The San Diego book fair is in 3 days and I'm so excited. I will be selling my books, signing books, meeting other authors, and giving away a SNEAK PEEK of my newest book I AM HEALED!
I AM HEALED is still being looked over by my editor, but should be published mid September.
As promised, I want to give all of my readers who subscribe to my website a FIRST PEEK!! So here it is, hot off the press.... the Introduction and Prologue along with a table of contents so that you can see what the book will include.
ENJOY!!
Contents
Introduction
Prologue
PART ONE – ETERNAL FOUNDATIONS OF HEALED
1 We Need a Revelation of Wholeness......................................................................
2 Ephesians 1 part one: Chosen IN Christ.................................................................
3 Ephesians 1 part two: Eternal Redemption.............................................................
4 Sons & Heirs...........................................................................................................
5 Jehovah Rapha......................................................................................................
6 Eternal Covenant of Wholeness..............................................................................
7 Health & Healing is a Spiritual Law.........................................................................
PART TWO – HEALED IS A FINISHED WORK
8 Jesus Healed Them ALL.........................................................................................
9 IT IS FINISHED!.....................................................................................................
10 The Main Point part one..........................................................................................
11 The Main Point part two..........................................................................................
12 The Old Man Died Two Thousand Years Ago.........................................................
13 Sickness & Disease Severed..................................................................................
14 Free From the Curse of the Law.............................................................................
PART THREE – LIVING A HEALED LIFE
15 Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh........................................................................................
16 War No More!.........................................................................................................
17 The Minister of Our Tabernacle...............................................................................
18 Co-identity — Our Single Identity............................................................................
19 The Power of Hope..................................................................................................
20 Praise Silences the Enemy.......................................................................................
Epilogue
Introduction
“The great majority of the Christian world is still weeping at the foot of the cross. The consciousness of man is fixed on the Christ who DIED, not the Christ who LIVES. They are looking back to the Redeemer who WAS, not the Redeemer who IS.”
~ John G. Lake
The cross is the place of death. It is where EVERYTHING died two thousand years ago. IN Jesus Christ, ALL humanity, sin, death, the law, sickness, disease, poverty, etc., died on the cross and was buried. And then ALL mankind rose together with Jesus in His resurrection…. leaving behind in the grave: sin, sickness, disease, death, poverty, etc. A brand NEW, never before seen humanity FILLED with resurrection life rose up from the grave IN Christ. And YET, a significant number of believers are still hanging out at the foot of the cross, or worse, carrying their own cross, hoping for a someday manifestation of what He has promised.
But the cross changed EVERYTHING and EVERYONE! And its message is the beautiful finality of IT IS FINISHED! Then, just like Hosea prophesied, the glorious resurrection of ALL humanity IN Christ was three days later. And the message of the resurrection is the restoration of ALL things! The abundant life we were created for was now restored… everything that we need for life and godliness is IN us. We are partakers, or co-participants of the Divine nature, living a life reflecting the realities of heaven here and now.
But if we cling to the cross, we continue to hold on to a “someday” way of thinking. Singing songs about clinging to the old rugged cross and exchanging it someday for a crown. Being “SOMEDAY minded!” Thinking that eventually, we'll receive a crown and ultimately share His glory. But Hebrews 2:7 says that He crowned us with glory and honor. This is not a someday verse. It is an aorist indicative verb tense: FINISHED! DONE! COMPLETED! We're not waiting for a future crowning of glory. We are carriers of His glory now, embodiments or physical expressions of His glory NOW. Being “SOMEDAY minded” keeps us from walking in the fullness of Him, in the fullness of the Christ-life IN us. We are FULLY crowned. Crowned with His royal crown! Victorious in ALL things. Victorious over sin. Victorious over death. And victorious over sickness and disease!
