This morning, we continue our series, “The Miracles of Jesus.”
Before we get into the miracle, let’s look at the foundational scripture I will share with you all year.
(Psalm 126:4 TPT)
Now, Lord, do it again! Restore us to our former glory! May streams of your refreshing flow over us until our dry hearts are drenched again.
This is a season of refreshing and restoring for us. I pray you get refreshed and restored as we study each miracle.
Yesterday we looked at a miracle in John 4 with a royal official’s son. We will go back to it again today.
(John 4:43-54 KJV)
43 Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
44 For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
45 Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast.
46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
49 The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.
50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
52 Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.
Yesterday I introduced you to the miracle. Today I will use it to teach you about how religion can interfere with your faith.
What I am about to share with you is something that dawned on me yesterday. I’ve never heard anyone teach about this, but I believe when I’m about to share with you is the heart of God. I see a connection in three of the miracles that I have not seen before, and I want to share with you what I believe the Lord shared with me concerning it. Whenever I am sharing something I have never heard anyone else say, I am cautious because I know I can be wrong, and if I ever discover I shared something with you that was in error, I will be quick to the point that out. That said, please open your heart to receive.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things:
1. It’s worth noting that Jesus only performed three miracles that involved Gentiles (non-Jews), and there is something special they all have in common.
There are only three miracles where Jesus spoke something, and the people received His words without seeing the manifestation of the miracle before their eyes. In other words, there are only three occasions where Jesus was able to “speak the word only,” and the people received what He said just because He said it, fully believing it was already done.
Of all the miracles Jesus performed, there are only three occasions where He encountered people who needed a breakthrough (healing, deliverance, etc.), and the people had enough faith that they did not have to see it to believe it. In all three cases, the people took Jesus at His Word, and they walked away like it was already done. To be clear, we know Jesus spoke things in faith, things that He received from heaven in His heart, and He routinely walked away like it was already done. But we don’t see that type of faith in the lives of those who encountered Jesus outside of these three occurrences.
What do these three occurrences have in common? They have in common that, in all three cases, the people who exhibited this type of faith were non-Jews. They were Gentiles.
It is interesting to me that since Jesus came with a primary focus on ministering to the Jews, and for the most part, that’s what He did, it meant that day in and day out, He was dealing with people who had been raised under the religious practices of the Judaic law. So, just about every day during Jesus’ 3.5-year ministry stint, He dealt with people who were obeying the rights, rituals, and routines that were established under the Levitical law. These were people who did not have a direct relationship with God. They relied on the priests and High-Priests, to be their intermediaries with God. So when Jesus came to them, giving them a chance to receive from God in the flesh and from God in heaven through Jesus, it is clear to me that their hearts and minds had been so conditioned by religious practices that they could only receive from Jesus on a certain level.
But when Jesus encountered people who were not raised under the Judaic Law, people who were just seeking God, and whose hearts were open to believing, He could minister to them on a different level. These people were free to believe God, through Jesus, without the entanglement of the rules.
It’s almost like the people who are conditioned to look at God through the filter of The Law were so conditioned to living rules-based or performance-based lives that they could not open up their hearts to believe God on the level of the people who did not have this filter. In other words, if you were raised to be very religious, it’s almost like you have to be deprogrammed before you can be reprogrammed so you can believe God on the level that He wants you to believe.
I have shared with you before that “You must decouple your faith IN God from your human performance TOWARDS Him. This is the only way your faith will ever be strong enough to believe and receive on the level of God’s grace towards you. And this is the only way you will be able to do what God has called you to do; because when you decouple your faith from your performance, you realize that you won’t be the one doing it. It is the Father, living in You, who is willing to give you the words and perform the work through you. But you will never get to this level if you are focused on your performance or lack thereof.” In other words, performance-based religion waters down God’s grace, and it limits your faith.
2. We can learn something from the three Gentiles who took Jesus at His Word and walked away like what He said was already done.
The first was the Roman centurion. This man understood authority. He perceived that Jesus had authority over sickness. He understood that whatever is under your authority is subject to your words. This man had authority over men, but he did not have authority over sickness. He was accustomed to speaking commands to those who were under his authority, knowing that whatever was under his authority was subject to his words. He came to Jesus because he perceived that Jesus had authority over sickness. That being the case, he explained to Jesus that he did not need Jesus to go to his house. All he needed Jesus to do was to command the sickness to go, and since sickness was under His authority, it would have to go. The man said, “Speak the word only, and my servant will be healed.” Jesus was amazed at this man’s faith. He called it “great faith” and said, “I have not found this kind of faith among the Israelites.” Jesus then said, “Go, your servant is healed!” The man walked away like it was already done. When he got home, his servant was healed, but he already knew he would be because he believed. Jesus never had an encounter like this with religious people.
