I Bleeb I'b Eeled (Part 1)

You might hear someone with a cold (and perhaps a misunderstanding of Biblical faith and healing) say "I bleeb I'b eeled".

Obviously, scripture proclaims God is a healing God, he desires to heal people, and that Christians can be used by God to bring physical healing to people. Jesus said, "He who believes in me, the works that I do, he shall do also, and greater works than these shall he do" (John 14). But why don't we see more of this today?

Scripture Trumps Experience
One problem we encounter is the difficulty squaring our experiences with scripture. It is difficult to believe that God wants to heal more often than not, because we haven't often seen healings. The fact is that many times we pray for healing and see no results. Thus we reinterpret scripture to match our experiences. And we default to such prayers as, "If it is your will, heal so and so."

Jesus demonstrated God's will in sickness and healing. Paul says that we are to "prove what the will of God is", not guess what it is. Can we truly pray the prayer of faith if we don't know God's will?

One Important Principle For Healing
Learning about healing has been a quest of mine for a long time. I'm endeavoring to conform my experience to scripture (not the other way around). One thing I've learned is the importance of gaining God's perspective on the immediate situation.

There are many causes for physical symptoms and sicknesses. These can be physical, emotional, spiritual, etc. or a combination. But if we merely approach a sickness from a physical standpoint, we may miss the boat, and suffer needlessly in the long run.

God knows the root causes of our ailments, and he can make them clear. Without seeking him, we end up stabbing at solutions. We try to pray harder. Our doctors experiment with treatments. Sometimes God says, "Go to the doctor". But not always.

Deliverance by Man
Here's an example. At least three people I know of have been treated for melanoma. Knowing the danger of this disease and observing for several years a small abnormal spot on my skin, I began to seek God about going to the doctor. Now I never had it diagnosed, but I do know that it was not clearing up, and if anything, it was slowly getting worse. God spoke to me this passage:

Oh give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain. Psalms 108:12

So I have believed God, and have trusted in his specific word to me for this situation. After a couple of months, the spot cleared up over half-way. A year later almost all the discoloration is gone.

Pink Eye Hit Home
One more example that occurred in my family is when conjunctivitis took its turn with three of my boys. The first two battled recurring fevers and red, gooping eyes. When prayer did not help them, we took them to the emergency room (of course this happened on the weekend!) and obtained antibiotics for them. Then the third boy came down with the fever and the seeping, red eyes.

I was frustrated. But after God adjusted my attitude, I heard the Holy Spirit clearly say to anoint him with oil (James 5), and I was reminded of Jesus' words about agreement (Matthew 18). So my wife and I anointed him and agreed together in prayer for him to be healed. The following morning the fever was gone, and the eyes had significantly cleared. That night we did the same thing, and the next morning he was completely healed. (Incidentally, it took around four or five days for the other two's symptoms to clear up.)

Jesus is More Accessible than Your Doctor
So why not give Jesus a chance to speak to us about our physical symptoms? We may just need to seek medical help. But maybe God will point us in another direction. He certainly desires to heal us. And we don't need to set up an appointment with him.

"Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers" (3 John 1:2).

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Great Song from Deluge

"Open up the Sky" is a great song from the band Deluge. It's been around for almost a year and currently can be downloaded for free at the link at the end of this post.


Open Up the Sky
by John Stockstill
(c) 2008 Integrity's Praise! Music

Our beloved Father please come down and meet us
We are waiting on Your touch
Open up the heavens shower down Your presence
We respond to Your great love

We won’t be satisfied with anything ordinary
We won’t be satisfied at all

Open up the sky fall down like rain
We don’t want blessings we want You
Open up the sky fall down like fire
We don’t want anything but You

Our beloved Jesus we just want to see You
In the glory of Your light
Earthly things don’t matter they just fade and shatter
When we’re touched by love divine

Here we go let’s go to the throne
The place that we belong
Right into His arms


If you would like the chords for this song, click here. Click this link to play (or right click to download) the free mp3 of this song: http://www.verticalmusic.com/audio/06%20Open%20Up%20The%20Sky.mp3

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Ravi Demonstrates Unscientific Science

Original source: http://www.thetruthproject.org/about/culturefocus/A000000211.cfm


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Have a Seat

Paul wrote that Christ, after rising from the dead, has been seated at God's right hand in the heavenly places, "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet" (Ephesians 1:21,22).

This is nothing especially new, but it is awesome to think that Christ is not barely above every rule, authority, power and dominion. But he is far above them.

They can't touch him.

But I think there is something even more remarkable here that may go unnoticed.

In the next section of his letter, Paul writes that God has "seated us with him in the heavenly places." To me this has significant implications, if we choose to believe what he says. If we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, then we are far above every power and dominion of hell.

They can't touch us unless we concede to them.

Will circumstance and trouble, difficulty and trial bring us down from our seat in the heavenly places, down to the realm of Satan's bullying? Or through faith will we take our seat with Christ in the heavenly places, "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion"?

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