Bible Study

Divine Woodcutters — Guest Post by Ted Pavloff

| Radical About Jesus

The following message is one my dad taught and shared on his own website several years ago. He’s gone on to be with the Lord now, but I decided to share this message here to encourage some of my readers as well.

DIVINE WOODCUTTERS

“But I would that you should understand brethren, that the things that happened to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel: so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, in all other places ….” Phil. 1: 12-13.

I suppose that hardly a day passes that we Christians don’t complain about something. We fuss about being handicapped in one way or another: that we are hedged in and are undergoing irritating and uncomfortable testing; or that we are tempted to the edge of our strength. Consequently, we grumble and are unable to do what we would like to do for the Lord.

The above Scripture text is one of many revelations into the ministry life of the Apostle Paul that proved the mettle of this man. His life as an apostle had been anything but easy. He was continually extinguishing brush fires of false teaching and practices in the churches he founded. He had problems with individual believers who were making a mockery of the Blood of Jesus. Add to that the repeated attacks of the unbelievers, Jew and Gentile, and you see a man who had plenty to complain about — but never did!

Are you contributing to, or hindering the advance of the Gospel? In the Scripture above Paul is writing to his beloved Philippians while a prisoner in Rome, and he is assuring them that his present circumstances are contributing to, rather than hindering, the advance of the gospel. What a remarkable statement

DIVINE WOODCUTTERS PHOTOThe key word in this Scripture is the word “furtherance.” I discovered that it was translated from a Greek word used in the first century to describe a company of woodcutters, who proceeded ahead of an army, and cut a road through a forest so they could advance. Paul is literally saying that his circumstances at the moment, were simply “divine woodcutters” cutting a path through the opposition so the Gospel might advance. Incredible! In prison, liberty gone, totally handicapped, chained to a Roman guard. But Paul says it is all God’s woodcutters making a road for the Good News!

You see, something was happening that the Roman government never anticipated: the Gospel of Jesus Christ was being preached from the pulpit of the Roman Empire. Detachments from the Praetorian Guard (the emperor’s elite unit of 10,000 palace guards) were the soldiers assigned to guard the Apostle 24 hours a day. As each detachment came on duty, Paul saturated them with the Good News, and they would in turn carry the message back to the palace barracks. Gradually the entire unit and the palace staff were soaked with the Good News.

And there were even more “Divine Woodcutters.” Brethren in Rome, jealous of Paul, were preaching the Message more energetically, simply out of envy. Other brothers friendly to Paul, out of love, began preaching with added enthusiasm. Paul’s response? “It makes no difference to me the why’s behind it; the woodcutters are at work, the gospel is getting out, and I’m glad.”

The Apostle’s message here refers to experiences that eventually come to the life of every Christian. All of us may not spend time in a prison or experience anything as drastic as Paul. But there are times when the walls seem to close in upon us, and barriers appear out of nowhere — things like difficult personal circumstances or physical problems. All such roadblocks, even though they are the work of the enemy, or even our own failure to heed God’s Word, can be turned into “Divine Woodcutters” contributing to the advancement of the Gospel … Through you!

Listen, Beloved, we do not glory in hardships and problems; but in the midst of them, we can become closer to Jesus and more dependent upon the Holy Spirit. When we do that, we ultimately overcome all of them and grow more efficient in proclaiming the Word.

Paul accomplished some of his greatest work when limitations upon him were the strongest. Listen to him as he speaks in Second Corinthians 12:9, paraphrased: “My weakness is no big deal anymore. I am glad to be a living demonstration of Christ’s power instead of showing off my own power and abilities. Since I know my whole life is all for Christ’s glory, I just get happy about it, and about all the persecutions, insult, hardships, and difficulties … for when I am weak then I am strong and the less I have the more I depend on Him!”

 

Jesus: The Morning Star of Our Answered Prayers

| Radical About Jesus

 

MORNING STAR - Sharsharu - PX

Throughout Scripture, Jesus is identified and referred to as the “Morning Star” or “Daystar.” The reference, of course, is to the earliest star in our natural galaxy to show up in the heavens just before dawn. We often use the terms “morning” or “day in describing this star, but in actual fact this star is the forerunner of the dawn. It’s the star that comes before and announces that there is a new day about to break forth.

We find specific references to Jesus in this capacity in Numbers 24: 17, Luke 1: 78, 2 Peter 1:19, and Revelation 22:16.

