The majority of good, saintly people never experience the healing power of Jesus Christ. It is not the problem of promise or provision because the Bible is strikingly clear. Healing for the temple where the Holy Ghost dwells is an absolute truth. We often hear people ask, “Is it the Lord’s will to heal me?” The answer is an emphatic “Yes!” The promises and provisions of God are without merit or respect of person. Most saints never get healed because they either doubt it or wait for it, instead of moving into it. Healing is exactly the same as all of God’s great redemptive provisions. You move into them by faith. You take hold of them by the casting of yourself on them in full confidence that “… what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” (Romans 4:21)

There are wonderful times when God has an anointed servant to bring healing to others who cannot make that leap of faith. The church should have an entire army of Godly servants that live by the “gifts of miracles” or “gifts of healing,” but, sadly, it doesn’t. Almost the entire discussion of healing within the church family is controlled by doubtful questions. Does God heal today? Is it really His will to heal? Under what circumstances do people get healed? And many more. The debate is so controlled by doubt that very few of God’s genuine saints dare to launch out into the realm where healing occurs. It’s much easier under this cloud of doubt to make an appointment with the good doctor.

Is the Bible really clear on this subject? God’s promise to Israel as they traveled in mass through the wilderness was incredible. He said to them, “He sent His word, and healed them.” (Psalm 107:20a) Isaiah, the great statesman prophet, thundered, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) Apostle Peter quoted this prophetic thunder, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (I Peter 2:24) To deny these multiple examples that the Son of God mirrored in His life is careless, if not blasphemous. Unbelief is a dark sin that offends the heart of God. His passion for us is our trust for Him.

An Old Testament saint that learned the great promises of God but then turned to the flesh in sickness is a great lesson of the failure of faith. The Scripture said, “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.” (II Chronicles 16:12-13) This story has been repeated thousands of times in the history of the church. Physicians are not bad people just because of their vocation. They serve an important place in society, especially for the unbelieving world. They must be treated honorably if they conduct their profession rightly. But, God’s trusting saints must learn that there is a balm in Gilead (Jeremiah 8:22). There is a healer in God’s Biblical House of His Saints and we must cast ourselves upon Him.

You do not get healed in the foyer of promises, but out in the middle of faith You do not get healed waiting idly for it. Faith is never static; faith is action. Faith moves right into the promise and provision and refuses to waver. Faith moves into a miracle and claims it without a doubt because God is faithful to every promise. The Bible is full of miracles, but none of them came sitting down. To the man with a withered hand, the Lord said, “Stretch forth thy hand.” (Luke 6:10). To Blind Bartimaeus it was, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” (John 9:7). At the Pool of Bethesda Christ said, “Take up thy bed, and walk.” (John 5:11). There is an endless list in Holy Scripture of faith getting up and walking when walking was impossible.

God’s revelation has perfectly described Biblical faith. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). It’s thrilling to read that whole chapter and view the power of faith. By faith, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, and Moses each accomplished the impossible. (Hebrews 11:4,7,8,20,21,23). Of Sarah, God said, “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.” (Hebrews 11:11). Faith is dynamic; you get up and move into it or you sit and never receive the promise. It’s up to you. God’s Son has done His part.

The unspoiled beauty of the Christian life is awesome to experience and live. Keeping rules and obeying mandates is bondage, but living out what’s inside is sheer glory. The Son of God did not come to condemn, He came to birth a new covenant that would be established on better promises. Within this covenant, we do not live by the law, which condemns; but by grace, which liberates. The keeping of God’s laws for the new man “in Christ” is a matter of liberty from the bondage of a corrupt nature. We are free to do what is right because the Son has made us free indeed.

