“Healing - A Woman”

Scripture: Mark 5:21-34

For the next 4 weeks, we will be considering the power of Jesus that comes to us in the Lord’s healing. Healing is usually recognized as physical in nature, but there is far more to it than that, and we will be looking at several healings that Jesus was involved in – the circumstances of the people and the issues surrounding the healing of each. Another question that we may consider is why are so many of Jesus’ miracles centered on healing? Then, during worship on the 5th week, we will hold a healing service.
You may be wondering why we are going to take 4 weeks to examine healing before we have the healing service. I’ve never done it this way before, but I wanted to address the entire issue of healing in a new way, with the intent of bringing a new understanding of how and why Jesus touches us and works his way and glory in our lives.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus would even want to do such personal and powerful things for us? Why doesn’t he just come into us and give us the truth of God? Why would he come to earth in the form and appearance of one of us? Why doesn’t God just be God and give us the absolute truth for our lives? Have you ever thought about any of this? The truth is that the answers to most of our questions are just as mysterious as the process of his healing, and that is saying a lot! Most of the time, we have little, if any, understanding of what and how the Lord is working in our lives. For the most part, we are called to simply believe, and that should be enough.

There are 19 instances of physical healing attributed to Jesus – 20 if you count his own rising from the dead! – and this doesn’t include the many other reports of his power at work in other ways. But for now, we’ll consider physical healing to the extent that we can, and the various ramifications associated with it.

Read Mark 5: 21-24a

It didn’t take long for the people to begin searching for Jesus instead of simply waiting for him to visit their town. No matter where he went in the Galilee, he was met by huge crowds of people looking for healing or some other miracle. Word was constantly spreading about the things that he could do, and everyone had some need that they wanted Jesus to care for.
Some of these needs were real, some were contrived, and others were self-serving, but the Lord always seemed to know the difference – no one could take advantage of his power, and this fact also began to spread far and wide.

This story begins with a request by the leader of the local synagogue – his daughter was deathly ill, and was in desperate need of Jesus’ touch. Nothing else had helped and the Lord was the family’s last hope. But Jairus was a wealthy and influential man who would have been unaccustomed to asking others for anything, much less begging them for help. But Jairus, in his anxiety over his daughter’s condition, put everything aside, including his pride, and went to Jesus.

But Jairus and his daughter isn’t the main story for today – there is another person who is on the way to Jesus at this very moment, with an intensity of faith that is very possibly deeper than that of the religious ruler’s. Jesus would be side tracked before he could get to the man’s home by this second person who, apparently, was even more important than the first.

Read Mark 5:24b-29

This woman’s life was in the extreme opposite end of the social spectrum from Jairus. Jairus had prestige, the woman had none; we know his name, but not the woman’s; he had wealth and authority, the woman was poor; his daughter’s situation had begun recently, the woman’s had plagued her for 12 years; Jairus had enough self-confidence to approach Jesus face to face, but because of the woman’s issue of blood, she was “unclean”, and her only chance to come to the Lord was in as veiled a way as possible. This is the person our lesson is focused on today.

She had been hemorrhaging for 12 years, and is lucky to even be alive. She had spent everything she had on physicians who not only couldn’t cure her condition, but who had only made her problem worse. We read of no friends, no family, no one at all to help her or to care about her. She was alone in the world, and because of her condition, she was, for all practical purposes, a social and religious outcast.

But there is also a difference in the level of faith that these two people had. Jairus asks Jesus to lay hands on his child, as both a physical sign of healing and a personal recognition of his request. It is, without a doubt, a strong faith, but the woman’s faith was different. She never sought recognition or a sign – she had no need of physical contact, or that the right words would be spoken, or that Jesus would even see who she was and could tell others about her. Faith told her that all she needed to do was to touch the cloak that touched the clothes that touched him, and that would be sufficient to end her suffering.

Now that is faith. She had a faith that was so deep and so complete that conventional approaches to healing were unnecessary for her. She had heard of other healings by Jesus, and she had no doubt whatsoever that he was absolutely who he appeared to be, and could do everything that she needed him to do. Only God, only the long awaited Messiah, could do the things that were attributed to him … and she believed without hesitation.
So, as soon as she touched the coat that Jesus was wearing, the bleeding stopped, and her body was immediately made well, and she knew that a divine power had come into her life. And no one else knew that anything had happened, except for Jesus.

