The challenges that we face as believers are meant to propel us forward and advance.  They put pressure in us that allow us to think outside the box, knowing that our God is exceedingly beyond the capacity of what human intellect can grasp.

My intentions are not always yours,
        and I do not go about things as you do.
My thoughts and My ways are above and beyond you,
        just as heaven is far from your reach here on earth.  (Isaiah 55:8-9 The Voice)

Man’s understanding is limited and its limitations lead to hopelessness.  But when he hears and witnesses the goodness of God amazingly displayed before his very eyes, breaking through the barriers of his earthbound thoughts, it enlarges his thinking that there is more to what God has in store for us. It causes him to see beyond the obvious.  It creates the realm of hopefulness where our faith is anchored on.  Indeed, “faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ (Romans 10:17 NLT).  It cannot come in any other way, for this is what is written in His Word, if one desires to have faith that overcomes.

One of the best revelations that postures me to keep HOPE in front of me is that we have a LIVING GOD and that JESUS IS ALIVE Who is seated at the right hand of the Father.   Yes, it is that simple but exceedingly profound.  To go deeper into a greater reality is that, those who believe are seated IN CHRIST in the heavenly places.  Yes, this is our position in the spirit realm.  It is a position of victory.

Why do we pray?  Because Jesus is alive.  He hears and answers us.  If we have a dead god, why bother pray?  Have you ever thought of that?  Hmmmm … I have 🙂

Why are we confident that we have been eternally forgiven?  Because Jesus is alive.  He is continuously interceding for us that our faith will not fail and that we may be able to grasp the truth that He fully paid all our unrighteousness by His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.  The power of His precious blood still speaks to today and His Word perpetually washes us and renews our minds to transform us according to who He created and called us to be, according to His image and likeness.

Why do we expect to be healed?  Because Jesus is alive and by His stripes He guaranteed our healing when we believe and receive it by faith. He sent His Word to heal us and deliver us from all destruction.

Why are we awesomely provided for?  Because Jesus is alive.  We may not get them out of the fish’s mouth (although some may have), but He divinely connects us with those whose hearts are yielded to His voice that makes them His hands and feet in the earth.

We commune with the Living God revealing to us His new and living ways.

When one becomes a NEW CREATION in Christ, infused with His divine nature, filled with the Holy Spirit, he has been given a divine privilege to renew his mind by meditating God’s Word day and night, night and day, done by grace through faith, for him to be able to get in alignment to how God thinks. “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)

It is the Holy Spirit Who reveals to us His Word, but it is our part to get into the Word and meditate it.  “The entrance of His Word brings light and it gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)  We are to desire the pure milk of the Word that we may grow in the knowledge of Him Who always causes us to triumph over our every challenge.

“Agree with God, and be at peace;
    thereby good will come to you.
Receive instruction from His mouth,
    and lay up His words in your heart.”  (Job 22:21-22 ESV)

Every challenge has a corresponding promise that is hidden in His Word.  For us to be able to walk out the promises of God by faith, (One) we have to recognize and know by revelation those promises that are written in the Word.  What are they?  What has He spoken about our situation? His Word is our Manual of Life!  What we do not know, we do not benefit from, but what we do know makes us strong and do great exploits. His promises are “YES and AMEN!”.  Confidently know that NOT ONE promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God!” (Luke 1:37 TPT)

(Two) We have to believe that God will keep His promises, because He is not a man that He would lie; therefore, His Word will accomplish what it is sent to do.  We feed on His faithfulness and refuse to accept any idea that undermines His reliability.  Never judge Him according to our experiences nor those of others.  Always see that the Promise-Giver is the Promise-Keeper.

God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?  (Numbers 23:19)

(Three) We must decide to receive what God has promised to do and act upon what has been spoken, because faith without works is dead, and that we must be more than hearers of the Word.  He desires obedience than sacrifice.  He desires for us to obey Him because we love Him and not out of compulsion.  Obedience as a fruit of our love for Him is effortlessly done, for it is He Who puts the desire in us for us to desire what He desires for us.

“[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.”  (Philippians 2:13 AMPC)

Indeed, you and I are fashioned and designed to have the mind of Christ and this renewed mind with its dominant thoughts conformed to His Word will pave the way for us to be overcomers and more than conquerors.

“For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.”  (1 Corinthians 2:16 AMPC)

Our heavenly identity as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus where God sees us perfect before His very eyes is vital.  Only when we know that SURELY we will ALWAYS and FOREVER be treated with favor, with delight, accepted and approved when we commune with Him Who sits on the throne will we have the confidence to draw near Him, inquire of Him, heed His voice and be graced to do it.

Right here and now, we are in the midst of this global challenge.  Without the Word that reveals to us His promises, we get short-sighted and shaken.   But Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]”  (John 16:33 AMPC)

Challenges are purposed to build our character.  In God’s point of view, it is never to crush us but to accelerate us.  Mind you, if our earthly fathers are all about encouraging us and lifting us up, how much more our Heavenly Father?  Know that there is an enemy that is on a lookout whose intent is to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly.  However, it is not the good times that change us. It is not the good times that necessarily bring us closer to God.  Nobody grows when everything is perfectly well with us, yet this does not mean that God is the author of adversities.  No! Not at all! Only GOOD comes from a GOOD GOD!  He can only give Who He is.  But when we go through, what the enemy meant for evil, He can well turn it to GOOD.  He can make a way where there seems to be no way.  He can make roads in the wilderness and streams in the desert.  He can and He will.   It is when we are at our darkest is when the light of His presence shines the brightest, for us to see the beauty of His love, His favor, His mercy, His passion and compassion towards us.  It is when we know that we cannot solve the problem ourselves and that we have to completely surrender to God and learn things His way by the power of His Word revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

