Friday, July 23, 2010

Acts 10:38 You mean to tell me I can DO what Jesus DID?

As I laid in bed, thinking about healing..... I turned over in bed, glanced at the clock, glanced again and realized it was 10:38 pm. Immediately Acts 10:38 came to mind. God's cool like that.

"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." -King James Version of Acts 10:38

This is one of my favorites, but not usually THE scripture I choose to stand on in regards to healing. Usually I go with 1 Peter 2:24 "By the stripes of Jesus you HAVE been healed". But God reminded me tonight of Jesus.

God showed me about 2 weeks ago, that in order to fully understand healing, I needed to study the healer. Jesus. I committed to reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in order to study Jesus' life. I've started that process and will share verses from that study with you later, but for now: Acts 10:38.

"Who anointed.." ok stop. Anoint means to rub with oil and/or my personal favorite: to dedicate to the service of God. Wow. Jesus was dedicated to the service of God!

He was anointed by God. Who? Oh yes, God, the creator of the world and everything in it.

What was He anointed with? the Holy Ghost and with power. Wow! Jesus had the Holy Ghost, even though nobody else in the Old Testament did. Us, New Testament believers have the Holy Ghost living inside us just like Jesus did. So one could say WE are anointed with the Holy Ghost.... AND with power too :) Ah, getting ahead of myself here....

Ok, so Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. What did He do with that anointing? Oh yes, he went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

So he did good. The first definition of the word "good" on Dictionary.com is "morally excellent, virtuous and righteous. Yup, that definitely describes what Jesus did here on the earth AND what He's still doing today.

He healed ALL that were oppressed of the devil. I'm sorry, does that verse say "all"? No, it can't mean all. I'm sure Jesus just walked past some demon possessed people (we call that mental illness in these times) on the street because He didn't have "time" to set them free. I'm sure He thought, "oh come on God, I can't do what you do, I don't have the power...... you have all the power, not me...." NO NO NO NO NO NO NO He didn't. He healed ALL. Jesus heals ALL! He doesn't pick and choose and he most certainly isn't too busy to heal you.

Incase you're wondering what "oppressed of the devil" means. Here ya go: oppressed means.... to burden with cruel or unjust impositions or restraints; subject to a burdensome or harsh exercise of authority or power, to lie heavily upon (the mind, a person, etc.), to weigh down, as sleep or weariness does, to put down; subdue or suppress, to press upon or against: crush.

The devil oppresses us with sickness, disease, thoughts, depression, mental illness, anger and so on. Read the definition of oppression again to find out what exactly the devil does and what exactly Jesus heals us of.

Acts 10:38 ends with "for God was with Him". God was inside of Jesus. How? Via the Holy Spirit. Remember, the trinity is all 3 of them being equal. Why did Jesus heal the sick? Because it was God's will. How did Jesus heal the sick? With God's power.

When Jesus died on the cross, He freed us from sin and sickness. Matthew 8:17 "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." He bore it for us, so we don't have to. It's already taken care of. He's got our back, if you will.

So, this brings me to my previous title "1/3 of you is Jesus". Are you aware of what resides in your Spirit right now? When you became a Christian, your human spirit, became the Holy Spirit because it was "born again" as we like to say now days. You have a new Spirit. The Spirit of God. You have Jesus inside of you. Does that mean, Amie, that I can do what Jesus did because He is with me? Yes, that's exactly what I mean.

Acts 10:38 - Amie's Version for the church - how God anointed the born again Christians with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, healing ALL who were oppressed of the devil, for Jesus was with them.

That is our mission. Learn WHO you are in Jesus. Learn WHAT Jesus had and did, because it turns out, you also have it since He lives in you. And BE Jesus, to the dying world.

I'll leave you with the Message's translation of Acts 10:38:

Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.

We can do what Jesus did BECAUSE the trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit) are with us. Immanuel means "God with us".

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

1/3 of you is Jesus!

At Andrew Wommack's conference this past weekend, I learned some great new truths in regards to who I am in Christ! Without Him, I am nothing. With Him, I am certainly something amazing :)

Andrew spoke quite a bit about the Old Testament and the New Testament. I'd like to share with you what I learned. The Old Testament law lasted about 2,000 years. Before that, there was a period of about 2,000 years without the law where God fellowshipped with everyone on the earth openly. Spoke to them constantly and so on. Adam and Eve experienced that in their time with God in the garden. Well, man fell, bought satan's lies and then gave satan an inroad into their lives.

God took Adam and Eve from the tree of good and evil because He had something better for man than to live forever in a corrupted body and world.

After 2,000 years of the human race self destructing and rejecting hearing directly from God, our good God gave the law so people would know what He expected without hearing directly from Him. The law was meant to strengthen sin. If you think about it, when someone tells you "do not touch that flower" you want to touch the flower.... you keep thinking about the flower.... and eventually, you touch the flower. Well, God knew that if He gave man a list of "do not's", they would SEE how imperfect they are and that it's impossible to be perfect and keep the law. The law was meant to bring people to their knees and cry out for God, realizing that He was everything they need. They can't be perfect without Him.

After 2,000 years of this law, God sent His son Jesus into the world, to save the human race and bring them back to the way God wanted things to be in the first 2,000 years. God wanted people to not be conscious of sin (Hebrews 10:2) but to be conscious of Him always. He wanted to restore the human race to himself. So He sent Jesus to die for all our sin.

