Healing, just the same as forgiveness, is not a divine medicine to be taken when we feel in need of it, and otherwise largely ignored. It is but a river. It flows from the foot of the cross without stopping and fills an unrepenting and unreceiving world with restoring grace.

It is sometimes quite shocking to consider what little price is demanded of us by the Almighty for such healing and how reluctant we are to give it!

And I Have found that even the smallest degree of sensitivity to this grace-flow of God impels us to step into this river, be carried by its current wherever it flows, and irrigate every surrounding field with its waters!

Please, oh church, get swimming in the kingdom! Every blessing - Mike

Revd Mike Endicott
Director: Order of Jacob's Well

 

UK office phone: 01633 483660

 

USA and Canada office phone: 647-932 3542

 

Postal Address:
Order of Jacob's Well, Forge House, Clomendy Rd, Old Cwmbran, Wales UK NP44 3LS

 

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/revd.endicott

 

Twitter feed link: 
http://twitter.com/simplyhealing

 

International Resources for you:
www.simplyhealing.org
and
www.jacobswell.org.uk

I've found it as impossible to live and prosper spiritually without prayer as it must be to live and prosper physically with no food, and without any income of some kind.

Those folks who enjoy a tight walk with God through life and share in the exercise of power with him in his kingdom are those of us who pray in secret, but who know what 'secret' means in this.

Unless we are spiritual people, we will be of little use to God; and to be spiritual, we have to live a great deal in prayer.

Funnily enough it isn't those of us who are most frequently, or for the longest time, on our knees who do the most praying. Some people may pray more real prayer in one hour than others in two or three days.

Too many of us leave the door open. The sort of prayer that feeds the soul must be offered up with the door shut.

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:6).

God is in secret in the sense that he is hidden from the world. The world can't see him, and they don't know him, either. We can never get close enough to God in our prayers unless we shut out the world.

Shutting the door means something very different than closing the door of a private room. We can go into that private room and close the door, and yet we can easily have taken the world in there with us. We have not closed the door in the true sense.

We must go into our closet when we pray, and shut the door behind us, or our prayers will dissolve in the air around us. We must talk from our heart to the heart of God. Those around and about us may hear us speaking, but they don't know the secret; the secret lies between our heart and the heart of God. We hardly hear our own words falling out of our mouth; we know and hear more of the speaking of our heart.

There is a blessing for us in praying in secret this way; There is a certain joy in it that can't be shared with anyone.

Every blessing to you - Mike

Revd Mike Endicott
Director: Order of Jacob's Well

 

UK office phone: 01633 483660

 

USA and Canada office phone: 647-932 3542

 

Postal Address:
Order of Jacob's Well, Forge House, Clomendy Rd, Old Cwmbran, Wales UK NP44 3LS

 

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/revd.endicott

 

Twitter feed link: 
http://twitter.com/simplyhealing

 

International Resources for you:
www.simplyhealing.org
and
www.jacobswell.org.uk

My aim in these little bloggish thoughts is to build us up in our knowledge of how to live, because the quality of our life everlasting depends on the life we lead while we are here.

Please forgive me for repeating some things I have thought about before: to live as we should, we must set out to live by every word of God. To live by every word of God means not only to hear it, or even to hear it and believe it, but to do it as well.

We can learn two things about this; firstly that in order to go in to the city of God, dwell there in peace and eat the fruit of the tree of life, we have to carry out his commands, and secondly that Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

The Epistle of James tells us not just to listen to the word, and so deceive ourselves.

We are, I'm afraid, living in an age of spiritual ignorance. The art and skill in imitating Jesus is being desperately neglected on both sides of the church doors. I don't mean just being disciples, I mean actually trying to do what he did, kingdom work!

Of those few who actually do hear these instructions, how few of us are doing it! We are running the enormous risk of deceiving ourselves. Those that hear, but do not do, imagine they are on their way to heaven, when they may well not be.

The only way to heaven is by doing his will, not legalistically but with a will of our own. By way of illustration of what I mean we can look quickly at a few texts:

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31.

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him." Romans 12:20.

"But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Matthew 5:39.

"Heal the sick who are there and tell them, `The kingdom of God is near you.'" Luke 10:9

And those are only four. If we are humbly satisfied that we are living joyfully according to texts like these, then we might begin to tentatively conclude that our hearts might be right with God.

Sorry if that's a bit challenging! – every blessing today - Mike

Charles wrote me this note:- "Dear Mike,

I had to write to you to thank you for a truly inspiring day on Saturday.

The trouble with my knee started with a bungled cartilage operation in1943 and has got gradually worse ever since.

The last time I saw a specialist about it he said that he could do nothing for me – the X-rays showed that there was practically no joint left and that I needed a new artificial one. – so I felt that asking you to pray for it would be a bit like asking you to heal a wooden leg!

Afterwards, on the way home, I had to face the devil's counter-attack, of course.

"You've been conned, mate!" he said, "You've always argued, and taught in Sports Lectures, that fatigue and pain are largely in the mind. Think it will hurt and it will. You fell for mass hysteria (he isn't always very original) and when you get over the temporary thrill it will be as painful as ever."

Then he tried the tack – "Use your sense, man! The doctors and surgeons have been trying to put your knee right for fifty years! Do you really think it can be done in half a minute? Anyway, what did he do? Just a bit of prayer, that's all."

"That's just what Jesus did," I answered, "He never performed any dramatic rigmarole in his healing."

That put the devil to flight for a bit.

Then, when I was undressing for bed that night, my wife Pauline said,

"Look at your knee!"

It has been swollen for years and now the swelling had not completely disappeared but it had already gone down by at least fifty per cent.

The following Saturday night and Sunday night I slept as I had not done for many years – usually I have to get up at least every two hours to move it about and ease the pain. The last few nights I have slept without moving and without pain.

Yesterday I knelt in church for the first time in years, not without some effort admittedly, but without any undue discomfort.

I still find myself coming down the stairs one at a time and I have to tell myself that I can come down quite normally now. If I turn suddenly I wince automatically before I have time to realise that it has not hurt at all.

So I am generally shaken to the core and very ashamed that my expectancy of God was so feeble. I am immensely and undeservedly blessed.

Yours ever in the grace of the Lord Jesus – Charles"

Just thought you might enjoy reading this! Every blessing - Mike