“My grace is always more than enough for you, and My power finds its FULL EXPRESSION through your weakness.” So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9 TPT)

His way is His Word. His will is His Word.  His wisdom is His Word. His Name is called “The Word of God.”  Living this life unaware of His Word will lead us to live a “roller coaster” kind of life and so are our responses to them.  Ignorance costs.  His Words says, people perish due to lack of knowledge, rejection of knowledge and forgetting the knowledge of the Word of God.  But when we choose to put our trust in the unshakable truth of Who Jesus is, our Rock and our Salvation, it positions our hearts to BE STILL and KNOW THAT HE IS GOD and that He is for us, He is with us, He is in us and He will NEVER leave us nor forsake us.  He will teach us His way of overcoming the challenges that come our way.

I want to share with you a testimony of my friend who came to the know the truth on how healing is accessed by the Word of God.  Healing is God’s children’s bread.  He promised that His covenant He will not break nor alter the words that come out from His mouth.  Once He sworn, He will not lie.  He cannot lie, for He is the truth.  And it is our knowledge of the truth that sets us free.

This is my friend’s testimony.

Early this year, I noticed the pain in my right elbow which started in 2016 became so severe. It was so swollen and so painful that I couldn’t stretch it. It was almost impossible for me to tie my hair on my own. My husband had to do it for me. After consulting an orthopedic surgeon, I found out that I had acute tendonitis or tennis elbow with calcium deposits. The doctor required me to wear an arm and elbow braces. On top of that, I needed to undergo physical therapy three times a week for six weeks to help the swelling to subside. After that, I would need to see the doctor again to do an MRI to find out if surgery would be necessary. I did wear the braces but I did the therapy myself at home which I learned from physical therapists on Youtube. 

During this time of recovery, I was also learning about divine healing from Kenneth Hagin through his books and video teachings. I found out that healing is indeed part of our redemption that Jesus accomplished for us through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. One way I learned to appropriate that healing for myself was to declare the Word or Scriptures that show we have been redeemed from sickness and pain.

“He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” (Matthew 8:17)  

“Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.”  (Isaiah 53:4)

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”).  (Galatians 3:13)

I declared in faith those verses and many more for 2 months and confessed that my elbow was already healed because Mark 11:23-24 says:

“Believe that you receive them, and you will have them”. 

It says there I HAVE TO BELIEVE FIRST THEN I WILL RECEIVE. Despite the symptoms, I would say “THANK YOU, LORD! I AM ALREADY HEALED last ____ (the date that I prayed for my healing)”. Every day when I would be reminded about my elbow condition, I would say the same thing:

“THANK YOU, LORD! I AM ALREADY HEALED last ____ (the date that I prayed for my healing).”

After doing that for about two months, I noticed my elbow became better and better gradually.  Right before my next checkup, I called my doctor’s clinic to cancel my appointment, because my elbow was completely healed.  

I also want to mention that during the same time, we as a family would declare our healing and health confession almost every day. We noticed that we would rarely get sick. And if we did catch the flu or flu-like symptoms, we would pull out those verses and the longest time that we would ever felt sick was just one day. After resting overnight, the next day we would be completely healed. Even my son who is only six years old, he already knows if we feel those symptoms we are to immediately confess our healing and we would get our healing.

We all go through, but the GOOD NEWS is that all the trials and tribulations that we face, Jesus Christ has already overcome them. He has already overpaid them all. He has not only given us the redemptive solutions, but He revealed them to us and made them available and accessible by faith, when we believe.  And since we are IN CHRIST and He is “CHRIST IN US, the HOPE of glory“, therefore, we can confidently expect to see His promises pass before us.  It may be in an instant or it may take time.  But what matters most is that we shall SEE His goodness in the land of the living as He graces us to wait, endure and grow in His strength.  We imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12).

 “Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not ALL His benefits:
Who forgives ALL your iniquities,
Who heals ALL  your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:1-5)

What we experience in His promise, the Word that became flesh and tangible, He deploys us as His salt and light in the earth, giving hope to those who are experiencing what we have just come out from.  Our testimonies heard will always stir up and fuel the faith in others that they will eventually experience what we experienced in a powerful and unique way.  Indeed, faith comes by hearing and hearing the good news about Christ.

Let us therefore ARISE and SHINE!  Let us co-labor with Him as carriers and diffusers of His love to the world that is getting darker and darker.  He BLESSED (empowered to prosper) us.  He made us FRUITFUL as we abide in Him and His Word abiding in us.  We MULTIPLY as we mirror the God-kind of life that Jesus paid for us.  We POPULATE the earth with victors and not victims as we grow to become just as He created us to be, according to His image and likeness. Then, the world will change its course as we take our rightful place and radiate His glory to whomever He calls us to touch and influence.  It is His will and His desire for the whole earth to be filled with His glory as the waters cover the sea.

This is His original assignment to mankind … “Then God BLESSED them and gave them this directive: “Be FRUITFUL and MULTIPLY. POPULATE the earth. I make you trustees of My estate, so care for My creation and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that roams across the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 The Voice)

 

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You for calling me by name to become who You created me to be, an anointed diffuser of Your love in the Name of Jesus through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.  Thank You for revealing to me the truth that healing is the children’s bread made available and accessible by faith.  Thank You, Jesus, for paying the price that by Your stripes, I am healed and whole.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for illuminating my mind that I may be able to agree with what is written in the Word and walk in it.  It is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God.  Amen.