Whenever we speak of God’s consistent willingness to heal because that is God’s heart and his nature, someone always brings up Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7) as an example of God leaving Paul with an illness to keep him humble after receiving amazing revelations. The argument goes that if Paul was afflicted with an illness (a thorn in the flesh) in order to facilitate his humility or his spiritual maturity, then why would God not send illnesses on others or, at least, leave us in that condition in order to mature us spiritually? It’s a fair question that needs to be answered.

First of all, the idiom Paul used – a thorn in the flesh – has equivalents in the Old Testament. Speaking of pagan tribes in Canaan, God told Moses, “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live” (Num.33:35). Speaking to Joshua, God said, “the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you” (Josh. 23:13). After the death of Joshua, an angel of the Lord told the disobedient Israelites, “Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you” (Judg.2:3).

In these texts, the idiom speaks of external forces (men from surrounding tribes) persecuting, afflicting, and harassing God’s people. In Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks about a group of men who had come to Corinth after his departure. These men were masquerading as apostles of Christ and were attempting to undermine his work there. He says that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light so it is no surprise that his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness (2 Cor.11:13-15).

According to Paul these men were attempting to enslave, exploit, and take advantage of the believers at Corinth and to exalt themselves while insulting the church. Paul says sarcastically, “we were too weak for that.” In other words, Paul and his companions did not press their authority or positions as apostles but took a position of weakness as servants. He then lists all the suffering he has experienced at the hands of the Jews and refers to his submission to that suffering as his weakness (2 Cor.11:30) and again refers to his submission and acceptance of persecution and hardship as his weaknesses in 2 Corinthians 12:5.

Paul goes on to speak of extraordinary revelations he had received and of a thorn in the flesh that he had been given (or that was allowed) in order to keep him from becoming conceited or exalted. He went to the Lord three times asking for the “thorn” to be removed but God said that his grace and power were perfected in Paul’s weaknesses. The weaknesses Paul listed in previous parts of the texts were sufferings from persecutions. Nowhere did he mention illnesses.

The idiom used in other parts of the Bible refers to men who were afflicting, persecuting, or harassing God’s people. Paul had just spoken of such a group who served Satan and masqueraded as ministers of righteousness. He also describes the thorn as a messenger of Satan. In the context, it seems that Paul was describing these men and others like them who seemed to follow the apostle wherever he went in an attempt to undermine his preaching of grace and draw new Christians back under the Law of Moses. These Judaizers were absolutely a thorn in Paul’s side wherever he went.

Christians are promised persecution in numerous places in the New Testament but never are they promised sickness. In fact, they are promised deliverance form sickness. James says, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (Ja.5:14-15). He does not qualify this by saying, “Let him call the elders of the church unless God has given him an illness in order to purify his soul.” This promised healing is clearly for everyone. Even if the illness came through sin, James goes on to say, “and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (Ja.5:15). Our good Father, who is “the God who heals his people,” does not rejoice in the illness and suffering of his children any more than a loving, earthly father would. He gave gifts of healing to the church and gave elders in every congregation a healing ministry. Illness is not the Biblical norm for Christians and it is not God’s way of making us holy. I believe that Paul’s thorn was the persecution of those false apostles who followed him from town to town, not an illness that God would not heal. Anyway, these thoughts are for your consideration.

If Paul’s thorn has been a thorn in your flesh when seeking healing, I hope this is helpful. Blessings in Him, Jehovah Rophi, the God who heals his people.

After making a case in my last blog for God’s healing today and a case that it is always God’s heart to heal, the question has to be addressed, “Then, why isn’t everyone healed in response to our prayers?”

Let’s begin by saying that because of our free will, God’s will is not always done on earth. If God’s will were always done, there would be no need to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” For instance, we are told in Paul’s first letter to Timothy that, “God desires that all men should be saved” (1 Tim.2:4), but we know that all men will not be saved. Even though the heart of the Father is salvation for all, he allows us to choose whether we will meet the condition of that salvation – faith in Jesus Christ. Some will choose not to believe and will not be saved. Some will not meet God’s conditions for healing and will not be healed although that is his desire for them.

Secondly, healing is not experienced when a person does not want to be healed. God honors our desires. Our first impulse is to believe that anyone who could be healed would want to be healed. However, that is not always the case. John tells us about a lame man who was brought to the pool of Bethesda each day. “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” (Jn.5:6). There are many whose identity is so tied up in their condition or their illness that to be healed or set free is frightening. Who would they be without the illness, the condition, or the brokenness that has defined their life for years? The care and sympathy they have received from others because of their condition has become their source of comfort and affirmation and their condition gives them a pass on being responsible, productive, or mature. Not every sick person wants to be healed.

A third possible reason for a person not being healed is that he or she has no faith for it when by reason of time and opportunity, he or she should have sufficient faith to be healed. Many believers declare that they believe God heals, but the truth is that those believers simply believe that he can heal…not that he will. A mental conviction that God could heal if he chose to is not at all the same as a firm expectation in a person’s heart that God will heal. It is true that Jesus healed some who had no faith. He healed them on the basis of his faith because they had not had the opportunity to develop their own faith. To others he said, “May it be done to you according to your faith” and in Nazareth Jesus was able to heal only a few because of their unbelief. There comes a time when we should have sufficient faith for healing – not perfect faith, just sufficient faith. If we have no faith, then healing may not come our way.

