Part 1 of a 2 part series which explores the life, legacy, and ministry of John G. Lake.
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Engaging Culture with the wisdom and power of Christ!
Part 1 of a 2 part series which explores the life, legacy, and ministry of John G. Lake.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Part 1 of a 2 part series which explores the life, legacy, and ministry of John G. Lake.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Part 1 of a 2 part series which explores the life, legacy, and ministry of John G. Lake.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Healing For All
Is healing for all or is it just who ever God decides to heal?
A lot of people think that God just decides who to heal, I think I will just heal him and him and her but that is it for today.
Some people try to put healing off on the sovereignty of God, like each case is a special case and needs Gods special decision to see if he will heal them or not.
But the good news is that healing has already been provided by the grace of God and is available to all by grace and not by special permission. Healing is part of our redemption and as much as we are born again healing belongs to us and is available to us.
Matt 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Jesus went about preaching, teaching and healing… the information came first and then the demonstration…healing all manner of sickness and diseases.
Matt 8:16-17 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
Let’s go back and see what Isaiah said… Isa 53:4-5 Surely he hath borne our grief’s, (disease, sickness) and carried our sorrows (grief, pain, sorrow) yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
He healed all that were sick to fulfill what was said by Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah was prophesying here about the work of the cross or the work of redemption. Healing for us always belongs to the work of redemption.
They brought to him all the sick and he healed them, how many sick people did they bring…all, how many did he heal… it says he healed them, so we understand that he healed all that were brought to him.
Matt 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
What did he do first… teaching, preaching and then a demonstration. Let’s look at some of the healings and see what we can learn from them…
Matt 8:2-3 and, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
The first question most people ask is this one, is it the will of God for me to be healed? Jesus showed us the answer to that he said I will or it is my will to heal.
The leper was a Jew and was probably very poor, begging for a living, living outside the city as an outcast, living in the caves…
Matt 8:5-7 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
This man was a rich gentile and he didn’t want the healing for himself but for one of his servants who wasn’t even there…and Jesus healed him.
Matt 8:14-15 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. Peter’s mother in law was a Jew and she was old, she was a widow and her sickness wasn’t too bad it was just a small thing…and Jesus healed her.
Matt 9:20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
Here is the woman with the issue of blood, she was sick for 12 years, she was wealthy and she spent all her money on doctors and now she was poor, Jesus didn’t judge her, he didn’t rebuke her and say “if only you had come sooner you would still be wealthy” or he didn’t say “Oh! You’re coming to me now all your money is gone, why don’t you go back to your doctors” No! He just healed her.
Matt 9:18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, my daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
Here is a man, he was a ruler of the synagogue, he came on behalf of his daughter who was dead, she was just a child, but Jesus healed her…
Sometimes we make all the excuses, I am too old, I am too young, it’s too hard for me to get healed, my sickness is not so bad, my sickness is too bad, nothing is impossible with God and it is his will to heal all who come to him.
Healing is part of the work of Christ; it is part of our redemption. We just need to believe it and receive it.
Multiplicities of Healings
Matt 9:27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.
Luke 17:12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off.
What does the scriptures have to say about sickness and healing? A lot of people are confused about healing, is it for today, does God want me healed, did healing pass away with the apostles? If you look back at the book of genesis you will see that everything that God created he saw that it was very good. God did not create sickness or disease, they were a by-product of the fall of Adam. They were not in the plan of God for man so where do they come from?
Look at Job ch 1 when Job was in God’s hands everything he had was blessed, he was prosperous, he had his family and friends around him, but when the devil got hold of him he lost everything, his cattle, sheep, family, friends and then his health.
Job 2v7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Look at what happened when God intervened.
Job 42v10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. God called Job’s afflictions captivity, they weren’t a blessing from God, Job was held captive by his afflictions and by the enemy. Look at people who have cancer, they are held captive to that disease; the people who have aids are held captive by that disease. God is not for captivity; it says that he turned the captivity of Job.
Luke 13v11-12 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. It doesn’t matter to God how long you have been in captivity he will release you. Jesus seen her, God sees. It was not his will for her to be in this condition, he said it was a spirit of infirmity. Jesus said she ought to be loosed. Actually Jesus said she ought to be loosed because she was a daughter of Abraham not because she was standing in front of Jesus the healer, she was healed because she had a covenant. Look at what Peter under the anointing called sickness.
Acts 10v38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
He called it being oppressed by the devil; if sickness was a blessing from God then Jesus spent his entire ministry fighting the move of God. It says Jesus went about doing good, healing is good. It says Jesus healed all who were oppressed by the devil.
