Chapter Three – Where is your Treasure?
In Matthew 6: 19, Jesus says not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal; but to lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven. For, He says, where your treasure is, there is your heart.
He goes on that the eye is the light of the body, and if the eye is good the body will be full of light; however, if the eye is bad, the body will be full of darkness. If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
What does this have to do with what prayer is? You will see. Let me continue my story.
My experience is the same as many new Christians. We’re “new” Christians for a long time, you know. It takes much time for a baby to become an adult. What I did not know then, in the fervor I had for the Lord because He had saved me, is that the plan is not for me to go off and do something for God, not to rush out and show people, including myself, that the rest of the Gospel is true, but to testify of what He did for me.
What I did was go and lay up a treasure for myself on earth – my community. It was what I wanted to do for God. Now, you’re saying, ‘but He told you to go and find others that were like you – you did that!’ And that is true, I did. But He did not tell me to start a community. Because He did not tell me more than to find then and testify to them; once I found them, I did not know what to do with them after they were converted. I did not want to start a “church”, for though I love my denominational brothers and sisters, that variety of church was to me like a law school and not a law practice. In my experience denominations give lessons on the Word of God, but don’t teach practicing the Word of God. The Word of God is only learned by doing. I wanted to create a group of one heart and mind. So, I had converts, did not want to make a denomination, what to do? The community was my thought about what the church should be, based on the book of Acts. And we certainly had an experience like that, and so we assumed God was with us. I assumed God was with me. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t say what we did was wrong or worthless – there is a treasure in Heaven from it – all those who Jesus added to His body because we preached. But the community was us building our dream – our paradise. And rust and moths began to work on that. We were doing something for God to show that He is True. God, though, does not need us to show that. He wants us to let HIM do for US. We are to do what HE says to do, not go after our own dreams, even if they are based on His Word. Obedience is key.
This is the same mistake made by many people – the same mistake I was making. We preach faith, and faith is absolutely necessary, but what Jesus wants is faith in HIM, not faith in our faith in Him. Before we mature, we’re like Peter in the boat. Jesus did NOT tell the disciples to get out the boat – He was coming to them. He told them, “Don’t worry; be happy, it’s ME.” He did NOT say, “Come.” Peter said, “Lord IF it’s you…” This is what we do when we are immature in the faith. We, despite knowing the Word of God, hear it and then say “IF, it’s you…” Just like we in the community wanted to show God was with us by our activity for Him, not by HIS activity in US. I have never heard any preacher understand this properly. Every time I hear a preacher preach that we need to be like Peter and get out of the boat, I smile sadly, because I understand that problem. What happened when Peter got out of the boat? The Lord did tell him to come; but he saw the rough sea and his faith failed him; he cried out and then Jesus lifted him up. You see, Jesus does not call us to depend on our own faith. He calls us to receive HIS faith to follow HIS Word, which never fails. God’s Spirit is necessary in us because our own spirit will fail us, but His never will.
There is another example of this in the Scripture. After the resurrection. After the receipt of the Holy Spirit. Look at the difference. In Acts, 27, 13-26, Paul is a prisoner of the Romans, being taken somewhere by boat. There is a wild storm and the soldiers want to leave the boat, which was a entirely reasonable feeling if one is near enough to shore and expects a shipwreck. But Paul tells them the angel of the Lord has told him no one is to leave the boat until they run aground in a certain place, for if anyone does, all will be killed. The centurion believes him and though as he prophesied, they lost the ship, not one of them was hurt. Many today are preaching ‘get out of the boat - take the skiff’; but Paul says, no, stay in the boat.
We are tested by the Word of God. Jesus told Peter and the rest, “don’t worry, be happy; it’s me.” THAT was the message. But Peter did not believe; he wanted proof. “Lord, IF, it’s you…” do this for me. Our job is to believe the message and let Jesus will take care of the rest. The angel told Paul he must go before Caesar – so why all the drama on the way? How was Paul to get to Rome from a shipwreck on a small island? But he did, and on the way, many were touched by the message of Truth that may never have heard by any other method. God is not our “sugar daddy” to pay our bills and give us freedom to do our own thing. He is our father, and is in the business of correcting us. We are corrected when we hear His Message and do it.
Much preaching today is escape – God is your safety chute out of a burning plane. He is the solution to all your problems! He will pay your debt, heal your sickness, give you wealth; and you know He is with you if you pray and believe and you get a new car! Certainly the Bible gives these promises and we need to believe them all. But the Bible also says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers them from them all”. He does not teach us to pray for a way around a problem, but for power to overcome the problem. We’re not to escape – we are to vanquish. Sometimes the problem is the point. How are you to show faith, or even have any faith, if there is no need for faith? If following Jesus demands nothing from us, what is the point? We are to give ourselves to Him completely, to live for and by what He says and not for ourselves at all – as He said, He did not come to be served, but to serve! We are to be like Him; therefore, we are not here for Him to serve us, but we are to serve HIM and each other.
