Jesus, Healing, and Spiritual Realities

Recently during my devotion time I sensed Holy Spirit highlighting particular scriptures that connected with my ponderings this week.  I realized He was guiding me through what Jesus did and how, when it came to healing various physical and neurobiological ailments and the phenomena of what the Bible calls “demon possession", or "oppression".  I’ve had opportunity to explore all these topics before and have witnessed people get healed, but also get delivered from possession.

Yes, demons exist.  No, they are not mythical.  I’ve seen their effects, and exits from people, with my own eyes:  while praying for someone’s healing (a bowel issue), while praying for a move and job transition for an individual (a spirit of witchcraft began to manifest and grip their spine), while praying for a youth pastor (a spirit of grief).  How do I know they were spirits?  They exit with some noise, through the persons mouth.  They try to fight it, they try to exit with as much drama as they are allowed.  Sounds such as belching, retching, coughing uncontrollably, seething and screaming.  If you know your authority in Christ, then you can order them to exit without drama and they have to obey Christ’s authority through you.  When it’s over, the person feels the freedom, because they were heavily oppressed before.

So back to what Holy Spirit showed me.  I was pondering what one pastor wrote about neuro-biological disorders (NBD) (an article excerpt on the web) and thought, how brilliant, this seems simple, comforting and nice (separating demon possession from NBD's in particular).  I was actually going to buy his theory, in part.  But later, Holy Spirit debunked the man’s theories and interpretation of scripture, when He illuminated key scriptures about demon-possession, it’s link to healing and the fact that it is actually not rare and it does not occur with only older people who’ve committed terrible or habitual sins or are involved in the occult.  In fact, a number of the most potent examples in scripture involve children.  Other examples show healing of the mind, healing of speech, and healing of what appear to be symptoms of catatonic schizophrenia and a crippled body - after being delivered from a demon of “infirmity”, a “mute” demon, and a “deaf & mute” demon.  When a demon was not involved, Jesus simply laid His hands on them or stuck his fingers in their ears and said “be opened”.  Some ailments are caused by demons, some are not.

Some will come out if you just invoke the name of Jesus, others will say, “Who are you?”, and won’t budge unless you have a lifestyle that is marked by prayerful relationship with God the Father and lead a life consecrated (obedient, set apart) to God.  Even Jesus said He could do nothing apart from the Father and He did only what He saw the Father doing.  This means He had a very close and active/real relationship with God, where He could see and hear what God the Father was telling Him and then move in response.  This provided Jesus with Heaven’s power and the confidence to use it.

The other thing I found, that impacted me, was that God the Father gave Jesus authority on earth because He is the Son of Man (John 5:26-27).  Jesus was the Son of God and the Son of Man.  If He was not the Son of Man, He would not have authority on Earth.  Because God gave the Earth to Man.  Satan usurped it through deception and getting Man’s agreement - this is how satan gains authority on Earth.  God doesn’t usurp.  He offers partnership with Heaven.  He’s got the power of life, we have the authority on Earth.  Jesus had both, and then through His work on the cross and the gift of Holy Spirit, that is made available to all who believe, we are to release it in the Earth, with our authority, to destroy satan’s work.  We are mandated to imitate Christ and do even greater works than He did.

Nothing Jesus did should be impossible for us.  Our problem is lifestyle, lack of faith and apathy, and we give up when we don’t see immediate results (and build false theology around it), as though obeying our mandate was an option based on our success rate, and lastly, we are not willing to risk looking like idiots (Jesus was accused of being out of his mind, by his family, and demon possessed, by the religious).  Thankfully, Holy Spirit is available to heal those heart issues in us, if we recognize them in ourselves, confess and repent of them, and ask Him to change us.  It would be His joyful pleasure to do so.

The Wrestle

I have wrestled with God,
and do you know how He wrestled me down?
With love.

