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NASB | Matthew 16:6 And Jesus said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 16:6 Jesus said to them, "Watch out and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." |
Subject: Knocked out by holy spirit |
Bible Note: I agree with you that we are on dangerous ground when we start to place demands of God. I know of only one place he asked to come out and test him at his word, and that had to do with giving as found in Malachi. I think it is dangerous to think that God HAS to heal us, as thoughn we somehow have the "goods" on him. He doesn't have to heal us, but he has chosen to say that he will. Once he says it, THEN he is obligated by his word, due to his nature. There are quite a number of places in scripture that God has said that he desires to heal us. I do believe confessing the Word in spite of the circumstances is a correct thing to do. I am not talking about some mind-over-matter thing, but rather believing God's word despite when circumstances would cause us to doubt His Word. The disciples seemed to have the same trouble, as did others he ministered to. The classic "Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief" is perhaps appropriate in many situations we face. My concern is that we must be careful to judge those ministering in healing power as "grandstanders". Some of them may be, (although I doubt that true healing power will flow for long when someone falls into that trap).. perhaps all of them have fallen into that trap from time to time, since pride is always waiting to snare us. Fortunately, God is slow to anger and gives us time to see the error in our ways. He is much more longsuffering than seems prudent, oftentimes. Personally, I must THANK GOD FOR THAT! The thing about pride vs. most sin, is that it most often finds it crook in us for our accomplishments, rather than our failures.. and can thus be very sneaky in gaining entrance into our lives. But I digress... If healing revivals are true, there is but one Litmus test: Is the Lord Jesus, The Father, and the Holy Spirit being given credit and are people being led to HIM in finding all their needs met.. firstly spiritual and then in the natural. (the well-known "Seek first the Kingdom, and all these things shall be added to it") Are people being brought to a true salvation experience through faith in the Son of God of the bible. At this point in my life, there are certainly mainy things I ponder as to why God has chosen to do things the way he has. In the area of healing, and other much more difficult areas.. I have come to a place where the wisest thing I can say is along the lines of: I believe that God does things such and such a way... but I MAY be wrong. I believe God will honor such humility in the areas where there are no easy answers and sincere and genuine Christians find differing opinions on a matter. In all things though, the Word of God settles the matter, even when my experience seems to say otherwise. This holds true in the healing arena too. I think it is God's will that his people be blessed and walk in health and all-sufficiency as a general rule. That doesn't mean there aren't situations where God will use disease or other trials to test and teach us through.. though when that happens, it is because Satan is allowed to do so. (Job is a classic example of this) I don't think super-faith is required.. just the faith of a mustard seed. :) I am blessed to see all the various points being discussed here, as a new person to this message board. As long as we all are searching for the truth of a matter, rather than trying to prove ourselves right for the sake of being right, such discourse can be healthy and constructive. The final caveat being that when we truly see God's answer in His Word, even if it disagrees with our opinion or experience, we will put our faith in what He says and not stubbornly hold on to our ideas and conclusions. |