10 Thoughts: Get Ready for Some Reading ;)

Hello again friends! Recently I have been studying much – gaining insight and wide perspectives on what people are learning, listening to, and believing. I am enjoying the process and consider it wise to listen to the counsel of many advisors. Keeping an open mind is important and valuable. The catch is making sure that it’s not so open that you lose all your brains. smile.

So, that being said, here’s my blog this month. It is about wholeness, which I believe Father has planned for us.

Wholeness.

We see it all over scripture. His heart is for us, and He is deeply in love with us. Therefore, we are meant for life and life abundant (John 10:10).

There are many out there, perhaps this includes you, who struggle with the idea of healing being Father’s will and heart for us. I understand. We struggle for many reasons with this idea and there are MANY stories and examples of people who “believed God” and didn’t get healed. Why is this? Does it mean that it is not His will or His heart for us? Maybe He gives or allows sickness so that we can learn things? I’ve been sharing and chatting with many people about this. I cannot help but come back to what I see in the Bible and what I see in Jesus as His heart for us! The situations we face and the experiences we have must not be what we base truth on. We must always come back to the Word.

Please understand me. I know not everyone gets healed. It is so very hard when loved ones die from a sickness. I personally have experienced GREAT LOSS due to sickness. I have had 2 VERY DEAR FRIENDS (think soulmate, closest friend that I’ve ever had, and another brother-type friend) die from sickness. It is incredibly difficult!

My heart doesn’t understand it all. I cannot begin to explain it all. And honestly, this is just a small part of life when we consider all the things going on. I don’t have the answers and I don’t even suppose that I should have all the answers. We do after all live in much mystery.

All of this being said, here is still – even after all my personal hurt and loss and experiences – where I stand on the subject of this very small part of our lives called healing:

Please, if this is a difficult subject for you, consider the possibilities. Open your heart as you read. And perhaps none of this matters to you or changes your belief at all. In which case, you are still loved and valuable to me! Ultimately, we all die and perhaps we will see clearer in a new life.

So much love and care for you my sweet friends!

1. Sickness was not in the Garden.

   1. When God created earth and us, He did not include sickness. It was a pure paradise. The Garden of Eden shows us God’s original intention for us. Peace, beauty, life, wholeness, perfection!

   2. So then, the Garden is the picture of what God wants for us today.

   3. Genesis 1:1-2:22

2. Our bodies were created whole AND created to heal themselves.

   1. Genesis 2:1-22

   2. 2 Peter 1:3

   3. Genesis 1:27

   4. We were created in His image. We know from scripture Jesus was never sick, God is never sick, we can be overcomers of sickness because we have the life of Jesus in us.

   5. Also, and this is silly but evidence, when you watch Naked and Afraid and other such survival shows/stories we see people’s bodies healing themselves with no attention whatsoever except the will and the determination of the people themselves to survive. Of course, we also see and know people who have died from sickness, so we cannot look to purely people’s experiences. We MUST look to the promises God has given us.

3. Even before Jesus came to earth God was healing people and He made plans for wholeness for people.

   1. Genesis 20:17, Daniel 4:28-37, 2 Kings 20:1-7, Psalm 41:1-3

   2. We live in a better covenant than the people in the OT lived in, so if God was healing people in the OT – who were living in a ‘lesser covenant’ – He is healing people today and His desire is for our (His children/people who belong to Him) wholeness.

   3. Again, we see God’s plan in His creation as well when we observe ‘pagan’ people (people who do not believe in Him) gaining their healing by using the principles shown in the Bible.

   4. When we look at the old covenant as well, we see that God planned for His people to be healed because it lines it out in the law and the list of sacrifices to be made when someone is healed. All of the book of Leviticus lists all the sacrifices, offerings and feasts for the people to make. Note Leviticus 14 and 15 specifically for the sacrifices of healing. This is not what we need to do today as The Sacrifice (Jesus) was made once and for all for us, but it is here that we see God’s heart in providing for healing even before Jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice.

4. Jesus is the EXACT representation of God.

   1. In other words, if we want to see God’s heart for us, we can simply look at the way Jesus lived and worked on the earth and we can see what God wants for us!

   2. Hebrews 1:3, the Amplified Version of the Bible says it like this: “Jesus is the exact representation and perfect imprint of His Father’s essence…” I love that – the perfect imprint (on the earth) of His Father’s essence! The poetry of this touches my heart!

   3. Why this matters is because while some will say God gave me this sickness to teach me something, or God wants me to learn something in this is simply inaccurate. Can you learn something in it? Of course! Just like we can learn something in any situation. BUT if it were God’s will for you to be sick to learn something, we would have seen Jesus making people sick and then helping them learn their lesson and walk through whatever they were supposed to learn. THAT. NEVER. HAPPENED! Not one time did Jesus ever put sickness on anyone!!!

   4. Anyone who came to Jesus always got healed!

   5. Jesus never reprimanded them for their sickness or their sin. He always simply met them where they were, loved them and met them at their “point of faith" (point of faith being where they were and what they COULD believe in the moment). Examples: Jairus and his daughter, the woman with the issue of blood, and the Centurion soldier.)

