God does in this time of the
“dispensation of the grace of
God” (Eph 3:2) still deliver his trusting ones who suffer with
physical infirmities, and the difficult situations and circumstances of
life. We read of the miraculous deliverances of Israel during their time
in the wilderness. We see the miracles by Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel
accounts, when the Kingdom of Heaven was declared to be “at hand”. After the crucifixion and Pentecost, we see miracles
when the Messianic Kingdom was being offered to Israel, in the early Acts
period. Yet, more often today, deliverance from suffering for the
Christian is by a different means than the miracles we read of in those
historical Biblical accounts.
Personally, there was a time in my
wife’s and my early Christian life that we were miraculously delivered
out from situations, with physical healings,
jobs and such, but now, some 38 years later, this is not how
He deals with us. There seems to be a correlation between maturity and
responsibility as we’ve grown in Christ, learning now …to trust Him in the midst of all the troublesome situations and things
that occur in our lives.
Jesus’ Miracles Were Signs to Israel
John 2:11 This
beginning of miracles (semeion,
signs) did Jesus in
Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples
believed on him. KJV
We should note that at the time of
Jesus’ first miracle, at Cana when He turned water into wine, the word “miracle”
is not properly transliterated from the Greek. As seen in some Bible
translations, it is the “beginning of miraculous signs”.
The word “miracle” in Greek is “semeion”, meaning “sign(s)”.
All the miracles Jesus did, such as noted in John’s Gospel, are to be
considered signs for Israel. Paul
said, “The Jews require a sign” (1Cor 1:22).
From the time of John the Baptist through Jesus’ life, the message they
brought was that “…the
kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat
4:17). We need to see that
these miracles were “signs” for the purpose of announcing to Israel
the Messianic Kingdom was “at
hand”, as long promised by God to
Abraham’s seed.
Jesus had said in Mark
16:17 And these signs
shall follow them (Jews) that
believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new
tongues; This refers to those whom Jesus sent forth to preach the Messianic
Kingdom of God, as was long promised to Abraham and his seed. In the
days following Pentecost, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the
believers in Israel, Peter, James, John and the others of the twelve
Apostles did great miracles (signs),
witnessing to the Kingdom then being offered. But we should note that these “signs” began to wane
from the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7,
and fully stopped at Acts 28:28; when at that time God fully turned
from Israel (Acts 13:46) to
the Gentiles (Rom 11:25, Acts 28:28).
A Change for Paul
With this turning or change, the
offering of the Messianic Kingdom to Israel had then passed, for an
unknown and specified time. The offer of the Kingdom passed from Israel
– as with
three strikes and your out. 1)
Israel’s rejected of God in the OT, killing His prophets, 2) they
rejected the Messiah, Jesus, in the Gospels, and 3) they rejected the Holy
Spirit’s witness via Stephen (Act 7:51), who the Jews then stoned to
death. The age had turned, it brought on a new dispensational
relationship for believers; it came through the grace of God that was
given in the receiving of the person of indwelling “spirit
of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2,
Col 1:25-27, 2Tim 4:22) and their being engulfed, immersed,
baptized into the body of Christ. Paul was the dispenser of the
dispensation of the grace of God to the Gentiles (Eph
3:1-2), as Moses was the dispenser of the law dispensation.
The dispensation had changed from
“law” to “grace” and this can be seen in the mode of deliverance
in the life of the Apostle Paul, as evidenced by comparing his
earlier and later life experiences. In the early Acts period, while
God was still offering the Kingdom to Israel, cloths were sent from Paul
to others and they would be healed, “delivered”
(Act 19:12) as s sign; yet we must note in Paul’s latter epistles
(Ephesians – Philemon) he could not bring miraculous deliverance or
healing to anyone, including himself – rather he recommended “Timothy
take wine for thy stomach sake”, and writes also that he had “the
physician, Luke”, with Him (Col 4:14). We might ask, “What
happened to change Paul’s apparent display of God’s delivering
power?” Why didn’t the mighty Paul just heal his own self and his
son in the faith, Timothy? Let’s now look closer.
There are Two Kinds of Deliverance from
Suffering
To answer this we need to come to an
understanding of what it may mean to be miraculously delivered in regard
to our difficult situations and circumstances of life. Quite frankly, it
is one thing to be delivered “from” a situation, that
is to have us taken from the
situation, or our situation taken
away from us, and quite another thing to be “delivered
while within” a situation by having
a supernatural ability to endure, cope and overcome, even while suffering within a situation. “Deliver” in Scripture may be transliterated from differing
Greek words and does not always mean to “remove
from us” or “remove us from” a suffering.
1)
“Deliver”, as In
“Removing From Suffering”
Hebrews
2:15 And deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Here, “deliver”
in this verse does mean to deliver or remove “us from” a suffering” of
“fear of death”. The
Greek word used here for “deliver” is “apallasso”,
defined as follows.
Greek
525, Strong’s
ap-al-las'-so; from Greek 575 (apo) and Greek 236 (allasso); to
change away, i.e. release, (reflexive) remove:
- deliver, depart.
This Greek word is to be used by the
New Testament writers of scripture if the writer wants to express
“deliverance” as being “removal
from” a problem.
2) “Deliver”, as In “Supplying
Us Strength to Endure While Remaining Within a Suffering”
There is another Greek word for
“deliver”, often used by the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul. He is the
writer of about half the New Testament, and it is defined as we see below
in Louw & Nida’s Greek Lexicon.
“Deliver”-
rhuomai, Greek 4506, Strong’s rhuomai, rhoo'-om-ahee;
middle of an obsolete verb, akin to Greek 4482 (rheo) (through the idea
of a current; compare Greek 4511 (rhusis)); to
rush or draw (for oneself), i.e. rescue:
- deliver (-er).
