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Two New “Revelations” about Healing

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“Fireflies” acrylic on canvas



Today I was reading some healing scriptures and decrees from a really neat little booklet by Keith and Megan Provance called “Scripture Confessions for Healing”.  It’s a great little book to carry in pocket or purse to pull out in waiting rooms and carpool lines etc.   


 I read the section, “I Will Not Give Up” 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 was cited, “We are hedged in (pressed) on every side (troubled and oppressed in every way), but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair;  We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted (to stand alone); we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed; Always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the (resurrection) life of Jesus also may be shown forth by and in our bodies.” (my emphasis)


 IMMEDIATELY, I thought, “Goodness that’s not a very uplifting or encouraging scripture.”   So I read it several more times and a light came on.  Obviously, this is the Amplified version so you get all those “extra” words, but here’s the thing that occurred to me once I waded through all those words a few times and then went to the NIV because I thought I actually saw the hopeful part starting to reveal itself and sure enough it did.  “We always carry around in our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”   My conclusion:  “Healing is a ‘type’ of the resurrection of Christ.”  


We may suffer a tiny bit of what Christ did BUT we get the full and complete benefits (as Psalm 103:2-4 reminds us not to forget) of the resurrection without having to go through the horrible flogging and crucifixion and humiliation our Christ endured as our “stand in” for us.  


The “getting beat around” we experience is nothing compared to what He experienced on our behalf but we get the reward….the salvation AND the healing.  Our healing demonstrates “resurrection power” to the world…….that is when we “discern Christ’s body and the truth that Isaiah 53:5,6, 1 Peter 2:24, and Matthew 8:17 assure us.  Most Christians understand the blood of Christ as assuring us of atonement for sins but many don’t realize the 39 horrible stripes Jesus took on His back with the Roman whip bought our physical healing.   That is why Holy Communion is wine for blood  (sin atonement) and bread for body (physical healing).


I refer you to F.F. Bosworth’s wonderful book, “Christ the Healer” for an indepth explanation of discerning both the blood and body of Christ.  You’ll also learn why so many Christians “sleep early” (die before their time) when they don’t discern the body.


The second concept expressed in the Provance booklet I referred to earlier came as I read the page “Jesus Already Did It”…..which, of course, refers to the Matthew, Isaiah, and 1 Peter scriptures cited above, BUT I got a new insight as I read the Provance’s concise decree:  “My healing was bought and paid for two thousand years ago.  I AM NOT SICK AND TRYING TO GET HEALED.  I AM ALREADY HEALED, AND SICKNESS IS TRYING TO TAKE HOLD IN MY BODY.  BUT I WON’T LET IT!”  (my emphasis)  It’s important to remember that sickness is an attack of the enemy of our souls and not from God.  God is love and love does not distribute sickness for any reason.  


I suggest you order the Provance book to go with the Charles Capps book “God’s Creative Power” and use both in your daily speaking of the healing scriptures because your faith will be bolstered and fear cannot coexist with faith.  Rid of the fear, your prayers take on THE power for healing–the resurrection power of Jesus.


Changing your mindset to match the scriptures will empower you.  Healing battles are fought in the mind.   We are spirits with souls (minds) and we live in a body.   The spirit is perfected by our re-birth in Christ.   The mind (will and emotions) or soul is where either faith or fear take over and faith must be present to pull on the healing power of Christ.   Fear erodes healing.  Mark 11:23,24 teaches a critical lesson about praying in faith.   Mark 11:25 teaches how to remove the main obstacle to receiving healing.


So, think about healing a new way and remember there is a difference between facts and truth……facts are of the world and truth is of the Lord.   Jesus finished the work and has defeated the world (facts).   It’s up to us to obtain our benefits and healing is one of them.    


Stand up and Fight…Truth is on your side!







Balance the Natural and SuperNatural for Health

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“Lace Orbits” by Jacquie Woodward (acrylic and collageon watercolor paper 22″ x 30″)


Let’s take a look at “balance” in healing….that is, balancing the natural or physical and the super-natural or spiritual.  Science and faith are not at odds.   We find as we examine healing that neither scientific law nor spiritual law can be ignored…..there must be a balance.
I refer to far greater forces than “mind over matter”.    A number of posts on this blog talk about the power of God’s Word for healing while others discuss “natural” choices we can make to augment our physical health.  This post speaks to balancing these essentials.
I recently downloaded two interesting mp3 teachings from www.wisdomministries.org which I have referred to in earlier posts about Dr. Nasir Siddiki’s “Healing Made Simple” teachings.  You will remember Siddiki as a former muslim who turned to Jesus when he was dying from the “worst ever recorded case of shingles”.   Turns out that Dr. Siddiki’s wife (raised a Baptist) also has an amazing healing testimony having recovered from MS after being both paralyzed and blinded by the disease.  It was a two year battle in which she learned much about both spiritual and natural warfare.   Both of these cases were dire–standard medicine admitted to having no treatment that would heal them. …..yet, today both are perfectly healthy.  I want to share Anita Siddiki’s story in this post.  I recommend you go to the website above and download the teachings, “Obtaining Your Healing” and “Keeping Your Healing” as you will receive enormous encouragement as well as specific ways to pursue your healing/health.
Anita Siddiki’s story, indeed, demonstrates the necessity of melding the natural and supernatural.  Her first scripture reference is 2 Chronicles 16:12 (AMP) 12 “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign (King) Asa was diseased in his feet—until his disease became very severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but relied on the physicians. 2 Chronicles 16:13 (AMP)  13 And Asa slept with his fathers (died), dying in the forty-first year of his reign. “
Anita’s point is that even if we seek the help of physicians and/or nutrition, alternative therapies, etc., we MUST seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  She talks a lot about “not being goofy” and chasing every “silver bullet” but also not being silly and denying natural things the Holy Spirit might direct us to.  
My friend, Sue, has a story that reinforces Anita Siddiki’s point.  Sue was diagnosed in late fall (about 7 years ago) of a 23 cm abdominal tumor and told she would be dead by Christmas.  Sue immediately sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit and, as John 16: (AMP)13 teaches, “ But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. “  The Holy Spirit guided Sue to go ahead and submit to chemo-therapy.  Amazingly, she felt the presence of God the entire time and never had a single “side effect” from the treatment although she had been told she would.  
Sue was also led by a scripture, King James Version – Prov 17:22  “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”   A career woman, Sue had never watched much TV and had not seen “Everybody Loves Raymond”.   So she got DVD’s of back episodes of this sitcom and several other clean comedy shows and gave herself a long healthy dose of laughter.  
Sue’s post treatment scans and tests showed NO evidence of the tumor and she is in perfect health now years later.  She’s still quick to pray and laugh.  
What’s the point?  As Anita Siddiki summarizes it:  “Spend time with God every day so you know when He’s speaking to you.”  She explains that “The Lord showed her natural things to do besides the critical necessity of hearing and SPEAKING God’s Word as much as possible.  [She was so weak at times that she couldn’t speak but would “whisper in her heart” the name of Jesus repeatedly.  Then she got recordings of healing scriptures being read, and, as soon as she was able, made recordings on old fashioned cassette tapes of her own voice reading healing scriptures.]  As she says, “she did what she could do and believed God for more.”  
Siddiki is very cautious about sharing specific “natural” things she did for her healing because she urges individuals to allow themselves to have their own “protocol” customized by the Holy Spirit.   However, an example of the Holy Spirit leading her to “natural” helps was “lying in bed praying and realizing (with a “check in her spirit”) that her body needed something specific in the way of nourishment even though the doctors never really talked about nutrition.   In fact, the doctors didn’t know what to do and admitted it.  
In this meditating and trusting in God, she “saw” a glass of brownish juice and was a bit puzzled.   She was led to realize it was carrot juice and, after she did some studying, found out that Carrot juice was rich in Vitamin A, Beta Carotene and other specific nutrients that supported the body’s own healing systems.   
Another example of a “check” in her spirit during prayer that led her to a “natural” help was a craving for a food she had trouble identifying.  She couldn’t find (identify) it in her house and the Lord showed her to position herself mentally in a grocery store.  She obeyed and suddenly she “saw” (out of season in Canada where she lived) a big ripe juicy peach.  A peach was a hard “prescription” to fill, but she studied nutrition until she found that peaches were rich in Vitamin C.   The Lord actually directed her to foods rich in vitamin C.
Siddiki says, “The Lord was telling her that common sense can be spiritual.  He showed her natural things she could do for her healing.  The Lord WILL customize healing for your situation.  Press in and spend time with the Lord.  Go to the Bible before health food books.  The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth.”   
Relating several stories of people she knew who have chased all kinds of “healing fads” and “so called silver bullets”, Anita Siddiki stresses, “It is individual.  What you do won’t work if you can’t have real faith in it and you can’t do that without the Holy Spirit Leading You.  It’s individual.  You have to have faith in whatever the Lord leads you into.  You MUST know from God, “This is what I’m supposed to do.”
She became familiar with a lot of scriptures that show the “down to earth” side of Jesus and that “natural living” is part of God’s healing.  I’ll share these in the next post on this blog.
For now, meditate on the need to balance the natural and supernatural or the physical and spiritual in obtaining your healing/health.   Remember, as 1 Peter 2:24 assures us, Christ already bought and paid for everyone’s healing with the stripes He took before His crucifixion.  Isaiah 53 and Matthew 8 concur.   But we will be attacked by the enemy of our souls and symptoms are that enemy’s “empty lies”.   If, as James 4 says, we submit to God and resist the enemy (however), he will flee from us.   WE WIN!