Read Mark 5:30-34

The Lord had felt something happen when the power was transferred from him to the woman. But not only did everyone else miss the miracle, they never even noticed the woman. Hundreds of people, and maybe even thousands, were clamoring to touch Jesus just as the woman had done, but apparently none of them had the depth of her faith. Even the disciples could only see the press of the masses – they could see the crowd, but missed the person. This is an example of a saying we use today – “they missed the forest for the trees”. It means that we see what we expect to see, we see the “ordinary” things of life, but we totally miss the beauty and glory that surrounds us.

This woman, who everyone else had missed, and who no one else cared about, would not be missed by Jesus. He looked through the crowd for whoever had received his power, but we are led to believe that he couldn’t identify her. Personally, though, if he had felt power leave him, then it is highly probable that he also knew where it went. But in his searching, he would be giving the woman the opportunity to step forward in public acknowledgement of what Jesus had done for her.

Scripture tells us that as she came, she was trembling with fear and fell at the Lord’s feet. Remember that the law identified her as an unclean and sinful woman, and she had just touched someone who was generally seen as a rabbi, but who she knew was much more. The unclean had just touched him, thereby transferring her uncleanliness, to the one who was perfectly clean. No wonder she was trembling with fear as she confessed to what she had just done and why and what had come of it.
But does Jesus chastise her for touching him? Or scold her for taking power that she had not been given? Or for being so bold as to reach out to touch a man who was not her husband? For Jesus, none of this mattered – he only saw the extreme faith that she exhibited which, in and of itself, proved without a doubt who he was. And he shares the credit for this miracle by declaring before all who were there, that it was her faith in him that had brought about this great work.

How deep is your faith? How much trust are you willing to place in our Lord Jesus Christ? And if your need isn’t cared for immediately, do you begin making excuses as to why God is ignoring you?
This woman wasn’t even considering the possibility of not being healed of her debilitating condition. She believed, she knew for certain, that if she could just touch the Lord’s clothing, that that would be enough to end her misery. She sought no recognition, no elevation in status, no praise from Jesus, no adoration from her neighbors and friends, nothing except the healing that the presence and power that Jesus can bring.

Is the name and truth of Jesus enough for you, too?

“The Victory!”

Scripture: 1 John 5:1-12

This is our final week of examining the book of 1 John. Over and over, we have read about the love that the Lord has for us, and the call of God to love him in return.
We read that if we love God, then we must also love our brothers and sisters, even when their love for us is minimal at best. But if we hate our neighbor, we also hate God, and in our lack of love, we become no better than the most violent murderer who has ever lived. Love God and love your neighbor – the Lord says that it has to be that way.
We read that in our love of God, we no long can harbor any fear of living our life in him. In the power of Almighty God, love wins, fear loses. There is no possibility of it ever being different than that.
We read that love of God acknowledges that Jesus is truly Emmanuel – God in human form. The love of God reveals that incredible truth to us, and if we accept that love, we also accept Jesus. There is no other way.
We have read that anyone who stands in opposition to God and his teachings through Jesus Christ, stands with the Satan, and they become antichrists. With and for God, or with and for Satan – these are the only possibilities, there is no third way.
We have read that when we claim Jesus as Lord, we walk in the Light of God with all who love the Lord, and when we do, the darkness is banished. But if darkness remains, then our witness is nothing more than a lie. There is no half way, no middle ground, no duality, no other hope.

There were more lessons for our lives in this book, but these were some of the major ones. And our text for today puts all of them into context.

