Ok. So another shot at updating my blog.
I am always amazed at the teaching hand of God in my life. He constantly grows me. Pastor George likens it to God working out the hard crusty bits in clay. Occasionally I look at my life and I think, "Oh, there's another one!"
God has been definitely working on my faith in him. Amidst the prophetic words spoken over this place and given to people in (and not in) this congregation, we as the leadership team (and the church) have really tried to "lay hold" of the promises of God to move in power and in the miraculous, and in the transformation of human lives.
A couple Saturdays ago we had a work bee here at the hotel. We wanted to get some work done on the sanctuary (the former strip bar). George was sanding, sanding, sanding away, and as happens he was covered in drywall dust. God then gave him a vision of him putting drywall mud on Deb's eyes. Now Deb had been diagnosed with some major cataracts. She was scheduled to go into surgery yesterday. She had been squinting, and complaining that she couldn't see, everything was foggy - she could hardly read a piece of paper in front of her. I know. I had to read stuff to her.
So God gives this vision to George. He was to take two specific ladies and have them up there with Deb so that they could lead her to the bathroom to wash off the drywall mud. Initially George was like, "But God, that's kind of your thing, not mine!" But George decided that it was better to be a fool and have it not happen than miss out on what God was going to do.
So the next day at church, George does this. He calls up Deb and the two ladies, and he tells us what God had shown him, and applies drywall mud to her eyelids. He prays for her and the ladies lead her to the bathroom.
She tells me later that when she was washing off the mud, she looked up into the mirror and the fog cleared away as if a curtain was pulled.
George prayed for her again after she got out of the washroom, because it was not complete - but every time he prayed it got clearer and clearer. The other day she said, "I can see the stop sign up at the top of the hill!!!" I can see that only because I have contacts!
As someone who knows Deb and live with her (practically, she lives in the same hallway with me and we hang out all the time) I know that her eyes were not that good before. I know that God has healed her! Hallelujah!!
Here's where my faith is challenged. I know healings happen. I myself was healed of lactose intolerance. My friend had told me that through Christ's death on the cross we have healing (see Isaiah 53) and that I just needed to receive it. So that night I went home and thanked God for healing me of lactose intolerance. The next morning I had a bowl of cereal with normal milk - where before I could only drink Lactaid milk and have lactaid pills if I had anything even remotely containing dairy. When I got home from school that day, I had two bowls of ice cream. And I was fine. I never have had to drink lactaid milk or use lactaid pills again. But I have never seen healings of stuff like broken bones or missing limbs.
But I think: why not? Really. God can. And God has. And God IS WILLING. I struggled with that for so long. I thought, maybe God wants me (or whomever) to be sick so that they can learn something. Perseverance. Dependence on Him. Or whatever.
But you know what? I think I am changing my thinking on that. Just because God is amazing and can bring good out of the bad - because he is good and never misses an opportunity to show his love - doesn't mean that the bad originates with him. Like, if healing was provided through the cross, then why would God then go back on what he's provided? Suffering produces perseverance. But is suffering sickness? Not necessarily. So we don't have to accept it. As George explains, Jesus prayed "Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven"....and there is no sickness in heaven. So why should there be here?
So really, why not? God is willing to heal us (look at the dude who said to Jesus "You can heal me if you are willing" and Jesus said "I am willing") and he gives us his power through his Holy Spirit. All things have been given to us. We are to be armed with His mighty strength.
What I have been trying to do lately is pray for people's infirmities with authority. Like, no wimpy prayers of "please heal him, maybe, if it's your will, or help him to get better quickly"....but how about "that sickness is not supposed to be here so we command it to go in the name of Jesus!" You know? Like, get indignant in my spirit about the injustices put on the people. Of course pray with discernment and tact and wisdom....but not lacking in the spiritual authority that God has given me.
A couple months ago, while George was playing the drums in church, he felt the urge to call out with a word of knowledge that there was someone with a hernia (or pain in their side, and he described the spot). A woman in the congregation hadn't told anyone but she had a hernia and she was scheduled to go for surgery. He called it out, and it was healed. Like, bulge gone and everything. Praise God!
I don't want to lay down and roll over when there's a spiritual battle going on. If this stuff isn't supposed to be here, then I don't want it. I want the wholeness that God promised through his word - physical wholeness included! And I want to be obedient to pray for that stuff too!
I was reading the Local Church Constitution for the PAOC today. It is littered all throughout how we believe in divine healing and that we are to encourage and practice praying for the sick. Why would we bother having that in our constitution if we shouldn't do it? Why would Jesus model it if we shouldn't do it? I don't know about you, but I want to see people healed - not just for the "cool factor" but because it will display God's glory and his love as he heals people who were broken!!! I know several people within even my own family whom I would love to see physically healed.
So I challenge you: pray for the sick! Don't accept that it's supposed to be there so that you can "learn a lesson" or something else. Jesus prayed for the sick - so should we. It's part of discipleship. And you know what? Believe that it will happen!!! Because really....why not?
