Podcasts + Posts

Jesus marvels at great faith, but a lack of faith never restrains Him.

Somebody told me this more than once...

If you don't have enough faith, Jesus can't move.

I've even seen this belief used to blame people for their own lack of healing, lack of provision, lack of other good thing their Heavenly Father is supposedly holding back from them.

Simply because they don't have enough belief?

Is faith really the most powerful force in He universe? Even stronger than the hand and bigger than the heart of God?

Hardly. Jesus commended great faith, but He never criticized a lack of it to people desperately needing His touch.

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iTunes =  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-overflow-podcast/id1073252863?mt=2

Stitcher = http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=148227&refid=stpr 

Libsyn: http://andrewejenkins.libsyn

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I read an interesting quote from a pastor a few weeks ago:

"God's desire isn't for you to be healed; His desire is for you to be so healthy you won't need to be healed."

The quote comes from Dr. / Pastor Henry Wright, a man who's spent years tracing the correlation between sickness and disease and the emotional and physical trauma behind it...

But back to his core idea... What if we really were designed to be  well...? And what if sickness was the anomaly instead of the norm?

* Maybe that's why there were "leaves for healing" in Genesis 1:29 (the Hebrew word, oklah, which is translated as "food" in that passage literally means "food and medicines").

* Maybe that's why healing exists in Heaven ("The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations," per Ezekiel 47:12 and Revelation 22:2).

Get that: before sin came and after its completely eradicated, healing happens.

Perhaps we were created to choose life, to live well...

...

We tend to look at symptoms, but the Bible calls us to look at the root causes. 

So, yes, Jesus said things like, “You’ll know them by their fruit…” That is, you’ll know what kind of people they really are by what manifests around them. 

But, He reminds us that what you see on the outside- the fruit- is really an overflow of what’s going on beneath the surface. 

John writes about this in 3 John 2. He prays prosperity and health for us (i.e., like the Blessing of Abraham). But, he says that those things directly correlate to how our soul is doing. In other words, our soul is the thermostat (not the thermometer). It controls the outside, the external… 

Because of this, we have hope in this life, not just the life to come (see also 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 and Romans 6:6-11). In other words, total salvation starts now. 

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Quick question- How many of Jesus' miracles weren't miracles?

Yeah. Sounds kind of heretical to even ask it doesn't it?

Turns out, there are a few different words in the Bible used for "healing." Let's break them down...

One word, iaomai, means "instant healing." It's abrupt. It's cataclysmic. It changes things immediately.

I've seen iaomai firsthand.

* I watched it when my brother's eye was healed (he scratched it rushing through trees in the backyard when we were kids and wasn't supposed to be able to see out of it, again, when we were kids).

* I saw it when my little sister's heart murmur was healed... Now, the doctor uses the chart of her first heart rhythm to teach was a bad heart is like- and he uses the second to show what a perfect heart is like...

The tension for me is this...

Jesus said that we would lay hands on sick people and they would recover (Mark 16:15f.). He said we would do greater works than He did because He was going to the Father...

Somewhere, we bought the line that poverty is noble, that sickness is a blessing, and that Heaven is when things really start happening in our favor. Yet, a quick look at the Father of our faith shows us something radically different...

In fact, Paul writes that one of the reasons Christ redeemed us was "so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles..." (see Galatians 3:13-14). 

What does the blessing include? Well… 

• Health, vitality- see Genesis 12:14, Genesis 14:14f., Genesis 21:1f., Genesis 17:1f., Genesis 12:10, 20:1
• Financial, abundance- see Genesis 13:2, Genesis 14:14f., Genesis 14:18, Genesis 12:16, 20:14)
• Spiritual awakening- see Romans 4:1f., Genesis 12:1f. 

Here’s the deal: Abraham's blessing "caught" his descendants in this life, while they were still living. They experienced the presence and power of the Kingdom of God now. In this life. As a person walking this planet. 

Furthermore… and this is...

