Ron Sandison, an author and speaker who was diagnosed with autism as a young child, explains how God’s supernatural grace—and the love and active intervention of his mother—helped move him into a life of fulfillment.
Value Everyone |Special Needs | Ron Sandison | February 11, 2018 from Shepherd’s Gate Church on Vimeo.
Beth Moore opens up about a conversation with someone else who can say #MeToo. Watch, and see why this encounter surprised the popular Bible teacher so much.
Mike Bickle opens viewers’ eyes to the importance of understanding a biblical view of the end times. Watch as the founder of the International House of Prayer unpacks the Scriptures.
How often have I heard people say God spoke to them and told them something that was contrary to His Word? I ask you, “Will God speak against His Word?” No, He won’t. Why not?
“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He spoken, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19).
According to this verse, He’s not human, that He should lie or change His mind. If God says (and He did), “By His stripes we are healed,” then we are. He made good on His healing promise at the whipping post, and purchased our healing for us with His all-powerful blood.
“Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:4-5).
Then why has your healing not manifested in your mortal body yet? Or why did it not manifest in your loved one? Tough questions, I agree. But Jesus made it very clear to us over and over again throughout His Word that we are responsible to manifest our own healing. He said in Mark 16:17-18, “These signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Another famous Scripture found in Mark 11:23 concerning faith, “For truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.” Just a little bit of faith, when activated in the right thing, will cause that mountain in your life to obey your command.
God’s Word does not change according to feelings, or experiences—good or bad. God’s Word does not change, nor does God say things to us that contradict His Word. What He says is firm, and He is faithful to perform His Word. And in this case, He says our faith heals us and makes us whole.
Then He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace” (Luke 8:48).
He’s given the responsibility to work our faith to the manifestation of our healing. So the issue is not God being unfaithful to His Word, but that we are unfaithful to believe what He says is true. This is why it is important that we read and study the Word until our level of faith matches its standard so it produces what God intends for it to produce.
Let’s pray.
Father God, We ask for Your forgiveness for our ignorance concerning Your promises to heal and make us whole in spirit, soul and in physical body. Forgive us for putting faith in our feelings and experiences rather than in Your Word. We have lowered You to the standard of that of a human who lies and changes his mind instead of accepting the spiritual responsibility to bring forth the manifestation of our healing by the working of our faith. Forgive us, and help us in the area of our unbelief, so that we can believe as we should.
In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen. {eoa}
Becky Dvorak is a prophetic healing evangelist and the author of DARE to Believe, Greater Than Magic and The Healing Creed. Visit her at .
This article originally appeared at .
Often God’s people believe that He is able to heal, but struggle to believe that He wills to heal them. Let’s take a look at this today and unmask this lie of the enemy in this area of our faith for healing.
We read about a man who was leprous in Luke 5:12-16:
When He was in a certain city, a man full of leprosy, upon seeing Jesus, fell on his face and begged Him, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.”
He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will. Be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.
Then He commanded him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Yet even more so His fame went everywhere. And great crowds came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. But He withdrew to the wilderness and prayed (Luke 5:12-16).
Even though this man’s request is written as a statement, I believe in his heart it was a question. He was not sure if Jesus was willing to heal him of this wretched disease. And if we understand the times of his day and the disease itself, we might have a better understanding of where this man was coming from in his uncertainty.
Back then, leprosy was an incurable disease, and it was extremely contagious. A person with this disease was labeled as “unclean” and was doomed to die in caves with other lepers. And they would have to shout aloud about themselves to warn a passerby that they were unclean. How humiliating and hopeless this must have been for them.
So you see, he really didn’t know if it was Yeshua’s will to heal him, but if He was willing, this man had heard that He was able to make him clean. This leads into controversial issues today as well. And again, there are important truths here that we have been missing for years.
Have I not told you over and over again, that according to Isaiah 53:4-5 “by His stripes” we are already healed? Yes, I have and it is solid foundational truth that we have already been healed by the redemptive blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by his stripes we are healed.
But the time this leper met the Messiah, Jesus had not yet shed His blood for us at Calvary. And during this time Jesus walked the earth in the form of a human being, just like us, except that He operated completely by faith. To show us by His example how we are to walk by faith—like Him. So in the faith realm, was Jesus willing to heal this man of leprosy? Yes, He was.