(It’s important not to get confused with a scripture from Isaiah 14:12, which is translated erroneously in some versions of the Bible and seems to refer to Satan as a “Morning Star.”  However, the Hebrew word used in that passage is correctly translated, “O Shining One” — not “morning star,” and refers to Satan as he was in his originally created state of exceeding beauty and brilliance. The angels in general are referred to as shining ones and stars in other places in Scripture, and this reference in Isaiah is simply verifying that, although Satan was once a brilliant light carrier in the top levels of God’s angelic creation, he has fallen from that state and now resides on planet earth in darkness created by his own works and man’s sin.).

Jesus Christ, the Messiah is the only true and verified “Morning Star” in God’s original plan and in His secondary plan, which brought redemption to the human race after we messed up God’s original plan.

It’s important that we understand what the Morning Star does. It runs ahead of the dawn. It announces and brings in the dawn, if you will. So perhaps an even more accurate name for it would be “Star of the Dawning.” When we see that star in the natural, we say, “The new day is here.” But in actual fact, we don’t see evidence of being in the daylight, and we don’t begin our daily work or go about our normal daytime activities. Most people are still asleep — or wish they were — at that time. [ The exception is those unfortunate folks who have to work the night shifts. 🙂 ]

So what are we saying? That the Morning Star truly does bring in the new day, but we don’t actually have manifestation of daytime when we first look at the star. Recently, the Lord began to reason with me about this fact and shared with me that we need to respond in as much faith where Jesus is concerned and His answers to our prayers.

When we pray for anything based on God’s Word and promises, we have His guarantee that He will hear that prayer, and we will receive what we asked Him for. (1 John 5:16-17). Jesus brings us those answers. But we need to receive them by faith first — before we actually see, touch, and hear them in the natural realm. Remember, in Mark 11:24, He said when you pray, don’t doubt in your heart, but believe you have received what you prayed for, and you will have them. When do we believe we receive? Right then — when we pray — not after we see or feel the manifested answer. The manifestation comes in response to our believing.

So the next time we pray for something promised in God’s Word, let’s believe we receive those things granted right then. Let’s look to Jesus, who is the Morning Star — the forerunner of the answer. See Him coming to us — rising to meet our faith — running ahead of the manifestation. He’s bringing the answer as surely as Venus brings the new day. But just as we don’t see and feel the daylight and sunshine when we see Venus, so we may not see or feel the manifested answer to our prayer for period of time. That’s when we set our hearts on Jesus and say, “He’s the Morning Star of my miracles — my answer. He’s come ahead of its manifestation to announce that I have it.” And we need to grasp it right then and not let go until the full day — the full answer — manifests completely.

photo courtesy of Sharsharu @ pixabay.com

 

Navigating Life Using God’s Instrument Panel

| Radical About Jesus

PLANE - Holger Detje - PX

A few years ago, I heard Pastor Bill Winston, of Chicago, Illinois, sharing about his training to become a pilot. He talked about what he learned when going through his Instrument Flight Rules training, blindfolded. While working in the flight simulator, he thought that his plane was straight and level, but when he took off the blindfold, he discovered that it was actually upside down. That was when he learned just how important it was to learn to use – and to trust – the instrument panel on the plane. He then made this statement: “God’s Word is our instrument panel.”

As soon as he said those words, the Spirit of God just sort of leaped inside of me, confirming how true that statement was. And then I heard the Lord say this in my spirit. “Yes, My Word is your instrument panel, and the Holy Spirit is the control tower operator.”

Wow, that lit something up inside me. It was another great confirmation of how faith works and how completely we can trust the tools God has given us to get through this life successfully.

We are often navigating this life without being able to see things clearly enough to know what the next move should be. We cannot see what’s ahead most of the time, and we can’t see all the difficulties and enemies around us on all sides. Sometimes it’s like being in a storm, with clouds so heavy we have no idea which way is up, let alone north, south, east, or west. Sometimes our problems so overwhelm us that there’s no way to see the sun, the north star, or any lights on the ground.

But none of that matters. As long as we have an instrument panel in good condition, we can navigate this journey right onto the correct runway and make a safe landing every single time. We can find the solution to every problem, no matter how impossible it looks, as long as we follow the instructions for using that instrument panel.

And the first important point to be aware of is that we must trust that instrument panel. We must believe that what it’s telling us is the truth. If we do believe that, then, if we’ve spent time in training to learn how to use it, we know exactly what to do. And we get the results we wanted.

Let’s be sure we spend ample time training with our instrument panel – God’s Word. We need to read it, meditate it, pray over it, and let the Holy Spirit who wrote it help us understand it. Then we have to make up our minds that it is true – no questions, no doubts. When Pastor Winston was in that training session, his own intellect told him his plane was upright, straight, and level. If he had looked at his instrument panel, it would have told him the opposite. He would have had to make a choice at that point: trust his own intellect – and what he thought he knew – or trust his instrument panel. If he had been in a real flight situation, trusting his own thoughts and feelings would have meant certain destruction. But trusting the panel, which told him his own thoughts and feelings were way off, would have meant safety and success.