Another common mistake by baby Christians is to prepare and decorate the newly clean home – yourself - for occupancy. You accept that Jesus died for you, and so you no longer swear, or drink, or fornicate, or smoke. And you think because your house is clean and empty of sin that it is filled with Jesus; but without the Holy Spirit, it is only full of your pride in your “change”. As it says in Revelation of the Church of Laodicea, they had knowledge of God, but denied the full Message because they put their faith in their cleanliness – their activity, not HIS; their self-value and not His Salvation. They developed their own message – be clean, be good, be saved! They said, “We are rich and need nothing”, but He said, “You are poor and naked, and have nothing – buy my real Gold – accept MY Message”. But His Message brings trouble – He says, ‘if I was persecuted, so will you be!’ Real “good news”, huh? Yet that is exactly the point. Jesus said that the last days will be like the time of Noah – things were not bad in that time; people did what they wanted, they married and went about their business and had everything, they thought. Noah came with a message – “It’s going to rain, you must get in the Ark.” There had never been rain at that time, and they laughed at Noah, and when the rain came, the door was closed. They did not accept the Message. Jesus actually said of the church in Laodicea that He is OUTSIDE, and knocks at the door. We must let HIM in, or our “clean home” will become a cesspool, and as Jesus says, our last state will be worse than our first. His Message, His Spirit, must reside in us. This is the treasure we must give everything for – this is the pearl of great price, that a man will give all he has to own. This is treasure in Heaven, which nothing can destroy.
During the time I was living in the community, during my “success”, I went once to preach with T.L. Osborn in Africa. We had huge crowds, many healings and miracles and the power of God was truly seen in that place. There was a couple in the community, Joshua and Miriam. I met them at the Lake of Geneva and didn’t see them for a year after because they lived in Greece. Again at Lake Geneva I was preaching and that same couple were there. They gave their lives to Jesus and joined the community. At this time I went to the area of France where the Hugenots hid and where they made silk. We found a very old home there with a silk factory and decided to form a branch of the community there. It needed a lot of work, and Joshua was a wonderful carpenter; so some of the brothers decided to rebuild the place. This was the time when someone had given me a Rolls Royce because her child had been delivered by Jesus from drugs – so I came to this small village in my Rolls – which was a mistake. I meant well, but it was taken all wrong. Europe is not like America, where you are taught that abundance is from God and hard work. There, abundance means someone is being oppressed. Anyway, before I left on the Africa trip, I heard this couple was planning to go to France to the new project over Christmas. I told them, “No, don’t go. Wait until after the New Year! God says we should not go.” I had no idea why God said this, but I was clear that they should not go through with their plan. I went on to Africa, and during a call home, I spoke to the brother responsible for the community in Switzerland, Paul, and when we discussed it, I let go of the Message and accepted their “good idea” to go and finish for Christmas. Sometimes we second-guess God for what appears to be a good idea – an idea that seems to fit the Word of God. But we must listen to the Lord and not our own hearts or minds. The plan is His, no matter what seems good to us. I returned from Africa to Switzerland during the preparation for Christmas, and we needed to rent another chateau because we were overflowing with people! The Lord tests us by the Word of God and we need to be victorious by His Word, by His Message. This is the most beautiful thing God gives us. Peter says this is “pure gold” to be tested in the fire. I was in the oven and did not know!
No one ever told me exactly what happened, but what I was told is this: Joshua and the pregnant Miriam went with Paul and another sister to a town close to the new project. Before going back, they must’ve stopped for refreshments and Paul had more wine than he should have but did not show it. On the trip back, it rained, and the way was winding. He met another car on a curve, lost control and hit a tree. Joshua and Miriam suffered fatal head injuries. Paul had internal injuries and the other sister had broken bones. I got an emergency call and went directly to France. You cannot imagine our shock; at this time, NOTHING bad had happened to anyone in the community, we had no sickness, no death, and miracles every day. I drove all night. Later, I heard the villagers had said God was punishing us. It wasn’t punishment, it was a test. I got to the chapel, which was so beautiful it broke my heart. Their bodies were on the floor. In Europe then, the dead were brought back to their home until the undertakers could come. I was with dead people for the first time. I had seen people killed, but had never been with them. I was terrified, because I knew one day this would come to me, and was puzzled that this had happened to us. Yet I was full of faith too, having just come from all the miracles in Africa. I said to myself that it was impossible that this couple should die, of course God would want to resurrect them. We would fight this – I would pray for them to be raised and I did. But I got no answer – no voice, no movement, nothing. The next day, the undertaker came and took the bodies. We had to take the bodies back to Switzerland and oh, the scene! We were already thought to be a cult – but in Europe, being a Methodist or in the Church of God is to be in a cult – and their parents blamed me and fought us to take Joshua and Miriam’s living child, though we were her family and wanted to keep her. I had done everything that I had heard or read to do to properly pray to obtain the resurrection: fasted, believed, confessed the Word. Nothing. I was so afraid: accused by the parents; afraid that people would not believe anymore that Jesus was with me; afraid that we would be further persecuted. I did not know then that there is always a besetting sin we cannot remove; always an obstacle we cannot surmount. If there were not, we would never learn what prayer is supposed to be.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
THE "SECRET PLACE" OF PRAYER
Chapter 2
Initially, inspired by the first church in Acts, I wanted to create a community of brothers and sisters dedicated to the gospel first – to reaching others for Jesus, just as we had been reached. I had received from the Lord to go and find others like me; however, I did not know to ask Him what I was supposed to tell them when I found them! I told them the Good News, of course, but then what? I had wonderful success among the drunks and drug addicts and prostitutes on the street. These, my brothers and sisters, would join me in preaching the gospel; and many of them did. Jesus saved many precious children in those days. We banded together, lived together, worked and preached and prayed side by side. My success encouraged me to preach the abundance message – I wanted us to live well so others would see what was possible – to show them that living for Jesus was neither sad and lonely and marginal, nor a beautiful theory of the mind without any actual application in the world but strong, and beautiful and prosperous! My own family, full now of beautiful children, was still growing. The community grew, and attracted persecution, but we did so well, and with miracles, healings and conversions, of course God was with us! For 22 years, we lived like this.
