Fire On Your Head

“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

(Matthew 6:9-13)

It may be no secret to many reading these entries that I believe what the Bible says. Jesus’ commands are commands, and He means what He says. His promises are promises, and He will keep them—that He means what He says. Jesus’ warnings are real warnings—He really means what He says. Yet many, many believers constantly doubt the Bible and insist God is not willing to heal all—and even worse–some people even teach and believe heresy that says He is not willing to save all! But what does the Bible say?

The Bible and it alone is to be our final authority, not circumstances or scholarly opinions, or a denominational statement of faith.

The whole world could die and go to hell—and it would still be true that God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) It would not be any less true that God is not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9b).

Likewise, every single individual in the face of the earth could (could!) die of horrible cancer, and it would NOT change the promises of the Lord who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:3-5). The Word of God STILL says he [Jesus] was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5).

The Gospel message, in any aspect or component of it—salvation (healing someone’s spirit), deliverance (healing someone’s soul) or healing (healing of someone’s body)–is not diminished by what we see in the world around us—for we walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). This is evidenced in the Lord’s prayer—which actually is more like our prayer that He gave us to pray. The very fact we are told to pray the way we are shows at least four things:

1) Not everything that happens in this earth is the Lords will—or we wouldn’t be told to pray the Lord’s will to be done.
2) We are a part of the Lord’s will being done, by cooperating with what we know He wants us to pray [and do].
3) It is expected that the things going on in the earth are different than what is going on in heaven, and we are instructed here to pray that what is going on in heaven is ‘going on’ in the earth as well.
4) That we are the ones to pray this down. If we are invited to have this much involvement in the things going on in this earth, then we have a responsibility to pray it down to earth.

1.Not everything that happens in this life—or the earthly realm—happens according to the Lord’s will.

A major research essay will not be written at this point about how or why God is involved in His dealings with the universe the way He is or isn’t—even though popular and traditional Calvinism/predestination teaching is not Biblical, but philosophical and it can be easily dismantled if one just reads the Bible. I merely wish for now to point out the facts taught plainly in the Word of God, which alone is our authority for doctrine—not popular evangelical scholarly opinion.

• It is clearly evident that mankind has free will. I don’t care what theologians say about how God chooses us before we choose Him for one thing because the way the Sovereignty of God is popularly taught contradicts the way God told us to pray! This passage is NOT a repetitious prayer that Jesus taught us so we’d have something to repeat to look spiritual! This is how He taught us to PRAY–which is indicative of action, not contemplation.
  
• So what is it like in heaven?
  a) We know there is no sin there
  b) We know there is no death, sickness, or diseases etc… This would likewise mean there are no things like emotional wounds that need healing.
  
• Therefore, what we know it to be like in heaven, both with regard to physical sickness, and holiness, purity, and relations with God, and purity and freedom from sin—we are told to pray for this in the earthly realm also. If this were not so, then Jesus would not have mentioned it, but He did, so we have to deal with it.
• This author feels praying for, and manifesting and advancing this kingdom of heaven in a practical and tangible way would include advancing the Gospel by evangelism, and demonstrations of the kingdom—in order to bring as many others into this great salvation we have. Healing the body is just as important as healing the soul, since both were paid for in the redemption of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

2. We are a part of the Lord’s will being done, by cooperating with what we know He wills to do—and what He will us to do.

• Simply put–God told us to pray. He didn’t tell us to just let pieces fall where they may and sit around watching TV, drinking Kool-Aid and eating popcorn waiting for His will to unfold on its own–which is almost what I must assume or conclude from looking at most in the Western Church. There is no “relax and wait for the Rapture” in God’s plan for the Church, but I’m digressing.
• He also did NOT tell us here, a detailed map of His will in all areas and to just wait and let it unfold. How can we know His will then? Easy–reading the Bible (a testament literally is a “will”) and acting on it, mixed with prayer for specifics. What I mean is the Bible doesn’t have an answer for what job you should get or where to spend your vacation in accordance with how you are to fulfill the Great Commission with your life, and plan every detail around it—these details are not in Scripture. But if something IS written in the Scriptures, we are to do it—and NOT come up with doctrines that explain why we aren’t to do it. To fail to do what Scripture teaches is plain disobedience to it. Period!
• We can know what God’s will is by reading His will—the Bible. Which is why I’m puzzled so many come up with doctrines like there are in the Church: “He doesn’t will for all to be healed” or “God picks some not to be saved.” Balderdash. People who don’t spend time intimately with Jesus and have no concept of His grace—or even read the Bible—teach and believe stuff like that.

