We live in a dynamic tension between “What God says to be true” and “what is seen”.
God says, “By His stripes you are healed” but your body says, “I am sick”. God says, “My peace I give to you” and your mind says, “But this is a war.” God says, “I give you power”, but you just got beaten up.
The choice we are given is always this: Will you settle for what you see because it’s easy? Or will you exercise your God-given authority in pursuit of Truth? Will you refuse to settle for anything less than the fullness of His promises?
If we settle for what we see, it will be unpleasant (we may be sick, in a war, beaten up) … but it involves no risk, no faith, and no effort on our parts. We will never be disappointed; we get exactly what we settled for. Most people live in a strange variation of “battered woman’s syndrome” where they get beaten up by life, over and over again, and yet do absolutely nothing about. Not only do they stay sick and defeated, eventually they begin to defend their “right” to remain in that condition! Many even ascribe their problems to the alleged “sovereignty” of God and point to how God hired satan to beat up poor ol’ Job to make him into a better person and demonstrate that satan is a bad guy.
If we settle for what we see and feel, we will also see sin reigning in our lives. So many have been taught that we are just “sinners saved by grace” and that we will remain sinners until Jesus returns. Although most really want to live holy lives, they don’t believe it’s possible, and so end up trapped in a a never-ending cycle of sin – ask for forgiveness – sin – ask for forgiveness. They justify this by “realizing” that they have a sin nature and it isn’t yet defeated. (Ironically, most people are ok with their own sin, but draw a line when it comes to people sinning against them – aren’t THEY supposed to be holy?)!
All too often we try, fail, and give up. “I prayed… God said it wasn’t time for my healing.” or “I tried… and fell into sin again.” Who told you to give up? Who told you that God makes arbitrary decisions about when to heal and when to withhold healing?
If we pursue nothing, we get nothing. If we pursue for a moment, then give up, we get nothing. If we pursue the Truth, it’s possible that bad things will happen. There is great risk involved. There is no formula to follow, and there is a wild card: God gave us authority over the enemy, and over creation, but not over other human beings.
But when we pursue Truth, it’s possible that GOOD things will happen. (In fact, it’s more possible that something good will happen, than something bad!) You must decide: Will you risk all for good? Or will you risk nothing and receive nothing?
Sometimes people ask us before we pray for them, “What if I don’t get healed?” We respond, “What if you do?” We have found that the aggressive pursuit of the open display of the glory and presence of God results in miracles happening… and those miracles give birth to others! Faith has a very prophetic nature to it; we tend to get what we believe for. Testimonies open the door for more testimonies as people realize “that could be me!” and that can step into that aggressive pursuit of His presence and glory.
Understand that what we are talking about here is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is the domain and dominion of the King. Part of the dynamic tension we live in is that the earth IS the Lord’s, but He gave dominion over it to man. Man gave it away, Jesus retrieved it and gave it back, giving us the charge to advance the Kingdom of God and reclaim all the territory that the kingdom of darkness asserted itself over. But Jesus laid responsibility on you and I … and He said that reclaiming this territory would be an act of violence: “the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. ” (Matthew 11:12 NIV1984)
In the natural realm, when light and darkness meet, light simply prevails. In the spiritual realm, light and darkness are not passive forces – when light and darkness meet, a violent collision occurs. What happens to darkness if the light backs down and goes away because it’s afraid or fears defeat? Any time the enemy can convince us to do so, he wins a temporary victory. When darkness growls and bears its teeth, if the light backs away, darkness wins. The darkness will try to convince you to back down, to settle for less… whose report will you believe? Light only prevails in places where it continues to shine.
Don’t get me wrong – Jesus won the victory. We walk in His triumph. We war from a place of rest. We don’t have to fight
! All the fullness of the godhead dwells in you. The battle is the Lord’s. All we must do is walk into a place of darkness and release the light of the Kingdom into it. But it’s NOT “automagic” … earth is supposed to be like heaven. It’s not yet. We have a commission and it’s for THIS reason that Jesus said we should declare (making manifest) “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
Will you accept what you see here on earth?
Or will you look into heaven, grab hold of what you see there, and make it manifest on the earth?
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