Discover the Jesus pattern and how to apply it to your life part 10

Welcome to episode 139, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 139. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to continue to talk about the Jesus pattern, and we ended up yesterday with John and Peter using a healing miracle to get the attention of everybody in the temple. And then he was able to preach Jesus and the gospel and teach them about the scripture and about what all happened and how they could open their eyes and get some people saved. So that's what the healing, I think the healing ministry would do is not so much to throw a shingle out because one of the things, and I don't know if I've ever said this, but if you read Matthew 10:7 and 8, "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.'" And I wanna stop there and I've talked to God. I said, "God, can't you at least throw out 50 or $100 for a good healing? You know, you bring somebody that's lame from your mom's birth and you don't get a couple hundred bucks for that? Come on, God. And I know God shakes his head, and I, and I don't want to hear anything about me dishonoring God. Me and God joke around all the time. I, I didn't write not one word of this, and the Holy Spirit doesn't get all uptight when I talk to him and joke with him. And so I don't want you getting all wrapped around the axle because I'm asking God why I can't get 50 or 100 bucks. For the little miracle that he's going to perform through me. I mean, I've got to walk into the room and declare it, so I was thinking that was worth something. But God said, no, that's not worth anything. It is a free gift. You give it for free, you declare it for free. But here's the thing: God is no debtor. God will not owe you anything, and he don't owe you anything anyway. But if you go in and you help somebody break free— and I'm not talking about just physical healing, you know, there are mental or psychological healings as well. And we're talking about all of the healings to where from your past— I mean, I had to be healed of all the wrong thinking that I had for 30 years. I walked around this earth seeing life one way and then having to readjust or renewing my mind, as the Bible would say in Romans 12:2. But I don't want to start chasing that rabbit. I really just want us to see that healing is part of the Jesus pattern, that Jesus healed the body. He preached the gospel to their spirit, and he taught the Word of God to their mind, will, and emotion. Remember, we got spirit, soul, and body, and if we're going to grow people in ministries, we've got to hit all three of these areas. We can't just preach— and I want to read a scripture that's eye-opening, and it— I think it's kind of screams to what a lot of the churches today, the modern churches, at least the churches in America that I've seen a lot of them are doing today. And I— this isn't to pick on, this is just as an example. I want you to listen and see if you hear the same thing that I hear. And since we've been in Matthew a lot, I want to stay in Matthew. This is— this story is in Matthew and in Luke, but let's go to Matthew 9, and it's 9:2. Then behold, they brought to him a paralytic laying on the bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This man blasphemies." But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins." Then he said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men. Now when is the last church service you've been in to where they people marveled and wondered about all this power, such great power that, that God had given to men? And that's my whole point, is this Jesus pattern is— then the healing does not get anybody saved But the healing lets everybody know, or kind of rings the bell, it gets everybody's attention to say, hey, there's something here. And Jesus—

I—

Jesus didn't do anything by accident. Jesus did not just do this miracle and say, your sins are forgiven, so that he could just read somebody's minds or thoughts. Jesus did this as an example and we are to follow his example. I totally agree with any preaching of the gospel that says that the sin is no longer— in fact, I've said it, jumped up and down— sin is no longer the issue. Your sin, he— it is easy to say your sin is forgiven. And I really— and I, I want you to think about it, and I want you to go to this scripture. Remember back in Matthew? Again, we're staying in Matthew. Let's go back to Matthew 7:13 and 14. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it. And I want you to— same chapter, I want you to go down to 21. Remember, we've talked about this too. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And I want you to combine those two scriptures with the your sin has been forgiven you. This is a difficult— when anybody tells you this Christian walk is easy, it's a piece of cake, I mean, I— this is where the eyebrow goes up and the head turns to the side. Christianity is difficult. It is narrow. It is a little door and few find it. Now, that's not saying that you and I have not found it, but to say if there's not any kind of opposition— sometimes the reason the devil's not fighting you is because we're going in the same direction. And if you're not getting any kind of pushback, if you're not getting any kind of resistance in your life, maybe you're not a threat. But when you start getting pushback and when you start feeling that little pit— because when I started talking about this Jesus pattern and when I kind of felt like this is what I needed to teach on, it kind of was like, I don't know. I've known for a long time, I've seen this pattern in the Bible. I, I've seen the teaching and the preaching and the healing. But you know, it's one thing to see it, it's a whole nother deal to talk about it. And when I put this out in the airwaves, when I talk about it, well, now I'm held accountable to it. I'm telling you as a testimony, I have put my hands on people and they have recovered. Now that's not to say that I've done it every time perfectly. It's kind of a start and stop thing, but I have the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead living on the inside of me, and I have the Holy Spirit here And I believe that you and I, as we lock arms, if we are— and, and again, I want to tell you about this pattern. I don't think you go out and do this by yourself. The pattern that God has shown me is that two or more— where two or more are gathered as touching any one thing. So if you've got two people that believe in the thing that you're going to do, or that you believe in this healing thing, I think the two people together are gonna have the greatest amount of success. And they're gonna be, we're gonna go back to Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion, but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he who has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. And to illustrate my point in the New Testament, let's go to the Gospel of Mark 6:7. And he called the 12 to himself and began to send them out two by two and gave them power over unclean spirits. And one more just for good measure, in Luke 10:1. After these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. Then he said to them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And I want you to also notice that the Holy Spirit had not fallen on them yet, but Jesus had given them authority over unclean spirits. So Jesus has given us authority over the unclean spirits, but I want to take you back to 7— Matthew 7:21, where Jesus said, 'Many in that day will say, Lord, Lord.' I don't believe you have to be endued with power, because these disciples were not endued with power. They were given authority. If you use the name of Jesus with authority, I believe you can get things done. But you also have to worry about— and I'm going to take you to this one scripture, and then I'm going to close. And this story is in Acts 19, and it starts in 11. 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. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. 13:19 Also there were 7 sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 13:20 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? 13:21 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. I finished with that story just to make sure that you are exercising your power and your authority in Jesus' name because you know Jesus. These Jewish leaders did not know Jesus. They were just using his name, and that's the picture that I get in Matthew 7 where Jesus said, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, I knew you not. I think the demons know who has Jesus and who does not have Jesus. Father God's gonna know your spirit man. When your spirit man is alive, when you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your spirit man comes alive. So with that understanding, you have a born-again spirit, but these Jewish leaders did not. And I think the people that just spend their time in church and they kind of get snuggled up to this church idea of going to church and thinking they're a Christian, But if they're practicing lawlessness, and that's why I see a lot of this stuff that is not tied to the Word of God, and that's why I'm jumping up and down all the time talking about get in the Word of God, get in the Word of God, because you can't do it your way. You have to do it God's way. And that's what I— that's all I'm trying to say is that when we do it God's way, when we look at this Jesus pattern and we try our best to imitate Jesus as he did it, I think things will be a whole lot easier. It didn't say it was ever going to be— it says difficult and narrow, but we can do it. God, I thank you so much for everything that you've done for me. I thank you for this podcast. I thank you for this person listening to this episode, and I'm praying specifically for them right now in Jesus' name. I pray that you would open up their understanding. I pray that you would open up the knowledge of yourself to them. Let them see the power that is inside of them. The same power that raised you from the dead is living on the inside of this person if they have accepted Jesus, you as their Lord and Savior. God, I thank you for everything that you're doing in my life. I thank you for everything that you're doing in this listener's life, and I pray in Jesus' name that you would continue to lead and guide and direct us. Lord, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you on the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.