Fourthly, all the way through scripture, sin is presented as a gateway for illness. A great number of illnesses, physical conditions, and emotional conditions are caused by spirits of infirmity. In the gospels we see demonic spirits as the cause of blindness, deafness, muteness, back trouble, seizures, depression, etc. Unless the demon was cast out, the symptoms remained. If we pray for healing for a person whose illness is caused by a spirit of infirmity, but do not cast out the demon, the symptoms will remain and no healing will occur. The majority of churches who pray for healing for their members every Sunday have no concept of demonic oppression and little expectation for supernatural healing. In that environment, only a few will be healed.

In addition, even if a person is aware of the possibility of a demon as the root cause of an illness and is commanding a spirit to leave, that spirit will not leave if he has a legal right to afflict the person because of unrepented sin or a curse operating in the life of that individual. Before ministering healing to a sick or disabled person, it is best to spend some time in conversation, diagnosing any unrepented sin, including unforgiveness, or a family history suggesting generational curses before praying. If there are any curses to be broken or sins to be repented of, that must happen before he demon is cast our and much healing will occur.

Another possible reason for a person not being healed is that he or she has slipped back under the bondage of law believing that he or she must earn God’s approval in order to be healed rather than totally trusting in his love and grace. When we are depending on ourselves, our efforts, our goodness, or our “meritorious works,” we will not receive healing because we are saved and healed by grace, not by works. If we find ourselves trying to convince God of our worthiness for healing because we have done so much or given so much, then we are trusting in ourselves and not in him. We are also maintaining a view that God is not willing to heal but must be convinced. That mindset will certainly hinder healing.

I also have to remind myself, at times, that healing is not always instantaneous. It often is a process that takes hours, days, or even weeks. Instantaneous healing really falls under the category of miracles, so if we do not see healing immediately it does not mean that God is not healing a person or ourselves in response to our prayers or declarations.

Having said all these things, it may seem that there are so many conditions for healing that no one can be healed. But actually, the conditions for healing are basic and the same as those for salvation – believe, repent, trust in the grace of God that comes to us through Jesus, and ask. When a demon is involved, send him packing. If healing has not come, ask the Father to show you what is in the way of that healing and then deal with it through Jesus – always remembering that it is the heart of God to heal. May you be richly blessed in Jesus today.

For those of us who desire divine healing or who are pursuing a spiritual gift of healing for the sake of others, it is important that we are convinced of God’s constant goodness and his constant willingness to heal. Anything less, produces doubt in our prayers for healing.

Whenever a discussion immerges regarding divine healing, four questions always seem to arise: (1) Does God still heal today? (2) Why does he heal? (3) Is God always willing to heal or just on rare occasions? (4) If God heals today and is always willing, then why are many not healed? Let me share some thoughts on the first three questions and them some thoughts on number four in my next blog.

In Psalm 103, David declared, “Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love an compassion” (Ps.103:2-4). Throughout the Bible, the forgiveness of sins and the healing of disease are linked together and tied to God’s love and compassion. Let me make an extreme statement based David’s inspired declaration. If God does not heal all of our diseases then he does not forgive all of our sins because they are both promised here and are linked together. If healing is for only a few then forgiveness is for only a few but God desires that all men should be saved.

That statement does not mean that if you have asked for healing and have not received it that your sins are not forgiven. What it does mean is that as much as God is willing to forgive our sins, he is also willing to heal our diseases. It also means that if our sin problem has been removed or dealt with, then we should have open access to the healing power of heaven. One of the critical steps in receiving healing or ministering healing is the recognition that God is not only able to heal those who ask, but is always very willing. Remember, one of the names of God is Jehovah Rophi, the God who heals his people. His names reflect his nature and his nature reveals his heart. It is his nature to heal because life flows out of God and life heals. In the sane way that God cannot deny his holiness or his goodness, because that is his very nature, he cannot turn off his willingness to heal because that is his very nature.

In the gospel of Luke, we see Jesus healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath. Of course, the Jewish rulers rebuked Jesus for healing on the Sabbath since, in their minds, healing constituted work and no work was to be done on the seventh day. In reply to the rebuke, Jesus answered, “Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her” (Lk.13:16)? Notice that Jesus considered her condition a work of Satan and John tells us that the very reason Jesus came into the world was to destroy the works of Satan (1 Jn.3:8).

Jesus also used the word “should” which carries with it the implication that her healing was a moral imperative or an obligation. It was the right thing to do. It was, in fact, part of God’s covenant with Israel (Ex.15:26). In Isaiah 61:1-3, we are told that Jesus came to set captives free and, in this verse, he likened her illness or her condition to bondage. Healing her set her free.

Jesus also felt compelled to heal this woman because of his love and compassion for her. She was a child of God and a daughter of Abraham living under the Old Covenant. The fact that Jesus never turned anyone down who came to him for healing suggests the he felt just as compelled to heal others as he did that woman. Jesus always did the Father’s will and always represented his Father perfectly. When we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father. It is the nature of God to heal; he is compelled to do so out of his goodness, love and compassion; he is also compelled when covenant promises are involved; and his mission through Jesus is to destroy the works of the devil including illness and bondage.