But rather than seeing ourselves as triumphant rulers and co-creators of our destinies because of who He is IN us, we continue to cry out to Him for healing, deliverance, salvation, etc. We read the gospels and identify more with those who need healing than the One who is Whole and Complete. Knowing He lives IN us. Limiting our understanding of the healing ministry of Jesus to what we read in the four gospels will keep us in a "someday mindset." And it will keep us looking to an "outside" god who might visit and heal us, rather than understanding that God dwells IN us.
Visitation theology was the common understanding of the Old Covenant people. Angels stirred the water so they could be healed, prophets declared whether God might heal them, hands were laid on them, etc. But our new life IN Christ is a habitation mindset, not a visitation way of thinking. He lives IN us. It's His life that is ours. We were not meant to need healing because healing was a FINISHED work at the cross. But when our understanding of healing is the four gospels, we see Him as Healer and ourselves as the ones needing healing. Because we see sickness and disease as a normal part of life…. as something that we're stuck dealing with until we die and get to heaven SOMEDAY.
And so, we think that if we can just touch the hem of His garment, or if He just will pass by and take notice, THEN He might heal us. And so, we go to healing service after healing service, hoping we will finally get our miracle. Hoping that the minister will call out our specific sickness or disease and prophesy that God is healing us. We go time and time again to the altar and have hands laid on us for healing. Why? Because we have identified with someone needing to be healed of sickness and disease. But that's not our identity… our identity is Christ. It's His life IN us. We need to move past a “healing way of thinking” to the revelation that the will of God for us IS divine health! His will IS for our wholeness! Because our health and wholeness are FINISHED IN us!
In John 5:6, Jesus asks the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, "Do you want to be made whole?" This man had been paralyzed for 38 years. But paralysis wasn't this man's problem. It says that he had been in infirmity for 38 years. While infirmity does include physical sickness or disease, they are not the meaning of the word. The word in Greek is asthenḗs which means weak or without strength. It is the lack of strength or the inability to produce desired results, depriving one of enjoying life. This man was infirm; he was unable to produce the desired manifestation of health in his life. Rather than enjoying life, he was confined to his mat, watching life pass him by. Waiting on his “SOMEDAY” miracle. Waiting for an angel to stir the waters and hoping someone would help him get into the water before anyone else so that he might be healed. He wasn't the only one. It says a great number of blind, lame, and paralyzed were all awaiting the moving of the water. What a difficult, hopeless situation – blind, lame, and paralyzed! The blind couldn’t see if the waters were stirred, the lame would have difficulty being the first in the pool, and the paralyzed wouldn’t be able to move at all.
All these people were infirm… they were unable to produce the desired result of living life abundantly. They were lying by the Sheep Gate at the pool of Bethesda, which means House of Kindness. And Nehemiah 3:1 says that the Sheep Gate was built near the tower of Hananel, which means God's favor or graciousness. This pool had established a reputation as a place of healing. Tradition stated that an angel would occasionally come down and stir the waters in the pool.
Can you imagine the thoughts racing through the people’s minds as they wait for the stirring of the water? Would the waters be stirred today? Would God’s kindness and favor be shown to them? Would they finally be healed? Because only one person would be healed when the waters were stirred. Only the first one in the pool, the quickest one to respond.
This man had been paralyzed for 38 years. It doesn’t tell us how often he came to the pool seeking healing. Still, I don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination to assume that it had probably been every day for most of his life. And because he couldn't walk and had no one to take him into the waters, he missed out on his miracle again and again. That would've produced disappointment, hopelessness, depression, etc. Or perhaps it caused him to just give up and sit and watch others get healed in the water. Giving up on the idea that he would ever experience God’s kindness and favor. Thinking that God has forgotten him and doesn’t see him! But Jesus the Healer, or as Isaiah calls him the Master of Wholeness, walks through, and sees him! And looking into his eyes with eyes of Love, He asks if he wants to be made whole. The man responded that there was no one to carry him into the water. But Jesus’ question wasn’t suggesting that there was something he needed to DO to be healed.
