SAME CIRCUMSTANCES, DIFFERENT OUTCOMES
Dear friend, picture
this scenario – two men, Christians are in right standing with God.
Being in right standing with
God means God approves them as His children and does not have any issue against
either of them.
Both men are terminally
ill. A pastor who understands God’s Word comes to preach the same message to
both men.
Both men pray to God concerning
Divine healing. While one man recovers from his illness, the other one dies.
What do you think could
have happened?
Before you respond by
saying maybe the one that died had a secret sin no one but God is aware of,
recall I have stated earlier that as far as God is concerned, both men are in
right standing with Him.
So why did one die and
the other recover?
The answer can be found
in the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 9:23 (AMPC), “[Why,] all things can be (are possible) to him who believes!”
If all
things are possible to him who believes, it simply means the man who died did
not believe God’s Word that was preached to him concerning divine healing.
No doubt
because he is in right standing with God, even at death he would still enter
heaven. However, the sad thing about his premature death is that the devil has
used illness to truncate his God-ordained destiny here on earth.
One may
ask, why did God not stop this from happening? It is simply because God has
given everyone free will to decide whether what God has stated in His Word is
true or not.
The converse
of Jesus’ statement in Mark 9:23 would be nothing is possible to him who does
not believe or who doubts.
The point I
am trying to bring out here, dear friend, is that one major reason the prayers
of genuine Christians are not answered is because they pray without an
understanding of God’s Word.
Look at what is written in 1 John 5:14-15 (AMPC), “And this is the confidence (the assurance, the
privilege of boldness) which we have in Him (God): [we are sure] that if we ask
anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own
plan), He listens to and hears
us.
15 And
if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we
also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our
present possessions] the requests made of Him.”
Notice verse 14 talks
about praying according to God’s will or in agreement with His own plan before
He listens, hears and grants our request.
The converse of this is
that if the prayer is not in agreement with God’s plan, then even though He
hears, He would not grant the request.
What is the major lesson
here? Before you embark on prayer concerning any situation in life, you must
FIRST be sure the prayer agrees with God’s will or plan concerning that
situation.
This is the reason every
Christian must study, meditate and internalize God’s Word.
This is the way to
ensure your every prayer to God is answered. This is why those who say God’s
delay is not His denial are pushing the responsibility for answered prayers
from themselves to God, which is wrong.
God’s Word tells you
what already belongs to you as His child. Where you fail to study to find out,
and then go off praying the wrong prayer that disagrees with God’s Word, then
it is clearly you denying yourself of an answer to your prayer.
For instance, in the
case of the two Christians who were terminally ill and one died, the message preached
to them is what is contained in Matthew 8:17 and 1 Peter 2:24, which is that
the Lord Jesus Christ took our sins, sicknesses and diseases at the Cross of
Calvary when He shed His precious blood.
Since this is true, the
right prayer to pray whenever you feel sick is to FIRST thank God for what He accomplished
for you through the Lord Jesus Christ at the Cross of Calvary, and thereafter,
you command the sickness to leave your body in the Name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
This prayer agrees with God’s
will or plan for His children and so God would certainly answer it with a
recovery for the person.
On the other hand, if
you pray for God to heal you when you are sick, you are not praying in
agreement with God’s will or plan and God would not answer you.
Since God has already
healed you at Calvary when Jesus shed His precious blood, praying to Him again to
heal you is a wasted prayer.
The same applies to
every other requests we make in prayer to God.
Dear friend, God loves
us so much, which is why He sent the Lord Jesus Christ to die for our sins and
to restore ALL the blessings we lost as a result of the devil’s deceit of our
first parents Adam and Eve at the Garden of Eden.
If as a Christian you
fail to study the Bible to discover your God-given rights in Christ and
appropriate these rights in His Name, the devil would always take advantage of
you to wreak havoc in your life.
Note also, that this
provision is strictly for Christians who are living right before God because if
as a Christian you are not living right before God, the devil would always
hinder your prayer and legally so because that is his work, to kill, steal and destroy
especially when he finds you living in sin before God.
This is also why any non-Christian
reading this message must quickly repent of sin, confess to God, forsake sin,
accept Jesus as Saviour of his life and Messiah and thereafter commit to a life
of righteous obedience to God’s commands in the Holy Bible.
It is a great privilege to
know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. The benefits are enormous, dear
friend, and this includes eternal life when you depart this world.
Come today to Jesus
Christ before it is too late for you.
May the good Lord bless
you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most
Powerful Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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