What Do you See?

Occasionally I run into people who don't believe what i say because they have believed what they believe for so long they assume I am wrong with no desire to investigate further. These are those I cannot help at all. For a potential litany of reasons they are simply unteachable in a given area. 

Some foundation first: When you pray for God to do something in your life, while He alone is the ultimate source, He's gonna use a human (or several humans) to bring that miracle to you. I am a miracle deliverer but I can only give what others will receive. 

Example: The lame guy at the gate says to Peter, "Hey, can you spare some cash?" and Peter says "I left my wallet at home so I can't give you what I don't have... however, what I do have with me all the time is the power of Jesus within me so in Jesus name, rise and walk!" Isn't it very revealing that the Apostle deals with the root issue of why the man was impoverished instead of treating a symptom and leaving him unchanged? 

Few things are more common than a Christian praying for a miracle, God bringing a person into their life to deliver that miracle and the person God sent not being discerned as such so the miracle goes undelivered. Like the beggar, most don't even really understand what they really need in the first place, they get so focused on their specific immediate need that they don't see what God sees and thus they don't ask for the right stuff.  

Christians who move in unusual discernment and wisdom see what you do not see.

In 2008 when I weighed 500 pounds, the day came when I asked a dietitian for help in understanding food. I knew how to eat, I had eaten much more than my fair share for 38 years up to that point, but I had to come face to face with a cold reality of my own ignorance in the area of what exactly I was eating. I laid in a hospital bed paralyzed on my entire right side for the better part of four days and somewhere in all of that I finally embraced enough humility to admit to myself that I didn't know everything.

It takes humility to admit you don't know something, but that humility opens the door for powerful revelation and change. the day I admitted I was ignorant was the day my weight loss journey began and the day God's miraculous healing power began to be unlocked in my own body.

Now watch this...  I asked God for a healing miracle in my body and within minutes a 95 pound woman walks into my hospital room talking to me about helping me with my diet. God used her, not to pray in tongues over me, not to declare healing scriptures, but to begin to reprogram my thinking.  See, the Holy Spirit translates for us because we often don't even understand what we need to be praying for, let alone how.  So my prayer for a miracle was basically a hail mary to God asking Him to make me like I was a few days before.  God's plan was to not just restore me like I was but to recreate me entirely and bring me into mental and physical wholeness, very much more than I could ever ask of think at that time.. but isn't that like God to always be thinking larger than we ourselves tend to?   
When people ask me for help in whatever area, their assumptions about what I do and do not know could cost them Gods miraculous intervention in their life. I can't change their future until I can change who and what they believe. If you do not believe me, or at least desire to investigate what I say further, God has to use someone else which usually delays the very miracle you are praying for currently. 

I've seen this happen countless times in overweight people especially as they will pray for a miracle to help them lose weight and they will then come to me.  Instead of laying hands on them and believing god to supernaturally suck the pounds off of their frame, I start to talk to them about their diet and activity levels. A few folks over the years have had the humility to admit they didn't know and embraced my wisdom as the Lord's and applied it to their lives. These folks have lost a combined amount of weight into the hundreds of pounds now between them all as a result. Sadly, most dismiss what I say and go back to looking for the next magic juice, pink drink, or diet pill instead of embracing God's Wisdom which will always set you up and lead to the miraculous.

In Luke 10 the seventy people previously sent out to minister came back to Jesus blown away that demons were actually obeying them as they used Jesus' name. That is what THEY saw.. but what did Jesus see? In the next verse He says "I saw Satan fall like Lightning from heaven".  In this is a powerful revelation dealing with any and all deliverance ministry, but to the point in today's blog, Jesus sees the root of an issue.  The seventy in their limited vision just saw that day and what had happened but Jesus had the big picture, the  real reason that they had that authority now.

When an overweight person asks for my help, I see the root, the real reason that they are overweight to begin with. So they pray asking God for a miracle and they come to me.. so I give them an unusual instruction to bring them face to face with what they need to deal with before the Lord. It doesnt make sense to them at that time, but it is exactly what they need to deal with to accomplish their weight loss goals.

Example: I will often tell people to stand in front of a full length mirror in a bathing suit and take "before" pictures. Almost everyone argues with me on that saying how they hate mirrors or they don't understand why they should, etc. The reason is because it will start to bring them face to face with any self hatred, self sabotage, rejection or whatever other issues may or may not be active in their life. These will all need to be confronted and defeated if they are to lose weight in a healthy way.  The instruction doesn't make sense at first, but that unusual instruction is always the path to the miraculous.

 So remember, the next time you approach a Prophet, an Apostle, or any other man or woman of God with wisdom and ask for prayer or help with believing for a miracle, be ready for an unusual instruction. It liekly wont make sense to you right then and there but it will be exactly what you need to do to activate the future God sees fro you that again, is usually much bigger than you are considering right then.

More soon,

Mark 

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