Matt 4v23-25 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.
Jesus healed all manner of sickness and disease and great multitudes followed him, no wonder they followed him. Jesus only did what he seen the father do.
John 5v19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise.
Where did Jesus see the father heal, not in heaven because there was no sickness there?
Exod 15:23v26 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute (law) and an ordinance (judgement), and there he proved them, and said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.
God’s first revelation of himself after he brought them out was as the healer I am Jehovah rapha,
rapha: repair thoroughly, make whole Jehovah is God’s eternal name, I am that I am, everything that you attach to the eternal name God is eternally.
God was showing them what they had come out of, the life they lived under the rule of the enemy was only bitterness, sickness, disease, poverty, slavery, with nothing to look forward to. God brought them out of slavery in Egypt and showed them that it was only bitterness, but he had something greater for them.
Ps 105v37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
God treated everyone the same, all prosperous, all healed, all set free and he revealed himself as God the eternal healer, not the eternal sickness giver. That tree was a type of the cross or the finished work of Calvary and when it was cast into the bitterness the bitterness became sweet. Sickness and disease aren’t sweet, poverty isn’t sweet they are bitter. They aren’t of God, God wants to reveal himself to us as the eternal healer.
Jesus healed all who came to him, you and old, rich and poor, if you came on behalf of someone and he even healed many people at the same time, healing is the will of God, it was in the O.T. and it is in the N.T. and it is today.
How do you define “wealth”?
Wealth is having everything you need to survive and thrive personally and for your family (including eating better than the birds and being clothed better than Solomon) plus everything you need to do the will of God plus plenty more to put in store and leave an inheritance for our children’s children, plus plenty more to give to others in need so our ears never need to be stopped up to the cry of the poor, plus plenty more to do good to the household of faith, plus plenty more to give to those who instruct us in the word of God and ensure elders are receiving double honour, plus plenty more to give to the extension of the kingdom of God.
Simple definition. I might have missed something out, if so I apologise.
Blessings,
Ben
I was on a Christian forum today when someone posted a link to a video of the testimony to a girl dying of cancer. The girl thinks that it is God’s will she dies of cancer, and that the cancer will bring about much good.
The poster posting the link I assume agrees with this line of thinking. I watched most of the video and decided to give a Biblical response to it. I wanted to share what I said as I have covered most of the main objections to the truth that God will heal anyone at anytime if they would just receive it. I do not recommend that anyone watches the video as it is not founded on the Word of God and will not build your faith. However I have left the link for completeness’ sake.
May the Lord open this young lady’s eyes to the truth that she is already healed due to the redemptive work of Christ. Amen!
Blessings,
Benjamin
This fellow sister in Christ has terminal cancer. Watch the video and think about (and possibly even respond) to the questions:
Death is Not Dying Event Video
(1) Does she lack faith?
Well it was obvious to anyone watching the video that she does not believe at all that Jesus Christ bore her sicknesses and carried her diseases, that He heals all our diseases, that you can have anything you ask in prayer, that by His stripes she was healed, that God’s Word is health to all her flesh, that she is completely redeemed from the curse of the law.
So if your question about faith is about the faith that Jesus asked the blind men if they had when He said “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”, the faith that when Jesus healed the blind men said “According to your faith be it done unto you” (Matthew 9), then the answer is no.
She said so clearly in the video that she does NOT believe that God would heal her, and that to believe that God would heal her would be sin to her. So to then say she clearly has faith for healing would be to contradict her testimony. She has traditions that make the Word of God to no effect which is why she is not healed.
(2) Has she done something wrong that brought this cancer on her?
No. Well I guess not, I don’t know about her diet or whether she was a chain smoker or drug user. I don’t know if the thing that she greatly feared came upon her because I don’t know the thoughts and intents of her heart. I am giving her the benefit of the doubt – most people get sick because we live in a sin-cursed world.
Unless of course you count the fact that she failed to fellowship with a group of people who would have taught her that Jesus Christ is the LORD our Healer, and that we can receive the healing that He purchased for us with His stripes freely by faith in His Word something wrong. I would call it ignorant, I wouldn’t call it something wrong in a moral sense.
(3) Is God using her terminal cancer to teach her and others
Absolutely not. God uses His Word to teach people. He uses the five fold ministry to teach people. God does NOT use sickness to teach people.
There is no recording of Jesus teaching people with sickness in the Bible. As we have talked about Matthew 9, let’s keep talking about it. Jesus asked the men if they had faith, they said yes, and He said they were healed because of their faith.
