The video below is from an outreach I went on in Mozambique last summer. Heidi Baker is leading a little girl around as she’s walking. It looks cute until you realize that this little girl, five-year-old Joanna, had never walked before! Her legs were calloused from crawling around in the dirt all her life, but in the name of Jesus her legs were strengthened and she was healed!
Heidi Baker loves and lives for Jesus Christ. She and her husband Rolland, founders of Iris Ministries, are as real as they come. I have spent the last two summers with their ministry in Mozambique and have seen God do so many miraculous things, I’m sure many people don’t believe me when I talk about it. But Jesus said that we would do the things He did and even greater things, and they are just two living examples of John 14:12.
God’s own chosen people, the Jews, missed the Messiah when he came to earth. Despite his miraculous signs, such as healing the sick and raising the dead, they hated him and called him demon possessed. He was the real deal — God in the flesh — and instead of worshiping him, they killed him.
Sometimes we miss him today. Sometimes we even denounce a whole move of God and say it’s unbiblical and say it’s the devil at work in those people. If we have a hard time discerning the truth now now, what are we going to do in the coming days when it gets even worse?
Mark 13:22-23 (ESV)
“22For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.”
When you see a miracle like the video above happen in front of your very eyes, how are you going to know if it’s from God or from Satan?
“Oh but Satan would never heal anyone. The Bible says he came only to steal, kill, and destroy!” you might say. Sorry, if ruins your theology, but Satan has been healing people in Mozambique through witch doctors for centuries. Why? For personal gain, repeat business, deception, spiritual bondage, and ultimately spiritual death. Sickness and death entered the world through sin because of Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve. Many sicknesses today are purely demonic and spiritual in nature. Now if the enemy caused a spirit of sickness to come on you and make you miserably sick, don’t you think he would lift that evil spirit off you to make you worship him and denounce Jesus? Which do you think the enemy would rather have? Your physical health now or your soul in hell suffering with him for eternity? Satan knows his time is short and he is going to drag as many people off to hell with him as he can, by whatever means necessary.
So how are you going to know the difference? How are you going to keep yourself from being deceived? You’ve got to know Him! You have to know his personality, his heart, his Word, his truth, his Spirit. It’s not enough to go to church on Sunday mornings, to spill off your list of wants and needs every night before you go to bed. You have to engage the heart of Jesus and get lost in his love. Living in the days to come is going to require a real relationship with the creator of the universe. It won’t be enough to just know facts about him.
He’s not a concept.
He’s not a doctrine.
He’s not a fairy tale.
He’s not your fire insurance.
He’s real.
He’s a man.
He’s alive.
And he’s coming back to this earth to establish His government, to overthrow the wicked kings and rulers of the earth and reign with peace forevermore.
And he’s coming soon..