Jesus has all authority…
Sickness.
I am a horrible “sick person”. I hate not feeling a hundred percent. Depending on the situation sickness can really impact us, not only physically, but emotionally as well. I have know friends who have had people they love die due to sickness. Some sickness is worse than others, but there is still a fear we all have when we find out something is wrong.
Matthew 8:2-3 “…Lord if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed”
Storms.
Not gonna lie for the majority of my life I was scared of storms. There really is nothing that we can do except prepare for bad weather, and that was why I was scared. Storms didn’t care what demographic you were, or where you lived, or how you really couldn’t afford to fix the damages that they caused. We can’t control storms, and that can be frightening.
Matthew 8:26 “Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?”
Spirits.
Yea I said it. The spirit realm is a topic that many people do not discuss. It may be because it is freaky to some people, it may be because it is difficult for us to understand, and comprehend, or some just do not believe. However, I personally believe in this unseen, mysterious reality, and from reading through scripture I see no reason why anyone would think that it doesn’t exist. But the fact that this realm could exist, and that there is this unseen battle going on brings fear, and rightly so.
Matthew 8:31-32 “And the demons begged him saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters”
In Matthew chapter 8 we see Jesus come face to face with each of these things. One by one he expresses his authority over each of them. As we all know our world is corrupt. We live in dark times, and as believers in Jesus we are called to be the light. It is hard though when we are surrounded by these three things. Sickness, storms, and spirits are all things that impact us, and if most of us are honest they scare us. I was only in Haiti for a few days before a line of Hurricanes came rolling through. Multiple people come to our compound throughout the week due to some type of illness, not to mention when we ourselves get sick, and talk about spirits when in October people in our community, and people in the streets, are practicing Voodoo, preforming rituals, and yelling chants. There is fear in all of these situations, but it is because we cannot control them.
Experiencing these three things in Haiti was different than back in the States. However, it doesn’t matter where I experience them because Jesus is still the same, and he has already claimed victory over the very things that we fear. Jesus breaks the chain of fear just by opening his mouth. Jesus speaks to the Leper “be clean”, Jesus rebukes the wind and there is a calm, and Jesus says one word, “Go”, and the demons are cast into pigs.
Wow! It feels good to serve a God who has all authority. There is nothing that doesn’t bow down to him. — by Mekayla Deffenbaugh, from breathepartners.com