The next example is the Syro-Phoenician woman. This woman came to Jesus because her daughter was demon-possessed. We know what Jesus said to her. Jesus basically called her a dog. She refused to get offended. She remained in faith. She asked Jesus to speak a word of deliverance over her daughter. Jesus was amazed at her faith. He called it “great faith,” as He did with the Roman centurion. So Jesus said, “Go. Your daughter is free.” This woman took Jesus at His word. She walked away like it was already done. When she got home, her daughter was delivered from the demon, but she already knew she would be because she believed. Once again, Jesus never had an encounter like this with religious people.
The last example is the one we are looking at today. This is a royal officer who was part of the Roman empire. He had a son who was at the point of death. This man was outside of the Judaic belief system. He was not under The Law. He was not raised to obey rules. His belief was not performance-based. He just believed that Jesus had the power to heal his son. So he came to Jesus and begged him to come to his house. The problem is that his house was over a day’s journey away. Jesus perceived that this man had enough faith to take Him at His word. So instead of making the journey to the man’s palace, like he asked him to, Jesus spoke the word only. Amazingly enough, this non-Jewish person had enough faith to take Jesus at His word. He walked away like it was already done. When he got home, his son was healed, but he already knew he would be because he believed. I love the fact that he asked, “Hey, what time did the healing take place?” The answer was, “1 p.m. yesterday,” which was the same time when Jesus spoke the word of healing. This man believed God and his entire household came to Christ, even though they were not Jews. They were an affluent Roman family connected to the King, and they all came to Jesus because their father had enough faith to believe God without seeing.
This is how we are supposed to be with God. God is looking for us to take Him at His Word!
3. What can we learn from the three occasions where non-Jews took Jesus at His Word?
If there are only three occasions where Jesus said something and the people walked away like it was already done, and in all three cases, the people were non-Jews (Gentiles), then we should be able to glean some underlying lessons:
— Religious people focus on religious practices and human performance. This conditions them, whether consciously or subconsciously, to consider the human they are dealing with before they can receive from God in/through the human.
— Religious people have an easier time receiving from God directly than receiving from God through another human because their minds have been conditioned to focus on the frailty of our humanity.
— God anoints people to do certain things. But for you to receive from the anointing on a human’s life, you must HONOR the human enough to NOT stumble over their humanity. If you focus too much on their humanity, you will fail to receive from the divinity God has placed IN them.
— Jesus came to His own people, and they rejected Him because they were focused on the human and not the anointing on His life.
— It takes HONOR (your ability to see the human the way God does) to receive from the anointing on the human.
— If you don’t honor the human, you will not receive from God through the human. The three people who had the faith to take Jesus at His word were people who honored Him on a level that far exceeded the type of honor he received in other places. This is partly due to the fact that they were not religious. They were not focused on rules. They were open to receiving from God through Jesus without the filter of human performance.
— Religion puts the spotlight (or emphasis) on human performance. As a result, if you are religious, it’s hard from you to receive from God through a human because you are too focused on the human in the loop. But when you come to God, and you are not religious, your heart is open to receive from God however He wants to do it, human or not, without even considering the human filter. That is a significant difference.
At the end of the day, what this all boils down to is God’s grace and our faith. God has provided the grace for you to become the man/woman He called you to be and for you to leave the mark in this world that you are destined to leave. God has done His part. His grace is there. It has already been provided. Now, your part is to provide your faith where God has provided His grace. The problem is, as we are learning today, if you are religious, your faith will be hindered by your unyielding focus on human performance (both your performance and the performance of the humans around you). If you focus on the fact that you are not good enough or that the people God sent to bless you are just humans like you (people who put their pants on one leg at a time), then you will fail to receive from God on the level of His grace towards you. I’m not saying that you won’t live a good life. I’m not saying that you won’t go to church, have a good marriage, and even raise some good kids. But what I am saying is that you will never MAXIMIZE what God called you to do because you are too focused ON YOU, your flaws, and the flaws of those AROUND YOU! Your focus on your humanity is keeping you from OPENING YOUR HEART to the fullness of the divinity God placed IN YOU! Living #TheGraceLife means you are OPEN to fullness of God’s grace. You die to self, and you even die to your limits!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of refreshing and restoring for me!
As I have been learning about the miracles of Jesus, my faith has been stirred up and reignited. My heart is not OPEN to receiving on a greater level.
I now see how being religious and focusing on performance-based religion can hinder me from believing and receiving the fullness of Your grace towards me. So, I boldly declare that I die to self to the point where I even die to the limits of my humanity.
I yield to You in all things. I am led by Your Spirit every moment of every day, and whenever You speak to me, I believe it and receive it immediately. I refuse to allow my performance, or lack of performance, to water down Your grace.
Your grace is on me to do what I was born to do, and I will now use my faith to lay hold of Your grace, so You can use me to impact my sphere of influence in this world!
Living this way, I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