“Deliver” here then means “to flow Christ’s energizing life supply to us, as a RUSH OF CURRENT to
supply one in the midst of a suffering”. This is the precise meaning of “deliver” as
used in the following verse.
2 Tim. 3:11 Persecutions,
afflictions (Gk pathema, sufferings), which came unto me at Antioch, at
Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of
them all the Lord delivered me.
(Delivered, Gk. rhuomai, flowed as “current” to me in them all)
In
2Tim 3:11 (above) and below in 2Cor 1:10 “deliver” means Christ flowed
His rich supply as a “current” or flow of
supernatural overcoming resurrection life to Paul in the midst of Paul’s
“sufferings”, such that Paul could then “endure”.
John 7:38 He who
believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being
shall flow rivers of living water.
Philip. 1:19 For I
know that this shall turn to my salvation through your
prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ
These verses speak of such a flow of
indwelling life supply as being the Spirit.
Paul’s Prayer for
Deliverance Was Answered - but not as we may expect. (2Cor 12:7-10)
While God is certainly able, and
sometimes willing that we be delivered “from
our situation”, I find that most often now His will for me and most
maturing Christians is that we endure by availing ourselves of the
indwelling supply of Christ’s life as the grace of God. Again,
this is consistent with the situation we see when the Apostle Paul
besought the Lord three times for deliverance from His “thorn in
his flesh” and the Lord did not comply, but rather
said, “my grace (Christ) is sufficient”. Further, the
Lord communicated to Paul that his thorn in his flesh was a “messenger
of Satan (obviously permitted by God) to buffet” Paul, lest
Paul “be lifted with pride”. I personally believe that Paul’s
thorn was not a physical problem, but rather a chronic fleshly temptation,
that was ever-present, and used by God to humble Paul’s pride.
In
the following we see that Paul speaks of “deliverance” that is working
in his life and in the life of all Christians in three ways, 1) delivered
(past tense), 2) being delivered (present tense) and 3) will be delivered
(future tense). These three deliverances apply to three parts of man’s
being, spirit, soul, and body (1Thes 5:23).
2 Cor. 1:8-10 For we would
not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia,
that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we
despaired even of life: 9But
we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in
ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10Who
delivered us (has delivered us by flowing His life to us in our
spirit) from so great a death, and doth deliver (continuing
to flow His life to us in soul, se Rom 5:10b): in whom we trust that
he will yet deliver us (will yet flow life to us bodily
in resurrection of our bodies - see v9b);
Three
Deliverances:
1)
At our rebirth our spirit is regenerated with Christ’s
very life, totally delivered (2Cor 5:17, Col 1:27).
2)
As we live our life on earth our soul is being delivered as it
is being “renewed” (2Cor 4:16), Thus Paul commends us to be
renewed in our soul’s mindset or attitude (Philip 2:5).
3)
We as Christians are yet to be delivered in body - in
the twinkling of an eye we will exchange these corruptible bodies for
incorruptible spirit bodies (1Cor 15:52).
Philip.
3:21 Who shall change (metaschematizo,
transfigure) our vile (earthly) body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
What
is it that we are we being “delivered of or from" in the three
parts of our being? We see in verse 9 that Paul is speaking of deliverance
from of the “sentence of death”
in himself. Formerly being dead in trespasses and sins, our death is being
fully swallowed up of His life.
The
life of Christ we received into our spirit at the time of our has rebirth
enlivened us, dealing with the sentence of death upon us. He has made us
alive in spirit. (Eph 2:1-2, Titus 3:5). We were made alive in our spirit
where we had “been dead in trespasses and sins” – we had been
dead toward God, much as we might say a phone line is said to be dead.
There had been a break or cessation of communication and relationship
between fallen man and God – sin had separated man from God.
1)
All mankind is born “dead
in spirit” toward God, since sin in his being has made him unable to
live righteously. Due to the effects of sin in man’s being, fallen man
is strong toward sin and weak toward righteousness. If we deny this we lie
or we’re burying our head in the sand.
2)
Our bodies have a sentence of death in them. The death rate is
still unchanged – one per person. These vile bodies will one day be
exchanged for a glorious body like unto Jesus’ resurrected body.
Sin
works death in us completely, 1 Cor. 15:56a “The
sting of death is sin”. Thus we see that Christ came that we might have
His resurrection life and have His life (Gk, Zoë, spirit life) more
abundantly (Jn 10:10) – to permeate our entire being, eradicating death
in our spirit, soul, and body (1Thes 5:23).
Deliverance by Trusting
Him
It
is His enlivening and empowering life within the believer’s spirit that
delivers them today in this age of grace, while living upon the earth (Gal
2:20).
1)
1st we receive Christ, as the Spirit of LIFE into our
spirit at our new birth (John 3:6, 1Cor 617).
2)
Then He works His life into our self-soul by the situations and
circumstances that He permits into our lives, “for
the good” (Rom 8:28-29a).
- The
Lord purposes that we might let go of believing our outward
circumstance, to “believe
– that is trust – Him” who is over all things and loves us
unconditionally.
- He is
also delivering us from self-dependence, depending upon our fallen and
sin-infected self-life, in order to bring us to cooperate with His
work in our lives; that we might rely upon His overcoming uplifted,
indwelling, life to deliver us. We are delivered by His spreading from
our spirit to our soul.
Our
soul thereby is delivered, changed from glory to glory when we turn to Him
(2Cor 3:15-18) in our spirit, yielding our soul’s mind, emotion, and
will, to receive the current or flow
of His life supply as our normal supply.
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