Jul 20 2009
I have greater faith than I’ve ever had in my life. If sickness tries to come on me, I no longer have to wonder whether or not God wants to or is able to heal me. And I don’t let symptoms run their course for a few weeks before finally buckling down and receiving healing. I believe and know it’s God’s will to heal me. And if something contrary rises up, I’m quick to bat it away. But this wasn’t always the case.
Jun 16 2009
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. -Jesus’ words to the Pharisees, Matthew 23:27
Because the name “Pharisee” sounds so old and out-dated and old-fashioned, I never thought much about the prospect of such people being alive today. Weren’t those the kind of people who wore long robes and tried to fulfill long lists of religious rules and regulations? I didn’t personally know anyone like that. Maybe those people existed in dusty old Catholic cathedrals, but I was charismatic. I had to be the furthest thing from a Pharisee. There was no tradition in my church. No list of rules to fulfill. We just loved Jesus and wanted to be like Him. What was Pharisaical about that?
May 05 2009
You know why that story I shared yesterday is so huge for me? It’s huge for me because for most of my life, I was living under this old religious lie that says: Whatever happens, happens. And the best thing you do, as a Christian, is just keep a good attitude. I lived under the lie that to be a Christian means you’ll have some pitiful, defeated life. I learned that living by my emotions is ok. And at the end of all these un-Biblical, un-Godly beliefs, they’d tack on this: But don’t worry, God’s grace is sufficient for you. And His grace was sufficient for me, but you know what? I still lived a defeated life as satan’s doormat. Once I discovered what God’s Word really said and stopped listening to the doctrine of people’s experiences, I got angry. And that anger hasn’t left. Now I’m not talking about the sort of anger that’s based in rage and fear — I’m talking about a righteous anger towards satan and towards those religious lies that kept me in bondage for years.
May 03 2009
I want to tell you a story about what happened to me last night. I know a lot of the stuff I write on here about God’s Word and believing it and living it might seem like “a lot to ask for” to some people. “Do you mean we’re actually supposed to live like that?” you might think. But I can honestly say that about 99% of what I write on here comes from my own life. And unless I can live it in my own life, I don’t think I have any business telling you to.
Apr 12 2009
For years, I straddled the fence between victory and defeat. For years, I let the enemy push me to the ground and then drive me knee-deep through mud with a whip to my back. I wanted so badly to see the victory of God’s Word manifested in my life. I heard testimony after testimony but had no story of my own. I read it all, heard it all, saw it all and believed it all. But something was missing. I wasn’t living it. It’s not that I didn’t want to — I desperately wanted to, I tried to, I failed to and I even got back up to try again. I celebrated momentary victories — even if they were later washed over by an onslaught attack from the enemy. I felt like a 14-year-old splashing around in the baby pool while everyone else my age was jumping off the high-dive in the deep end of the big pool.
Mar 07 2009
As I mentioned before, it was T.L. Osborn’s book Healing the Sick (chapter 33) that really brought me into new revelation concerning Communion. And when I read this excerpt nearly two weeks ago, concerning what happens (in a physical sense) as we ingest Jesus’ body (the bread) and Jesus’ blood (the wine), I about flew out of my chair:
God has installed in the human body a processing plant which we call a stomach. The food we eat is digested there and sent out into our blood-stream. Its chemical essence becomes flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, skin of our skin, body of our body. It becomes part of us (page 179, Healing the Sick).