When it comes to a decision about whether what we see in God’s Word is true – or whether our own ideas, traditions, doctrines, or feelings are true – we’d better make the right choice. We’d better side with our instrument panel. And the great thing is that we don’t have to lean on those dials and gauges alone, because we also have a control tower operator – the Holy Spirit Himself – who will talk us through understanding those gauges even better and will help convince us that we really can trust what the control panel is telling us. Moreover, He’ll tell us how to apply what we are seeing there and how to respond for the best results.

So let’s practice every day using our God-given instrument panel. Let’s learn to trust it above all else. And when we find ourselves flying through a storm so dark and vicious that we can’t even tell which way is up, locking our eyes on that instrument panel will be second nature to us, We’ll read the gauges of God’s Word and tune in to our Control Tower Operator and let Him talk us right through that storm and into a safe landing every time.

photo courtesy of Holger Detje @ pixabay.com

~~~~~

What Does Christmas Mean to the Christ from Whom It’s Named?

| Radical About Jesus

WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS REALLY MEAN TO JESUS???
Everyone has different opinions and different feelings concerning the meaning of Christmas. What were Jesus’ feelings about coming from the throne into a tiny body that was laid in a manger at Bethlehem? That’s the focus of my most recent upload to Radical About Jesus YouTube channel: “Let’s Not Get Stuck At The Manger”

Make listening to and sharing this message part of your Advent Celebration this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Living In The Miraculous

| Radical About Jesus

A guest post by Ted Pavloff

hands-reaching-gold-blurred1“And at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number; to such an extent that they even carried the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. And also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits; and they were all being healed.” Acts 5:12, 14-16 (NAS).

It should be impossible to read the Book of Acts without being in a state of awe and wonder. From the Day of Pentecost, when they were baptized and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the apostles lived and ministered in the reality of the miraculous every day. And all of that blessing and power and gifting was not reserved just for them, but even laymen like Philip and Stephen moved powerfully in the Holy Spirit, shaking entire cities.

Angels appeared to those who obeyed the directions of the Holy Spirit and unlocked their chains. The world even experienced the first automatic door as Peter walked out of prison, following the instructions of an angel. In our text, Peter was so anointed that even people touched by his passing shadow were instantly healed. Healed cripples were leaping and dancing through the Temple concourse. All the power that was vested in Jesus when He walked the earth was now poured out upon the believers, and as Jesus predicted, they now embarked on the road of doing even greater things than He did. The result — through the power of the Holy Spirit, wimps were turned into warriors; the sick, blind, and crippled were healed; restoration and deliverance were the order of the day wherever the believing apostles and lay believers went.

Well, what about today? The truth is, we need more of Jesus, more of His saving, healing, and miraculous power, more of the presence of the Holy Spirit than in any previous generation. But can we have it? The answer is a big Yes! But take a look at the early church. The believers of the Book of Acts knew the cost of miraculous living, and they joyfully paid the price. In the midst of their new-found infilling of power, they constantly sought the face of the Lord — that is, they were a praying people. The whole book of Acts, from chapter 1 verse 1, to chapter 28 verse 31, tells how prayer moved God; regardless of their circumstances.

Some people today get wonderfully saved, even baptized in the Holy Spirit, but somehow soon find themselves in a state of confusion, mainly because they are not staying in constant communication with the Lord. Notice the case of Paul: struck down on the Damascus Road, he was out of commission; in fact blinded and totally helpless. Nothing happened until he prayed. He prayed for three days, and the Lord sent Ananias to pray for him to receive his sight and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. After that, Paul continued to pray until he got to know Jesus in a true, intimate way. Even though he was a new convert, he needed no counselor, no prophet, no word of knowledge; he never felt the need to run all over the Middle East looking for someone to give him a “word.” Why? Because he prayed, and prayed, and prayed. As a result, he heard the Lord say, “I will show you. Go; just keep in touch.”

God moved powerfully with Paul, Peter, and all of the believers in that day, to bring the message of salvation and Holy Spirit baptism to the Gentiles. All through the Book of Acts we see phrases like “God said to them.” “The Lord said,” “The Holy Ghost said.” “The angel of the Lord said.” Those praying saints got the clear and unmistakable Word of God with amazing clarity.

There is a teaching in the land today that says you pray only once, or even not at all — just believe. And if you pray more than once over the same issue, you are demonstrating unbelief. This is contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the Scriptures. Prayer is God’s idea; He invented it and expects — and in facts pleads for us to use it. When you pray, and bring alongside believing faith, obedience, studying and meditating on the Word, then you have the greatest power in the universe working for you. Under this kind of covering, prayer will be the switch that closes the circuit and allows the surge of power to perform the miraculous.

