TODAY’S DEVOTION (SUNDAY 26TH FEBRUARY 2023)
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
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 16:15-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 57th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS!
It is the first day of the week, and glory to God we are all starting it in fellowship in our different Churches in God’s manifest presence.
He has kept us, He has watched over us, He has fought our battles, He has been faithful in not leading us into Temptation, but delivering us from all evil. He has been faithful in covering us from the storms of life, and where we find ourselves caught in the high seas of the consequences of our decisions, and cry for Help, He comes to rescue.
We pray that this week will be a wonderful week and the LORD will perfect that which concerns us in Jesus precious name. Amen
Today is the 26th day of our 28-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit, on supernatural living. With just two days to go, there is still so much we will not be able to touch. But as promised yesterday, we will be looking at how to pray for the sick, especially, without using any instrument of the dark supernatural that many Christians use today.
To start with, understand that praying for the sick is like a command to obey, a directive to follow, and an instruction from our LORD to be honored by us. For instance, in sending the disciples out for preaching, shortly before His death on the Cross, Jesus said to them;
“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:8 NKJV
This again, reminds us that the supernatural of God was not given to us to be commercialized, we are not to ask people to sow any seed for healing or deliverance, buy some oils, water, prayer clothes, or get their feet washed. Jesus, the one in charge of the supernatural of God, says “freely receive, freely give.”
He made it clear that we are to pray for the sick freely and not put a cost on the prayer, preaching, or teaching, that will heal their sicknesses, either physical sicknesses, emotional sicknesses or spiritual sicknesses. Which is the reason why God placed a curse on those who do so.
He said through Jeremiah;
“Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD deceitfully, And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.” Jeremiah 48:10 NKJV
The sword here, in the eyes of the new testament that we are in, is the word of the LORD, if you disobey it, you have kept it from blood. Blood signifies life. Disobeying the word prevents it from giving life to you or those you may be teaching, preaching, or standing on the word to pray for. That is why many do not dispense power through prayer. They just have to use the gadgets of the dark supernatural.
You cannot be walking in rebellion and disobedience and dispense power in prayer. So, God placed a curse on all who commercialize His supernatural, and also made it impossible for it to be commercialized.
So, if you want to engage the supernatural of God to heal the sick, you must place no cost on it on those who need it in their lives to be healed of their diseases. You must not sell any so-called miracle gadgets to them; oil, water, and etc. or use same in praying for them, because we are no longer in the days of shadows but in the days of substance.
Prophecies has it that in these days of substance, we will dispense so much power from God that our breath, words, hands, and shadows will heal the sick again like it was in the days of our fathers.
If you look at the days of our fathers, it was their hands, their shadows and their words that heal the sick. Even when the Jews were told to use oil when Judaism was still mixed with Christianity, it was not the oil that healed the people but the prayer of faith. Prayer of faith is said with words.
So, we can say, their words healed the sick not the oil, water or anything.
That was why when Paul would later come into the Kingdom, to successfully remove Judaism from Christianity, the use of oil came to an end, and their hands, shadows, and words alone were used in healing the sick. At one time, aprons or handkerchiefs taken from Paul healed them also, but it was not turned into a medium of the dark supernatural the way we have them today. The Bible says;
“Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” Acts 19:11-12 NKJV
Sadly, a lot of preachers who use the dark supernatural, stand on this scripture to use what they call miracle clothes and mantles to allow Satan to move as God in the lives of the people of God. They do all that calling it unusual miracles. But Unusual miracles today, is not the use of prayer or miracle clothes to heal the sick. That is unusual sorcery!
Unusual miracle today is not the use of handkerchiefs or aprons to release the supernatural. That could be the dark supernatural. Unusual miracle today, is making people carriers of God’s power instead of pieces of clothes. It is transforming lost sinners into powerful saints of the Most High God, whose hands, words breath, and shadows heal the sick.
Yes, Jesus breathe into the disciples and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. When he takes you over today, you can do the same.
You can breathe on people and they receive the Holy Spirit and get healed of any diseases. But the dark supernatural can also copy this; that is why we must be careful of the spiritual identity of who may be doing it.
Understand that we are the last generation, and that none of the things we see people in the first-generation use (water, oil, handkerchiefs and etc.) are to be used today, because they are not part of the doctrine of Christ on praying for the sick.
They were just a one-time divine act used by the LORD, to save the sick, and are not to be repeated again.
Just like the making of the brazen serpent was not to be repeated again, so is the use of Handkerchiefs, mud, healing pools, oil and etc. in administering the supernatural, not to be repeated again. Whenever you see these things being repeated today, know that you are either dealing with ignorant men, or the dark supernatural.
Child of God, in praying for the sick you must embrace these scriptural truths the LORD is laying bare to us today.
You must also understand that healing the sick is a direct assignment of all believers, given to us by the LORD. It is not for pastors and prophets only, or apostles and evangelists or teachers only. It is not for Church elders only, as some wrongly believe, standing on James chapter 5:13-15. It is for all believers.
