FAITHFUL FRIDAY

This past Sunday I visited an amazing church in Charlotte, NC. The visitors are given a choice of gifts to choose from. I selected this little book called “Confession BRINGS Possession” by Dr. Norvel Hayes. This book of about 44 pages blessed me tremendously. I read it several times and each time the Lord spoke to me and led me to a Scripture. I believe it was not an accident that I selected this book. It clarified a lot of things for me. It also prompted me to dig deeper into the Word about some things I had been struggling with. Is Isaiah 53:5 a promise that God will heal everyone? Why is it that some people are healed and some are not? Why did God not heal me completely? These are some of the questions I struggled with. I believe in miracles. I look at myself in the mirror everyday and say hey Ms. Miracle. I claim healing everyday no matter how I am feeling or what it looks like. But I still had these questions. This book is about how we as Christians should talk. The author talks about the promises that belong to us. It is our choice to receive them or not. For instance, one of the promises is that we are healed in Jesus name. According to Dr. Hayes the key is learning how to talk. God’s Word says “whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed.”(Mark 11:23). So this is where my questions come in. We know the adage, name it, claim it, believe it, and then it is yours. I love saying it because it sounds good. It’s positive and I honestly believe it. But how about the times when we name it and claim it and we don’t receive?  I understand why some things we name and claim, God does not give us. We have a tendency to want things that are not good for us and God loves us to much to give those things to us. I get that.  But what about healing? The Word says Jesus suffered and died so that we would live and be healed. Dr. Hayes says, “It is because we want to talk to God about our mountains instead of talking to the mountain as the Scripture states. He states that, “God doesn’t have anything to do with our diseases, anything that comes to bring harm, does not come from God. The devil will always tell you that God just did not want to heal you. You can’t leave any loopholes for the devil to add “if’s” and “but’s” and “maybe’s”. You have to either believe it or don’t, there is no in between.” I believe all of that. Mark 11:23 does state “you say to the mountain, not tell him about the mountain”. However, if God says the promises are ours, why don’t we have all of them? According to Dr. Hayes the key is to continually say these things with your mouth. Continue to speak into existence what you need and have conversations with your afflictions and diseases. I believe this because God has already healed us. Jesus has the stripes on His back to prove He paid the price. Dr Hayes points out it is up to us to accept Jesus as the Healer. Anything that is wrong with us is our mountain. Talk to it! Let it know that it is not welcome! I’m getting excited just typing what was in this little book! But when I told you this book blessed me, it was not because it spoke these things that I already knew and believed. It is because it prompted me to dig deeper into God’s Word. Although I am in agreement with Dr. Hayes, I still had questions. There is nothing like studying the Word of God for yourself! I have learned from my son and the Holy Spirit that unless you understand the context of a Scripture, we risk taking it out of context. Context is sovereign and no single verse should stand alone for a doctrinal belief. The spirit took me back to Isaiah 53:5. If we don’t understand Isaiah 53:5 in its proper context, we can become very disappointed and disillusioned about God. I doubt Isaiah would be pleased if all we use was Isaiah 53:5 and claim this as a promise that God will heal us, but then leave out the entire implications of this chapter! When we do this, we become confused when we are not healed. We feel it was either our lack of faith or that God didn’t hear or has abandoned us. Paul prayed three times for healing, but God told him it was in order to keep him humble and dependent upon God. Timothy had stomach problems and frequent ailments so why didn’t Paul just lay hands on him and pray for him to be healed? When Epaphroditus was ill, near to death, why didn’t Paul just claim “by His stripes, you are healed?  Probably because Paul knew the context of that particular verse. We must take the whole Word to get the whole counsel of God, and that means the entire chapter, and sometimes, the entire book must be read to understand the context of a single verse. We can be healed, but it must be the will of God. We’re told to pray for God’s will on earth as it is done in heaven, and so we must trust God’s will, even if it means we’re not healed in this life or the way we expected the healing. The most important healing is our spiritual healing where we finally have peace with God and because of Jesus, there is no more condemnation. We can be healed, but we will only die again, but whoever believes in Jesus Christ, even if they die, they will live again. Thank you Jesus! So yes, I am going to keep naming and claiming it. I am going to speak to the mountains and curse the roots. I am going to thank God for my healing and I am going to worship Him. I am going to study His Word and learn how I can please Him. Because live or die, healed or not in this life, I will have victory and will live the abundant life that God has promised me! I know this is a long one, but led by the Holy Spirit. Please take time to read today’s scriptures. They will bless you. Love and Blessings…