The Paintings of God--The Pictures of Life

The word of God paints a picture. It allows me to see the Truth through my spiritual eyes. If my body is sick, and I look at God's word and it declares to me, "by His (Jesus') stripes you were (past tense) healed (1 Pet 2:24)", I must take this word and use it as a picture until I see myself the way God sees me, Healed. I must look at this word picture with my spiritual eyes and see myself as the word sees me (healed) and as I look at that picture I see myself strong and healthy, just exactly as the word sees me. I must allow the word to tell me what I look like . If I will believe the picture that the word paints for me, my faith will obtain it. In this case, seeing is believing. But you are seeing the truth (first) through your spiritual eyes and you are believing what you see there and what you believe will bring about what you see.

That is the reason that God declares through His word that man must meditate on His word day and night (Josh 1:8). Why? So the man can renew his mind to the truth of God's word. So that he can see things as God sees them, then agree with God instead of agreeing with himself, what he sees, feels, or thinks about it.

Here in lies the problem. The man feels sick, so he looks into the mirror and he looks sick so he agrees with that image. Then he calls his doctor and goes and sees him. The doctor checks him out and sure enough the doctor agrees with the man and he tells him that he is sick. The doctor even gives the man a written report that declares the details of his sickness and this report declares that he only has three months to live. Now this man has been looking at everything through his physical eyes and everything he is looking at is painting pictures of death. Instead of seeing himself the way God sees him(a picture of life), he sees himself according to what he sees (a picture of death). By the time he leaves the doctors office, he sees himself dead because he believes the doctor's report and he keeps that image of death before him every time he looks in the mirror or feels his body and eventually the day comes where the pictures painted in the man's mind by the prophetic voice of the doctor and his report come to pass and the man dies.

This is the natural way of man, and sadly enough it's the way chosen by a great majority of God's family, the church. Paul calls this type of believer within the church, "a carnal christian"
(1 Cor 3:1) for he has been born again and has access to the Kingdom of God, but chooses to live his life in the natural carnal realm where he gets to be god and believes what he thinks about it instead of what God says about it. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death (Prov 14:12). Settle it once and for all. God's way leads to life, man's way leads to death. Which way are you heading?

But God, BUT GOD declares to man,"whose report will you believe (Isa 53:1), yours or Mine?". One report is believed by the natural physical senses of the man and the other is believed by the spirit of man. Both reports paint pictures. One paints pictures of death and the other paints pictures of life. Whatever pictures you choose to look at the most, that is what you will believe. (here is good point to make sure that you understand that I am not talking about denying the reality of the situation that stands before, what I'm saying is that you have the right to deny it's right to be there if God has given you His word of promise that covers the situation. You have a God given right to believe something other than what you see or feel. You have the right to believe what God says, so I'm not talking mind science here, I'm talking faith in the living Almighty God).

When a man believes what he sees over what God sees (which has been declared to you through His Word), then the man has exalted his throne above God's (sounds like something satan tried, so I wonder why man does it to? Isa 14:12-14. The results weren't very good for satan and they won't be good for man either). Instead of declaring what God says about it, the man declares what he thinks about it (because that is what he believes). Man overrules God, then reaps what he sows.

Man was made to live by faith (Habakkuk 2:2-4 & Heb 10:38) in the God who made him. Adam's sin in the garden separated man from God and the Spirit realm where he lived by faith and it now placed him in the natural realm where man now had to have faith in himself and his ability to take care of himself. Jesus came to earth for man, paid the price for man's sin, and made a way for man to be reunited with his God, and once again live his life in the Spirit realm, where God is the Lord of all things and what He declares is Truth no matter what the physical realm is declaring.

God has shared this truth with us today so that we would clearly understand the Spirit realm where man lives by faith in God with every step he takes and the physical realm where man lives by sight, his physical senses, and exalts himself as god and directs his own steps through life.

Now the choice is yours. Where are you going to live your life? Whose report are you going to believe? If you choose God's way, you've chose the right way (it's right, because it's God's way) to live. But know this. If you live God's way , you will look strange and peculiar and people will criticize you (1 Pet 2:9 in the King James Version uses the word peculiar where the others use words like "special, His very own", and the word peculiar is right on and it's for this very fact that few in the church today live by faith). And most of this criticism comes from people in the church who choose to live carnal lives over living in the Spirit. The man in the world won't really have much to say about you, but the religious man surely will and he (the religious man) is easily used by satan, to steal, kill, and destroy the man who is trying his best to walk by faith. So which one of these are you? A man/woman who lives by faith, or a man who criticizes the man who walks by faith?

God has declared, "the just shall live by faith". Well, that is where you are going to find me. I pray you join me and encourage me in my walk, but if all you want to do is criticize me, then don't get offended if I ignore you. I'm choosing the way of life. I'm going to look at God's pictures and what it says I look like, well, that's what I'm going to believe I look like and if I look any different to you (in the natural realm) than what the word says, than I'm asking you to agree with the word and if you can't do that than just be still and take your critical and judgemental thoughts someplace else, because I don't want to hear it, I only want to hear what God is saying.

I hope that you understand that this has been written out of a heart of love, God's heart. Sometimes it may not sound that way, but God has a way of getting our attention.

Be Blessed and keep the faith. I got my eyes open for those peculiar people. Am I going to find you? I hope so.

Let me leave you with a promise from God. To the man/woman who chooses to live by faith God has this to say to you, "With long life I will satisfy him/her, and show him/her My salvation" (Ps 91:16). The good news about this promise is that God is willing to show you His salvation everyday of your life for this wonderful word "salvation", means much more than insuring that Heaven is your home when you leave this earth, but it also includes the things we need for this life in this cursed world; restoration, deliverance, being made whole, healing, fully complete, nothing missing, nothing broken. Now I think that should cover it for any day you or I will face.