Okay, Jesus healed then, but does he heal now? Of course he does because it is still his nature, it is still the right or moral thing to do, and he still has the unchanging love and compassion for us that he did for her. We too are children of Abraham if we have the faith of Abraham (Gal.3:7) and on top of that, we too are covenant children living under an even better covenant than that woman did.

David’s words out of Psalm 103 really come to mind in the gospel of Matthew. In this account, as a prelude to healing, he declared the man’s sins to be forgiven. The religious leaders around Jesus, thought such words were blasphemy and so Jesus responded, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”      And the man got up and went home^” (Mt.9:5-7).  That moment brought David’s words to life. Disease has come into the world because of sin. When sin is forgiven or dealt with, disease no longer has a legal claim on us. Healing then becomes our inheritance in Jesus.

The Lord’s Supper represents our covenant with the Father through Jesus and has two elements – the bread and the cup. The cup, of course, represents the blood of Christ that was shed for us. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Lk.22:20). Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb.9:22). So the forgiveness of our sins is in the blood and is represented by the cup. But what about the bread? Jesus said that the bread was his body broken for us. Peter echoed that same truth when he said, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (2 Pt.2:24). The wounds are the wounds of his broken body. Those wounds purchased healing for us. Even the Lord’s supper, through the cup and the bread, declares that he forgives all of our sins and heals all of our diseases.

Just as preaching the gospel and forgiving sins marked the ministry of Jesus, so did healing. When Jesus sent out the twelve and the seventy-two to preach the gospel, he also commanded them to heal. In addition, he has commanded us to do what he did and has given the church gifts of healing. Healing is a confirmation that Jesus has taken away our sins – he forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases. Because Jesus died for the sins of the world, healing in his name can even come to unbelievers.

As we pursue healing or a gift of healing, we need to have every confidence that our prayers for healing are pleasing to the Father and that he is willing to answer our prayers. I believe that any serious study of healing in the Bible will lead you to the conclusion that God is willing to heal his people and even desires to do so. Because of that, we can pray for healing with the prayer of faith and have confidence and God will raise up the sick person (Ja.5:15). Healing is part of our inheritance in Jesus!

The next question, then, is always, “So why isn’t everyone healed?” I will share some thoughts on that in my next blog. Blessings today and health in the Lord.

I was reflecting on the book of Genesis. God highlighted his design and intent for men and women. In the beginning God created them male and female which included not just a unique physical design but also unique hormones, brain chemistry, and a soul. When Adam and Eve sinned and a curse was released because of their actions, God pointed out the negative consequences of what they had done.

He told Adam that he would have to put in painful toil and fight thorns and thistles to provide for his family and Eve would have her pain increased in childbearing. God did not say that childbearing was the curse for Eve or that working to provide for his family would be Adam’s share of things gone bad. The difference was that those designed endeavors would now be tempered with pain. It was always God’s primary design for men to work, to provide, and to master the environment. It was always God’s design for women to not only bear children but to raise them with a nurturing temperament. That does not mean that women should never venture out into careers, be the CEO of a giant corporation, be Olympic athletes, or aspire to be president. What is does mean is that there is a masculine soul and a feminine soul and we should be careful how we handle those as we go our ways.

I just want to reflect on the masculine soul today. In the last 60 years or so, elements of our culture have worked hard to erase or, at least, deny those differences. They have pushed hard for same-sex marriages and unisex bathrooms. In essence, they have worked hard to deny God’s design and to change it into something God never intended. To do so will create its own consequences. I believe that the biggest disaster related to this “transforming cultural agenda” is the demise of the masculine soul. Men were made to work, to provide for their families, to protect their families, and to master or dominate their environment. The masculine soul thrives when confronted with hardship and risk and the challenge of overcoming that hardship – a display of heroism if you will. God made man that way. That is why research bears out that a man needs respect and admiration even more than love.

In our current culture, we now have elements that are trying to eradicate all risk, challenge, and hardship from the lives of young men. Participation trophies eliminate the risk of losing and the need to strive harder. Parents allow young adult men to stay at home and not work or face the realities of life in a hard world rather than pushing them out of the nest at eighteen and telling them to get a job or go hungry (almost sounds abusive doesn’t it?). Parents no longer allow schools to discipline their rude and rebellious children so that young men don’t have the face the consequences of their actions and many have declared homework to be too much for children so young men don’t even have the opportunity to struggle and triumph over algebraic fractions.

All of this effort to make life painless, toil-less, and disappointment free has created an entitlement generation in which the masculine soul shrivels and character has no soil in which to develop. The masculine need to struggle and overcome has been taken away except for a few. Because of a male drive to dominate and overcome his environment, when legitimate and heroic challenges are taken away, that drive to dominate will turn elsewhere – bullying, for instance, and sexual domination of women that is more and more frequently expressed in rape. An insecure and controlling arrogance will replace the humble confidence of a man who has learned who he is through challenges, wins, and losses.

