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| Donna at Brookgreen Gardens Murrells Inlet, SC |
David did not have the benefits of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross, but we do! When we read the many Psalms that David wrote pouring out his heart and pain before God we see he closed them out by worshipping Him which turned his thoughts and soul around to encouragement. David didn't allow himself to stay downcast for long.
Now we have the New Testament and within it are the Words of Jesus Himself to encourage us. The emphasis is on belief. What we believe in our hearts will come to pass. It doesn't matter what our head believes or what we think about a matter. If it's not a core belief within our hearts, it will be overridden.
If you can pay great attention to the thoughts you have, you will discover that you don't really believe what you think and say you do. An example of this for me about a year ago when I was believing I was healed because the Word tells me I am. I Peter 2:24 tells us that by His stripes (wounds) we were healed. That word healed uses the Greek word "sozo" which means salvation and healing and a whole lot more. (Read: What Part Of You Rules Your Life?)
I had been meditating on many verses in the Bible related to my being healed so that I could lay down new recordings in my brain to cover up the wrong theology I had believed for so many years of my life. The teaching that God can heal, but He doesn't always do so. Well, He already has.
Healing was appropriated for our spirit when it was accomplished on the Cross, just as forgiveness of sin was, but we have to accept it. God says He wants all to be saved (I Timothy 2:4), but we know not all are saved, so there's His part that's already done and there's our part of receiving it. Our faith brings it from the spirit realm to the physical.
A lot of research now shows that 75-95% of diseases (physical and mental) are caused by stress. Now the brain scientists are also discovering that our toxic thoughts create stress in our minds and bodies. What we think is critical to our health. (Read: 75-98% of Mental & Physical Illnesses Come From Thought Life) The good news is that good thoughts can cover up the effects of bad thoughts! We can literally renew our minds as the Bible tells us to do (Romans 12:2).
My physical body was not yet showing the effects of these new beliefs, but I just knew that I was believing. Until ... one day I was waking up and had some symptoms bothering me, and my thought in that half-awake mode was, "Oh God, when are you going to heal these problems!?"
Whoa! Since I had disciplined myself to hear and judge my thoughts readily, it only took an instant for me to be fully awake and saying, "I cancel that thought. I am already healed by the stripes of my Lord, Jesus." It was a wake-up call though. It made me realize that no matter how much my mind believes that I believe, Luke 6:45 still holds true: "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
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| © Donna L. Watkins - View Enlarged Image This Gorgeous Flower Was On A Tree Filled With Them Tuckahoe, Thomas Jefferson's Boyhood Home - Richmond, VA |
We have to replace most of our thoughts with what the Word says about ourselves. I've often said that the devil doesn't need to tell us how bad we are and how much God doesn't love us. Most childhoods and early adult years have had enough rejection in them to give us enough ammunition to keep using ourselves as targets of very wrong and toxic thoughts about ourselves. We have to learn to speak what God says over ourselves because the Word is always True!
Therein lies the process ... speaking what is True. If we keep meditating on the Word all day long instead of the usual things we worry and fret over, we will see ourselves turning into the whole and healed people that God intended for us to be. You never saw Jesus turn anybody down for healing. You never saw Jesus put disease on somebody to teach them something. The Bible uses the word "ALL" many times when it talks about Jesus going about healing. God says "I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers (3John 1:2)." Our soul is our mind, will and emotions. We have to get our heads on straight before our heart can truly believe.
But when we believe our faith activates all that God wants us to have. Remember the story of the fig tree in Mark 11? Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem from Bethany when He cursed the fig tree. The Bible says the disciples heard it. So they spent the day in Jerusalem and He and His disciples went out of the city, presumably back to Bethany which was less than two miles away. It is mentioned that He lodged there which is where Lazarus, Martha and Mary lived. So they would have probably passed the tree again. In the morning they passed by the tree a third time and Peter noticed the tree had withered up. Jesus reply is key:
“Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
We must believe what we say and there's a process in that when it goes against something we have believed that is opposed to it. I've been looking at the damage of rheumatoid arthritis that I've had for over 25 years. It's taking some time for that damage to be gone. Not only have I seen it but it has limited me in many ways so I have adapted to live with it. In the process of doing that, it becomes part of me in many ways. It's part of who I see I am whether I think about it that way or not. My brain has to process ways to do things differently because of it, so there's some deep ruts on that disease. Long-term diseases often take longer to heal then more recent ones. (Read: Dealing With Long-term Diseases)
The first choice we make is whether we will believe the Word or simply cave in to what we see in the physical realm. What hope is there to give up and resign yourself to being ill or diseased or sick? No hope, so any time you stumble with your belief failing you, pick yourself up and continue on. It's the choices we make along the way that bring us the victory that was already won for us in Christ.
Believe in what the Word says you one day you will have no doubt left in your heart! What you believe shall surely come to pass. Don't let your mind fool you! Watch your thoughts and words you speak. Come against them with the Word of God. It is the power of God. He tells us it is alive and active. It works in us, dear friends. God has not left us helpless, but we need to pick up our sword and shield and enforce the victory. Don't let the devil fool you!
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