Religious tradition teaches that God uses sickness to teach us. But if that were true, then every person seeking medical help and every doctor who treated them would be in rebellion against God for attempting to heal that afflicted one. Every hospital and medical office would be houses of rebellion. The truth is, Jesus was a revelation of God’s will as He went about HEALING all who were oppressed of the devil! (Acts 10:38)
In many areas of life you can slip back into old patterns that you had previously freed yourself from. You wake up one day and realize you are back in the rut of doing what you were stuck in 10 or 20 years ago! This can also happen in your thinking, which ends up limiting the power of God actively working in your life. It happens when you start reading the Bible more as a history book than as a living letter to you, to be applied and acted on every day. Remember, back then it was the ministry of Jesus in a Jew. BUT NOW, it’s not just history, it has become the ministry of Jesus carried out through you!
When the children of God forgot the miracle of deliverance from their past bondage in Egypt, they lost interest in the provision of daily bread as well as the shade by day and warmth by night. They turned their eyes to go back to slavery in Egypt. We all can lose our hunger for the miracles of today and replace our rejoicing with memories of the past. Let us never look back, but plan a future in the impossible!
Egypt kept Israel in bondage for 400 years—long enough to cause them to forget how a free person thinks. When they had the opportunity to be free, they wanted to return to the security of the chains in Egypt. If a Christian is in bondage, it’s not because the devil is so strong, but rather their will to walk free is so weak. How is this bondage broken? By allowing the truth that Jesus has set them free to renew their minds and reprogram their thinking!
It’s a lie from the devil that you can’t be used by God until you are perfected. You and I will be renewing our minds until the day we die, so we should never let anything hinder us from going and doing!
People who work too hard at having faith tend to have the least amount of it! They’re more aware of and focused on their lack of it—leaving them feeling like they’ll never measure up—instead of becoming the mountain-movers God intends them to be!
What is the fight of faith that all believers are called to? The fight of faith is continually choosing to think like scripture says rather than what the world is saying. It is holding onto a word from God when all else looks otherwise. It’s not getting on my knees and struggling with devils, but is rather keeping my mind and emotions focused on truth, and my words in agreement with God’s Word. It is believing what God says is the truth over what my body, my bank account or my friends may say!
When you really get it that Jesus paid the entire price for sin, you’ll understand that you’re no longer under the devil’s tyranny and oppression. Know this as confidently as you know your name—the devil has NO power over you anymore, in any area, because Jesus took your sin and permanently gave you HIS righteousness!
No matter how loud the voices are that try to tell you that you’re not going to get there, that the bible isn’t true, that you’re going to be disappointed and will just have to endure what you’ve been dealing with for the rest of your life—remember, THEY ARE ALL LIES! The devil wants you to quit! If you weren’t on the right track for success, do you think he would be trying to stop you?
We declare salvation as a free gift, but it wasn’t really free. It came at a great price and cost God His best! His Son Jesus paid that price and it was NOT cheap. When you understand the magnitude of that price, it should forever settle the question of your value to God!
