Last night I went to the eye doctor and found out that one of my eyes has a condition that has worsened since the year before last. I was actually referred to a specialist. I was troubled by the news. I started thinking about Jesus, and all the instances where He restored eyesight in His earthly ministry. As I studied the different scenarios where He restored eyesight. He did it differently everytime. Sometimes He used spit and just touched the eyes, other times He combined His saliva with dirt making clay and annointed the eyes, and then in another scenario He simply said, "go your way, your faith has made you well".
As the night went on, I thought more about Jesus's earthly ministry. I imagined if I was living during that time, what would I do, concerning Jesus? What would I do if I heard of this man, Jesus who was healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, blessing the children? I know what I would do, I would take my children and I would find out where He was and go. When I saw Him, I would call His name over and over again until I got His attention. Then I would tell him that my son has dealt with a degree of congestion almost since he was born and I want the congestion to go away, I would say my daughter has had eczema since she was a baby and I want you to heal her and the cornea in my eye has lost it's proper shape, please put it back to the right shape and restore my eyesight. I know He would say, "let all this be done for you, as you have believed". I can hear Him saying that so simply. The bible would say "from that moment, my children and I were healed". Immediate healing is what you see in the gospels. So why don't we experience that same imediate healing? I really meditated on this question. Because I know Jesus would of done it for me. Jesus has never said "no" when someone came to Him to be healed. He NEVER said "no" He always healed. He is the same Jesus today that He was during that time. What has changed? I asked God this.
Lemme share with you a scripture in 2 different translations
New King James
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
But the translation that really blessed me, was the one below.
Complete Jewish Bible
22 He responded, “Have the kind of trust that comes from God! 23 Yes! I tell you that whoever does not doubt in his heart but trusts that what he says will happen can say to this mountain, ‘Go and throw yourself into the sea!’ and it will be done for him. 24 Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, trust that you are receiving it, and it will be yours.
I like the complete Jewish Bible translation because it uses the word "trust" instead of "believe". To me, trust signifies relationship in a more intimate way. I've really been meditating on that word trust. In light of this, I ask what's the difference between us and the people in the bible who received their miracles immediately? I have a developing opinion about this; The people that receive these miracles in Jesus's earthly ministry had not received the Holy Spirit, Jesus was not living in them as He lives in us. This is one big difference. Instead of Jesus's ministry being executed from the outside of us, it is executed from the inside. Instead of it being an isolated event, His ministry is an ongoing
flow in the life of a believer. That's why I love that it says "trust that you are receiving it, and it will be yours"; this implies something that is ongoing. There is a work in the life of the believer that we must trust in. Everything Jesus does in our lives is based on our relationship with Him. A relationship that grows and deepens as time goes by. While we experience the same ministry from Jesus that He showed forth when He walked this earth, I believe the difference when you have the Holy Spirit, is that the ministry is executed from the inside on a continuous basis, instead of on the outside as an isolated event.
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