This truth is all through the Bible. Abraham’s faith was so strong it was counted to him as righteous. Yet he ran to the altar of God over and over again to pray. Moses had a one-on-one relationship with Jehovah, yet he was a persistent in his praying. And Elijah: when he prayed for rain, he sent his servant seven times to look for a cloud. And they kept at it all the way to victory. You don’t give up. Then how about Daniel? It took 21 days of praying, along with some fasting and weeping, but did he ever get an answer!

God wants to talk to us, and He wants us to talk to Him. The promises in His Word are numerous and every one answered “yes and amen in Christ Jesus.”(2 Cor. 1:20). Beloved, He is calling to His Holy Remnant (that’s us) to be found faithful in prayer. And like He did the saints of old, He will lift us to that miraculous realm wherein we walk as prayer warriors. If we take the time to be closed in with Him, we will walk in that realm.

God’s will is His Word, and His Word is His will. The Scriptures say that faith comes by His Word. Then we activate that faith by our prayers. And those prayers of faith form the pathway to having our needs met and living in the miraculous. Glory!

Your comments and questions are totally welcome, but since so often the answers to those questions require rather extensive explanations or considerable scripture quotations, we ask that you e-mail comments and questions rather than post them here.
Thanks.
radicalaboutjesus@gmail.com

God’s Word Is Real Medicine

| Radical About Jesus

Exif JPEG

Proverbs 4:20-22 says:

“My son, give attention to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to their whole body.”

And Psalm 107:20 says, “He sent His Word and healed them.”

The truth contained in these two scriptures is profound and exciting. There really is a medicine that is so powerful, so efficacious, so unlimited in its scope that it can cure any and every physical and mental malady known to man.  And it’s found in God’s own medicine chest: The Bible. That’s right: our dear Great Physician does not need a pharmacy. He has created His own medicine — one which carries absolutely no negative side effects, no expiration date, and no bill at the end of the treatment. God’s medicine is His very own Word.

Let’s look again at the passage from Proverbs chapter four: The Hebrew word translated health here is also the Hebrew word for medicine. So we have a promise here that the very words spoken by God will work on our flesh like physical medicine. I once heard a minister giving testimony of how he became convinced that God had made provision for healing His people. He said that this one Scripture did the most to help him, because it was one healing Scripture that no one could spiritualize by insisting that it did not refer to physical healing. And, in fact, that man, who became known throughout the world for his healing and deliverance ministry, went on to apply the Word of God as a medicine to his own body for a horrible condition that doctors said they could not cure. He was totally healed by God’s Word.

The Word of God is able to change our flesh, of course, because it was that very Word that created the matter out of which our flesh is made. Hebrews 11:3 makes that point clear: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made by things which do appear.” So the physical clay (or dust) from which God formed our physical bodies came out of the Word of God. Then Hebrews  4:12 says: “The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and morrow …”

How interesting that it enters into the very morrow of our body. That is the root source of our blood cell production. Can you see that the Word in the very manufacturing center of a human body can completely remake that whole body?

How do we get it to work? The more we study the Word, meditate on it, and speak it out of our mouth, the more it works Its way into our whole system, producing Its life there. However, when we are facing a specific physical problem, we can take doses of this priceless medicine just like we do a prescription from a human doctor. I have done this so often and know of numerous testimonies of other believers who have done the same. Taking the Word of God as medicine has cured migraine headaches, kidney infections, paralysis from strokes, broken bones, cancer, tuberculosis, mental deficiencies, and multitudes of other illnesses of body and soul.

Find the healing Scriptures that relate to your particular malady, or the ones that speak particularly to your heart, and begin to read them or speak them to your body. Put your own name into them. You may need to take a dose three or four times a day. In a particularly critical case, I have known believers to read their Scriptures every fifteen minutes for several days.

Dr. Lillian B. Yeomans, a medical doctor who gave up her regular medical practice in order to devote her life to preaching the Gospel and getting people healed only by the power and the Word of God, tells of a lady with tuberculosis who received healing under her ministry. Dr. Yeomans and her sister had a healing home where they took in four seriously ill people at a time. They ministered to them by reading the Word of God as medicine and praying for them. When the tubercular woman came to them, Dr. Yeomans says that she was literally at death’s door. But Dr. Yeomans began reading her the Word of God as medicine and, as the woman gained a little strength, Dr. Yeomans had her read the scriptures to her own body and repeat them throughout the day constantly for several days. Now this woman was without faith for herself, and it took her a while to get enough Word into her spirit for it to create faith there, but it did happen, and suddenly, one day, the reality of her healing exploded in her heart, and she jumped from her bed completely healed.