Then, I was accused of using the community so I could live well, myself. Despite this being totally untrue, there were many who believed it. They were never aware of the real problem, which was never money. I did have a secret sin – sexual impurity. I did not act on it then, but it was in my mind and my heart. I was convicted of fraud in Switzerland and so I went to the US. I had a series of miracles here too. My first week in the US I went from a rented car and a motel room to a home on the beach, a Mercedes and a suite of offices on Oakland Park Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale, rent-free! The next year, I was living in a million-dollar home with seven cars, a boat and a thriving business. I even began promoting my dream to build a Christian evangelization park to be called “Bible World”. But many believed the accusations against me, even among my brothers and sisters, who’d worked with me and preached with me, and everything began to fall apart. I lost my business, my community broke up, even my children began to go the way of the world.
I was so hurt, so dispirited! I used the situation as an excuse and left my disintegrating Christian life behind. I lived for myself only, worked as little as possible, fed my flesh, trying to sin enough to make God kill me. One day He sent a small girl to come and take my hand in a restaurant, and tell me God didn’t want me to die! Yet even during this time, I testified to people of the power and love of Jesus! And even at this time, He was using me.
It took a long time, but the Lord delivered me of the sin I was living in. He took me back and dusted me off and set me on His path again. He showed me that the apparent success I had with the prosperity message was not what I thought. The Bible does of course teach that those who follow the Lord will prosper, there is no disputing this, and certainly those who sow liberally will reap liberally. Even during the success, before the problems arose, I knew something was still missing. The problem was that this simply wasn’t my message.
So there I was in my nice little house, surviving, but thinking about my life, and saying to the Lord, “How will people ever listen to me now, after I left my wife and children, abandoned what You told me to do?” I remembered a prophecy someone once spoke over me that I would be a prophet to the nations, and I smiled to myself like Sarah did, thinking it was simply impossible that anyone would accept me. Now at 62, I look at myself and think back over those times when I was young and powerful and “successful” and I wonder to the Lord, “How will anyone accept me as a messenger? I am no longer so young or beautiful or powerful. With the baggage I have who will listen to me? They will think me mad or laugh at me. But I put my knee to the floor and say to Him, “Lord, I know you love me, but help me believe that you can still love me.” Maybe you’re there too. You may have miracles, and success and yet you KNOW in your heart there is still something missing for you, too. You KNOW you need the message. Many of the patriarchs faced this as well – look at Jacob: he stole the birthright from his brother, but he had to go home to face him, and on the way, he wrestled with an angel and received his message. God took Jacob, a deceiver, and made of him Israel, a prince.
Don’t worry, stay with me; we’re coming to the realization that prayer is not what we think, but very different.
Initially, inspired by the first church in Acts, I wanted to create a community of brothers and sisters dedicated to the gospel first – to reaching others for Jesus, just as we had been reached. I had received from the Lord to go and find others like me; however, I did not know to ask Him what I was supposed to tell them when I found them! I told them the Good News, of course, but then what? I had wonderful success among the drunks and drug addicts and prostitutes on the street. These, my brothers and sisters, would join me in preaching the gospel; and many of them did. Jesus saved many precious children in those days. We banded together, lived together, worked and preached and prayed side by side. My success encouraged me to preach the abundance message – I wanted us to live well so others would see what was possible – to show them that living for Jesus was neither sad and lonely and marginal, nor a beautiful theory of the mind without any actual application in the world but strong, and beautiful and prosperous! My own family, full now of beautiful children, was still growing. The community grew, and attracted persecution, but we did so well, and with miracles, healings and conversions, of course God was with us! For 22 years, we lived like this.
Then, I was accused of using the community so I could live well, myself. Despite this being totally untrue, there were many who believed it. They were never aware of the real problem, which was never money. I did have a secret sin – sexual impurity. I did not act on it then, but it was in my mind and my heart. I was convicted of fraud in Switzerland and so I went to the US. I had a series of miracles here too. My first week in the US I went from a rented car and a motel room to a home on the beach, a Mercedes and a suite of offices on Oakland Park Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale, rent-free! The next year, I was living in a million-dollar home with seven cars, a boat and a thriving business. I even began promoting my dream to build a Christian evangelization park to be called “Bible World”. But many believed the accusations against me, even among my brothers and sisters, who’d worked with me and preached with me, and everything began to fall apart. I lost my business, my community broke up, even my children began to go the way of the world.
I was so hurt, so dispirited! I used the situation as an excuse and left my disintegrating Christian life behind. I lived for myself only, worked as little as possible, fed my flesh, trying to sin enough to make God kill me. One day He sent a small girl to come and take my hand in a restaurant, and tell me God didn’t want me to die! Yet even during this time, I testified to people of the power and love of Jesus! And even at this time, He was using me.
It took a long time, but the Lord delivered me of the sin I was living in. He took me back and dusted me off and set me on His path again. He showed me that the apparent success I had with the prosperity message was not what I thought. The Bible does of course teach that those who follow the Lord will prosper, there is no disputing this, and certainly those who sow liberally will reap liberally. Even during the success, before the problems arose, I knew something was still missing. The problem was that this simply wasn’t my message.
