Yesterday we talked about how the woman with the issue of blood was instantly healed. In my blog, I shared one of the miracles of instantaneous healings that we have seen in our ministry in the past year at Praise Assembly in Columbia, KY. It is interesting that Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote this song for our generation. 'He Touched Me' The song is about Jesus touching someone and changing their life. It is interesting to note that a lot of the time in the Bible it was people touching JESUS that changed their life. The blind man cried out to Jesus, he reached Jesus, then Jesus reached out to him. Many people sit by the wayside today saying, "If God wants me to be healed or healthy, or wise, I'll just wait for him to touch me, and I will be made whole. I'm waiting upon God's will" We have been taught to be afraid to cry out to him, or to aggressively go after God. The blind man didn't sit around and try to figure out if it was God's will to heal him. He cried out, "Son of David have mercy on me." The disciples tried to make him be quiet. Wow. If the disciples tried to sit me down, I think I would have sat down. I don't have the faith that this man had for sure. Instead of being quiet he yelled out all the LOUDER, "Son of David have mercy on me."
We have been taught to be so careful not to pray for a healing if it isn't the will of God, but we do and say things everyday that is against his Word and his will and we think nothing of that. Why are we so careful not to pray anything against his will, when our mouth speaks things against his will everyday? If we were never expected to ask for anything that wasn't his will, then God would never have to tell us "NO" We are God's kids. How many times growing up did you have to tell your kids, "NO" Lots of times. It is Ok to pray for the things you need. God is a good Father. If he don't want you to have these things you are praying for, he will tell you NO like every other father on this planet does. The bible says to come boldly before the throne of grace...
You need to have an aggressive faith in God. Don't sit back and wait for Jesus to touch you. You press in and touch Jesus. Someone is thinking, "Oh, I couldn't be that bold with God. What if he doesn't want me to touch him? What if it isn't his will." Well, we do things everyday that isn't his will, why are we suddenly so concerned about offending his will. It is a religious teaching and doctrine that keeps people passive with their faith. It sounds so Holy and pious. I have heard many people say, "Oh bless God, I wouldn't want to do anything against the will of God." Yet they turn around and gossip, back bite and carry on. It is just a religious mantra, and a false humility.
Zacchaeus wasn't afraid to aggressively go after Jesus. Even though he was a sinner, and a really bad man, he wanted to see Jesus as he passed by. He was short and couldn't see over top of everyone else that wanted to see Jesus. Did he let that stop him? Absolutely NOT. He climbed up in a tree, and got the best view in the house! His actions touched the heart of Jesus. He wouldn't let nothing stop him from getting God's attention.
There was another man that was paralyzed. Did he let the fact that he was unable to walk stop him from going to the meeting where Jesus was teaching. Absolutely not. They put him on a stretcher and carried him to the meeting. But, set back number two. Once they got to the meeting it was already full, and they couldn't get in. Ok, right there, I'm just going to go home, the building is full. Did this stop them from touching Jesus. Did they say, "Well, the house was full, I guess it just wasn't God's will." NO. They climbed up on the roof, tore the roof open, and lowered him down right in front of Jesus. Now that is about as aggressive as faith gets!
Did Jesus call for the ushers to escort them out? Did he fuss at them for the mess and the noise? NO. They didn't care about the building codes, or anything else. They got to Jesus, and he healed him! Is your faith passive or aggressive? I know people who get sick, pray all of three of four times, and if they don't receive healing they just passively sit back and say, "It must not be God's will." We are spiritually lazy and then blame God! These men ran into all kinds of difficulties and set backs. Did they sit back passively and blame God's will? No. They got aggressive and touched Jesus, they didn't wait for Jesus to touch them!
The root word of action is ACT. The book of Acts in the bible tells the history of the church as it was first being formed in Jerusalem and around the world. They were not a passive church with passive Christians, with passive people praying, "if it be thy will..." They were an aggressive church, with aggressive Christians, and aggressive faith, that followed the leadership of the Holy Spirit. If they tried to do something against the will of God the Holy Spirit restrained them. They didn't spend days, hours, months and years trying to find out if they should seek, ask and knock for those things they needed in prayer.
The Bible says we can pray amiss... Praying amiss is about our heart that is amiss... it isn't about missing the will of God. The emphasis here is not to fail to pray because we are unsure of his will. The emphasis is to get our motives right and our hearts pure so that we will be obeying his will. The bible never instructs us to fail to seek God in our time of need because we want to know if it is his will to help us or not. The Bible says to seek God while he may be found call upon him while he is near.
There are whole denomination of Christians that would put you under bondage. They make you feel as if you are not free to ask God for the things you have need of. It sounds so Holy to say, "find out God's will before you pray so you won't pray amiss" God never told you to find out God's will before you pray for the things you have need of...Asking amiss has to do with YOUR heart, not God's will. Asking amiss is when we pray for the things of God for our own selfish pleasure, not because God doesn't will something for us. The whole concept that we must find out God's will on the matter before we ask him to help us is not a biblical concept.
Jesus simply said, Ask, Seek, Knock...he never said to spend days trying to figure out if God wants you to ask, seek and knock.
Yes, we must pray according to God's will, but God shows us his will by answering our prayer. He will say, Yes, or NO, and either way we have our answer to his will. We don't have to spend months, days, and hours trying to find out if it's God's will that we pray for our needs, before we are free to ask . This is just a trick of the enemy to keep us in a passive faith that does not receive from God. There are religious people today that are making our relationship with God way too complex. Jesus made it simple, ask, seek, and knock. Get aggressive with your faith and go after the things you have need of.