Probably the most precious testimony from my own life in this regard concerns a time when my husband was experiencing some very alarming physical problems. One day he suddenly began having severe chest pain and feeling extremely weak and sleepy. By the next day, he could hardly stay awake at all, and when he was awake, his speech was sluggish and slurred. He knew God as healer, and he didn’t want to turn his case over to the medical community. He wanted us to trust the Lord. I prayed and called on several other believers for agreeing prayer. The symptoms persisted, and Richard lay in bed, almost constantly asleep. He was unable to stay up and alert for any lengthy periods.

As I sat beside his bed on the worst day, praying and speaking the Word, the Lord quickened to me His Word from Psalm 118: 16-17. I grasped it like a life preserver, which it was. I put Richard’s name into the Scripture and began to speak it to him: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. Richard shall not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord.” I realized that this one verse had everything in it that he needed at the time. It covered his need for life to drive out death, which was obviously at work, and his need for complete restoration of his speaking faculties.

I spoke that Word to him consistently throughout the day, whether he was waking or sleeping. I sat beside the bed for long periods of time, speaking it over and over and over. By the next day, he showed definite improvement. I continued to speak God’s Word, and he continued to improve. By the following week, he was back to normal and has never had a recurrence of the problem in the six years since that time.

One of the most rapid healings I ever received personally by applying the Word as medicine was for an abscessed tooth. When I awoke early one morning to prepare to go teach school, I noticed a severe pain in and around a broken tooth in my upper right jaw. I couldn’t stand to eat on it, so I had something warm to drink, took a dose of the most potent pain killer I could buy over the counter, and went on to work. I also took along a bottle of medication to apply topically to my tooth and gums. You may ask, “Didn’t you pray?” Yes, I did pray, but it was more or less on the run. I was blessed to be teaching in a Christian school, so I asked for prayer at work also. This was one of those times when the answer was taking a period of time to manifest, and it’s times like that when using the Word of God as medicine is especially helpful.

However, by the time my first class was over, the pain was going all over my jaw, up the whole right side of my head, and part way down my neck. It was the most excruciating, indescribable pain I’ve ever experienced. I applied and reapplied the topical medication, with no appreciable benefit at all. I took a second dose of painkiller as soon as the time limit on the bottle would allow – again with no effect. By 11:30 that morning, the pain had become so debilitating that I could no longer function at work, so I went home – barely able to concentrate on my driving. I had the definite conviction in my heart that if I could just close myself away with the Word of God for a while, I would receive my healing.

My husband and a friend were working on the television antenna when I arrived home. Aware of the oddity of my coming home at that time of day, my husband followed me into the house to see what was wrong. As I told him, I was already getting into bed and putting a tape of healing Scriptures into the tape recorder on my nightstand. He prayed for me briefly and went back outside to finish his work. I turned on the tape of healing Scriptures and began to let my spirit and body absorb their medicine. I fell asleep listening to the Word. I awoke about an hour later with all of the pain completely gone. I was able to eat on that tooth and do whatever I liked, totally free from pain. The Word of God had done what God had sent it to do.

A few years after that, my husband, Richard, broke his hip, and it was not healing properly. For a period of three or four months, the doctors could see no indication of improvement in the bones at all. The orthopedic surgeon said tests indicated the bones were failing to get proper blood supply, due to other tissue damage caused by the break. He told us that problem was common with that type of break and usually resulted in the need for a complete hip replacement.

But we faithfully spoke the Word of God to those bones and blood vessels. We took Scriptures of healing, especially some relating specifically to bones, and applied them in faith for months. We also prayed, of course, and many strong believers in our church and family also prayed for us faithfully. The enemy tried to discourage us. He tried to convince us that after so much time had passed, even God’s Word would not cause healing to begin again.

But, dear Christian, the devil is a liar, and God is faithful to His Word. That holy medicine worked itself into my husband’s bones and produced healing. All of a sudden, those bones began to knit together properly by the power of God, and in every examination that followed, the doctor was able to report that he saw no indication of problems with the blood supply to those bones. (Knowing that this was one of those times when Richard and I felt the need for some human medical help also, the Lord had graciously led us to a doctor who continually encouraged us to keep praying and believing God for our miracle. He knew also that the outcome lay in God’s hands alone.) It was sweet victory when the doctor was able to look at the x-rays and tell Richard that his hip was completely healed. In fact, he added, “I can’t even see the fracture line, and we can always see the line even after the bone is healed.” He was amazed — because our God is amazing.