So there I was in my nice little house, surviving, but thinking about my life, and saying to the Lord, “How will people ever listen to me now, after I left my wife and children, abandoned what You told me to do?” I remembered a prophecy someone once spoke over me that I would be a prophet to the nations, and I smiled to myself like Sarah did, thinking it was simply impossible that anyone would accept me. Now at 62, I look at myself and think back over those times when I was young and powerful and “successful” and I wonder to the Lord, “How will anyone accept me as a messenger? I am no longer so young or beautiful or powerful. With the baggage I have who will listen to me? They will think me mad or laugh at me. But I put my knee to the floor and say to Him, “Lord, I know you love me, but help me believe that you can still love me.” Maybe you’re there too. You may have miracles, and success and yet you KNOW in your heart there is still something missing for you, too. You KNOW you need the message. Many of the patriarchs faced this as well – look at Jacob: he stole the birthright from his brother, but he had to go home to face him, and on the way, he wrestled with an angel and received his message. God took Jacob, a deceiver, and made of him Israel, a prince.
Don’t worry, stay with me; we’re coming to the realization that prayer is not what we think, but very different.
Monday, August 25, 2008
THE "SECRET PLACE" OF PRAYER
Chapter One
I didn’t realize when I began this message on why prayer seems so often not to be answered that it would take me several “chapters” to explain about prayer.
Recently I went to a Bible study at a local Methodist Church about the Psalms, during which the minister talked about prayer and the use of the Psalms as prayers, and I realized a lot of people don’t seem to know what prayer really is. Look at the disciples of Jesus, good Jews all, doubtless with lots of good synagogue attendance, yet they asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Certainly in this local church there was a need for teaching regarding prayer – they had a list of names on both sides of a sheet of paper of sick people – so he had the right idea! This broke my heart because, of course, answers are possible to all these problems. The pastor before this one at that same church actually considered introducing “reiki” into his church! The Lord has brought this back into my mind over a year later because it was time to deal with this issue. I asked that pastor what he was thinking and why he didn’t introduce the Holy Spirit into his church – as Wesley, his founder, would have done!
I never knew these things before either – as a former Catholic I was taught to pray before the statutes and as a young child it seemed to me that if I did this, the statue would move, or take action of some kind! We had amulets too: a sort of charm that contained an alleged hair from this saint or that, which would protect you through the day if prayed to the saint.
We can’t be blamed really, we’re human and we need and want answers – we’ll do nearly anything to get them. My mother, a fervent Catholic, if she got no answer to her prayers, would take me to a local wise woman for some divination – the lady would place an egg white in a glass of water and read “God’s will” for me there. My step-father, when he dislocated his elbow in a fall, went to a local bonesetter. The man was not bad at bonesetting, but he also added charms for protection to his prescription. I remember the maribou coming, with his castanets, to the local Muslims in Algeria; they would come to be “healed” by the spirits he would call. I first saw people become possessed at these sessions. Later, in Haiti, I would see the voodoo priest perform a ceremony to transfer the sickness from a child to an animal, and saw the animal actually appear to cry like an infant. I left because it was a very disturbing sight, but I say all this to show how far we will go to receive an answer.
While writing all this for you, it came to me that my life changed by prayer. I was arrested once in Switzerland, and the policeman who spoke to me told me that he’d prayed the night before for the Lord to send him someone he could testify to. This man said that when he went to sleep that night, he’d had a dream about me – that I would become a preacher! I didn’t listen to him then, but later, when I returned to Switzerland, I ended up being converted in a small church full of old people who’d been praying for me for the past year. I found out after my conversion that my brother the police officer had preached at their church and asked them to pray for me. They had been praying for me all that time, and the Lord put me in their church to hear His message and receive a visit from Him, for I was struck by His Light in that very church!
I have spent the past 35 years since then looking for the message I was to carry – I looked in a desert cave among the monks, where I fasted and prayed, and I did see an angel, but he only blew on me and healed me of sun-sickness – he spoke not at all! I was disappointed I can tell you! I was preaching and praying for miracles and baptizing and I knew I was to be doing these things, but all this is in the Bible – anyone can and should read and do them. I was searching for my specific message – I knew Jesus had not saved me to read the Bible to others and just repeat what they already knew. He saved me for a specific message – just as He did Paul, and Peter and the other first Christians. Just as He has you. I know you want your answer too; don’t feel discouraged – it took me 35 years; it’ll take a few paragraphs to get the point across! I have discovered that the message I am to bring is a preparation of the people of God for His return. But I did not discover this right away.
I didn’t realize when I began this message on why prayer seems so often not to be answered that it would take me several “chapters” to explain about prayer.
Recently I went to a Bible study at a local Methodist Church about the Psalms, during which the minister talked about prayer and the use of the Psalms as prayers, and I realized a lot of people don’t seem to know what prayer really is. Look at the disciples of Jesus, good Jews all, doubtless with lots of good synagogue attendance, yet they asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Certainly in this local church there was a need for teaching regarding prayer – they had a list of names on both sides of a sheet of paper of sick people – so he had the right idea! This broke my heart because, of course, answers are possible to all these problems. The pastor before this one at that same church actually considered introducing “reiki” into his church! The Lord has brought this back into my mind over a year later because it was time to deal with this issue. I asked that pastor what he was thinking and why he didn’t introduce the Holy Spirit into his church – as Wesley, his founder, would have done!
I never knew these things before either – as a former Catholic I was taught to pray before the statutes and as a young child it seemed to me that if I did this, the statue would move, or take action of some kind! We had amulets too: a sort of charm that contained an alleged hair from this saint or that, which would protect you through the day if prayed to the saint.
