Unbound Belief

Welcome to Healing Wings, January 9th. All scripture is from the NET Bible. You find them at netbible.org. All rights reserved. Unbound belief. For he wounds, but he also bandages. He strikes, but his hands also heal. Job 5.18. Job's friends, in this case Eliphaz the Temanite, were not helpful men. They were caught up in a net of religious thinking that bound them as surely as chains. Throughout the book of Job you will find many statements that are still being made today by the same kind of bound and religious thinking people. In the Old Testament it is very much true that it was God's will that sickness came upon some people. However, if you look at Deuteronomy 27-28, which delineates the blessings and cursings of the law, you do not find any sickness or any diseases in the blessings. You do find them in the cursings. These will attack you until you perish. Deuteronomy 28, 20-22. They are the reverse of the blessings. You will never, ever find anywhere in the scriptures where God has brought sickness on someone as a blessing. It is always a curse. It is never a good thing. It is always a punishment for going wrong. And it is not often as a first-time punishment. The law was a series of good things that happened when you obeyed, and bad things that happened when you disobeyed. That's how a law works. If you do not violate the laws of speed on the roadways, you will not get a ticket. But if you go too slow or go too fast, you can receive a ticket. Become too much of a danger to others, and your car will be impounded, and you might see jail time. That doesn't happen if you obey. If you obey the rules of the road, you get benefits like insurance discounts. The law of God worked the same way. With God, they were consistent laws and did not change. The great thing is we're not under the law. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Because it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. In order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. Galatians 3, 13-14 This is fantastic news! But God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We have been redeemed from the curse. Sickness is not brought on us by the Lord. Not for any reason. This is not how God chastises His children. If we need correction, He uses the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and also through the word which He has given us. 2 Timothy 3, 16 We have none of the negatives of the curse brought on us by the Lord for any reason ever. Remember how God is the same always? Well, God was, is, and always will be just. He has standards. He is righteous. There is no getting away from that. The blessings were given to us, and there were qualifications for them. You had to put God first. You had to make Him your fortress and high place. You had to be obedient, humbly submitted, and worshipful in your reverence toward Him. If you indeed obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all His commandments I am giving you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28, 1-2 The standards that the Lord laid down are still His standards. We don't have to follow them in a legal sense. But if we love God, we will seek to keep His commandments. John 14, 15 Out of love, not law. Now we're not talking about the sacrificial commandments, because Jesus is our sacrifice. But all the moral and community law? All those things that set you apart as holy to the Lord? Those are still His moral standards. Now we live in a world of consequences. James 1, 13-16 If we won't submit to Him, we will have problems. Not problems sent by God. Consequences for actions. Either results of leaving the blessing, or the weakening of our belief from wrong reports, carnal reports. But restitution is always there. We can always repent and seek to get right with the Lord. We can always strengthen our faith, which bolsters our belief. Even like natural causes or man-made situations can harm us, sicken us, give us diseases, or incapacitate us, our spiritual behaviors can do the same thing. Now in all cases, natural and spiritual, the one who seeks God will find that healing is in His wings, in His hands. The healing word has already been sent out. All you need to do is reach out and take it. He is always ready to comfort, console, and cleanse us of our sin. But none of that had to do with healing. Healing has already been accomplished. It is there for you. You need to take hold of it. That has two basic components, faith and belief. They're not the same thing. But a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak. For she kept saying to herself, If only I touch His cloak, I will be healed. But when Jesus turned and saw her, He said, Have courage, daughter, your faith has made you well. And the woman was healed from that hour. Matthew 9, 20-22 She was healed by her faith because she believed what she heard and acted on it. Faith comes by hearing, Romans 10, 17. You need to get into God's word to be healed. You need it to generate health, Proverbs 3, 8. You need it to strengthen and develop your faith. You have to have faith or you'll have nothing to generate action when you believe the Lord. Jesus asked His Father, How long has this been happening to Him? And He said, From childhood, it has often thrown Him into fire or water to destroy Him. But if you are able to do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Then Jesus said to Him, If you are able? All things are possible for the one who believes. Immediately the Father of the void cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief. Mark 9, 21-24 Unbelief hampered this healing. The disciples had faith, but there was something about the situation that stirred their unbelief. The Father had unbelief. Yes, there were years of evidence. The boy had issues holding them back. But Jesus had done the thing that kills unbelief and strengthened belief. He told them, This kind can come out only by prayer. Mark 9, 29 He's not talking about the demon. He's talking about the faith and the belief. It can only come out by prayer. Your belief won't come out of you without a good prayer life. You can't have a good prayer life if you aren't in the Word. The Word strengthens faith, and faith is needed for effective prayer. John told us in 9.31, We know that God doesn't listen to sinners. But if anyone is devout and does His will, God listens to him. The devout have faith because you need faith to please God. Hebrews 11.6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways. James 1.6-8 We cannot have faith and hold to unbelief and expect things to happen. We cannot have belief but refuse to have faith and expect things to happen. We cannot be double-minded. We can speak life, or we can speak death. Speaking both will negate the one with the other, and we get a spiritual net zero where nothing happens. Proverbs 18.21 Because we live where there are consequences for our actions. Because we live in a spiritual system where there are laws that can be followed to get a result, like gravity always works and healing is always available. Because we've been commanded to speak to our problems in the authority of Jesus by His name. Because we need faith. Because we need to kill our unbelief. Because of these things we can see that while healing is always there, because it is already accomplished, there needs to be a shift of our thinking and a deepening of our understanding. Ask the Lord for wisdom. James 1.5 Get into the Word and get it into your heart. Romans 12.2 Don't accept the reports of this world. Don't let them into your heart. Of course you should listen, but then take that report to the Lord God and leave it at the cross. Jesus can take that report from there. Then get into the Word, get into prayer, and find out your course of action from Holy Spirit. Grasp hold of what God has for you with pure faith, in total belief, and it will be yours. He promised, and He doesn't lie. Your consequence for this spiritual action will be your freedom in body and mind, what is already freed in your spirit. Our daily affirmation, Jesus is Messiah. Genesis 14.18 Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Now he was a priest of the Most High God. Melchizedek means, my king is righteous. Jesus had already been identified as being a priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, Hebrews 6.20. But there is more to this connection. Now this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him. To him also, Abraham apportioned a tithe of everything. His name first means, king of righteousness. Then, king of Salem, that is, king of peace, Hebrews 7.1-2. Melchizedek then was identified as a king of righteousness and peace. Well, Jesus has a name. It is more than something he was known for. It is the name that is the emblem of his authority. For a child has been born to us. A son has been given to us. He shoulders responsibility and is called wonderful advisor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, Isaiah 9.6. Jesus is the king of peace and righteousness. Jesus is the Messiah. You did the confession of Jesus' identity. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16, verse 16b.