The God of the Universe, the all-knowing, all powerful creator of the world, the
one who loves us, who is always faithful and is always good, that is the God I
serve. He is a good good Father, He is the Lord almighty, and He is the healer
of bodies, hearts and minds. He is all-powerful. Almighty. Unstoppable. And He
is moving among us today.
In Matthew 6:9-13, a passage we tend to famously refer to as 'The Lord's
Prayer', Jesus taught us to pray for God's kingdom to come, declaring;
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven..."
That is key. On earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus called us to pray for God's
kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth, as it is done in heaven.
Whatever God wills to happen in heaven happens; and whatever He does not want to
see there gets banished from His presence. Evil cannot reside there, disease
cannot survive there, and darkness cannot hide there; for God's glory fills
heaven with love, joy and peace. Heaven is a perfect, sinless, disease-free,
pain-free kingdom under the authority and rule of God; a kingdom which according
to Jesus, can become manifest here on earth through our prayers. Again I must
remind you, heaven is a disease free place; and so I must wonder why, if we are
called to pray for earth to become like heaven; why do we stand by and allow
things that don't exist in heaven such as sickness and disease to run rampant
across our world?
This whole concept has really come to a head in my mind over the past couple
weeks, as God has been revamping my heart and my mind, pouring out fresh
revelation and anointing upon me to see His kingdom come here on earth; to see
the powers of darkness, specifically disease be cast aside. You see I have
always believed in the power of God to heal, to restore broken hearts and lives,
to bring salvation. I have always believed that God heals, but it was not until
recently that this reality truly became my reality.
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If we are called to pray for the earth to become like heaven, why do we stand by
and allow sickness and disease to run rampant across our world?
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It all started three weeks ago, at work, when God spoke to me. He began to speak
to me tenderly, revealing to me who I was in Him, how He was going to use me;
speaking into my destiny and my future, revealing a portion of the plans He had
for me. And then He finished it all off with a single line that I will never be
able to forget, saying "and I will prove all of this to you by giving you
authority over all sickness and disease; you have the right to call things that
are not as if they are, to reveal my love and grace to this world!"
I don't know if any of you have ever had a type of mind-boggling experience with
God that you cannot explain or even fully comprehend, but that is essentially
what happened to me. I stood in a state of shock, blown away by the love and
power of God; mind churning, struggling to process the whole situation. 'Why
me?' I thought 'Why not someone else?' Fortunately, He didn't answer that
question. But even as I struggled with this truth, I knew that in just a few
short weeks I would have the opportunity to test His words.
Skip forward three full weeks; it's Sunday morning at my church and we're
holding a healing service. As a member of the elders/prayer team, I was
requested to be a part of the team that prayed over the people who needed
healing; but that morning I just didn't really feel it. I felt distant from God,
and all throughout the worship time I just stood, trying to reach out to Him,
trying to call for Him; trying to pray and ask for faith to see people healed;
before finally just giving up and simply looking up at heaven and saying "God, I
don't care what you're planning to do today, you're going to heal people!" And
He finally answered. In a still small voice He rose to my challenge and said,
"Okay."
"Okay". That one simple word; a single word full of so much meaning. You see I
have always believed in healing; and starting just over a year ago I began to
pursue it with all my heart. I wanted to see people healed; I wanted to see God
move through me to touch others' lives; I wanted to be used by Him. I'm not
going to share the rest of the story just yet; trust me it's good and you'll
want to read my next devotional; but the idea I just want to land on is simply
this - sometimes when you challenge God to do something that is already His will
to do; He'll rise up to that challenge. He wants to heal people; it's part of
His will. And the key is simply this - you need to be willing to step out in
faith, trusting that God is always right beside you saying 'ok'. Trust God; be
willing to risk it all in order to cause the reality of a disease-free, sinless,
sickless heaven to become one with the earth we live on. Will healing happen
100% of the time? No. The only person to ever live who had that kind of track
record was Jesus. But we can't forget, Jesus told us in John 14:12
"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been
doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to
the Father."
Greater works shall we do through His spirit. So trust Him. Don't forget about
the God of the universe, the God who lives in a sickless reality that He wants
us to usher into earth. Put your faith in Him, and let Him use you to help
others!
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
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The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.