Anna,
You left some wonderful messages on my last post and I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really needed that encouragement from an unexpected place. It doesn't look like you have a blog so I don't know how to reach you, but I hope you check my blog again so you will see this message.
Standing on what I believe are God's promises has been one of the most difficult and frustrating things in this eight-and-a-half-year cancer journey. We're almost at the point where God will have to be our only way out of this -- and hey, maybe that's the whole point.....
Thanks, again.
4 comments:
Hi Lauren,
Yes, it's totally difficult when you've been praying and asking God to do a thing(s) for you, and your eyes see just the opposite of what you're praying for.
I'm here to tell you, keep believing and trusting him for your miracles.
I know it's very difficult to think that by "doing nothing" (except praying and trusting and believing with your heart and not what your eyes can see)and leaving it all up to God that often times we think we're setting our selves up for failure. But the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph does not disappoint.
Sometimes it may seem he's not coming through in time for our needs and condition, but he does and he will.
I'm glad you felt encouraged.
My goal was to write a devotional every day. I wasn't sure how to go about this, so I didn't post anymore.
Praying for you and for DH's healing, in Jesus' name Amen.
Anna
"Jesus Is Willing, Be Healed" - (Mt. 8:3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."...) Pastor Joseph Prince
Do you know that it is God's will for you to be healed? In fact, Jesus always healed the sick who came to Him. The blind, lame, maimed, mute, deaf and demon-possessed - He healed them all! (Mt 8:16)
The Bible says that he who has seen Jesus has seen the Father. (Jn 14:9) You want to see what God is like? Look at Jesus! He never gave sickness to anybody. You never find Jesus looking at a person, a fine specimen of a man, and saying, "Come here. You are too healthy. Receive some leprosy!" In fact, when a leper came to Him for healing, Jesus, full of compassion, told the leper, "I am willing; be cleansed."
Unfortunately, there are some Christians who say, "It is God's will for me to be sick. God has some purpose, some mysterious purpose for my situation. It is all part of His divine plan and we shall all know in the sweet by and by, the reason why!" but these same people got to their doctors to get well. They take their medication and rest. Why do they do that if they really believe that God wants them sick? Doesn't make sense, does it?
Come on, what makes perfect sense is this: God wants you well. He wants you whole. His will is for you to be healed! In fact, He is so willing that He took ALL your sicknesses and diseases upon His own body, so that you don't have to suffer them today! He allowed Himself to be beaten and scourged, so that by His scourging - by His stripes - you are healed! (Is 53:5) Since He has already suffered the sickness on your behalf, why should you suffer it today?
So my friend, if you are sick, know that God did not give you the disease. Read every healing miracle that Jesus did in the Gospels and see how Jesus is the Lord who heals you. (EX 15:26) Hear His gracious words, "I am willing, be healed," and know that they are as much for you today as they were for the leper!
Just a month+ ago I started reading on healing, and in one sermon J.P. wrote about taking daily communion.
The last time I had communion was ~ 25yrs ago, plus I was thinking I don't have unleavened bread so how am I going to do this.
I had ritz cracker (Yes, I'm serious), so since June 7th, every day I would dust off the extra salt from one cracker, pour a small amt. of red wine into a glass, and each time I pray before taking it.
I just say something to this effect each time, "Almighty God, in faith I am partaking of your body. In you, there is no sickness, there is no disease. So I am partaking of your health, of your wholeness, of your wisdom, of your grace, of all that you are in Christ Jesus. Then I eat the cracker, and take a sip of the wine.
One of the things I've been believing God for was fulfilled today!
Does it mean I will stop my daily communion, absolutely Not!
My point is, you don't have to do fancy stuff, or wait for a pastor to pray for you or your DH.
In faith, reach out to God. Cast all your cares and burdens on him.
Tell Him, you know that His Son Jesus already paid the price for your DH's disease.
This was part of what I read, and did and you &DH can do the same:
From now on, when you partake of Holy Communion, do it in this manner: Let's say you have an eye condition, for example cataracts. As you look at the bread, see Jesus on the cross being smitten with your eye disease, then partake with gratefulness and feel the love of the Lord.
The word police got me:)
Cont.
J. Prince also partook of the Holy Communion for tailbone pain. He wrote: Whenever I took the bread, I imagined Jesus' tailbone smitten with my pain. Was I healed immediately? No. And that is what I want to end with.
I can't remember how many times I partook of the Holy Communion for the problem and when exactly I was healed. One day, I just realized that the pain was no longer there. And it's been more than half a year now that I have not had the pain.
One of the wonderful benefits of the Holy Communion is this: There is no pressure to believe that you receive all of your healing when you partake of it.
Mark 11:24 - Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
Mark 11:24 is a valid truth. It is one way to receive healing - to believe that you receive your healing there and then. But not everyone has the faith to do that.
The Holy Communion is different. Everytime you partake of it, you can believe that you are getting better and better until one day, you realize that you are completely healed!
We know that the wine in the cup represents His blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. What about the bread? It represents His body, which was broken for us, so that our bodies can be healthy and whole. So by eating the bread in faith, we are partaking of Jesus' life, health and wholeness. But because eating is so simple, we who are intelligent and logical cannot understand it! We cannot understand the simple ways of God. We look at the piece of bread and the cup, and we ask ourselves, "What are these compared to medicine and doctors! Can these drive out cancer? Can these cause you to live long? It is only a pieceof bread! It is only juice!" [Anna - this was me, I was more or less rolling my eyes reading this and other people's testimony. But thank God inspite of this I still had the good sense to proceed in faith starting June 7,2011 to do daily communion]
We forget that the way God works is that He uses weak things to confound the wise. I am not against medicine. By all means, continue to take the medicine your doctor has prescribed. But at least give the same respect to the Lord's Supper.
I thank God for medicine and doctors, but they still speak of man's efforts. And I read the other day in the Bible: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils..." (Is 2:22)
The Holy Communion, however is provided by God, not man. This is not the blood of man. This is the blood of the Son of God. It is the blood of deity that we are partaking.
If Israel can partake of the roasted lamb and have none feeble among them (Ps105:37), how much more we who partake of the Lamb of deity will be healed and well!
In closing I just want to implore you, every day until DH returns to the doctor, both of you should pray and take the Lord's Supper.
The Bible says "by His stripes we are healed". Jesus took every one of those painful lashes because He had to pay the full price for our health. By those stripes, your DH's cancer died. By those stripes your IF died. By those stripes, we are made whole and strong!
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