A Cry For Life and Peace

A pack of wild dogs run down and kill a rabbit for food. Knowing its life is on the line, the rabbit crazed with fear and panic, runs straight into the mouth of a waiting dog. As the dog’s jaw snaps close and its teeth sink into the rabbit’s flesh, the rabbit’s eyes are open wide in fear and it cries out a death scream that can be heard a kilometer or more away.

It’s all part of nature, I know, but I want to ask you. How does that death scene make you feel in your heart? Are you moved by it? Does that scene give your heart a thrill, or does it make your heart grieve in sorry for the way the world works?

Producers of television nature documentaries like to film predator animals hunting down and killing prey for food. They do so for ratings primarily, knowing that many people enjoy watching such scenes.

I know for many years my heart would thrill at the sight of such a hunt. But nowadays, my heart grieves at the thought. I either turn my eyes away, or I quickly turn the channel to avoid watching the spirit of an animal being filled with fear for its life.

Early American Indians understood every animal has a spirit, much like our own. So whenever they would kill an animal for food, the first thing they did was pray to the Great Spirit to ask for forgiveness in taking the animal’s life.

What does any of this have to do with healing the sick? Simply this: It wasn’t until evil entered the world that animals and men would begin killing one another. Every level of life now is threatened because of evil. Evil abounds. Now you may not consider one animal killing another as being the result of evil, but consider this:

Before sin entered the world, man ruled over the animal kingdom in peace, and ate only food from the plant kingdom. Neither did animals eat one another for food. The term “predator” was unknown. Animals eat food from the plant kingdom, just as man did (Genesis 1:29-30). The wolf sat down with the lamb in peace, and God called it good!

After sin entered the world, God placed a curse on the world (Genesis 3:17) and everything changed. After the great flood, He placed fear into the hearts of animals toward man, and gave animals over to man for food (Genesis 9:2-3).

As a side note, the Bible doesn’t say when animals turned on one another for food, but we know it had to be after the fall of man in sin. And here’s something else many of us may not be aware of. Just as God requires an accounting from every man for taking the lifeblood (killing) of another man, He also requires it of every animal (Genesis 9:5).

As things stand now, all creation (and we with it) groans for God’s curse to be lifted (Romans 8:18-25). When that time arrives, the wolf will once again lie down with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6), and peace will reign again.

Before anyone accuses me of eisegesis (reading into the text what it does not say or mean), I know Isaiah 11:6 is symbolic language referring to Jesus Christ and Peace found in His Body, the Church. However, it is my opinion Isaiah 11:6 also refers to a literal truth about life in heaven, which comes after the resurrection of the dead in Christ. There we will live and have access to the Garden of Eden with all its beauty restored. There, once again, we will enjoy an eternity of peace with all of God’s creatures.

I shared this message with you to highlight how evil has changed not only all of us, but all of creation. That we take chronic illness so much for granted, is witness to our ignorance of how evil can manifest itself in our lives through sickness and disease.

We think of ourselves as having died to sin as Christians, without knowledge that evil still abounds all about us hunting us down like a predator.

Just as Jesus overcame death so that we may have hope of the resurrection of our body and life eternal, He also overcame all things evil that we may live our mortal lives in peace, free of illness (Isaiah 53:4-5; Acts 10:36-18).

God through His Holy Word gives us the answers to life and health (2 Timothy 3:16-17). But a Bible unread is like a ship on the ocean without a rudder.

I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well (3 John 2).

As always, feel free to leave a comment about this subject.

Jim Lynn
God's Healing Word Ministry
http://godshealingword.org

The Big Stick Called Faith

I want to tell you about a great mystery that has perplexed Christians of this generation. This mystery has stirred fear and created unrest within the Church. What mystery am I speaking of? It is the mystery of the power of faith to heal the sick.

The mystery of the power of faith to heal the sick is not ours alone. For despite given the power and authority to drive out demons and heal the sick, the twelve disciples, themselves, struggled to administer that power and authority to the sick

In other words, the twelve handpicked men of Christ struggled with the issue of faith to heal the sick just as we do today!

Let's review some known facts:

We know Jesus sent His disciples out, two by two, to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. But before doing so, He gave them each a huge stick to carry. That huge stick is God's authority and power (Matthew 10:1).

