A program that should open our eyes

“And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40).

The following Christian show is not scripted at all. Its completely ad lib. Neither Ashley, the husband, nor Carlie, his wife and mother of their three little ones, look straight at the camera like often is the case as the script scrolls along and is read by other program hosts. Rather, Ashley and Carlie are often looking at each other, talking to each other. They are natural and they talk like they are at home. They aren’t politically correct. All they want to be is spiritually correct, doctrinally correct, right before God. But every second of their half-hour shows is packed with Bible precepts and promises, concepts and practical steps, common phrases mingled with scripture that create a powerful, faith-building message. So, here is the first half of a video I watched on YouTube.

Ashley—I’m excited. I’m excited!

Carlie—I’m expecting!...

Ashley—What are you expecting? is the question I have for you. You are full of dangerous expectations? Did you know that? You could be. You should be. This is called “Dangerous Expectations!” I’m looking forward to this teaching. I’ve never heard it before. So Carlie’s going to be teaching on this. This is called, “Dangerous Expectations”. So, what does that mean?

Carlie—Well, basically I was meditating on this. Because I meet a lot of people in ministry that “the hope deferred has made the heart sick.” [She refers to the verse, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” (Prov. 13:12).]  You know, they’ve been going through a challenge or a trial for a long time. And you know what? We start all these things all gung-ho, expecting the best. But when nothing changes, it kind of gets old. And there’s a lot of people out there that are just beaten up. They’re just down; they’re downcast. It’s almost like they go through the motions of having people pray for them, especially if you’re talking about a chronic sickness, or something. But any situation that’s really gone on for a long time—and there have been people that will pray for them and they’ll speak good things about their situation—but nothing changes. And the Lord showed me part of that is because their expectations start to take kind of a little bit of a nose dive.

Ashley—They start to wear out. Their expectation [starts to wear out].

Carlie—Yeah. The constant struggle can get really old for people. So I just really want to spend a little bit of time encouraging you. Is that OK? You know? Because when we understand the power of who is living on the inside of us.… You know in the scriptures it says you have to stir yourself up [She refers to 2 Timothy 1:6]. Right? You stir yourself up. You have to stir yourself up. You build yourself up in your most holy faith. And iron sharpens iron. And testimonies are one way we can encourage each other with the things of God that raises our expectation to where our faith becomes active in our life.

Ashley—Amen.

Carlie—And when we start to recognize the power of God inside of us in all of His glory, the whole of the kingdom of heaven that is living on the inside of us, we become to enter that place of dangerous expectations. In other words, we become to do some serous damage to the kingdom of the enemy.

Ashley—That’s good.

Carlie—The kingdom of darkness.

Ashley—That’s good.

Carlie—It’s time to start taking back some of the ground that the enemy has stolen from us.

Ashley—Amen. That’s good. Now about testimonies. From home we’d love to hear about your testimonies. You know, your testimonies will encourage other people to step out in faith and receive the promises of God. So you can go to our website. It’s called TerradezMinistries.com, TerradezMinistries.com. Go to our website and hit the contact button ad leave your testimony. And your questions for us. We love hearing your testimonies. We love hearing your questions. And for going to our website we have a free Confession Card. You sign up right there we’ll give you our Confession Card from Carlie. It’s got powerful scriptures about who you are in Christ. This will really help your expectations. This will really build your expectations….

Carlie—Amen. Will raise your faith...

Ashley—…in the promises of God. TerradezMinistries.com, we’d love to hear from you.

Carlie—Amen. You know we need to be armed with expectations. We need to be built up on the word of God. So when we’re squeezed in a crisis out comes a scripture, out comes a response. Because the word of God really is our attack plan, is what it is. It says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Amen? By what Jesus has done on the cross, and by what we are prepared to say about that. So what do I mean by Dangerous Expectations? I want to look at something here. You know, one of the ways we can build our expectations is to develop a spiritual sight.

Ashley—Hmm.

Carlie—Many people don’t understand that we have a spiritual sight as well as a physical sight with our natural eyes. So developing a spiritual sight, what do I mean by that? Well if we are going to expect something good, imagine when you were a kid and Christmas was coming, right? And it gets to be the first of December. I don’t know about you, but in my house we had an Advent calendar.

Ashley—Oh, yeah.

Carlie—And there was a little window for every day leading up to Christmas day. You open the little door, and the really good calendars had a piece of chocolate inside them.

Ashley—What I learned as a little kid is that you could undo the bottom of it, slide the tray out, take all the chocolate out of it, slide the tray back in again, without opening any of the windows.

Carlie—So you’re going to eat all the chocolate on Day One.

Ashley—It drove my sister crazy because you’d open the door and there’d be no chocolate there. And you’d go, “Oh there must a fault with this one, my chocolate must be missing.”

Carlie—Yeah, a huh, a huh.

Ashley—And you’d open the other doors and the chocolate was in there.

Carlie—But when you’d do that Day Two it wasn’t nearly as exciting then, was it?

Ashley—No.

Carlie—Right?

