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A GENTLE SPIRIT Jeanne
Stewart, Oklahoma |
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Signs That Follow Having spent
everything she had on doctors, the woman decided that her last hope to live
would come from the death of her self-will and pride. She would not be
deterred by circumstance or discouraged by others again. The One they called the
Healer was passing by on the road near where she lived. Even with the flow of
blood and being considered ceremonially unclean, she would dare go and just touch
His garment as He passed by. Just one touch of this Healer would be enough to
restore health to her body where doctors had failed. Unassuming, she covers
her head with her wrap and steps out into the cloud of dust created by the momentary
passing swarm of seekers following the Healer. Her gaze grabs hold of Him a
short step ahead. Hope of healing arises, dividing the discouraging thoughts.
Her bold faith grows in the reverberating uproar of the crowd. As a result of
pressing arms and tangling legs, she stumbles and hits the ground hard. As
best as possible she moves quickly to protect herself from stomping feet, while
she crawls alongside in the dirt. This was her one last desperate attempt.
Her arm reaches upward. His garment brushes by her hand. She grips the hem for
one split second. All of a sudden she feels power and strength come into her drained
and weakened body. The Healer stops and asks, “Who touched Me? Virtue of healing has left Me.” Recognizing
Signs of Relationship ~ Within our nation’s communities
today, many are as this desperate, dying woman. Many believe there is a God
but have no understanding otherwise; not really knowing the Healer of heart,
soul and body. They view most Christians and churches as social gatherings of
people struggling in their own personal wars of religious rules. As believers,
how will we ever be able to bring these, gone
astray and wounded people into
relationship with the Healer? The religious rules that advance from traditions of man can not deal with the
problems of heart issues that dishearten the distressed masses. Only the
redeeming relationship with the heart Healer, Jesus, truly can. Have we the Church misplaced
the power of Jesus’ words working through us, confirming what we declare as His
miraculous, “…with signs following”?
Have we become of no effect through such traditions
of man with instantaneous programs that no longer commit to living the surrendered
lifestyle set apart from the world’s set of values? Thus we are, “making the word of God of no effect
through (our) tradition which (we) have handed down and many such things (we)
do” (Mark 7:13), by making denominational followers instead of being Christ-like
in the Healer’s redeeming image. The inability of many
within the church today to commit toward spiritual growth reflects the deficiency
of our own individual faith believing power. Our own lack of intimate relationship
with our Lord comes through our prayerlessness for direction in our own lives.
The responsibility of the Great
Commission of the Church today has not changed over the 2000 years since Jesus
Christ spoke these words before He ascended to God’s right hand, “…and these signs will follow those who
believe” (Mark 16:17). Personal believing comes
from knowing, and knowing comes from a close relationship, and the gone astray and wounded people of our cities recognize the signs of those closest
to the real Healer. They may not understand why, but they can distinguish the
genuine blending together of word and temperament from religious clamor. Recognizing
Signs of God’s Presence ~ Consider with me
how we obtain this power of God’s presence with signs that follow. Let us
look deeper into a portion of scripture in Mark chapter 6, beginning at verse
45. The story takes up after Jesus feeds the five thousand with only five
loaves of bread and two fish. Immediately after this miracle, Jesus insists
that His disciples get into the boat and go before Him across the lake to the
next place on their ministry tour, while He sends the crowd of people back to
their homes. This seems to be
an unusual point with regard to the departure that most of us miss. Why did Jesus
want to say goodbye to the people before sending them away, without His disciples? Would not His
followers wonder how Jesus would get to the other side of the lake without a
boat? Nevertheless they obeyed the Christ and went ahead in the boat without
Him. Let us consider that
Jesus yearned for a quiet place of rest alone in prayer with His Father. Depleted
physically from the days of pouring Himself out to meet the healing needs of
others, He required the replenishment of His Father’s intimate presence, unaccompanied
by others. Jesus is God’s pattern for our own prayer life. Our most vital need
is the portion of time we set aside to embrace this deeper relationship with
God as Father, alone. Desiring His presence on us brings recognizable signs of His presence in us that only come from quiet time with
Him. The Holy Spirit’s indwelling makes us a vessel where He lives within our
spirit and is free to accomplish the will of the Father today. For it is the
Lord’s Kingdom and not the religious rules of the traditions of man. Recognizing
Signs of God’s Visitation ~ Verse 47 tells
us about the disciples in the middle of the sea straining at the oars, with the
wind against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night, which is between
3 a.m. and 6 a.m., from the hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus
watched their struggle. So He came to them walking on the sea but would have
passed by them if they had not called out in terror as they thought He was a
ghost. When He climbed into the boat, the wind stopped. They were totally
amazed as dread dissipated in recognizing it was Jesus. Why did these
disciples not recognize that God was with them? Let us reflect
on what happened earlier that day when the disciples wanted to send the crowd
away to find something to eat. Jesus said to His apprentices, “You feed them” but their answer came
back swiftly with an unbelieving attitude, “with what?” All they could perceive was their physical exhaustion
and hunger and the thought of working for months to earn money to feed this
sea of people. The hardness of their hearts came from not trusting their
spiritual training, for they had heard and seen that the Lord was more than
enough. They took up twelve
baskets full of bread fragments and fish, enough to take care of their physical
needs, but they missed receiving the spiritual empowerment for the demands of
the day. They did not understand that signs follow from their desiring the
spiritual above the physical. When Jesus sent the
people away full of His provision and His words of strength, He had met both
the physical and spiritual needs of this hopeless crowd that followed Him to
this deserted place that day. Recognizing
That He Leads … We Follow ~ What does God
expect from us? God wants total surrendered obedience from us so He can flow
through us as we yield to His Holy Spirit of power in us. In our weakness He
becomes all strength, and then we can do all things through Christ who gives us
the strength. He will equip us with everything we need to do the assignment
of the Great Commission. We must trust and believe
that the power at work in believers is that of the same Spirit that raised Christ
from the dead. Our confidence comes during our quiet time of prayer and study
in His Word. “When they saw the
boldness… and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained… they
marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) We must desire more and
more to live in God’s presence on us so that we might be able to touch those
around us each day for the Kingdom of God. A genuine believer is one who
follows truth and has been with our Lord Jesus in that secret place of
prayer. Therefore, these signs confirm the ministry of Christ in our
generation as we become His servants that hear and do only what the Spirit
tells us to do. So as we surrender
everything of ourselves, let us realize that our only hope of living in
victory comes from our death to self-will and pride. Therefore, we will not
be deterred by circumstance or discouraged by lack of time. The One we call
our Lord and Healer is passing by on the road where the gone astray and wounded
people live. This is where the flow of Jesus’ blood changes the impurities and
we dare go and bring His truth with signs that follow. It is on this
road where as many reach out in their desperation to cling to His garment as
He passes by through His church. Just one touch of this Healer will be enough
to restore health to body and soul where the traditions of man have failed. The quiet place of relationship
with the Word becomes our deepest desire. The Lord would say: “From bended knee of confession you change your direction on the
path you are taking. As you arrive at the closing stages of your self-will,
reach up and touch the edge of My garment and surrender. Then begin anew and
cling to Me and My will for your destiny will bring the mantle of My promise
that awaits you to go forth in My Presence of Power and My Strength.” |
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