And let’s not neglect to recognize that God’s Word is not limited to healing physical illnesses. It works just as well on mental and emotional problems. Many are the testimonies I’ve been privileged to read from people who learned that taking God’s Word as medicine literally changed the way their minds functioned and changed their emotional stability and resulting behavior. Sometimes those problems are totally mental and emotional, and sometimes they have a physical component as well. Alzheimer’s disease, for example is primarily physical, but affects the mental and emotional functions. One woman from Tulsa, OK shared that after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and had been forced to give up her job and her independent living,  she began to focus her attention day and night on God’s Word as medicine. When she felt too weak to stay in the Word herself, her daughter and son-in-law read it to her, and she also played scriptures on tapes. Within a few months, she began to improve dramatically, and within the year she was so well that she returned to living on her own and holding down a regular job again.

Reverend Joe Jordon, from Riverside, CA, has written a book on the subject of God’s Word as medicine, (Prescription for Healing), and in that book he cites the testimonies of two separate teachers in two separate Christian schools. One teacher taught emotionally disturbed and psychotic children. The other taught a class of children with learning disabilities. During one particular school year, both teachers read the healing scriptures to their classes every single day and had the children repeat those scriptures and take them personally. Probably most of those kids did not even realize what was happening at the time. But eventually, their parents saw so much improvement in their children that they began calling the schools to report the improvement and to find out what was happening. By the end of the year, the teacher of the children who had been termed “slow learners” stated that most of the children in that class could not be labeled that way any longer.

Another very encouraging testimony of healing through application of the Word concerns a friend of mine who is a praise and worship leader at a full gospel church. It’s of significant interest to me that the Lord used “singing” of His medicine, rather than mere “reading” of it to bring about her healing. She had been having problems with high blood pressure. She went to the doctor, who put her on medication, but it just wouldn’t bring the pressure down. Finally the doctor decided to send her to the local hospital for a special shot that would make her pressure go down rapidly. For a few minutes after she had taken the shot, everything seemed to be all right, and the nurse left her alone to rest a few minutes before going home. Suddenly she began having an allergic reaction to the drug in the shot. Her left arm became numb. Then her heart began to pound as if it would come out of her body.

By the time her daughter had brought the nurse and doctor to the room, my friend’s whole body was completely out of control. She said that her mind still worked, but all it would do was tell her she was going to die. She was able to speak periodically to the doctor at first, but finally even speaking became more than she could handle. She could hear the nurse talking to her daughter about a rash that had broken out on her body, and she could tell that they were hooking her up to some monitoring devices. The other thing she could understand was that the doctor himself was very alarmed, and, naturally, fear began to work on her too.

Her daughter had called other believers to pray, and, before long, my friend’s pastor came in. She was still in this crisis situation and said that, by this time, she could not communicate at all and could feel herself sinking farther and farther down. Her pastor walked to her bedside, laid his hand on her head, and began singing the Word from Isaiah 60:1: “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

She said he sang this song over and over and over, and as he did, she could feel her spirit respond. Her own description was, “I could feel myself being drawn back up, up, up.” She said she was so aware that the power in that Scripture song was what was drawing her back to normalcy that she kept thinking, “Don’t stop. Don’t stop singing.” Her faithful pastor, led by God, kept singing for quite some time, and everything in her body gradually came back to normal. The pastor himself later related that he had never been led to minister in just that way before, but all he felt to do was to sing her that Word. That precious Word! It heals and brings life when nothing else can!

Dear sick one, if we will be as faithful to apply God’s medicine to our physical bodies as we are to apply prescriptions from a human doctor, we will get the most wonderful results. Even people who aren’t sure they really believe have found that by applying the Word with an honest heart, the faith has been created in them by the Word itself, and then the physical results come. So open up God’s Medicine Chest. Read the Word. Sing it. Play it on tape. Have others read it to you. Use any or all methods of getting this divine medicine into your being. For whatever the diagnosis, this precious Word is the cure.