Confess Your Healing Out Loud

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Hollyhocks by Jacquie Woodward





The last post in this blog about the woman with the “issue of blood” in Mark chapter 5 dealt with a truth that keeps popping up as I persevere in my study and research about healing.
When I wrote that post “Activating Your Faith for Healing”, I was actually in a personal struggle with symptoms that matched or even surpassed in intensity and form those I had previous to my surgeries for my neuroendocrine tumor.  I was in a spiritual battle with the enemy who is the source of all disease and I was, in fact, personally reading aloud several times a day the healing scriptures Charles Capps organizes for us in the booklet I mentioned, “God’s Creative Power”.  I also listened to Dodie Osteen and Kenneth E. Hagin recordings (I keep on my ipod) of a number of healing scriptures.   I was taking heavy doses of “Gos-Pill”…or Gospel.  


I knew this attack had come as I entered a new ministry endeavor of striving to get Katie Souza’s amazing book, “The Captivity Series” into the hands of prisoners in every prison in my state.  This book is available from www.expectedendministries.com and I urge you to order a copy and read it because you will be blessed and Katie will be able to send 10 copies to prisoners.  The book is already in over 500 prisons worldwide.  Anyway, the enemy often attacks when we make a move to be obedient to a “calling” that will shine light on his stealing, lying, and killing.  Healing is a spiritual battle.  
I am blessed and thankful to say that God’s Word is “Creative Power for Healing” and my symptoms have all disappeared and I feel better than ever…….and, in my conversations with the Lord, I have learned to put my trust completely in Him and have stopped taking all the supplements I was taking except Barley Power.  I have become more dedicated to drinking at least 3 pints of fresh carrot/celery juice daily and I have cut animal protein back out of my diet completely except for the Budwig Smoothie.  All this is not a huge change; however, for I was eating little animal protein and was taking no man-made supplements.     But the symptom attack is now a thing of the past.  I am still reading the healing scriptures aloud remembering “faith comes by hearing the Word of God” as Romans 10 tells us.


We know from Scripture after Scripture the power of words and the ultimate power of God’s Word.  Science backs up the power of words.   Now would be a good time to re-read the post in this blog regarding Masuru Emoto’s amazing research into water crystals formed and photographed after being exposed to various words.   Emoto’s book, The Hidden Messages in Water, documents the impact of words on the substance (water) that makes up 70 to 80% of our bodies–indeed most of our entire Creation.  It’s worth noting, also, that the enemy cannot read our minds so that what we say outloud is what resists him.   James tells us, “Submit to God; resist the enemy and he will flee.”   To resist satan, we must speak out loud and, of course, the “full armor of God” we are taught in Ephesians Chapter 6, has only one offensive weapon and that is the “sword of the Holy Spirit which is the Word of God”.  
So, whether or not, after prayer, we choose to submit to modern medicine and/or trust in God’s healing promises, we can align ourselves with “God’s Creative Power” by speaking God’s Word over our bodies faithfully.   I found that doing this for a few days built my faith to a powerful level.  It’s important to focus on the Lord while reading these scriptural decrees and promises and to “take them to heart” which means to “take them into one’s spirit”.    There is, of course, no substitute for praying “in the spirit” for, as Scripture repeatedly and consistently teaches, doing so edifies our spirits and communicates with the Holy Spirit at a level our intellects are incapable of.     For more information about this prayer in the spirit, I recommend Kenneth E. Hagin’s books or Mark Hankins books which are both available from www.amazon.com or from www.rhema.org or  www.markhankins.org .  
Other websites for faith building teaching includes www.charlescapps.com or www.expectedendministries.com or Dr. Nasir Siddiki’s ministry at www.wisdomministry.org .


I can personally witness to the elation that winning the spiritual battle for healing brings.  The amazing joy of realizing what faith in Christ brings with it.  Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”  That is EVERY and EVERY means EVERY.  Peter tells us (2 Peter 1:3-4) “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust”.    Again that is EVERYthing ……and, when we read the Holy Bible…..the NEW Covenant by the blood of Christ seals the deal irreversably and it covers health and prosperity…”even as our soul prospers” as John tells us in his first letter.   We don’t have to earn it–we just have to confess our faith in our Lord.   He’s the way, the truth and the life.  THE life!  And we get His Word and all its power as our “sword”.   Very cool stuff I’d say.  I, for one, was sure glad to have it in my most recent spiritual battle remembering Paul taught us in 2 Corintians 10 that we are not in an earthly war and the weapons of our warfare are spiritual.  I want to hang onto that sword…..I’ve seen it work.
I know that there are many blog readers who are in countries where they may not be able to have Bibles.  I want to just share a few of the scriptures that are so powerful for healing.  Remember, God loves everyone and wants none to perish.
These are close paraphrases of the noted scriptures:
Jesus bore my sickness and carried my pain.  Therefore, I give no place to sickness or pain.  For God sent His Word and healed me. (Psalms 107:20)
I am free from unforgiveness and strife.  I forgive others as Christ has forgiven me, for the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost (Spirit).  (Matthew 6:12 and Romans 5:5)
Father, you have given me abundant life.  I receive that life through Your Word and it flows to every organ of my body bringing healing to all my flesh.  (Proberbs 4:20-22)
Heavenly Father, through Your Word You have imparted Your life to me.  That life restores my body with every breath I breath and every work I SPEAK. (John 6:63 and Mark 11:23)
Father, Your Word has become a part of me.  It is flowing in my bloodstream.  It flows to every cell of my body, restoring and transforming my body.  Your Word has become flesh; for You sent Your Word and healed me.  (James 1:21; Psalms 107:20;Proberbs 13:3)
For other scriptures, read our blog posts on God’s healing Word.  Dodie Osteen used 40 healing scriptures when she was healed of metastatic liver cancer and given only 4 months to live because modern medicine called her “incurable”…..that was in the early 1980’s and she’s alive and well today.  ALL the scriptures Dodie confessed are listed under “God’s Healing Word”.