When the masculine soul faces hardship and overcomes, self-esteem is born. When the masculine soul learns to master his environment by learning skills that not everyone possesses, self-respect is born. When hours are put into homework, practice, or just hard labor and success comes from those efforts, then a boy begins to feel like a man. God’s intent was that the masculine soul would be shaped by challenges and hardship. He has placed the desire to be heroic in every young man and the cultural element that wants to remove all risk, all competition, and all hardship, and all possibility of failure removes that potential.

I remember reading about a high school and senior career day. On that day, numerous businesses and even Armed Forces representatives spoke to graduating seniors about possible career paths for their future. The Armed Forces representatives were placed at the end of the day and, of course, began to run late. The Army, Navy, Coast Guard,  and Air Force took their time to tell everyone about the opportunities, the travel, the good food, and the educational opportunities the graduates would receive if they enlisted. When his turn came, the Marine rep had only a two minutes to make his presentation. He walked to the podium, looked slowly around the audience and said, “Out of this entire graduating class, probably only four or five of you have what it takes to be a Marine. If you think you are one of those, come to my table after you are dismissed. After dismissal, the crowd at his table was three times larger than any other table.

The Marine rep had appealed to that part of every heart that desires to be exceptional and heroic. That is especially true for young men. We need to give them the opportunities rather than saving them from those opportunities. God designed the masculine soul for those things and we best not tinker with God’s design. If you are raising a boy give him responsibilities, expect him to work hard, let him risk, let him fail, let him win with grace, let him break an arm, let him eat dirt, let him get stung by ants, and let him find his unique design by overcoming challenges. Just some food for thought for those in care of masculine souls.

From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him. Proverbs 12:14

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Proverbs 13:4

The two passages above from the Book of Proverbs should be a point of reflection for every believer. They both relate to blessings and prosperity in the life of an individual – especially an individual in a covenant relationship with God. I have often spoken of the power of our words in this blog and the first scripture above relates directly to that. Most of us are convinced of the value of hard work in producing financial blessings and provision. There are numerous proverbs that attest to that truth and the truth that laziness leads to poverty. For the most part, if you work hard you will prosper and enjoy the fruit of your labors. But the above proverb also speaks about the fruit of our lips.

The idea that our spoken words produce fruit is an important concept in a world where talk is cheap and abundant and people are incredibly loose with their lips. And yet, scripture attests to the fact that our words produce consequences. As the Word of God is compared to seed that grows, our own words possess that dynamic as well. What we speak bears fruit in both the natural and spiritual realms.

In the natural, our words prompt either positive or negative responses from those around us. They can engender trust and draw people to us or push people away. Our words also establish ways of thinking that get physically imprinted on our brains (neural pathways) so that we tend to see life through the mindset we have established. If it is a positive, faith-filled mindset then we are in a good place. If it is a doubt-filled, bitter, and pessimistic outlook on life then I will simply not see the blessings of God that come my way. Our words have great power in establishing those neural pathways that become our filters for life.

Thoughts will come to us from a number of sources – our own subconscious, the world that is trying to seduce us, the Holy Spirit or even the devil. Each of these sources introduces thoughts into our minds. When we have a thought and express it in words, we come into agreement with that thought. Whatever we come into agreement with, we empower. Whatever we empower, wields great influence in our lives. Even in the natural world, our words produce fruit that we will have to live with.

But beyond the natural, our words produce fruit in the spiritual realm. Because we have authority, our words activate the spiritual realm to fulfill the words that we speak. When our thoughts and words focus on our brokenness, we inadvertently come into agreement with Satan and he empowers those words to produce even more emotional brokenness within us. Our words are seeds that produce fruit after their own kind.

When a couple begins to throw around words about divorce and the failure of their marriage, they open the door for the enemy to come in and produce the fruit of those words. On the contrary, when we speak life over our marriage, faith over our children, provision over our finances, health over our bodies, and so forth, then those words bring us into agreement with the Father’s promises and that fruit begins to be borne in our lives.

The second proverb quoted above is also interesting. It relates diligence to the richness, not of a bank account, but of a man’s soul. Diligence is constant, thorough work. The constant, thorough work that brings richness to a soul is time in the word, prayer, obedience, and a constant conversation that agrees with the thoughts and promises of God. The fruit of conversation that is seasoned with faith and the truth of God’s word is a rich soul that then produces increased faith, peace, and health for every believer.

John offers an interesting prayer in his third letter that relates to this principle as well. “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (3 Jn.2). John tells us that our provision (finances and relationships) and health are directly related to the condition of our souls. A healthy or rich soul depends on diligence in feeding our spirit and in speaking life giving words over others and ourselves – words that agree with heaven, not with this world or with hell. As our soul is enriched and prospers then even our health, relationships, and provision will increase as well. God has established a direct link between our richness of soul and our prosperity and health.

When we are in alignment with the Father, we choose and speak words that agree with his truth and promises and those words bear fruit in our souls, which, in turn, determines our words which the bear more fruit. It is a spiritual cycle represented in nature – the seed produces the plant which produces the fruit which produces more seed which produces more plants, more fruit, more seeds, etc.