We can’t be blamed really, we’re human and we need and want answers – we’ll do nearly anything to get them. My mother, a fervent Catholic, if she got no answer to her prayers, would take me to a local wise woman for some divination – the lady would place an egg white in a glass of water and read “God’s will” for me there. My step-father, when he dislocated his elbow in a fall, went to a local bonesetter. The man was not bad at bonesetting, but he also added charms for protection to his prescription. I remember the maribou coming, with his castanets, to the local Muslims in Algeria; they would come to be “healed” by the spirits he would call. I first saw people become possessed at these sessions. Later, in Haiti, I would see the voodoo priest perform a ceremony to transfer the sickness from a child to an animal, and saw the animal actually appear to cry like an infant. I left because it was a very disturbing sight, but I say all this to show how far we will go to receive an answer.
While writing all this for you, it came to me that my life changed by prayer. I was arrested once in Switzerland, and the policeman who spoke to me told me that he’d prayed the night before for the Lord to send him someone he could testify to. This man said that when he went to sleep that night, he’d had a dream about me – that I would become a preacher! I didn’t listen to him then, but later, when I returned to Switzerland, I ended up being converted in a small church full of old people who’d been praying for me for the past year. I found out after my conversion that my brother the police officer had preached at their church and asked them to pray for me. They had been praying for me all that time, and the Lord put me in their church to hear His message and receive a visit from Him, for I was struck by His Light in that very church!
I have spent the past 35 years since then looking for the message I was to carry – I looked in a desert cave among the monks, where I fasted and prayed, and I did see an angel, but he only blew on me and healed me of sun-sickness – he spoke not at all! I was disappointed I can tell you! I was preaching and praying for miracles and baptizing and I knew I was to be doing these things, but all this is in the Bible – anyone can and should read and do them. I was searching for my specific message – I knew Jesus had not saved me to read the Bible to others and just repeat what they already knew. He saved me for a specific message – just as He did Paul, and Peter and the other first Christians. Just as He has you. I know you want your answer too; don’t feel discouraged – it took me 35 years; it’ll take a few paragraphs to get the point across! I have discovered that the message I am to bring is a preparation of the people of God for His return. But I did not discover this right away.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
I WANT TO DO "GOOD" ...
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts …” Matthew 7:11. It is difficult to discern what “good” is important to receive. The conflict we have is that we ask God, and receive, but differently from what we expect. Even from evil people, it is possible to receive food; it is immediate and easy and requires no work. To be fed in such a way is good for the short term, but afterward, you’re hungry again; as well as being dependent on evil people! It may be more painful to learn to feed yourself, but then you are fed for more than just a time.
It is possible to receive good things from evil people, but in the end, they don’t give a real answer. Something is still missing from what they give. But when we receive from God, it is not only good, it produces LIFE.
In Isaiah 35:8, the prophet speaks of a highway and a road that shall be in the desert. Everyone likes to walk on a highway – it’s smooth, easy, straight and good. When I was a young Christian, I wanted the highway too. It is like being fed by someone who is doing “good”. It is easy and requires little effort.
Jesus says the way to destruction is wide and easy and the way to Life is narrow and difficult. When God pushes you to believe, His way is more difficult than what you find by yourself, in your own freedom. Many times the way God asks us to go looks like something that, to us, He would never ask! The Bible promises prosperity and long life and goodness to God’s followers, this is famously and everywhere taught; however, this is promised to those who follow the Word of God, and the Word of God teaches sacrifice, and not only sacrifice for those we love and who love us, but also for those who hate us and persecute us.
I was praying recently and saw in my mind a young man, in a beautiful resort by the beach. He had just had some fine champagne, the bottle swimming in the icy water, and was going out for a walk. In one of the most beautiful places on earth, with a gorgeous sunset in front of him and perfect weather, his experience was empty. He saw the waves curl gently onto the sand and sink into it, but run away again. This young man was active in a great church, had a great family and a successful career; he was highly thought of by all who knew him. Because his church was a bit on the dry side for actual experiences, he would sometimes go to a yoga class or to see an astrologer, or a medium, to try to gain some mystical touch or be reminded there was something else other than just what he could see. Not bad, right, as long as you don’t believe the mumbo-jumbo that goes with it, what could it hurt? But as he stood there in the sand, he felt all these things to be like the waves – running over and through him and washing away again.
He had no one to share his plenty with – he had no one with him!
I was like this before – my heart sitting alone in all the treasure God had given me. I was like the man at the pool of Bethesda; I could see the angel coming, see the water move, but could not get to the pool in time. I thought I had it all, and thought I had God with me, but I was only using God to do FOR me, not to be with me. I was a man of impure lips because God was not IN me. When you preach the Word of God, but it is not confirmed, this is what is happening. When Isaiah saw his vision, and said his lips were unclean; they had to be purified by fire, which the angel applied to him with the burning coal. The Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost as a fire that lit on the disciples; they were purified by the light of that fire.
Now, I pray every night, and have the sweet Love of God to be with me. That is more than all I had before – not a concept of power, though power comes with the presence of God – a relationship with One Who never leaves me. My wife and I live together, of course, and I see her everyday, but sometimes, like the other night, I really “see” her and she’s not just someone I live with but someone who is “with” me – really with me, who I know will never leave me behind or desert me. That is how it is with Jesus - He is with me all the time! But in order to have this, I had to let go of all those things I thought were the important ones, just like I had to leave behind other women to have my wife. I had to leave the highway – the wide, easy path, and hit the road – go where it is difficult and narrow, but pure, just as the lips of the prophet, because of His Light.
The New Age and to an extent, even Christian denominations, promise enlightenment, miracles, mountain-moving, healing, speaking with other tongues, all of which have a real counterpart, for which these are substitutes. They do not end in perfection, as do the gifts that come through the Word of God.
People feel paralyzed and empty today because they don’t have God inside, but only outside – they are not purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, which must live IN us. Our lips should reflect the Light of the Word of God.