After this miracle and many other miraculous events Jesus shed His blood at the whipping post to purchase our healing in spirit, soul and in physical body for us; and He was crowned with the crown of thorns to become King of the curse and to overcome the curse for us, and He also transformed into the curse when He hung upon the cross. And when He cried out, “It is finished,” we were totally and completely delivered from Satan and all of his wicked works, including sickness and disease. Therefore, we no longer need to ask Jesus if He is willing to heal us, but are to thank Him and rejoice that “by His stripes” we are already healed today.
And if there is to be any request today concerning healing it should be, “Help my unbelief. Teach me how to trust completely in Your healing power, Lord.” And He wills that you believe and receive His miracle-working power within your being to activate your healing today. {eoa}
Becky Dvorak is a prophetic healing evangelist and the author of DARE to Believe, Greater Than Magic and The Healing Creed. Visit her at .
This article originally appeared at .
Despite the nightmare I woke up with on Saturday, that I had gotten the wrong day for Easter dinner and was completely unprepared for the 10 people who would sit around my table, I did manage to get to the store on the correct day and buy all the fixins for our family dinner.
Except after shopping, I realized I had forgotten one of the most important elements for our dinner table: Jell-O.
For many years I have used the very special mold given to me by my mother to make my now-famous Jell-O beans. Could we even have Easter dinner without these? Wouldn’t that be like not having a Christmas tree in December or pumpkin pie in November? This could not be.
So at 8:00 Sunday morning, I got dressed and went to Walmart, where I purchased not one but two boxes of Jell-O. All was right with the world.
I was telling my daughter this story, and she said to me, “Did you look in the pantry for Jell-O?”
“Oh man,” I said. It never occurred to me.
We moved, you know. Now we’re living in the house with Texas. By that I mean my mother-in-law and her sister are the epitome of the extraordinary quality of hospitality that characterizes Texas women. If there’s going to be food on the table, it’s going to be good food and enough to feed you and 37 of your closest friends.
These ladies have a pantry that could double as a garage for a Mini Cooper, and the shelves are busting with nonperishables. My nephew just commented to me, “Grandma has a lot of food in her pantry!” I agreed.
Seven, in case you’re wondering. There are seven boxes of Jell-O in my mother-in-law’s pantry. I had to go look.
This is what it’s like to move into Jesus’ kingdom. We enter into this realm that has a Texas-sized supply of whatever we need, but we mentally live like we’re still on our own and having to provide everything for ourselves. Like going to Wal-Mart on a Sunday morning when what you need is in your own house.
Paul tells the believers: “But my God shall supply your every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
Such a lovely verse, but come on. You know we don’t live most of the time as if we believe this is true.
Except I’m telling you that I’ve just come through the most amazing season, where I kept asking God for things I needed, and He kept pulling them out of His pantry as if it was no big thang. I know from experience that God is huge-pantry rich, and He will meet all of our needs, as in all of them. Texas ladies have nothin’ on God’s hospitality, and that is not a small statement.
So don’t live the runnin’-to-Walmart-on-Easter-morning life.
Ask God for what you need and relax. Keep asking, and wait for his supply. {eoa}
This article originally appeared at .
Walking on water?
Healing crowds of people?
Miraculously multiplying food to feed thousands?
Our Savior defied logic and did the unthinkable as He walked the earth, daily giving evidence of His clear divinity while enrobed in the fragility of humanity.
Maybe one of the clearest examples occurs at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Now, most days it’s not too hard to hold a grudge, especially when the person committing the wrong is a repeat offender. At that point, it’s easy to justify why forgiveness is undeserved. Instead there’s a cry for justice. A wrong must be made right. The greater the offense, the louder the cry for punishment.
But He has made forgiveness possible.
Even in the most hurtful and crushing of situations, we can follow our Savior. As we meet with Him, discussing what has happened, bringing our hurts before Him, we get to access His strength and power that stabilize fickle emotions and grant us new perspective and the ability to forgive.
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28).
It’s through His power that we are able to display the fruit of the Spirit when the world, the flesh and the devil offer alternatives to meekness, humility and blessing others.
The Spirit of power He has given us allows us to access what’s in His heart for others, even when we’re in pain.
