Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? (2 Cor 3:7-8)
A friend of mine "shared" this message the other day. When I read it, I cried! "That's me!!!" I sent Brother Mike Storms a note and he has graciously allowed me to repost his message! I hope that you find the same "healing" in it that I did...
Hello everyone, I’m so pleased to hear how many people read my letter from Dec. 30th about my back injury. Let me start by telling you that I have been completely healed of this ailment! This is very important to me and I feel I must tell you once again that the injury was severe. I was faced with something that was threatening my whole way of life. The last time this happened I had years of pain that lead to a massive surgery and I will always carry a 13 inch scar down the center of my back as a reminder of what happened. Worse than the surgery was the recovery which took 2.5 years before I felt like I could live a semi normal life again. Needless to say when the pain hit me on Christmas day, I heard those voices telling me that I would have to go through it all over again.
This healing for me is a milestone in my life. It marks a major breakthrough in an area that I have struggled with for many years. I have always had trouble believing God for healing. I have prayed many times in the past for healing and felt so inadequate to receive it. But that’s just it, I felt inadequate. I felt like I’m not a Pastor or an Evangelist. I’m not a Missionary or one of those super Christians who always seem so on fire for God every time you see them. I was believing that I had to achieve some higher level in my faith and in my works to really be able to receive healing. This comes even after I have experienced healing in the past. When I was about 10 years old I had a pretty bad cold or maybe even the flu. I had a fever, sore throat, aches and shivers and all that nasty stuff that comes with a bad cold. I was in church on a Sunday with my Mom at Abundant Life Christian Center on Hwy 441 in Margate Florida. Pastor Rick Thomas was preaching that day and he asked anyone who needed healing to come up to the stage for prayer. I went up and stood among dozens of other people, mostly adults and I just stood there while the Pastor began putting his hand on each person’s head and he quickly moved through the crowd of people as he prayed. I remember my eyes were shut and I could hear his voice getting closer so I knew it was almost my turn. I stood in the middle of a group of people that immediately surrounded me so I guess the Pastor had to reach over other people to touch my head because the touch was very quick. He may have had his hand on my head for about 2 or 3 seconds, that’s it. I had no expectation or butterflies in my stomach as I was waiting for my turn to be prayed for. I had no lightning bolt of revelation or some jolting experience. I simply felt warm. I felt really, really warm, that’s all I can tell you. But in about 5 seconds I felt every symptom of that nasty cold leave my body. I was completely, completely healed. I shared what happened with my Mother and some other people around us but I don’t remember much the days that followed and I imagine I just got back to being a kid, worry free. But God has always allowed me to have this memory as fresh as if it happened 5 minutes ago and I’ve carried it with me almost 30 years since it happened. So why now and for the last 30 years have I not been able to ever receive healing?
My walk with God lately has been a little stale and lethargic. I’ve been a Christian for 32 years now and have been through the ups and downs of ministry and leadership. I have seen the hypocrisy that exists in every circle of Christian communities. I have become dull and have lost some of that fire and passion that was there in the early days. I have overcome addiction and poverty. I have learned and experienced things with God that most people long for so why was I so dried up inside. Why was I so weak to believe for my own needs to be met by calling on Jesus? This answer comes from a fresh revelation as I have been longing inside to know the truth about me and I hope this finds you now ready for your own fresh revelation! Here goes.
I still have sinful actions in my life. I still suffer with things that are sinful actions that I can’t seem to shake off. And because of this I find myself inadequate and not deserving of receiving anything more than my basic needs from God. You see, I believed that I was good enough in my walk with Jesus to at least deserve a roof over my head, a good wife, a good family a good life etc... But something bigger like healing, well only those super Christians I mentioned earlier get stuff like that and quite frankly I was not living righteously enough for that. I had reached my limits in what I could ask God for with a clean heart and I drew a line for what I could believe and it was all about me.
I have been living this way for years, going to Church on Sundays, being involved in ministry but always staying on the 3rd rung of a ladder that had 10 rungs. I had found myself in a mediocre existence as a Christian because I could never seem to go to those higher places. I had finally just accepted it and maybe I’ll get a decent size house in heaven but it certainly won’t be a palatial mansion. Oh man, God forgive me, please forgive me, I did it again, oh God what’s wrong with me? Why do I keep getting pulled down over and over again? When will I ever go up from here? Why don’t you just wave your magic wand over me like you did for all those super Christians and make me like them. I guess you’re happy with me just being good enough by your Grace and I guess I should just be happy there too.
Okay, so I’ve lived for the past 10 years like this. My head knowledge of God is always increasing as I learn more about the scriptures, the history, where Jesus walked in Israel, where the timelines made sense about Noah’s ark, the Roman Empire, the red sea, etc.. My ever increasing head knowledge kept me believing that I was moving up because of a higher level of understanding the word of God in common sense with science and history to prove it right. I could tear down the theory of evolution like shooting fish in a barrel with a bazooka as smart as I was about the word but I could not receive healing.
