faith condemnation

garr, that old fart the enemy of our souls is at it again, stirring up old woes and working to tear down what God has built.

this morning while listening to one of the sessions at church today he/it/the snake was like, "see, you're such a bad christian, you don't have enough faith, if you had enough faith you'd be totally healed, you faithless, worthless so-called 'child' of God...."

which is a LIE from the pit of hell.

so i'm going to opine for a bit.

this is something i now know how to battle, i've battled it for years, and have largely overcome it to God's glory and not my own (tho it still comes up now and then)..... but it grieves my heart when i think of the enemy speaking that to those who don't know it's a lie, don't know how to look through God's glasses, who maybe even hear in such a message on faith as today's an 'open door' to that condemnation.... (what they are really hearing is the liar speaking, distorting God's truth.)

"well, it's true isn't it? God says all things are possible with faith! so He can heal and wills to heal, so if i'm not healed it's MY FAULT. ...so what am i doing wrong? what do i need to do to get more faith? how can i muster up enough faith to appropriate my healing/deliverance?".....

and it becomes WORKS.

"if your God is so willing to heal, and is able to heal, but you are not healed, then the only thing stopping it is YOU... so it's all YOUR FAULT. you're not doing enough, and you aren't doing it good enough."

sneaky liar, that fart. makes the lie sound like truth.

first off, what is that nebulous thing called "faith"? it's an action word, a descriptor, not a solid, noun-like 'something'. we don't look to our faith to save us, we look to GOD to save us.... faith has to do with HOW we look to Him.... we look to Him in/with faith.

God gives the faith, it's a gift..... He gives it by revelation, by maturing us, by making Himself, His ways, His truth known to us..... our job is simply to seek after HIM.... we can't turn the light-bulb on ourself - He does that, through the supernatural working of His Spirit.

we can't somehow, in focussing on 'getting more faith', get any more faith! we simply need to focus on God, 'get more God'.... we can't create faith in and of ourselves any more than we can go out in the backyard and dig up faith from the ground. God has to plant it. God has to grow it.

He plants it, yes we water it, but we can't create it. we nurture it and feed our faith, but almost as a by-product of seeking Him (staying in the Word, etc). but He is the faith-Giver.

He's the One who turns on the lightbulb over our head when we have revelation - we can't turn on the lights ourselves. we can't just make ourselves 'get it'. in fact, if we try to turn on the lights ourselves, we can stumble into idolatry - because our focus is on getting our revelation, and not on God. on our healing, not God. on our deliverance, not God.

on our circumstances, not God.

'"if only i had my healing! ... then i'd...."

i firmly believe the desire for healing, revelation, understanding can become idols in our lives....

basically, God said to me, pursue Me, don't worry about whether you 'get your healing' or not.... I love you regardless "how much" faith you have.... you are helpless to turn on the lights yourself...... seek Me alone, not faith.... seek Me alone, not your healing.... seek Me alone, not your deliverance..... seek Me alone, not wisdom, not gifts, not anything aside from Myself. they are things I give, not things you can just 'get' or 'take' or 'muster up'. ......there is no fulfillment in those things in themselves..... are you going to let your walk, your joy, your peace, be dependent on whether you 'get your healing' or not? on your circumstances? or are they dependent on Me, and Me alone?

no, i will love You in the sunshine and in the darkness, i will praise You on the mountain top and in the valley, i will walk with You in the garden and in the wilderness places.

i had to repent. and i've placed little to no attention on things such as 'my healing' since... (if fact, the opposite, a knee jerk reaction to any suggestion of burdening myself with the responsibility of 'appropriating' my healing/deliverance myself. grrrrr. and i believe it makes God go 'grrrr', too. He took that weight off my shoulders at the cross!) i will fix my eyes on Him and Him alone. just God. no other, and nothing other. i will not focus on anything else.

or at least that's what/Who i try to keep my focus on, lol!

.....since then? He's brought me healing, He's brought me deliverance, He's turned the lights on for me.... all in His timing. not when i desired it, but when He did. and His timing is infinately more perfect than my own.

so have i 'got' my healing? temporally, somewhat, but my body is still subject to sin and death. but spiritually? i am healed. i'm perfected. no sin, no illness, no death. my body is but a shell, a vapor, temporal. it's not the real me..... the real me is healthy as a heavenly horse.

so they don't line up together perfectly right now, but they will.... and they're getting closer together every day. and one day they will line up perfectly. i have God's Word on that. that's a promise. it's mine.

so....

.....do i have my healing?

you betcha.

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