Read 1 John 5:1-5

This concluding chapter, and this passage in particular, has a focus that is definitely Christ centered. We experience the love of God when we believe that Jesus is the Anointed One –the one who God has sent. The love of God is expressed in the sending of Jesus to the lost and hurting of earth. The point here is that while the Lord’s greatest desire is that no one should be condemned in their sin, the reality is that none of us has the ability to overcome our sin on our own. And the only one who can overcome sin is the one who defines it as sin in the first place – God.
And by believing in Jesus as the Christ, as Emmanuel, as the incarnate love of God, we become “born of God”. What does that mean? Remember the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus on that dark night? (John 3:1-21) The Pharisee was told that no one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless they are “born again” (NIV), or “born from above” (NRSV). As Christians, we experience 2 births – one by human means, and one by Godly means.
We read that we are born of water and the Spirit – for many, the reference to being born of water means baptism, but I believe that it refers to our human birth, while Spiritual birth refers to being “born of God”. Our spiritual birth acknowledges and receives God’s love into our lives – receiving the new and eternal life, the ability to truly love our neighbor as ourselves, and the desire to understand and follow God’s commands as given to us through the teaching of Jesus Christ.
And this expression of faith, this allowing the love of God to become active through us, will overcome the ways of the world. Overcoming the world, gaining victory over the world, means that we obey the commands and ways of God, and reject the false ways of the earth. “Who overcomes the world? Only he who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” Without confession in Jesus, the world will continue to triumph in our lives, and the blessing of being “born of God” will continue in its illusiveness.

Read 1 John 5:6-12

Again, we have a reference to water and the Spirit, and this time “the blood” is included. The commentaries are all over the board as to the meaning of this, but I’ll give you my take – Water refers to Jesus’ humanity, the Blood to his Divine sacrifice, and the Spirit is the one who guides us in the truth of Christ. By why does John offer that all three are in agreement?
Perhaps he is telling us that our understanding of all three must be in agreement, as a test of the truth of Christ. What did Jesus’ teaching bring to our lives, what did his sacrifice on Calvary bring to our lives, and what does the leading of the Holy Spirit bring to our lives? If our thoughts regarding of any one of these is not in accord with the others, then we have to admit that our belief is false. And that is a test that is difficult to accept – we will always want our understanding to prevail, but the writer tells us that God’s testimony is greater than any that we will ever have! And we have to trust that the Lord is right!

And the bottom line that we are given is about as simple as it can possibly get – we can believe what God has said to us and done for us, and we will have eternal life. But if we deny what God has given and said, it isn’t God who has lied – it is our lie, and that glorious life in eternity will continue to elude every effort that we will ever make.

This book is about a victory that is just waiting for each of us, but it has nothing to do with our efforts in the ways of earth. The New Interpreters Bible says “1 John reminds us that this world does not have the last word, that our allegiance and our victory as Christians ultimately belong elsewhere.” And that ultimate victory is completely based in the love of God as evidenced in the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Do you know the love of God? Have you received it into your heart and soul? It overcomes the pain and failures of our earthly lives; it guarantees an eternal life that is unlike anything we have ever experienced before; it brings us to a resounding victory that represents the defeat of all that stands against our Almighty God.
The Father sends his love by the power of faith in Jesus Christ. Have you ever made a commitment in that faith? Do you have the feeling that you need to recommit to that faith? Have you given the inadequacies of this world over to the Lord, admitting that they no longer hold any joy or hope for you?

If not, today can be the day. I want us to begin singing “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” acappella (546 LH, Insert), and as your brothers and sisters sing softly, if you have never given your life to Christ, I invite you to come forward today. We will pray together, and we will rejoice together. Won’t you come?



“Dear Lord Jesus,
I know I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I trust and follow you as my Lord and Savior. Guide my life and help me to do your will.
In your name, Amen.”

“Ultimate Love”

Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21

Generally, 1 Corinthians 13 is known as the “Love Chapter”, and I have had several brides choose this passage for their wedding ceremony. But in my way of thinking, 1 John 4 deals with love in a much more intentional way. While 1 Corinthians offers many examples of what love is and what it isn’t, and that is probably the reason for its attraction, 1 John 4 give us several reasons that prove the extent of God’s love.
1 Corinthians says that without love, our voice, regardless of what we profess, is nothing but a cacophony of noise. Without love, we are told, our faith, regardless of its depth, or our ability to prophesy, or to understand or explain the gift of Christ to others, is worthless. And regardless of what we do on behalf of others, unless we do all things in that love, we gain nothing for our own salvation.
The passage gives us many examples of how we can recognize love in others and how we can show love to them, but not a single word of why love is so important, and where this love comes from.

Our 1 John passage for today tells us why love is so important for our lives, and gives us insight into the source of that incredible love.