As an external manifestation of the condition of our soul, we will experience health, peace, loving relationships, financial provision, favor with men, and so forth because words that pour forth from a healthy soul will engage heaven in producing those things in our lives.   Be vigilant with your words – those you speak over others and yourself – because every word is a seed that has the potential to bear sweet, nourishing fruit or rotten, poisonous fruit in our lives. May you prosper today even as your soul prospers. Blessings in Him.

Why does God reveal himself through descriptive names such as Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, or Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals, or I Am, the eternal one? The Holy Spirit has revealed God in dozens of names throughout scripture. Jesus does essentially the same thing when he says, “I am the good shepherd; I am the resurrection and the life; or I am the Alpha and the Omega;” and so on. God and Jesus give us these descriptors because they reveal the very nature of God and Christ. In dozens of ways, they tell us who they are and who they will always be for us. They describe the nature of God because he cannot be any other way. God is not describing a behavior that he might change over time. He is describing who he is and that can never change. That is why the names of God and Christ are so important.

If we know who God is and know who he is always willing to be for us, we can be confident in any circumstance that life hands us. A familiar passage of scripture opens this door a little wider for us. It is the time when Jacob has a dream that includes angels climbing a ladder between heaven and earth with God standing at the top. In the dream, God speaks to Jacob and says, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you” (Gen.28:15).

The word “keep” in the passage is such a little word that we tend to read right over it. But it is a big word in scripture. It is a covenant word from a covenant God that means to provide for, protect, guard, stand up for, defend, and so forth. It is a word that carries the promise of a faithful covenant in which one person will always be there for the other – no matter what the need is. That was God’s promise to Jacob if Jacob would make Jehovah his God. In Numbers 6, the priestly prayer that God commands Aaron and his descendants to speak over the nation of Israel contains the phrase, “The Lord bless you and keep you.” There is that word again.

David understood the power of the term and had experienced the “keeping” of the Lord on many occasions. He declared, “The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in. From this time forth and forever” (Ps.121:5-8).

In John 17, Jesus prays what is often called his priestly prayer as he asks the Father to watch over those who have been given to him as his departure from this world is near. He prays, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name…While I was with them I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me…my prayer is not that you take them our of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (Jn.17:11-12,15). The word translated protect carries the idea of keep. As God kept Jacob, as he kept David, and as Jesus kept his disciples – he prayed for the Father to keep each of us. God will in no way ignore the prayer of his Only Begotten. Because of that, God is your keeper.

As most of us already know, a person’s identity shapes the life of that individual in powerful ways – for good or for bad. What we believe about ourselves either releases us to walk through life in confidence or shackles us with a sense of impending failure. What we believe about ourselves either makes us secure in ourselves and in our relationships or insecure in ourselves and our relationships. Our identity or self-image allows us to anticipate being loved and accepted by others or keeps us from believing that others can ever love us – including God himself.

We could go on, but most of us are well schooled in the ramifications of self-image. Sense the 1960’s the world of psychology, counseling, and education has emphasized the issue. However, the world has failed in its efforts to create positive identities in children through participation trophies and schools without failure. They have created children who have not discovered who they are through struggles and they have not attached the values of hard work and achievement to the idea that each child is “special.” This model of making sure children never lose at anything, fail at anything, or miss out on anything has created a generation of spoiled children incapable of being productive, resilient adults who are eventually forced to live in the real world.

In one sense it is true that every person is special and certainly valuable. Every individual on the planet is made in the image of God and has been made for a unique purpose with unique gifts and temperament.  However, the idea that we get rewarded just because we show up or just because our name was on the roster (even if we didn’t show up), violates God’s law of sowing and reaping – you get out of something what you put into it.

That principle is one of God’s great inventions. It is a principle that operates in both the natural and the spiritual realm. It teaches us the value of good decisions, the pain of bad decisions, excellence in what we do, and the destructive nature of sin and laziness. Without this principle we are like individuals with severe neuropathy who have no feeling in their feet. Without feeling, those men and women can’t enjoy the pleasures of hot water or soft clover nor can they feel a piece of glass or a thorn pierce their foot. Without the pain, they won’t know that injury has occurred and that treatment is needed. Infection may set in and a minor injury can become a major health crisis. Bad decisions that produce hurtful consequences send a message of pain to the brain and we have the potential to learn to avoid a bad decision the next time – maybe even a soul-threatening decision.

The positive self-image model currently exercised in America is based on performance rather than on who a person is. The assumption that losing a game or receiving a failing grade will destroy someone’s self-esteem is simply wrong. Self-esteem comes from the discovery that who I am and my value is not based on performance (or the illusion of performance), but on being a child of God and the character that identity instills in me. We must lose in order to discover that we don’t always have to win in order to be loved and valued. We have to suffer hardship to become resilient in a world that won’t treat us as an entitled person unless it is to make us dependent on the one giving the awards. We have to learn to work hard and excel because in the real world we won’t receive a raise or a promotion just for showing up at the office. We have to learn that our performance does not establish our value, although our actions will determine other outcomes in our lives.

In the kingdom of heaven, identity is what keeps us on track. It is not an identity based on behavior or performance but on who we are in Christ. For years, the church has tried to shape and grade its people through the grid of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. That is performance-based identity and leaves the impression that God also accepts us or rejects us on the basis of our behaviors. But the message of grace is just the opposite. We are loved, accepted, and valued because of what Christ has done, not what we have done. Our value is established by whose we are not by what we can do.