He demonstrated this first.
Our beloved Son of God, the One in whom the Father is well pleased, looked on those who had lied about Him, those who had tortured Him and those who had abandoned Him, and fully gave Himself to being their sacrificial Lamb. He willingly took on their sin so that they could be free from the crime they were committing and their bondage to all sin.
Although many would’ve understood if He had chosen anger, Jesus showed compassion on those accusing Him, beating Him and deriding Him, refusing to save Himself or put Himself above His creation. Instead He chose, once more, to serve all as the receding tide of popularity swept away the fleeting facade of man’s approval.
There had been a time when others had flocked to Him, seeking miracles, food, notoriety, entertainment. But amid two thieves, the Lamb slain before the foundations of this world kept His focus on His Father and the joy set before Him. With a heart free of malice, ill intent or musings of retaliation, Jesus showed us of a love that is patient, kind, keeps no record of wrongs and results in forgiveness—an open heart that continues to pour forth love when being wronged.
This is the love that’s been placed in our hearts by His Spirit. It leads us to forgive when it’s completely undeserved, unrequested and undesired. It allows us to walk as Jesus did toward those who lack compassion, remorse, or even a full understanding of the gravity of their wrong.
Through the power of God, we have access to what Jesus died to give us in these situations—true freedom.
“For freedom Christ freed us. Stand fast therefore and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).
“Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29).
He walked this road before us, and He walks it again with us.
The one who authored our faith will also finish what He’s doing in us and through us. No matter the size or scope of the offense or the degree of the pain, the restorer of all things looks to lead us in the path of forgiveness that allows for redemption and healing to take place.
He lifts our heads and urges us to keep our eyes on Him, the one who is able to carry the weight of our pain and properly administer justice for that pain in holiness. {eoa}
Fia Curley serves on the NightWatch at IHOPKC, participating in prayer, worship and intercession from midnight to 6 a.m. She enjoys blending her passion for prayer, worship and journalism as she labors with the Lord to see His goodness revealed to families, government leaders and immigrants from non-Christian nations.
This article originally appeared at .
“Let the redeemed of the Lord speak out, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy” (Ps. 107:2).
According to the word of the Lord, we’ve been redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Do we believe it? Or do we still underestimate the power of the Lord within us? At first, many will respond with a reassuring response, “No!” But when difficulties designed by the enemy come our way to steal, to kill and to destroy us, many of God’s people cave into the attack of the enemy, often without any form of resistance. This response to Satan’s tactics is not right. We are to believe what God says about His redemptive hand upon us. And what does He say about our redemption from our enemy?
“When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you” (Deut. 20:1). Do not to be afraid of the size of the attack or being outnumbered; in this case, do not fear the number of people rising against you. And I want to encourage you that sometimes the enemy is not people rising against you at all, but it could be a disease, the cell count of HIV or other disease in your body. No matter the number rising against your health and life, don’t be afraid, because God is with you.
“”Pay attention all Judah, and those dwelling in Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not fear, nor be dismayed because of this great army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s'” (2 Chron. 20:15). Again, don’t be afraid of the size of the multitude rising against you, no matter if the multitude is people or sickness or some other form of attack; remember, the battle belongs to the Lord. And according to the Scriptures, Jesus won the battle for us at Calvary. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor. 15:57).
“For they did not take possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, and Your arm,
and the light of Your countenance, because You had favor on them” (Ps. 44:3-7). These battles are not won in our own strength, but in His, and in His manifested presence. “‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts'” (Zech. 4:6).
Clearly throughout Scripture, our God paid the price through His Son; our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, paid the price for our victory; and now it is up to us to trust in His righteous right hand upon us to uphold and deliver us through these vicious attacks of the enemy in whatever form they come against us.
“Do you not know that all those who run in a race run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain it” (1 Cor. 9:24). If you will run your race according to God’s Word, you will live in the victory He provided for us.
But as with any and all promises of God, living victoriously is a choice. “I press toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).
And the only way to victory against our enemy, Satan, is by our faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. “For whoever is born of God overcomes the world, and the victory that overcomes the world is our faith” (1 John 5:4).