Read 1 John 4:7-12

Love originates in the Lord, and when we come to “know” him, we receive his love. This is the first revealing – that love of God is unique, and is never inherent in the human essence! The only way to experience and receive that deep, fulfilling, perfect, heavenly love is to know God through the gift of Jesus, and to claim his reconciling sacrifice at Calvary. That decision, a decision to begin to know God, is the only way that we will ever begin to know what true love is all about.

God’s love, unlike human love, is made complete by the Lord alone, and not by mutual consent. Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love for humanity is offered without prerequisite – we don’t have to get our lives straightened out before the Lord loves us; we don’t have to show love to God before he loves us; we don’t even have to agree to love him later IF he loves us!
In John 15:16, Jesus said “You did not choose me, but I chose you” – God’s love came first, Jesus’ choosing came first, but neither was left at that. Jesus’ words continue – he chose us “and appointed [us] to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” We aren’t loved by God for no reason; we haven’t been chosen by Jesus for no reason – it has all been put in place for one divine purpose – that those who have discovered the Love of God in Christ Jesus might go out and show others, and tell others, about the incredible love that is waiting for them.

And the author of this letter writes that “Whoever does not love does not know God” Without love in our own lives, the love and knowledge of God sits on the proverbial “shelf”, just waiting for us to discover and take him for our own life.

Read 1 John 4:13-16

Revealing #2 – by accepting the love of God in Christ Jesus, God lives in us and we live in him. And we come to know this through both the giving of His Son Jesus as the source of salvation, and the sending of the Holy Spirit as our guide within that salvation. Once more - receiving the Lord is by God’s “giving”, and not by our own will! It all comes to be by simply acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, which includes the Godly plan that he is the Lord and Savior for our lives. And by claiming that Jesus is, indeed, Lord and Savior and Son of God, we also claim that while Jesus is not of, or from, the world, he definitely was in the world.
Think about that – God left his place in glory to come into this world with one thought in mind – to provide forgiveness for our sin, and eternal life for you and me! And regardless of what that task might entail, he would never turn away from the eternal plan.

One more proof, or test (remember last week?), that God loves us. Christ was sent to us to set us on the right course toward the Father, and the Spirit was sent to us to help us stay on that course. By our acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, we allow God to live within us. By our allowing the Holy Spirit to shape our lives, we are allowed to continue to live with God. That may seem a bit confusing, but try this on for size:
Our understanding and ability and wisdom and efforts have nothing to do with any of this! It is all about what the Lord has done on our behalf, and our admission that it is so. That is what faith is.

Read 1 John 4:17-21

Revealing #3 – the love of God is made complete by living in God and accepting his ways for our own life. But we need to remember that living and loving in God can never be a static condition! It will always result in confidence in the coming Day of Judgment – that in knowing God in Christ, the judgment will be for salvation, and not death. And in that confidence, we are to be bold in the new life that we receive – bold in the way we begin to live, bold in the way we talk to others, bold in the faith that we live and share, bold in the way we carry the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Some will say that they are uncomfortable in publicly sharing the gospel with others. But verse 18 tells us that “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear”. Perfection in God’s love can only exist by the power that comes from the Spirit! Whenever fear or hesitation or reluctance begin to raise their ugly heads, and they most certainly will in all of our lives (!), we have to intentionally look to the Spirit of God to strengthen us and to lead us within that “perfect love”. And God’s perfect love will never, can never, be defeated!

So what is there to fear? “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) When we allow the power of God to work within our lives, the proof that “there can be no fear in the love of God” will be proven.