In the kingdom, my identity dictates my behaviors rather than my behaviors dictating my identity. When I have a clear identity, I live and behave a certain way because of who I am and who my father is. Life is simply about being a follower of Jesus and a child of God and living up to that I am rather than trying to succeed or avoid failure in order to have value.

My self-talk is very important in this arena. Instead of talking to myself about my behaviors, I need to talk to myself about who I am in Christ. Beating myself up for sinful behaviors does not change me at the core. In fact, it usually undermines my identity. Scripture says that Christ became sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God. How can I become the righteousness of God if I constantly define myself by my sins? Taking on a new identity changes me at the core and my behaviors follow.

That’s why it is so important to divorce ourselves from the idea that our worth and value are based on our performance. Your special standing with God did not come as an entitlement to keep you from feeling bad about yourself. It was earned by Jesus for you at a great cost to him. We work hard, then, and strive for excellence as Christians, not to be loved, but because we are loved and want to be like the one who loves us.

An interesting study was done about dieters several years ago. The research showed that those wanting to stay on a diet did better or worse according to their language. A person who would say, “I can’t eat chocolate” did not fare as well as the person who said, “I don’t eat chocolate.” The first group was focused on avoiding a behavior. The second group made not eating chocolate part of his or her identity. In your struggle to overcome sin, a greater focus on who you are in Christ will produce much better outcomes in the long run than focusing on sin. That is true when it comes to helping our children or other adults become the person God wants them to be as well. Food for thought today.

Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”    The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Numbers 21:4-7

There are numerous occasions in the Old Testament when the people of God began to grumble and complain about their circumstances. In this circumstance, they complained about an apparent lack of food (or a variety of food) and a lack of water. They complained bitterly about the “miserable food” they had. The miserable food was, of course, the manna that God provided every morning. In response to their constant complaints, God released a plague of fiery snakes into the camp of the Israelites. Some died from the painful bites.

The New Testament writers also have some things to say about grumbling and complaining:

We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. 1 Cor. 10:9-10

Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! James 5:9

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. Philippians 2:14-15

So…why is grumbling and complaining such a serious matter for God’s people? Ultimately, our grumbling and complaining declares that God’s work and provision in our lives is deficient, insufficient and unfair. It is an indictment against the character and the love of God for his people.

After 400 years of bitter slavery in Egypt, God led his people out of Pharaoh’s furnace with an unprecedented reign of terror in the form of ten plagues from which Israel was exempt – at least for most of them. God then capped that off with the Red Sea crossing and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army. Not only that, but when the Hebrew slaves left Egypt they left with gold, silver, and jewels given to them by the Egyptians themselves along with herds of sheep and cattle. God then fed 1.5 million people in the desert every day with manna that formed around them each morning and miraculously provided water when it was necessary. But that wasn’t enough. The Hebrews were unsatisfied with the miserable food God was providing.

Concerning that manna the Hebrews collected each morning, the psalmist declared, “Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat” (Ps.78:23-35).

The miserable daily provision of God each day was described by the Holy Spirit as the grain of heaven and the bread of angels. Jesus would later draw an analogy between himself and the manna as he called himself the “bread of heaven.” Apparently, the manna had an amazing, if not miraculous, ability to sustain life and health in a barren desert. It was more than sufficient for their needs and was provided daily by a faithful God. For the Hebrews, however, it wasn’t sufficient. It did not provide the variety they desired. It could not be stored up so it kept them dependent on God when they apparently desired self-sufficiency. The water complaint points to the same issue. They wanted a ready and infinite supply of water rather than having to trust Gold for miraculous provision each day. When they grumbled and complained, they weren’t speaking against their circumstances, but rather against the character of God himself.

The New Testament writers offered the same observations and conclude that our complaining is also an indictment of God’s love, his care, or his fairness. We deserve more. God hasn’t provided enough or the right kinds of things. His care is inadequate. That was the accusation of Satan in the Garden of Eden when he suggested to Adam and Eve that God was holding out and that there was more they needed for life and happiness than God was giving. Grumbling echoes Satan’s accusations against God that he is unfair and uncaring. When we complain and grumble we come into agreement with
Satan and empower him. Then the snakes – the demons – show up in our own lives and when they do they bite. Complaining and grumbling gives off an aroma in the spiritual realm that draws the enemy like flies to rotting meat.

So what is the antidote? After all, aren’t we all human and prone to complaints? Yes, we are but we are also prone to other sins as well. Grumbling and complaining is sin. Therefore, we begin with repentance and then move to thanksgiving based on the belief that God is always with us and is meeting our needs in the way that suits our present condition best.

Graham Cooke makes this observation. “Every obstacle, every problem, every attack, is allowed and designed to teach you to become more like Jesus. That’s why every problem comes with a provision attached to it. As Christians, we must stand in the midst of the problem, knowing God’s promise, and expect a provision. All things work together for good in the economy of God” (Graham Cooke, Crafted Prayer, Brilliant Book House, p. 35-36).

