A Nugget from New Life Network
(excerpts from Future Now)
Scripture for the Day (May 31, 2018)
He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)
Luke 18:10-14 in the Amplified Bible says, “Two men went up into the temple [enclosure] to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men—extortioners (robbers), swindlers [unrighteous in heart and life], adulterers—or even like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain. But the tax collector, [merely] standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying, O God, be favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, the especially wicked sinner that I am! I tell you, this man went down to his home justified (forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God), rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
I recently heard a story of a pastor that asked a traveling minister this question after a healing service the traveling minister had conducted at his church. Why would a man that was not even a member of his church, and didn’t really go to church anywhere, get healed of a stroke and paralysis when a fine upstanding Christian woman who was a member of his church, who had a tumor, failed to get healed? The traveling minister told the pastor that when he laid hands on the woman to pray, he heard her say, “Lord, you know I’m the best Christian in this church.”
Although the Bible teaches right conduct and good works, we can’t come to God bragging and expect to receive God’s blessings. On the other hand the man with the stroke humbled himself and threw himself on the mercy of God. He had his eyes on Jesus, while the woman had her eyes on herself. You can’t get healing on your own merit or your own worthiness.
I heard one minister say that when he would have a healing service he would have the congregation sing “Just as I Am, without one plea”, just as if he were having an invitation for the lost. You don’t get saved at the same time your own merit or pleas and you can’t get healed on your own merit or pleas.
There was a well-known missionary being interviewed on television recently and the question of healing came up. This particular missionary had seen many miracles in Africa during her twenty plus years of work there. She was asked why we did not see those type miracle healings in this country. Her answer was very profound. She said, “You have to be willing to get low.” He must increase, but we have to decrease.
We need to magnify God and not ourselves, for that’s when God will get bigger than our problems.