Okay, let’s get to the meat of it. I have recently discovered a Pastor named Joseph Prince. He teaches on the Grace of God and the finished work of Jesus. I was immediately caught up in his preaching and teaching because it was bringing fresh new revelation. It wasn’t because of his style or that we had anything in common, it was strictly about the revelation he was receiving about God’s word when comparing the Old Testament Law of Moses with the New Testament Gospel of Jesus. Like most Christians I read the whole Bible, the Old and New Testament. The law was a significant part of my belief system. I had never realized how strongly the apostle Paul felt about the fulfillment of the law through Christ Jesus until I saw this verse. He calls the law the “ministry that leads to death” (2nd Cor.3:7). You see I was always basing my belief on what God was able to do for me by how I was behaving that week. I was stacking up days at a time with good behavior and good works and the more days I stacked as a good Christian the more my confidence grew that I could receive more from God. After all, I was doing things right. I was keeping short accounts with God and if I slipped a little bit or missed a day where I didn’t read my Bible, I would quickly ask for forgiveness and get right with God again and get back on the path. The truth is, I couldn’t be further from the truth or more confused about the true Grace of God and the finished work of Jesus.
It was only when I saw the words “ministry that leads to death” come from the Apostle Paul that I started to realize that I was bringing death into my belief system. I was, after all these years, still trying to please God enough that He would Love me. I was still trying to live up to the fact that Jesus died on a cross for me so that I might be saved. I was still trying to work out my salvation and keep selling myself on the fact that I might screw up one day but wake up the next day saying “God’s mercy is new everyday and if I ask Him for forgiveness and have a day of NO SIN, then I’ll be back in the righteousness of God”. I mean, come on, Jesus died for me and I can’t even live a few days in a row without sinning? What a jerk I am! I wouldn’t like me very much either if I was God. I mean I know you love me because I’m one of your kids but I don’t think you like me very much, especially in comparison to some of those super Christians who have so much self control and discipline all because they love you. They probably love you more than I love you because they show it a lot more often than I do. If you would only change me to be more like them, then I could please you more. Then I could hold my head up in front of you and in front of everyone else. Then I would be one of those super Christians who might be able to change the world a little bit and bring all these lost souls to Jesus. But if you don’t do that for me God then I’ll be stuck here for the rest of my life because I JUST CAN’T get it right. Man this is frustrating! Okay, at least I know I’m going to heaven and I’ll just keep swinging away down here until you decide to promote me. But really, truly I love you God and I’m sorry I’m not better at showing you that, tears are flowing.
Can any of you relate to this right now? I have really, really good news for all of us and I believe there are millions of us Christians who need to have this revelation right now. IT IS FINISHED (John 19:30). Pastor Prince showed the original Hebrew text for the word sin and guess what, it’s a noun. Sin is not the action or verb that we think it is. Yes we suffer even to this day with our actions because of our carnal nature and animal like instincts to please our minds and bodies with all kinds of sensual things and addiction runs rampant in the Christian world today. And yes, using self control to stay away from bad behaviors actually feels good and brings temporary relief to a bad day or week but we will never be truly free in our minds to rest, until we understand the finished work of Jesus. Sin in the Hebrew text is a noun (a person, place or thing). Sin is literally a PLACE where man has fallen because of the first Adam who gave his birth right which was communion with God and complete dominion on planet earth over to Satan. At that time man was put in the PLACE of sin. Think of it as a prison. The world changed drastically in its physical form and floods and earthquakes ensued splitting Continents and after thousands of years of man on this planet living in a PLACE of sin you can easily see the results around you every day in our natural world. Man now has been tagged with a sinful nature.
The second piece of information is vital to this understanding as well. In the original Hebrew text, the word righteousness is also a noun. When Jesus came as what the Bible refers to as the second Adam, the Son of God and the son of man, He came to fulfill the Law of Moses which demanded punishment of sin. He came to take the sin of the world away. When Jesus said “it is finished” He was referring to the entirety of mankind now being free from the penalty of sin. If anyone believes in this work of Jesus and calls on Him to be saved then that persons sin is forgiven. God removes you from the place of sin and puts you in the place of righteousness. You now have two worlds that are available to you based on what you believe. The bible says that Christians live by faith and not by sight. Well, there is your choice, faith or sight. Sight still refers to the law which proves that all men fall short of the Glory of God. The law is the ministry that leads to death but it is still holy because it is the foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus. All throughout the entire Old Testament you see the nation of Israel making blood sacrifices and honoring certain holy days of atonement and following the hardest set of rules that have ever been placed on anybody to the point where it was literally impossible to be perfect and the Jewish people proved over and over again that it was impossible to live up to this Godly standard of perfection that required a constant washing and blood covering for atonement of sin. The law was written that all men might see that perfect acceptance and communion with God was unattainable because of this place of sin that mankind had fallen. It was also written to show a perfect picture of the coming of Jesus. The law of death is only death to mankind. Only Jesus (a perfect man) could satisfy the fulfillment of this law. That’s why the bible says that “He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).” So the great exchange is that man who knew no righteousness had now become righteousness because the perfect blood was shed.