Armed with this big stick, the disciples were able to drive out demons and heal the sick of every known disease. Without the stick, these ordinary men were powerless.

But as we shall soon learn, just because these twelve were given God's power and authority to heal didn't mean they would always be successful. That's because Jesus required the twelve to possess one thing more, which only they themselves could supply.

What was that one thing you ask? Faith!

In spite of having God's power and authority to heal the sick, the disciples were powerless without their personal belief and faith that God would do as they asked of Him.

Mark 6:13 tells us when the disciples went out, they drove out many demons and healed the sick (Mark 6:13). Praise God! Imagine their joy and and the great enthusiasm which must have followed. They must have had many great stories to tell as a result.

But wait:

On at least on one occasion, things didn't go so well. Not everyone was healed. The disciples had tried unsuccessfully to drive a lunatic demon from a boy
(Matthew 17:16).

When the boy's father related this information to Jesus, he replied, "O faithless and perverse generation...How long shall I put up with you?" (Matthew 17:17) Obviously, Jesus statement was not intended to be directed directly toward the disciples, although it most certainly included them.

When the disciples later came to Jesus in private to ask Him why they couldn't heal the boy, He answered them by saying, "because you have so little faith"
(Matthew 17:19-20).

That's the mystery, the great mystery called faith, which the world fears yet today and has created division and strife within the Church.

Faith is the keystone that empowers God's authority and power to heal the sick. How much faith? Jesus said with just a little faith nothing will be impossible for you (Matthew 17:20-21).

Many years later, the Apostle James would admonish Church elders to pray over their sick in faith, and to anoint the sick with oil for healing (James 5:14-16). James had obviously learned the lesson of faith well from his own failure while in training with Jesus years before. For he was with Jesus the day the father of the lunatic boy approached Jesus.

Faith in God's promise to heal is what separates men of faith in God, from carnal men who cower in fear or disbelief. This kind of faith is not intellectual or born of doctrine. It is a soul searching conviction (born of God's Word) which touches the very heart of God.

Church elders today, who dismiss James 5:14ff, of course do not practice James' admonition. To make themselves feel comfortable about their dismissal (and to be accepted by the world) they have Church doctrines which effectively puts God out of the healing business, and healing out of the Body of Christ (The Church).

The real question we should be asking ourselves is not whether God heals. The real question should be are we willing to believe and put our faith in God's promise to exercise His power and authority on our behalf?

That's a big question because faith to heal places God squarely into our midst, not far off in some unseen world. It puts Him right into our lives and world, much like our mother, father and children are part of our lives.

I have to tell you, many Christians are not comfortable with that thought. They fear God. They are more comfortable with a God that is somewhere over there, not here.

You see, faith for many Christians consists of believing in Jesus Christ as their Savior. That's good, but think about it. Faith to save one's soul is a far cry from faith that falls upon Jesus Christ for healing.

The former is benign and requires little beyond intellectual acceptance, kinda like acceptance that the earth spins one revolution every 24 hours on its axis. People accept the earth spins and go on with their lives. No biggy. We regulate our lives by this spinning, and that's about it. Likewise, many people willingly conform their lives as Christians to live a moral existence with a hope for the resurrection. They count themselves faithful if they attend Church regularly. That's the extent of faith for most Christians. Unless they are forced to renounce their faith or be killed, there is little to challenge their faith.

The latter, however, goes much farther. It actively calls upon God's power and authority with unwavering certainty to restore the human body to wholeness free of disease. That's not something the world likes or accepts.

The implications of this kind of faith goes far beyond intellectual faith and being faithful to attend Church. This kind of faith stands squarely against the world and medical tests that says a person has cancer and has two months to live. It defies Church doctrine which does not believe in divine healing. It falls with conviction and certainty upon an unseen all powerful God that He will fulfill His Word to us. That, friends, is the kind of faith Jesus had in mind when he lamented, "O faithless and perverse generation."

One of America's Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, had a saying concerning America's role in the world. He said America should walk softly and carry a big stick. Of course, that big stick was America's military might.

As Christians, we are to walk softly and also carry a big stick, the big stick of faith that believes God's Word. That many Christians have entrusted the world to the care of their bodies at the expense of forsaking God's power and authority to heal speaks volumes about the size of the stick they carry.

Jim Lynn
God's Healing Word
http://godshealingword.org