I want to show you how God can literally change your life today. As you read His Word and listen to His voice, you are being transformed into His likeness. The Bible teaches that we are being changed from glory to glory… for those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29).
When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet Him… One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son, so You could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked Your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to Me.” So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth. “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if You can.” “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!” Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. (Mark 9:14-29, NLT)
Here we have a problem: Jesus had left His disciples to pray, and while He was gone, a man brought his son to the disciples to be healed. But they couldn’t do it. So when Jesus came back, immediately, the father runs to Jesus and asks, “What is wrong with Your disciples?! I brought my sick son to them and they couldn’t heal him.” Jesus did two things: firstly He rebuked the disciples by saying, “Faithless and perverse generation”, then He commanded that the boy be brought to Him. And Jesus cast the devil out of the boy.
The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. (Nahum 1:7, NIV)
People are all too quick to blame God for the problems in the world. I want to tell you: these problems are not from God. I believe two things. First, I believe God is a good God. And second, I believe the devil is a bad devil. God did not create sin, sickness and discord; what God created was perfect. It was only when the devil came that sin and sickness came. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” In my ministry, if people want to be healed, sometimes we call on God, but very often we command the devil to go in Jesus Name, after all, the devil is the cause of the distress.
Jesus came and told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18, NLT)
We all experience difficulties and challenges throughout our lives. You are not alone in your suffering. Just like you, I had to learn to call upon the Name of Jesus to solve my problems; I had to learn to persevere in faith. It was through these experiences that I learnt faith in God. When I realised the power of God, when I saw what He could do, that He has all power and authority, I understood that He could solve my problems. There is nothing impossible for Jesus; all we have to do is believe. I have seen God heal all kinds of sicknesses: twice He has healed me of cancer; throughout my ministry in Russia, Ukraine and eastern Europe, the testimony has been the same as the instruction of Jesus to John the Baptist’s disciples, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Luke 7:22.) Although I’ve seen healing miracles, I am not the healer, God is the healer! The sick are healed because of the power God placed in the Name of Jesus!
Therefore, God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11, NIV)
‘Let Your living water flow’ used by kind permission of www.vinesong.com