Healing By Faith – Gradually and All at Once- Purity 865

 

Healing By Faith  – Gradually and All at Once- Purity 865

Purity 865 10/18/2022 Purity 865 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a kaleidoscope of autumn color found in a sampling of trees comes to us from an anonymous friend who captured this scene on social media last Thursday. My friend is not anonymous of course but time was limited this morning and I didn't think I had enough of it to  scour Facebook to discover the identity of the photographer. I know they're not a professional, I don't think, but the photo they captured shows they certainly have an eye  of an artist, and I am thankful to them for sharing what they saw. And if they should happen to see their photo and want credit, just contact me and I will add your name to the post.

Well it's the 18th of October and as I stated last week the peak season for the fall foliage in the Catskills and Adirondacks region of upstate New York is the first couple of weeks in October,  so we may be on the other side of seeing the best of the season as I see more and more leaves on the ground with each passing day.

The change in the leaves can be gradual but it can also seem like it happens all at once. For those people who were waiting for the changes that come it probably seemed like it took forever and now with each passing day the glory of those autumn colors are beginning to fade as October draws closer to the arrival of November in just two weeks.

In the past two weeks I was waiting for healing to come to my wife as she was suffering from an infection in her gums because of a dental problem. We started praying for healing immediately, and she started taking antibiotics to fight the infection, but instead of things getting better they seemed to get worse.

I was positively upset that my wife was suffering, and I had some real out loud conversations with the Lord about it. I wish I could say I wasn't angry but I was. My wife's journey has been a strange one this year, with several job changes and contentions in court, and just when it seemed like we were ready to finally come to a place of peace and victory she gets hit with this!

So I went to the Lord, and I told Him I wasn't happy. I kept praying for healing every day. I even answered a call that I felt the Lord was giving me to make an offering to a local cause that was calling for donations, and even though I stepped out in faith and made the sacrifice even that didn't seem to be changing the spiritual atmosphere to bring healing to my wife situation. But I kept praying and hoping and my wife kept suffering.

And then Saturday, I had a fall at work that could have been a real disaster, but I was providentially given the grace of the Lord so that I walked away from it with comparatively minor injuries.  But I was still pretty sore Sunday morning when I went to church.

Our pastor was concluding his four part series on prayer and the message broke down the different scenarios concerning God answering prayer.  Pastor Roscoe shared the four following points:

Request not right = NO

You're not right = grow

Timing not right = slow

Everything's right = go

He explained that if our prayer request wasn't in God's plan for us the answer would be no.  The second point meant that if we weren't right with God and needed to repent or mature in our faith, God would use our walk and our unanswered prayers to make us grow.  The third point meant that our prayer would be answered but not yet. And the fourth point meant that everything would be right, and your prayer would be answered.

Well I had to believe that my prayers for TammyLyn was a good request and I hoped that it was in God's plan that she'd be healed. Although I have to admit the enemy whispered my ear “This is how your wife dies” but I didn't listen to that!

As for me being right, while I will never claim to be perfect, I didn't think that I had anything in my life that would prevent God from healing Tammy Lynn.

So, it looked like option 3, the timing, wasn't right yet Or something else was going on that I didn't know about.

As a service drew to an end, Pastor Roscoe, the prayer team, and other members of leadership, invited people to come up to be prayed for.  Well I had been blessed the previous day without being seriously injured, I was still hurting, and I remembered

James 5:14-15 (NKJV) that says:
¹⁴  Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
¹⁵  And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

When I remembered that, there was no way I wasn't going up there for prayer.  So I went up and Pastor Larry, our executive pastor, just happened to be the person available for me to go to.

And so I explain to him how I had had a fall the previous day and the Lord had blessed me with without being seriously hurt but I was in pain and I wanted to be obedient to the word of God and come to the elders and get anointed with oil and be prayed for. But I also said that I wanted him to pray for my wife Tammy Lynn to be healed as well. And that I knew that if we want to be right with God we have to obey His word.   So pastor Larry prayed and the service ended.

Sunday night I made my way back to River house and I was very sore and very tired and I had entertained the idea I'm staying out of work for a couple of days to fully recover, not knowing for sure whether or not I would go to work come Monday morning.  But yesterday I woke up and I wasn't too sore and I was able to do my regular morning workout and although my neck was a little stiff I made it through a full day of work Monday without any real problems.

I think that sometimes we have a choice of what story we're going to tell with our lives. I think we can stay home sick or we can get on with our lives. Now don't get me wrong if you're sick stay home. If you're not well enough to work don't force yourself to do something that you can’t. 

But sometimes it's not very clear whether or not you're well or sick and you have to decide what you're gonna do. You have to either agree that the Lord is going to heal you and has healed you or you can choose to stay and wait on the Lord to see if you're healed. Yesterday I decided by faith that I was well enough to go to work and I was.