Before, I played the role of the believer: I preached Jesus and said He was with me, and had miracles and signs and thought that was all. But for all that, He was not IN me. Paul was the best-educated, most “religious” man of his day, would have been the youngest member of the Sanhedrin, but something was missing in him. I was the same. It was as if I were Noah, who after he built the ark, ended up drunk and nude in the new earth. I did not go to perfection. Then, I had a vision where I saw the narrow way – God becoming man.
When we build tradition with our faith, we’re whitewashing the tombs of the prophets, not getting what they had. For every person, Christians and not, the way that we take has a detour to the narrow way - Jesus. God needs to cover you with the Light that He has, the same as He did Mary, and Paul and the Prophets. This does not come by anything else: science or knowledge, or religion – the “good gifts” from evil people, but from Jesus, as in Matthew 24 – where Jesus says everything will pass away, but His Words will not pass away. What God has taught me is to come back to His Word, leaving behind all the things I valued that did not make me perfect: preaching, casting out devils, making miracles, but with my unclean lips. The disciples before the resurrection were like this – they preached, they did miracles, yet Jesus constantly said to them “Oh ye of little faith!” This was because they said the Word of God, but it did not live IN them – it was incomplete. After the resurrection, and after the falling of the Holy Spirit, not only did they preach the Word of God, they lived the Word of God. They were going to perfection. After Pentecost, when Peter and John crossed paths with a paralyzed man, he asked them for alms, but Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but I give what I do have: in the Name of Jesus, get up and walk!” He had gone into perfection; he didn’t just use the Word of God, he embodied the Word of God.
God says that I can have anything I ask for in faith; yet He is not my valet to give me everything I ask, to save me from all pain and strain – the highway, the wide way to destruction. It is not the faith of Abraham I need, or of those who lived in caves and had nothing, because all this is just looking at the cross, but not going “through” the cross. To go through the cross is not to just accept that Jesus died for me and saved me, but to give my life to Him. Not to say “thank you” to Him for all the good things I have: my raise and my car and my home and my clothes and my social standing, but that He elected me to receive eternal life. He is perfection, the perfect Man, the perfect sacrifice, the only way to save us. Not popes, or bishops or ceremonies or buildings, but only He, the perfect answer.
Paul said in I Corinthians 13, 'I want to show you a more excellent way': God loved us so much, He became a man to take the place of all the “good things” that cannot make you perfect and lead to death; to put you in HIM, the Way, the Truth and the Life. This all came to me as I prayed on the deck where I am waiting to put the Tent, and when I stood up to go, I began to cry. I needed the Love of God. Paul said, living the principles of the Love of Christ, let us go into perfection! If I have the Love of God, though, I will Love my brothers. Do you know the Love of God? It is in Jesus – go to Him, give yourself to Him! Find His Love! Go into perfection!
As you may know, I pray every morning very early, so email me what you need to be prayed for and I will pray with you for it. My emails are cravanzola@yahoo.com, and jm.cravanzola@gmail.com. Email me your prayer requests or write to me by snail mail at 295 W Palmer Mill Rd, Monticello, FL 32344.
It is possible to receive good things from evil people, but in the end, they don’t give a real answer. Something is still missing from what they give. But when we receive from God, it is not only good, it produces LIFE.
In Isaiah 35:8, the prophet speaks of a highway and a road that shall be in the desert. Everyone likes to walk on a highway – it’s smooth, easy, straight and good. When I was a young Christian, I wanted the highway too. It is like being fed by someone who is doing “good”. It is easy and requires little effort.
Jesus says the way to destruction is wide and easy and the way to Life is narrow and difficult. When God pushes you to believe, His way is more difficult than what you find by yourself, in your own freedom. Many times the way God asks us to go looks like something that, to us, He would never ask! The Bible promises prosperity and long life and goodness to God’s followers, this is famously and everywhere taught; however, this is promised to those who follow the Word of God, and the Word of God teaches sacrifice, and not only sacrifice for those we love and who love us, but also for those who hate us and persecute us.
I was praying recently and saw in my mind a young man, in a beautiful resort by the beach. He had just had some fine champagne, the bottle swimming in the icy water, and was going out for a walk. In one of the most beautiful places on earth, with a gorgeous sunset in front of him and perfect weather, his experience was empty. He saw the waves curl gently onto the sand and sink into it, but run away again. This young man was active in a great church, had a great family and a successful career; he was highly thought of by all who knew him. Because his church was a bit on the dry side for actual experiences, he would sometimes go to a yoga class or to see an astrologer, or a medium, to try to gain some mystical touch or be reminded there was something else other than just what he could see. Not bad, right, as long as you don’t believe the mumbo-jumbo that goes with it, what could it hurt? But as he stood there in the sand, he felt all these things to be like the waves – running over and through him and washing away again.
He had no one to share his plenty with – he had no one with him!
I was like this before – my heart sitting alone in all the treasure God had given me. I was like the man at the pool of Bethesda; I could see the angel coming, see the water move, but could not get to the pool in time. I thought I had it all, and thought I had God with me, but I was only using God to do FOR me, not to be with me. I was a man of impure lips because God was not IN me. When you preach the Word of God, but it is not confirmed, this is what is happening. When Isaiah saw his vision, and said his lips were unclean; they had to be purified by fire, which the angel applied to him with the burning coal. The Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost as a fire that lit on the disciples; they were purified by the light of that fire.
