Where is the POWER of GOD among His People?

Philip’s comments. I’m trying to get more writers to our blogs, and this is from a sister lady in the SE USA. I hope her note makes us all think, as it did for me. WHY are there so many sick in the Body of Christ? Why are so many who are anointed for healing and who have many praying for them – not being healed? Why don’t we see more great miracles like the early church had? She addresses some of these questions. Enjoy. I will add this: Sometimes healings in the church are not happening as they should because of the way we mistreat one another, the body of Christ (1 Cor. 11:29-32). Surely we will have more confidence when we pray when we’ve been living a life of more obedience to love one another and to believe in His Son (1 John 3:21-23).

Here’s my friend’s blog:                                     

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Revelation 3:14 KJV -- And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue (vomit) thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”

 These are the words of our Lord as He spoke to John. What does that have to do with us who love and are in awe of our powerful and loving God? We not only love our God and His Beloved Son; we pray to them daily and go to church weekly, then why do many of our prayers seem to go unanswered?

That is the question of a recent conversation I had with a Pastor. He brought up the promises of Yahshua as He spoke to His disciples.

John 14:12 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and GREATER works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, “Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”

Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.”

Since Yahshua does not lie, nor does the Father lie and we have been promised we would do greater things than Yahshua even did -- the fault must lie with us.

How can that statement be true? As stated we go to church, we pray daily, we believe completely in a loving and merciful God and His Beloved Son. The scriptures quoted also say you must believe in Yahshua and you must have faith and all of these good and faithful Christians will answer definitively “I do believe and I do have faith”.

Okay, then why haven’t you been able to “raise the dead”, why haven’t “your anointing’s healed the sick” “why haven’t the prayers for peace been answered, why are we not able to comfort the brokenhearted and troubled?”

The questions can go on and on and we seem to find no answer. Could it be the answers are plainly there in scripture, if we search and also could it be the answers lie within our own selves? We have been told to examine ourselves.

1 Cor. 11:28 “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.”

2 Cor. 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

Unfortunately, those of us who follow the Holy Days act like we are to examine or prove ourselves only at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That would make a lot of sense if we only were to sin at that time of year. Examining ourselves is an everyday process, just as our baptism was only the first step in the long process towards being perfected. Maybe we can learn from what it says our Savior went through.

Hebrews 2:9 “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

10 For it became him, (Yah) for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Hebrews 5:8 “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him”

Luke 13:32 And he said unto them, “Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”

Again, what does this have to do with Yah not answering our prayers? Israel became Yah’s example to the heathen and pagan world; if they obeyed the laws, statutes, commandments, etc. that were given to them, they would enjoy the blessings of Yah and been His perfect example of a godly nation. In a perfect world, Israel would have been obedient; the true and perfect example. It would be easy to imagine the rest of the world being witness to what was being given to the Israelites and the realization coming upon them, (the heathens, and the pagans) where those blessings originated. We all know what happened, Israel turned to pagan gods and sinful living, not needing God. Yah gave them warning after warning; afflictions after afflictions and yet there was no true and lasting response or repentance.

Could it be that is what is happening today?

Isaiah 29:13  KJV Wherefore YHVH said, “Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept (command) of men…”

Ezekiel 33:31 KJV “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. (gain, profit)”

 Matthew 15:8 “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”

I can only answer for myself, I pray each day, though most of my prayers are short. There have been times, when the phone rang in the midst of a prayer and my curiosity got the best of me. Seeing the phone call was from one of my sons or my grandchildren, Yah was put on hold. After all, He can wait, He knows what I am doing and my poor child or grandchild doesn’t know if I am home or having a health issue. How about you?

Matthew 10:37 “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

No further explanation is needed, I talk a good game, but my actions prove otherwise.

 Yah has told we are not to add to or take from His word.

Deuteronomy 4:2 “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of YHVH your God which I command you.”   Again, see Deut 12:32.

His laws have been done away with or changed by man, along with other changes, additions or deletions and accepted by Judaism and main line Christian Churches as being the truth.

 We are told by Yahshua that we are to live by every word that comes out of the mouth of the Father. (Matthew 4:4)

If we are to believe Yahshua, we are to live by Yah’s word, be obedient to His laws and give continued praise and worship to our loving Father, our powerful God , our Creator.

Yet, we in our wisdom choose to believe and honor the words of tradition, man’s tradition; the changing of the Sabbath from the 7^th day to the 1^st day of the week; the doing away with the laws and being in total rebellion, disobedience. If our own children did what we do, we would be furious and choose to punish them.

I can cite two examples that I have personally heard from “two different believers”. A very good friend of mine had told me that he understood Christmas was based on a pagan holiday, yet he chose to celebrate it. A woman, very well versed in scripture, attending church weekly told me; yes, she personally believes that the Sabbath, the 7^th day of the week, was never changed by Yah to the first day of the week; however, she had no intention of changing her weekly routine.

What did I do? I truly don’t remember, yet I could not have said or done anything of consequence. In scripture, I am told to be BOLD.

Phil. 1:14 “And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”

1 Thess. 2:2 But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.

3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:

4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

Those of us who believe we have been called and yet we choose not to speak God’s truth to those around us with boldness -- are being rebellious, unloving, and without the faith and trust we convince ourselves that we have.

Are we different from the Israelites? They worshipped other gods, behaved as the heathen, yet went to temple and prayed to Yah. Faith, belief and trust are not in words but in deeds, in action.

When I stand by and refuse to acknowledge My Lord, speak not His words, then I am definitely not doing what is expected of me.

How can I be so presumptuous as to believe my God, who gave me the breath of life, yet, I can do and choose to do whatever I want or believe I need.

This study is so different than when I first started. I find it is filled with anger. An anger that is justified, an anger that Yah, Himself is experiencing. We, His children, His creation have decided we know more than He does and we can pick and choose which of His laws we should obey.

Yah’s words are there for all to see and read, yet we choose to listen to another who has the certificate and blessings from a theological college. He has book knowledge, he can quote scripture verbatim, therefore, he has total knowledge and understanding. Is that what Yah says, since He told us He gives to the base and confounds the wise?

1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;”

The anger, also belongs to me, since I am angry with myself that I show myself as being ashamed of my Lord, not willing to speak up more boldly in both my life’s actions and my words.

Philippians 1:20 “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”

I am ashamed of my Lord when I don’t stand up for God’s words. I need to not only live by His words and by being an example, but, also learn to be better able to use His words to let others see they are not truly following Him when they twist His words according to their own desires and to suit their own purpose.

Matt. 10:32 “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

When we are obedient to the traditions of man, we reject and turn our backs on our Lord. We tell Him that we don’t see any importance or significance of His sacrifice for us. That makes his humiliation, scourging, the crucifying only symbolic; a token of no consequences. We rather follow man’s traditions and be comfortable in our lives by not looking foolish in the eyes of our families, friends and neighbors. We convince ourselves, we justify; after all we go to church, we don’t commit the “real bad” sins, such as stealing and murder, therefore, Yah will forgive and forget.

Or so we think.

So why are we not experiencing the raising of the dead, the healing of the sick, comfort, peace, joy? Why?

     Because our actions, are the proof of our belief. And our lack of action is the proof of our unbelief.