~~~~~~~~~~~

(This article includes excerpts from Chapter Four of Healing Is For You! by Sandra Conner)

~~~

God Will Make A Way

| Radical About Jesus

CURVING ROAD WITH LIGHT - BRITHERE

God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way.
He works in ways we cannot see.
He will make a way for me.

He will be my guide,
Hold me closely to His side.
With love and strength for each new day,
He will make a way;
He will make a way.”

(Worship lyrics by Don Moen)

God will make a way for you to be healed. There is no such thing as God not providing healing for His people who turn to Him in trust. Many times, however, due to our own lack of complete knowledge of His Word, or our lack of complete submission to Him – and then our lack of faith that results from either of those two situations – we fail to receive that healing. That problem can be remedied, but in order to fix the situation, we must clearly differentiate between God’s doing His part and our doing our part.

God has never failed to grant healing to anyone who asked for it in faith, in the name of Jesus Christ, and with a pure heart. Jesus never turned down one single person who came to Him for healing, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb. 13:8). That being the case, we must never accuse Him of refusing healing. And, in truth, He cannot refuse, because 2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us that every promise that God ever made has already been answered ‘Yes’ in Jesus. So He cannot go back on that promise now. In fact, Isaiah 53:4-5, Matthew 8: 16-17, 1 Peter 2:24, and Galatians 3:13 all tell us that the work of healing and deliverance from every part of the curse of the broken law has been accomplished and completed. Your healing is already in existence and waiting for you.

So how do we get to it? That’s where we need guidance into the right path. God has made so many avenues available to us for accessing His healing. He responds to our own personal prayer of faith, agreement in prayer between two people on earth, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, our partaking of the Lord’s supper, the many gifts of healing, casting out demons (demonic spirits of infirmity), and praise and worship. Those are all ways in which He is willing and able to work independently of man’s system of medical science in order to put healing into our bodies and minds. Then God is also willing to work with us in combination with medical science if that is where the level of our faith is. He will move gladly and powerfully to bless doctors and medicines for good work in our bodies.

However, it is important to remember that God is a great believer in man’s free will, and He will not overstep the personal will of medical people to force them to do things totally against their will. So we need to bear in mind that when using medical science, we could also be limiting God’s hand by allowing physicians and drug companies to dictate what we do rather than the Word of God. That’s why it is important to pray and get wisdom and direction from the Lord when choosing a doctor or a medication. And, ultimately, we must be careful not to put more trust in those doctors and medicines than we do in God’s own Word. Should there ever be serious disagreement between man’s system of medicine and God’s Word, we must choose to side with God’s Word only.

Now siding with God’s Word is particularly crucial when we hear a doctor say that there is no way for us to be healed. We must refuse and reject that mindset completely if we want to free God’s hand to work for us. We must not believe the doctor when he tells us that there is “no hope” for recovery or that the disease or situation we have is “impossible” to cure. When a physician says such things, all he is really saying is that he personally does not know how to cure us. And if a dozen doctors tell us the same thing, then they are saying the human medical personnel have not figured out how to cure that problem yet. But, dear sick one, that does not mean there is no cure. Jesus Christ is the cure, and He finished the work thousands of years ago.

And just think: even throughout Old Testament years, God’s people received healing when they turned to God for it and obeyed His Word, and that blessing was based on their faith in only the PROMISE of healing – not the completed work. We now have a completed promise in Jesus’ completed work.

So quit looking at a man-made diagnosis or prognosis. Instead look at God’s prognosis: “We are healed by the stripes of Jesus.” When Hezekiah was king of Judah, his nation was surrounded by three great enemy armies, and the king of one those nations sent him a threatening letter. It would have been enough to frighten almost any leader because it recounted all the nations these armies had successfully defeated and subdued.

The situation looked absolutely hopeless, but Hezekiah took the letter (the report) and went into the temple and laid it before the Lord, calling on Him to save them. After he prayed, the prophet Isaiah was sent to Hezekiah to give him God’s report: he announced that the Lord would defeat the enemy armies and that not one arrow shot toward Hezekiah’s people would even land in the city. Hezekiah turned his face from that bad report and looked at God’s report instead, and God gave them a mighty victory by sending an angel to destroy the thousands of enemy soldiers during the night. (2 Kings 19).

Another time, Hezekiah was so sick that even the prophet told him that he would die. There was no hope. But again Hezekiah turned his face from that hopeless situation and looked to God alone, crying out to him for mercy and a longer life. God heard Hezekiah’s prayer – not because Hezekiah was so good – but because he put all of his trust in God’s mercy and faithfulness. God healed Hezekiah, and gave him 15 more years of life. (2 Kings, 20).

The list of others who faced totally “hopeless, incurable” situations and diseases is exceedingly long. And every one of them received deliverance and healing from the Lord. God’s Word is full of such examples, and of God’s faithfulness to prove that nothing is impossible with Him. You can get into the Word and meet these people for yourself, or if you already know about them, you can read their testimonies again and let them create new faith in you.

And, in fact, dear sick one, you must get into that Word and read these passages for yourself, because if we are going to put our trust in the Lord and His Word for our healing, we have to KNOW His Word and believe it. If you find yourself in a position of not believing His Word, then your solution is to get into that Word, with an open, honest heart, and read it and absorb it until it has created faith in you. It will create faith, because God tells us that faith comes from the Word of God. (Romans 10:17).

Moreover, it’s that Word that reveals to us many avenues to receiving healing from the Lord. God’s Word offers us the avenues of personal prayer, agreement with others, anointing with oil, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, praying for others, and numerous other acts of faith what will help us receive our healing from Him. We must each feed on that Word and give God time and attention so he can lead us — through His Word — to the best pathway for each of  us at any given time. And, in fact, our Radical About Jesus YouTube channel has video lessons on many of those pathways to healing that you may find helpful as well.

Now, before I leave you to study that Word on your own, let me also point you to Psalm 25. In that one Psalm alone, there are several passages that tell us clearly that God wants to make HIS WAY into all good things known to us. Let’s look at all the encouragement in this one Psalm:

Verses 4-5: “Make me know Thy WAYS, O Lord: Teach me Thy PATHS. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me, For Thou art the God of my salvation.”

Verses 8-9: “Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He instructs sinners in the WAY. He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His WAY.”

Verse 10: “All the PATHS of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.

Verse 12: “Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the WAY he should choose.”

And remember, beloved reader: Jesus Himself, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, tells us in John 14: 6, “I am the WAY, the truth, and the life.” The path (the way) to everything good that God has for us is provided by Jesus. Set your eyes, your mind, and your whole heart on Jesus, and He will show you the WAY that you can be healed.