Now, I pray every night, and have the sweet Love of God to be with me. That is more than all I had before – not a concept of power, though power comes with the presence of God – a relationship with One Who never leaves me. My wife and I live together, of course, and I see her everyday, but sometimes, like the other night, I really “see” her and she’s not just someone I live with but someone who is “with” me – really with me, who I know will never leave me behind or desert me. That is how it is with Jesus - He is with me all the time! But in order to have this, I had to let go of all those things I thought were the important ones, just like I had to leave behind other women to have my wife. I had to leave the highway – the wide, easy path, and hit the road – go where it is difficult and narrow, but pure, just as the lips of the prophet, because of His Light.
The New Age and to an extent, even Christian denominations, promise enlightenment, miracles, mountain-moving, healing, speaking with other tongues, all of which have a real counterpart, for which these are substitutes. They do not end in perfection, as do the gifts that come through the Word of God.
People feel paralyzed and empty today because they don’t have God inside, but only outside – they are not purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, which must live IN us. Our lips should reflect the Light of the Word of God.
Before, I played the role of the believer: I preached Jesus and said He was with me, and had miracles and signs and thought that was all. But for all that, He was not IN me. Paul was the best-educated, most “religious” man of his day, would have been the youngest member of the Sanhedrin, but something was missing in him. I was the same. It was as if I were Noah, who after he built the ark, ended up drunk and nude in the new earth. I did not go to perfection. Then, I had a vision where I saw the narrow way – God becoming man.
When we build tradition with our faith, we’re whitewashing the tombs of the prophets, not getting what they had. For every person, Christians and not, the way that we take has a detour to the narrow way - Jesus. God needs to cover you with the Light that He has, the same as He did Mary, and Paul and the Prophets. This does not come by anything else: science or knowledge, or religion – the “good gifts” from evil people, but from Jesus, as in Matthew 24 – where Jesus says everything will pass away, but His Words will not pass away. What God has taught me is to come back to His Word, leaving behind all the things I valued that did not make me perfect: preaching, casting out devils, making miracles, but with my unclean lips. The disciples before the resurrection were like this – they preached, they did miracles, yet Jesus constantly said to them “Oh ye of little faith!” This was because they said the Word of God, but it did not live IN them – it was incomplete. After the resurrection, and after the falling of the Holy Spirit, not only did they preach the Word of God, they lived the Word of God. They were going to perfection. After Pentecost, when Peter and John crossed paths with a paralyzed man, he asked them for alms, but Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but I give what I do have: in the Name of Jesus, get up and walk!” He had gone into perfection; he didn’t just use the Word of God, he embodied the Word of God.
God says that I can have anything I ask for in faith; yet He is not my valet to give me everything I ask, to save me from all pain and strain – the highway, the wide way to destruction. It is not the faith of Abraham I need, or of those who lived in caves and had nothing, because all this is just looking at the cross, but not going “through” the cross. To go through the cross is not to just accept that Jesus died for me and saved me, but to give my life to Him. Not to say “thank you” to Him for all the good things I have: my raise and my car and my home and my clothes and my social standing, but that He elected me to receive eternal life. He is perfection, the perfect Man, the perfect sacrifice, the only way to save us. Not popes, or bishops or ceremonies or buildings, but only He, the perfect answer.
Paul said in I Corinthians 13, 'I want to show you a more excellent way': God loved us so much, He became a man to take the place of all the “good things” that cannot make you perfect and lead to death; to put you in HIM, the Way, the Truth and the Life. This all came to me as I prayed on the deck where I am waiting to put the Tent, and when I stood up to go, I began to cry. I needed the Love of God. Paul said, living the principles of the Love of Christ, let us go into perfection! If I have the Love of God, though, I will Love my brothers. Do you know the Love of God? It is in Jesus – go to Him, give yourself to Him! Find His Love! Go into perfection!
As you may know, I pray every morning very early, so email me what you need to be prayed for and I will pray with you for it. My emails are cravanzola@yahoo.com, and jm.cravanzola@gmail.com. Email me your prayer requests or write to me by snail mail at 295 W Palmer Mill Rd, Monticello, FL 32344.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Divine Healing is the Spiritual Cure
I originally wrote this for my dear friends Lowell and Catherine, but want to share it with you all. Lowell is the gentleman Jesus healed back on April 1st of Parkinson's disease, from which he'd suffered for 23 years before Jesus delivered him!
DIVINE HEALING IS THE SPIRITUAL CURE
God’s divine healing is spiritual.
-The divine spiritual is administered through the human spirit . 1 Cor. 2: 9-12
-In Psalm 107: 20, God says he sent his word and healed them. Important: it did not say that God sends His word to heal, but that He sent His Word AND HEALED. God considers it done. He is no respecter of persons, but does respect faith in his Word. Ps 4: 20-22.
The Word of God is LIFE. It is also health or medicine to all your flesh. The Word will heal your body, but it does it through spiritual means. John 1:4. You must receive God’s Word concerning healing into your spirit for supernatural healing.
THE ENGRAFTED WORD
God’s Word is perfect spiritual law. Ps. 19: 7. You must speak God’s word to your individual circumstance. James 1: 21 admonishes us to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls. Important: once the Word of God is engrafted into your spirit, it produces health in the body as well. Jesus said, “if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done to you. John15:7.
When God’s Word becomes engrafted or infused into your spirit, it becomes a part of you - It IS you. When It takes root in your flesh it becomes greater than disease, and healing is the result. God spoke and Creation WAS. Words are the carriers of faith. Heb 11:3. You are created in the image of God. Every time you speak by faith, God creates His Image inside you; therefore if it is healing you desire, the healing image is created by the Word of God in you. That image came into creation by the Word of God and you will begin to see it in yourself as well. When the Word is engrafted in you, it infuses its life into you. Rom. 8:11.