Eternalizing Priorities

Finding myself swamped and surprised once again by this phenomena that happens at the end of each calendar year, I decided to ask God how I should organize my time (kinda wish I'd asked 3 weeks ago!).  I thought it would be a delayed and complicated response, perhaps taking months, or years, of transformation into another personality type...

But no.  The answer came immediately and as I was praying.  In fact within my prayer was the answer.

"Does it have eternal value?"

I grabbed pen and paper and listened.


1)  Is God asking you to do it?*
2)  Does it have eternal value?
3)  Is it a need?
4)  Does it bring you life?**

If not, let it go, because you can't, nor should you, try to do it all.


Those who care about you will understand.  Those who don't understand, don't care about you, they don't know how, because they don't know how to care for themselves.  Caring for ourselves is the first step in loving our neighbor as ourselves (the second commandment, which is like the first and greatest commandment to love God).  When we are cared for, we will understand how to care for others in a way that brings true life to them, and us, at the same time.  This is not selfishness, but awareness that we are human and need care, it's when we go beyond what we need that we become gluttons for self-gratification.





*God does not contradict His revealed word (Holy Bible), so everything we think we "hear" from Him must line up and pass the test of scripture.

**True life is doing what is truly good for you, this includes healthy rest and recreation (excercise, hobbies), being inspired by beautiful art, dating your spouse etc.

True or False [Hope]?

I wrote this on some notepaper almost a week ago, but didn't have time to blog it until now.

I love my husband.

I love our children.

I love the home and life we've made together, that God has blessed us with.

Moments of panic or despair seize me when I see or feel that I've done nothing else with my life, or with my gifts and talents, or with my passions, because of defeat through my own flaws, or defeat through exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed by my responsibilities and then a lack of sufficient time.

What good are my gifts and talents and passions then?

Most mammals can procreate, feed their young, the population has homes to keep. What gifts/talents/passions are needed for that?

Why am I the way I am, if I was not intended to use what I've been given? Better to have been born ordinary than to suffer my gifts to an ordinary (though nice and noble) life.

So I try to carve out a niche, I keep hoping, I try to protect the flame.

The other option, that I can see, is to snuff the flame and see if I can survive as a “Stepford”. I actually tried that for a couple weeks, but God did not bless it.

So the struggle continues and my hope is in God's grace being sufficient for my weakness and for my passion.

My hope is in His goodness. In His plan. And when I am weak, I rage, and the enemy prowls around like a lion, watching for his opportunity to bring me down.

He who hopes, lives; he who's hope is lost, is lost.

As the Church we have a hope. But even then, it is not church, but our relationship with Jesus, our knowing of, and knowing we are known by God, that gives true hope.

False hopes abound and are dashed every day, hearts and lives are lost.

I can only point in the direction of true hope as I find it myself, live it myself.

It is a huge battle to enter into the place where true hope lives, because of the one who knows his defeat is imminent, his power weakened, his authority taken away, when the children of God awaken to who they are in Him.

The nucleus of holiness that contains true hope will burn off us anything of no eternal value. The closer I get, the more I burn, the more I see how much I carry has no eternal value. His love for me is the only thing that keeps me moving forward. Period.

Later this past week I was desperate to hear what God would say, I even woke up at 3am and then got up at 3:30am to spend some alone time with Him, but even at that hour, my toddler decided to have loud conversation, so I went back to bed. Later that morning, as I stumbled toward the coffee-maker for that life giving elixer, He spoke: “Psalm 23:3”. Not being sure of what it said, I looked it up. In 30 seconds He is able to do so much with one. Little. Word.

“He restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness,

For His name's sake.”

He cares about me. He restores my soul. He guides me. And He does it for me for the sake of His Name.

That pretty much clinches it.

I'm good for another, well... oh week, at least. :-)

No, in all seriousness, these things go deep and do their work. I was also blessed that same day from a meeting with one of my pastors. God is good. Period.

Love,

M

How Do You Feel? Really?

I like telling God how I feel.  I always feel better after I tell Him.  Doesn't matter what it is.
Talking to Him, whether I'm doing well, or poorly,  is real relationship.

