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.

And finally — finally, I have learned to actually live — not just know or believe, but live — one of the greatest components of faith.  It’s what I like to call Moving On. It’s what Jesus told blind Bartimaeus to do after his sight was restored: “Go on your way; your faith has healed you” (Mark 10:52 AMP). It’s the sort of action and mind-set that has finally pushed me off that fence of indecision, which separates victory from defeat.  And on which side have I landed?  The side of victory.

When I woke up over a month ago, the skin underneath my eye was swollen and it hurt to open or shut my eyes.  For the first three days, I dealt with it in the natural — I didn’t wear make-up, I applied a warm washcloth to it.  But by the third night, it wasn’t looking the least bit better.  Sure, I could have gone to the doctor.  There would have been no problem with that.  But since the scales have come off my eyelids concerning God’s will to heal me, that option no longer satisfies me.  God can heal me, He wants to heal me, He made provision for me to be healed.  So I want to see it.  That night, I took Communion.  And when I was done, I felt Jesus impress upon me the same words that He spoke to Bartimaeus: “Go on your way…” In other words: Don’t look to your symptoms to verify whether or not you’re healed.  Don’t look to your feelings to verify whether or not you’re healed.  Don’t run and ask the mirror whether or not you’re healed.  You’re healed because I, your Creator and Healer, say you are.  So go on about your business and know that you’re healed.”  And I did.  I went and watched TV like I had previously planned to do.  I still felt the same pain as before, but in my mind, I knew I was healed.  A little while later, as I was still watching TV, I blinked my eyes and noticed that it no longer hurt when I blinked.  My eyes got big.  I knew I was healed and now my body was lining up with that reality — something I had never seen happen in my own body.  A little while later, I saw my Mom and she said: “Your eye looks almost completely back to normal!”  Again, I wasn’t surprised, because I wasn’t looking to my symptoms or my feelings to tell me what was truth.  I was looking to God’s Word.

Consulting your symptoms or emotions or natural circumstances to tell you whether or not God’s Word is coming to pass is as foolish as staring into the rearview mirror while you’re trying to drive forward.  So often, we get enough fire underneath us to pick up God’s Word and hope that it’ll come to pass.  But immediately, we’re staring into the rearview mirror to see if satan’s still chasing us.  And then, because our eyes our too busy looking back to see where we’re going, we crash.  And what’s really strange is that we’re surprised when we do crash.  We look up and say, “Didn’t I just read what You promised me in Your Word?”  We act like God’s the problem.  The problem is with you and me. God hasn’t changed.  Instead of believing God’s Word, then moving on, knowing the issue was settled, you started bowing down to your emotions, your feelings, the lies of satan.

If you want to walk in victory, let God’s Word be enough for you.  Believe it.  Act on it.  And learn to say the same words that Jesus said on the Cross two thousand years ago: IT IS FINISHED! When satan tries to get you to look into the rearview mirror, tell him he’s too late.  It’s already finished.  What God said will and is coming to pass.

Stop worshiping what’s false (feelings, emotions, symptoms, natural circumstances).  Worship truth (God’s Word).  Worship GOD.

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

Tags: blind bartimaeus, Easter, Free, go on your way, God, God's Word, healed, healing, Jesus, Resurrection, Victory

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