Pastor John,
Both of my knees are without pain today. Neither is braced and they are working as they should. I just “ran” up a flight of stairs, for a second time this morning! I would have thought that an impossibility, three weeks ago.
I want to thank Jesus for that! This is my second day at work without braces on 🙂
Beth and I had a sweet visit from Michelle last night. At the end of the visit, I told her something, with regard to my knees, that in hindsight, I am very thankful for.
Michelle had asked me about them, as to whether they were still feeling better. I told her, “yes”, they are still feeling good “today”. And without giving it any thought, I went on to tell her that I don’t know if Jesus has healed my knees.
He has not told me that, but I am thankful for them feeling better today. And if He hasn’t healed them, then I still do need a healing…..and that’s OK! I don’t have to make anything up for Him. He hasn’t done it. But He can do it! Because He is real!
I love that, pastor John. I love “knowing” that God is real! It keeps me from trying to defend Him if His answer about my knees, or about anything…is, “no”. The fact that I have experienced a, “yes” in the past from God, keeps me grounded if the answer is, “no”. And, “no” is what it will undoubtedly be, sometimes.
Having God’s Spirit inside, and walking in the “Truth”, this way of holiness has given me so many real experiences with Jesus; those experiences let me know that He is real, and that His touch is real, and that the absence of His touch is just is real!
Jesus has moved in my life many times, and if He doesn’t do something for me that I ask Him to, I don’t have to say that He did do it.
Because, so many times, He does do it! There is a real difference. And because experience has taught me that, I don’t have to claim to have something from Him that I don’t really have. Because I know that it is possible to really receive it from Him!Experience with God keeps God’s children from moving into a place where we try and explain away God’s blessings, or the absence of them. One healing would turn a man from ever saying, “healings aren’t for today” or “God doesn’t heal anymore”.
One experience can make a man spend the rest of his life waiting on God. And that is a good thing.
Because I have heard God speak plainly to my own heart, and daily out of my own mouth, through the holy Ghost that He has given me, I don’t have to defend Him if He is silent. Because God has moved unmovable obstacles in my life, I do not have to make excuses for Him when my way is blocked. Because He is Lord of “all things” and all of my life, I do not have to blame the Devil when things go wrong….knowing that my Father remains in charge of everything, including my hardships.
Experience with God keeps me from needing to negotiate the doctrine that I have been taught, that I know is from God. Experience with God keeps me from needing to reinvent my belief system about Him.
Actually, what I experience from God replaces what I believe about Him, altogether. Which is better! I have learned to love, appreciate and prefer what I have experienced, over what I believe 🙂
Those experiences from God have saved me from being a liar about Him, providing me with real godly testimonies in place of doctrines of my own imagination and self-will.That I would have passed on as fact in the absence of fear and experience with God.God has blessed my life!
He has filled my life with Truth and Power and Love and Experience with Him, in the Spirit, that have saved me from having to prop up a doctrine that attempts to explain a life in God that has no power, that has no experience. I do not know that life. I have never experienced that kind of religion. The only religion that I have ever known centers around constant experience with the keeping power of God. Take that away, and we would have no religion.
I thank God for the many experiences that I have had with Him. Beginning the very first day when I was converted. When I was born again of His Spirit, it came in speaking! He set the precedent then of what life in Him was. Experience! 🙂
Jerry