Multitudes of today’s church world do not know the liberating life of being “born again.” To these dear souls the idea of Godly living, separated from the corruption in our world, sounds like legalism. There has been a growing put down of Biblical Holiness for several decades. The result is a church world that is struggling to teach discipleship to unconverted church members. It cannot succeed without a return to the Christ life within. There is nothing in God’s church worse than legalism and phariseeism. It’s empty, and it creates a facade of spirituality that kills the spirit and leaves the soul hard and condemning. It’s the very religious spirit that causes the Jewish leaders to clamor for Christ’s crucifixion. They even condescended to cry, “We have no king, but Caesar.” (John 19:15) Christianity on the outside without Christianity on the inside cannot succeed.

In fact, there is no such thing as being a “Christian on the outside.” The Apostle Paul declared the wonderful plan of God to recreate the lost souls of fallen man. This was the Father’s agenda from the day of Adam’s fall. The apostle said, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30) The New Testament saint is utterly a new creature. The Son of God died, shed His blood, and accomplished supernatural redemption to craft you unto the image of Himself.

This level of conversion is not just a mental change, but also a transformation of character. The very life of the Son is infused into your spirit and soul. and you no longer want the unclean past life. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17) The words “in Christ” are the key truth. The saints “in Christ” and “Christ in them” is the foundation of the New Testament covenant. You do not end up here; you start here. “Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7)

Being born again is a supernatural event. The Holy Spirit is the best friend a man has in this world, and He was sent by Christ to convict you of sin and then to rebirth you into Christ. The Son of God said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:6-8) The wind (of the Holy Spirit) bloweth where He listeth or where He is sent by Christ to redeem. He is always a guest, so you can resist Him. But, if you embrace Him and repent of your sins, He will trace His steps up and down your soul and transform it into a new creature. He will take hold of the Father for you, take hold of you for the Father, and you will become a child of God.

No one, and the Bible means no one, can be a part of the Father’s kingdom unless he is born again. If you are not born again, this earth is the closest you will ever be to Heaven. If you are born again and live out the born again life, this earth is the closest you will ever be to hell. Hell is an insane asylum for eternity, and every sinner and every sinning person that does not repent and turn to the “in Christ” life will spend his eternity in that awful place.

Choosing Christ is a double blessing. He desires to save you from hell in this life and hell in the eternity to come. We cannot fail to see the living hell that is erupting all around us. It is on every news broadcast, it is visible in every corner of life, and it is threatening to engulf each one of us. The Holy Ghost of God is the Father’s restrainer and He will erect a barrier around you by the Father’s Cherubims that move in His wake. “Christ in us” means that His Holy Ghost has become our keeper, along with the Heavenly Host, and we have no need to fear. The Father is on His throne, the Son is at the Father’s right hand to intercede for us, the Holy Ghost is in us, and the angels encamp about us. If Christ is your all in all, you are just as safe as if you were already in Heaven.

The Father will never use a man or woman until He proves them. Mark it down that no trial of life can match that place of God’s divine reckoning of your soul. It would seem unfair for any person to pass through this chasm of death were it not for the beautiful fruit produced. Job spelled it out best when he stated, “For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.” (Job 6:4) A perfect man is elevated to exceeding glory by the hands of the Almighty. If only we could behold the beauty before the hammer falls upon us. But, that is the depth of His proof that we must endure only by faith.

Even the Son of Man was subject to great tests as He trod His path toward the cross. Apostle Paul stated, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” (Hebrews 5:8-9) It is amazing how the Son of God could lay aside the trappings of divinity so that He could experience the ultimate test of humanity. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8) Greatness never comes from a shrill voice or a hollow shell. True greatness is the creation of divine hands on broken and yielded flesh.

Never has a generation needed His champions so desperately. However, the idea of passing through the deep chastening of the Lord is soundly rejected by modern theology. We have heard human worth expounded as if the capacity was resident in man himself. The modern human pushes and shoves his way to the top and flexes his muscles in proud arrogance. Yet, such giants cannot control their own unbridled lust. The American icon of virtues was just discovered to be so obsessed with gambling that he had wasted eight million dollars at casinos— mostly profit from his best seller, Book of Virtues. What a heart-breaking example of human greatness.

