PART ONE
I have felt the Lord leading me on a very important journey over the last few years and I believe it’s all coming together of late. I am seeing what He has been trying to show me for a long time and it has not been as I expected, but never the less it’s real and producing fruit that I can see. It’s come about through affliction and if you can call it suffering. This revelation has accelerated as I have grappled with a physical symptom returning that had all but disappeared a few years ago.
After I’d received an understanding of our inheritance in Christ and what He had done for me on the cross, I was healed of a sickness that had plagued me for years. But now it had came back and nothing seemed to make the pain go away. What was going on? At present I have never felt so close to the Lord as I am now, I can indeed say that I have returned to my first love, so what’s the problem? My times with the Lord have been amazing at present and I can sometimes go for hours through the night just thinking of Him, gazing upon the sweet loveliness of His face and beholding His Glory. I know this pain and sickness is from the Devil, but why wasn’t I experiencing the victory?
At one stage I asked the Lord if I should go back to the doctor again, as it has been 7 years since I last went. I felt Him say – a definite - “NO.” “Believe what I did for you on the cross concerning this sickness.” This really became a trial of my faith, for if I’m wrong and should go, then I could be ‘checking out’ early. The symptoms are shouting at me, but the still small voice is whispering “Trust me,” “Praise me,” “Love me more than the pain.” I felt the Spirit also say that I should take my eyes off this thing and keep gazing upon the Lord, worshipping Him regardless. As I have said often. “There is only one thing worth being concerned about, and Mary has discovered it, and so should we discover it.” She chose to worship Jesus, which was the better part and focused on Him alone. Jesus is calling me to love Him more than anything, even the problem I’m experiencing.
As I said, I felt the Lord saying to me that this symptom is of the Devil, because He doesn’t like where I’m going in God and is trying to get me to take my eyes off Jesus, off the assignment. Indeed, this pain had been a distraction making me take my eyes off the Lord. I ended up spending a lot of time and energy, confessing the word and resisting these symptoms. It was consuming me. If I believed I was healed, as Jesus said I was, then I wouldn’t be so worried about the symptoms so much. I needed to be fully persuaded like Abraham. As I said these symptoms could be very serious and even life threatening so I need to be sure. If I leaned on my own understanding it was scary, yet the still small voice said that this is ‘nothing,’ it’s just an attack from the Devil and you have the victory. You are healed, resist Him. That didn’t solve the pain issue though, which would come and go. More coming than going at first.
I have often mentioned in my sermons a verse in Romans 8:6 where it says that to be ‘carnally’ minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. To be carnally minded is to go by what we see and feel, and that always descends. To be spiritually minded however is to go by what the word says (by what we believe) and that will always lead to life and peace. I remind myself of this verse whenever I am in pain. “I will not be carnally minded, going by what I feel or see. I will go by what I believe, for by the stripes of Jesus I was healed.”
“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Romans 8:6 NIV
In Romans 4:17-19 it speaks of Abraham and his peculiar situation. It says that God calls ‘those things that be not as though they were,’ and goes on to say that Abraham didn’t consider his own body, his age nor his wife’s body but considered the promise. The promise was a child. The child of Promise - Christ. I felt the Lord say that in my situation, I too am to be like Abraham who had a problem and must not consider my body but the promised one - Christ. I needed to consider His body.
(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Romans 4:17-22
I remind myself of the promise that is given by the Lord as we have communion (which I have every day) and that is that He has given us His body - the body of Christ. God’s Son. God’s promised Son. It tells us in Hebrews that we are to consider Him who shed His blood for us. Hebrews 12:3-4.
“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19 NIV
I felt the Spirit saying in all the pain that I was not to look at my symptoms (my body) and what was going on there but consider the ‘Promise,’ the Body of Christ. At communion we are asked to remember Christ’s Body, to look at all He has done for us. I have written about this more comprehensively in a message ‘Of His Fullness’ which is available on this site. So in the light of all this, I felt that the answer was to be found in the victory given us at the cross and in Christ’s Body. To gaze upon His crucified and glorified Body.
I feel that through this I am being shown a very important principle that could prolong my life and bring me into a far greater intimacy with Jesus in these End Times. There are so many distractions at present with what is going on in the world, around us and even in us. We can be side tracked from our first love and end up spending so little time at the feet of Jesus. We end up like a Martha instead of a Mary.