But even while the author has been so intentional to proclaim and encourage the “vertical” love between God and his Church, he now moves to reinforce Jesus’ words that the love we show to other people is akin to loving God. (Mark 12:28-31) “Vertical” love is now turned to the “horizontal” equivalent. Jesus’ words in Mark 12:31, that there will never be a greater commandment than to love God and to love your neighbor, is now reinforced in this text. The concept of love for God and hatred for another person can never exist. They are incompatible; they are opposites; they can never exist together.
This is the fourth revealing – that Love of God and love from God can never be an exclusive concept. If we claim to love the Lord, then we must, by definition, love people, even while they are the most unlovable!
No one ever said that it would be easy! But scripture tells us that, by faith, we will be yoked with Christ. (Matthew 11:28-30) A yoke was designed to allow two animals (and never only one!) to share a load, with one who was wiser and stronger, and another who was eager but less strong and inexperienced. This Matthew passage concludes with “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This is the promise of God’s perfect and complete love – that by putting our complete trust in Him, every other commandment that the Lord ever gave, and every plan that the Lord has ever made for us, will fall into place. In Luke 1:26-38, Mary expresses a concern that she is a virgin and that it is a well-known fact that a virgin can never have a baby. But the angel Gabriel responds by telling her that “Nothing will be impossible with God.” Notice that the woman wasn’t told that nothing is impossible for God – the word that was used is with God! Of course nothing is impossible for an infinitely powerful, infinitely wise, infinitely present God, so why can’t things be infinitely possible when we allow him to work with and through us?
The answer is that all things are possible when we allow the Lord to come into our lives! No fear, no hesitation, no concerns, no limitations – just power and proof for all who see the love of Christ at work in our lives. Can it possibly get any better than that?

“The Test”

Scripture: 1 John 4:1-6

Back in my good old school days, the most dreaded warning that I, or any student for that matter, ever heard was “There will be a test tomorrow.” And our minds start racing – how long will the test be? How many questions? What will it focus on? Can I get at least a “B” on it?

The announcement of a test brings a very real problem to our lives – but the problem isn’t with the test – it’s with our preparation for the test! The greatest anxiety that we have comes when we have neglected our studies. If we have been keeping up with the assigned reading, are current with all of our homework, and have been reviewing our class notes regularly, the test should be a “snap”! But how often are we truly ready?

Some folks believe that a life in faith consists of one test by God after another. And when each one rears its ugly head, whether it is in a strained relationship, or difficulties with our job, or loss of financial security, or a major illness, or some other stressful or anxious situation, we nearly always dread the experience and fear the outcome. And why? Because our preparation, in general, is not what it should be.

[We are] like the student who offered this answer on an astronomy test: “The moon is more important than the sun. The moon gives us light in the evening when we need it, but the sun only shines during the day when we don't need it.”
- Homiletics OnLine -

See what I mean? So what about these “life tests”? What are they for us?

Read 1 John 4:1-3

Even though we read in Deuteronomy 6:16 that we are not to test the Lord, which Jesus seemed to affirm in Matthew 4:1-7, it seems that the prohibition on testing isn’t nearly as cut and dried as it may seem. Our passage for today calls us to “test the spirits”, and clearly, one will certainly be the Holy Spirit. So maybe the word “test” has a significance that is greater than what we see at first glance.

In Matthew 4, Jesus has just been baptized and has left for his 40 day desert experience. The first temptation, or test, that Satan throws at Jesus is that the Lord should throw himself off the highest point on the temple to see if the Father would send angels to protect him. This type of test was intended to see if the word of God was true or not, and this is, I believe, the testing that we are told to avoid. We need to believe that God’s word is perfect and true, and to test it implies that we doubt that it is true. Faith in the Word should be sufficient, and testing will be nothing short of an insult to the Lord.

But the testing that today’s text calls us to be involved in is discernment, not doubt. And the test is even laid out for us – if the spirit acknowledges that Jesus is God in the flesh, it is God’s Spirit. Otherwise, it is a false spirit, and we are to avoid it like the plague that it is.

Remember a few weeks ago, when we read about the false prophets, the liars, the “antichrists” of faith? The word “antichrist”, as we learned, identifies one who stands in direct opposition to the truth of God in Christ Jesus. And these false spirits aren’t relegated to those regions that fall outside the church! They are also found within the church! And this seems to be the concern that John is expressing to the Church of his day – to be leery of false teaching, because it can tear the church apart.

Can you think of anything that could be any more divisive than to have a “false spirit” within the church, spreading its “false teaching”, its lies, its poison, among the faithful? And the issue has never been confined to the 1st century church. Gnosticism, or the claim of a secret knowledge of God, bestowed on only a very few, was intended to raise up those who had it, and to diminish those who did not; preaching that has been focused on God as a condemning force is directly counter to the true nature of God, and yet we continue to see it today; anytime that the Lord’s commandments are either intentionally misinterpreted, or even worse, simply ignored, stand in direct contrast to the truth of God. God never changes and never relents, but neither does Satan!
This is the effect of these “false spirits” that we see at work today. They weaken the Church’s message, they break the spirit of our faith, they divide congregations and denominations, and they can never - will never - be a unifying force in the true Spirit of God.