And He has given everything we need to overcome the wicked attacks of the enemy: His authority (see Luke 10:19), His supernatural power, unconditional love and the mind of Christ (see 2 Tim. 1:7), His resurrection power (see Rom. 8:11), the power of faith (see Heb. 11:1), the supernatural strength in joy (see Neh. 8:10b), life and healing in His Word (Prov. 4:20-22) and so much more.
Be confident and speak the truth that you are victorious in Christ, and no matter what comes your way, you’ll fight the good fight of faith and complete the race as one who knows they are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (see Rev. 12:11). {eoa}
Becky Dvorak is a prophetic healing evangelist and the author of DARE to Believe, Greater Than Magic and The Healing Creed. Visit her at .
This article originally appeared at .
In the long-running play Les Miserables, the protagonist, Jean Valjean, asks an important question: “Who am I?” Have you really thought about that singular question? And I don’t mean in any particularly existential way. I just mean, have you thought about what truly makes up all that you are—experiences, beliefs, attitudes, life choices?
I would have said that I had done that over the course of my life, but it wasn’t until recently that I really looked at the answer to that question. I believed that every decision I had made, every step I’d taken in the course of my life was the result of other things I had done or other things that had been done to me. As Christians, we know that our identity lies somewhere else, and therefore our lives have the ability to reflect something far greater than just the things of this world. Understanding who you are will determine how you live and whether that life is one characterized by joy and peace or by pain and misery.
Satan knows how important it is that we know who we are, and he has made it his business ever since man first breathed to confuse us and lie to us about who we are. Convincing us that our identities are in the things that happen to us or in the things that we do is the devil’s favorite deception when it comes to toying with the bride of Christ.
Unfortunately what often happens is that we become bound by the devil’s lies, lies about who we are and who God is, and lies about what that means in our lives. The lies aren’t about our choices or even about the things that are done to us. Those are real. The lies are used to tie who we are to those things. The following list reflects the top five lies the devil doesn’t want you to see, lies that he uses to keep you in bondage so that you don’t see who you really are—the adored and treasured bride of Jesus Christ.
Lie No. 1: You Are Worthless
As with all of Satan’s identity lies, they begin in our youth. It might be something that happens to you or something someone says, but somewhere something will take place that is interpreted in your young mind as, “You don’t matter. You have no value. You aren’t loved. They don’t care. You are worthless.”
This is the No. 2 lie used by the enemy, and it is the most insidious, because we can build our entire lives on it without even knowing it. And it is in direct contradiction to what our Father proclaims about His children the moment we become His:
” In this way the love of God was revealed to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
We are not worthless. We are the royal bride of the Savior of the world. And yet, Satan most often begins with this one, typically in our youth, when we don’t even see it coming.
Lie No. 2: Image Is Everything
Following closely on the heels of worthlessness is the lie of image. Once we believe that we have no worth, we are ripe to believe the lie that we need to find out how to get that elusive value that everyone else seems to find without effort. This lie tells us that we need to figure out how to feel love or acceptance or belonging or whatever else we may label it as.
The tabloids and news media offer an immediate solution to our problem—image. Build an image. Maintain an image. Find an image. But one image seldom suffices. We will find that we need many images, and the exhaustion of being everything to everyone is the life-long merry-go-round that results from the second lie in Satan’s bag of tricks.
Lie No. 3: Be Strong
This lie looks so positive from a worldly perspective. After all, who doesn’t love a strong man or woman? However, do you know what is true of every person who has built a tower of strength and resolve that protects their heart, their mind, and everything around them? That person is the only one behind that wall. There they are, all alone, lauded as a paragon of strength and dignity by a world that stands thousands of miles away, pointing from a safe, yet respectful distance.
The problem is that these identity lies have a natural cascading effect. Worthlessness naturally gives way to image-building, which naturally gives way to strength-wielding, all of which yield bitter, lonely people. And that’s exactly the way Satan wants us.
Lie No. 4: You Deserve This
Once we come face to face with the mess we’ve made of our lives, wouldn’t it be nice if the devil would just leave us alone? It would, but he doesn’t, and there’s a reason for that. The reason is because that’s the point at which we are about to become really useful in God’s kingdom. That’s the point at which our story becomes a testimony and we are about to become our Father’s instruments unto righteousness. Satan’s next best tool, then, is to convince us of his fourth favorite lie, and this one is one of condemnation.