Activating Faith for Healing

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Atonement by Grace McDaniel and Jacquie Woodward

As we deal with health challenges….indeed, attacks of the enemy on our health….we continue to weigh the options of running to standard pharmaceutical based medicine and/or trusting God and, thereby, God’s Word. Can these options mix?   Is our solution, our healing and health, something we should consider on the level at which the disease was created or the level at which our very being (spirit, soul and body) was created?  We have to put our faith in something when we seek healing.
Einstein, the father of quantum science, told us that no problem could be solved on the level at which it is was caused (para).   We know that God is Love (1 John 4:8) ; therefore, we can be assured God is not the source of disease.  We have an enemy (John 10:10) who “comes to steal, kill and destroy.”….disease is his stock in trade and he works on a worldly level.  I recommend Katie Souza’s “Healing School” available at www.expectedendministries.com  or Henry W. Wright’s book, A More Excellent Way to Be in Health, available from www.beinhealth.com to learn more about the spiritual cause of disease.  Certainly, even “modern medicine” recognizes the worldly culprits causing disease such as cancer…..stress not the least of these.
I’m reminded of an amazing story from Mark 5:25-28.  A Jewish woman who was obviously well taught in Hebrew scripture and law had an “issue of blood” or likely profuse and constant menstrual bleeding for 12 long years and had spent all her money seeking the healing of doctors but was “only worse”….now broke and sicker it would seem.   
Lo and behold, the man, Jesus, came near her hometown and she had heard of this itinerant rabbi.   Signs and wonders followed everywhere he went and ALL he touched were healed.  Being a well taught Jew, she knew this rabbi would wear a prayer shawl with tassels (referred to as “wings”) at the hem and she was ABSOLUTELY convinced that, if she could touch that hem, then she would finally be healed……and she repeatedly SAID SO.    Her action was a risk because women with “issues of blood” by law of the time were supposed to be “in their house and out of public” because they were “unclean”.  She had a choice to make…..a risk to take……or not.   She had exhausted her earthly medical possibilities except this one chance to touch the hem of a man of God’s robe.
She would have known the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible scripture from Malachi 4:2  “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings….” [The Messiah will rise with healing in His wings and beams….or prayer shawl tassels and eyes.]  Obviously, this woman was desperate just as we are when our health is attacked by the evil enemy.  
As Charles Capps tells this story in his powerful booklet, “God’s Creative Power” (which is a pure guide for anyone choosing life over death), “This woman hoped to be healed as she pressed through the crowd.  The Amplified Bible says, “For she kept saying, If I only touch His garments, I shall be restored to health.”
Capps continues (p 56)  “That hope was her goal, but she didn’t FEEL HEALED and she didn’t look healed yet.  But she began filling hope with FAITH FILLED WORDS.  “I shall be restored to health.  I SHALL be restored to health.  I shall be……I SHALL BE…..”
I am sure her head said, “WHEN?”  “You don’t LOOK ANY BETTER, so you are NOT ANY BETTER!”
then she began to answer human reasoning by by being more specific:  “When I touch His garment, I shall be restored to health.”
She was filling her HOPE with a FAITH IMAGE.  She set her own point of contact to receive her healing.  Her words penetrated her spirit and she began to see herself well.  That “grow worse” image of despair and defeat had to give way to the FAITH-FILLED WORDS  that came from her own mouth.
When she touched His clothes, her touch of faith made a demand on the covenant of God and the ANOINTING that was upon Jesus.  Her action was way more than “mind over matter” or “positive thinking”.  
What she was saying was her faith talking.  When she acted out what she said and touched His garment, that faith that was in her BECAME THE SUBSTANCE of her hope, and her words became a living reality.”  
I am going to quote the rest of Charles Capps’ “lesson” here while urging you to order his booklet from either www.amazon.com or www.charlescapps.com so that you will have the scriptures he has organized for you to confess aloud for your own healing just as this woman in Scripture confessed aloud her faith.  Remember, as other blog posts have pointed out, the speech center of our brain is directly connected to all parts of our body and therefore impact what happens in every cell of our body.  There is great power in words.  Remember that God spoke the universe into existence……Einstein could hardly disagree since he came to understand “something” being created out of what appeared to be “nothing”.
Capps continues on page 57-59:  “Notice it was her (the woman in Mark 5) faith that made a demand on the healing anointing that was upon Jesus.  Faith gave substance to her hope and healing was manifested IN HER BODY.”
My note:  Jesus did not DO anything in this healing.  He was obviously surprised to feel power go out of him when this woman touched his hem and said so, but He did not activate her healing.   Her own faith activated her healing….her faith in Jesus.


Jesus, who was walking in a pressing crowd, was touched by many people–surely many of them needing some kind of healing but only one receives healing in this Scripture–the woman who spoke her faith repeatedly and acted upon it believing healing would come at her touch of His hem.  Jesus actually stopped and expressed His surprise saying, “Who touched me?”  The disciples almost chided Him saying “All this pressing throng and you ask who touched you.”  
As Charles Capps discusses, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for” (Heb 11:1).  Hope is important but hope lacks substance until filled with faith.  HOPE is only a goal setter.  Her HOPE was to be healed, but hope DIDN’T HEAL HER!  FAITH gave substance to her hope.
Her faith gave substance to and brought about the manifestation of healing that was already hers because of the covenant (of God with His people).  She had to call for it.  Look at the words of Jesus:  “All things are possible to them that believe…” (Mark 9:23)”….if you had faith as a seed you should say” (Luke 17:6).  “….he that believeth hath” (John 3:36).” ……(Mark 11:23-24).   It is the Bible principle of BELIEVING AND CALLING FOR THINGS THAT ARE NOT YET MANIFEST.
My note:  What Capps is teaching through these Scriptures is that healing (as well as prosperity and all blessings God wants to bestow according to His covenant with His children) is already ours but we must exercise, SPEAK aloud, and,indeed, act on our faith.    Is it a matter of speaking God’s scriptural promises out loud and then presuming we have appropriated healing?   NO!   It’s a matter of believing the Scriptures as we confess them and persevering like this woman did when when she risked it all to touch Jesus’ garment.  It may take time or it may not.
Jesus told the woman (v34)  “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”   
We are three part beings–spirit (the real us), soul (mind, emotions, intellect) and body.  IF we submit our real self–our spirit–to God’s Holy Spirit, we can pray for and receive an infilling of that Holy Spirit.  It is what our resurrected Christ promised in John 16:5-16.  Jesus, Himself, through the Holy Spirit will come to live inside us if we invite Him and He will give us His faith.   Faith for health and all the benefits of our inheritance in Christ Jesus.
The “real us” or our spirits live on a different level than our physical bodies and, when our soul or intellect will get out of the way, we can activate faith in unseen powers that heal us thoroughly.
Einstein also said, “I want to know God’s thoughts.  The rest are details.”  God’s thoughts, obviously, are in His Word–the Bible which has held up to every kind of scrutiny for thousands of years.  God’s Word is where the power is.   We can have that same power in us and there is nothing it cannot accomplish.
Healing takes faith in something…..where has all healing ever come from?   Our Creator!

Play Offense! Carry the Ball!

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“Rocky Point” watercolor on Yupo by Jacquie Woodward

Play Offense!   


My family likes sports.   Three generations of our immediate and extended families are avid participants and fans–mostly individual sports and basketball.  However, because my wonderful son-in-law was a very talented college football player, our family has added football to our list of “fanships”.   We have learned about this complicated game and we know we want to be on the offensive team because it controls the ball.  

