101 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT HEALTH AND WEALTH

January 2015 – Week 4

A FAMILIAR ROADBLOCK

How many want more of Jesus? Brother Billy, what kind of crazy question is that? Well, do you realize there is NOTHING stopping you from having ALL of Jesus that you want? Do you believe that is true? Alright stay with me – I did NOT say that something would NOT try to hinder us or would NOT to TRY to STOP us! Amen? I GUARANTEE you that OUR carnality and every demon this side of Texas are trying to INFLUENCE us away from God! BUT – hallelujah – if we become determined that we are going to surrender our independence and we choose to follow the blueprint that God has drawn for our destiny – He promises – that we can be the victorious overcomer that He has called us to be!

When Christ spoke of His church He said the GATES OF HELL would NOT prevail against it! And Jesus said that you and I are MORE than overcomers through Him who loved us. You see, if the devil could stop us – He would! But the best he can do is “whisper” lies in our ears and hope that we believe them! We see in Romans chapter 8 and verses 35-39, all the things that cannot stop God’s love toward us, why – because His “will” chooses it to be so! Allow me to list them; tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, powers, the present, the future, height, depth, or any creature. Amen? However – Who can tell me what can STOP our love toward God? THE WILL! We can control how much we love Him and how much of our specific destiny we accomplish!

The devil is NOT stopping us from being close to God! You see – there is a HUGE difference between something that tries to DISTRACT you – and something that has the POWER to STOP you! Maybe we should go back to the original question. Maybe the question is more like – just how much of JESUS do we WANT? Mmmmm…. Amen or oh my! One of the first songs I was ever given was called “ALL OF HIM – NONE OF ME” and I can promise you that my flesh has always hated that song! My carnality played a similar version but it was turned around backwards – it was called “ALL OF ME – NONE OF HIM!” Amen? And it was perfectly satisfied to sing and dance to that song every minute of every day. WHY? Because the human WILL, the un-renewed mind and the flesh knows that WITHOUT Jesus they can continue to live in rebellion – BUT WITH Jesus they must be crucified! It is NOT the devil that we should be concerned about today! We have authority in the name of Jesus over the kingdom of darkness – and God’s Word assures us that his “bark is much worse than his bite” Remember – the devil was DEFEATED at Calvary! Amen! It is our WILL within us that is our most dangerous enemy which is why spiritual warfare is fought on the battlefield of the MIND! Are there still any warriors left? Let us take a peek at II Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down IMAGINATIONS, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of God.” It is within US that we decide to cast down our will and love God completely. And when we make this sincere commitment to love Him with all of our heart – we will obey His will.

7. Do you think God “causing” sickness and disease is different from God “using” sickness and disease to teach us? This is a very complicated question. Many believe that since God can STOP anything from happening, that He is allowing (not causing) it to happen. In this light, we could conclude that He decides each moment which circumstances He will intervene and prevent – and other matters which He will allow to occur. This is DEEP in anyone’s view! For example, one child runs out into street after a ball and the Lord is standing there watching carefully. There are cars parked up and down the street which makes it difficult to see and the driver that is approaching the area is NOT aware that a young child is about to run out behind one of them. God COULD stop the child or stop the car – – – but will He? Does He want to see the child die? No, of course not. Has He intervened in other situations? Yes. Why doesn’t He do it every time? Many will say, “He can do whatever He wants to do” and this may be partially true, BUT His sovereignty cannot “trump” His integrity. What does this mean? God does not just randomly pick and choose who will live and die without any kind of divine order which is directly associated with His character. If God operated this way, we would have no security or confidence that he would be THE perfect judge! In Romans chapter two and verse 11, we find the context of an explanation about the law and judgment. “For there is no respect of persons with God.” This is saying that God does not CHEAT for anyone about anything. There are definite reasons why things happen and most of them are NOT what we think.

Do you believe that faith and prayer might have something to do with whether He intervenes or not? If a parent prays every day and seeks the Lord for a hedge of protection around their child – the Lord listens. There have been untold “close-calls” that have been miraculously prevented because of someone’s prayers. If a parent does NOT pray a “covering” of blessing and safety over their child, the family is more vulnerable to attack from the dark side. “The thief cometh not, but for to KILL, and to STEAL and to DESTROY: I [Jesus] am come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) This should sober us to the importance of praying for everyone we know because we might be saving others from destruction? Are you saying that prayers of faith are really that powerful? What do you believe? I just cannot accept the idea that God would intentionally cause a child to be run-over because He wanted to get someone’s attention. Some might say, God has a purpose for everything. Well, just because He can help patch up the holes in a wall, does not mean that He made the holes – it just means He tries to help us make the best of bad situations. Of course, He does have a plan and He makes things happen according to His will – but it is important for us to NOT confuse what is right and wrong! He bases His words and actions on His own divine principals of virtue, honor, perfection and incorruption. Yes, God functions within His own guidelines – He is good and always says and does what is TRUE! Well brother, His ways are higher than our ways – that is true, but He will NEVER contradict His own Word! Every day there are messages and instructions from God about His WILL but how much we learn depends on our sensitivity – and that comes directly from how close to Him we choose to be.

8. If we are living in sickness and or poverty what do you think God is trying to teach us? To begin with, I realize that many of God’s people are sick and poor. God does NOT “condemn us” if we are going through it – He just wants to help us “out of it.” One reason we know this is true is because so many are led by the Lord to help others. It is true, we do not need to be healthy and wealthy to love God or serve Him. I realize that I have a lot of learning to do, but at this juncture in my studies, I lean toward “faith” rather than God’s “will” as being the deciding factor when it comes to sickness and poverty. Condemnation is usually mentioned in the discussion but there needs to be a definition of the word to truly understand what is being said. Condemn means to – judge, blame, reproach, denounce, accuse and disapprove. The idea of an individual feeling condemnation from someone else would be a sense of “guilt” for the situation they are in and this would imply that it is their FAULT that they are experiencing this fate. Let us contend – there IS guilt! Besides the obvious failures and mistakes, we ALL are guilty of SINNING and sin has caused the cruel environment and intense warfare that we all experience. As we have said, there are reasons why things are the way they are and some of them may be a result of “self- infliction but it all can be traced to sin and the fall. In either case, just because we are caught in a “trap” does not mean we are sentenced to live in one! Amen! It is TRUE – physical health and wealth is NOT the highest priority – living in the Spirit with God is our most important treasure. However, that does not mean the “abundant life” is only limited to our spirit.

Jesus desires to teach all of us the same thing – His truth, whether we are sick and poor or not. If we are content to remain in our situations then He will allow us to continue this way. If we are influenced by FEAR and have been convinced there is no hope, then we shall have what we believe. If being sick and or poor awakens us and stimulates us to search for the revelation of God’s Word that has the solutions to our problems – then ALL glory to His name! If we believe that prayers in faith can move mountains and that NOTHING is impossible with God – then we can learn what it means to be delivered. We can testify that once we were oppressed but have now been delivered by the power of God! Being held in bondage refers to sin but also can mean that we are “confined” and limited to enjoy the fullness of God’s blessings. We must take into consideration that having a serious illness and or poverty not only reduces the quality of our life but prevents us from helping others. It would seem that part of our prayer life would be to ask the Lord to teach us how to be healed and be prosperous. Isaiah chapter 61, speaks of preaching a gospel of proclaiming liberty to all who are held captive by the default system and in verse 4 it talks about building, raising up and repairing – but all of this is not going to happen if we have no resources and are suffering and bound by the strongman.