Our English translations do a poor job translating this verse. In Greek, the word well or healed is hugies, meaning sound, pure, whole, healthy, normal. It is to be WHOLE and HEALTHY. The word become is an aorist infinitive meaning it's not a progressive becoming but an already complete becoming…. Done! FINISHED! The Passion translation has in its notes: "Are you convinced that you are already made whole?" Jesus was asking the man if he was ready to abandon how he had been seeing himself, and BE who he truly was, WHOLE and HEALTHY! Then He told him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk!" In other words, "Rise up, and live the life I created you to live! Enjoy abundant life!" The word rise means to awaken from sleep or death. This man, who had been afflicted for 38 years, looked into the eyes of the Master of Wholeness. And he saw his own reflection. He saw himself whole. And he IMMEDIATELY awakened from out of his infirmity. He IMMEDIATELY awakened from out of his distorted sense of identity, and he picked up his bed and enjoyed abundant life!
I had difficulty deciding whether to title this book I AM HEALED, or I AM WHOLE. My dilemma was because this is not a book on healing but on the FINISHED work of healing and the reality that we are WHOLE and COMPLETE. This is not a how-to book with formulas or keys on how to get healed. It is a book to empower you on who you are IN Christ… whole and complete in every area of your life, including being healed or whole in your physical body.
We read these accounts in the gospels, and we think Jesus is asking us today, "Do you want to be made whole?" We read into Jesus’ words that He is asking if we have enough faith to be healed, or if we desire it enough, or for the right reasons. He's NOT asking us that. He's declaring to us… just like the man in John 5… Are you convinced that you are already made whole? Awaken and see yourself the way God sees you… WHOLE and COMPLETE! HEALED!
Jesus spoke to this man boldly! He didn't see him paralyzed, He saw him whole and healthy. He spoke the language of I AM to him. He spoke resurrection language! And the result was immediate; the man began to walk. ALL infirmity (the inability to produce results) was gone! He was now seeing himself whole and healthy! And in verse 14 of chapter 5, Jesus sees the same man in the temple and says to him, "See! You have become whole! Do not continue in your old, distorted mindset (sin); then nothing worse can happen to you! (Mirror Bible)." Jesus is not telling him that if he sins, as in bad behavior, he will be punished and become sick! NO! That was their old covenant mentality! He's telling him that sickness is not biological in origin. It has its beginnings in the realm of our soul. Its origin is in our false, distorted identity… not seeing ourselves as sons made in the image and likeness of Abba. That's why having a book with keys to getting healed won't help you. Healing is an identity issue. You don't need to GET healed; you simply need to rise up in the revelation that you were healed two thousand years ago.
Prologue
All of heaven must have been at attention to witness this glorious event. Watching the creation of this man that God was so mindful of. Seeing him crowned him with glory and honor. Being in the image and likeness of God with dominion over all the works of His hands.
Mankind wasn’t created to be just a little bit like God; he was filled with the FULLNESS of God. Abba knelt, FACE TO FACE with Adam, imprinting this experience of FACE TO FACE in man forever. Mankind would never be satisfied with anything less. And Abba, He breathed into him the Breath of Life. In Hebrew, it’s capitalized…. He is the Breath of Life. He breathed into Him ALL that He is. ALL His love, light, life, goodness, and mercy were being infused into Adam. God was merging His very being into Adam! He poured Himself COMPLETELY into him… filling him with the totality of His life, His Spirit, His Faith…. injecting into him His very DNA.
The fall didn’t change any of that. Mankind simply forgot who they were sons made in the image and likeness of Abba. And they spent almost four thousand years living in a false identity of their own making. Seeing themselves, God, and their world in a distorted reality.
BUT THEN the fullness of time had come! Eternity entered time! God came to earth as a Man. And as the Last Adam, He not only restored us to what Adam and Eve had lost or had been BUT restored us to what He, the Last Adam, IS. A glorified, incorruptible, immortal man, participating in the Divine nature.