FAITH GIVES SUBSTANCE TO HOPE
Hope is important but hope lacks substance until it is filled with faith. Hope is only a goal-setter. Hope is to desire healing, but hope itself does not heal - faith gave substance to that hope; it gave substance to and brought about the manifestation of healing that was already yours because of the covenant.
-All things are possible to them that believe. Mark 9:23
-If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed you would say... Luke 17:6
-He that believeth, hath. John 3:36.
-Whosoever shall say... He shall have Luke 11:23
It is Biblical principle to believe and call for things that are not yet manifested. The words of Jesus ring very clear concerning healing. “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole” Mark 5:34. Our confession of the Word fo God calls for healing which is already ours, but is not manifested in our bodies. The unseen things are called into being only by words carrying faith! If a person takes medicine, he should mix it with faith, saying “I believe I receive my healing in Jesus’ Name”. It takes time to renew your mind and develop faith in your words, as well as God’s Word.
It is true that God has provided healing for us through His Word, but we must learn to appropriate that healing by making the Word part of our daily vocabulary. Ps. 107:19-20 and Isaiah 55:11 and 57:19. Denying sickness won’t make you well. By mixing faith with God’s Word, you are calling for the promise of God to be manifested in your body. By this we should be fully persuaded and healing IS the result.
There are some who would say you are lying if you confess you’re healed when you are sick. No, you are simply calling for healing that God already provided, even though it is not yet manifested in your body. What you are really doing is practicing God’s medicine. You are not trying to convince anyone that you are not sick; rather you are simply proclaiming what God has said in His Word to be fact, regardless of your present condition.
- The Word says, “By His stripes (those of Jesus) ye were Healed” I Pet 2:24
- Notice: it is past tense as to the healing as far as God is concerned, even if not yet manifested in you.
- You are calling your body well according to Luke 17:5 and Mark 11:23.
Don’t make the mistake so many Christians do by not calling things that are not as though they are. Bv not speaking the Word of God, they are establishing their present condition in their hearts, minds, bodies and faith.
DIVINE HEALING IS THE SPIRITUAL CURE
God’s divine healing is spiritual.
-The divine spiritual is administered through the human spirit . 1 Cor. 2: 9-12
-In Psalm 107: 20, God says he sent his word and healed them. Important: it did not say that God sends His word to heal, but that He sent His Word AND HEALED. God considers it done. He is no respecter of persons, but does respect faith in his Word. Ps 4: 20-22.
The Word of God is LIFE. It is also health or medicine to all your flesh. The Word will heal your body, but it does it through spiritual means. John 1:4. You must receive God’s Word concerning healing into your spirit for supernatural healing.
THE ENGRAFTED WORD
God’s Word is perfect spiritual law. Ps. 19: 7. You must speak God’s word to your individual circumstance. James 1: 21 admonishes us to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls. Important: once the Word of God is engrafted into your spirit, it produces health in the body as well. Jesus said, “if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done to you. John15:7.
When God’s Word becomes engrafted or infused into your spirit, it becomes a part of you - It IS you. When It takes root in your flesh it becomes greater than disease, and healing is the result. God spoke and Creation WAS. Words are the carriers of faith. Heb 11:3. You are created in the image of God. Every time you speak by faith, God creates His Image inside you; therefore if it is healing you desire, the healing image is created by the Word of God in you. That image came into creation by the Word of God and you will begin to see it in yourself as well. When the Word is engrafted in you, it infuses its life into you. Rom. 8:11.
FAITH GIVES SUBSTANCE TO HOPE
Hope is important but hope lacks substance until it is filled with faith. Hope is only a goal-setter. Hope is to desire healing, but hope itself does not heal - faith gave substance to that hope; it gave substance to and brought about the manifestation of healing that was already yours because of the covenant.
-All things are possible to them that believe. Mark 9:23
-If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed you would say... Luke 17:6
-He that believeth, hath. John 3:36.
-Whosoever shall say... He shall have Luke 11:23
It is Biblical principle to believe and call for things that are not yet manifested. The words of Jesus ring very clear concerning healing. “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole” Mark 5:34. Our confession of the Word fo God calls for healing which is already ours, but is not manifested in our bodies. The unseen things are called into being only by words carrying faith! If a person takes medicine, he should mix it with faith, saying “I believe I receive my healing in Jesus’ Name”. It takes time to renew your mind and develop faith in your words, as well as God’s Word.
It is true that God has provided healing for us through His Word, but we must learn to appropriate that healing by making the Word part of our daily vocabulary. Ps. 107:19-20 and Isaiah 55:11 and 57:19. Denying sickness won’t make you well. By mixing faith with God’s Word, you are calling for the promise of God to be manifested in your body. By this we should be fully persuaded and healing IS the result.
There are some who would say you are lying if you confess you’re healed when you are sick. No, you are simply calling for healing that God already provided, even though it is not yet manifested in your body. What you are really doing is practicing God’s medicine. You are not trying to convince anyone that you are not sick; rather you are simply proclaiming what God has said in His Word to be fact, regardless of your present condition.
- The Word says, “By His stripes (those of Jesus) ye were Healed” I Pet 2:24
- Notice: it is past tense as to the healing as far as God is concerned, even if not yet manifested in you.
- You are calling your body well according to Luke 17:5 and Mark 11:23.
Don’t make the mistake so many Christians do by not calling things that are not as though they are. Bv not speaking the Word of God, they are establishing their present condition in their hearts, minds, bodies and faith.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
