Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, and the annunciation that she was to bring forth the Messiah was made Luke 1:35. When I have a desire put into my heart by God, that is the Holy Spirit announcing to me that something impossible is about to happen through this temple body, something beyond the possibility of human wisdom.
My desire to be free of what the doctor calls anxiety disorder
and what she calls real
and a part of my DNA that I will have to live with—this desire is analogous to the annunciation of the Holy Spirit that I am about to bring forth this Messiah
or Savior
to my world of fear.
But, like Mary, I know that I cannot bring it forth. No matter how much truth I learn and confess, I have not the ability to bring it forth—to rid myself of this disorder.
Following Mary’s example, I just ponder this in my heart Luke 2:19 and magnify the Lord within Luke 1:46-47 who gave me the desire and who alone has the power to bring it forth—by a way I know not of.
The most important thing to remember is that I take my attention off myself and the problem. I don’t attempt to do, think or believe anything to cause the impossible to occur. I recognize that the bringing forth of this Messiah
is totally dependent on the Lord within, not upon anything I do or don’t do. So I continue to magnify that Lord.
There is but one Power, not a power of good and one of evil. The anxiety disorder has no power of its own; it has only the power I
give it by believing in its reality as something evil which can harm me. The Lord within (the only Power that there is) dissolves the pictures of evil when I magnify that power. I hold evil in place by believing in it and thinking about it. When I am thinking and believing that I must not take medication for the anxiety because that shows I’m not trusting God and receiving His perfect love which casts out all fear, that only increases my consciousness (awareness) of the anxiety and holds it in place (gives more power to the anxiety).
But when I am magnifying the Lord and depending upon Him to bring forth my desire (Messiah) and in a way I know not of, it doesn’t matter if I do or don’t take the medication—for since there is in truth only one power, that Power may manifest Itself in the medication (which is of itself neither good nor evil and therefore cannot either help or harm me). As I keep my mind stayed on the Lord within, I do whatever I feel to do, knowing that it is not I but the Lord within expressing through this temple body however He wants to.
The hem of Jesus’ garment did not heal the woman with the issue of blood; nor did the mud on the eye of the blind man bring sight to him. The other people who touched that hem or made mud for their eyes did not receive healing (or bring forth the desire of their hearts). The sick woman and the blind man were healed (the evil pictures in their bodies were dissolved) because they magnified the Lord and took their attention away from their own abilities to do or not do to get themselves healed—for they knew their situation was impossible on the human plane. The woman did what she felt to do and the man did what Jesus told him to do—both were hearing from the Christ that is in every man and that expresses Himself in ways we don’t comprehend.
Every story in the Bible is a parable of our own lives if we have spiritual ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see. They are given for our instruction, but not by the letter which kills
but by the Spirit which gives life
2Corinthians 3:6. In Christian literature we can find all sorts of explications and doctrines surrounding the story of Naaman the leper 2Kings 5. But a simple reading allows us to see that he had a desire for the impossible, a desire that could not be met by man’s wisdom, a cure that could not be bought with either money or influence. It could be accomplished only by the doer of the impossible
(God) who was represented by the Hebrew servant girl and Elisha, the prophet of Israel who knew and trusted in the one Power which is God. Even the king of Israel understood that he had not the power to effect a cure for this man.
When Naaman was told to dip himself seven times in the Jordan, he became enraged that the prophet didn’t do something spiritual
(stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place
) to bring about his recovery. We know that dipping seven times in the Jordan doesn’t heal a man, but it does demonstrate that there is no spiritual formula (not even calling on the name of the Lord) for receiving that which is already given. We can never determine the ways and means by which God gets to us that which is our heritage.
There are many other things worth noting in this story of Naaman. Anyone, no matter how insignificant, can bring the good news of God’s grace to whomever can hear it—as did the servant girl to Naaman’s household. God’s grace is available to everyone, no matter what his religious persuasion. Although Naaman did begin to believe in the only true God, the one Power, it was not a condition of his being healed. It is also worth noting that Naaman would not be punished by God for bowing before Rimmon, the god of his master (king of Syria) because Rimmon is no god at all. For there is but one God, the one who is the life of every man and has His dwelling place in man, not in temples made with hands as was the house of Rimmon.
Of course not even Elisha or any other prophet (including John the Baptist) understood this truth which Jesus came to reveal—that the kingdom of God is within and that there is but one Spirit which is God—and we are all one with our Father.
Matthew 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Had Elisha understood that the one Power he was worshiping and trusting in was in man as man was in Him (as Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would all understand) and that he was therefore one with his servant Gehazi who took the money and goods offered by Naaman to Elisha (but refused), he would not have cursed him and his seed forever
with leprosy. He would rather have blessed him as Jesus instructed:
Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
He would have heeded the instruction given by Jesus to his disciples when they wanted to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them [the Samaritans who didn’t receive Jesus], even as Elias did
:
Luke 9:55-56 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.
And had Gehazi known the truth that Jesus came to reveal about the nature of God and our relationship to Him, he would not have received the leprosy that Elisha cursed him with. He would have known that he was righteous without the works of the law and could have received the grace of God by faith in spite of his sin.
This is to say nothing against Elisha. He was walking in all the light that was then available and had implicit trust in the God who showed him that greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world
—1John 4:4) or in his case Fear not: for they that be with us [in the invisible] are more than they that be with them [in the visible]
2Kings 6:16. He was one of those prophets Jesus referred to when He said:
Matthew 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Indeed, Elisha puts to shame we who have heard
and seen
the things that Jesus said and did and should be doing ourselves. Never having heard and seen, he was yet so full of faith in the God that he did know that even the bones from his dead body could revive a dead man.
2Kings 13:21 And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
We have been so indoctrinated with false teachings about what it means to be meek and humble that most of us are unable to be a vessel of God’s power even in our live bodies! Were Elisha alive today, we can be sure he wouldn’t be settling for only a double portion
of Elijah’s spirit 2Kings 2:9. Had he heard and seen what we have, he would be going forth in the power of the Holy Spirit as did Paul and Peter who saw people healed from their personal awareness of the Presence of God within themselves:
Acts 5:14-16 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.
Acts 19:11-12 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
If we look in Strong’s Concordance, we find that the word special
doesn’t really mean special, but was put there by a translator who couldn’t accept God’s power operating through man as natural and normal. Unlike most of us, Paul knew what it meant to
Philippians 2:5-7 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation
Paul knew what it meant to magnify the Lord within and allow that Christ to live His life and demonstrate His power through the temple body that we call Paul.
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
1Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
Paul knew, as Jesus did, that it was not Paul but rather the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works
John 14:10. Paul just continued to magnify
that Father within while observing those demonstrations of the Spirit and of power
performed by that Father. For it is always God who performs that which is given us to do Job 23:14; 1Thessalonians 5:24 as we magnify the Lord
Luke 1:46.
I now exclaim with Mary and with the Psalmist: My soul doth magnify the Lord!
Luke 1:46 The Lord hath done great things for me, whereof I am glad!
Psalms 126:3.