What is the Lord’s will?
1) He is not

willing that any should perish (Matt 18:14, 2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16, 2 Timothy 2:4)

2) It is His will to heal any and all who are sick. (Matt 4:23-24, Matt 8:2-3, Matt 17:14-18) Click here for more teaching on the will of God concerning healing, and if you’ve already read it, refresh your memory anyway and look up all the passages cited.

3) It is His will that his followers do the same things as He did and commanded. (Matt 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-20, John 14:12)

3. It is expected that the things going on in the earth are different than what is going on in heaven, and we are instructed here to pray that what is going on in heaven is ‘going on’ in the earth.

• This shouldn’t be too profound to catch: We already know beforehand, from this Scripture, that there will be a difference between the Lord’s will enacted on earth like it is carried out in heaven. Notice God didn’t tell us to let things in the earth remain the way they are, but to pray for His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This is where the voluntary free will of man (specifically the believer) comes in to play. If we don’t do what He told us to do, then what He tells us results from us doing it won’t happen either–it doesn’t matter how the Sovereignty of God is taught and preached.
  
• The fact we are told to do this, indicates a tension, fight, or persistence required on our part, because this world is nothing like heaven (duh!). The doubtful man or skeptic (or idiot, depending on what they’re waiting for) will be content to just wait for all things to be brought about at the kingdom yet to be fully manifested at the Lord’s coming. But the man who knows how to pray down heaven, will see signs and wonders and the miraculous on the earth in his life. “Uneducated” men like Smith Wigglesworth knew this, and lived in total contradiction to the popular theology of men. He even said “When I’m not being moved by the Spirit of God, I move the Spirit of God.” People who believe the hyper sovereignty of God teaching have no idea how to handle a statement—or lifestyle like that!

4. That WE are the ones to pray this down. If we are invited to have this much involvement in the things going on in this earth, then we have a responsibility to PRAY it down to earth.

This point here is why I suspect so many people teach and preach God is not willing to heal or save all: because many do not want to take the responsibility God places on us, and blame Him for everything both good and bad that happens. If someone is healed, great—praise God. If someone is not, then instead of looking at ourselves, we say “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” Simple Bible reading and observation of Jesus’ life in the Gospels show this to not be an example of the Lord’s “mysterious ways”.

Remember, Jesus never rebuked a single person for not having enough faith to be healed—yet I’ve heard it said to me time and time again I don’t have the healing in my feet yet because I don’t have faith enough to see it happen. Yet I’ve seen time and time again people I’ve gotten to pray for, upset, dejected and just plain give up on their healing because they’ve had uneducated charismatics (and those of you out there who hate charismatics you’re not off the hook on this one either!) teach them they’d “only have their healing by now if they had enough faith”. Where did the merciful Jesus ever teach someone they weren’t healed because they didn’t have enough faith?!?!?!

But Jesus did rebuke His disciples for not having enough faith to get the epileptic in Matt 17:14-18 healed. The responsibility is NEVER (or at least LESS often) on the person being healed, but the ministers who are supposed to be full of the Holy Spirit and able to impart that life to a sick and dying world around them. And THAT is hard to swallow, so we come up with all sorts of heretical doctrines in order to excuse our failure to produce Biblical results.

As Mr. Gladstone would say, what do you think about that?

Keep checking for updates once I’m back from my trip to Italy this week, as I’ll follow this entry up with something tentatively called “If God is so Sovereign,then how come…” and just list Scriptures. It’s in my draft folder. As well is another one that became an offshoot of this entry, about how Jesus used the disciples despite their obvious flaws–but I won’t be approaching from that predictable “if God could use them, He can use us” approach.

Be blessed. Tot ziens!