and not by what we have heard in the past. Maybe that’s why you need church. The Holy Spirit infilling is not just a moment, but a daily fill up.
Is life designed to be a struggle followed by the ultimate loss thru death, only to get your victory in the next life to come? No, that’s NOT God’s plan for you! When He called the children of God out of Egypt it was not to experience the desert. They were not just called out of bondage, but they were called into a promised land! The desert was not the plan, but mankind has a way of making their own choices.
The only way to change your desert experience is allowing the water of God’s Word to turn it into a garden of hope and dreams. Take time today to refill that old cracked pot of yours. Speak to yourself in hymns and songs and find the melody in your heart. There is a promised land with your name on it!
