Wednesday 03-20-13 - Living Grace Fellowship

And He Healed them all: Examples of Healing X.mp3

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Key Text:

John 4:46-54

John 5:1-49

Hebrews 13:4-6

Overview:

We had more discussion tonight than normal which is always good.

The examples of healing we covered were…

The nobleman’s child in Cana of Galilee, where Jesus did His first miracle.
The man by the pool of Bethesda who’d been sick for 38 years and whose healing required forgiveness of sin.

The rest of our time we spent discussing what Jesus said to the crowds following the healing of this last man.

The points were as follows:

To receive healing requires being determined. You have to be a Jacob NOT an Esau!
We often do not trust God for healing (or anything else for that matter) because we have options!
Many times people who claim to want healing really just want sympathy.
There is a time coming in our nation (due to the complacency of the church) when your faith in your doctor and medical insurance will no longer be able to save you (not that it ever really did). God is kicking the props out from underneath His church, and those things in which we have placed our trust outside of Him will become as evidently unstable and impotent in our own view, as they always have been in reality. IF our bodies belong to Him, then HE is the One in Whom we MUST place our trust for the health and healing of our bodies!
- When we place our reliance upon man or man’s devices – it is misplaced.
- This is NOT to say that God may tell you to go to a doctor, but then you can go to the doctor trusting the God Who told you to go. Our problem is we go to the doctor FIRST and then ask God to help the doctor help us. In this way we are NO better than the Israelites who told Moses to talk with God FOR them and tell them what He said but, “Let not God speak to us again…” – Exod. 20:19.

This video is intended to be funny, but in all reality it truly represents the organizations behind the doctors in whom MANY place their trust. These drugs are a form of sorcery in that they are capable of manipulating our perceptions and altering our emotional state. This power we are willing to give to man to manipulate the body God owns, but are we willing to place our trust wholly upon Him?

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To illustrate my connection between Pharmaceuticals and sorcery just read the following, bring it before the Lord with your defenses down and allow Him to lead you. I MUST say here that I do not believe that all medicine is bad necessarily, but I believe it is safe to say that in a growing percentage of its usages it is outside of Godly boundaries.

The word Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacist both have a direct connection with two Greek words found in the book of Revelation and a third Greek word defines much of what modern American Doctors do all day long.

The word Pharmaceuticals & Pharmacist come from and/or are directly related to the Greek word pharmakeía (#G5331 in a Strong’s Concordance) a drug, used both for a curative or medicinal purpose, and also as a poisonous one. Pharmakeía means the occult, sorcery, witchcraft, illicit pharmaceuticals, trance, magical incantation with drugs.

This next Greek word pharmakeús; gen. pharmakéōs, (#G5332 in a Strong’s Concordance) correlates more tot he position and modern function of must American doctors in that it means to administer a drug. An enchanter with drugs, a sorcerer (Rev. 21:8 [TR]) and is a synonym for the next word we will look at which is pharmakós (#G5333 in a Strong’s Concordance), a magician, sorcerer, enchanter.

The last word is pharmakós (#G5333 in a Strong’s Concordance) and means – a magician, sorcerer, enchanter (Rev. 21:8 [UBS]; Rev. 22:15) and it also has a Hebrew equivalent found in Exod. 7:11; Exod. 9:11; Deut. 18:10; Dan. 2:2). This is the same as pharmakeús (#G5332 in a Strong’s Concordance) and the noun pharmakeía (#G5331 in a Strong’s Concordance).

This on the other hand is NOT intended to be funny but is in fact quite serious.

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Our final thoughts were that…

If we claim to love God or anyone, but fail to place relational trust in them, then our “love” is just a word.
Perhaps the largest obstacle to faith is the honor of man! Jesus stated that the honor of man was an insurmountable wall between people and real relational trust in God.

“How can you believe when you accept each other’s praise and do not look for the praise that comes from the only God?” ~ John 5:44

The word Praise here is also translated as honor and glory. So the acceptance, honor, approval, prestige and recognition of man is a faith stopper! This is because our focus is wrong. We are SO owned by the opinion of others and not by the thoughts of God. We cannot have faith nor have our faith perfected (matured) while looking to man.

“Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” ~ Heb. 12:1-2

The word “looking” here means to set an expectant gaze upon Him – as if looking intently upon and to Him as your source and maturation of relational trust in God.

You cannot be constantly beating yourself up for failing. This focuses your attention on YOU and NOT on the Author and Developer of your faith.

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!