THE SECRET TO WALKING IN MIRACLES (I)

 

Love makes us do things. Laws stop us from getting things done.

If we go by the law, there would have been no salvation for the whole world.

Jesus would have never been given to us as a gift.

The Holy Spirit wouldn’t have been given to us as a gift.

The Jews would have been the only ones with the knowledge of God.

Every other tribe and race would have been doomed forever.

But God loved the world that He gave us His only begotten son, and whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It was love that brought everlasting life.

The law only brought sin, condemnation and death- For the soul that sins must die, but the soul that accepts Jesus, God’s gift of love, shall not only live but shall have everlasting life.

Before the coming of Jesus, miracles literally were rare among the Jews.

They had the pool of Bethesda, which was claimed to provide healing for only one lucky person in a year.

The fellow must be the first to get into the water when an angel stirs the pool. No rabbi or teacher of the law like Nicodemus or even John the Baptist was recorded to have the ability to heal the sick and raise the dead. Jesus, however, was a different breed.

He never obeyed the law (this was the main reason the leaders of the Jews were able to put him to death).

He was a compassionate teacher, a God full of love.

The Bible records that he healed many people based on compassion.

The law had no compassion or any emotional quality, for that matter. It is a “thou shall not and a do not or touch not or think not phenomena.”

The law made people stern, self-righteous, and proud.

Love always gives more grace to the humble and elbows the proud. We should learn this, for it is boldly written in our scriptures.

When Jesus turned water into wine, it was not because the couple obeyed the law; it was because his mother intervened. The miracle was a product of relationship and love. When Jesus raised the son of the widow at Nain, it was not because she was holy and deserving; it was because he had compassion. The rich young ruler said he had obeyed all the laws and had no access to eternal life. The law has no access to eternal life; even the Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t have access to eternal life despite carrying the law on their heads.

Jesus said they searched the scriptures looking for the code to eternal life, but he was eternal life, and they did not know or believe in him; therefore, they couldn’t have life. Eternal life is a person, not a law. Adherence to the law did not bring us eternal life. The law came from Moses, but grace and truth came from the Lord Jesus.

Eternal life comes from love; God is love and not law. When the ten lepers came to Jesus, they were not healed by the law. When the centurion reached out to Jesus on behalf of his servant, he didn’t quote laws. Faith is a product of love. The law cannot inspire faith in anyone. It is a do-or-do-not reality.

Love is flexible, while the law is inflexible. Yet the law didn’t heal those who obeyed it, give them eternal life, or give them the Holy Spirit. It only placed those who believed in it under the bondage of dos and don'ts.

It offered no advantage, but it came with a lot of disadvantages.

Love offers only advantages, the opportunity to start afresh and become the sons of God. Believers standing on the law while trusting God for a miracle don’t get it. Those who throw themselves at the mercy of God get it.

The former assumes that they deserve divine attention for their performance. The latter believed they didn’t deserve anything, but mercy is a byproduct of grace. The law will stone people to death. Grace will set people free from the sin they have committed already and the power sin holds over them so that going forward in life, they can be free indeed!

Those who believe that salvation can be lost have no belief in grace. Grace offers much more than freedom; it offers eternal life, out of which comes supernatural blessings.

 

-GSW-

April 2nd 2024