Dear [[firstname|Friend]],

Having done all, to stand

There will be many opportunities in this new year, when all else seems to fail, for you to stand firmly on God's Word. At least, that's the impression I get from the many prayer requests I've read in the past year. "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm" (Ephesians 6:13 ESV). Having done all,to stand, for you have all that you need, including "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (verse 17). If God says it, that settles it!

I still remember a sermon I heard in the 1960s about the two spies who went into Jericho and Rahab hid them from the king's men (Joshua 2). When she sent the soldiers on a futile search outside the city, she let the spies down over the city wall by a rope. The preacher made the point that sometimes in life we do get into tight corners and we just have to tie a knot on the end of the rope and hang on.

I was thinking this week of my third pastorate, an outreach fellowship started by another church (now called a "church plant") and I was the first pastor to be called to the church. In the first or second week, I received a call from the other pastor to say that there was a person associated with my church in hospital who needed a visit and he also had a person in the same hospital to visit, so we agreed to go together. The man I prayed for died and the man he ministered healing to lived! Shortly afterward, when this other pastor was confined in bed with the flu, I called him and asked whether he wanted me to come and pray for him, but he said No, he'd take his chances! And he never let me forget that hospital incident.

Did that stop me praying for the sick? No, because I realised early in my ministry that I wasn't God. My commission was to pray for the sick and "having done all, to stand." Some healings are instantaneous and some are slow (like the ten lepers and the blind man who saw people as trees walking and the word "recover" in Mark 16:18), but they are still sure. God will heal you of all your sicknesses except the last one, otherwise how will He ever get you to heaven? Today we have names for every condition and it seems you can't just wear out or die peacefully in your sleep anymore; its heart failure!

Recently I heard in a television interview that Oral Roberts, the most famous of the healing evangelists from the 1940s onwards, nearly quit the healing ministry because of the numbers of people who showed no sign of healing after they were prayed for. As he prayed and read the Word with this on his mind, the Lord had to remind him that he wasn't God either.

What do you do while you are hanging on to the end of the rope? You go over in your mind all the scriptures that relate to your situation, you rehearse and speak out what God has said. "He has said... so that we may boldly say" (Hebrews 13:5-6). You might be inclined to try and get a thousand people praying for your need, in the vain hope of changing the mind of God. However, God has already made up his mind and He's told us in the Word what He thinks about your situation. We are told in that our sufficiency, Christ in us, comes from God (II Corinthians 3:5) and in Philippians 4:11 to live independent of circumstances.

(In addition to this article, listen to my audio teaching on our site, "Prosperity and Health Hard" under Single Teachings.)

-- Peter Wade

You are saying...

From our emails: "Let me say first and foremost I enjoy reading your writings. This one has struck home to me ("No need for tags"). I have wanted to try to understand a few major differences between a couple of denominations. Thank you kindly for some more of your insight on this... You always seem to be a non bias person..." DH.

"You are always in my heart and prayers. Thank you for sharing all of the wonderful blessings of the Lord's Word for all of these years." -- BM, California.

"Re A Quiet Talk About Jesus' Birth: Wow!!! That really makes it true to life. How dramatic!! I want to read his book now. Thanks for sharing this." -- PS, Ohio.

"The body of Christ has been richly blessed because of your ministry. The books you have written have blessed me exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think." -- MH, Kentucky.

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