Monday, September 15, 2008

Grace sufficient..?

2 Corinthians 12:9 God said to Paul :”My Grace is sufficient for you”. Now out of context it seems as if God was saying that I am not going to heal you Paul. If you just quote that verse by itself, that is an accurate interpretation of the isolated verse…but does not line up with God’s Will and Last testament to us. If a verse in isolation does not line up with the whole Word then we need to re look at the verse.

The first problem with this verse interpretation is the word Grace. What does Grace actually mean.  For too long we have misinterpreted the word Grace. Grace actually means “gift”. What gift did God give Paul that was sufficient for him to carry him through the sickness?

1 Peter 2:24 by whose stripes you were healed. The word healed is the Greek word  ”idamo”  meaning restored to full bodily health. Please notice the word is a past tense word. It has already happened.

Paul was asking God to do something that God had already done.

Matthew 27:50-53…all the dead were awakened! All sickness and death was defeated on that day!

 

John the only apostle to be present at the death of Jesus records something that none of the others record…but then he was the only writer present at the death. He records in John 19:26 we see that Jesus indicates John was present. In John 19:30 Jesus says:”It is finished”. In other words, the work was completed. He has fulfilled scripture that day, that hour. He fulfilled God’s will on the earth. Sickness, death was destroyed that very hour. Look at John 10:10…Jesus said I came to give life to the full in abundance till it over flows.

The Greek word for Salvation is “Sozo” which means nothing missing and nothing broken. Sickness is a definite missing and or broken. Something is broken when you are sick…and yet we all believe in salvation but struggle with the results of being saved?

That’s why Romans 12:2 says to change your thought patterns. In fact the bible refers to our thought patterns as demonic! 1 Peter 2:1 the word malice in the Greek refers to demonic thought patterns.

Proverbs 23:7 as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Are you thinking like you old self, or are you thinking like the new creation. Your thought patterns determine your future.

Has your mind been saved? Has your mind been renewed today?