If this is true then I live in a place of choice. My carnal nature still remains as I am made of the dust of the earth and have very animalistic cravings and a mind that has no boundaries for what it can think of and still carries the memory and inheritance of sin. And on the other hand my Spirit has been born again and my mind is being renewed by the mind of Christ and God calls me His own. I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So I live with this love for God and this desire to one day please him and practice self control and worship him and ask for my prayers to be answered and the next day falling into all kinds of sensuous pleasures of my mind and hating and judging others, wow, what a place to be. But I have finally found the truth that I have been looking for as a Christian who seeks real understanding about our place in this world and in God’s truth. IT IS FINISHED. Not only can I receive healing, I can receive everything that is wonderful and pure and holy and prosperous and every good thing that comes down from the Father of light because I believe in the finished work of Jesus. God does not see my sin because I’m not in that place. God only sees me in the place of righteousness. So all along I was asking God to do something that has already been done. I don’t need God to promote me to some super Christian status to get healing. All I have to do is truly believe in the finished work of Jesus to unlock every good thing that I have ever longed for in my heart. Nothing can reverse my place of righteousness. I cannot go back to that place of sin every again, IT IS FINISHED. Now if my carnal nature falls victim to temptations, I have to remember that I have a body made of flesh that still desires sensual things. But instead of using self control to try and stifle these urges and feeling like my victory or defeat that day over a sinful action determines whether or not God likes me enough to answer my prayers, I now have a new found freedom in my mind that holds no guilty conscience of my loss of that daily battle. Instead of feeling like there is this fine line where I fall in and out of God’s Grace day by day or hour by hour, keeping short accounts with God for forgiveness, I now behold the lamb! I see that it is finished. I can’t make God like me more or less by my behavior. God does what he does for me based on my belief in what Jesus did on the cross. The more I realize this the more freedom I experience. The more freedom I experience the more I rest. The more I rest the better I feel. The better I feel the happier I am. Now I’m not walking around with my head hanging down one day and trying to act like a super Christian the next. But instead, I have this place of rest where I can smile and know that even if I fall God doesn’t have a checklist on me and so I can’t ask for such a big thing like healing with the kind of check list that God is holding against me. Forget that! I know that when I remind God of the finished work of His son Jesus and that I fully believe that it is finished, that I can now come boldly to Him and He likes me! He doesn’t just love me because I’m His kid and he is obligated to. He really, really likes me. He loves when I come in smiling and resting in the finished work of Jesus and say, Hi Dad, I really need you to heal my back today.
See when I was 10 years old I didn’t carry a guilt consciousness and I simply went up believing. I’m back to my place of innocence and nothing can ever take me out of this place of righteousness, nothing! Nothing! Nothing can ever separate me from God’s love (Romans 8; 38:39) and everything I could ever possibly need is there in the nail scarred hands of Jesus and I will never be the same after understanding this truth. 32 years I’ve been a Christian and I finally get it and guess what? The more I used to try and avoid sinful actions and then get riddled with guilt by my failures, the more it lead to further sin. The ministry of death is a vicious cycle and the more you try not to sin the more you actually have sinful actions. But when you realize, really realize and believe in the finished work of Jesus, you will begin to rest. You won’t carry guilt around condemning you. You won’t feel like you keep blowing it over and over again. You will smile and rest and you will not have the sinful actions win over you as much anymore. The more we behold the Lamb and rest in the finished work of Jesus the less and less the Devil can trick you and beat you up and the less you will beat yourself up too. I can only imagine what things we can accomplish if we really grasp this Love of God through the death of His Son Jesus on the cross.
I heard of a man who had dream once that he was in a prison cell. All around him were God’s people, all in their own prison cells. Suddenly, his door flew open and he ran out realizing he was free. He looked back and saw all God’s people, sitting in their cells, weeping and lamenting over their sin but their doors were open. They sat in their cells with the doors open and continued to grieve over their sin. He looked back and heard God say, people come out of there, you are free, but they stayed in their cell even though the door was open. Stop condemning yourself today, God does not condemn you (Romans 8:1) stop letting a guilt consciousness keep you from all God has for you. People you are free!
[Suggested Scripture Reading for Jan 9 - Job 11-14]
