The withered Hand

The withered hand

Philippians 4:19 (NKJV)

¹⁹ And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Glory follows order; God is specific on how He wants things made. When they finished building the temple He filled it with His glory. Why because it was made to hold His glory by His specifications.

1 Kings 6:1

So if we build our life according to God’s order there are riches that will come to you as a consequence to it. The riches come from the glory, it is supply all your need according to His riches IN glory.

Do not be callus to the glory of God, do not enjoy them and not benefit from them. For where there is glory there is something to obtain. In His presence there is glory and there is: healing, there is deliverance and there is joy.

In a sense you have to put a demand on this glory and pursue what you need. For there are riches where there is glory.

What other ways are there order, God said give me the first 10% that is your tithe, and in this order that God has made there is glory.

We have to make room and space for the glory to operate. In today’s world people get squirmy when you have dead air, nothing is happening. But as you do this, the glory can fall; people will start to sing in the spirit, tongues and interpretation will produce and there will be space. We might feel uncomfortable but allowing the glory to fall you will see the gifts of the spirit manifest.

Mark 3:1–6 (NKJV)

3 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.

² So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.

³ And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.”

⁴ Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent.

⁵ And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.

⁶ Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Imagine this man coming in and out of church, days upon days and nothing was done about his problem. His problem was just over looked; no one thought anything could be done about it. It was the issue that no one would look directly, if I don’t look at it, I don’t have to admit that it’s here, I don’t have to deal with it, I don’t have to see that I am inadequate to deal with an issue that is bigger than me.

Today in the church we have people coming in and out everyday with issues that are not being touched. We have to come to a point where we stop saying that you are the way you are because of you but you are the way you are because of my faith and belief.

God is raising leaders in the church that are willing to connect and in this there will be an authority to loose and bind heal and restore the issues in the church.

Jesus walks in and immediately goes to this man. He walks in and goes to the man that has been faithful even with twisted things in his life. This man has not let his issue in his life become his identity. Even though he has a withered hand, even though he has a twisted hand, he came, and when he came he entered into the presence where there was glory.

3 issues that keep us from operating in the anointing or moving in the spirit:

1. Private issues / sin

a. Things you fight alone, in the dark

b. You are not who you are by the way you act in front of a crowd, you are who you are when your alone

c. Your struggle wont be in public it will be what you do in private

2. Occasional issues /sin

a. Issue that we never deal with because we only battle with them on occasion

b. Sin can work in your life through out seasons

i. Ecc. 3:1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven

ii. It can come into your life effect you then be back in 3 months

iii. It will back down before we deal with it, then rise again in the next season

iv. You shouldn’t base if you have conquered the sin upon how you feel today, you should base it upon if it could be a problem ever in the future

3. Personality issues / sin

a. These issue we try to accept and keep and use the excuse “they are part of our personality”.

b. This is kind of just the way I am /patients / loving / this is just the way I am

c. Not always seen as sin from the start but if looked at is sin

d. Personality issue does not stop you from being productive but stops you from reaching your potential

⁴ Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent.

How can He relate a hand to life and death?

The man with a withered hand did not have a life or death issue, he had an issue that stopped him from reaching full service of God’s plan in his life.

If you don’t reach your potential in God you never achieve what He has in store for you.

· You will go but are not productive

· You will listen but you’ll never change

· You will make the reasoning: I am not called for service

So you compromise for a Christianity that has no level of service. People who come to church and never play a part or a role in the church, what kind of Christianity is this? There is a joy in Christianity that is fulfilled by being connected by service.

If there is no full service, there is no full Christianity, and it is impossible to sustain Christianity that is not in full service.

Today’s church has sold the idea that you can spend an hour and half and apply a piece of a principle to your life and see results. No wonder people can leave church and find something else to do. You took a principle and applied in an hour it when it is a lifestyle that you are meant to live.

Jesus tells the man to step forward, you have to come out of your comfort zone and be in the spot light for just a minute. By doing so your life will change forever.

Then he asked him to stretch out his hand, in other words are you ready to deal with the thing that is stopping you from being in full service for God.

He asked him to stretch out his hand, out of his comfort zone, and he did as he was told, something changed. When he pulled it out, not caring what others thought, when he went against the one thing that was keeping him to be in full service and moved his hand out when it shouldn’t have and moved it out.

How wonderful would it be for people to look at you and say that they know you and know who you were and there is no way that you can be who you are today with being in the presence of God?

You see Jesus was not going to have someone in His house worshiping God and have something in the way that was keeping him from fulfilling his purpose.