God Promised!

I woke up yesterday morning at 3:30am with a horrible headache. I was in a car accident when I was 18 months old, and I've lived with migraines ever since. Suffering a back injury in football and 1 diagnosed concussion, along with who knows how many undiagnosed, probably didn't do much to help my situation either. I'm used to headaches. I've lived with them all my life. In fact one time I had a headache so bad in 3rd grade that on the bus I actually threw up on a kid that was sitting next to me. I typically keep a bottle of ibuprofen or aspirin in my car and at work. If I travel any where you better believe there's medicine coming with me. Well, yesterday morning was another one of those days. It was so bad that I couldn't close my eyes to get relief, and I couldn't keep my eyes open because any kind of light was like a lazer that was trying to blind me, and on top of that I was feeling extremely nauseous and started thinking back to what happened in 3rd grade and how much I didn't want to go through that again. My typical ritual is to get up and take medicine and take a shower, so I did. While I was in the shower I remembered back to a passage of scripture that we had gone over in one of our men's Bible studies when David is speaking to God. 2 Samuel 7:25 "Now, therefore O LORD God, the word you have spoken concerning Your servant, and his house, confirm it forever and do as You have spoken..." David calls God out on His promise. David says, "God you have spoken this promise over me and my house, do as you have promised." This verse flooded my mind, and this idea flooded my mind as I then remembered Matthew 7:7 where it says, "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." Those are "will" statements, which indicate a promise that God will do what He has said. I finally thought about how we have been given the Holy Spirit to empower us to do the work of God, to cast out demons, to heal the sick, to raise the dead, and to profess the Word of God with boldness. Well, you know what I did? I called God on His promise. I said, "God you said if I ask I will receive so I'm asking for an empowering of Your Spirit. You said, 'seek and you will find,' so I'm seeking your healing. You said, 'knock and the door will be opened,' well my knuckles are bleeding I'm knocking so hard at Your door."And just like God is, He was faithful to His promise. I immediately started to feel relief in my head. I could close my eyes again to get some rest. I had peace.

So many times we live in fear when it comes to walking out our faith. We are perfectly comfortable talking about an omnipotent God, but when it comes to having a situation to apply His omnipotence, we fail miserably. I can't tell you how many times I've been led to pray for a sick person to be healed and I wimp out and end up asking God to do this and that without any real belief behind it, without any authority in what I say. Then I read the account of Peter and John at the gate Beautiful in Acts 3 and I just drop my head in utter disappointment. Those guys knew the authority. They knew the power they had, and compared to them I'm a failure. They didn't ask God to do anything, because they knew He would do it. They walked up to the crippled beggar and said, "Get up and walk!" That's it! Nothing more, nothing less! And what happened? The man got up, and went jumping and praising God in the synagogue! How have we gotten so lost in what, "walking in the authority of God" really means? God promised us His power, and His power is infinite and incalculable! He promised us His authority, and His authority is greater than any president, king, or ruler this earth, or even the spiritual realm, has ever known! Why don't we walk in it? Why do we allow our circumstances, our western world view, to get in the way of the potential that God has for us? The next verse in 2 Samuel 7 says, "that Your name may be magnified forever, by saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel..." Think about this. If we are calling on God's promises for His glorification we cannot fail because God will not be mocked! He's all about His glory, His honor, His exaltation! I called on His promise not simply so I could be healed, but so that I could stand before our congregation that Sunday morning and say, "God is faithful to His promise! What He did for me, He can and will do for you!" It was to glorify His name, not simply for my satisfaction! If that is our attitude, there is no doubt in my mind that God will give us what we ask. It's why the man at the gate was healed. His healing brought glory to the name of God and an opportunity for the gospel to be preached in order that more men and women could be brought into the family of God! Take the step of faith! Believe in God as David did, as Peter did, as Paul and so many other great men and women did! Then watch God work in and through you! And ultimately give glory to the God of heaven and earth! The omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God that is the one and only God! Amen!