Mark 16:18 “…and if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them”
Again, as we learned in Part 4, this does not give believers a license to tempt or test God. As was the passage in Part 4, this is both literal and metaphorical. Clearly, as believers, God will protect from being harmed by anything we drink inadvertently that is harmful too us. Missionaries in foreign lands that don’t have clean water are protected all the time. This is just one example. We may never know what we have ingested unknowingly that could be harmful to us. God protects us.
The metaphorical aspect of this comes into play in one way in regard to teaching we receive. When we “drink in” teaching receive from a book, from a teacher or preacher, if we are not careful, we could be ingesting some very deadly spiritual poison. The Holy Spirit in us quickens our spirit to know right from wrong, to recognize false teaching, and thus not be harmed by it.
Can you think of any time(s) where you might have drank anything deadly (literally or metaphorically) and seen God’s Hand of protection?
This passage used “drink” as the example, but the same principle and concept applies to things we eat as well. There is no telling what is in the things we eat that could be harmful to us and we don’t even know it. And, sometimes our eating habits can be harmful to us as well. So many “experts” saying don’t eat this, and don’t eat that, while others say the exact opposite. It can be very confusing and hard to know who and what to listen to.
We never know about the quality of food we eat at restaurants or that we buy from the grocery store. We also do not know about the conditions under which that food is packaged or prepared. All manner of harmful things could have gotten into it through either process without our knowledge. We may get sick or get food poisoning from it, but God spares our lives. His Grace is always sufficient and on time.
Has God’s Grace protected you from any deadly foods that you know of?
We also never know about the quality, or in some cases the lack there of, of the spiritual food we ingest. There have been numerous occasions where I have sat in on church services where things were being taught that were not right Biblically. They weren’t necessarily advocating a sinful lifestyle, but rather trying to explain away or just completely reject and ignore valid parts of scripture. Either that or they were trying to “adjust” the scripture to fit their particular agenda instead of adjusting their agenda to fit God’s Word.
In Part 6, the final installment, we will discuss the fifth and final sign. Mark 16:18 “the will lay hands on the sick and they will recover”.
Be thinking about this between now and then.
Do YOU believe God still heals miraculously today? I’m not asking what your church teaches, or what your denomination believes and teaches. I am asking when you are alone with God with no one else around to influence your thoughts, what do YOU believe?
Have you or anyone you know ever been healed by God through a believer laying hands on you or them and praying the prayer of faith?
No comments:
Post a Comment