Gift of Healing 3

I was talking to a lady, just barely touching on the subject of healing, and she announced (not realizing that I would later obsess over the subject) that the reason people aren't healed today is because we (I assume she's referring to Christians in general) don't exercise our faith.

So, continuing on my journey I looked up 'exercising your faith'. One of the mannnny links I pulled up was this. <--- click there

A lot of the articles I read were almost what you'd expect. To exercise your faith, you need to get out there and use your faith. Other than trying Gideons tactic of laying a fleece outside and asking God to wet it down, or keep it dry, I can't think of any creative and good ways to do something like that.

I briefly considered the notion of planting myself in the yard of a house that we want torn down to see if that particular mountain would move, but could only imagine it would be a really bad decision. Plus in an article I read recently, the author made a really good point about two separate incidents where one of Pauls companions became sick. They pointed out that the use of a spiritual gift is suppose to be led by God, and not used for our convenience. I can buy that. Especially if it means my picture doesn't appear in the local newspaper in the fruit and nut section.

But the article that I linked you to took a different and -this part is important- biblical approach to 'exercising your faith'. It's a quick and easy read, very clear and I couldn't ask for it to be more concise. It's well worth taking the time to read. The very first part pretty much says "read your bible". And when the steps to getting what I'm going after are things as non-energetic as reading and virtually impossible to gauge my progress on, I can almost guarantee that that is the correct step in my goal. I hate steps like that. But it's never failed to be the right step.

As I search for steps, and things that I can do to quite literally, get what I want, even as I do all this, I know that this isn't in my own ability to get. Much like the gift of tongues, God gave it to me as He willed. And with the gift, comes the power to use it. But at the same time, you wouldn't teach a baby to ride a bike. They have to gain muscle, stamina, balance, coordination, and so much more has to be learned just to walk, much less ride a bike. The bible talks about the young in Christ vs the old (see ref.) and I don't want to be a young child forever. I want strong meat, and the ability to do more. So I ache to grow.

Talking to a friend last night about money, she mentioned that she isn't saving any money so that she could go on a trip that she would like to be able to take next year. She saw the financial goal as impossible, and so she isn't working towards it. My words to her came back to haunt me this morning as I realized how they applied to my condition as well. I told her simply this:
If you think it's impossible, and you don't save, then next year when the time is here you'll discover that it is impossible.
But, if you think it's impossible, and you still save, then next year you may very well find that it wasn't so impossible after all.
This time next year, if you have saved your money and then find that you still don't have enough money to go, you will at least have a small nest egg that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

I've long since said that God doesn't have to give me anything. He's given me so much already... I can't say it enough, He has given me so much, so very much already...that I could never ask for anything greater than what He's already done. But, I seek anyway. And if I come to the end and discover that I'm wrong about the whole thing, or that Gods plans for me don't include this particular spiritual gift, that's ok. But, this time next year, even if I don't have a new gift, I will have more of God than I would have had otherwise.

And every little drop, every step farther down this road, is just bliss.