Brad,
Great posts on this topic! Thanks for your thoughts here and being willing
to share of your study and experience.
Vicki
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad D" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: [ECHURCH-USA] Safe Place Fellowship
> What is so very important in such things is a balance. I've seen blind
> folks say they believe God wants them blind because they have not been
> healed, and I've heard the opposite as you, that a lack of faith keeps you
> blind. Well it is undeniable that faith is required, either that or Jesus
> lied to the leprous and blind alike, as well as the woman with the issue
of
> blood. However, James also talks about that we will not get what we want
> because of potential misuse of it. Praying to be healed and not seeing
it's
> immediate remedy does not constitute God willing us to be blind or sick no
> more than the idea of a lack of faith keeping us so. I believe many people
> default to that to reside in a safe haven because they either can't see,
no
> pun intended, a balance, or they can't deal with the idea of God letting
us
> sit where we are until we are positioned rightly for healing to come to
> fruition. I studied healing in great depth years ago, and in fact was
> instantaneously healed from one visual issue, that was amazing to me. Why
> did not god heal me all the way at that point? I can't say. does that make
> the healing I had null and void? Absolutely not. It showed me that he does
> heal today, can and will heal me, but yes, he is sovereign and his time is
> his time. That again does not constitute his will being for me to be
blind.
> We need to take care to not make suppositions of God's will in our life.
> Just because we made a mistake in our life in an area, doesn't equate we
> know how to do it right, we just know one way of not doing it in the
> future. God's thoughts are much more complex than ours. I believe he does
> heal today, I believe he can heal me, I believe he does want to heal me, I
> believe that faith does matter, and that a lack of it is but one reason
for
> not having it, but it doesn't equate the reason for my blindness full
stop.
> There are other aspects. Did God have a plan of Moses leading God's people
> out of Egypt? Yes, and was it God's will that they wander about for 40
> years and then get so despondent that only the people approximately 20
> years old and younger will step into the Promised Land? No. The word says
> the people limited God. Can we do the same? I believe so. So just as the
> saying goes... "People look for a move of god, while God waits for a move
> of people", perhaps it is us who need to line ourselves up with god and
not
> wait for God to line up with us. The worst that happens is we strive to be
> a better child of god and remain blind until he comes to take us, or we
> find our position and line up with God and he heals us and we experience
> sight here and now instead of in the great by and by. When it is all said
> and done, it is God's sovereignty that has the last say. I've seen godly
> people with godly people praying for them, and everything done humanly and
> spiritually possible and yet they still died what we'd consider
> prematurely. Somethings we just have to own up to not knowing but yet do
> not toss out God's healing potential or opportunity for us. One side note.
> When I studied healing years back so enthusiastically, I noticed
something.
> healing became my god and not God remaining my god. I began to worship his
> ability and not himself as a whole.
>
> Brad
>
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