The person that will cast himself or herself upon our God and invite His creative Rod of Greatness can yet arise to inspire others for Him. Be they man or woman, the path of the prophet or prophetess is never easy. No wonder the Spirit said that even the servant deacon must be “Not a novice (young and undisciplined), lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.” (I Timothy 3:6) Passing through that valley where the Spirit leads every true disciple changes the character as no other experience. Undisciplined habits give way to strength and self-control as our loving Father applies His rod. Deep convictions that create undaunting character is the sure result of His supernatural graces of correction.

From those Spirit led trips into the wilderness return transformed men and women that our God then uses to change the world. Neither self-glory or self-insecurity can rule the saint that passes behind the vail of ChristÂ’s inner presence. From our journey into His realm of suffering and brokenness come the great saints to soon rule the world in His millennium.

The holiness of God in a believer by grace and ChristÂ’s blood is a transforming power that creates transparent saints. The very glory of His transforming grace is to make us His temple where men see the beauty of Christ instead of the ugliness of the flesh. Flesh is only ugly when sin shines and the Adamic nature rules. Look at the child that still possesses innocence and all you see is beauty. The smile, the cuteness, and the little mischievous antics are thrilling to behold. Children are totally transparent until sin begins to mar their creative beauty.

Our world has become a cesspool where most children have no chance of retaining their childlike purity. The loss of innocence in children is a national tragedy. Children are thrust into sex appeal dress styles before their little hearts can understand such thinking. Instead of a lifestyle for children, itÂ’s a beauty contest that leaves them vulnerable for exploitation. Why are parents so ignorant and our culture so crippled?

True Biblical Christianity is the only culture in the world that reflects the transparency that God has ordained for healthy, happy living. Our bodies were created for the glory of our Creator. We were formed in His image that living should be holy, pure, and a reflection of Him. We are just a little lower than the angels, and our lives were ordained to be so full of GodÂ’s character that the joy of living explodes from within. Joy cannot be an external matter. You cannot paint it on the face, wear it on the body, or find it in an emotion of pleasure.

Transparent Christianity is a Godly possession of us until He shines from within. Clean transparent living allows the beauty of Christ to flow out of us and in the process we are set on fire with the joy of His supernatural life. We do not possess Him as much of the church world seems to suggest; but, we have surrendered to Him to be possessed ourselves. All kinds of suggestions in todayÂ’s theology have the believers in charge of their destiny and Christ but a subject of our choices. ThatÂ’s not Biblical Christianity. The Christian life is surrender, clearly and simply, to Him where He becomes the center and the complete fullness. We give up ourselves to the fullness of Him and He takes possession.

Godliness that is born of the Spirit by the Word of God cleanses the flesh of all its selfishness, and, in the process, we become transparently pure. The face, the personality, and all habits are purified unto righteousness; His righteousness. The worldÂ’s beauty becomes crass and cheap and we easily discard it for the higher life. Jesus Christ, in possession of our inner life, is a miracle of heavenly beauty that frees the soul and spirit of the former nature. The world has forgotten how to trust God for the inner transformation of the new birth. Trying to put on Christ with our theological systems without an experience of Spirit empowerment can never change the person no matter how sincere their effort. Flesh can never change flesh in a spiritual sense.

The Spirit of God is the “change agent” of Biblical living. If we are willing, the Word of God will sanctify the flesh, strip it of all selfishness, and purify it unto transparency. Once the flesh has been surrendered to ultimate grace for cleansing and the soul of that person has become totally willing to follow through in devotion, the temple that is created to be a temple of God becomes a work of beauty. The Spirit was sent by the Father at the request of His Son to graft Jesus Christ in us. He can only shine through a transparent person. As long as flesh is the beautified object, transparency is impossible.

The Bible says, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (II Corinthians 3:18). Our God desires to possess us and turn us into the image of His glory. He can only do this in a vessel that is willing to become transparent by His cleansing and stripping of self. The self-life leaves nothing but flesh to be visible, but the Spirit-filled life shines through the vessel set apart unto holiness.