It occurs to me that this “offensive posture” is critical for victory in health as well–as it is in all of life’s endeavors.  In her joy filled book, The Happy Intercessor,(available at www.amazon.com or from www.bethelchurch.com ) Beni Johnson writes an amazing chapter about just this point.  She explains, “Offensive teams call the plays.  They must have confidence that they are going to win.(my emphasis) They have to believe that they will win because they know that they control the ball…..The devil lost the ball at Calvary.”   Ms Johnson shares a scripture from Ephesians 4:14 NASB   “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”  

Why quote that verse in a blog about beating cancer?  Because is IS the ball we carry–it puts us on the “offensive team”.  We have been given back dominion and, therefore, have the power to achieve victory.  We have THE playbook in God’s Word.  

Okay, so we are in the huddle of the offensive team and it’s a “do or die” game….now what?  

    • We pray what God wants.  We have His Word which is His will.  We know He wants us well and “in health” because Jesus taught us to pray God’s will be done on earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:10)  and we know from His Word that there is no sickness in heaven.  NONE!
    • We NEVER pray for the Lord to heal us or a loved one IF it be His will because we know it is ALWAYS His will or He would contradict His own Word.  
    • We know the enemy will send  FEAR, lies, distortions, temptations, and   to try to steal the ball–to distract us from HOPE (Faith is the substance of things Hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Heb 11:1) We run the play we know from our playbook understanding, in faith, that the outcome will develop as The Word promises rather than fearing what we temporarily see.   As in football, what we see constantly changes.
    • We are on offense; therefore, we know the Plan that “is written” and we trust it.   We “see” ONLY victory.  We “speak” ONLY victory.  We don’t let the enemy in our huddle to speak lies, fears, doubts.  We stay focused on our Quarterback whose eyes shine with glory light and whose words are truth itself.  We repeat those words aloud ourselves and, therefore, we are sure of the outcome.  We are careful that all our team mates speak ONLY victory.  The opponent/enemy cheerleaders can be well meaning friends and relatives or even caregivers who haven’t read our playbook.
    • We know our opponent (enemy) has no legal rights ONLY if we agree with him. (as Ms. Johnson points out in her earlier referenced book).  “He (the opponent/enemy) won’t play fair.  He’ll go right for our soft spots.”  He has a plan based on fear, but we have the ball and we carry it confidently remembering Jer 29:11 our Lord says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a HOPE.” (emphasis mine).  God doesn’t lie!


If we are prepared to play on the offensive team, we accept the dominion bought and paid for at Calvary.  We accept the dunamis power of the resurrection realizing it is a FACT.  Christ’s resurrection cannot be denied scripturally but it also cannot be denied historically.  The original document of Pontius Pilate’s report to Caesar about the “trial”, crucifixion, and, yes, the resurrection of Jesus is meticulously translated (under careful scrutiny of the Vatican library guards) in an amazing book compiled by William Dennes Mahan called The Archko Volume. (available from www.amazon.com ).  Included are other amazing documents including several other eye witness historical reports about Jesus.  These are archeological and historical records that are not included in the scriptural canon yet they are enlightening.  The Romans and Jews kept immaculate detailed records yet preserved in both Rome and Constantinople.  Even Mohammed had too much respect for these documents to destroy them.  




Our Words Have Power to Heal or Destroy

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“Clear Creek”  Watercolor on Yupo by Jacquie Woodward

Our Words Hold God’s Creative Power
Scientists and students of God’s Word share a lot of knowledge.  ..Scientists call the information “facts” and these students call the same basic concepts “truth”…..Scientific and Spiritual Law (in the Holy Bible) do not conflict although science has not caught up with spiritual law in every case.  Still, fact and truth coincide perfectly regarding the power of words.   Words we speak, even more than words spoken to us, powerfully impact our reality.   
Among the many Bible passages referring to our words are:
Matthew 12:37 (MSG) 
 Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.” 
Proverbs 18:21 (KJV) 
  Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. 
Proverbs 6:2 (AMP) 
 You are snared with the words of your lips, you are caught by the speech of your mouth.
In reality, the speech center of the brain is the same area that signals the endocrine system which, of course, transmits complex information to every cell of our bodies……literally “bossing these cells around”.   Our “stress responses” such as the secretion of cortisol,  ultimately impact our immune system and susceptibility to disease.      Our own words literally communicate with every cell of our bodies evoking responses that make our words come true.  Victory or defeat is in the power of our own words.  
 Negative statements–even casual cliches such as “I’m trying to catch the flu.”–are likely to come true.   Why?  Because we are saying what we really believe or we repeat it enough to start believing it.  We usually have what we say even when we say things like:     “I’m dead tired.”  “He/She will be the death of me.”  “The stress of this job is killing me.”   “I just get one cold after another.”  “This is going to be the worst allergy season yet.”   “I’ll never find a wife/husband.”   “I have incurable cancer.”  “I have cancer.”  “I’m in remission (thinking:  remission=temporary recovery.”    “My father/mother died young so I probably will also.”   “My pain is better this week, (but I’ll have something else next week).   It’s always something.”  
“Every time we confess disease and weakness and failure, we magnify the adversary (satan) above the Father (God), and we destroy our own confidence in God’s Word.” (p 9 “The Power of our Words” by Gossett and Kenyon).  Why is this true?    God is Love….God=Love.   Sickness and disease do NOT come from Love–from God.  These things come from the enemy of our souls and our own words give that enemy a landing strip for the attack force.   
The words others speak to us are certainly important as well.  Choosing Life over choosing disease means removing toxins from our lives INCLUDING toxic people–even those who “mean well”.   In his great teaching, “Healing Made Simple”, referenced in an earlier post on this blog, Nasir Siddiki shares the experience of his wife recovering from MS after a two year battle against the enemy’s attack through this disease.  He shares that he kept even well meaning friends and relatives away from his wife because they kept trying to “reason” with her that she should accept her blindness and paralysis and let them get her all the “equipment” she would need to “get by the best she could as she got worse and worse.”   Instead, he recorded all the healing scriptures and they played them constantly as she listened ……for two years.    She confessed the scriptures aloud with the recording and, later, on her own.   Gradually her health returned and she is absolutely healthy today….decades later.
Mysterious?  Supernatural?   Yes!  However, also scientific.   
An earlier blog post talked about the effect of words on water….that’s right on a glass of water or a lake full of water or water then frozen into crystals and photographed.  Masaru Emoto’s profound little booklet “The Hidden Messages of Water” proves that words–kind or unkind–cause reactions in water.    This seems strange at first because we consider water inert.   Scripture does not consider it so…..do a search for water mentioned in the scriptures and you’ll find it is “living water”.   We know that our bodies are mostly water–70% to 80%.    Could words have a profound effect on a glass of water or a jar of rice soaked in water and not have an effect on our bodies?   
I found a most interesting “home science experiment” based on Emoto’s work at   (http://youtu.be/KeTTCeqBwjc.  There are several of Emoto’s experiments shared on Youtube.  
You CAN have what you say……as the great insightful man of God, Charles Capps, wrote in “God’s Creative Power”……If we just say what we have; that’s what we have.   Christ never prayed the problem but always the solution…What we say in prayer is just as important as what we say about and to ourselves.    When we pray standing on God’s Word–actual scriptures–God is obligated to get involved.   He tells us His Word will NOT return void but is like the snow or rain (Isaiah 55:11) …….Hmmmmmmm snow and rain “water” our lives and we cannot live without that water…….Want health?   Makes sense to speak health.
Another interesting blog post on the “Power of Our Words” can be found on The Louise Hay Blog”….Google it.

