Another Kingdom - Part 1
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We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 NIV
In John 15:19 and John 17:14-16, Jesus tells His followers they are not of this world. Although they are in the world, they are part of another kingdom – a spiritual kingdom in which both Jews and Gentiles who accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord are joined into a single Body by means of His cross (Ephesians 2). That kingdom operates under different principles than the kingdoms of this world because God has a different (and higher) perspective on things than we do (Isaiah 55:8-9). What does that “different perspective” look like? Let’s take the example of physical sickness.
Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 say that your healing was purchased by Jesus through the stripes cut into His body during His scourging and crucifixion. You were bought with a price and your body belongs to God (1 Corinthians 6:20). Jesus calls healing “the children’s bread” (Matthew 14, Mark 7). In Luke 13:16, He said the woman who had been infirmed for eighteen years was bound by Satan, and Jesus set her free. All through the gospels, Jesus repeatedly healed all manner of sickness (see Luke 4:18-19, Matthew chapters 4, 9, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21 and so many others), and He gave His followers the authority to do the same (Luke 9:1-3, Luke 10:1-9). Every sickness has a name, and it must bow its knee to the lordship of Jesus (Ephesians 1:18-23).
Sickness is not put on you by God to teach you something; rather, it is a tool of Satan to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). It has no right to be in your body because it is trespassing on God’s property. God has given you the authority to claim what is rightfully yours as a citizen of His kingdom. It’s not that we go around saying, “I’m not sick. I’m not sick,” but we can stand in faith because of the cross and declare, “Sickness, I take authority over you in the name of Jesus. You have no right or place in my body. You are trespassing on God’s property and you have to go in Jesus’ name. You have a name, and you must bow your knee to the name that is above every name – the name of Jesus. I claim healing for every organ, every muscle, every ligament, every tendon, every nerve, every artery, every blood vessel, every capillary, every cell of my body. Body, you line up with the word of God that says by the stripes of Jesus you are healed! I plead the blood of Jesus over my body now.”
Father, teach us who have been born again into Your kingdom how to operate according to the principles of Your kingdom. Help us to walk as children of the light. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
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