One On One #30

     Prov.18:14(Amp) says, "The strong Spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but  weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear?"

    All of our strength comes through our spirit, if we're born-again. In John6:63(Amp) Jesus says, "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatsoever (there is no profit in it); the Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life." We don't always take time reading God's Word and praying in the spirit, like we should.

    We don't do these things as religious exercises, but we do these things in order to feed Strength and Life  into our new Spirit. We're actually feeding on Life Itself. Sadly, many Christians believe that salvation is only about going to Heaven when we die. Other Christians have disregarded things like Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the speaking in other tongues, fasting and praying, saying that these things have "passed away."

   There has been such a change from what our Christian walk is from what our nation was founded upon. It looks we've even lost so much of what our great nation, that we might not be able to regain it. Too many things that God's Church was founded upon, have become obsolete in many churches. Many of us in the Body of Christ, have become complacent and comfortable with just going to Heaven when we die, instead of standing up for Righteousness. Jesus told His followers to "Occupy until I come." This is a military term, which means to "advance and hold." We're to raise up disciples who will take what is taught in God's world, into all the world.

    We need to accept all that the Holy Spirit is calling us to be. When the Holy Spirit teaches something that our denominational teachers haven't taught, then we must pray and go before the Lord, so He can confirm that teaching. We can't simply receive everything that is taught, but we must go to the Word and to the Lord for the answers. Too many times we rely on the Sunday service to feed us, instead of feeding on God's Word for ourselves. When I got saved in the Jesus Revolution in the 1970'2, I learned from Charles Capps about the words we speak. I learned about deliverance from Lester Sumrall. Many of my drinking buddies and family members (outside of my nuclear family) scoffed at this. 

    I didn't know anything about God, but the Lord called me to go into nursing homes and pray for the elderly there. I laid hands on a lady whose hands were tightly closed into a fist, but nothing happened. I asked the Lord, "You said I could lay hands on the sick, if I believed and they would recover, so why didn't she recover?" God told me there's a difference between healing and losing. Then He took me to Luke13:10-13(Amp) which says, "Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had an illness caused by a spirit (demon). She was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called over to her and said to her, Woman, you are released from your illness. Then He laid His hands on her; and immediately she stood erect again and she began glorifying and praising God."

    The woman I laid hands on had a infirmity that was brought on because of her decades long intense unforgiveness she held against her neighbor. You might ask,"What's the difference?" Jesus taught us in Matt.6:33(Amp), "But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His Kingdom and His Righteousness  (His way of doing and being right-the attitude and character of God), and all these things will be given to you also." I returned to that nursing home the very next day and loosed that woman from her infirmity. Her hands were immediately open and she was well.

   In Is.55:9(Amp) God says, "My ways are higher than your ways And My higher than your thoughts." We must learn to do things God's way, just like Jesus did.