First of all, I'm going to ask you to open your mind and heart to a greater understanding of Scripture than you might have heard in traditional Christianity. It has always bothered me that 21st Century Christians struggle with embracing the supernatural reality of our faith and relationship with our Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. The Early Church walked in it, but it seems as if Satan has been able to diminish its importance and existence as he has increasingly "dumbed down" our comprehension of God's Word.
Just a quick aside, before I jump into the heart of this blog ... When Jesus shares His description of what happens when one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth onto an old garment, or what happens when one puts new wine into old wineskins, we must correctly interpret His meanings. He is introducing something new, not patching up something old. The new life He is bringing to us as citizens of God's Kingdom on earth won't fit in the old religious forms of the Old Testament [prior to His Coming]. The religious laws kept God's people bound up in their man-made rituals and traditions. Jesus came to show them that all the 613 extraneous additions to the Law [which could be summed up in "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your fellow man] were unproductive. Jesus did not come to destroy the original intent of the Law, but to fulfill it. But this new teaching and understanding created a natural collision and conflict between man's Religion, with a capital "R", and the Kingdom of God, which Jesus was bringing.
We see the incompatibility when, in Chapter 3, Jesus enters the synagogue and sees a man with a withered hand. He knows it is His Father's will that this man's hand be healed. When Jesus sees that the religious leaders lie in wait, hoping to accuse Him for healing on the Sabbath, it angers Him that the Pharisees did not recognize that human need is more important than religious rituals. They totally missed the Truth that God established the Sabbath to serve man [to be a day of rest and to meet the needs of men], not for man to answer to [and be responsible for following] a bunch of religious rituals and rules. So, now comes the heart of what I want us to understand ... Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand". The man stretched it out, and His hand was restored. I want you to understand that this is to be practiced today, as it was then.
Those two sentences in italics carry an entire mountain of knowledge about what just happened in that one verse. I'll try to condense it into a manageable and understandable teaching. That word, Stretch, comes from the Greek word ekteino, with ek meaning "the point of origin from which something proceeds [the place, time, and/or cause]", which in this instance refers to the withered hand; and teino meaning "to extend forth, stretch out, cast out, to exert power and energy". Within the context of this passage, we need to understand that Jesus now has a reputation for miraculous healing, and the man obviously trusted Him to heal him, because without hesitation, he stretched his hand out. In addition, the Pharisees expected Him to do a healing, because they were waiting to accuse Him.
But here is the new teaching of what Jesus is showing us in Mark 3:1-6. At that moment Jesus entered into the Realm of Glory, where God works through His anointed vessels [men] and we can experience the manifestation of His Presence as His will is revealed in all circumstances. Obviously, God wanted this man's paralyzed hand to be restored, and Jesus [as a man] was able to ascend [in His spirit] to receive God's desire, instructions, [and will] for the man, along with the healing power of Heaven to see it done. It is a revelation of the supernatural dynamics of faith coupled with the Glory of God that results in bringing the promises of Heaven [no pain, no disease, restored bodies and lives etc], to the earth. Furthermore, as we are seated in the Heavenly Realm, we can do just as Jesus did -- take our seat in the Presence of God, and see, watch, listen, and hear how to accomplish the miracles He did in this earthly realm.
But first we need to take a closer look at what happened to the man with the withered hand. And we need to understand that Time doesn't exist in Heaven as we know it on earth. Think of Heaven as Timeless. Genesis tells us that Jesus is the lawful owner of all things because He created it all -- the world, the heavens and reaches of space, and all the ages of Time. And there is an order to it all. In the Glory Realm of Heaven, where God is present, all the ages of time are there [past, present, future]. Things and events happen at super speed because time is not like it is here; there is an acceleration of time and space. Once you learn to ascend to that Glory Realm [in your spirit] you are in a timeless realm, where limitless Glory exists. You can actually command things to come back and forth, with the ability to pause time, reverse time, or go forward in time.
How can that be? We need to suspend the limits of how things work in this earth after our dominion was usurped in the Garden of Eden. Can you grasp that the Garden existed as a colony of Heaven before Eve capitulated to the temptations of Satan? Try to understand this principle: Everything that is created has atoms, protons, and neutrons inside, and these particles have sound waves [which Jesus also created] and they hear God's commands. When you become one with God, and are in covenant with Him, and are in His Presence, you can command the mountain to move, or the seas to calm -- because those things don't hear you; they hear God's voice in you. That's why God could tell Moses to speak to the rock, and it would produce water. The molecular core sound waves in the rock received the message, and provided water from the inside out. But the same thing did not happen when Moses mistakenly struck the rock. God takes it seriously when you abuse His instruments of provision and healing.
And don't forget in Ekeziel 37 when the Lord commanded the prophet to prophesy over the bones and say, "O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord... Behold I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord". There was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. Remember that the core of those bones was atoms, protons and neutrons, and the sound waves within them hear the command of God through the anointed's voice. So, if you have the Spirit of the Lord in you, you can command anything to do something or change, because at their core, everything is made of atoms, protons and neutrons. You can ask a lost diamond wedding ring to come to you and reveal where it is, because that diamond is made of atoms, protons, and neutrons and the sound waves at its core will respond to the voice of God that it hears in your command.
Or you can speak to a shoulder to be healed and command the pain to go, because the pain travels from the inside out at the command of God's voice, which it hears in your voice. In the same way, cancer dies from the inside out when the body is commanded to be restored. When we operate from the Glory Realm in Heaven, everything is [and can be] restored and made whole. There is no distance of time in the Glory Realm. The past, present, and future are all there in the same realm. We can go back in time and restore our bloodline to bring it into alignment with Jesus's design; we can go back in time and correct things that happened to us; and we can go into the future and bring God's promises to us now. When we understand our ability to ascend to the Glory Realm, along with the power and authority Jesus has given us to command healing, you can understand why He taught His disciples to teach the Great Commission: heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, and raise the dead.
There is so much more to this concept, but here's the last understanding I want you to grasp today... when Jesus came [and again when He ascended to Heaven] He ripped through the invisible fabric of space and time. He ripped that fabric of time apart for us and gave us the authority to speed up, reduce, change or shorten time in order to defeat Satan's strategy to keep us bound to the limitations of this earthly realm. Just like the veil ripped apart in the Temple at the time of His death, He opened up access to the Glory Realm and gave us the right and the means to approach the Father for all we need to make earth look like Heaven. All we have to do is ascend [in the Spirit] and take our seat in the Glory Realm alongside Him.
It is imperative that modern Believers understand what Jesus did in the Book of Mark, and see that He is still doing it today. He is the same today as He was then, and will be til the end of time. And He calls us to participate in this important and necessary principle of our relationship with our Father in Heaven. When you worship Him by praising Him, and by getting quiet [and still] and listening for Him, you can learn how to master and command Time in order to glorify God as you see the provision and miracles He has for us all. It deeply saddens me when I hear Christians say God no longer performs miracles. That's not true! We simply need to look upon what my wise husband calls "the spiritual mechanics" of God's ways in order to walk in all He has for us. You have access to Him! You have a seat awaiting you in the Heavenly realm to work with Him and bring about His will for every person on earth. Can you take hold of God's Glory and share it with the world? What are you waiting for?
I'd like to acknowledge the teachings of Katie Souza and David Herzog in the preparation of this post.
Acts 22:14-15 And he said, 'The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, [and to progressively understand His plan with clarity and power] and to see the Righteous One [Jesus Christ, the Messiah] and to hear a message from His [own] mouth. For you will be His witness to all men testifying of what you have seen and heard.'
