The Two Boxes

This is a little outside the norm for my style of writing but this so encouraged me tonight so I have to share it with all of you.

I was worshiping with other believers tonight and the focus of the worship shifted from a praise to a time of intimacy and seeking the secret things of God's heart. So I just simply asked the Father if he has a secret to share with me.

He showed me two boxes.

The first was a plain, brown wooden box. It has a lid with a hinge. Nothing special just a box.

The second box was all decked out in jewels, overlaid with gold. It reminded me of something royal that you would only get to see in a museum guarded by security or in the palace of a King or Queen.

The Lord told me to lift up the lid from the second box and release the contents.

I opened the fancy box and it was glorious. There was flashes of lightning and a colorful fireworks display. I sensed that it represented the presence of God and out of it came all the benefits of heaven including healing and all types of restoration. It was a marvelous show. It was everything you would expect from such a marvelous looking vessel.

Then he told me to lift the lid of the plain box. I did and I was pretty surprised that the very same show of wonderful, colorful lights and effect of awe and wonder flowed from the plain, brown unattractive box. Out of this simple, plain box came a representation of God's glory and power.

The Lord showed me that it is our perception of the outward of the believer in Christ that hinders our understanding of what is truly inside. We look at ourselves or sometimes others as plain, simple or uncharismatic. Or we look at our flaws or weaknesses and tell ourselves those flaws disqualify us from having God work in and through us. We make excuses that we aren't good speakers or have fancy words for prayer.

The vessel or container is just that--a container for the divine. When God looks at us he does not see the outside. He looks at the heart of the believer. He sees us as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22) God knows it is the contents our renewed spirit through Christ that make the difference. But both the plain box and the fancy box had the same power on the inside.

"...this mystery Christ in us the hope of glory!" Col 1: 27

Do I Need Special Faith to be Healed?

I went many, many years hoping God would heal me and deliver me out of my pain and depression. I had this idea in my head that when I prayed and did everything necessary to get His favor then I would be instantly healed. I went on this way hoping and waiting for healing for over a decade.

When a minister came to our church in Spring of 2007 and asked the question: Does it take special faith to get healed? He instantly explained that if you have enough faith to be saved then you have enough faith to be healed. I had to chew on that. I knew that I was saved through grace but what did faith have to do with it? I just asked Jesus to be my Savior. So I had to find out what the word salvation really means.

From the Strong Concordance the meaning of the word SOZO from the Greek:
Saved--sozo
to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction one (from injury or peril)

to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health

1) to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue

b) to save in the technical biblical sense

1) negatively

a) to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment

b) to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance

Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (sozo).

So asking Jesus to save me means more now. Notice the definition includes healing. Therefore my understanding of what it means to be saved changed. In my mind it used to mean saved from eternal damnation and saved to go to heaven. My understanding of what salvation includes had to expand before I could receive healing.

I marveled for years when I read in the gospels how Jesus acknowledged certain individuals for their faith and Jesus told them that their faith made them well. I hungered and longed to have that type of faith. I wanted to be like the woman with the issue of blood and just know that if I reached out and touched Jesus that I would be made whole. I reached and reached and never seemed to achieve that level of faith.

But do we need special faith? I don't think so now. Faith is faith.

Hebrews 12:1 says that NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for (I was sure hoping )and the evidence of things not yet seen. To me that seemed like "special" faith. But it's the same for salvation. I believed in a moment in time that Jesus paid the price for my sin (I didn't know back then that he paid for my healing ) I had hope that I was saved. I knew in my heart that when I died that I would be saved from hell. I knew also that the Holy Spirit came to dwell on the inside of me although at age eleven I had no idea what that meant. But I had faith with a 100% certainty that I was saved.

So now I'm convinced that this measure of faith is what allows us to receive our healing. I just know or believe that Jesus took all the wrath of all my sin --past, present and future sin-- and he became the curse so I would not have to endure or put up with any of the curse. It seems pretty simple now that I don't have to have a special faith. Faith is faith. I believe that Jesus paid it all so I could have all the benefits of heaven. If He paid it all, I don't have to pay anything. I just believe.

Now if sickness does try to attack, I just tell sickness that Jesus paid the price for that. It's simple. I don't work it up. I don't pray harder or fast or do anything to achieve a special feeling of faith for healing.

About a year ago I awoke and walked out to the kitchen to start my morning routine. And from down deep inside of me I heard this from my spirit. "I just don't expect to get sick..." That was an odd thought from first thing in the morning. But I agreed with myself and said aloud.. "Yeah, I really don't expect to get sick." Wow! It really is that simple. Just like I don't expect to sin (since I know that Jesus took care of that on Calvary) I don't expect to get sick.

Now I did get sick once since then. I burned the inside of my mouth and throat with really hot food. Because of this burn, I must have allowed bacteria into my body via this open wound. I was in a great deal of pain in my lymph nodes and on top of that my mouth and throat were raging with pain. Rather than just telling my body to line up with God's Word, I reached for the telephone and called the doctor. I didn't feel even a little bit guilty since I knew that I would be healed either by God instantly or by antibiotics. I was in serious pain from the burn and the swollen glands.

So four days go by and the antibiotics are NOT helping. I'm up almost around the clock in serious pain from the burn and the glands alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol. I hear in my head that I probably caused myself some nerve damage and that is why the pain is so severe. I'm starting to doubt faith for healing. At 2am after many days of pain from the burn and glands that I am holding and putting heat on I feel something on the inside of my spirit rise up.

"Jesus paid for this! Jesus accomplished everything I need for life and godliness." I just whispered, that I receive by faith in Jesus' Name my complete healing. Instantly I had relief from pain and for the first time in a week I could rest. I didn't need the pain meds in the morning. I was healed!

I told the Lord that it was silly that I didn't just do that from the day I got burned. But the Holy Spirit said the wisdom I gained and the understanding that it is not "special" faith that healed me just plain ol' faith in what Jesus did that healed me.