Luke, the physician,
records about the healing of Mary Magdalene, "And certain women,
which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven evil devils (Luke 8:2). Jesus had
set Mary Magdalene free of seven demons, so she now was free to
become fruitful.
Serving Jesus' ministry, she was grateful to Jesus who set her
free of her torment. She was a witness at His crucifixion and
present at Jesus' burial (Mark 15:47). Mary came to finish embalming
Jesus (Mark 16:1), and she was the first person to talk with the
resurrected Lord. If she had not decided to serve Jesus but had gone
back to her old ways, she could have been worse than before her
deliverance. If she followed Jesus, no demon would come near. When
our mind is stayed on praise, worship and prayer, then our house is
filled with the Lord's presence.
We read in Luke 13:11, " And, behold, there was a woman which had
a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and
could in no wise lift up herself." The number "eighteen" represents
bondage. She had been bound for eighteen years and the only thing
she saw all day long was people's dirty feet as they walked along
the road. So many Christians view things this way. Any time anything
happens, they look for an earthly cause or the earthly solution.
They look to the natural to take care of their problems. Instead,
the answers are found in the spiritual realm. For example, when we
need healing, we need to seek the Lord first. He is the great
physician. We may have eat go to a doctor and sometimes in an
emergency we don't have time to seek Him. But when we are well, we
should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then
these things will be added to us.
The Lord can tell us ahead of time how to keep our boy healthy.
Our bodies have everything within to heal themselves. We may have to
fast to thoroughly clean our body or we may have to change our diet.
If we do what the Lord directs, we can be totally free of sickness.
this woman was set free by the power of the almighty God. She no
longer looked at the earthly but was free to look at the heavenlies.
In this, our year of Jubilee, we have been set free by the blood of
Jesus and no long have to walk in sickness and poverty We no longer
have to hold our head down in despair, discouragement and
depression.
If we need our finances improved, we should first pray for the
financial needs of others the praise the Lord in advance for meeting
our needs. We must not however, expect the finances to come in any
certain way. Our job is to keep our eyes off the earthly realm and
on the heavenly. If we need a new car, we should not envy our
neighbor who got one. Instead, we must rejoice with him so that when
we get our new car, he can rejoice with us. Parents need to set a
good example for their children, in the area of finances as well as
other areas.
The woman who was bowed over could do nothing about her
circumstances. But the hand of the Master could. We can confess the
negative about our problem and live in them or we can start to
confess the positive, walk in it, and be set free. Any time we want
to be set free, Jesus has come to set us free, whether it's on a Sabbath
or any time of the week or month. A Sabbath is unto the Lord
and unto our reverence for Him, not a certain day but every waking
hour. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, rather than man for
the Sabbath. The Sabbath doesn't refer to any day of the week but a
time of rest in God, the time we are entering in now, our Jubilee.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God is now setting people
free, for it's truly the year and time of Jubilee. Jubilee is
freedom, release and restoration. We are now seeing people set free
of fear, hang ups, set free of pain, bad habits, sickness, mental
hurts of the past, and personality traits that had hindered their
walk with the Lord.
This Jubilee takes on many dimensions. God sets us free of the
prejudices of race, age, social status, education, doctrine, and
finances. We are free from enemy strongholds, even those we have
self erected, freedom from strained relationships, free from stress,
guilt, negative thinking, grief or sorrow, free from wrong behavior
patterns, and freedom from evil imaginations and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We are set free of
our past experiences, such as being abused, bitten by a dog, hurt in
a car accident, or being put down by our parents, peers, teacher or
employers, and free from all bondage to our past life, including
both failures and successes.
We are free to become vulnerable, free to get (emotionally) close
to people, and free to accept them as they are. We are free to give
without expecting something in return. We become free to worship God
in any way or form, a freedom to be who we really are. We are free
from he law of sin and death. We are free of self condemnation.,
free to accept our self as God sees us, and free to become intimate
with God. We are set free to love the unlovable, free to see the
Christ in others and free to receive God's truth and grace. This is
the year of Jubilee.