March 14, 2001

Monica,

Topic to ponder #1:

Many for years have questioned whether it is God’s will to heal everyone. Some give up and decide God wants them sick. It is just the cross they must bear. Read Isaiah 52:13 through Isaiah 53. Consider our Lord Jesus Christ, appalling in appearance, so badly beaten and abused that he was "disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness." He didn’t just take a spanking for us. He was beaten until you couldn’t be sure it was even a human being anymore. Why?

Isaiah 53:5 says he was pierced (that is the shedding of blood) for our transgressions and he was wounded for our healing. That beating that so disfigured him was so you could have health in your physical body. Just think about it! His shed blood was redemption buying you back from the devil to whom Adam sold us all by sin. But Jesus took the worst physical beating known to any human body just so you could have health is a body that is perishing anyway! Now how can anyone wonder if God wants them healthy in their physical bodies?

If he wanted me physically healthy so badly that he took the worst physical beating in history, then by the Holy Spirit of truth I better figure out how to receive that health. It must be exceedingly important to my Lord.

I’ll tell you a simple part we have in it besides growing in our faith. Certainly the spiritual side is more important to our healing than the physical. However, I see a parallel here again. I believe we need to drink the pure living water of the Holy Spirit without compromising by mixing sin with the drink. In the natural is a parallel: we need to drink 60 to 80 ounces of clean water everyday and not drink water that is mixed with sugar, acid, or caffeine.

Thought to ponder #2:

In some ways I hate to read the Old Testament because I have to look at the nature of man. We have been so pathetic for thousands of years. However, I am back in Genesis nibbling along again, and I was impressed with Genesis 27:34.

Jacob, the deceiver, had just stolen Esau’s blessing. Esau is distressed. Isaac is so distressed that his old body is trembling violently. We would say, "It’s only words, Isaac. Annul it. Because of the deceit, declare it void and give the blessing to your oldest son whom you love." But Isaac in his trembling, broken-hearted condition says, "I blessed him--and indeed he will be blessed!"

Without schooling, without teachers to show the way, Abraham and Isaac intuitively learned that words spoken cannot be eaten again. It’s a modern idea that you will be made to eat your words. No, a word spoken is a word spoken, and either life or death is being produced by it. It makes David’s words hit home pretty hard.

Topic to ponder #3:

Have you noticed that in Genesis 2:21, where it says God took one of man’s ribs, there is a footnote in the NIV. Throw the rib jokes away. The footnote says, "Or took part of the man’s side." I think the Hebrew meaning is less clear than that even, and I don’t think the translators were willing to speculate on my theory. I think God took a side of Adam. He must have taken some physical part also, but I believe Adam was complete in the first place. God took the female side of man out of man. The nature of a woman and the nature of a man were once contained all in one man. No wonder God hates homosexuality.

If this is true, you can see why God says what God has joined together let no man take apart--speaking of divorce. The man and his wife are ideally supposed to become one as completely as God is one. They are supposed to join back together as one spirit, one soul, and one body. The term soul mate is really referring to the rest of your soul that was separated from you when woman was created. We know that in the case of most marriages, Satan begins manifesting success at ripping the two apart before they ever fully get together.

I believe in this end time, the Holy Spirit is revealing a lot of this hidden truth to us. I also believe that if an individual is seeking the face of God wholeheartedly now, he will be led to a suitable other half and they will receive an anointing of oneness that gives them a more perfect marriage than 99.99% of marriages have been. I also believe that the power of the Holy Spirit to minister to others will be not doubled by the two being one, but multiplied. There are going to be powerful husband and wife teams being used by the Holy Spirit when Jesus comes back. But stay in oneness; it is out of that oneness that your power will flow.

Love,

Dad