Now Jesus didn’t ask if they were born again, if they spoke in tongues, if they were nice people. He didn’t even ask if they have faith in Him as Messiah, if they believed in the Trinity, if they believed in substitionary penal atonement. No – He asked: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” The girl in this video has faith that Jesus is Lord, faith that the Trinity is correct, faith in a lot of things.
Does she believe that Jesus can heal her completely and totally because of His love and mercy? Not at all. Jesus is saying the same thing to her that He said to the blind men: “According to your faith, be it done unto you.” Her faith that God will comfort her in her last days means that she will be comforted. If at any point she changes her faith to believe that He heals all our diseases, then she can walk in divine health.
Jesus did not put the cancer on her. God is NOT the source of cancer and cancer is not educative. People do not learn from cancer. It is not an instructor it is a destroyer. Jesus never said to the blind men: hey, God wants you blind, and come here let me put some cancer on you as well there is still stuff you need to know. If you believe cancer is an instructor, go and strap some plutoninium to your chest, go and start smoking 60 a day, stop eating green leaf vegetables. If you believe blindness is didactic, go and gouge your eyes out with a spoon.
Or get with the programme, and believe and receive your healing!
Goodness – don’t you know God is LOVE. Love does not give someone cancer to teach them a lesson. It patiently instructs people. God is our Father, not some maniacal despot who wants everything His own way or He wipes people out to get His own way. God is a loving Father. If His son asks for bread, He will never give them a stone. If we ask for healing, He will never give us cancer.
(4) Have people been strengthened in their faith because of this illness?
No. Jim suggests that people who are not strengthened in faith don’t have ears to hear. I would like to mention the Scripture at this point: faith comes by hearing and hearing the testimony of someone dying of cancer.
Or maybe it doesn’t say that. Maybe it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD OF GOD. My faith is strengthened as I hear the Word of God, not by testimonies. Your faith isn’t even strengthened by hearing testimonies of people healed of cancer – you cannot get healing faith from a testimony but from the Word of God.
Her testimony might give people goose bumps, it might make them decide to struggle on, it might make them decide to be a bit more grateful for their health but it will never, ever, ever produce faith. Anyone who thinks this strengthens faith simply does not know what faith is.
(5) Does her suffering bring good?
No. It is not the kind of suffering mentioned in the Bible that brings good. Suffering in the New Covenant is about being persecuted for bringing and teaching the Word of the living God. Being stoned, being beat with sticks, being mercilesses persecuted wherever you go preaching the Word.
Sickness does not bring about good. The Word of God is clear on this: Jesus went about doing good healing the sick (Acts 10.38). Healing is good, sickness is bad. Look at Deuteronomy 28, sickness is a curse, healing is a blessing.
Sickness steals, kills and destroys. It does not bring life in abundance (see John 10.10). That and that alone should tell any serious student of the Word the source of sickness. Sickness is satanic, sickness is a curse, sickness is captivity – when God healed Job, the Bible says God turned his captivity. Sickness is a bondage. Sickness is bad. Healing is good.
Jesus Christ took every sickness on the cross so that by His stripes we were healed (Matthew 8.16-17, 1 Peter 2.24).
(6) Is God being glorified through her illness?
No, not in the slightest. God is in His fullness of glory in heaven. We are taught to pray “Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There is no sickness in heaven, therefore it is obvious the will of God is healing. If sickness brings God glory why is there no sickness in heaven? Why was Adam not created with cancer: seen as you think cancer is so intructive, maybe a bit of cancer would have helped Adam make the right choice in the garden.
Maybe God should have ripped Adam’s arms off and stopped him eating the forbidden fruit. I mean if God is going to give someone cancer to teach them a lesson, why not? One of the reasons Eve sinned according to 1 John is that she SAW the fruit was good to eat. Why didn’t God create her blind? Would that not have brought Him glory?
Of course not. God teaches through His Word. When Adam and Eve lost paradise and perfect health due to their sin and rebellion, Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for the healing of every human on the planet. He died our death, He bore our sins and He bore our diseases. So that we could be alive, righteous and healthy.
If sickness brings God’s glory, are there angels with broken wings and angels full of cancer?
You know the answer is no. You know that man was created healthy. You know that in heaven there is no more sickness and you know that God’s will should be done on earth as it is in heaven. God is glorified in healing the sick and changing lives, not letting a satanic thief cut down and destroy someone’s life prematurely.
(7) Will she be physically healed?
