Can It Really Be?

Piper and I drove into north Raleigh yesterday to meet with our new realtor.  I was excited about the event but more importantly, at the dramatic change I saw in my wife that day.  If I had been placing my hope in my physical senses I would have thrown in the towel the day before and set my expectations in a downward spiral!  Monday was rough in that Piper was very weak to the point that I had to physically pick her up throughout the day in order to help her in and out of the car, meet her personal needs, sit on the couch and lastly, to go to bed.

She would stand up from a sitting position and then not be able to do anything else.  On top of that she seemed to not recognize anything… including me!  I told my cousin that I could have been the man in the moon to her for all the recognition she was giving me.  I knew she was having a tough time when she wouldn’t or couldn’t even laugh at my totally dumb jokes or silly songs!

When I helped her to bed that night the only thing that I could do was to speak out the name of Jesus over her and thank Him while I continued to confess our healing scriptures to her.  In the morning she was a changed person!  She woke up more alert to the point that she actually nodded her head in agreement to many things that I talked to the realtor about.  She was able to walk from her chair to and from the car, ate well, and at the end of the night gave me a big smile when I talked to her on the couch!

Those are the little miracles (BIG to me!) that I look for and celebrate as we go through this temporary place in our life.  I am methodically increasing in my daily expectations of the Word of God working in Piper and in my understanding, faith and usage of the power and authority inherent in the name of Jesus that, according to Mark 16:17, is available to each and every one who believes and is baptized into that name.

It dawned on me as we were walking around our neighborhood last night, that the reason I most likely have been so aware of the name of Jesus is because of the things that we believe the Lord told Piper and I to do when our time in Oklahoma had come to an end.  As I have mentioned before, one of the three things we were instructed to pursue when we returned to our hometown was to get a definitive name on whatever it was that was attacking my wife so that we could put the disease into its proper place in order “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth (including Alzheimer’s), and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)

Paul preceded this dynamic statement about the power, authority and dominion in THAT NAME by explaining that “God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above EVERY name.” (Philippians 2:9 MKJV)  So we came home with a definite approach and purpose in the way we were going to deal with this difficulty.  We had been saturated and trained with the Word during our time in Bible School and the integrated church fellowship and pursued that direction from the moment we stepped out of our Suburban onto the driveway at my parent’s home where we were going to stay until we found a place of our own.

What I didn’t realize and literally took me a few years to understand, was that not everyone we interacted with from that point on had the same viewpoint, dedication and/or training as we did!  And that is where we began to (and with a few folks still do…) bump heads!  But through it all we have learned to stay true to our calling and instruction of the Lord.  We have attempted to stay as focused as we can – through the ups and downs like yesterday – on His Word and His name… which in reality are one and the same!

I’ve been in this Christian walk for over 45 years and am just beginning to really understand and become more in tune to the power, authority and anointing that is inherent in the name of Jesus and of the legal right we have to use that name that He conferred to us in the Great Commission when He declared: “All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in (lit., ‘into’) the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20 MKJV)

Now as I read the Word of God each day, I am seeing an entirely new, improved and in most cases, a much more powerful meaning and purpose to my individual place in the propitiation of the Gospel to the world I live in!  Can it be that Papa God has a higher plane to walk in for “them that believe” (Mark 16:17 KJV).  Can it really be true that “in My name they (we) will cast our demons; they (we) will speak with new tongues; they (we) will take up serpents; and if they (we) drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them (us).  They (you and I) will lay hands on the sick, and they will get better?” (Mark 16:17 MKJV)

Is God’s Word REALLY TRUE?  I believe it is… how about you?  AND… What then, are you going to do about it?  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “In What or Who’s NAME am I expecting to move mountains today?”