February 22, 2000

Compiled by: Tammy Rudstrom

LET IT RATHER BE HEALED

Hebrews 12:14-15

Strive to live in peace with everybody, and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness or hatred) shoot forth and cause trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it.

The scripture references in this document are from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE unless otherwise stated:

I believe God is now doing the quick work of righteousness that is mentioned in the scriptures to perfect the saints for His final harvest, the latter rain that is about to flood the earth and sweep many into the Kingdom of God. The Bridegroom is preparing His Bride and we are to make ourselves ready for Him.

In Hebrews 11 we read of the heroes of faith. Someone has called this [God’s Hall of Faith]. It tells of many who have pleased God by their faith, those who have gone on who are waiting for the fulfillment of what was promised them. They were promised something, a fulfillment that they will not receive apart from us. They will not come into perfection apart from us, verse 40.

But I have good news for all and you can find it in the scriptures and you can see it happening in the spirit today! The light is shining brighter and brighter unto that perfect day. Christ is being formed in us. We are being perfected for that great marriage supper of the Lamb.

By faith we are, as well as they looking forward to the day when we shall see the manifestation of the sons of God on this earth. Please read the following chapter from the writer of Hebrews Chapter11:

1. Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality –faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

2. For by [faith], and trust and holy fervor born of faith, the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report
3. By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed –fashioned, put in order and equipped for their intended purpose –by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.
4. [Prompted, actuated] by faith Abel brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, because of which it was testified of him that he was righteous –[that is,] that he was upright and in right standing with God – and God bore witness by accepting and acknowledging his gifts. And though he died, yet through [the incident] he is still speaking. {Gen. 4:3-10]
5. Because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For even before he was taken to heaven he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God. [Gen. 5;21-24]
6. But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must (necessarily) believe that God exists and that He is the Rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him (out).
7. [Prompted] by faith Noah, being forewarned of God concerning events of which as yet there was no visib le sign, took heed and diligently and reverently constructed and prepared an ark for the deliverance of his own family. By this [his faith which relied on God] he passed judgment and sentence on the world’s unbelief and became an heir and possessor of righteousness, [that relation of being right into which God puts the person who has faith]. [Gen. 6:13-22].
8. [Urged on] by faith Abraham when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go.
9. [Prompted] by faith he dwelt as a temporary resident in the land which was designated in the promise [of God, though he was as a stranger] in a strange country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs with Him of the same promise. [Gen. 12:1-8].
10. For he was waiting expectantly and confidently, looking forward to the city which has fixed and firm foundation, whose Architect and Builder is God.
11. Because of faith also Sarah herself received physical power to conceive a child, even when she was long past the age for it, because she considered [God] Who had given her the promise, reliable and trustworthy and true to His word. {Gen. 17:19; 18:11-14; 21:2.]
12. So from one man, though he was physically as good as dead, there have sprung descendants whose number is as the stars of heaven, and as countless as the innumerable sands on the seashore. [Gen. 15:5- 6: 22:17; 32:12.]
13. These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God’s] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth. [Ps. 39:12; Gen. 23:4.]
14. Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland – their own country.
15. If they had been thinking with [homesick] remembrance of that country from which they were emigrants, they would have found constant opportunity to return to it;
16. But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly [one]. For that reason God is not ashamed to be called their God – even to be surnamed their God [the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob]; for He has prepared a city for them. [Exod. 3:6, 15; 4:5.]
17. By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test – that is, while the testing of his faith was still in progress – had already brought Isaac for an offering; he who had gladly received and welcomed [God’s] promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, [Gen.22:1-10.]
18. Of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your descendants be reckoned. [Gen.21;12.]
19. For he reasoned that God was able to raise [him] up even from among the dead. Indeed in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead (potentially sacrificed,) he did [actually] receive him back from the dead.
20. [With eyes of] faith Isaac, looking far into the future, invoked blessings upon Jacob and Esau. [Gen. 27:27-29,39-40.]
21. [Prompted by faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and bowed in prayer over the top of his staff. [Gen.48.]
22. [Actuated] by faith Joseph, when nearing the end of his life, referred to [the promise of God for] the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, and gave instructions concerning the burial of his own bones. [Gen. 50:24-25; Exod. 13:19.]
23. [Prompted] by faith Moses after his birth was kept concealed for three months by his parents, because they saw how comely the child was, and they were not overawed and terrified by the king’s decree. [Exod. 2:2; 1:22.]
24. [Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, [Exod. 2:10,15.]
25. Because he preferred rather to share the oppression (suffer the hardships) and bear the shame of the people of God than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.
26. He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ, the Messiah {Who was to come], to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).
27. [Motivated] by faith he left Egypt behind him, being unawed and undismayed by the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible. [Exod.2:15.]
28. By faith (simple trust and confidence in God) he instituted and carried out the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood (on the doorposts), so that [the angel], the destroyer of the first-born, might not touch those [of the children of Israel]. [Exod. 12:21-30]
29. [Urged on] by faith the people crossed the Red Sea as though on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do the same thing they were swallowed up [by the sea]. [Exod. 14:21-31.]
30. Because of faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encompassed for seven days [by the Israelites]. Josh. 6:12-21.]
31. [Prompted] by faith Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed along with those who refused to believe and obey, because she had received the spies in peace (without enmity). [Josh. 2:1-21;6:22-25]
32. And what shall I say further? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, [Judg. 6:1-8, 35; 4:1-5, 31; 13:1-16, 31; 11:1-12, 15; I Sam. 1-30; II Sam. 1-24; I Kings 1-2; Acts 3:24.]
33. Who by faith subdued kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promised blessings, closed the mouths of lions, [Dan. 6.]
34. Extinguished the power of raging fire, escaped the devourings of the sword, out of frailty and weakness won strength and became stalwart, even mighty and resistless in battle, routing alien hosts. [Dan. 3.]
35. [Some] women received again their dead by a resurrection. Others were tortured to death with clubs, refusing to accept release [offered on the terms of denying their faith], that they might be resurrected to a better life. [I Kings 17:17-24; II Kings 4:25-37.]
36. Others had to suffer the trial of mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment.
37. They were stoned to death; they were lured with tempting offers [to renounce their faith]; they were sawn asunder; they were slaughtered by the sword; [while they were alive] they had to go about wrapped in the skins of sheep and goats, utterly destitute, oppressed, cruelly treated,
38. [Men] of whom the world was not worthy, roaming over the desolate places and the mountains, and [living] in caves and caverns and holes of the earth.
39. And all of these, though they won divine approval by [means of] their faith, did not receive the fulfillment of what was promised,
40. Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us, so that they [these heroes and heroines of faith] should not come to perfection apart from us, [that is, before we could join them].