You see, Satan loves to use half-truths, because a half-truth when used a certain way becomes a devastating whole lie. He likes to use Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death,” because that’s a truth. Satan likes to stop there, because when he stops there, he can add condemnation. “You deserve every awful, horrible thing that comes your way, he likes to whisper, Because you are awful, and God says you deserve death.”
That’s a truth, but we have to know all of the truth. All of Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have to know all of Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
That’s how we do battle with the half-truths of the Liar who tells us we deserve that which Jesus already paid on our behalf.
Lie No. 5: It’s Too Late
The final of the top five lies Satan likes to use to confuse God’s children about their identities is that it’s simply too late for them to receive forgiveness, that they’ve simply sinned too much or too often or too grievously. It’s truly a horrible place to be in life when you feel that you’ve just gone too far for too long.
I’ve counseled so many people in this place. I’ve been in this place myself, and this lie can be the most devastating of the five because it can seem the most insurmountable. Where do we go when we see God’s Word, and we feel we have simply broken it too many times? Romans 5:8 reminds us that while we were still in the midst of our sinning, Jesus willingly went to the cross so that we might live. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous but for the unrighteous. He came because we need Him, and there’s no such thing as too far gone.
The bondage of these five lies is so heartbreaking, but it is also unnecessary. I lived captive to them for many years, but once the truth of who I had been all along finally broke through, the light of Jesus shown in me a light that is far brighter and far stronger than the darkness of Satan and his feeble lies. This is the light that is available for all of God’s children, and this is the truth that the devil doesn’t want you to see.
But we can see. We just have to look. We just have to expose the lies, and we do that by replacing the lies with the truth. {eoa}
Dr. Deborah Waterbury is the founder of Love Everlasting Ministries, a nonprofit organization that formed the “Reap What You Sew” school, which offers tailoring and business training to widows and destitute women in Malawi, the poorest country in the world. She hosts a live, daily radio talk show called “Doing Life with Dr. Deb.” She has authored nine books, including her latest, The Lies that Bind: And the Truth that Sets You Free. Dr. Waterbury holds a master’s in the art of teaching from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, and acquired her Doctorate of Ministry in biblical expository studies from Pillsbury Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. She currently resides in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband, Jeff. For more information, visit .
Quaint, I thought, as I checked into the Locomotive Inn. It was a stop-off on the 12-hour drive to visit my mom over spring break. Then I woke up at 2:30 in the morning to realize Oh, a locomotive! I made a mental note to think more literally next time I was motel shopping.
The train whistled only a stone’s throw from my room, leaving me wide awake, and worries began rolling through my mind.
All kinds of worries: money stuff, kid stuff, car stuff, school stuff, what-am-I-gonna-make-for-Easter-dinner stuff.
I worked the pillow a good one as I tried sleeping in various positions with no success. Anxiety about all of life grew, until I became a blurry-eyed, sheet-twisting pile of panic. (Isn’t nighttime the worst?) A feeling of helplessness filled me, but then the Lord snapped his fingers loud and got my attention with the word “helpless.”
Helpless, yes. I don’t like it.
Pride had me twisting and turning under the covers, because I wanted control of all the things. I wanted control! I wanted to know there would be enough money for everything. I wanted to know our old cars would keep going. I wanted to know I could pull off Easter dinner like a boss.
I said the word “helpless” once in disgust and then a second time in humble confession, and it was then the Lord lifted my eyes to His face and smiled. “Look at Me,” He said. There in the night I started to see his qualities go by like train cars. Powerful. Rich. Provider. Shepherd. Father. All-seeing. Path Straightener. Caring.
In a smooth, rhythmic motion, I turned from my list of worries and started working through the new list.
Wheels-a-turning, just like in the little picture book we used to read to Caleb when he was little: “God is able. God is able. God is able.”
Wheels-a-turning.
And with that, I slipped into a restful sleep.
Psalm 29:2b says: “worship the Lord in holy splendor.”
This is the remedy for all the churning, worrisome thoughts in our minds: to stop and think about who God is and what He can do. It takes mental effort, but it is this track of thinking that brings us to perfect peace.
Will you say the word “helpless” over yourself today and then purposefully admire the one who is not? {eoa}
This article originally appeared at .