Because God is in the midst of every situation – even those we make for ourselves – and is working all things to our good, we can give thanks in every situation. Thanksgiving closes the door to the enemy. It allows us to see the hand of God in our lives and to hear his voice. It strengthens us and reminds us that he who is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Thanksgiving for what God has done and for what he is about to do is the language of heaven. Grumbling and complaining is the language of hell.

So…if you find yourself prone to complain or recognize that you have been in a season of grumbling, repent and discipline yourself to thanksgiving and praise. It will make all the difference.

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Exodus 33:18-19

In the book of Exodus, a poignant moment between Moses and the God of Israel is recorded. Moses, in a very bold moment, asks the Lord to see his glory. The implication is that Moses was asking to see the face of God. The Lord responded by agreeing to show Moses his goodness. In one sense, the text tells us that God’s response was for Moses’ protection. God tells him that no mortal can see the face of God and live. And yet, I believe seeing the goodness of God is even more revealing than seeing his face.

Seeing the goodness of God first is instructive for us. This passage in Exodus reveals that the goodness of God is his glory. For us to truly know God or understand God we must see his goodness first and then understand everything else in that context. God mentions two aspects of his goodness right away with Moses – mercy and compassion. Those both flow out of his basic nature of love. John tells us that God is love. His goodness is the constant expression of that love. When you love someone you always do good to that person.

If we were to see God’s holiness first, we might understand all of God’s actions in terms of holiness and his rejection of sin. Every act of God then would seem like the actions of a harsh judge or an angry God. Most people filter the activity of God in the Old Testament through his holiness only and see his judgments as expressions of that. Holiness is undoubtedly a major characteristic of God, but if all we see is his holiness then all we will see is judgment. He will be a God easy to fear but not easy to love.

If we see the goodness of God first, then we will understand his judgments in the context of discipline as a loving Father disciplines his children or in the context of his judgment being the last thing he wanted to do.   Man’s persistent and unrepentant sin sometimes gives him no choice but it is never his first thought or his heart for us. In our personal relationship with the Father, we need to focus on his love and goodness and give thanks for that before we look at anything else. His goodness and love assure us that he is for us, not against us. They assure us that he always wants what’s best for us and is always working on our behalf. They assure us that we are welcome into his presence and that he is eager to answer prayers that will bless us and bring about good because he is good.

Many believers have much to overcome in this arena…especially if they were raised in a “hell fire and brimstone” church that preached the judgments of God and the fury of hell every week as a motivation for righteous living. One of the most famous sermons in American history was preached by Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening (1700’s) and was entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” That was not a podcast you wanted to listen to just before going to sleep. It pictured all of us suspended above the fires of hell by a thin thread and suggested that God was just waiting to severe the line with his celestial scissors.

If you grew up with that view of God, then a warm, loving relationship with the Father is a monumental task. Everything that goes wrong in our lives will probably be understood as an expression of God’s anger toward us and we will see him as our adversary rather than our loving Savior. Jesus will seem like the antithesis of the Father and the statement of Jesus that if we have seen him we have seen the Father will simply be confusing. Moses was shown the goodness of God first. That is why he was able to stand before God and plead for mercy on Israel’s behalf on several occasions. He was able to plead for mercy because he knew God was merciful and that in heaven, mercy triumphs over judgment. Moses even knew that Jehovah was searching for someone to ask for that expression of who he is.

This perspective is critical. When a loved one is diagnosed with stage-four cancer, our first thought as believers is to try to make sense of what has happened. If the goodness of God is not our primary filter for the circumstance, then we will assume that either God has visited the cancer on us because he is angry about some sin or our lack of faith or that he is indifferent about our suffering because holiness is the only issue. In that moment with that perspective, we will have little hope and will either wait out the cancer with resignation or try to buy God off with some “righteous works” we can do.

If the goodness of God is our filter, we can assume that the cancer is not God’s will and begin to press in for healing with hope. Even if sin has opened the door for cancer or the activity of the enemy, we can know that repentance and forgiveness will shut that door and open the door for the goodness of God to still be the primary color of our lives.

I have seen believers face death or the death of a loved one with differing sets of glasses. Those who saw God primarily through the lenses of judgment, had no faith for healing and left the cemetery with a since of condemnation and bitterness. Those who looked at circumstances through the lenses of God’s goodness were able to pray with faith for healing and even if healing didn’t come they were able to see the love and compassion of God at the gravesite. They left closer to the Father than when they arrived knowing that God’s goodness would see them through the grief.

What do you see first when you look at God? The perspective is critical because it defines everything else. A God of goodness offered himself through his Son as a loving sacrifice for lost people. A God whose primary trait is judgment simply poured out his wrath on a Son who seemed more abused than loved. The way we see God first, will determine our view of everything, will totally affect our prayer life, and will totally define our faith. Spend time thanking God for his goodness, meditating on his goodness, and declaring his goodness over every circumstance of your life. It makes all the difference. Blessings today… because if his goodness.