   6. “According to your faith be it unto you” Matthew 9:29

5. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (people always bring this up as proof that sometimes God does not want to heal us). Which makes no sense because first of all it is ONE example of a problem and second, God didn’t say no, God said my grace is sufficient for you. Grace is God’s ability in us. So God was saying to Paul, "my ability is sufficient for you to overcome. My grace is for you to overcome."

   1. Also worth noting: Paul himself says it was a thorn in the flesh and goes on to say it was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him. In other words it was not a sickness at all, it was a spirit sent to antagonize him.

6. Every promise and blessing we are given are for our good, for our wholeness and our completeness. There is not ONE time we are promised ANYTHING bad from God! This is phenomenal and precious.

   1. James 5:14, 1 Peter 2:24, 2 Peter 1:3, Colossians 2:9-10

7. Health is part of the Kingdom. Whenever Jesus spoke of the Kingdom and Father’s heart for us, health was a part of that. Even though Jesus didn’t teach directly about healing when He forgave people of their sin – healing always followed – showing us that healing is a part of our salvation; this (salvation and healing) includes us having our sins forgiven or having our sins forgiven includes healing.

   1. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9

   2. Also note when reading this passage that “grace” in verse 9 literally means “God’s ability.” So God said to Paul, about his thorn in the flesh, that His grace – His ability – was sufficient for Paul. In other words, God was saying I am giving you my ability to handle the messenger of Satan who was simply trying to cause Paul to be proud and puffed up.

   3. Also note in verse 9 the Amplified version says this: My grace is sufficient for you (My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough – always available – regardless of the situation) for my power is being perfected (and is completed and shows itself most effectively) in your weakness. This indicates the ability, the power, and the completion to show up and overcome even in our weak areas. And it (His grace and power) is ALWAYS available to us.

8. Isaiah 61. All of what Jesus came for is wholeness and strength. We cannot do, or be, verse 3-7 and 9-11 if we are sick. Isaiah 61 says He came for healing. “Good news” to the humble and afflicted, ‘wounds of the brokenhearted bound up (healed), ‘release to the physical and spiritual captives’, ‘freedom to prisoners’, ‘comfort for those who mourn’, ‘crown of joy instead of ashes’, ‘joy in place of mourning’, ‘praise instead of a disheartened spirit’ (a garment of peace instead of a spirit of despair).

   1. We will be called trees of righteousness (strong and magnificent)

   2. And we will be called the planting of the Lord.

   3. All of Isaiah 61 is full of who we are to be. The promises listed herein are speaking of God’s people after Jesus comes. The first part of the chapter is what Jesus quoted in the temple. This was Jesus’ mission statement! (See Luke 4:17) The religious people were pissed and took him to the top of a hill in the city in order to murder him but miraculously he escaped. SMH this is so crazy. The scripture says he ‘passed through the crowd and went on his way’. Picture that! Anyway… Is. 61 can now be OUR mission statement because Jesus came for us and established that we now be His hands and feet on the earth. (This leads into a whole other topic! smile.)

9. The word(s) for salvation in the Greek are: Sozo and Sotiria. These words include: salvation, wholeness, healing, deliverance, provision, recovered, redeemed, restored, saved, etc. This goes so deep and there’s so much to these words but it is interesting to note they all are inclusive of healing/wholeness/completeness.

   1. John 3:16 and 17

   2. John 10:10

10. James 5:14 “Is any suffering among you, is any sick among you? …” This verse indicates that part of what happens for those in the body of Christ is wholeness/health and if that is not happening there are instructions listed there for us to remedy that and it shows us what is the Father’s heart and plan for us as His kids.

In all of this, hold close to the Father’s love for you. He holds you in His heart. Stay close. <3

Choose

Hellooooooooooo.

I’m going cheesy on this post today. Hope you like it. I wanted to write about Independence. Yeah, yeah… I know, of course this is a good topic – being 4th of July and all… (I always hated it when the preachers would preach about moms/wives on Mother’s Day and about dads/husbands on Father’s Day, lol. Just my own annoyance. But here I am doing it on this topic! 😊)

Here is my reason. I think there is much to be said on the subject of Independence when it comes to the life we are called to. First, there are the conversations to be had about being independent, co-dependent, and inter-dependent. Second, there is a discussion to be had about our own ‘power’ when it comes to life and choosing. Third, we can talk for days about freedom.

We will begin with the first thing. I am a fan of independence. I believe there is greatness found in being independent. But there is another side to this. If I am only independent I will never learn how to truly trust my Father or have community in its proper context. The key is learning how to be independent AND interdependent. Too many souls swing to being 100% independent or 100% co-dependent. Neither of these are sufficient in showing us how to do life well. Co-dependence results in chaos and struggle beyond belief. It is co-dependence that brings detriment and failure to relationships. Independence causes us to trust solely on ourselves leading us right down the path to pride, loneliness, potential narcissism and ultimately destruction and failure.