The Spirit has been also been saying to me to lift my eyes higher still and consider beyond the cross and behold to the glorious body of Christ. He is now - glorified. Consider all He is and all He has done for us. Set your mind on heavenly things, things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1
If we were honest with ourselves and God, are we really spending much time at His feet gazing on His beauty? Or are we gazing on our problems and other things? There may be times when we do gaze upon Him in Church or at a Conference, but what about today in the busyness of life? Sometimes we can start the day off OK but before long we descend into a sea of distraction overwhelmed by problems.
The Devil doesn’t want us to look at Jesus and throws all sorts of things at us to get us to look at ourselves or our problems instead, knowing that to be carnally minded always leads downward. Pain in one’s body is a very powerful tool that He uses to cause our prayers to be all ‘me’ focused, inward. It can make us waste so much time asking for something like healing that God has already provided for at the cross, in Christ.
The Devil knows that the answer for us is in Christ. He knows that there is a spiritual principle available to us, that if we look at Jesus, we will be changed to be like Him. Paul said that we are changed from one level of glory to another as we consider the Lord through meditating on Him in scripture.
“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate a the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 3:18
Looking at Him one day and then not again for a month or so, doesn’t have much effect on our lives, but if we constantly look at Him in the word and by meditation, then we change. With a magnify glass you need to keep it focused on the same place for a certain amount of time if you want to see fire break out, and so it is with our spiritual focus. ‘If the eye is single the whole body shall be filled with light.’
The bible says that we have ‘everything’ when we have Christ and are filled with God in our union with Christ. We have ‘everything.’ We have healing, prosperity and victory, and it’s all in Christ. As we focus on Christ who is the answer we will be changed. Jesus is Jehovah ‘Rapha’ (Healer) and we can be changed to be like Him as we behold Him.
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:9-10 NKJ
“For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power.” TLB
What do you focus on each day? Do you focus on your sickness your problems or on the answer - Christ? The principle of being changed by what we see runs through the whole bible. Jacob and the spotted sheep are a good example. It’s a very strange story.
“Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.” Genesis 30:37- 43
Elisha being able to see Elijah in the Heavenlies at his departure is another example. Elijah said to Elisha before he left that if he wanted to have a double portion of the Spirit, he would need to be able to see Elijah being lifted up into the Heavenlies. It was all about seeing. Elisha did see him lifted up and consequently received a double portion. For us today the principle is still the same, if you can see the risen Christ and all He has done for you, then the double portion will be yours. See yourself seated in heavenly places with Christ. You are a joint heir with Him. It’s all about seeing into the Heavenlies beyond what is going on down here. This requires faith.
In the wilderness of Sin, the Children of Israel were being bitten by poisonous snakes. Moses made a brazen serpent and lifted it up before the people on a pole. All those who looked at the snake on that pole were healed. Later we see that the snake represented Jesus being lifted up on the cross. John 3:14. When we look at what Jesus for us at Calvary believing we are forgiven and healed.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.” Numbers 21:8-9
Another example is that of Abraham. After he departed from his nephew Lot in Genesis chapter 14, God told Abraham to lift up his eyes and look around him, for everything that he saw would be given to him. In other words all you see can be yours.
“The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.” Genesis 13:14-15
On the other hand, Lot looked at Sodom and eventually ended up living there. He descended into a place that cost him his wife and the integrity of his children. So we see that our seeing can work both ways and can determine our destiny.
“Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.” Genesis 13:10
It’s obvious from these verses that we should be careful with what we look at, for it can affect our lives. Proverbs 4 says that we should guard our hearts (affections) for they can influence the rest of our lives, so we are too guard your affections.
“Above all else, guard your affections. For they influence everything else in your life.” TLB Proverbs 4:23
I have found that the one of the quickest ways to change and become more like Jesus, is to have our spiritual eyes opened to see Him. “But we see Jesus – crowned with glory and honour.” “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
“But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:9
It’s so true that you become like the thing you worship. The Devil knows this principle and tries to get us to keep looking at the wrong things in the wrong direction.
Jesus is offering us His glory and had prayed in John chapter 17 to His Father that we might see it, not just when we get to heaven one day but also in this life.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you e known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:24-26
Jesus had already said in John chapter 14 that He would show (manifest) Himself to us this side of heaven. It’s our privilege to see His face and to be changed to be like Him.
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." John 14:21
As concerning the pain I was experiencing, it has gone now and I’m finding myself on a new level with the Lord. Read Part 2 of the Glory for more.