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Some people wonder how you can have faith when you did everything that you thought the Bible said to do and yet no miracle came. Hundreds if not thousands of people through our church in Welland, my eldest daughter’s church in Massachusetts, Tedd’s family’s church out west, and many through Elim Bible Institute, prayed. Tedd died anyway. Doesn’t the Bible say things like “If two or three are agreed on anything in my name, I will grant their request”, or that “anything prayed in Jesus’ name will be granted?” I don’t wonder any more! Let me tell you why.
Some think faith is all up to us! If we just believe hard enough or cast any doubts out of our mind or read the words in the Bible about faith or stay away from anything or anybody that may make us doubt. That is NOT WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT FAITH!
I read that the verse that you only have to have the faith of a grain of mustard seed. A mustard seed is a very small seed. Do you have that much faith? Do you believe God could heal? If you believe He is all-powerful, of course He could! He is God. Anyone who creates a world in day, creates man out of dust and figured out all the complicated mathematical formulas necessary to keep the solar system spinning instead of rushing off into space or spiralling into the sun, can OBVIOUSLY HEAL! That is a given! If you have that much faith, as small as a grain of mustard seed, YOU HAVE ENOUGH! Don’t let anyone tell you differently because Jesus is the one who said it!!!
The problem is not CAN HE but WILL HE? And our doubt says, WHY NOT TEDD? (You can substitute the name of a loved one that you have lost.)
I don’t believe in “coincidences”. I believe in “divine appointments”, but “coincidentally, a few weeks after Tedd’s death, in our cell group, we were reading John where it says,
Joh 14:13 MKJV
I thought, “God, I don’t understand this! You said if we asked in your name, YOU WOULD DO IT! BUT YOU DID NOT HEAL TEDD! I want to understand this! Either your word is true or it is a lie! And right now it looks like a lie! Help me to understand this!”
Suddenly my memory of “power of attorney” that my wife and I had just signed came to me. I trusted my wife SO MUCH, that in the event of me being incapacitated so that I could not make decisions for myself, I TRUSTED HER TO MAKE THEM FOR ME IN MY NAME. I signed it. She signed one too.
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I think He is so tired of the phrase “in Jesus name” used so casually...
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If you have proven yourself to be trustworthy enough, the way Jesus was, God could trust you with HIS POWER OF ATTORNEY and let you do things IN HIS NAME! But merely adding the words when we pray “In Jesus name, does not make God trust us anymore, probably less, because we say it so casually, so often. ”
How do you get God’s “power of attorney” to pray in His name? Read the Bible, follow Jesus’ example and guess what? The more you do, the more God will look down and say, “What a guy (or girl)!” Look how he wants to obey me! Look how he wants to know Me better! Look how he loves me! Look how he really wants to know my will not just his OWN DESIRES! I believe I can at least perform a little miracle through him and then see if he gets a swelled head. I hope he gives the credit where credit is due and DOES NOT THINK TOO HIGHLY OF HIMSELF! I really need more people like him that I can trust. There are so few on the earth!”
Now of course I did not have God’s phone line tapped and I cannot guarantee that He ever said that, but I can guarantee THAT IS HIS ATTITUDE! I think He is so tired of the phrase “in Jesus name” used so casually as a little “good luck” charm to add authority to our prayers! He can only do things in Jesus name through us when we have proven trustworthy like Jesus. Remember how often Jesus said something like, “I do only what I see the Father doing.”:
Joh 5:19 MKJV
(19) Then Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do. For whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise.
Now pardon my impertinence, but WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU OR I IDID ONLY WHAT WE SEE THE FATHER DO? Do you know God that well? Do I know God that well? Why would God give his power of attorney TO A STRANGER? Or to someone who is only an acquaintance? When is the last time when praying that you actually SHUT UP and LISTENED TO GOD SPEAK FIRST?
All too often we rush into the presence of God, give Him our shopping list, say a quick thanks, and then leave without ever hearing HIS SIDE OF THE CONVERSATION! How rude can we be? How could God give his complete trust to a people who treat Him so casually? I believe the answer is self-evident. He CANNOT. And so maybe we don’t see miracles very often like in the days of Acts. Ever wonder why? Did God really die in the 60’s the way some would have us believe?
