Jesus. Jesus is so good. Something he continually keeps speaking to me is that he is a relational God. It’s Jesus and not religion.Take away the traditions and rituals and you’ve got solely Jesus, and he reveals to you that all he wants is a relationship with you. Often times Christianity is looked at as doing certain things and being a good person but that’s what man has made it to be. Jesus doesn’t want that. All he asks of us is to pick up our crosses and follow him and ultimately come into relationship with him. Yes, it’s that simple!
Countless times in the Bible there are accounts that show Jesus healing people physically. In Mark it talks about Jesus healing a paralyzed man. The teachers of the law doubted Jesus and said that he wasn’t forgiving the man’s sins by just healing him. Jesus says, “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?” Jesus knew that this man knew he’s forgiven of his sins because Jesus found favor and compassion on his life. Since this man had faith in what Jesus can do he was automtically forgiven and covered by grace. We don’t have to do the “right”or “good” things to find favor in the Lord’s eyes because he already sees us as perfect and has his arms open wide for us to come home to him.To Jesus it’s all about the relational aspect and without that he wouldn’t even be a God of love.
Every single person we’ve encountered here in Ecuador God has healed them physically first. A few weeks ago my team and I ended up praying for a woman by the bus stop. She was crying hysterically and wasn’t speaking words. She kept pointing to something that she was seeig. She either had a demon over her or she was seeing one. We grabbed her hands and began praying for her and automatically she stopped crying and had peace. Jesus was showing his power and love in that momet. Most people ran past her in fear, but God was telling us that she was his daughtear and he delights in her and she needed to know that. After praying for her I felt that God was saying he wasn’t done with her yet and we would see her again but part of me doubted that.
BOOM. God proved his goodness again. Yesterday as we were walking to our ministry site we passed the woman on the sidewalk. I don’t know if you realize…but Quito is big and there is no way we would have encountered this woman again if God hadn’t made it happen. She remembered us and hugged all of us and took our hands and pointed to the sky wanting us to pray for her again. Jesus saw her and wanted her to know her worth. He radically changed her life that night and now she gets to walk in that victory of the freedom she received. That is a testament of the relational God we have. He showed his power and authority over the enemy once again.
