Posts

Love That Heals

/0 Comments/in /by

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1 NIV

Our hearts cry out to be known. Sin keeps us hiding from one another. But something deep within us all longs for significance. And in a world that easily overlooks us, God sees.

He knows your name, dear one. He calls it—even when no one else cares to know it—inviting you to turn your gaze to Him. You see, God also longs to be known.

We are not nameless to God. He knows us, and He desires us to hear Him calling our names. He taught me this one day as I walked through the village next to our base in Pemba. I had been visiting the neighbors for hours, and I was late for a discipleship meeting. As I hurried down a hill, I noticed a very old lady in rags sitting in the dirt against a mud hut. She was blind. Her eyes were pure white. I felt the Lord asking me to stop for her.

In the local dialect I asked her what her name was. She told me she had none. I thought perhaps she was from another tribe and didn’t understand my Makua dialect. I asked her again in a different language, but her answer was the same: “I am blind. I have no name.”

There was another woman sitting nearby. I asked her if she knew the blind woman’s name, and she too replied: “She is blind, and she has no name.”

I was stunned. I hugged the old blind woman and immediately decided that I would call her Utaliya. It means “you exist” or “you are.” When I spoke it for the first time, her wrinkled face came alive. She gave me a huge, nearly toothless grin. I asked the other woman nearby to try calling her by the new name. Utaliya turned her white, blind eyes toward that unfamiliar sound and giggled. After that I prayed for her eyes. I watched them turn brown in front of me.

Utaliya could see!

I told her about the man Jesus who had just opened her eyes. I told her about Papa Daddy God who will always call her by name. She met God that day. I was hours late for my meeting, but it seemed to me I was right on time.

~Heidi Baker, Birthing the Miraculous, p.29-30

Stories of God’s great exploits in third world countries always amaze me. He often shows up mightily amidst the broken and down trodden. Where need is greatest, glory shines brightest.

Perhaps that’s why He sends us to them.

I have a hard time contemplating a woman who lived without a name. How empty she must have felt, defining herself only by her weakness. Her blindness. Apparently the rest of the world did too.

Until a woman filled with the Spirit of God happened to walk by her and take notice. She didn’t have to stop—shouldn’t stop, in fact, according to her schedule. But she sensed God asking her to. Her obedience opened an outpouring from the river of life.

I want to release that river, dear one. I want to see the life that flows from pure, unhindered union with God poured out in our land.

I want to see the life that flows from pure, unhindered union with God poured out in our land. Click To Tweet

My heart aches over what I know holds it back.

I do.

Every time I quench the gentle nudges of His Spirit and choose my agenda instead of His. Every time I pass by a need without notice. Every time my comfort trumps His calling.

Forgive me, Father.

Lord, give me the heart of a Heidi Baker for the broken in this nation. Give me eyes that see and discern their pain. Give me feet that walk toward them. Give me hands that touch them, arms that embrace them with your love.

Birth your righteousness in me, Lord. Bring forth your salvation as a burning torch. Possess me. Heal me. Use me, Lord, to heal this land.

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,

until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.

The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory,

and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,

but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married;

for the Lord delights in you.

Isaiah 62:1-4

Fear of the Dark

/0 Comments/in /by

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”  even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.. Psalm 139:11-12 ESV

Monsters lurk in the dark.

They like the shadows. Deception. Speculation and fear.

Only recently, some of those monsters decided to emerge from the shadows. Their evil in Paris exposed what they seek.

Hatred. Murder. Terror.

They aim to breed fear.

They reflect the heart of the god they serve, “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).

Did you know that’s one of his names, dear one? Deceiver of the whole world.

Yes, beloved. Satan deceives. Everyone. Always.

He’s probably deceiving you. If you’re afraid, it’s working.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7

Look at what Jesus said about the deceiver and his children in John 8:44.

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Satan lies to get what he wants. And his most deceived followers act just like him. He’s a murderer, and they murder. He deceives, and they deceive. They have set their will on carrying out their father’s desires, convinced the one who speaks to them is an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

If only the children of God lived as dedicated to His cause.

But we haven’t set our wills to carry out our Father’s desires. Instead we’ve allowed the deceiver to convince us to stay focused on our own. Instead of uniting in strength against our enemy, we fight one another. And instead of standing on the truth our Father’s Word proclaims, we have allowed the deceiver to fill our hearts with unbelief.

