by Rose Murdock

"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." Acts 10:38

Thank God when Jesus was here He was anointed with the Holy Ghost!  Thank God He was anointed with power!  Through His anointing with the Holy Ghost and power He was able to go about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil.

This might mess with the theology of some people.  Jesus did what He did here on earth because He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power.  It was that anointing that enabled Him to do what He did.  And we have that same anointing!  If we have the same anointing that enabled Him then that means we are empowered to do the same things He did!  Jesus said those that believe on Him will do not only the works that He did when He was here but even greater works!

Notice that Jesus went about doing good and healing.  When Jesus was here He healed people and delivered people.  The Bible calls those "good" things.  Jesus went about doing good.  Jesus said He could do nothing of Himself, but He did what He saw the Father do.  He said He always did those things that pleased the Father (John 5:19, 8:29).  If Jesus went about doing good and healing everyone and He always did those things that He saw pleased the Father, then that means that God’s will is that all people be healed from all oppression of the devil.

Jesus said a kingdom divided against itself will not stand (Matthew 12:25).  So we can safely and confidently say it is not God who is oppressing people with sickness.  If God were making people sick and Jesus went around healing them then they would be working contrary to each other.  The kingdom of God would not stand if that were the case.  If God Himself were healing some and making others sick then He would be working contrary to Himself and His kingdom wouldn’t stand.  God is not a respecter of persons, He treats His children the same.  He treats all of us fairly.

One who is good does good things.  Even Jesus said a tree is known by it’s fruit (Matthew 12:33).  If that’s true for people then it’s true for God also.  God doesn’t have some hidden agenda that we don’t know about.  He is straightforward with us about His plans and purposes.  He reveals to us by His Spirit the things He has freely given to us (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).

If we want to know the will of God we can look at Jesus.  Jesus was the image of the Father.  Jesus was the will of God in action.  When Jesus was speaking to His disciples Philip said that if Jesus would show them the Father it would be sufficient for them.  Jesus answered and said, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father;" (John 14:9 NKJ).  Jesus revealed the will of the Father.

He revealed the will of the Father not only in His actions but also in His words.  He spoke God’s words.

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." John 14:10-12 NKJ

Jesus told His disciples to believe in Him either because He said so or if they couldn’t take Him at His word alone then believe what He said because of what He did.  The works that Jesus did proved that the Father was in Him.  The good that Jesus did proved that He had a good God living inside of Him.

Our image of the Father may be distorted because people have told us He’s not good.  People have told us He sometimes makes people sick.  That He sometimes doesn’t do good but does evil in order to teach us good.  That’s not how Jesus said to judge.  He said to judge a tree by it’s fruit.  He who is good will do good.  He who is evil will do evil.  The image of the Father has not always been accurately portrayed to us.  God has been blamed for a lot of things He is not responsible for!

Keeping in mind that Jesus is the image of the Father look at John 10:10:

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (NKJ)

Jesus did not steal, kill or destroy and neither does God.  He gives life and not only life but abundant life.  People say, ‘Well He may not make people sick then but He allows it’, so they stop there and think there’s nothing that can be done about it.  Why does He allow it?  He didn’t, we did!  Originally man allowed evil into the world in the Garden of Eden and God has been working ever since to help us out of the mess we got ourselves into as a result.  Jesus came to provide a way out of not only sin but also the evil & troubles that came into the world as a result of sin.

Do we learn something from the troubles that come our way?  We can if we go to God’s Word and learn to view them the way God says to view them.  We can learn how to overcome problems by doing what God says to do to overcome them.  We can learn what happened to cause the problem.  We have to follow the Word of God to learn anything and to successfully overcome them.  But just because we learn something from the problems doesn’t mean that God sent them!  Jesus said in Matthew 6:34, "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (NKJ).  Troubles come for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes there are needs that arise just through the natural course of life.  Sometimes we make mistakes that cause problems in our life.  Sometimes the devil sends trouble our way.  Sometimes God calls attention to the errors in our life and in our thinking in order for us to deal with them and get on track with His Word.  But God doesn’t create problems and then send them to us to make us stronger or to teach us something.  There’s enough trouble out there already!  He is our answer not our problem!  He is the deliverer not the destroyer!

The challenge of life is to overcome difficulties God’s way.  The devil would like you to get so focused on yourself and your problems that you remain defeated and can never help anyone else.  He wants you to blame God and get stuck in that train of thought.  If you do not overcome the problems in your life then:

1. You’re miserable.

2. You are not a witness to others of the reality of the life of God in you.

3. You won’t be able to get going and fulfill God’s plan for you.

He has a plan for you! It is a good plan.  "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11.

God is a good God.  It became evident through the life of Jesus Christ.  We need to have a correct image of our Heavenly Father.  We find it by looking at Jesus.  If we see Him, we see the Father.  Don’t let anything cloud your perception of who God really is.  Allow the light of His Word to reveal the true image of who He is to you!

Go to the crossword for this teaching