“Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.” Exodus 4:12
When God visited Moses at the burning bush, He asked Moses to deliver the Children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, but Moses replied that he didn’t have what it takes. He implied that he didn’t have it in him.
I believe the reason for this was that he’d had his fingers burnt when he tried to do it in his own strength and ended up killing an Egyptian, so now he had given up.
God then went on to say to Moses, “what is that in your hand?” Moses was holding a staff and God said that with this staff he would be able to do miracles and deliver Israel from their slavery. Moses continued to argue with God that he wouldn’t be able to do it, not realising that he already had the power, and it was close at hand. It was in his hands, so to speak. Funny but this sounds very familiar in relation to us Christians today. Moses told God to send someone else which is often how we think too. “Send the Pastor Lord, as he is equipped and I’m not.”
“Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.” Exodus 4:12-13p
I often wonder about the whole area of healing and miracles. Why are we not seeing many of them now days? It bothers me for many reasons; one is that Jesus said that these signs shall follow them that believe. We believe don’t we? So where are the signs that should follow us?
“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:17-18
Where ever Jesus went in His ministry He healed ALL that were sick, and there were no exceptions.
“When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.” Matthew 8:16
The bible says that Jesus is with us today and He has not changed. What do you do about a verse like this next one? He’s the same even in the 21st century.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8
It’s the right time for things to happen. Prophetically we live in that time period when there is meant to be a Healing Revival. The coming of the Lord is very near and a healing revival has been prophesied.
“But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings;” “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” Malachi 4:2 ,5
(The Great and Terrible day of the Lord is His 2nd Coming and we are closer to it than any other generation.)
Why is it, that we aren’t seeing so many miracles today, for Jesus hasn’t changed has He? What is the problem? One thing that I can see is that we always act as if we don’t have what it takes and that God has everything on His side of the fence. In a sense this is true but we need to remember that God put a deposit in us when we became Christians and He wants us to use it. Paul told Timothy to stir up the gift that was in Him. Paul was reminding him that he had a gift that he wasn’t stirring it up and I think we do the same.
“Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:6-7
The gift wasn’t with God it was with Timothy and he needed him to stir it up. Often when we have a problem or a need, we feel that we don’t have it and need to cry out to God for it. So often it’s a desperate prayer. God doesn’t want us to pray pleading prayers all the time. He wants us to start using the authority that He’s given us. God in His mercy does answer desperate prayers but there is a better way for us under this better Covenant. It may have been the right way in Old Testament days but in the Epistles you see that things are different for us now after what Jesus did for us on the cross. Christ is in us.
When Moses came to the Red Sea, God told him to stop crying out to Him and move forward. There is a time for crying out and there is also a time to us to use our authority.
“And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” Exodus 14:15-16
Primarily I think the reason why we are not seeing so many healings or miracles today, is because we don’t think we have it. We don’t believe we have the authority. If an Evangelist came to the church praying for the sick, and said; “Do you believe that God can heal this person of blindness?” We would all say yes we do believe. What if he then went on to say? “OK then, you pray for this person to be healed.” We would all back down for we don’t believe we have what it takes, but the Bible says we do. Did you know that nowhere in the New Testament does it actually say that Jesus sent us forth to pray for the sick? It does say however that we are to go forth and “Heal the Sick.”
Look at Matthew 10:8, Luke 10:9, Luke 9:2, and James 5:15.
“ And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. “ Matthew 10:7-8
“Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.” Luke 10:8-9
“Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” Luke 9:1-2
This confirms from scripture that we have what it takes already and it’s in our hands, we don’t need anyone else. We do have this power within us according to 2 Timothy1:6 and it needs to be stirred up. It says that we do have the ‘power.’ We have the ‘dunamis’ or dynamite of God. In Acts 1:8 it says again that we received the power when the Holy Ghost came on us.
“But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:22-24
It’s the doubting of the heart that’s the problem. Did you notice that it says 3 times here that we are to “say, say, say.” It says; ‘say’ more than it does ‘believe.’ Speaking is even more important than believing. You can’t believe something and say the opposite. We need to start believing that what we say will come to pass. This indicates a period of time. Many of us need to pray for a crop failure as most of what we say is far from what we actually want to happen. We speak out such negative stuff all the time. It’s proved that if you keep saying something long enough you begin to believe it, and that’s even if it’s not true.
If we have this ‘it,’ this ‘power,’ then why aren’t things happening today? It’s not only the fact that we don’t believe that we have ‘it’, but also the fact that we don’t have any passion for it. We aren’t ‘stirring’ up the power the gift. This word ‘stir’ comes from the word ‘fire,’ so we need to stir up the fires of our passion. We are too passive in our attitude to sickness and often turn to man for help first instead of to the fire of God within. Speaking out what we believe helps to stir up this gift of God?
If you wake up depressed you can hope for things to change or cry out to God that things will change, sometimes it does and other times it doesn’t. You can however, begin to speak your way out of the problem believing it will come to pass. The more you speak it out the more you believe. We need to first rebuke the Devil then begin to say that our day will get better etc. God has promised that what we say will come to pass. You may say that this teaching is just for prophets and not for us, but in Acts 2:17-20 it says that all of us will prophecy in the Last Days. Men, women and children.
When you are crying out to God for something over and over again you are admitting that you don’t have the authority, but when you speak to the problem from your place of authority in heavenly places, you are saying that you do. Ephesians 1:3 says that we have already been blessed with ALL spiritual blessings in Christ. We HAVE it.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who HAS blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” Ephesians 1:3
If we believe something to be true then we have got to speak it out.
“It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,” 2 Corinthians 4:13
Never under estimate the power of your tongue, for Proverbs 18:20 says that death and life are in the power of our tongue and there is so much evidence in the bible to show that we do have something powerful in our mouths. James also says that our tongues are like a rudder and that it can either steer our lives into blessing or into problems.
“A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; from the produce of his lips he shall be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:20-21
This is an excerpt from Andrew Wommack’s teachings on the subject.
What do you need the Lord to do for you? Do you need the Lord to heal you? How about prosperity? Could you use more money? The truth is, you don’t need the Lord to do anything for you. He’s already done His part. You’ve already got it, whatever “it” is.
This may sound crazy to some of you. You might be thinking, But I’ve got a doctor’s report to prove I don’t have healing or you haven’t seen my bank account. But regardless of what the natural facts are, the truth is that God has already given you whatever you need.
Second Peter 1:3 says, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”
The only thing we are lacking is knowledge. Most Christians believe that God can do anything, but many of them don’t believe He has done very much. They live in a constant state of trying to get God to do something. They are begging God to move through revival, healing, prosperity, etc. They run from meeting to meeting, trying to get something from God. But the truth is they’ve already got it.
The Bible says;
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
This says He “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings,” meaning it’s already done. You already have all spiritual blessings. So, asking God or waiting on Him to bless you is counterproductive. And yet the average Christian starts from that position. If they’re sick in their bodies, instead of starting from “by His stripes, I was healed” (1 Peter 2:24) or “I have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead living in me” (Ephesians 1:19-20), they’ll take the doctor’s report or the pain in their bodies and say, “I’m sick. God, will You heal me?” They start moving toward victory instead of coming from victory!