What do you accept?

I feel like I'm going to explode with this!!! I was listening to a guy preaching on poverty and suddenly all the dots joined up from so many things I have understood.

In the past I have talked about how those in the basement say, "That's just the way it is!" Those on the next floor blame everyone and everything else, while those on the next floor accept that it is down to them.

God doesn't want you sick. If we say, "well, that's just the way it is." We are accepting the sickness and sickness is called a curse in the bible. Is it right to accept a curse? There are those who say that Jesus died for our sicknesses, I believe that, I don't believe I will be sick when I am with Him, the question is, is that healing available to me now? Well yes, of course it is, Jesus came healing so why isn't healing available. I believe it's because we accept the sickness. There are those who say we should claim our healing, I believe the flip side of that is not accepting the sickness.

Imagine someone being told that due to the treatment they will receive they will never walk again. Should they accept the treatment? You would say that if the treatment were for terminal illness then never walking again is probably a fair swap! But if it is for something trivial then maybe not. But get this, why do we have the medical advancements we have? Because people refused to have the results they were getting, they wanted better results.

The devil is said to come to steal, kill and destroy, are you allowing him to? When stuff gets taken from you, do you just say, "Oh, well, that's just the way it is?" We need to stand our ground and fight. The trouble for us is that we live in a world where we have so much that a little loss is acceptable. But actually that isn't a little loss. It looks like a little loss but every little loss is robbing us of fullness of blessing.

I suppose that some find that a hard term to accept. We doubt, doubting is accepting loss. We should doubt our doubts. If God says "He has plans to prosper us" and we think, "I doubt that!" Then we should immediately doubt our doubt! Why should we accept anything less than the fullness of what God has for us?

If I am a missionary in this world then what image am I portraying? "My life is no better than yours, that's because I serve the living God!" Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly! Christians argue over Harry Potter!! Why the hell would I want to read or watch Harry Potter? Is God so insignificant that the likes of Harry Potter would interest me? I'm not accepting that image of the divine! How dare I bring God down to the point where I would even want to look at something like that. Think, If I am married and I look at another woman with lust then Jesus said I am committing adultery in my heart. What He is saying is that it is not acceptable to be married and look around. How much more than should it not be acceptable to look around when we have such an all consuming God?

It should be in my heart that I will not accept sickness for me or anyone, I should not accept poverty for me or anyone, I should not accept lies for me or anyone. In many situations Jesus did not accept what He was told, like when he was told the girl was dead! When Lazarus was dead, He didn't accept what everyone else accepted. I know that we have this problem that Jesus had inside info, a connection and a mission that included raising the dead. But why do we still accept what we see in the same way as those around Jesus?

Woman have the vote because women refused to accept what had been placed on them. Not all women refused to accept it, many accepted it fully, but the few who refused won a victory for all women. It is hard to refuse something that is forced upon you, but refuse it we should. Black people refused to be classed as merely servants and have an equality that today we would find hard to imagine they shouldn't have. It was forced on them but they refused to accept it in their hearts. Many lived with an, "Accept your position." Attitude, but it wasn't because of them that slavery was abolished.

For politeness sake I will rephrase the bumper sticker, "Stuff happens!" does that mean we should lie down and accept it? You may be wondering what you can do, refusing to accept it is a start!! And see where it goes! How dare I accept sickness as if it is God's will for me? How dare I accept poverty as if it is God's will for me? There is nowhere in God's word where it says that sickness and poverty are God's will or tool for His people. They are called a curse and for the Christian Jesus has removed the curse.

It doesn't matter what we believe, what we know, how hard we worship if all the time we are accepting less than God's best for us. We are told that the people perish for a lack of revelation. Why do we accept a lack of revelation? Who is framing our thinking, if the word of God isn't framing our thinking you can bet your life that the devil will put as much as he can in front of you to frame your thinking! Who told Adam and Eve they were naked?! They didn't frame their thinking according to God's word and immediately the devil came in and filled the void.

So, what can we do?

1, make sure our thinking is in line with God's word
2, use our refusal to accept what is happening to claim promises and make petitions to God. (This is a spiritual battle after all and not a flesh and blood battle!!)