~~~~~~~~

Sandra Conner/Radical About Jesus Ministries

~~~

What God Can Do With a Rod He Can Do With You.

| Radical About Jesus

ROD FROM WEBSITEWhen the Lord, Jehovah, called Moses to go to the people of Israel and announce to them that God was ready to set them free from slavery, Moses insisted that they would not believe him. So God gave him a number of signs to perform before the people as evidence that God was indeed miraculously working with Moses.

We want to take a close look today at the first sign: “And the Lord said unto him [Moses], ‘What is that in thine hand?’ And he said, ‘a rod.’ And He said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’ And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail.’ And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand.” (Exodus 4:2-4).

Our focus in this lesson is not particularly on Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage, but rather on God’s ability to do what He did to that wooden rod. This event carries great significance for us when we are seeking to believe the Lord for healing of our physical bodies. We are spiritual beings living in physical bodies, and when we have a problem in that physical body, we need to have something physical changed. Because we are seeking that change from a Spirit God, we sometimes find it hard to comprehend His ability to make those changes without using any physical instruments or medications that we can relate to with our five senses.

But let’s look at what He did to this rod. It was a solid, extraordinarily sturdy piece of wood, undoubtedly several feet long. Moses used it for a great many things during his shepherding years and then throughout the journey from Egypt to Canaan. It was real wood, and it was strong enough to serve him with no defects for well over 40 years. Yet by one simple act of exerting His spiritual power, the Lord turned that solid, totally lifeless, piece of wood into a living creature, with muscle, organs, skin, eyes, etc.

Snake 1Now, this serpent was not a figment of Moses’ imagination or a mirage, because Moses was so frightened by it that he ran from it. But the Lord insisted that he pick it up, and once Moses had a grip on the serpent, it became a solid piece of wood again.

Now, we’re not talking about simply changing the shape or size of an object. We are talking about actually changing the very chemical and molecular structure of an object – changing it at the cellular level throughout the whole object. Something that was totally without life instantly became a living creature and then, by another act of God’s power, became a totally inanimate object again.

Once we get a clear picture of this event, we begin to realize just how easily that same God can change the chemical and molecular structure of any created thing – including the structure of flesh, of tumors, of diseased tissue, of abnormal limbs, of any physical element with which our body is impaired. God has no more problem neutralizing a huge tumor, or creating healthy bone where there is none, or replacing plaque coated arteries with new supple, pliant arterial tissue than He had changing a piece of wood into a serpent or changing a living being into a lifeless stick.

No matter what you are facing in your physical body today, do not limit God and His delivering, miracle working, healing power. He didn’t feel any strain on His power when He changed Moses’ rod, and He will feel no strain on His power when He changes the negative tissues in your body into healthy tissues.

And don’t, in your own mind, limit His willingness to do the work. If He was willing to do such an extraordinary thing for Moses, for no other reason than to provide examples of His ability and willingness to deliver His people — even before Jesus had died for them and given them His own righteousness — how much more is He willing to do as much to deliver the people His own Son gave His life for. The Old Covenant and God’s promise to Abraham were enough to cause Him to move in such creative power. How much more, under the New Covenant — with the finished work of Jesus Christ securing us a place in God’s heart — will He do equally miraculous works for us.

~~~

`