Praying With the Faith OF God–Rhema Word Prayer

By

“No Wake Zone” Herrington Lake, KY by Jacquie Woodward



David Cho is author of an earth shaking book from the 1980’s entitled “The Fourth Dimension” (actually he wrote  Vol 1 and later Vol 2 using the name Paul Cho).  Cho, a Korean, is minister of the largest Christian church in the world and he has an incredible story including his conversion from Budhism as a youth.  In Vol 1, Chapter Four entitled “Rhema” I believe there is information most American Christians don’t know.

Most of us can quote Romans 10:17  “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” However, many don’t realize that, in this scripture “word” is not logos(written Word of God or Holy Scripture) but “rhema” word of God.   Faith specifically comes by hearing the rhema or the “saying word of God”–that is “a specific word from the Holy Spirit to a specific person in a specific situation”.  

To pray about a decision you must make or to ask for guidance before moving forward, Cho provides a step by step guide for “Rhema seeking prayer”.  His steps include:

1.  Put yourself in neutral gear  “Lord I’m here and I’ll listen to your voice….I will go if you say go and I am not going if you say no.  Be “in the present” not going forward or backward in your prayer thought.  It may require fasting to focus yourself. (p 86 Cho)

2. Ask God to reveal HIS will through my desire.  Cho says, “God always comes to you through your sanctified desire.”  Cho adds, “through the Holy Spirit God puts in your heart the desire, making you to will to do His will.  So pray to the Lord, “Lord, now give me the desire according to your will.”  Stand on these scriptures:

Psalms 37:4 (AMP) 
4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. 
Proverbs 10:24 (AMP) 
24 The thing a wicked man fears shall come upon him, but the desire of the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be granted. 
Mark 11:24 “Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray believe that you receive them, and you shall have them”
Philippians 2:13 “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

 “Pray through and wait upon the Lord until God gives you divine desire.    Do not be in a hurry to jump up and say “I’ve got it” because satan and your own spirit can also give desires.   Time is always a test.  Wait patiently and your own desire and satan’s desire will become increasingly weaker but the desire from the Holy Spirit becomes stronger and stronger.  Wait and receive the divine desire.


3.  SCREEN THAT DESIRE THROUGH SCRIPTURE.
If you pray against the written word of God, satan will speak.  THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL NEVER CONTRADICT GOD’S WORD.  If you don’t have the confidence to do this, go to your minister or pastor for confirmation.

4.    Ask God for a beckoning signal from my circumstances.  If God truly has spoken to your heart, then He is bound to give you a signal from the outside external world.  (like Elijah and Gideon)…A “sign” that assures you of His will.

5.  Finally Pray until I know God’s timing.  Pray until you have real peace (no restlessness of spirit).  You will have the faith OF God (Mark 11:22-23 below) and you will be in God’s timing.  Study the Word of God from Genesis through Revelation so the Holy Spirit will have the material He needs to work with you.
Mark 11:22-23 (AMP) 
22 And Jesus, replying, said to them, Have faith in God [constantly]. 
23 Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.  

Note:  Cho, like the great Healing Minister and Scholar Charles S. Price who wrote “The Real Faith for Healing” agree that this passage from Mark is generally mis-translated from the Greek and we read, “faith IN God” but the original Greek is “faith OF God” and it makes a huge difference because Praying for Rhema Word and Waiting on God bring the faith OF God and that is POWER.    It’s a good idea to use a good concordance and lexicon as well as a variety of commentaries when studying Scripture.  Bible software like Word Search can also be very helpful.

What should you do FIRST after Hearing the “C Word”?

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“Arising” Acrylic on Canvas by Jacquie Woodward 24″ x 24″





Having a doctor say the “C” word about your body is terrifying.  No question.  “Cancer” and many other “disease” diagnoses drop a veil of fear and confusion over life…..suddenly the conversation in the room sounds like slow motion groaning and the patient becomes less a participant and more the object of discussion.  It’s difficult for a patient to stop the mental video of his own dreams vaporizing long enough to catch an occasional word of the discussion.  And all the while the patient’s heart beat is drumming in his or her throat.  It is a time of sheer electric panic………….NOT a time to make treatment decisions…….BUT a perfect time to stop and have a heart to heart conversation with your loving Father–God.  THE Great Physician.


Patients who find themselves facing treatment decisions often rush to schedule surgery……”let’s get this thing cut out and pray they get it all”…..or “let’s burn it out with radiation and pray it doesn’t damage too much other tissue”……..or, “get that chemotherapy started because I don’t want this tumor to get any bigger or spread”…..and pray the chemo doesn’t kill me.   The mindset is “time is of the essence”.    


Usually the order of action is…first, make all the physical decisions and then go beg God to make those decisions work.    Petitioning the Lord AFTER making important decisions rather than first going to Him and laying your situation at His feet seeking His guidance about your decisions is getting it backwards.   


This blog includes a great deal of information about choices and decisions pertinent for preventing and overcoming “disease”–especially cancer.  There are many resources and, most important, great reference to God’s Word and its healing power.


This particular post adds one of the most important resources I’ve ever discovered…..it came to me from a new friend about whom, every time I speak to her on the phone (we’ve never met face to face), I think “this has to be one of the gentlest souls on the earth”.  This friend, Carrie, operates Doves Landing Farm in Kentucky and provides me and many others with wonderful fresh clean produce and hand crafted soaps.  Visit her website www.doveslandingfarm.com and at least order some of her wonderful soaps (that are sans toxins of course).  Carrie visited my blog and shared a resource I hadn’t known about; however, it is, perhaps, the most important one to date.


Keep in mind Hosea 4:6  “My people perish for lack of knowledge”.      Rushing to pray for a “miracle healing” or get your name on “prayer lists” AFTER making medical decisions demonstrates that “lack of knowledge”.


I find this new resource agrees with some of my most recent “research and study”.  Medically and spiritually sound as well as deeply rooted in God’s Word, Henry W Wright’s book A More Excellent Way to Better Health is absolutely the most comprehensive and insightful book I’ve read and I’ve read dozens in my effort to bring blog readers information to evaporate that fog of fear the severe diagnoses evoke—-forcing decisions based on panic.


Henry W. Wright, a pastor of a church in Thomaston, Georgia, has sound credentials and an understanding that “God’s perfect will is not to heal you.  God’s perfect will is that you do not get sick.”  Health is the goal—perhaps returning to health after a dire diagnosis or perhaps holding on to health in a world assaulting it vehemently.   Trial and error management of symptoms and the “side effects” of those trials do not have health as the goal…ever.


This book is comprehensive and deals with spiritual roots of disease……something another truly anointed and insightful minister of healing, Katie Souza, whose ministry website is www.expectedendministries.com has discerned in a similar way to Wright.  Katie has a miracle personal witness and is highly anointed with insights only gained passing through “the refiner’s fire”.  She also does conferences but the downloads available on her website are instant help.  I highly recommend “Sons of Light” and “The Glory Light of Jesus Heals your Soul” for your first downloads.


Both of these ministers are faithful to God’s Word in their teaching.  Both are passionate in their mission to build God’s Kingdom populated with God’s children claiming their inheritance won by Christ and living in physical, emotional/mental,  and spiritual health as opposed to struggling against evil powers and disease…….Both of these ministers have been blessed with insights rooted in scripture about the blocks to healing that must be dealt with before physical healing can occur.  This point is critical.  I know it from personal experience….these two ministers teach something I know that I know that I know is critical for healing.


Henry W. Wright’s book is not his ownly resource.  He leads a ministry that holds conferences both in Thomaston, Georgia and other locations worldwide.  His website is:  www.beinhealth.com.


If you or a loved one are experiencing ANY disease; symptoms that haven’t been diagnosed as a disease; allergies; or an occasional ache or pain……you will benefit from visiting www.beinhealth.com and www.expectedendministries.com.  You will understand health…..additionally you will understand a lot more than those who “chase miracles” hoping against hope.   


