As a Christian sometimes I feel overwhelmed by what I have to overcome
in life but my attitude quickly changes when I'm reminded that God desires us to
live a life filled with His power, and I believe that we often miss out on what
God has in store for us because we miss out on the power He has given us through
His Son Jesus. One time I was in the park and I was trying to impress my wife by
jumping up on a large rock, and I ended up gashing my leg open pretty bad and at
first I thought it was just a gash but then I ended up realizing there was
something seriously wrong with my leg after a week or so when it didn't stop
hurting and one night when I was in church the pastor called for people to
come up for prayer if they needed healing and as I sat there in the pew by
myself watching other people go up to the front I thought well those are the
same people that go up for healing every week, so -- you know -- I'm not gonna go up, but
then in my spirit I was reminded of what God had said about my healing in His
word, and so I got up and I went to the front and the pastor came over and laid
his hands on me and started praying, and after he prayed for a little bit he
looked up at me and said, "Is the pain gone?" And I said, "No it's still there," and
so he grabbed my leg and said, "Pain leave in the name of Jesus! Go!" And it kind of
shocked me a little bit at first but then, immediately after that, the pain was
gone and I stepped back for a second and I
started walking around back and forth to make sure it was gone, and it was gone.
And he looked at me and said, "Is it gone?" and I said, "Yeah," and he said, "Good." And the
next day I went out for a run and the pain was still gone, but as I started to
run I thought to myself -- I wonder if by me running the pain is going to
come back -- and of course since I was thinking about it that way, it did.
And it started to come back for a split second but then, again I remembered what
God had said about my healing in his word,
and so I used my words and I spoke to my leg and I said, "Leg you were healed in
Jesus name," and again the pain was gone and it didn't return.
Though in the Bible Jesus often says, "Your faith has made you well," I wasn't
healed by any power of my own. I was healed because the power of God was
working inside of me. We are called to be over-comers
but when the struggles of life start to stack up against us we feel like we have
to fight back we have to be smarter or stronger or work harder but the truth is
God doesn't require us to overcome. Jesus already overcame for us on the cross.
When He paid the price for our sins, He provided a way for us to be made
over-comers through Him through His Spirit and His power working inside of
us. 2 Corinthians 12:9B says, "'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is
perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." No matter how hard we might
try, we don't have the power -- God does. But He has given us access to
that power through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through what He did on the cross.
Zechariah 4:6B says, "'Not by might nor power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of
hosts." You might say, "Well I believe in God and I believe that He has the power
to heal me or to change my circumstances, but it's so hard to have the faith to
live it out in real life." You want faith? Read the Word of God. Romans 10:17 says,
"Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." To have faith you
must hear the word, and to hear it you've got to read it.
I believed that my leg was healed because I knew the word that God had spoken
about my healing. Romans 8:11 says, "But if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."
I experienced the power because I knew His Word and His Word promised me power
through His Spirit. God wants to heal us but He also wants His power to be at
work in every area of our lives. He wants His power to be at work in your
marriage, at your workplace, in your finances, He wants to give you a new life
and a purpose. Through His power, He wants to give you unending love and His peace
which surpasses all understanding. You and I can make promises that we don't
have the ability to keep but the great thing about God's promises is that they
are always backed up by His power. I can sit here all day and tell you about His
promises but if you don't hear them directly from Him there's a good chance
you won't ever see them at work in your life, there's a good chance you won't
ever see His power at work in your life. The amazing thing is that God wrote down
His promises -- His faith-building words -- so that you and I might experience His
power but we've got to read it.