In high school when I played basketball we started training and got in shape before the season started. We didn’t wait until the first game to start training, and we were in constant contact with our coaches before and during the season. We practiced our plays, worked as a team, and listened to our coaches to be the best we could be. We took note of the tactics and plays of the different teams we would be playing, making sure we knew what was needed to win.
My basketball coaches were not the ones playing the game–we were. They were cheering us on, as God does when we’re doing his will. Christ through us is what gets the job done. And it’s not about focusing on the enemy, but we should know about him and what he does to people so we can shut him down. He is already defeated, so we function out of victory!
Christ lives IN us–we have to exercise our faith like a muscle by doing the Word of God and following the commands of Christ to be the best sons and daughters we can be. We cannot wait until something bad happens, like if someone close to us becomes ill, before we learn how to actually deal with the problem.
There are too many situations where people call on God at the last minute when they really need him, like when someone is dying, and expect their pretty much non-existent relationship with him to fix everything. We need to understand our authority and who God called us to be.
He said, “Go! (Matthew 10:8) YOU heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, take care of the poor, the homeless, the widows, etc. etc. etc,” (‘You’ is implied, meaning YOU heal the sick with Christ flowing through you!) and the list goes on.
Jesus died for us, saved us, set us free, healed all of our sicknesses, gave us all of him and his authority, so it is NOT okay to let the enemy steal from us just because we are unprepared for battle and don’t even understand how to fight! There are too many people dying out there to be unaware and complacent.
It is essential to be trained by the Holy Spirit and to be in constant communication with God and not talk the talk if you’re not walking the walk.
Calling yourself a Christian doesn’t mean anything unless you actually do something with your faith. Read the Bible, find out what God says about himself, about you, etc., so that you know what your salvation means and what you’re called to do. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all Truth.
If all you do is let people spoon-feed you at church one hour on a Sunday, you will not get it. Babies drink their mother’s milk, mother birds chew and digest the food before they regurgitate it to their young.
Hebrews 5:12-13 says that you should be able to teach people what you know, but you are unskilled in the word of righteousness, making you like a baby who drinks milk, not solid food.
I love babies, don’t get me wrong, but bear with me while I expand on the metaphor: babies are needy, helpless, and incapable of doing anything for themselves. They rely completely on other people for their every need. They whine, they cry, they need to be entertained, and they fall asleep shortly after they eat. The reason babies drink milk and baby birds have to eat previously digested food is because they cannot digest anything more than that.
If you cannot digest the word and only rely on people to spoon-feed you, you will not grow and your spirit will not be able to handle meat–the Word and doing the commands of God. You are only a disciple and friend of God if you do what he commands (John 15:14), and not doing it out of obligation, but because you know and love him as your Father.
If you are born again, you are a new creation living under the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.
When people say things like, “Oh, well I’m not called to missions or praying for the sick…” or “I’m only an intercessor…” or “If God wants me to do that He’ll change my heart,” that’s just a cop-out for being lazy and disobedient.
God’s already created a new heart in you when you decided to partner with Him. Your heart is willing and ready to do God’s will.
The thing that needs renewing is your mind (Romans 12). If your mind is telling you something contrary to Scripture, do not assume God went back on his word or that it’s okay to put it back on Him like He’s holding out on you and didn’t change that particular part of your heart.
He did that already, now you need to draw near to Him and get your mind on track with your heart, the heart of God.
—Laura
We just got this email from my wife’s aunt from when we visited her church in Colorado (a few weeks ago) and were asked to pray for people…full testimony of a woman’s leg and ears getting healed! Doctors have verified it and we will be putting up the verification as we are able to get it.
The video testimony is directly below here—the e-mail below that is what has happened since this video was taken. She sent it to her pastor and it made its rounds to us.
To download the 5 pictures of the doctor’s report that confirms her healing, click here!
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“While you were in India, I felt impressed to join the Prayer Team at the front of the sanctuary and pray for people who needed special prayer that Sunday morning (almost 3 weeks ago). I had taken a sabbatical, as you know, for quite a long time from the Prayer Team as well as being a Guest Specialist until I had fully recovered from my many injuries, surgeries, etc. of this past year. But because of how God spoke to me through Pastor Jason’s message, I knew it was time to “get back in the race.” What a joy it was for me to intercede for others!!
On my way out of the sanctuary, I was stopped by some young people I’d never met before. I had forgotten that Pastor Jason had mentioned a healing team from California being in the prayer room for those who needed healing prayer. They asked me why my right foot was in a boot. I told them about dropping the computer monitor on it over Memorial Day weekend and crushing it. It had really been throbbing and painful all day Saturday and I was feeling discouraged that I’d have to wear the boot for another month, according to my doctors.
They also commented on my hearing aids and asked how long I’d been wearing them. I told them for 11 years and that my hearing was so bad, my audiologist told me I had the hearing loss of someone in their 70′s (back when I was 50!). The young people asked if they could pray for my hearing as well as my foot! I told them I didn’t think anyone had ever prayed for my hearing before and that it would be fine if they wanted to do that.
They sat me in a chair and the leader of the group lifted both feet up towards him and told me one leg was shorter than the other. I told him it was probably from months of limping around funny in both boots at different times. He said, “Watch this!” As he prayed a very short but direct prayer for healing, we watched my right [leg] grow longer right before our eyes!! I didn’t remove the boot until I got home because I didn’t have an extra shoe with me.
But when I got home, I removed the boot and haven’t worn it since.
