This weekend at Journey we launched a short series to help us get our heads and hearts around what we called the MOST REAL, which is RESURRECTION.
We will look at resurrection stories that lead up to Easter over the next few weeks. We began with the story of the raising of Jairus’ daughter and because all 3 of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) weave in the story of the woman healed from the issue of blood we covered that two. It’s the story of fear working against faith, of the idea of “BOTHERING” God with our requests in conflict with the idea of genuine HUMILITY! It’s the story of desperation turning into a Holy Determination!
It seemed ludicrous to speak on this passage to talk about touches from God that heal and not ACTUALLY DO THIS STUFF.
So we restructured the services to allow for us as a community to pray for healings, breakthroughs and for God to release resurrection power in our lives. Throughout the weekend I kept getting a stronger and stronger impression about “FEAR”. It felt like God really wanted to do stuff in people’s lives in the area of fear, anxiety, abandonment, depression… It was amazing to see how God was touching people’s lives in this area, healing people’s bodies and giving faith to step out.
By the way, props to our many prayer people, some of whom cut short out of town trips to make sure they were there for this weekend.
Here’s a thought that I didn’t have time to develop or really even mention. Receiving a touch from God is not the end, it’s the beginning! Experiencing a touch from Jesus doesn’t instantly mature you. It doesn’t by itself build character. Let’s take the area that I’ve already mentioned, FEAR! God, my give us a release, a breakthrough, a healing of our damaged emotions or memories; He may draw near and fill us in a powerful way. We still must “take our thoughts captive” the next day. We still must choose to be “anxious for nothing”. In other words moments of miracle are part of God’s process for growing us, but not all of it. Think of them as the deep passes in the playbook. You still have to play defense, block and tackle. That should clear it up!
I’m already getting excited about next weekend, Palm Sunday. If you want to get a jump on things read the story in John 11.
