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 ONLY GOD CAN

Think about these things. Can someone dead exert any cure or strength to make themselves live again? Can a deaf person make themselves hear again? Is a blind person able to restore their own sight? Can someone with Leprosy heal the disease and restore their nerve endings so they can feel again? Can a person overcome by and possessed by a demon exorcise themselves?

The obvious answer is “No” to all the above. Sin and death entered the world by Adam’s and Eve’s choosing to believe the satanic lie that we do not need God to be fully human and to flourish. All the brokenness, sickness, despair, hatred, envy, strife, and war that is endemic in humanity began to rule in the world. Everything was marred, even creation has been stunted and cut off from what it was meant to be.

The reality is that, without Jesus Christ living His life in you, you are spiritually dead. You cannot change the fact that you are separated from Life Himself. There is a desperation in every heart that there must be more than we have known or experienced to date. That is true. There is more and it is only known by Someone outside ourselves coming and taking our death so that we might receive His Life and truly live. Only God can raise the dead.

Human beings are born spiritually blind and deaf to the Love of God. Someone outside ourselves must give us new eyes to see and new ears to hear. God tells us in His Word that, “Seeing eyes and hearing ears are from the Lord.” God must give us seeing eyes and hearing ears. We must see our true condition and hear the verdict on our own indifference and rebellion against God pronounced. Such seeing and hearing are gifts from God enabling us to turn from the deafness and blindness of self and sin and turn to Him in repentance for forgiveness and healing.

Sin is like Leprosy. It kills any vestige of tenderness of a human heart making it hard and unfeeling. We can lie and not feel the sting, hate and not feel the decay working in us. We can abuse and misuse our bodies as instruments of self-gratification and feel no shame. Sin is leprous and will eventually end in death and separation from all goodness and peace.

What is most frightening is that those who do not live in a relationship established by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ do not have the Holy Spirit working in them. It is just the opposite. Please read Ephesians 2:1-3, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”

To be delivered from such oppression that sometimes is manifest in possession, you must have Someone stronger than your ancient enemy, the devil. Please read Ephesians 2:4-10, “4 But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)   For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So, God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”

If you will read the eye-witness accounts of Jesus Christ’s life, works and Words in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will see that God, the Eternal Son, became a human being while still being God. All the signs, wonders and miracles attest that Jesus Christ alone is that “Someone” who can reverse the curse of sin and death in humanity. He healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, made the blind to see, the deaf to hear and drove out the demons possessing and oppressing people. He died the death humanity deserved, receiving in Himself the just judgement for the sins of the whole world. He rose again proving that Salvation had been wrought once and for all.

You cannot save yourself. Sin, no matter what form it takes, can never save you. Economics, education, wealth, power, climate control…none of it can salvage humanity as NONE of it can change a single human heart and make it alive again. Salvation is of the Lord and He has done what is necessary for you to live again. Trust Him. Surrender all you are to Him. Let Him give you a new life.

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