I'm coming to grips with something, because I see it in myself. Since I'm a pretty normal (read: average) guy, my guess is that it's common to many people. Maybe even you. Here it is: many of us struggle with "worth" issues.

In a sense, we REALLY need a t-shirt, bumper sticker, or tattoo that says, "ENOUGH"- meaning, "I am enough." Just as I am. Enough. 

Here's the deal, though: You're not just a person... a random guy or gal walking around on this planet as one of 7 billion. You're not just a number... like 6,001,0934,112...  or 7,012,301,056... you're actually a unique creation, something unrepeatable, something majestic.

Who we are instead

When Paul described how you were created, He actually said it like this...

“[You] are His workmanship… created for good works He planned before hand [before time began] that you would walk in" (Ephesians 2:10 ESV).

I want you to see two things... 

First, you are a workmanship, and invidual creation....

Salvation isn’t just Jesus’ name (the name Jesus / Yeshua literally means “He saves”), it’s what He does. Furthermore, Jesus not only saves us FROM certain things, He also saves us TO an amazing life. 

The word in the New Testament used for “save” is sozo (this part of the Bible was originally penned in Greek). That word means far more than being “saved” from sin, though. The word is used to denote- 

• forgiveness of sin, guilt, and condemnation
• physical safety
• spiritual freedom / deliverance
• physical healing
• raising the dead

Jesus moves us beyond a life of rules and legalism AND moves us into a life of supernatural meaning and spiritual power. In this episode we discuss what that looks like.

In this episode I mention The Healing Workshop.  You can access the free healing eBook and seven free videos here: www.WeOverflow.com/Healing  

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2016 was a difficult year for us. It's one of those years you don't want to repeat. Ever. 

After moving through it- and after experiencing several people toss out "life rafts" to us along the way (not even knowing they were doing it- just blessing us by being them, and gifting us in many ways with their presence at just the right moment)- I decided it was time to go after the deeper issues... and to get some healing from the things that had happened. 

I'll give you more details in a future post. I'm not hiding them- that's just not the point of this post, alright?

I studied several topics related to emotional and spiritual healing over the past few months- and I studied in a different way than I had with most of my studying before. You see, as odd as it sounds, reading and writing can be somewhat of a "getaway" for me. 

• I can read a book and actually "check out" of reality
• I can write and do the same thing. 

I know. Sounds odd. I get it. You'd think...

Many times, we envision God as being anxious, stressed, or angry… 

Or we see Him as Holy. As a Judge. As Righteous. 

The Bible tells us that God is also joy, though. In fact, one third of the Kingdom of God is joy (Romans 14:17). And, we learn that the One who sits in Heaven laughs (Psalm 2:4), rejoices over His people with singing (Zephaniah 3:17), and empowers us to lean into His joy- as that is our strength (see Nehemiah 8). Indeed, the sound of the throne is one of joy (Psalm 89:15).

When Jesus came, it was a message of great joy (Luke 2: 10), and He communicated deep truths to His disciples so that their joy would overflow (see John 15:11). He even tells us to enter into the joy of our Master (Matthew 25:21). 

Did we miss something? 

We often equate tears, mourning, and seriousness with spirituality. And, we equate happiness and laughing with… well… irreverence (if expressed in a church service). 

Listen in… and see, sense,...

Every person that gets anywhere learns to swim underwater. In fact, they learn to hold their breath for a very long time. And they often do so in isolation, wondering if they surface will come.

Here's what I mean.

A few years ago someone told me about icbergs. No doubt you've heard this before. "You only see 10% of the iceberg," the saying goes. "90% of the iceberg exists beneath the surface."

Of course, in this analogy, the guy was using the metaphor of the icerberg to describe character flaws beneath the surface of our lives. Unseen things we hide. Things that left unchecked can bring things as big as the Titanic down in a night. 

You and I've both seen it...

• Ministry leader fails- because of some huge thing beneath the surface
• Marriage falls apart- because of some relational rift that kept getting swept away under the rug rather than discussed
• Kids shun parents; parents shun kids- because of some hurt that dug so deep that no one will simply own so that everyone can move...