Mark 16:17-18 “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Today's episode talks about how powerful the Holy Spirit is and how powerful we can be when we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. There is so much untapped potential because we make excuses and we don't think Jesus could really be calling us to anything special. He is, step out in faith and answer that call! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You Are Not Too Old & You Are Not Too Young
Mark 16:17-18 “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
If you haven’t noticed already I tend to do a lot of verses that talk about the amazing power we get from the Holy Spirit. The reason for this is because I think it is so incredible that Jesus would send the Holy Spirit to empower us and to help guide us. People pay so much money for people to tell them what to do and how they should do it and yet we have the ultimate guide living inside of us. I talk so much about the Holy Spirit because I think if we all truly knew how powerful we are with it, our lives would be so different. It is the dream of many young boys, and even some young girls to be a super hero. Each and every one of us could be living a supernatural life style. How great would it be if you could be doing the things from the verse above? I know not everyone wants to have all these gifts. Maybe you don’t have any desire to drive out demons, or speak in a new tongue. How great would it be to be able to lay hands on sick people and they get well?
I am not talking about in healing ministry, I understand everyone may not feel called to that. However, how about just being able to pray for a loved one when they get hurt and see them get better? How about being able to pray for a swollen ankle or a migraine headache and have the pain and swelling go away? There is no junior Holy Spirit. There isn’t a different portion of the Holy Spirit given to some people and not to others. I know some of you are listening to this and you are counting yourself out. As soon as I said you could pray over a loved one and they could be healed you said to yourself, “Maybe some people can do that, but not me.” I am too old, I am too young, I am not holy enough, I don’t know enough, whatever it may be. How long are we going to keep coming up with excuses? Moses was over 80 when he saw the burning bush and God called him into service. Not 80 when he completed his work from God, 80 when he started it. Noah was about 500 when he started building the arc, which took a century to build. Noah & Moses were not too old, and you are not too old either! You are just getting started.
As far as too young…I saw a testimony last night, I will put a link for it in the show notes. At the Encounter School of Ministry Conference in 2020 there was a woman who attended. She had stage 4 Esophageal cancer and the doctors told her there was nothing else they could do. She went to the healing service and waited in line for the priest to pray over her, because that is what we do. We go to the person we think might have the closest connection with God, or the most power of the Holy Spirit. We want someone with a track record. It is our future, it is our life, we want to entrust our healing to the one that is the most experienced. I totally get it, I would have done the same. Yet, when she finally got up to Father Matthias and she told him what was wrong, he said, I think we need to have the children pray for you. Honestly, she didn’t want to, she had just waited in a long line to get up to Father Mathias. However, she was obedient and she went to find some children. At this conference they had several youth tracts. One for elementary kids, one for middle school, one for high school and one for college. They taught these kids all about the power of the Holy Spirit and part of that was teaching them to pray over others.
She went up to a couple kids who ranged in age from 6-9 years old. She told them she had cancer and the doctors said there was nothing else that could be done. A nine year old little girl said, “That’s because they don’t know the power of Jesus.” The kids prayed for various things, all “in Jesus’ name.” She felt this warmth in her lung and she told the kids. They got all excited and prayed even more. A few months later she went to the doctor for another CAT scan. The doctor looked at it and didn’t know what to say. He was stuttering and shocked. He said the scan was completely clear. There was no cancer anywhere. This was all new territory for him as that had never happened for him before. That was three years ago and she is still cancer free. Praise God, He is so good. These children were not too young and you are not too young either. These children were not too inexperienced and you are not either.
When we are searching for a healing, we go to the person that has the most experience because we are thinking healing is like anything else. The one with the most experience, the one with the best track record, the one that is closer to God is more likely to give you the healing. The thing we are forgetting is that Jesus is the one that does the healing and Jesus doesn’t need any certain conditions to do a healing. He can work through any one at any time. Like He did with these children. I have heard many similar stories where people who were completely “unqualified” in our standards, and even their own standards, have been the instrument of incredible healings. I think one reason some people see more healings than others is because they are stepping out in faith and trying more than others. The more you step out in faith and try and pray over others the more healings you will see. The rate of people getting healed that you don’t pray over is 0%. What have you got to lose, I mean honestly, what do you have to lose? You might risk looking silly, sounding silly, or you might risk rejection if you ask someone if you can pray over them and they say no. If you are comparing what you might lose to what you might gain if you prayed and you did see a healing, I don’t think they can compare.
I am talking to myself as much as I am talking to you. I am often afraid to ask someone if I can pray over them. Why am I afraid? The worst that can happen is that they say no? Or I am also afraid I will pray and nothing will happen. Again, why am I afraid? Even if they are not healed, they won’t be any worse off than they were before I prayed. The verse above says, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” It does not say, those who are old enough, young enough, experienced enough, or holy enough. It says these signs will accompany those who believe. That’s it, that is the only requirement. And remember, you only need the faith of a mustard see, and they are really tiny! I love the name of the podcast, even though I didn’t know how much I loved it when I started this podcast. I love that I am learning how to walk more boldly with Jesus and I pray you are too! I pray as you listen to this podcast and all the witnesses you will see more and more how powerful the Holy Spirit is and how powerful you can be when you let the Holy Spirit guide your actions!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this episode today. Lord we love you and we are so grateful for the Holy Spirit, The Advocate, The Paraclete. We are grateful you didn’t leave us alone. We ask that you teach us more and more how to listen to the Holy Spirit and how to follow wherever He leads us. Lord, we ask that you help us step out with a bold faith and begin to pray for people more. I ask that you inspire each person listening in their own way. If they are just ready to begin praying silently for people’s healings, great, that is super important too! If they are ready to begin saying a quick prayer with someone when they are asked to pray, that is great too. If they are wanting to lay hands on someone and pray commands in the name of Jesus, that is cool too. Lord, let us each start somewhere and give us the grace, the strength and the faith to take that first step. Lord we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I hope you take some time to CLICK HERE to listen to the testimony. Or you could just google Angel being cured of stage 4 esophageal cancer. You should get a youtube link that comes up. You can also see the link on my facebook page Catherine Duggan. It is only a 3 minute video but is awesome. I look forward to meeting your here again on Monday. Have a Blessed day!