And He Healed them all: Kingdom Minded Faith II.mp3 Podcast: Download (29.7MB)
Key Text:
Matt. 12:1-14
Overview:
We are still on the topic of healing, but have taken a side journey into the topic of ‘Kingdom Minded Faith’ in order to lay a foundation for where our future teachings are headed. Faith which is kingdom minded is something which is so simple and core to the default relational nature of man, that one has to be educated out of its simplicity. Kingdom minded faith is something which most PHd’s and those with Doctorates in Divinity will never see, for in order to see it or enter into it one must come and see as a child.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. …At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” ~ Mat 11:12,25-30
Paul said the same thing in other words,
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “HE WHO GLORIES, LET HIM GLORY IN THE LORD.” ~ 1Cor. 1:21-31
Faith which is Kingdom focused is something which requies the volnerability and simplicity of the trust a child places in a parent. A trust not only in the general character of the parent, but in the specific promises they make to their child. So it is in the Kingdom of God. We carry in our hearts at all times a general surrender to our inner conviction of His kind-hearted nature, but we also hold fast with unwavering confidence to those specific promises He has uttered into our ears in our times of intimacy with Him. The Phd’s and Doctors often forsake the intimacy of the word spoken by God to them, for the academic comprehension of those words spoken to others long ago in the scriptures. To this Jesus says,
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” ~ John 5:39-40
The Apostle Paul being himself an educated man, recognized his need to forsake his own accomplishments and “Doctorates of Divinity” in order to become intimately acquainted with Divinity.
“For we are the true circumcision–we who render to God a spiritual worship and make our boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in outward ceremonies: although I myself might have some excuse for confidence in outward ceremonies. If any one else claims a right to trust in them, far more may I: circumcised, as I was, on the eighth day, a member of the race of Israel and of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew sprung from Hebrews; as to the Law a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the Church; as to the righteousness which comes through Law, blameless. Yet all that was gain to me–for Christ’s sake I have reckoned it loss. Nay, I even reckon all things as pure loss because of the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And for His sake I have suffered the loss of everything, and reckon it all as mere refuse, in order that I may win Christ and be found in union with Him, not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the Law, but that which arises from faith in Christ–the righteousness which comes from God through faith. I long to know Christ and the power which is in His resurrection, and to share in His sufferings and die even as He died; in the hope that I may attain to the resurrection from among the dead.” ~ Php. 3:3-11
Later in this lesson we looked at Matt. 9 when the Pharisees accused Jesus of driving out demons by the power of satan. This is a great connecting point back into our parent topic of healing. Jesus often called deliverance from demons “healing”, and in this passage Jesus reveals how healing is a manifestation of the rule of God in the hearts of men – the Kingdom of God.
