Eaton Ford (day) - Healing a mother-in-law

Roger and Julian were unable to come this week so Paul and I went ahead without them. We began by running through CO2. As part of that I explained that the Lord had been showing me that I should be like a little child, they are innocent, straightforward and trusting.

Paul pointed out that once they reach five or six-years-old they are already capable of cheating and telling lies, so when Jesus tells us we should be like little children, he really does mean 'little'. But Paul also mentioned that we can ask anything of Jesus at any time, he never turns us away. What a wonderful truth!

I said that Yahshua has a plan for each one of us and he is working it out day by day and even moment by moment. I had a picture in which I was standing on the top of a hill with  the Lord. I could see a brilliantly lit cloudscape below, it must have been a grey, foggy day down in the valley. Up here everything was bright sunshine and glorious. But Yahshua said, 'I have X-ray eyes, you don't. I can see the road we are following together as it winds down the hill and across the valley. And I can see everything you'll see along the way when you are there - but you can't see them yet, not from here, not under the clouds.'

'Walk with me each day. I know where we're going. You don't.'

We spent some time in prayer and then we returned to Mark 1 which we've been working through from time to time. We read from Mark 1:21-28 about the casting out of an evil (unclean) spirit. Paul noticed that we're used to doctors who can sometimes cure physical ailments, but to the people of his day it must have been astonishing to see Jesus cast out an evil spirit instantly like this.

Reading of the healing of Simon's mother-in-law in verses 29-34 we thought how amazed we are when we see similar things. A good example of this was the way Paul was able to be so active physically during last year's X-treme Camp and was relatively free of pain. It was unasked for, unexpected, but so, so encouraging. We are asking for the same again this year!

I shared a bit about why Yahshua wouldn't allow the demons to speak. Very often when we intend to spread the good news about him, we begin by telling people who he is. But this was not the way Yahshua did it, he didn't want people to know who he was. He began by simply loving people and caring for them, meeting their needs, and then he told them about his Father and challenged them to come in line with heavenly standards, not earthly ones. People started to ask, 'Who is this man, even the demons obey him?' We should learn from him, we are doing it all back to front! People first need to know that he is good, then they will want to know more about him.

Verses 35-39 show the Son wanting to hear the Father. When they told him, 'Everyone is looking for you!' he said, 'Let's go somewhere else.' Is this what we would do? Probably not! He was always full of surprises, the disciples must have been puzzled on many occasions.

Mark 1:40-45 is very significant. Yahshua heals a Jew of leprosy. This is the first of the so-called Messianic miracles, the religious authorities believed and taught that only the Messiah would be able to perform such a healing. It was not unusual for people to be healed or demons cast out by prayer, but some things had never happened before and this was one of them. Naaman had been healed of leprosy by Elisha, but he was not a Jew, he was an Aramean.

This is why the healing was so significant and why it caused such an uproar. Now people were starting to seriously wonder if this Yahshua from Nazareth might be the Messiah. The religious leaders would start to take a major interest in what he was doing. The healed man was supposed to make the prescribed offering but not tell the priest (or anyone else) who had healed him.