Then the young people prayed for my ears. The young man snapped his fingers over each ear and said, “Be open in the name of Jesus!” I didn’t feel anything or notice a difference until he asked me to please remove my hearing aids. So I held them in my hand while he walked behind me and told me to “repeat after me”! Pastor Peter, he was halfway across the Sanctuary when I turned around and realized I could hear him whispering to me!! I haven’t worn the hearing aids since that Sunday either.
The only person I told at work was my boss, Dan, who’s a Christian. He kept trying not to cry on that Monday morning. He believed me but suggested I contact my audiologist and get a hearing test done so I’d have proof for those who didn’t believe me and thought I was a kook!
My audiologist has been on vacation but I saw her this morning at 7:30 and she did a thorough audiology test in the little booth they use. Half-way through, I could hear Linda sniffling and I knew she was crying.
She kept saying, “I can’t believe this! I just can’t believe this!” I not only scored 100% on the high and low sounds she played in both ears while I punched the button to let her know I could hear them, I also was able to repeat every single word back to her without missing any of them. I’ve never been able to do that before.
Linda came into my booth and asked me to tell her again what happened to me at church a few weeks ago. She took my chart and told me she had to show my test results to Dr. Reiner because he would never believe it! But she was so disappointed he wasn’t at work yet, she grabbed the billing lady and brought her in and asked me to repeat my story. The billing lady was a Believer and just kept grinning at me and said, “I believe! I know God can heal people today!”
Linda was crying and said, “Well, I’ve heard of things like this happening, but I just never saw it until today, and I’ve been an audiologist for years (She’s even a “Doctor of Audiology”)! I just kept shouting, “Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!” Linda told the billing lady that I had started losing my hearing from all the scar tissue caused by my Dad’s beating for so many years when I was a little girl. It was inoperable and their fear was that someday I might lose my hearing totally!
Linda said she’d write up a report and mail it to me along with copies of my past tests to show the comparisons between then and today. I just couldn’t wait to share this wonderful news with you, Pastor Peter. I haven’t told anyone but my boss because I wanted to wait for the report to prove what I’m sharing is true. Isn’t God good?
Please let the staff know and whoever else you might want to share this awesome news with and rejoice with me at God’s goodness. He truly is a miracle working God and I want the whole world to know!
- Jayne”
We are always surrounded by people with good intentions. Some of those people truly mean what they say and accomplish their goals, while others sometimes fall into the habit of not being able to follow through for whatever reasons. Perhaps it is because they do not have good boundaries and are just trying to be nice, never actually planning on doing what they said.
Or they truly want and mean to do something, but in the end have their priorities mixed and cannot make commitments.
In any case, we have all fallen short, but it is extremely important to say what we mean and bring it into fruition—“let your yes be yes and your no be no” (Matthew 5:33-37). To honor and love others has to be our #1 priority—if we only ‘talk a good talk’, we will soon find ourselves being dishonoring and untrustworthy to everyone around us, including our very close family and friends.
We cannot let ourselves fall into that trap—it is the total opposite of the character of God.
I recently read a book called The Noticer by Andy Andrews. The book is about how circumstances can drastically change by simply changing one’s perspective. In the book, the main character, Jones, aka “the noticer”, was talking to someone about intentions.
He gave this example: “If five seagulls are sitting on a dock and one decides to fly away, how many are left?” Well that’s obvious–four, right? No. There are still five left; just because one of the seagulls made up its mind to leave doesn’t mean it actually did.
Jones goes on to say, “Despite popular belief, there is absolutely no power in intention. Have you ever considered how often we judge ourselves by our intentions while we judge others by their actions? Yet intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.”
That’s quite a sobering statement.
If we make up our mind to do something, tell others of our intentions, but end up not carrying them out, how can we be trusted? It really comes down to loving and honoring others, getting our priorities straight, and acting with the utmost amount of integrity. And if we fail in honoring someone by not doing what we said we would do, let us be honest enough to tell them our choices were wrong—because after all, we always have a choice in what we do.
So, how do we go about walking this out? Well for starters, we need to get our stories straight. No matter how nice we sound when we say we will invite someone over for dinner, it will leave a bad taste in their mouth when they think about how you never did invite them over.
Also, I would like to stress how important it is to keep each other accountable. We are to lovingly judge by a person’s fruit—what are our lives producing, love and honor, or disrespect and lack of integrity? Are we not our brothers’ keepers? Would you not rather confront someone who is acting in a way that is dishonoring and unloving than let them continue down such path?
We are to help each other, not tear each other down, and if anything it will give a little perspective into situations that can bring about healing and reconciliation. Confrontation is not a bad thing if carried out correctly.
And so with a final quote from Andy Andrews’ book, I hope you were able to gain something from this note…
“Most folks figure a true friend is someone who accepts them as they are. But that’s dangerous to believe. A true friend holds you to a higher standard; a true friend brings out the best in you. A best friend will tell you the truth…and a wise best friend will include a healthy dose of perspective.”
- The Blueprint of “Renewing Your Mind” 11/24/2011 Brandon
- Decisions that Define Us – Graham Cooke 11/23/2011 Brandon
- Incomplete Vs. Complete Forgiveness 11/25/2011
- 20 Rob Rufus Quotes On Law vs. Grace 11/23/2011
- Organic Church Introduction 01/30/2012
- Dead to Sin and Alive to God! 11/10/2011
- Five Ways Jesus Revealed Grace 02/01/2012
- Do Everything Jesus Said? 01/29/2012
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