We will read in Chapter 12 that these great number of faith people who have gone on before us, are referred to as a great cloud of witnesses. And while waiting for the fulfillment of the promise they are surrounding us and, I believe, cheering us on:

CHAPTER 12

1. THEREFORE then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony of the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance – unnecessary weight – and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,

2. Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher, [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. [Ps. 110:1.]
3. Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself –reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials – so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.
4. You have not yet struggled and fought agonizingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood.
5. And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him;
6. For the Lord corrects and disciplines every one whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.
7. You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline. God is dealing with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline/
8. Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all]. [Prov. 3:11-12.]
9. Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live?
10. For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them, but He disciplines us for our certain good that we may become sharers in His own holiness.
11. For the time being no discipline brings joy but seems grievous and painful, but afterwards it yields peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it – a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness, [that is, in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].
12. So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands, and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees, [Isa. 35:3.]
13. And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for you feet – [yes, make them] safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction – so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured. {Let it rather be healed} {King James Version}.
14. Strive to live in peace with everybody, and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.
15. Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness or hatred) shoot forth and cause trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it;
16. That no one may become guilty of sexual vice, or become a profane (godless and sacrilegious) person as Esau did, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. [Gen. 25:29-34.]
17. For you understand that later on, when he wanted [to regain title to] his inheritance of the blessing, he was rejected (disqualified and set aside), for he could find no opportunity to repair by repentance [what he had done] – that is, no chance to recall the choice he had made – although he sought for it carefully with [bitter] tears. [Gen. 27:30-40.]
18. For you have not come [as did the Israelites in the wilderness] to a [material] mountain that can be touched, [a mountain] that is ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and raging storm,
19. And the blast of a trumpet, and a voice whose words make the listeners beg that nothing more be said to them. [Exod. 19:12-22; 20:18-21; Deut. 4:11-12; 5:22-27.]
20. For they could not hear the command that was given, If even a wild animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death. [Exod. 19:112-13.]
21. In fact, so awful and terrifying was the (phenomenal) sight that Moses said, I am terrified – aghast and trembling with fear. [Deut. 9:19.]
22. But rather, you have approached unto Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering,
23. And to the church (assembly) of the First-born who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to the Judge Who is God of all, and to the spirits of the righteous [the redeemed in heaven] who have been made perfect;
24. And to Jesus, the Mediator – Go-between, Agent – of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks [of mercy,] a better and nobler and more gracious message than the blood of Abel [which cried out for vengeance]. [Gen. 4:10.]