Friends! If we can learn inter–dependence we can experience so much FULLNESS in our lives!

Inside of inter–dependence we gain a full understanding of who WE are, what we bring to a relationship and learning trust; learning how to trust both God and others. We can have safe community, close community, and simultaneously keep our own free will to do what is in our own hearts to do. This leads us straight to … our own power.

When we learn the value of who we are and what we bring to a community we also learn we have the power to CHOOSE. What a beautiful grace we have been given! An opportunity to DECIDE how we will think, process our circumstances, and truly live is in our hands! You may say, “Well that’s where you’re wrong! I didn’t decide or choose __________ (fill in the blank).” Correct. Things come and happen that we did not choose or want or even ever think would happen to us. Trust me! I have experienced this several times over! What still, and always will, remains true is our ability to choose and decide how we react.

There is a movie about the holocaust titled, Jakob the Liar, wherein Jakob is constantly lying about a ‘game they are playing’ to keep encouraging his son through the horrific perils they are facing. It is a profound movie. What I love within this is the idea that no matter our current situation we get to choose our attitudes, our reaction TO the event we are facing.

If my best friend dies, I get to decide how I will live past that. I choose my attitude through it, my response, my own outcome. Do I get to bring her back? No. Do I still go through the grief of loss? For sure. But the ultimate outcome within my own heart I get to choose. And I have. I am embracing much these days. Laughter, Joy, Contentedness – all mine for the choosing.

Finally, understanding this brings me so much FREEDOM! (I know. I said we could talk about this for days and it’s my shortest part. Maybe we’ll get to more about it later. smile.)

I hope and pray you are leaning in to your own independence, inter-dependence and freedom! Life IS Good!

The Truth About Healing

Hello Readers,

It’s mid-June. This blog was supposed to be done a couple weeks ago. I’m behind. On lots of things. We’re doing many big things all at once. Beginning them all at the same time. And why not? It makes life exciting… or something. smile.

I’ve got 4 pieces of half-done furniture sitting in my garage, waiting for my attention. I’ve got 6 more pieces in the barn looking at me every time I go in there to grab something for my project. I have 4 pieces finished that need little, small things before going on the website (The Barn by the way – if you wanna shop. smile.)

And that’s just one project I’m working on.

The second project is starting Open Fields Church, aka Open Fields Club – smile. The “club” at the end of Open Fields is my own tagline because I want to have a community of people who love Jesus, love each other, and love adventure and fun. It is anything but your typical church.

The third project -- I’m still in process of writing my book – which I thought was ready to go to the Editor and realized in review that it needs some adjustments before that step can happen. So, this makes me feel like I am way behind where I wanted to be. I had hopes that 2022 would be the publication year. But I will be surprised if I get there.

But now… here I am, writing to YOU! Yay!

I am doing a fair bit of study on the topic of healing. I am loving it and as I study, I see this truth more and more. Healing is Father’s will, every time, all the time! You may ask how I can say this as you know so many people who have asked for healing, believed to be healed, wanted healing desperately and have not experienced it. Oh Sweet One – me too! I know people who have died believing God for healing. I am here still missing them so deeply. I know people who are currently struggling in their sickness. I know people who are in chronic pain wanting nothing more than to be healed.

It is hard.

So how can I say it is the Father’s will for us when we are not experiencing it? There are so many reasons I know it is His will, and they are all found in the Word. But for now I’m going to give you the most BASE reason I believe this:

Let’s go visit Eden. Our Creator decides to make a Garden, a beautiful place in which to place His beloveds. He creates an entire world just for us! It is rich with fruit, vegetables, animals, trees, flowers, oceans, rivers, mountains… on and on this world goes. Amazing beauty created for us! Nothing missing, nothing broken. Ah Eden! I can’t wait to see it in its’ original form, and I truly hope I will.

But think of it… not ONE terrifying animal, not ONE broken thing, not ONE germ. This astounds me. Not. One. Germ. Nothing to make us sick in any way. In fact, scientific studies from days before the great flood in Noah’s day show that the oxygen levels were so pure and so perfect things (plants, people, and animals) grew with extravagance, thrived beyond belief.

Here's the revelation, in case you aren’t getting it, Father created the world exactly the way He wanted it! Perfect! Nothing missing, nothing broken. Think of it. Perfection! This is His heart, His desire and His plan for us. Eden. His plan, His heart, and His desire for us is seen here!

Let me close with this… I’d love for you to open to the truth of healing because we see it all over the Word, because it is Father’s heart for us, and because how silly to base our belief about any topic on people’s experiences. When we do this, we are dismissing so much. If we are “believers,” let's base our believing on what is in the scriptures rather than on experiences. Just open your heart… there are answers to be found. I want to continue to discuss healing and ‘proof’ that it is His love for us. This will help you if you open your mind and your heart to truly hear. Set all the unknowns and unexplained on the shelf while you just investigate the possibility.