I remember when pouring a glass of water there would be tiny worms left in the strainer. As a child, straining our kitchen faucet water with an actual metal strainer was a daily routine. Later when we returned to the United States, from my family being missionaries, I had a friend who had a great big pool and we loved to play in it all the time. In Fort Worth, it gets extremely hot in the summer so we would jump in the pool and spend hours of fun just coming up with games and laughing. I remember one year, when summer was getting close, I noticed the pool was extremely green with moss. Concerned, I asked my friend what could be done to fix this. Turns out the pump that helped filter the water was broken. Here was once a beautiful pool that couldn’t be used or enjoyed and for the entire summer that pump stayed broken!
Fast forward 20 years and I found myself painfully sick and in and out of hospital emergency rooms. I had become a Christian at an early age and spent my entire life in church. I knew that Jesus healed, in fact I had experienced His healing power over and over throughout my life. Something was different about this sickness. Doctors couldn’t tell me what was wrong. I began to question His desire to heal, His salvation, everything I had big faith in at one time. I just knew the answer was my behavior, it had to be. Every time I opened my Bible I could see there were consequences from God for not having faith. So I began to confess more scripture that said I was healed. I began to repent and pray more. The more I prayed and confessed, the worse I felt physically. It had to be sin in my life, I thought. It must be my heart, because all the emotions I had in it were evil. I remember the church we were attending for many years, I filtered every sermon was about my heart and behavior. I even remember getting re-saved and baptized hoping my performance and heart would be better this time around and my body manifested healing for a month but sure enough this physical sickness came back. I was waking up in the middle of the night with fever, averaging 3 hours of sleep desperate for a miracle for nearly 3 years.
Paul said there are two types of ministry in the Bible, the ministry of condemnation (also he called it the ministry of death) and the ministry of righteousness (also known as the finished work of Jesus.) The Lord showed me to meditate on the ministry of righteousness through the Bible and New Covenant teaching and my body was completely healed within days! Years later with no symptoms returning in that area, I realize I was not taught to distinguish and filter the Bible to not consume the two. When I read my Bible and as Paul warned the Galatians, Christ became no effect when I tried mixing. The old covenant said I needed a clean heart. The new covenant said he had to crucify and bury my old man and heart (it was too dirty to clean) and He gave me a new heart and hid me in Christ Jesus. The old covenant says take not your holy spirit from me, the new covenant says I have sealed you with the Holy Spirit and will never leave. The old covenant says have big faith and obedience and then you will be righteous. The new covenant says Jesus will start and finish your faith and give you the free gift of righteousness. The old covenant says remember every sin, repent and you will be forgiven, the new covenant says I will remember your sins no more, you were forgiven at the cross. Well after the Lord showed me to filter the covenants, I could see the new covenant was the good news! Why would I want to go back to the old ministry of death (Paul’s words not mine)?
I have lived in Fort Worth for nearly 35 years, the other 3 years of my life I saw powerful miracles as my parents were missionaries in Papua New Guinea preaching Jesus. I always wondered why people were raised from the dead, limbs grew back and diseases were healed but we failed to see as many powerful miracles in America. Then the Lord showed me that the purpose of the law is to disqualify and for years great meaning churches have mixed the law with Jesus. I have layed hands to pray for the sick for hundreds if not thousands of believers in America. The hardest part is not convincing them Jesus heals, it is convincing them they aren’t disqualified from that healing. Look in the gospels who Jesus applauded their “great faith” for healing. It was only two people who didn’t grow up studying the law.
Romans 3:19 NLT
“Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.”
Romans 10:4
“For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.”
My passion has become discipling other believers and learning to filter the entire Bible under the new covenant for faith in a bigger Jesus! Jesus is tearing down years of condemnation in Fort Worth and the mixture of the old and new covenant!
Pastor Brandon
http://www.graceforeternity.com
brandonpollard 