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, look all we have behind us to cause us to walk in the paths of righteousness for His Name Sake. And to whom much is given much is required! These are crucial times. Jesus is preparing His Bride. We need to get ready and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is emphasizing this fact in these chapters. He wants us to receive renewed hope and to continue diligently in the righteousness of God. It is a strong warning to us in this day -- in this hour to listen to God, hear His voice and respond with true humility. Please allow me to go on a little further in the scriptures:

25. So see to it that you do not reject Him or refuse to listen to and heed Him Who is speaking [to you now]. For if they [the Israelites] did not escape when they refused to listen and heed Him Who warned and divinely instructed them [here] on earth – revealing with heavenly warnings His will – how much less shall we escape if we reject and turn our backs on Him Who cautions and admonishes [us] from heaven?
26. Then [at Mount Sinai] His voice shook the earth; but now He has given a promise, Yet once more I will shake and make tremble not only the earth but also the (starry) heavens. [Hag. 2:6]
27. Now this expression, Yet once more, indicates the final removal and transformation of all [that can be] shaken, that is, of that which has been created, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain and continue. [Ps. 102:26.]
28. Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe;
29. For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire. [Deut. 4:24.]

We, the people of the New Covenant – in this Day of so great grace bestowed upon us, are more liable to God in this, so great a calling; to walk as Jesus walked, to minister to the world the message that Jesus has reconciled the world back into God, to do those things Jesus did when His feet were on this earth.

And Jesus said we are to do even greater things because He left the earth to send us His Holy Spirit that we, as The Corporate Body of Christ, as One Body, cover the earth completely with the glorious Gospel Message of Reconciliation unto God. We are to love one another so completely that the world will know that Jesus Christ truly did come.

The following scripture is from the King James Version of the Bible, Jesus’ prayer to His Father in Heaven:

JOHN 1:21-23

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.

And the glory that Thou hast given Me I have given them; that they may be one even as We are one:

I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and has loved them, as Thou has loved Me.

Of all that is given us, and with all that is behind us, around us, above us and with the Whole Godhead within us, we have a great calling to finish the Ministry of Reconciliation to the ends of the world as One Body and in the Love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Blessed Holy Spirit. Please allow me to continue from the book of Hebrews and from the Amplified Bible:

CHAPTER 13

1. Let love for your fellow believers continue and be a fixed practice with you –

Never let it fail.

2. Do not forget or neglect or refuse to extend hospitality to strangers [in the

brotherhood] – being friendly, cordial and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously – for through it some have entertained angels without knowing it. [Gen. 18:1-8; 19:1-3.]

3. Remember those who are in prison, as if you were their fellow prisoner; and those who are ill-treated, since you also are liable to bodily sufferings.

4. Let marriage be held in honor – esteemed worthy, precious, [that is,] of great price and especially dear – in all things. And thus let the marriage bed be (kept undishonored,) undefiled; for God will judge and punish the unchaste (all guilty of sexual vice) and adulterous.

5. Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money – [including] greed, avarice, lust and craving for earthly possessions – and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He (God) Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake nor let [you] down, [relax My hold on you]. --- Assuredly not! [Josh. 1:5.]