Now this is a Gray area because I could have easily just stayed home and believe me at different times I'm like what am I doing at work. But I didn't want to be a liar either. I don't wanna stay home nursing a little bit of muscle soreness and being deceitful and saying I couldn't work. When you're walking with the Lord you have to really be concerned with whether or not you're speaking the truth. By calling in sick saying i couldn't work, I thought it be dishonest.

So because I was convicted about being honest I assessed my situation and said I can work and if I could work that means I had received healing or at least I wasn't hurt too bad.

And this reminds me of the verse where Jesus asked the guy at the pool of Siloam in

John 5:6 (NKJV)
⁶  … "Do you want to be made well?"

Well, do you want to be made well? 

And it reminds me of the time Christ spoke to the woman who had the issue of blood who fought through the crowd to touch the hem of His garment and how she was healed. Christ said to her. 

Luke 8:48 (NKJV)
^…, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace."  

Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.

So I went in peace to work on Monday, oh brother.  But today I am feeling even better that yesterday, and I believe I made the right choice and my faith in that choice is blessed by the Lord.  

Oh by the way, after I had Pastor Larry pray for me and my wife, TammyLyn has dramatically improved as well.  She isn’t completely healed yet but her condition has vastly improved and I am encouraging her to take it on faith, and to follow her dentist’s instructions, that her complete healing is on the way, and it is all but a done deal in God’s eyes because He already knows the end from the beginning.  

So if you are hurting today or know someone who is sick or just have something you are praying for, I encourage you to get right with God by turning from any overt sins and by being under the spiritual authority of a local church, to examine just what your praying for and to consider how it may or may not be part of God’s plan for you, and to be patient and to trust the Lord’s timing and that He will get it right in the end, whether you receive what want or not.  

The way to peace and joy in our lives comes from following the Lord and from accepting what He has in store for you.  So keep walking and talking with God and you will be blessed. It’s just a matter of how and when. What God has for us may be gradual or may come all at once just like the leave on the trees will shine bright for a season one moment and fall to the ground the next, we may just have to wait to see God’s plan work in the seasons of our lives.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is

Mark 11:25 (NLT2)
²⁵  But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”

Today’s Bible verse reminds us of another aspect to our prayer life: forgiveness.  

Yeah, being right with God also includes forgiving others and asking others for their forgiveness.   Scripture repeatedly commands us to forgive much as we have been forgiven much.  So when we go to worship God or when we have prayers that we want to be considered, we should be obedient to God and true to who we are in Christ by living a lifestyle of forgiveness.  

If we sin, we are to confess it to God and ask for His forgiveness. 

If we offend or hurt someone, we are to ask them to forgive us.  

IF we are offended or hurt by others, we are to forgive them, as Christ forgave us.  

So pray to  the Lord at all times, but be sure to be obedient to His command to forgive.

___________________________________________

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

Chapter Six

The Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5

On the “Extraordinary” of Christian Life

The Visible Church-Community

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

¶ “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:13–16).

Those being spoken to are those called in the Beatitudes into the grace of following the crucified one. So far the blessed have appeared as people worthy of the kingdom of heaven, but obviously at the same time as people unworthy of living,^[51] superfluous for this earth. Now they are described using the image of the most indispensable commodity on earth. They are the salt of the earth. They are the noblest asset, the highest value the world possesses. Without them the earth can no longer survive. The earth is preserved by salt; the world lives because of these poor, ignoble, and weak people, whom the world rejects. It destroys its own life by driving out the disciples, and—O wonder!—the earth may continue to live because of those outcasts. This “divine salt” (Homer) proves itself by its effectiveness. It penetrates the entire earth. It is the earth’s substance. Thus, the disciples are focused not only on heaven, but are reminded of their mission on earth. As those bound to Jesus alone are they sent to the earth, whose salt they are. When Jesus calls his disciples “the salt,” instead of himself, this transfers his efficacy on the earth to them. He brings them into his work. He remains in the people of Israel, but he consigns the whole world to the disciples. Only when salt remains salty is the cleansing, flavoring power of salt preserved and the earth preserved by salt. Salt must remain salty for its own sake, as well as for the sake of the earth. The community of disciples must remain what Christ’s call has made them. That will be their true efficacy on earth and their preserving strength. Salt does not decay; it is, therefore, a lasting power for cleansing. That is why salt is used in the Old Testament for offerings, that is why in the Catholic baptism ritual salt is put into the child’s mouth (Exod. 30:35; Ezek. 16:4). The fact that salt will not decay guarantees that the community will last.

“You are the salt”—not “you should be the salt”! The disciples are given no choice whether they want to be salt or not. No appeal is made to them to become salt of the earth. Rather they just are salt, whether they want to be or not, by the power of the call which has reached them. You are the salt—not, “you have the salt.” It would diminish the meaning to equate the disciples’ message with salt, as the reformers did. What is meant is their whole existence, to the extent that it is newly grounded in Christ’s call to discipleship, that existence of which the Beatitudes speak. All those who follow Jesus’ call to discipleship are made by that call to be the salt of the earth in their whole existence.^[1]

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

---

^[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 110–112.