NO! Miracles still happen. Many of them happened in Tedd’s life before he passed away. His heart stopped and started again. He lasted almost 4 years with incurable Hodgkin’s disease. How many people I know that get a serious kind of cancer who are gone in 1 year. But Tedd lasted for FOUR YEARS! It was a miracle that Shiloh church in Virginia took on an associate pastor who HAD NOT BEEN CURED OF CANCER! It was a miracle how God brought Scott and ‘Becca together? And I believe it was a miracle that brought Ian, my daughter Rebecca’s first son [now there are two!], into the world ON THE SAME DAY AS MY MOTHER-IN-LAW’S and MY BIRTHDAY! It was a miracle that knocked Paul to the ground who was persecuting Christians and turned him into the person who founded much of the early church and wrote much of the New Testament.
Sometimes we want BODY MIRACLES SO MUCH, that we ignore SOUL MIRACLES and SPIRIT MIRACLES. When someone gives their heart to the Lord who was a drunkard and a wife-beater; when God reaches down and touches someone’s spirit who has struggled with depression and anxiety for years. That too is A MIRACLE! In fact a greater miracle because bodies are healed every day by doctors, but SPIRITS AND SOULS take years to heal, if they ever do!
Now does that mean I do not believe in physical healing? I better. The Bible records it. The disciples practiced it. I know of a man who was dying of terminal cancer who was healed at a Benny Hinn crusade. The hospital told him to go home and get things finished up with his family before he died. He went home and went to the crusade and was healed! He is still alive and that was about 20 years ago!
My only point is that PHYSICAL HEALINGS are actually LESS in the hierarchy of miracles just as the body is less than the SOUL AND SPIRIT!
When is more faith exercised? When you KEEP PRAYING for someone to be healed for 20 years? Or if every time we prayed, someone was healed? If that were to occur, we would soon take healing for granted. We would have crowds of people flocking into our churches JUST FOR A MIRACLE! People who could care less about God, but just came for the FREE MIRACLE! Seems to me I remember something like that in the New Testament.
God can and will SOVEREIGNLY, AS HE CHOOSES, heal people PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, SPIRITUALLY. But He is God! He is the Father! And FATHER KNOWS BEST! He will not always heal. He wants us to seek His will more than his presents, his gifts. How selfish we would be if the only joy we got out of Christmas was RECEIVING GIFTS! It is certainly more blessed to give than to receive as every parent knows and every child cannot understand!
If we tried to SEE GOD more often as Jesus did, perhaps more physical miracles would occur because God could trust us enough to give us HIS POWER OF ATTORNEY. The right to act IN HIS NAME! But just vainly repeating these words at the end of every prayer will never impress God! It may DEpress Him! However, we know He is always with us. He sent the Comforter to take Jesus place. We have someone who will NEVER LEAVE US or FORSAKE US. What greater miracle can we ask for? Have faith! Have faith that God CAN SOVEREIGNLY DO WHAT HE WANTS. But we know He loves us and wants the very best for us and will not leave us in difficult times. Reread Rebecca’s story if you don’t believe. Ask my wife or I. We went through it with her. And God was there every step of the way.
I would like to quote from my daughter’s song,
“Beautiful” from the CD, “BROKEN CLAY”.
Lovingly He sees your tiny hand
And dreams of all the plans He has for you
Tenderly, His finger
Has molded the inner parts of you
And as each part he created
A smile on His face, a tear in His eye
Walking in the smallness of life
Growing in the little things you do
Pressing on although scared and frightened
His gentle hand pulling you through
He was there.
And a lump of clay molded, fitly fashioned
Created in the image of His son
Your heart now beats as one with the Father’s
You’re made a man, it’s done
Beautiful ....
From the baby to the man
Oh, beautiful ...
Even though you don’t understand
Beautiful
Meet for the Master’s use
A lump of clay in His hand
The thoughts that He has planned
You’re an instrument in His hand
Beautiful, so beautiful
Beautiful
The song is so much more beautiful than just the words. If you would like a copy of the CD click here! Or in Canada, phone 877-261-3599, local 905-228-2161.
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