Seek the healer rather than healing!   You will be blessed with health.









Why do Christians still get sick?

By

Feeder Creek to Herrington Lake, KY by Jacquie Woodward


  Why Do Christians Still Get Sick


This post is “part two” of sharing the Scriptures that Dr. Nasir Siddiki (www.wisdomministries.org) teaches in his pragmatic series, “Healing Made Simple”.  It is important to realize that Siddiki is NOT teaching about the healing gifts of the Spirit or the anointment for healing but he IS teaching about the healing power of God’s Word.  I have presented several different translations often including the paraphrase “The Message” to give blog readers something fresh on their ear.  Sometimes we get too used to our favorite Bible translation and overlook the essence of particular verses.  The notes are  both from Dr. Siddiki and thoughts I had from other study.  
Marilyn Hickey teaches that healing faith should be built on God’s Word.  Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin concurs.  The Word never changes.  Dodie Osteen’s witness (see blog page “God’s Healing Word” illustrates speaking, reading, praying the Word as a form of cancer treatment.  
God told us in Proverbs 4:20-22, “My son (daughter), give attention to MY WORDS; incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; for they are LIFE to those who find them and HEALTH to all their FLESH.”  (emphasis mine).  I recommend memorizing this verse and meditating on it….I found doing so to be powerfully healing.
Hosea 4:6 (KJV) 
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 
Hosea 4:6 (MSG) 
6 My people are ruined because they don’t know what’s right or true. Because you’ve turned your back on knowledge, I’ve turned my back on you priests. Because you refuse to recognize the revelation of God, I’m no longer recognizing your children. 
Hosea 4:6 (GW) 
6 I will destroy my people because they are ignorant. You have refused to learn, so I will refuse to let you be my priests. You have forgotten the teachings of your God, so I will forget your children. 
Hosea 4:6 (AMP) 
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. 
Note (Siddiki):  Life will give you what you settle for.  It will also give you relapse by accepting symptoms when they come at you again.  God is not limited by His power but by our willingness to accept His power.  Healing laws govern faith and power.  The power is there whether we recognize it and know how to use it (benefit from it) or not.  Siddiki uses example of electricity which, of course, existed in Abraham’s day as it does today but was undiscovered and unused by man.  He did not have the information needed to use it.  Information causes transformation.  We can learn from God’s Word that we have healing power available to us.  It’s a matter of knowing and believing God’s Word.  

Isaiah 5:13 (KJV) 
13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. 
Isaiah 5:13 (MSG) 
13 Therefore my people will end up in exile because they don’t know the score. Their “big men” will starve to death and the common people die of thirst. 
Isaiah 5:13 (GW) 
13 “My people will go into exile because they don’t understand what I’m doing. Honored men will starve, and common people will be parched with thirst.” 
Isaiah 5:13 (AMP) 
13 Therefore My people go into captivity [to their enemies] without knowing it and because they have no knowledge [of God]. And their honorable men [their glory] are famished, and their common people are parched with thirst. 

Ephesians 4:18 (MSG) 
18 They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. 
Ephesians 4:18 (AMP) 
18 Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature]. 
Note:  (Siddiki)  We are supposed to be carriers of the power–not just seekers of the power.  Ignorance makes non-participants in life of God–alienated from the life of God because of darkened moral understanding.

Note:  Dodie Osteen and Kenneth E Hagin point out the scripture:

Philippians 2:13 (KJV) 
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
Philippians 2:13 (MSG) 
13 That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. 
Philippians 2:13 (GW) 
13 It is God who produces in you the desires and actions that please him. 
Philippians 2:13 (AMP) 
13 [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. 

and:
Romans 8:11 (KJV) 
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 
Romans 8:11 (MSG) 
11 It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! 
Romans 8:11 (GW) 
11 Does the Spirit of the one who brought Jesus back to life live in you? Then the one who brought Christ back to life will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you. 
Romans 8:11 (AMP) 
11 And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you. 
Note:  (D. Osteen)  “This verse (Romans 8:11) is so good!  The same Spirit that dwelt in Jesus and caused Him to be raised from the dead dwells in me and in you.  He is quickening your mortal body, making it alive and vibrant with health.  Glory be to the Father!”  (N. Siddiki)  …….the Word brings light to us–that is wisdom, knowledge, and joy.  Wisdom is the correct application of God’s power–His Word and the knowledge it blesses us with.  “We must prosper our soul–get into the Word and feed it to our soul.”

Note:(N. Siddiki) about Eccl 2:26)  “The Word brings light to you–wisdom, knowledge, and joy…….Wisdom is the correct application of knowledge obtained from God’s Word.”

Ecclesiastes 2:26 (KJV) 
26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit. 
Ecclesiastes 2:26 (MSG) 
26 God may give wisdom and knowledge and joy to his favorites, but sinners are assigned a life of hard labor, and end up turning their wages over to God’s favorites. Nothing but smoke—and spitting into the wind. 
Ecclesiastes 2:26 (GW) 
26 God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to anyone who pleases him. But to the person who continues to sin, he gives the job of gathering and collecting {wealth}. The sinner must turn his wealth over to the person who pleases God. Even this is pointless. {It’s like} trying to catch the wind. 
Ecclesiastes 2:26 (AMP) 
26 For to the person who pleases Him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and heaping up, that he may give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it. 

Note:  (Siddiki)  “I must prosper my soul by getting into God’s Word  and feeding it to my soul.   Our soul is our mind, emotion, will, and intellect.  Our spirit (often termed our “heart”) is the eternal “self”.  Our body is, of course, our earthly physical being.  Our health and prosperity is totally based on our prospering our mind daily with the Word of God (TRUTH).”    The Word tells us that God (in the words of John) wants us to prosper in mind, spirit and body.  John wouldn’t ask God to bless us with health if it was not God’s will for us to be healthy physically as well as mentally and spiritually.”  It is God’s will that we be fully healthy.

3 John 1:2 (KJV) 
2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 
3 John 1:2 (MSG) 
2 We’re the best of friends, and I pray for good fortune in everything you do, and for your good health—that your everyday affairs prosper, as well as your soul! 
3 John 1:2 (GW) 
2 Dear friend, I know that you are spiritually well. I pray that you’re doing well in every other way and that you’re healthy. 
3 John 1:2 (AMP) 
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers. 


Note:  The  apostle Paul also teaches us it is God’s will that our whole being be healthy and ready for Christ’s return.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV) 
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (MSG) 
23 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. 
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (GW) 
23 May the God who gives peace make you holy in every way. May he keep your whole being—spirit, soul, and body—blameless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. 
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (AMP) 
23 And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). 
Note:  (Siddiki)  Get into God’s Word every day as food for body, mind, and soul.  It will keep your attention on God rather than the distractions of the world.  the enemy seeks to distract us to the world and away from God’s will for us revealed in His Word.
Romans 12:1-2 (KJV) 
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

Romans 12:1-2 (MSG) 
1 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 
2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 
Romans 12:1-2 (GW) 
1 Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God’s compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you. 
2 Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants—what is good, pleasing, and perfect. 
Romans 12:1-2 (AMP) 
1 I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. 
2 Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. 
Note: (Siddiki)  Referencing John 10:10 again, he points out that the thief first intends to STEAL so he can then kill and destroy.  Considering that the “sword of the Spirit”  per Ephesians 6:17 and Hebrews 4:12 is our unfailing weapon: 
John 10:10 (KJV)
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 
John 10:10 (MSG) 
10 A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. 
John 10:10 (GW) 
10 A thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I came so that my sheep will have life and so that they will have everything they need. 
John 10:10 (AMP) 
10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

