A Most Vehement Flame

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling well again and I was getting worried. I began to meditate on my identity in Christ and started to feel better, but my problem kept returning. I wished so strongly that I could go somewhere and touch the hem of Christ’s garment like the woman in Luke 8. I continued to meditate and turned on TBN where Furious Love was playing and within the hour I heard the Holy Spirit tell me that I am Christ’s garment.

This last weekend I prayed for an old friend of mine whom doctors gave no further treatment options for his aggressive brain cancer. I prayed over him and enthusiastically let him know that he is precious to God, whether he knows it or not. He told me that he is an agnostic with “Christian tendencies” but I let my faith control me instead of my worldly, “let’s-all-get-along-and-agree-to-compromise” attitude. I made my best effort to be bold in Christ, ignoring his lack of faith and relying on my own.

I shared the news with a family member that my friend was planning to go into hospice care soon even though he’s not even 30 yet, but I prayed for his healing. It was then she asked me if I cared at all about his soul and that I should tell him to be prepared to meet God. It didn’t matter what else I told him because all she cared about was that if he didn’t believe, he was going to suffer an eternity in hell. While I acknowledge hell and the second death, I don’t think that is the goal on which I should be focusing as I minister to unbelievers (or on-the-fence believers). Jesus did not just die for us so that we might avoid eternal damnation.

I tried to explain my rationale to her (regarding the sacrifice and just what it means to me to be saved) when she suddenly blew up at me and told me that the things I believe were just twisted words of the Bible—making it nonsense. Her passionate uproar caused me to weep. I realized that I wasn’t weeping because she so deliberately tried to condemn my beliefs or even because she tried to warp my understanding of my relationship with God. Instead, I wept because I understood that if she wholeheartedly believes what she says, then she believes she is unrighteous and therefore unable to enter the Kingdom.

In church or fellowship, we sing the line, “break my heart for what breaks Yours” from “Hosanna”. I feel like that request has been granted, and it hurts me so much, I’m not sure what to do.

darlingyellow:

John 3:17

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him

saved: σῴζω, “Sozo”

to save, deliver, protect, heal, set free, preserve, save (self), do well, made whole, kept safe and sound

1) to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction

a) one (from injury or peril)

1) to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health

1) to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved, delivered, protected, healed, set free, preserved, made well, made whole, kept safe and sound  through him

Simply remarkable. Wow.

I had a conversation yesterday with a friend, who is a fellow believer and disciple, about God’s role in sickness. I’m pretty sure we agree about His healing but we debated a little on whether or not God allows sickness in our lives. Since I’ve learned about the new covenant, I wholeheartedly believe that God does not allow sickness in order to test us or otherwise.

God is more powerful than anyone or anything in the universe, so people expect Him to come in and prevent a “war” with perhaps a preemptive “attack.”

My fellow believers, we were already given the gift of faith. In that faith, we know that Christ overcame death itself! Death came from the first sin in Genesis, making death the result of sin. So, as Christ overcame death, He overcame the very source of sin. As Christians, we believe that that same spirit lives within us. We have a spirit within us that overcomes all of our afflictions. As if that isn’t a preemptive move enough, many believers cry out to God for help in times of sickness. But why? Why don’t we boldly declare healing from the spirit that dwells within us? Furthermore, why don’t we declare it from the beginning?

God doesn’t allow sickness. We do! We already have a divine defense within us! Jesus’ healing is not only to treat and cure, but also a means of preventative medicine!

Time: 2011 Jan 29, 12:30pm

Me: God put Wanda* on my heart this morning. There was no question I had to call her and pray for her.

Grandmother: Really?

Me: I paid it forward; I declared healing in the name of Jesus. [Excited speech omitted]

Grandmother: Maybe you’ll be a part of healing ministry someday.

Me: Maybe I’m just reaching my full potential as a Christian.

—Result: Grandmother’s mind blown!

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

– Mathew 10:8 KJV

*Wanda is my old hospital roomie. She has Devic’s disease in which her immune system attacks her spinal cord and in 2006, she had an attack that disabled her with Brown Sequard Syndrome. She got better and then got another attack—yesterday when I called she was still bedridden. I have faith that the next time I call her, she won’t be in bed.