Gadara. Typhoid Mary (smile). If I were to no longer have the disease, from which at least I know what to expect, then who am I, really? I've been this way for so long, it's the only life I know. I'm not sure I want to reinvent myself!
Ok, perhaps I'm being a bit extreme; but think of how we often confess illness over ourselves and create an identity based on what's wrong with us. MY family history of heart disease and cancer. MY diabetes. MY arthritis. MY cholesterol. MY high blood pressure. Getting the picture? Even the pharmaceutical commercials are programming us to confess ailments with our mouths, to call them our own, and then to ask our doctors if a particular medication is right for us. I don't want my illnesses anymore, do you?!! I don't care if the commercials DO cartoon them up all cutesy, like a big fuzzy pet following us on a leash, I don't want one! I don't want ME on ITS leash!
The devil WANTS you obsessed with your health problems. He does. If the focal point of your conversation is always telling others what the doctor said, the tests you're having run, how sick you felt all night, then he can conveniently divert your attention away from your REAL mission: telling others about Christ, and modeling a genuinely victorious life before them. Satan steals, kills, destroys. Jesus gives gloriously abundant life. When we clear away the cobwebs that our flesh gathers, our spirit man can see clearly what the truth is. How do we do that? We renew our minds with the Word, and we let the Word flow freely in our conversation. We will articulate that upon which we meditate!
Are you reluctant to ask God for healing because you feel unworthy? Did someone you love, a person of great faith, die with a disease that you're fighting now? Do you feel as if you have no right to recover when that other person did not? Friend, it's a lie of Satan! Not even your loved one who passed on would want you to suffer without remedy. Get your miracle and let nothing stand between you and the hem of Jesus' garment! Not a single one of us is worthy of his or her own accord. Jesus' act of suffering in our stead is what makes us worthy. He did it all, praise His name. Do Him the great honor of accepting what He has freely made available for you--for He paid a terrible price so that you could walk in health! Don't suffer one more day when you don't have to. God not only CAN heal you, He WANTS to.
Still another thing which holds us back from receiving healing is simply not knowing that it is already ours. Don't be ashamed if that's where you are! I was raised in a Christian home, and I could read the Bible by age 3 (and did); but it wasn't until my late 20's that I was exposed to the concept of praying the Scriptures. It wasn't until then that I became acquainted with just how powerful the words of our mouths really are. How surprised I was to find out that praying the Word and confessing its truths could be transformational. Sitting under the teaching of Edith Mahon, Pastors Mitch and Regina Bias, Nettie Neace, Brock Brown (and others in the 1990's and beyond) got me started in that direction. Through them, I came to be introduced to some modern-day champions of prayer, such as Germaine Copeland, Marilyn Hickey, Ken/Gloria Copeland, and Kenneth Hagin. It hasn't happened overnight, but I am a work in progress! It's OK not to know, if that's where you are now. You are just as saved as you would be if you had teethed on the front pew of the most faith-applying, Word-teaching church on earth. Don't stay where you are, though! Now that you do know there's more--that you don't have to let the devil use you for target practice--you won't want to go back to life as before. I've gotta say it: it's pretty nice knowing that my words do give me some element of control over what I allow in my life. If my words line up with God's Word, I can have His best life for me. I can have a good life on earth, and afterwards, spend eternity in fullness of peace and joy forevermore! So can you. He doesn't love me one iota more than He does you!
Take an honest look at your circumstances and ask, "Self, wouldn't you be so much better off with a new identity which has nothing to do with what's wrong, but with what's right?" Scientists and the medical community may explain it away as MIND OVER MATTER, but we are going one step further. We are going to change not only the way we think, but the way we speak. SPIRITUAL OVER CARNAL. My friend, if you will begin to say what God's Word says, and say it consistently, you will no longer have to gauge your wellness by what your body, your doctor, or your family history says. You really CAN go mining in the Scriptures, and begin to extract precious truths with which to fuel your prayers. Nothing in this world can bolster your faith and empower your prayers like shaping them around what the Word of God has already declared. If you haven't yet come to know Jesus as your Lord, start out by inviting Him into your life now. Flip over to the end of the book, I'll lead you in a prayer of salvation, and then you can come right back to your bookmark.
Walk with me on a different path for just a little while; allow me to teach you how to become conducive to having a healed body, through expressing gratitude for not-yet-manifest healing and deliverance. I am still learning even as I write this book, so we will just learn together! Take these few prayers, and may they help you to begin a transformational prayer journey of your own through God's Holy Word. There is power in that Word; and when you pray it in faith, in the name of Jesus, then locked doors can suddenly fly open to you. God "called those things that be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17). If Abraham through faith dared to take Him at His Word---and as a result received what medical science would call impossible---then why not us, too! Let's do this!
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Author's Suggestions:
CALL THOSE THINGS is more a manual than a manuscript. There will most likely be chapters in this book which don't apply to you, so please don't feel as if you have to read every page . You can just skip to sections relevant to your own health needs . When you know that someone else is battling in these other areas, however, please pass the word that there are also prayers specific to his or her particular needs IN THIS BOOK ! Tell others where you acquired your copy of CALL THOSE THINGS...I appreciate your referrals, and so will the other people whose lives can be impacted positively by the assistance in this prayer confession guide. If you are reading a paperback version, consider also investing in the e-book version. While I like to dog-ear and highlight real pages as much as the next person, I'm coming to appreciate the portability of electronic books. I keep the electronic version (and now that CALL THOSE THINGS is also an audiobook, that too) on my phone and my tablet...and whenever I'm traveling,visiting someone at the hospital, or just lying in the bed reading after the lights are off, it's available at the touch of a button. The keyword search feature on the Kindle/iBook version is worth the small cost of the second format. In short, the author also has to pull out and read this book routinely for her own benefit...and she finds that keeping it on her phone makes that a lot more likely to happen!
I chose to write CALL THOSE THINGS using the King James Version for my Scripture references simply for ease of research; but I encourage you to feel free to look up these Scriptures in other translations as well. Being raised in a little country church, I cut my teeth on the KJV; so when the Holy Spirit brings to my remembrance certain passages of Scripture (or even key words), I tend to remember them in the translation I grew up reading--"concordance-style"--the original King James. Nowadays I find that using multiple translations (such as the Amplified, Voice, and New Century versions, just to name a few) truly enhances my study even more; and it makes me savor reading God's precious Word like never before. Try studying Scriptures in parallel translations and you'll see what I'm talking about. With phone apps, computer study aids, electronic audio and video media (many of these resources are even free), you will never completely exhaust all there is to discover and re-discover in the Holy Bible! God will continue to reveal Himself to us throughout the ages, but He is also giving us plenty of ways to dig into much of that revelation NOW.
Make CALL THOSE THINGS your book of grateful remembrance! As God answers a particular prayer you've prayed, highlight or place a check mark beside that Scripture; then jot the date and/or a little note in the margin. Part of maintaining the gift of your health and healing is maintaining that spirit of thankfulness. It's so much easier to believe God's Word for the big things as you nurture a habit of thanksgiving for the small