It Would Have Been Enough
TiffanyAnn Lewis 

Many years ago, in terrible pain I went to the church sanctuary alone to pray at the piano, as was my custom.  For 45 minutes I played the same 3 chords and sang only “help me.”  As I left, I felt the Lord say “you didn’t ask me to heal you, Tiffany.”   I replied in tears, “Yes Lord, I know” and went on with my day.

The Lord showed me what was in my heart in order to stretch my faith.  It’s easier to believe for someone else’s healing than for your own.  I had seen with my eyes the scriptures and I was sure that I believed them.  I had heard with my ears the testimonies of others, however clearly, I did not yet understand with my heart so that I could turn and be healed (see Is. 6:10 & John 12:40) or even ask to be healed.

In order to believe in something you have to trust in it.  Why would we believe in or put our faith in something that we don’t trust?  Let me illustrate; I can know/believe in my head that this chair was created to hold me because the tag says it will hold up to 300lbs, that’s head knowledge.  But do I trust/believe it in my heart so that I will sit down on it?  What is going to get me to trust this chair?  Knowing that the manufacturer is reputable and their product is trustworthy.  Every decision that we make is based on our belief system. Either we believe the chair will hold us and so we sit, or we believe it won’t and we don’t sit.

The word “faith” in Hebrew is pronounced aw-man’ we know it as “Amen” meaning:

To support, confirm, uphold, to be established, be faithful, to be certain, i.e. to believe in.

It’s really that simple.  Unfortunately there is an adversary roaming around trying to distort our belief system by filling us with half-truths so we can’t “sit” on the fullness of the Word of God. 

That’s what the devil, our adversary did to Eve in the Garden of Eden.  He asked, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”  (Gen. 3:1)  Die?  Nahh, “you will not surely die.” (Gen. 3:4)   He caused Eve to doubt just a portion of what God said which ultimately led to the fall of mankind.  I know it’s easy to look back at Eve and see how obvious the deception was and believe it could never happen to you.  However, there is nothing new under the sun; what stumbled them will stumble us.  The enemy is using the same lines to lure us.  “Did God really say you could be well body, soul as well as spirit?  Nah…that’s not going to happen here on earth, that’s only for heaven.”  He’s trying to blind us from receiving the fullness of what Jesus Christ bore on the cross of Calvary. 

 

Well here is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed”. (Is. 53:5)

Here me!  It would have been enough if Jesus died for our sins by offering His blood to redeem us from the curse of sin and death.  But on the way to the cross He endured a beating on His body to remove the effects of sin.  Jesus was wounded fatally offering His life to pay the debt for our sin/rebellion; it would have been enough!  But He was also bruised with hands that beat Him for our iniquity.  In addition to that, He was punished with a crown of thorns so that we could have peace in our soul/emotional realm.  And last but certainly not least; He was whipped with a cat of nine tails leaving stripes/wounds on his back so that we could be healed! 

Jesus didn’t have to offer His body for the beating; the sacrificial animals were not beaten, its neck was quickly slit to end its life.  Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29), made a choice to take the beating on His physical body.  From the top of his head, which was crowned with thorns, to the soles of his feet, which were pierced as He was nailed to the cross, He endured this with you and me in mind. 

Stay with me, it gets even better!  On the night that He was betrayed, fully aware of what He would soon suffer, Jesus took the bread and said THIS is my body and took the wine and said THIS is my blood.  Jesus didn’t lump them together leaving the devil no room to confuse us on the issue.  “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Heb 9:22 ESV) The blood was offered for the remission of sins freeing our spirit from “the wages of sin (which) is death” giving us eternal life. (Rom. 6:23)  The body was beaten, broken, pierced, cut for healing body and soul.  These elements do not have one function but rather two.  Jesus told us to take communion in remembrance of Him, to remember it, to partake of it, to profess it, to confess it, ALL OF IT.  Not only the gift of eternal life but also the gift of wellness both body and soul.  It would have been enough if He has just given us life but Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)  Not just life but life abundantly!  He was saying in essence everything I am, everything I have, I give it all to you on earth NOW as it is in heaven, everything. HalleluYah!!! 

There is no power in the elements – the power is in believing what the elements represent.  Imagine if we believed for everything the way we believed for our salvation or the way we believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem or that He had 12 friends called disciples, or that His mom was named Mary.  IMAGINE!  Jesus said “Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” (Mark 11:22-24)  Jesus, the one who is Faithful and True has said it.  The Word of God is our guarantee.  We can trust, believe and rest assured sit on His Word.  Amen.

*All scripture is quoted from NKJV unless otherwise noted.