He has convinced us we can do nothing but hide and wait out the darkness. So we sit in our homes and point fingers of blame to justify our sorry state.

Perhaps it’s time for the people of God to open His Word and receive what it says.

Only one thing will prevail against the evil that threatens this earth, dear one. Jesus revealed the answer in Matthew 16:18.

 “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

The deceiver doesn’t want you to know the power you wield, beloved. He’s tricked you into thinking you’re a powerless victim. But God’s Word says you’re anything but powerless.

You are the answer to the darkness.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:1-3

Your Father never deceives, dear one. What He says always proves true.

And His Word tells us that evil will increase. Thick darkness will spread its cloak over the earth to smother all people. But our Father also delivers a glorious promise. The people of God needn’t fear the darkness.

Light has come, beloved. The glory of the Lord has risen. Did you notice where people will see it rising?

Upon you.

You hold the light capable of dispelling the darkness. Jesus gave it to you the moment you put your faith in Him. Now He asks you to believe and fervently join His agenda.

You must become who He is.

Darkness advances as the sons of the evil one more fully reveal their father. Light can only advance as the children of light take on the character of our Father.

Darkness advances as the sons of the evil one more fully reveal their father. We must reveal ours. Click To Tweet

Our Father does not fear the enemy. Our Father rests in truth. Our Father loves.

So must we.

A deceived world is desperate for truth. We must give it to them. Love is the way.

Light is, indeed, greater than the darkness. The One who lives in us is greater than the one who deceives the world.

Let’s show the world who Jesus really is.

The Full Rights of Sons

/1 Comment/in /by

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. Galatians 4:1 ESV

A few weeks ago, our opening scripture took hold of me in my quiet time. I haven’t been able to let go of it. I don’t think Jesus wants me to.

You see, you and I are children of God—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17)— entitled to the full riches of our inheritance upon maturity.

But we have refused to grow up. So we’re living as slaves instead of heirs.

Jesus wants to see us live out the riches of our inheritance. He lovingly demonstrated this to a woman suffering under a disabling spirit.

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. Luke 13:10-13

Take a moment to picture the woman with me. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself (verse 11).

Perhaps the image hits a little close to home. Have you known oppression so heavy it seemed you couldn’t straighten under its weight? I have. And I experienced it as a believer.

I need you to notice something about this woman. She didn’t approach Jesus for her healing. He called her to Him.

I wonder, dear one. Had she so resolved herself to her situation that it didn’t even occur to her that she could find freedom in Christ? After all, she had suffered under the weight of this oppressive spirit for 18 long years. This was simply who she was.

But Jesus saw something else in her, something only He could know. He knew she was a woman of faith.

How can I say that? Consider His words after the synagogue ruler condemned Him for healing her on the Sabbath.

“You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” Luke 13:15-16

What strikes me here is what Jesus called her: a daughter of Abraham.

Perhaps that seems insignificant to you. There’s nothing too surprising about a Jewish woman visiting the synagogue on the Sabbath.

But Jesus never threw that term around loosely. In fact, several times when Jews claimed to be Abraham’s children, He rebuked them (Matthew 3:9, John 8:39).

So what did it mean that Jesus called this woman a daughter of Abraham?

Romans 9:6-8 sheds some light on it for us.

For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

God only counts children of the promise as Abraham’s offspring. And who are the children of the promise?

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:29

When Jesus proclaimed this woman a daughter of Abraham, He declared that she belonged to Him. She was a woman of faith, a believer who chose to sit in the synagogue listening to the teaching of her Lord.

Listen carefully, dear one. Jesus called her a daughter, yet she remained bent in bondage to an oppressive, disabling spirit. What she suffered physically came directly from the kingdom of darkness, yet she could not conceive that she had the potential to live free of it.

So, in His merciful love, Jesus called her over to Him and told her the truth.

“Woman, you are freed from your disability.” Luke 13:12

I can’t help thinking of John 8:32.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus called her to Him and simply told her the truth of her condition. She was free. As she embraced the truth He revealed and believed it, she experienced the very freedom He had declared.

Beloved, Jesus still calls us to Him so that He can tell us the truth. Only most of us don’t approach Him when He calls. We find every excuse not to open His Word. Then we wonder why we don’t experience His power.

Freedom is found in truth, and truth is found in Jesus. It’s time we draw near to the Word and start living as heirs of the promise.