You have the right to pray for the sick. In God’s plan, all believers should be healing the sick, because it is a major aspect of believer’s ministry. Our devotional text says;
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
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 16:15-18 NKJV
When talking of healing the sick, people ignore this text, but go for James chapter 5 verses 13 to 15, because this text did not ask us to use oil like James chapter 5 did.
They ignore what Jesus said to the entire Church (as contain in our devotional text) and camp on what James said to the Jews who were scattered across the ancient world, because it allows them to use the instruments of the dark supernatural, like the oil. They camp there to shield themselves.
They forget that Jesus said we can only use His own supernatural to pray for the sick, if we do it in His name. If we do it any other way, it will be exposing us to the dark supernatural.
Now, the next thing you must understand, to be able to pray for the sick and get result is this; after the resurrection of Christ, every power was put under His feet. So, we can only get the sick healed when we pray in His name. In other words, the knee of diseases or the spirit of infirmity can only bow when we pray in His name, not our name.
Now, what does it mean to pray in His name? And how do we pray for the sick in the name of the LORD? Is it by mentioning His name? Please do not misunderstand me, the answer to that is, no!
There is nothing wrong with mentioning His name in prayer, but that is not what it means to pray in His name. You can mention His name in prayer and still not be praying in His name, that is why some Christians do not get result when they mention His name while praying for the sick.
If you read Philippians chapter 2, from verse 5, you will discover that the Bible did not say, at the mentioning of the name Of Jesus every knee shall bow. It took me years to see that, because we grew up in a church that has sang, prayed, preached and seen otherwise.
We grew up believing that the scripture says, “at the mention of His name every knee shall bow,” while that is not what it says. That word says,
“at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth; and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of GOD, the Father…” (Philippians 2:10-11)
The mystery to successfully praying for the sick, without using any gadgets, lies in understanding what this scripture means; what it means to pray in His name.
Do not forget, we have been looking at the laws of the supernatural. The law of the supernatural of God that governs the healing of the sick states that, if we stand in the name of Jesus and pray for the sick, the blood of Jesus will be put into effect to lose them from the spirit of infirmity and heal them.
To do anything in the name of the LORD is to function as a deputy of God on earth. It is to deputized for the LORD.
Now, we do not deputize for the LORD as men; No! We deputized for Him as gods, because He is GOD. That is why, if you try to pray for the sick as man, they will never be healed, because a mare man cannot deputize for an Almighty God. It takes gods of the Most High God to deputize for the Most High God. I hope you understand me!!
The Bible says in Psalm 82:5 we are gods, but we are not gods to be worshiped. We are gods to worship the one and only true GOD.
Part of our worship is to deputize for Him on earth in all matters of His great kingdom. It is important that you believe this because once you are saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Spirit and faith, you are no longer a mere man. You are a god of the Most High God.
Understand that man was originally created that way until the fall. And that Jesus came, died, then resurrected, and gave us the Holy Spirit to upgrade us to the level of gods. He came to restore us back to that level, so that we can deputize for Heaven on earth, by doing so many things including healing the sick
So, praying in His name is appealing or demanding for the healing of the sick, standing in your authority as a god of the Most High God on earth, or as a deputy of God’s kingdom matters on earth.
Do not forget, you do not pray for the sick as a mere man. Nothing will happen if you do so!!
You pray for the sick as god of the Most High GOD. That is when He will show you what you need to see in the Spirit realm, and what you need to say after seeing it, for the sick to be healed. Jesus said, “I can of my own self do nothing, as I hear so I speak”
Now, for you to come to that level, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit and yield to Him to release His miracle working faith to you, at an immediate present. The rhema word of the LORD must come to you expressly at an immediate present (that is as of the time you want to pray for the sick).
It is the coming of that word that upgrades you to the power and faith level of gods to heal the sick. That is why gods of the One and Only True God, will not use oil to pray for the sick, because God will not use it when healing the sick, either. He is too powerful to do that. He never used oil to create the earth or man. He used His word and His breathe.
So, in healing the sick, He will just speak or touch them, or even pass by them. His gods will do the same, after His rhema word has come to them expressly. The Bible says;
“If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” John 10:35-36 NKJV
I believe you have found some truths on how to heal the sick. There is so much about the subject but what we have shared is the main truth.
No one heals the sick as man. No man can heal another man of anything. We must upgrade to be able to minister to any man, and even ourselves. That is the core truth behind healing the sick. You heal them as a god under God, not as man.
Everyone who ever walked in the supernatural of GOD and healed the sick, upgraded to the power and faith level of gods before going to minister to them. Some through intense fasting that resulted in strong impartation of miracle working faith and power from the Spirit of GOD. You must do the same!
It is my prayer that God will use these few thoughts we have shared, and bring all believers to the place of loosing those who are bound by sicknesses, diseases or the spirit of infirmity, in Jesus precious name. Amen!!
When we return tomorrow, we will look into the last part of God’s plan for our health.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.
And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”
Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.
For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ”
Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Luke 4:1-15 NKJV