This blog comes to you from Renée H. Berry’s book, Invite Him In. Renée is on staff at GLI.
Seemingly, I have fallen into the same trap that A.B Simpson, founder of Christian and Missionary Alliance, did over one hundred years ago! He was seeking healing: go here, pray with this person, take this remedy. There is validity in all that, unless it becomes a means to what a person believes will heal. Then, seeking healing can take on an idol status.
I have always loved Simpson’s testimony where he discusses seeking Jesus. He did so in many arenas, including healing. He states, “And so I thought the healing would be an it, too, that the Lord would take me like the old run-down clock, wind me up, and set me going like a machine. It is not this at all. I found it was Himself coming in instead, and giving me what I needed at the moment.”1
How easy it is to get caught up in that search. When I’ve suffered for a long time and then must wait, rest, abide, I begin to feel as if there are heavy rocks hanging around my neck. This heaviness creeps in because my focus shifts off Jesus. Mr. Simpson found the only remedy for these maladies: “I had to learn to take from Him, my spiritual life every second, to breathe Himself in as I breathed, and breathe myself out. So, moment by moment for the spirit, and moment by moment for the body, we must receive”.2 Jesus is Truth. We are one with Him in union. With that combination, there is freedom in waiting, resting and abiding. Each becomes sweet, intimate times of expecting Jesus to just be God!
I have found what A B Simpson found is also my Enough – “At last He said to me – Oh so tenderly – “My child, just take Me, and let Me be in you the constant supply of all this, Myself.” And when at last I got my eyes off my sanctification, and my experience of it, and just placed them on the Christ in me, I found, instead of an experience, the Christ larger than the moment’s need, the Christ that had all that I should ever need, who was given to me at once, and forever…” 3
I receive that! I Invite You In Jesus.
As I Invite You In, You desire for me to realize the fullness of all that You are, especially now in my healing.
Ephesians 3:19 – [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
Colossians 2:2 – [For my concern is] that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One).
- Simpson, Albert Benjamin. Himself. https://www.biblebelievers.com/simpson-ab_himself.html (accessed October 14, 2017).
© Invite Him In: Jesus in Times of Adversity Renée H, Berry (on our GLI Staff)