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[Brian Rushfeldt]

AB Simpson said " Divine healing is simply divine life. It is the headship of Christ over the body. It is the life of Christ within our frame. It is the union of our members with the very body of Christ and the inflowing life of Christ in our living members. it is as real as His risen and glorified body. That living Christ belongs to us in all His attributes and powers. We are members of His body, His flesh and His bones. And if we can only believe it and receive it, we may live upon the very life of the Son of God."

I have always been awed by the notion that Jesus was dead for three days - and then his body is filled with life and health again. Now that is some power.

I often pray for healing, mine and others. But just maybe I need help understanding how to receive a release of that power which is already in my members. God help me to believe and receive that powerful force/presence/function from You which is in me because of your indwelling via Holy Spirit.

Help me get it - Lord! and help me not to hinder that health flow through lack of exercise, bad diet, lack of sleep and so on.

[Jay Turner]

When it comes to divine healing, and the rest of the gifts of the Spirit, I know that God uses each person differently and gifts each person according to His plans for their lives. Also He will work differently at different times and with different people. At one point, He may heal or bring transformation instantly, while at another, God may work through a course of events or over a longer period of time. Why is this? Ultimately, God is the only one who can answer that one, but I do know that there can be other factors involved that we do not see. As an example, let's say that you are praying for an answer to a question. As you are praying for that answer, God may be raising me up and directing me to be the vessel through which that answer is revealed to you. If I become obstinate and chose not to share what I know, then that could postpone the process, Or if I do share, but you are not ready or willing to receive the answer that God has placed on my heart to give you, it can have similar effects. I know that this is just hypothetical, but it should give you an idea of the intricacies involved in the answering of prayer.

However God may choose to use us, one thing that is important is that we accept the gifts that He has already given to us by grace and accept our position in His family. I can't count how many times, I have been walking in obedience with God then something happens or I slip up and it drives a wedge between me and my relationship with Him. Instead of remembering that I am forgiven, that God no longer looks at my sins and that He accepts me for who I am, flaws and all, I begin condemning myself. I try fixing things that aren't mine to fix and becoming someone who God is not calling me to be.

Being part of the Bride of Christ, we are under His covering. Because He died for the forgiveness of our sins and paid the price for our redemption, God doesn't see us in terms of our righteousness. Instead He is satisfied by the righteousness of His son, who is the head of the Body of Christ. Because of this, every sin that I have ever committed or will ever commit in the future is already covered. I don't have to condemn myself every time I slip. Instead I simply remember that I am forgiven, get back up and continue moving forward.

This doesn't mean that we should go around intentionally defying God. By doing that, it shows that our hearts and our heads are not in the right place, and that if we continue, God will have to deal with it and potentially discipline us. At the same time, we don't need to condemn ourselves when we hear God wrongly and go down a path that He never intended for us to go down. As we seek Him, letting the Holy Spirit guide us, He will direct our paths through the Spirit's promptings. There are times where we will hear wrongly, but it is through the process of trial and error in which we learn to know the Spirit's voice. Because of God's grace and Chris't covering, if we do miss Him, we can know that we are already covered.

When we walk by the Spirit, the immediate outcomes may not always line up with our obedience. We can walk in total obedience, hearing the Holy Spirit perfectly, yet the results that we see will quite often have their negative effects. Our part is walking in obedience to the best of our ability and understanding. We are not responsible for the outcomes or how people receive us. Something we share with another, in the here and now, may seem to have little to no effect or they reject all together, but twenty years from now, the Holy Spirit could bring our words to mind and those words could be the seeds that totally transform that persons life.

When you prayed for that person's healing, that prayer could have been the encouragement that they needed at that moment of their life. It could have helped to bring about a healing process that came over a longer period of time. Or God may have been using that situation to help prepare you for something greater that He has in store for your future. We typically don't know why God directs us the way He does. The main thing is that we walk in obedience to the Spirit's promptings to the best of our abilities and understanding and to know that even if we should hear wrongly, God will honor the heart behind our attempts.