Featured Jesus ministry...who is to carry it out?

You must have missed my post #54...

 

We Receive Spiritual Blessings from God through Our Spirit

Paul said that God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Christ was raised up and seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly realms, and we are seated with Him in the heavenly realms right now because we are in Him (Ephesians 1:20). We can't visualize or comprehend this very easily because we think of our present physical reality as being the "true" reality. But this physical reality is only temporary, and the unseen spiritual reality is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). The unseen spiritual reality is the true reality. At this very moment, our born-again spirit is a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20), and in the unseen spiritual reality we have already been raised up with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6). Our spirit is in Christ and with Christ at all times, as part of His body, but our mind and emotions are more focused on the cares and responsibilities and pleasures of our temporary physical reality down here in "this dark world" (Ephesians 6:12). Obviously we will have cares and responsibilities in this world, and not all pleasures are wrong, but if we can allow the spiritual reality to flow through our spirit into the physical world like streams of living water (John 7:38-39), then we're more likely to see miracles and healings and so on. Unfortunately, Christians are mostly tuned into this physical world and rarely tune into the unseen spiritual reality, so they rarely experience much of the supernatural here on earth.

 

Paul also pointed out that we are made up of a spirit, a soul, and a body (e.g. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Also see Hebrews 4:12). Our spirit is in constant contact with God, and our body is in constant contact with the physical world, and everything else (our mind, will, emotions, personality, etc.) is our soul, according to Bible teachers.

God is a spirit (John 4:24), and we're in constant contact with Him through our born-again spirit which is in Christ. We receive spiritual blessings from God through our spirit, and it's our responsibility to manifest these spiritual blessings outwardly.

For example, when we receive our born-again spirit at salvation, we also receive the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are spiritual blessings (in our spirit), and we must use our mind and will so that these spiritual blessings are manifested outwardly into the physical world.

In other words, we don't automatically love our neighbor, for example, but instead we had to be commanded to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:39, Romans 13:9-10). So even though the fruit of the Spirit is in our spirit, it's our responsibility to do something so that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are outwardly visible. Those things don't do anyone any good if they remain inside of us!

We also receive gifts of the Spirit through our spirit, and it's our responsibility to do something so that our spiritual gifts are outwardly visible. If you have the spiritual gift of evangelism (e.g. Ephesians 4:11), for example, then it's in your spirit and available at all times, but you must speak to people in order for that gift to become outwardly visible.

 

The point here is that we must do something in order for the fruit and gifts and blessings in our spirit to be manifested outwardly into the physical world. We must walk in love, and act with patience, and exercise self-control, and speak in evangelism, and so on, which causes these inward things to come outward into the physical world.

All of these gifts and blessings from God were made available to us in the Atonement. In other words, the Atonement made it possible for us to receive salvation and all of the spiritual blessings which come with salvation.

But what about divine healing? Is it a blessing from God? Absolutely. Does this mean that we receive healing from God through our spirit, just as we receive all of the other fruit and gifts and blessings from God through our spirit? It would certainly be consistent. Does this mean that we must do something so that the blessing of healing is outwardly manifested into the physical world, just like with all of the other fruit and gifts and blessings from God?

This might be difficult to grasp at first, and the reason is because we're bumping up against another assumption. For example, if people receive a miracle of healing in their body, then we assume that it was a physical blessing from God. But remember, it's our born-again spirit which is in constant contact with God, and God provides spiritual blessings from heaven to us through our spirit, intending for them to flow through to the outside world in our words and actions and attitudes and behaviors and so on. If we compare divine healing with the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, notice that they all come from God, and they are all meant to be manifested outwardly into the physical world. In other words, if healing flows from God through our spirit to the outside world (our physical body), then this is consistent with all of the other spiritual blessings from God which we have looked at. This implies that we must do something so that our healing is manifested outwardly, just like with all of the fruit and gifts from God.

 

THe only thing that says is that I am a full gospel baptist....

 

Are we falling down with the ministry that Jesus passed down through His disciples?

If a sick person came to one of your churches...would you say...
"Why are you coming to us? Go to the doctor!

If a poor person came..
"Well, have you checked with the government agencies and tried welfare yet?"

A discouraged, depressed, and under some kind of demonic oppression....
"Let me refer you to a psychiatrist or other professional who could prescribe you some kind of drug"

Is that the attitude God wants us to have?

I challenge you all to look up the word "Sozo" ....
You will find that 38 times is referes to the forgiveness of sins!
You will also find 53 times as "saved" (past tense) in reference to frogiveness of sins. Howecer, there were also times wher this exact same Greek word was translated as "healed"

Mark 5:23 for example.

This word also applies to deliverace from demons!

This word proves an interesting study when you study the atonement!

 

THe outward man was perishing when Jesus walk the earth too...and He still healed and so do others!

I agree that we all will die physically...But the power of God to heal is still here as long as the Holy Spirit is!

 

THe word "healed" is referring to physical healing in the story of Jairus.

Sozo is also used in Acts 14:9 "THe same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed (sozo)"

James 5:15 is a classic example of Christ's saving power manifesting inour lives both as healing and forgiveness of sins.

"THe prayer of faith shall save (sozo) the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

"Is it lawful on the sabbathdays to do good, or to do evil? to save (sozo) life, or to destroy it?

Jesus turned and healed the man with the withered right hand. THis was not just forgiveness of sins. He meant the healing of the body.

 

so did salvation end at the cross too? This logic does not make sense to me...
Matt. happen before the cross...so how is that a fulfilment?

 

First of all, recall that receiving salvation means that we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:14-15, Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 4:22-24). Receiving salvation does not cause our old self to be "patched" or "healed" because our old self is crucified (Romans 6:6-8) and our spirit is born from God (John 1:12-13, 3:3, 6, 8, 1 Peter 1:3, 23, 1 John 5:1). This new spiritual life is available to us because of the shed blood of Jesus (e.g. Romans 4:25, 5:6-10, Colossians 1:20).

Notice that Isaiah told us what the Messiah was going to do for us:
Isaiah 53:4: "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted."
Isaiah 53:5: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
According to the above prophecy, Jesus took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, and was pierced for our transgressions, and was crushed for our iniquities, and His punishment brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed. Jesus did more for us than we can comprehend!

 

Never once have you responded to the scriptures I have posted...hmmmm!

 

Point proven!