The choice is hers. God said that He sets before us life and death. Jesus said “According to your faith, it will be done to you.”
If she stops believing the traditional lies that have kept the church powerless for years and believes the simple truth that By His Stripes She Was Healed, then I can guarantee she will shake that cancer off and live a long and productive and fruitful life, with a testimony that will glorify God and a ministry that will bring faith as she teaches people the Word of God and how she found out that it brings healing and health to all her flesh.
If she continues to believe that God is not there to heal her and that God cannot be relied upon, then I do not foresee her healing manifesting.
Blessings,
Benjamin
This is what happens to your brain when you speak in tongues. It is a really interesting piece.
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As these stunning pictures show, a new technology allows mums and dads to hold a life size model of their unborn child.

“It’s amazing to see the faces of the mothers,” said inventor Dr Jorge Lopes who developed the technology for his PhD at the Royal College of Art.
It works by taking data from ultrasound and MRI scans to build a life-size plaster model using a method called rapid prototyping.
Back in 2005, a new technology which allowed parents to see moving ‘3D’ scans of their baby sparked calls for a review of the abortion law.
The scans showed babies younger than the 24-week abortion limit stretching, yawning, smiling and ‘walking’ in the womb.
But despite polls showing that most women supported a reduction in the upper time limit for abortion, the law remained unchanged when Parliament voted last year.
This new life-size model technology could ignite the abortion debate once again.
In England, Scotland and Wales, abortion is allowed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. The consent of two doctors is required.

Abortion up to birth is lawful when the mother’s life is at risk, or where the unborn child has a serious handicap (however, ’serious handicap’ has been taken to include a treatable abnormality such as a cleft palate).
Abortion is unlawful in Northern Ireland, except for where the mother’s life is at risk.
One in five recorded pregnancies in England and Wales ends in abortion.

According to Government figures given in 2006, of the 5.3 million abortions to residents of England and Wales: 0.4% were because of risk to the mother’s life; 1.3% were because of foetal handicap; over 98% were for social reasons.
In 2006 one woman told the BBC: “I went to the British Pregnancy Advice Service for counselling. I asked if at ten weeks it was a baby and they said, ‘No, it’s just cells.’ I felt like it wasn’t a baby and that was my get-out clause; I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“Afterwards I was emotionally numb and although I didn’t have an emotional breakdown, I became anorexic. I was promiscuous for some time. But at the time I didn’t think it had anything to do with the abortion.”

She said her failed abortion of a second child changed her view: “When I saw that baby with its heart beating, I knew that nine years ago I had destroyed a baby… I realised that I had been reacting out of fear and not really thinking. I was in denial: ‘It wasn’t really a baby but cells.’
“Women deserve more than abortion in a crisis. There are other options, why should the death of a baby be the only answer?”
source: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090626/parents-can-hold-scale-model-of-unborn-baby/
One of the foundational truths we must assimilate into our minds if we are to prosper is that poverty is a curse.
Poverty is not a teaching tool of God, it is not a vow we should take, it is not a blessing-in-disguise. It is a curse. It is a negative thing, it is evil, it causes grief and pain. Poverty is not and never will be a good thing.
Let’s look at a few Bible verses on poverty, starting with Proverbs 6.10-11:
10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
Here the Word of God likens poverty to an armed man (an armed robber according to the NLT). This is how Scripture sees poverty: like a thief. Does that remind you of another Scripture perhaps: The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy (John 10.10, AMP). Poverty and the devil are parallelled in these two Scriptures. Get this into your spirit by thinking about it and meditating on it: poverty aligned with the devil. Poverty is not good. Taking a vow of poverty is not a good idea, it is a foolish idea!
Proverbs 10.15 says the destruction of the poor is their poverty. Poverty is a destroyer. Remind you of anyone? Poverty is from the devil! If you look through Deut. 28.15-68 you will find a list of curses. In there is never having enough, being hungry, being thirsty, not having a home, being naked. Poverty is always on the curse side. Look at Deut. 28.1-14 and you will find a list of blessings: having overflow, having more than enough, having choices you can make in life about what to wear and what to eat.
This is how you can know that Jesus Christ wants you wealthy: Galatians 3.13 says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Do you realize this: God, in Jesus Christ, has completely redeemed you from poverty, from hunger, from thirst, from nakedness. You are blessed. You are able to live a great life. You need to start thinking this way.
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Cor. 8.9)
I will pen some more on how to live in wealth next month,
Blessings,
Ben
Second part of this powerful teaching.
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