"It's the sin nature that sends people to hell, not their individual actions of sin." -A.W. This really impacted me. There is no plural for "sin". So many people say "sins", but the truth is Jesus came and died for our sin nature, not the individual sin of man. Human nature desires sin until they discover God. After that, any sin committed has already been washed clean by Jesus' perfect blood. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live in and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit." Romans 8:1

God doesn't look at your sin. He looks at Jesus, who bore all your sin 2,000 years ago! Praise God, He doesn't look at our sin... because man in the flesh, we aren't perfect! In Jesus we are :)

So, the world has existed for 6,000 years with people on it. 2,000 of those years the world was under the law (the Old Testament) and the other 4,000 years was under GRACE (The New Testament). So why is it that a lot of today's churches still preach that we're under the law? That was only 2,000 years out of 6,000 years of existence. Clearly the 4,000 years of Mercy and Grace is what God intended. Come on CHURCH!

Let me leave you with this until later: will you DARE to let the Word get in the way of what you believe?


Sunday, July 18, 2010

What I learned at Andrew Wommack's Conference

Where to begin..... wow.....

Andrew (who is the pastor who founded Charis Bible College) was just here in Mpls July 15-17. I got a hotel in Mpls so I could attend all 5 sessions conveniently :) I had a wonderful time! I want to share some of my notes with you, enjoy learning what most churches are scared to teach, even though it's in the bible.

"If you can't trust God in your finances it'll hinder everything else in your life." - A.W. referring to Luke 16:10 "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." This means that if you'd like God to prosper you financially, you've got to show Him you can be trusted with the little money He's already given you. My good friend Carrie W. once told me that God spoke to her one time when she was asking God for more money. He said to her, "what are you doing with the money I've already given you?" This made her reflect on her finances and she really figured out what it is that she spends her money on and she made sure that she was a faithful steward of the little that she had, so God could trust her with more in the future.

A.W. spoke mostly on the Old Testament Law vs. the New Testament grace. It was amazing, however, I think that'll be a separate post. Too much to add to this post :)

"God gives you what Jesus deserves, not what you deserve." A.W. People say all the time, "oh I'm not worthy, oh Lord, I don't deserve this or that." Well, ok, the human race is a fallen race, sure and without God in our lives and being born again then sure we don't deserve dittily squat. BUT Jesus came and died for all of us and that means that we are FREE of guilt and feeling unworthy. God now sees us through Jesus, not as we are in the flesh. Realize that God sees your spirit and spirit is PERFECT. He's not disappointed in you. He's most certainly not mad at you! He loves you with an unfailing, undying love. It's an overwhelming love.

What's in your heart? Well Luke 6:45 states, ".... for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." What comes out of your mouth when you talk to people is where your heart is.

Justified. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1&2. Justified = just as if I've never sinned. We are justified because of Jesus! He made it so that it's just like we've never sinned :) WOOHOO! Praise His name!

"Jesus is the glory of God." A.W.

God took Adam and Eve from the tree of good and evil because He had something better for man than to live forever in a corrupted body and world.

"Most people aren't about to let the Word get in the way of what they believe." A.W. Read that again. Most people aren't about to let the Word get in the way of what they believe. Most people have their beliefs that their church has taught them and when they read something in the bible that is contrary to what they believe, they shut down and say, "well God must be wrong then." PEOPLE, ARE YOU SERIOUS?! His Word is truth. Perhaps your church is wrong.... since you know, your church isn't God.

'Grace' and 'gospel' mean the same thing, they are interchangeable. Mark 16:15 "and he said unto them. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (ooo I don't want to stop there, but I will, Mark 16:16-18 is the BEST!) So let's replace gospel with grace in that verse. Mark 16:15 "and he said unto them. Go ye into all the world and preach 'grace' to every creature." Grace and gospel mean "almost too good to be true news". It's true, but a lot of people have trouble believing it. As believers, it's our job to teach them this good news!

I think that's enough for now. I have much more to share :) Stay tuned!

A new adventure indeed....

Well, God has changed the course of my life. Ha ha, I love it when He does that!

I've taught 4th and now 5th grade inner city for 3 years and this coming school year will be my last year. I've had a call on my life to teach since I was in 2nd grade. I just didn't realize at that time that it was God. I really didn't know how to walk with God until 1 1/2 years ago. Since I didn't know how to walk with God and hear from Him when I graduated high school, I did what I knew to do with my desire to teach. I went to college to become a teacher. Got my 4 year degree and knew that I had a desire to teach underprivileged, difficult children, so inner city was my goal. I moved to Kansas City, MO because I felt God pulling me there. I taught there for 2 years in one of the roughest areas of KC. It was probably the best two years of my life so far because I learned SO much. God brought me to a church where I truly discovered the truth. I learned that most churches don't teach the truth. They make you feel good inside for 1 hour a week, but they don't tell you how to function in the world and be happy. But anyway, before I get to rambling..... after 2 years of living 7 hours and 2 states away from home, I told God I wanted to move back and that things would work out for me. So they did. I actually got a teaching job in North Minneapolis (the exact location I desired) before I even moved back, so I was ready to go. This past year of teaching 5th grade was the best yet. It was the best because I didn't do it alone. I finally realized how to let God be my strength. Once you figure this out, let me tell you, it revolutionizes your life. Perhaps I'll write more about that later.

In Sept. 2009 God spoke to me and told me to go to bible college. Since He told me that, I realized that I am missing certain desires that public education teachers should have. Such as, the desire to plan lessons. I have zero desire to do that. I mean zero. My heart isn't in it. My heart is in affecting the lives of my students and changing their behavior. God showed me that I followed His direction to teach, I have all kinds of great teaching strategies in the natural realm.... now it's time for the spiritual realm to come into play! My greatest desire is to teach people what they didn't learn in church (what the church missed). I desire to show people what is in the bible. I want to work with kids and teach them the way Jesus would teach them if He was here physically. Since He isn't here physically, but He is inside of ME, I'll use Him to teach for the rest of my life :)

I will be attending Charis Bible College in Colorado Springs, CO beginning fall of 2011!