From the desk of Steve Shultz:
The title of Tiffany Ann Lewis' article asks us a potent question: "Are you willing?" Here is what Tiffany Ann shares, "Are you willing to keep waiting on the promise the Lord gave you 10 years ago even though there is no evidence to support it in the natural realm? Are you willing to keep laying hands on the sick as they continue to get sicker? Are you willing to believe for the unbelievable? Are you willing to do what God has asked you to do, even if it seems to make no sense to your natural mind? Are you willing to pray when all hope seems lost?"
Sometimes, God just wants us to be willing, doesn't He? After all, He's the One that's doing it.
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Tiffany Ann Lewis:
"Are You Willing?"
"For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."—Lamentations 3:33
Recently, my dear friend and intercessor had a dream and when she shared it with me, the Lord immediately bore witness of it to my spirit. In the dream, she was at church and heard the prayers of the saints saying, "Lord, if it's Your will, heal so and so." The Lord replied, "I am willing. Are you willing?"
Beloved, the Lord is willing, it's not an issue. You see, it would have been enough if Jesus had just died for our sins by offering His Blood to redeem us from the curse of sin and death, giving us eternal life. But on the way to the Cross, He willingly endured a beating on His body and "by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).
Jesus didn't have to offer His body for the beating; the sacrificial animal was not beaten, its neck was quickly slit to end its life. On the night He was betrayed, fully aware of the prophecy in Isaiah 53, Jesus took the bread and the wine saying, "THIS is My body, THIS is My Blood...do this in remembrance of Me." His Blood was for the remission of sin and His body was for our physical and emotional healing. Two separate functions in the one Divine sacrifice. May that alone thrust us into willingness like we have never experienced before.
"Let it be to me according to Your word."—Luke 1:38
Are we willing, like Mary, to give ourselves over to the King and be co-laborers with Him and do the even greater things than He did? Most would enthusiastically say, "Yes!" However, when it comes time to actually laying hands on the sick in the market place, at the office, in front of friends and family, and Lord, have mercy...even in the church—many shrink back in fear and say, "Lord, if it's Your will..."
In Luke 13, Jesus saw a crippled woman who had been bent over for 18 years; He called her to Himself and healed her. The ruler of the synagogue was indignant, not because He healed her but because He healed on the Sabbath. Jesus replied, "Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" (vs. 15-17).
Jesus tells the ruler to think of it. Just think of the suffering this woman has endured being crippled and bound by satan for 18 years. Here she stands, bent over, in front of Jesus; and not only is He willing to heal her, but He willingly does it on the Sabbath. Think of it. Think of the people you know who are bound by satan, suffering, and in desperate need of a touch from God. Are we willing to get out of our comfort zone, past our old way of thinking and let go of whatever traditions or ways of man that hold us back from allowing the Lord to use us to bring His Kingdom onto this earth as it is in Heaven?
Put Your Hope in God: The Same Spirit that Raised Jesus Christ from the Dead Now Resides in YOU
Beloved, what are we afraid of? Are we afraid of offending the people around us? Are we afraid that the sick won't be healed? Are we afraid that those bound by satan won't be set free? Are we afraid that those bent over won't be made straight? You see, if we pray and it doesn't happen, we'll be disappointed, feel embarrassed, feel like a failure, or worse, our faith may even be challenged.
With these fears brewing in our minds, it's easier to pray, "Lord, if it's Your will..." This is how we rationalize it in our minds. If we pray with that phrase as our safety net, then we won't get our hopes up, and if we don't get our hopes up, then we won't be let down. But our hope is in God, it doesn't have anything to do with us, but it has everything to do with Him. Unfortunately, the devil is trying to get us to lose sight of this. It's a very subtle shift, but may we hear what the Spirit is saying.
In Acts 5:12, Scripture tells us that through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. Hallelujah—that's just what Jesus said would happen (see John 14:12). Unfortunately, look at the response of the people toward the apostles: they esteemed them highly. Many were added to the Lord, however, none dared to join the apostles. Instead, they brought the sick onto the streets in hopes that Peter's shadow would pass by and heal them. Did they not know that the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead now resided in them, too?
There are several different views among the commentators as to what went down in this passage of Scripture regarding Peter's shadow and the healings that took place. Regardless, Peter wasn't the source of the miracle; Jesus was, and still is. There is no room for elitism among Believers. Such thoughts lead to feelings of inferiority and takes our focus off Jesus and puts it on ourselves and others.
Jesus told us that if we believe in Him, we will do these greater things. Beloved, believing in Him means that we believe He has done it all. Believing in Him means that we can't screw it up and we can't conjure it up, because it's all about Him. It means that we know that we have nothing to add or subtract from the finished work of the Cross in order to gain our salvation or to see a miracle manifested. He has done it all, and all He is asking us is, "Are you willing?"
He is Willing and Thinks We're Worth It
I find it interesting that the only place in the Bible where we see the phrase, "Lord, if You are willing..." is coming out of the mouth of someone stricken with leprosy (Matthew 8:2). Beloved, for the Hebrews, leprosy was a dreaded condition which left its victims ceremonially unclean—that is, unfit to worship their King (see Leviticus 13:3). To make matters worse, anyone who came in contact with a leper was also considered unclean. Because of this, the lepers were isolated from the rest of the community so that the members of the community could maintain their "status" as worshipers.
This is heartbreaking, yet I believe there is a spiritual connection here. Many people feel unworthy, like spiritual outcasts, so to speak, when their prayers appear to go unanswered. "I didn't pray enough, I didn't fast enough, I didn't read my Bible enough, etc. etc." These mentalities put it all on our end. Enough is enough, Jesus did it all.
Beloved, all God is asking us to do is to be willing to stretch out in faith and touch the Kingdom of God that is at hand. He is looking for willing vessels through which He can manifest the finished work of the Cross on earth as it is in Heaven.
Are you willing? Are you willing to keep waiting on the promise the Lord gave you 10 years ago even though there is no evidence to support it in the natural realm? Are you willing to keep laying hands on the sick as they continue to get sicker? Are you willing to believe for the unbelievable? Are you willing to do what God has asked you to do, even if it seems to make no sense to your natural mind? Are you willing to pray when all hope seems lost?
"But, Sister Tiffany, I have and nothing happened." Don't let that stop you. We don't always understand it when the miracle we're praying for isn't manifested, but please don't believe the lies of the enemy that tell us God is unwilling and we're unworthy.
God is willing, so willing in fact, that Jesus willingly left the comfort zone of His heavenly throne to come to earth as one of us. He willingly bore the sins and sickness of the world and willingly laid down His life for us. Just think of it—stop and think of it, selah. Jesus told us to remember what He has done and why He has done it. All for the sake of love, because He is willing and thinks we're worth it.
God is willing and He is asking us to be willing; to be a willing vessel through which He can manifest Himself to and through. My life verse is, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24), yet I find myself now praying, "Lord, I am willing; help my unwillingness."
We thank You, Lord, for Your willingness. Amen.
Tiffany Ann Lewis
Dancing with the Flame of the Lord Ministries
Email: Tiffany Ann@tiffanyannlewis.com
Tiffany Ann Lewis is a worship leader and speaker whose heart has been passionately awakened by a God who sees us in our shortcomings and loves us in spite of it all (Ezekiel 16). It is this message of Hope, God's burning love for humanity, that she desires to share through word or song wherever she goes. Tiffany Ann has been ministering for over 10 years in prophetic worship throughout the Body of Christ. She worships with her family at Northway Church in Malta, New York, where she serves on the worship team.
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