Amplified Bible – Eph 6:17
17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God. 
God’s Word – Eph 6:17
17 Also take salvation as your helmet and the word of God as the sword that the Spirit supplies. 
King James Version – Eph 6:17
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 
Amplified Bible – Heb 4:12
12 For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. 
King James Version – Heb 4:12
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 
 Note (continued)  God’s Word and the only offensive weapon in the “full armor of God”, satan wants that weapon pulled from us–he wants to steal it and, if he can take our sword, he can kill and destroy us mentally, physically, and spiritually.  Siddiki says, “He pulls us into the “arena of ignorance where we don’t know that we don’t know the truth.”   But when we realize we don’t know what we need to and become diligent in our study of God’s Word, we have reached the first productive stage  and we will begin to see abundance in every part of life.  Siddiki, “If we are not seeing abundance in every part of life, we are not diligently seeking first the Kingdom of God.”  We need to know HOW to diligently study the Word.  Hebrews 11:6 tells us we must approach the Word with faith.
Hebrews 11:6 (KJV) 
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 
Hebrews 11:6 (MSG) 
6 It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. 
Hebrews 11:6 (GW) 
6 No one can please God without faith. Whoever goes to God must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 
Hebrews 11:6 (AMP) 
6 But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. 
Note:  Mark 4:14 (by Siddiki) teaches us the 3rd “arena” for studying and diligently seeking God’s Word.  It is the “parable of the sower”.  

Mark 4:4-8 (GW) 
4 Some seeds were planted along the road, and birds came and devoured them. 
5 Other seeds were planted on rocky ground, where there wasn’t much soil. The plants sprouted quickly because the soil wasn’t deep. 
6 When the sun came up, they were scorched. They didn’t have any roots, so they withered. 
7 Other seeds were planted among thornbushes. The thornbushes grew up and choked them, and they didn’t produce anything. 
8 But other seeds were planted on good ground, sprouted, and produced thirty, sixty, or one hundred times as much as was planted.” 

Siddiki points out that a pastor sows (teaches) the Word to the church or sows along the path.  Satan comes and steals the word from those who heard it by distracting the minds of the “hearers”.  The devil cannot get into our hearts but he can distract our minds.  Siddiki advises us to sit up front in church and take notes and be serious about learning the Word.  If a pastor does not teach the Word, it is time to move to a different pastor/teacher.  The parable continues that some seed is sewn into stoney ground meaning  we may not be willing to receive ALL the Word with joy.  We must sit under good teachers of the Word who do not pick and choose to teach only the parts that are easy to hear.  We must receive ALL the Word even when it contradicts what learned before.   We must not be offended by accurately taught Word.  We must even take correction through the Word with joy.  

Religion is often the reason people go to church, but learning God’s Word is the right reason.  We must not be offended by the Word and we must stay with it.  The parable of the sower also speaks of seeds sprouting with no real root in them so that when trials come, they weaken and fail–don’t walk out the Word in living.  There will be persecution to try to stop us standing on the Word but we must be a DOER of the Word and, in doing, keep our sword.  We have to choose to be offended and so we need to NOT make that choice but rather we must choose to be diligent in walking out what we learn in God’s Word because His Word is His will.

Siddiki also says that “The enemy steals the Word when we don’t understand what we hear or read.  Matthew 13:19 has the same idea as Mark 4:14.  Revelation comes when the Word becomes simple.

Matthew 13:19 (KJV) 
19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. 
Matthew 13:19 (MSG) 
19 When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road. 
Matthew 13:19 (GW) 
19 Someone hears the word about the kingdom but doesn’t understand it. The evil one comes at once and snatches away what was planted in him. This is what the seed planted along the road illustrates. 
Matthew 13:19 (AMP) 
19 While anyone is hearing the Word of the kingdom and does not grasp and comprehend it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the roadside. 

Note:  Summarizing the lesson in the “Parable of the Sower” (Siddiki):  What keeps us from the Word is  1.  Distraction (path) 2.  Offended rather than accepting  with joy (stone) 3.  Among thorns–cares of the world choke the Word out of us, and 4.  fertile ground–understanding the VALUE of the Word.  On that SAME day that Jesus taught the “Parable of the sower”, Mark teaches us that:

Mark 4:35-41 (MSG) 
35 Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” 
36 They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. 
37 A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. 
38 And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?” 
39 Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. 
40 Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?” 
41 They were in absolute awe, staggered. “Who is this, anyway?” they asked. “Wind and sea at his beck and call!” 
Mark 4:35-41 (AMP) 
35 On that same day [when] evening had come, He said to them, Let us go over to the other side [of the lake]. 
36 And leaving the throng, they took Him with them, [just] as He was, in the boat [in which He was sitting]. And other boats were with Him. 
37 And a furious storm of wind [of hurricane proportions] arose, and the waves kept beating into the boat, so that it was already becoming filled. 
38 But He [Himself] was in the stern [of the boat], asleep on the [leather] cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, Master, do You not care that we are perishing? 
39 And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still (muzzled)! And the wind ceased (sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating) and there was [immediately] a great calm (a perfect peacefulness). 
40 He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no firmly relying trust)? 
41 And they were filled with great awe and feared exceedingly and said one to another, Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey Him? 
Note:  (Siddiki)  Jesus had said, “We are going to the other side.”  Jesus did not say, “let’s see if we can make it to the other side” or “let’s ‘try’ to go to the other side”.   The disciples’ fear showed lack of faith.  Fear and faith cannot co-exist.  The disciples were letting what their senses “took in” override what Jesus had told them.  They believed to get in the boat but lost faith when the storm came (care of the world) and choked His Word out of them.  Such “cares of the world” sneak up on us.

Another time  (John 6)  Jesus was teaching at Capernaum and his disciples thought His message was too hard to take.  In John 6:63  Jesus adds that it is the Spirit Who gives life.  God’s Word is life.  He is the “bread of life”–that’s the lesson.  

John 6:51-63 (KJV) 
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 
52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 
54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 
57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 
59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. 
60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? 
61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? 
62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? 
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 
Note:  (Siddiki)…”God’s Word is Life.”  When Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by satan, Jesus replied to the devil, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.”  Siddiki says that we are so busy feeding the flesh we have no time to feed the spirit and we must never forget that, without the Spirit, the body is dead.  

Does God Just Heal A Few?

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Scene at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Mercer County, KY by Jacquie Woodward