When I came to you brothers…My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 1 Corinthians 2:1, 4-5

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 1 Corinthians 1:4-7

When Paul arrived at Corinth, he arrived feeling defeated. He had just come from Athens where he had gathered with the cream of the Greek philosophers and had offered his best arguments on behalf of Christ. Paul was a brilliant man who had studied at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel and had undoubtedly memorized most of the Old Testament and studied its theology thoroughly along with a critique of Greek intellectualism. Now he was presenting sound, intellectual arguments for Christ. For the most part, the philosophers of Athens thought the beliefs he presented were strange and foolish. To his dismay, only a few responded. By the time Paul arrived at Corinth – a center of commerce and pagan religion – he had reconsidered his strategy.

You will notice that he no longer wanted the faith of believers to rest on the wisdom of men, but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit. There is an old saying that goes, “A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.” If my faith is based on information only, then more information or contrary information can turn my thinking, introduce doubt, and undermine my faith. That is what happens to many Christian college students who have grown up being taught the basic truths of the faith without any significant experience with Jesus. When they arrive in a university classroom with a professor who throws out well-articulated arguments for atheism and quotes numerous “unverified facts” in contradiction to the Bible, these students become victims of men’s wisdom – their own and the professor’s.

In any number of American churches, the underlying theology of their leadership is that spiritual experiences cannot be trusted. Spiritual experiences, they say, open the door to demonic deception. Therefore, an intellectual approach to faith is best. However, the New Testament record seems to speak against that approach.

Imagine, any first century Christian trying to convert Saul of Tarsus with “better arguments” from the Torah. If that had been the best approach to Saul’s conversion, God would have sent a man like Apollos, a brilliant believer from Alexandria who was a powerful teacher of biblical truth. God, however, had something else in mind. He arranged an experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus, three days of blindness, and a moment of healing at the hands of a believer whom Paul would have arrested 72 hours earlier. An experience, rather than arguments brought Saul of Tarsus into the fold.

Then there was Peter. If you read all the gospel accounts of Jesus calling the twelve, you will sense that Peter had heard Jesus preach on several occasions. In fact, in Luke 5, Jesus had just preached a sermon from Peter’s boat when he coaxed Peter to put out into deeper water and let down his nets after a long night of fruitless fishing. When the nets were filled to the breaking point with fish, Peter fell on his knees and proclaimed, “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.” After that, Jesus told Peter he would teach him to catch men and Peter left all that he had to follow Jesus. An experience with Jesus was needed, even after the sermon, to get Peter to fully surrender his life to Jesus. Later, it took a rooftop vision and witnessing the Holy Spirit falling on the household of Cornelius (Acts 10) for Peter to be convinced that Gentiles had been accepted into the kingdom.

Mary Magdalene was one of the faithful followers of Jesus in his early ministry. We are told that Jesus cast seven demons out of her. I am persuaded that the experience of deliverance and the ensuing freedom she felt was what compelled her to follow Jesus. We could go on and on. I’m not saying that preaching and teaching are not important. They are essential. Both provide the framework for understanding God and understanding our experiences with God. Experiences, however, also help us to understand the scriptures in a deeper way Experience is what solidifies what has been learned, so that man’s arguments cannot shake the faith of those who follow Jesus. There are two primary words for knowledge or for knowing in Greek. One means to have information about or to know about something or someone. The other means to have experiential knowledge of something or someone. The one used most often regarding our knowledge of the Father denotes experiential knowledge.

Notice what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. He said that his preaching or testimony about Christ had been confirmed in them so that they lacked no spiritual gifts. The implication is that the spiritual gifts experienced by the church at Corinth had confirmed who Jesus was for them and had confirmed the presence of God’s Spirit in them.

It’s one thing to be told that the Spirit of Christ now lives in you because you have believed in Jesus. It’s another thing to begin to operate in healing, deliverance, prophecy, words of knowledge, teaching, encouragement, speaking in tongues, etc.  The experience of doing something that you know you could not do without the Spirit of God working in you, confirms your faith like nothing else. It also confirms the faith of those to whom you minister. Paul was very clear that spiritual gifts are given to build up the body of Christ and he urged those at Corinth to eagerly desire those gifts.

Churches that distrust the exercise of spiritual gifts deny their people many experiences that would build faith and intimacy with Jesus. When believers are not hungry for spiritual gifts they deny the body of Christ the strength and life that their gifts would lend to the church. A great number of churches today would not miss a beat in their ministries and worship if the Holy Spirit withdrew tomorrow because they operate in their own gifts, strength, and talents rather than in the gifts of the Spirit.

Of course, many churches will affirm that they believe in spiritual gifts, but they actually believe in only a partial inventory of the gifts. Mercy, encouragement, hospitality, administration, creative gifts and so forth all seem safe enough and carry little risk in their exercise. Those gifts are welcome and have little spiritual aura around them. Healing, prophecy, deliverance, words of knowledge, miracles, and tongues are not so safe and are usually rejected as gifts that “no longer operate” and, yet, those are the very gifts that demonstrate the presence of the Spirit in the most indisputable ways.

I served in churches for many years that limited the current ministry of the Holy Spirit and I have served the last 13 years in churches that pursue and value every gift. Where the gifts operate life happens more abundantly, extreme life change is the norm rather than the exception, and faith grows with every miracle. Paul understood the principle and he would want us to understand that principle as well. “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts…” (1 Cor.14:1).