When I'm honest with Him, He honors it and reveals Himself to me in a way that helps me to know Him better, know His character, His strength, His peace, and His unconditional love.

When I'm ugly, He is beautiful.  When I'm angry, He is peace.  When I'm sad, He is comfort.  When I'm happy, He delights.  When I stumble, He is gentle, and kind and precise.  He leads me to repentance.

He also gave me gifts of expression.  Perhaps I feel so, to express.  I feel spiritually.  I feel emotionally.  I feel physically (too much, that actually drives me a bit crazy, but I guess it's part of the package).  I feel.

My brain has a hard time letting go of what I am intensely feeling, most people don't have that struggle, many have it much worse than I.  It has been a long road of learning, to identify and respond better to what I feel.  Mostly what I feel spiritually.  Because what I pick up on feels so real it feels like my stuff.  Much of the time it's not.  This is, I think, why the Bible tells us to take every thought captive (to test it).  People who are sensor/feelers can feel really crazy if they don't.

The Really Big Upside?  Wherever the Spirit of God is, feels absolutely WONDERFUL.

Restoration Hardwired

I was very pleasantly surprised this morning by a hefty package on my doorstep from Restoration Hardware. It contained gorgeous catalogues of their various collections, almost 3 inches thick. I began to salivate. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. I waited to open them at a more opportune time, when I could truly savour the delight.

I finally opened the cover of the 1 inch thick “RH Interiors Spring 2013” catalogue this afternoon, coffee in hand, and read the opening letter from Gary Friedman, Chairman Emeritus, Creator and Curator. As I read his words of heart and passion, my heart began to thump, and I felt I would begin to weep. What he was writing about is authenticity. Passion. Hope. Dreaming. Being who you are with gusto, and in so living your life, being a contagious catalyst for the inspiration of others to be so propelled and glorious as well. When you shine, you give others permission to shine too, I heard this saying somewhere and have adopted it. But what made me want to weep is that this has been God's dream for the Church. Yet. We are not, as a collective, universal, Body of Christ, as passionate about God and Jesus as Gary and Co. are about their furniture. About their dream. Why not?

Why not?

My theory? Because the majority of those who call themselves the Church and Christian, don't know God. And so I wanted to weep. Because I feel God's heart for His Church, His Bride, His Body on earth. She has wandered. She has stuffed Him into her head, separated Him from her heart, and now wanders the desert like a zombie freak wondering why so many run from her.

But what if.

What if each zombie Christian and Church gave the Holy Spirit permission to do what He wills in His people, (those who profess His Name)? What if Christians let Jesus be Lord of their lives, instead of just paying lip service. What if Christians admitted their need for the power of God to restore their brokenness. What if they experienced the unconditional love and the gracious gift of healing in their hearts, minds and bodies that Christ offers?

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But we don't just need saving from satan and his kingdom of darkness, we need saving from ourselves too. From the falseness we create as a security blanket, we don't know ourselves as beautiful, because we don't know God as beautiful, in who's image we are created. At one time or another, each of us experience a wound and a lie. It goes deep, and is indiscernable, at times, from our DNA, it grows up with us and becomes a part of who we, and others, think we are. But. God had a failsafe installed. We are restoration hardwired. Each one. But we don't run on batteries.

I love God, because He loved me first. I believe, because I have experienced. I have found, because I chose to seek. I got answers, because I asked. Him. And those He put in my path. I am grateful. He is the power source that restores what is broken. I am grateful. I am part of a Church that has chosen to plug in. I am grateful.

It is a journey, to shine. Restoration is painful. Think of a house that has had poorly planned additions and shoddy work done to it, or neglect. Sometimes a gutting is in order. But we are each a masterpiece of the world's premier Architect. We have good bones. We are made for beauty and pleasure, to have Divine relationship. We are made for love of the purest form. We are made to live out of that place.

Imagine. Dream. Hope. Be inspired. Shine!