  
I’ve recently discovered a most interesting Bible teacher, Nasir Siddiki, in my effort to read many different teachers and, thus, gain more depth of insight and discernment of God’s Word.  Siddiki is a former muslim who was living in Canada years ago and found himself searching for meaning in his life even though he was a very successful businessman.  A turning point occurred when he contracted “the worst case of shingles on record” and was given up to die when he cried out to the God of Jesus and was soon healed miraculously.  He gave his life to Christ, attended Bible College in the United States, and he and his wife, Anita (miraculously healed of being paralyzed and blinded by MS) have Wisdom Ministries in Oklahoma.  
The website is www.wisdomministries.org.  Intrigued by seeing Siddiki speak on TV, I obtained his CD series, “Healing Made Simple”.  Siddiki’s teaching is firmly grounded in scripture.  I thought I would share the first few scriptures he cites in this teaching series.  I am quoting several translations for each and including some notes gleaned from both his teaching and my reading elsewhere. These scriptures were cited in the first CD of the series,  “Does God Heal Just A Few?”  
Malachi 3:10 (MSG) 
10 Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. 
Malachi 3:10 (AMP) 
10 Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 
Note:  Tithing is not so much a law as an opportunity to demonstrate our reverence and obedience in God’s Kingdom……a way to share and trust knowing that all good things come from our Heavenly Father.   God blesses us without our deserving it.  We can NEVER be good enough to deserve the immeasurable blessings He gives us…but tithing blesses us with a chance to be a blessing.  “God will pour out a blessing you will not have rooms to contain.”    God doesn’t need our tithes nor does he withhold His love to those who don’t tithe; however, we need to sow into our own blessing–there is no blessing as powerful as giving.
 Ephesians 5:17 (MSG) 
17 Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. 
Ephesians 5:17 (AMP) 
17 Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is. 
Note:  People guess at God’s Will and live based on opinions of other people about God’s Will but we have a written record of God’s Will and it is GOD’S WORD.  We absolutely base our faith and our living on God’s Will/Word rather than on what we see and what we hear from other people who aren’t IN God’s Word.  God’s Word has never failed.
Siddiki’s note Ephesians 5:17:  “It is a miracle that Jesus comes and lives in our hearts.  SALVATION is a far greater miracle than physical healing but both are God’s Will according to God’s Word.”
Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG) 
11 I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. 
Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP) 
11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. 
Note:  Sickness is NOT from God!  God is love and there is no will for sickness in LOVE!  All good comes from God and all evil (bad) comes from the devil.  God does not put illness on His children to “teach them a lesson” or any other reason.  If one who loves the Lord does take on an enemy attack in the form of illness, God wants to use it for showing his love…..His glory!  We must come to Him in faith knowing He wants us in health as his Word says repeatedly.  
Hosea 4:6 “My People perish from lack of knowledge.”  
Note:  God is speaking about HIS PEOPLE (believers, Christians/Jews)  and their peril from their actions based on ignorance–ignorance of God’s Will/Word.  God’s Word reveals God’s Will.
Proverbs 4:20-23 (KJV) 
20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. 
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. 
Proverbs 4:20-23 (MSG) 
20 Dear friend, listen well to my words; tune your ears to my voice. 
21 Keep my message in plain view at all times. Concentrate! Learn it by heart! 
22 Those who discover these words live, really live; body and soul, they’re bursting with health. 
23 Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. 
Proverbs 4:20-23 (GW) 
20 My son, pay attention to my words. Open your ears to what I say. 
21 Do not lose sight of these things. Keep them deep within your heart 
22 because they are life to those who find them and they heal the whole body. 
23 Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it. 
Proverbs 4:20-23 (AMP) 
20 My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. 
21 Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. 
22 For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. 
23 Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life. 
Note:   God’s Words are LIFE and HEALTH.  Again, as Hosea 4:6 says, God’s people perish for lack of knowledge (of His will/Word).  When seeking healing, we MUST stand on specific scriptures when believing for healing  and MORE THAN ONE spedific scripture.  It is scripture “exploding inside our hearts (spirits) that bring our healing…it is TRUTH in our spirits/hearts that bring our healing by taking the “sword of the Spirit” (Word of God) straight at the enemy.  He has no defense for God’s Word which is the only offensive weapon in the “full armor of God”….all the rest of that armor is defensive to keep us strong against evil including sickness; but the sword goes after the enemy aggressively.  It is POWER…..THE power of the Holy Spirit who came with power at pentecost after Christ’s resurrection.  That same power is in God’s Word–and in the spirit of believers in Christ.
Psalms 107:20 (KJV) 
20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. 
Psalms 107:20 (MSG) 
20 He spoke the word that healed you, that pulled you back from the brink of death. 
Psalms 107:20 (GW) 
20 He sent his message and healed them. He rescued them from the grave. 
Psalms 107:20 (AMP) 
20 He sends forth His word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction. 
Note:  What could be clearer than this scripture.  HEALS them…RESCUES them from destruction…..We don’t need to make this complicated because we haven’t spent the time meditating on its meaning.  It says what it says and, like all scripture, means what it says–it is truth.
Psalms 103:1-6 (KJV) 
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 
6 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. 
Psalms 103:1-6 (MSG) 
1 A David psalm O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name! 
2 O my soul, bless God, don’t forget a single blessing! 
3 He forgives your sins—every one. He heals your diseases—every one. 
4 He redeems you from hell—saves your life! He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown. 
5 He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal. He renews your youth—you’re always young in his presence. 
6 God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet. 
Psalms 103:1-6 (GW) 
1 By David. Praise the Lord, my soul! Praise his holy name, all that is within me. 
2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and never forget all the good he has done: 
3 He is the one who forgives all your sins, the one who heals all your diseases, 
4 the one who rescues your life from the pit, the one who crowns you with mercy and compassion, 
5 the one who fills your life with blessings so that you become young again like an eagle. 
6 The Lord does what is right and fair for all who are oppressed. 
Psalms 103:1-6 (AMP) 
1 BLESS (AFFECTIONATELY, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name! 
2 Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits— 
3 Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases, 
4 Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy; 
5 Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle’s [strong, overcoming, soaring]! 
6 The Lord executes righteousness and justice [not for me only, but] for all who are oppressed. 
NOTE:  ALL MEANS ALL.  The benefits God provides a believer are forgiveness, healing, redemption, loving-kindness, tender mercy, provision of necessities, dignity, righteousness, justice, renewal, release from oppression….ALL of these provisions against ALL sins, diseases, injustices, oppressions, needs.  But we must walk in the KNOWLEDGE of these benefits so that we (as Hosea 4:6 says) “do not perish for lack of knowledge.”  Knowledge includes knowing what the benefits are and knowing what God wants us to walk and talk Not to deserve but to claim His benefits.  We cannot claim what we don’t know exists.  
Psalms 100:5 (KJV) 
5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. 
Psalms 100:5 (GW) 
5 The Lord is good. His mercy endures forever. His faithfulness endures throughout every generation. 
Psalms 100:5 (AMP) 
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations. 
Note:  God is good and the source of ONLY good.  All that is not good, including sickness, comes from satan and NEVER from God.  We make choices even about sickness.  We choose to accept symptoms and diagnoses or we choose to refuse illness until it leaves.  We also choose to follow or to deviate from the laws of healthy living.  Siddiki shares some amazing examples of refusing symptoms even in the face of what naturally looked like sure death.  I refer you to the blog page (God’s Healing Word) on Dodie Osteen’s booklet, “Healed of Cancer”  for another discussion of resisting symptoms.  Siddiki’s wife, Anita, is another witness for such resistance bringing healing.  I have to say, my own healing has included considerable times of resisting symptoms the enemy kept throwing up to make me “buy into” my doom from pancreatic cancer.  God made it clear to me that I should, “Stand up and fight!”…..it is a spiritual battle as Dodie Osteen explained.
Romans 8:32 (KJV) 
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 
Romans 8:32 (MSG) 
32 If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? 
Romans 8:32 (GW) 
32 God didn’t spare his own Son but handed him over {to death} for all of us. So he will also give us everything along with him. 
Romans 8:32 (AMP) 
32 He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things? 
Note:   It doesn’t make much sense that God would have sent Jesus to demonstrate His absolutely unrestricted love for us and then send sickness to “teach us a lesson.”   He sent Jesus to “teach us a lesson”–a lesson of LOVE.  
Matthew 6:9-10 (KJV) 
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 
Matthew 6:9-10 (GW) 
9 “This is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, let your name be kept holy. 
10 Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. 
Matthew 6:9-10 (AMP) 
9 Pray, therefore, like this: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name. 
10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 
NOTE:  Did you ever stop and think, while speaking the words of “The Lord’s Prayer”, that there is no sickness in heaven and Jesus was teaching us to pray that there be no sickness on earth.  We, however, embrace sickness…..”my arthritis is acting up”  or “I have a headache”  or “my tumor is 5 cm big”  etc.  We look for our sickness rather than for our healing.  Sometimes healing takes a while and we have to persevere expecting it even while we may not yet see it.  Faith does not come by seeing, but 
Romans 10:17 (KJV) 
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

Note:  I added the underlining of “word” in many of the above scriptures for emphasis.
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