Witness Him Now
My search for understanding started back in 2011. For a season I spent time in a prayer closet. It was during this time period that God began to open up scriptures to me. He especially opened up Leviticus 26. It was fascinating. In that passage I read that if we follow God's decrees and are careful to obey His commands, He will prosper us in every area of our lives. "However, if you do not listen to Me or obey all these commands, and if you break My covenant by rejecting My decrees, treating My regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey My commands, I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you - wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them. I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you." (vs. 14-17)
WHAT?!? When we disobey God, HE PUNISHES US. HE sends terror and disease. HE causes our life to ebb away. HE causes our crops to fail. HE turns against us and allows our enemies (principalities and powers) to defeat us and to rule over us until there is so much fear inside of us that we run even when no one is chasing us. GOD IS THE ONE WHO DOES THIS. This blew me away because everywhere I look, I see terror and disease. I see failed crops. I see people so consumed with hatred and bitterness and anger and confusion and unforgiveness and feelings of unworthiness and self-condemnation and self-pity. I see people who are live in despair and hopelessness. But this is not what God ever intended. We serve a God who wants to bless. I wanted to understand! Then God gave me the Parable of the Raccoon. With this parable, He gave me that understanding. From the parable I learned that the battle is between the Truth and a lie. It is all about what we believe. "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness." This righteousness brings peace. But if we believe a lie, we sin, and there is no peace for the wicked. Once we believe a lie (it's a spirit), the lie enters our heart and moves us. We have just opened the door for the enemy to send: TERROR, DISEASE, FEVER, BLINDNESS, and DEATH. We have also opened the door for the enemy to steal all that we work for. Can you see that? "The thief comes to kill, steal and to destroy." But really it is God who is doing it. That's right. It is in black and white. But that is not what He wants to do. He wants to bless us. He wants to prosper us. He is trying to get our attention so that we can find life again. "But I have come to give life and to give it to you abundantly." (John 10:10) So how do we find that abundant life? We face Jesus and we open our heart wide. We let Him come in and search us and know us. We let Him try our anxious thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in us and lead us into paths of life everlasting. Once He reveals the lie, we come to Him without excuse, without pointing the finger at anyone else, and we say, "I am guilty, God, and I am sorry. Will You forgive me." Then just like that, our sin is gone. As far as the east is from the west, our sin is gone. I am watching this happen everywhere I go. To everyone who has a heart wide open, God comes to save and deliver. It is so spectacular! Fear leaves and peace enters. Our enemies are defeated! Thank you, Jesus! But now I want to UNDERSTAND physical healing. I want to walk in this power. The scripture says, "May you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers." (3 John 1:2) So prosperity and health come when our soul prospers. Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. It is who we are. It is what we think. It is what we do. It is how we feel. In my heart, I am thinking that if we truly start to believe the truth and begin to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus (our mind), and if we become a doer of the Word and not just a hearer only (our will), then our emotions - most of whom are associated with a lie - will line up with what God wants us to feel. It is at this point that the kingdom comes with power. "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21) "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:27) . Righteousness, peace, and joy are our inheritance. This is soul prosperity. This is the kingdom of heaven. And the kingdom comes with power, provision, and health. Now, I want you to have an open mind here because I know that babies are born sick. People die. Natural disasters occur. Things happen that we can't change. Hard things. BUT WE ARE NOT GOD. His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts, and His ways are far beyond anything we can imagine. (Isaiah 55:8) But we can trust that He has good plans, plans to prosper and not to harm, plans to give us hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) He said, "In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find Me." "I will be found by you," says the LORD. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land." (Jeremiah 29:12-14) Up to this time we have only given God half of ourselves. We say to Him, "You can go this far and no further." But God won't have it. He wants all of us. He is a jealous God, and He will have no other gods before Him. He is going down into the depths of our heart to show us exactly what is in there. It is there that we will find wisdom, and it is there that we will find understanding. It is there that we will find health and rest for our souls. But there may be a lot of digging and excavating to get there. Job says, "People know where to mine silver and how to refine gold. They know where to dig iron from the earth and how to smelt copper from rock. They know how to shine light in the darkness and explore the farthest regions of the earth as they search in the dark for ore. They sink a mine shaft into the earth far from where anyone lives. They descend on ropes, swinging back and forth. Food is grown on the earth above, but down below, the earth is melted as by fire. Here the rocks contain precious lapis lazuli, and the dust contains gold. These are the treasures no bird of prey can see, no falcon's eye observe. No wild animal has walked upon these treasures; no lion has ever set his paw there. People know how to tear apart flinty rocks and overturn the roots of mountains. They cut tunnels in the rocks and uncover precious stones. They dam up the trickling streams and bring to light the hidden treasures. But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? No one knows where to find it, for it is not found among the living." (Job 28:1-13) Can you sense that there is a precious treasure down deep inside of us. No one can see it. We don't even know it is there. Deep, deep down there is gold and silver. Hidden. It may be covered by a mountain of disappointment and failure. It may be buried in pain and sorrow. It may be trapped in rejection and abandonment. It may be wedged in between our selfish ambitions and bitter envies, but it is there. Hidden treasure. "Do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all humanity. Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it. Destruction and Death say, "We've heard only rumors of where wisdom can be found." God alone understands the way to wisdom; He knows where it can be found, for He looks throughout the whole earth and sees everything under the heavens. He decided how hard the winds should blow and how much rain should fall. He made the laws for the rain and laid out a path for the lightning. Then He saw wisdom and evaluated it. He set it in place and examined it thoroughly. And this is what He says to all humanity: "The fear of the LORD is true wisdom; TO FORSAKE EVIL is real understanding." (Job 28:20-28) Wisdom and understanding are set firmly in place down inside of us. To fear God and to depart from evil. Then God examines us thoroughly. He knows if we fear Him. He knows if we trust Him. He knows we want to forsake evil for His sake. AND He knows that there are things that are getting in the way of us doing this. He wants to get those things out of the way so that we can possess the promise land - this land flowing with milk and honey - this land where fruit grows so big that it takes two men to carry it. He wants all of the gold and the silver (wisdom and understanding) and all the untold riches in heaven to be ours. He wants to bless us in every way possible: Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. The LORD will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! The LORD will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The LORD will bless you in the land He is giving you. If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in His ways, the LORD will establish you as His holy people as He swore He would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you. The LORD will give you prosperity in the land He swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. The LORD will send rain at the proper time from His rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them. (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) Can you see it? God WANTS to prosper His people. He wants to give us the good stuff, but is healing in the package? Psalm 103:1-5 "Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name. Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle's." So we see that healing is a part of the package deal. But things are getting in the way. We have other things have taken our affections. We have allowed ourselves to embrace lies. Can you see that? Can you see the consequences of our choices not to put God first? Not to trust Him? Are you filled with pain and sorrow, hopelessness and despair, anger and frustration, disease and terror? Do you feel your life ebbing away? God says, "In the future, when you EXPERIENCE all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the nations to which the LORD your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions. If at that time you and your children return to the LORD your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commandments I have given you today, the the LORD your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where He has scattered you. Even though you are banished to the ends of the earth, the LORD your God will gather you from there and bring you back again. (Deuteronomy 30:1-4) If you are experiencing all of the blessings and the curses, God is calling to you, "Return!" But we have to open our whole heart to Him. But when we do that, listen to what God will do for us. "The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love Him with all your heart and soul and so you may live! Then you will again obey the LORD and keep all His commandments. God will then make you successful in everything you do. (Deuteronomy 30:6-9) . Wow! God, Himself will circumcise our heart and the hearts of all of our descendants if we will just open up to Him. He will cause us to obey Him and to keep His commandments, and He will make us a success. He does all the work. We just have to let Him. It is kind of a scary to open our heart completely to Him. Our heart is deep water, and it is dark and murky down there. There are hidden chambers, crevices filled with unmentionable, painful, scary things, but God knows this. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He has come to rescue us. We just have to lay down our pride and our power and let Him. Some of you are saying, "I can't." But God says, "You can." This command that I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, "Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?" It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, "Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?" No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it. Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. (Deuteronomy 30:11-15) This is not too difficult for us. Jesus did the hard part, now we just have to let Him do the rest of His work in us. Part of that work is that He wants to heal us. It is written: "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and BY HIS STRIPES, WE ARE HEALED. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. We have left God's path to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on Him the sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6) Now for some of you, the enemy will try to come with condemnation. Don't let him. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who follow after the Spirit and not after the flesh. If you are sick or experiencing any of the above symptoms, just open your heart wide and let God in. Let Him take you to a place of peace and rest, and then stay there. He knows what He is doing. We don't. Begin to praise Him. Begin to thank Him. Remember all the great things He has done for you and rejoice. God is might to save, and He is always up to something good! Blessings, my friends. May you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. Terri
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