Read 1 John 4:4-6

So what do you think the Spirit of God would have the Church, this church, be about? Are you experiencing conflicting calls and contradictory messages? Are you confused as to what the Lord would have us do? Or are you hearing a clear and concise word from the Lord, but are convinced that you, and those around you, can never accomplish it?

That is the power of the false spirits that reside within the church! Ron Hutchcraft, in one of his weekly radio messages in “A Word With You”, offered a message at the end of May called “The Mission You Are Missing”. It focused on outreach to the lost and hurting of the world, and he challenged the church to truly act like the church of Jesus Christ, and not like some private social club. (My words, not his!)
But the point is, who are we reaching out to? Who are the hurting souls that we are helping to heal? Are they the ones who are already within the church, or are they the ones who have yet to seek Christ for the healing of their lives? Now don’t get me wrong – we need to be supportive and encouraging of our brothers and sisters in faith, but not to the exclusion of those who have yet to discover Christ for their own lives. John 4:35b - “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”

If I may offer the closing of Hutchcraft’s message, he said:

Harvest is urgent business. If the harvest workers don't get busy and act quickly, the harvest dies. So will it be said, "There were people around us who were ready for Jesus and we weren't ready to go get them, and they weren't ready for eternity." That's going to be true unless we move beyond just fixing those who are already fixed and start working on the ones who are broken.

The spirits are calling us in many different directions but which ones are we listening to? Do we like the easier, cleaner, quieter ones, or are we willing to hear, and respond to, the far more difficult One? Remember the concept behind “a ministry of showing up”? We go where the Spirit is calling us, so that he can work through us to accomplish the will of God!

“The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (v.4) Do we freely and completely believe this? Are we prepared to acknowledge this? Are we focused on that “greatness”, or are we limited by our fear, or reluctance, or apprehension of what we might run up against? Are we listening to the voice that says “We don’t have the resources, we don’t have the time, we don’t have the abilities, we don’t have the experience, we don’t have enough people”, or do we respond to the one that cries out “The Lord has need of us. Let’s go!” What and where is our vision?

There’s a story about a duck hunter who mail-ordered a fully trained retriever pup.

After picking the dog up at the airport, the hunter stopped at a roadside point to test the dog. He threw a stick across the pond and commanded, 'Fetch.' The pup leaped for the water, ran across the water to the stick, picked it up, and ran back across the water. Astounded, the hunter repeatedly threw the stick, and the dog repeatedly retrieved it in the same unorthodox fashion.

Wanting to show off his remarkable dog, the hunter took his [hunting] partner, George, out the next morning for a demonstration. With a knowing smile, the hunter threw a stick, gave the command, then the dog ran across the water and retrieved the stick. The hunter glanced proudly at George, who returned a noncommittal look. The stick was again thrown and retrieved, but still there was no response from George.

Suppressing disappointment and irritation, the hunter demanded, 'What do you think of my new dog?' After a long, disinterested pause, George answered, 'Dog can't swim very well, can he?'
- David R. Ray, Small Churches Are the Right Size (NY: Pilgrim Press, 1982), xi,

George completely missed the importance of what the dog could do. He failed the test! The vision was wasted! But are we any better? Are we focused on the important things of God, or are we content to sit on the sidelines and rejoice over what others are doing in the Name of Jesus? Is it their testimony that we offer, or is it our own?

The test that we are to be judged against has nothing to do with how smart we are when it comes to Bible verse memorization, or how deep and thoughtful our prayers are, or how many mission trips we have been on, or how well we teach and respond during Bible studies, or how many committees or teams we serve on, or anything else that we choose to do. Our test will always be in how willing we are to seek out the true Spirit of God, to follow where ever it leads, and to do whatever it asks of us. The test is not so much about having faith, as it is about the depth and quality of it.

Are you prepared to hear the Spirit? Are you ready to follow? He has need of each and every one of us right here and right now.