Ashley—But that was building expectation for the countdown for Christmas day. Right?

Carlie—Right.

Ashley—I used to love Christmas.

Carlie—And you can just feel the…

Ashley—I still love Christmas.

Carlie—Yeah. Amen. As little kids—we know it's not about the presents. Ok?—But, its fun. We should celebrate. We should give presents. It’s fun. So as a kid going through Advent season, I just remember my expectation building, building and building and building until it got to Christmas day. And by the time it got to Christmas day I couldn’t sleep. You know, I was expecting something good. It’s going to be awesome. We’re going to celebrate. We’re going to talk about Jesus. We’re going to have great food. We’re going to have presents. It’s going to be a day of fun and laughter and excitement. There was a great expectation that built each day, and part of that was because, I beginning probably in July—knowing kids—looking forward to Christmas, and I was already visualizing it. I was excited for Christmas before it happened. Even before I was born again, you know, I didn’t really know about Jesus, as a little girl. But I was excited about the tree. I was excited about lots of different things, about family coming around, about a time for everyone coming together, about eating a big meal around a big table. But I was picturing it inside of me. I was visualizing it and I was picturing something, and my imagination was kicking in. And imagination is so closely linked to our expectation. You know some of you have heard my testimony about this. But, for many years I suffered with epilepsy, for well over a decade. And at one point I had so many seizures that it actually caused some brain damage in my brain. I was in a wheelchair, I was 18 years old and I was in a wheelchair. And basically I had very little feeling from the waist down. But you know, when the doctor gave me that report, “We don’t know if you’re ever going to walk again…” I’m 18 years old. I’ve got my whole life ahead of me. And yet I’m stuck with brain damage and I’m in a wheelchair. And I’d been born again by that point about a year. And you know, I didn’t really know the scriptures in depth. I didn’t have a really great understanding of faith. I didn’t understand the power of my words. Nobody had ever talked to me about the power of my imagination. But something, when that doctor gave me that report, didn’t sit right with me on the inside. Well I know in the natural world you can think, “Well you know, you just…you just wanted to be in denial.  You just didn’t want to think about it. You just wanted to pretend like it wasn’t happening.” No, I was very aware of what was happening. I just wasn’t going to identify with that as being part of my future.

Ashley—So you chose not to embrace that bad report.

Carlie—Exactly. And you know, it’s so crucial that we establish ourselves in the truth of God’s word and God’s plan for our life. Because when these storms come we’ll be able to see our way through to the other side of the storm. Sometimes it’s hard in the middle of the storm to see our way out of it. But if we have a picture of what it looks like on the other side it’s easier for our expectation to reach there. It’s easier to see the other shore if we’ve seen it in our minds first. And you know, our youth group, in about three months time, was planning to climb a mountain. It was…we were going to the Lake District in England, a beautiful part of the country. And we were going to be doing all kinds of outdoor activities, and canoeing and cycling and mountain climbing. And I really wanted to go. I paid for my trip. I was planning on it. I was excited. I had a great expectation about that retreat. And to me a wheelchair wasn’t going to stop me. But it wasn’t going to go with me. I don’t know, you could call this just sheer stubbornness. I don’t know, Right? But I just set my faith, in three months time I’m climbing that mountain. God told me to go and I’m going. I could do everything that God showed me I could do. It was God’s idea for me to go and I’m going to follow through. And this diagnosis is not going to move me away from that. See, God had given me a picture of me climbing that mountain. And that is what was on the inside of me. And I think that so often we get, we just get stuck in that storm. We get stuck looking at what our day to day natural situation is. You know. And it’s a reality. It’s a truth. But we can’t let it become the truth above this truth [picking up her Bible].

Ashley—Amen.

Carlie—And that’s just crucial. So, I started praying, I’m like, all, again, about not really understanding about faith or anything to do with it. But I had a relationship with the Lord. I spoke to Jesus and He spoke to me. That was my simple faith. And I just figured if I was broken, then [if] God made me, He’d know how to fix me.

Ashley—Simple doctrine.

Carlie— Simple doctrine. Right? I didn’t think of all the reasons it wasn’t going to work for me. It was just good, simple doctrine. And so I didn’t know how this was going to work. “I need a three months’ plan, Jesus. Right? I need a three month’s plan of how to get out of a wheelchair.” And you know what? He just said, “You just believe Me for what you can believe Me for right now, and a little bit more. Just believe Me today for where you’re at right now, and a little bit more.” And I feel like this is a word for somebody. You’ve been stuck where you’re at for such a long time, you don’t even know what being well looks like. You don’t even know what being out of poverty looks like. You might not be able to see the whole picture all the way to the finish line. But if you can believe God for just a baby step, just take baby step after baby step after baby step, He’ll show you a plan of how to get where you need to be. And so as I sat in my wheelchair, as clear as day, I remember the Lord just showing me, “If you can stand, walking starts with standing.” And so I pushed myself up. I waited until no one was in the house. And I pushed myself up on the arms of my wheelchair so I could get myself in a standing position, just by bearing my weight on my arms. And then it suddenly occurred to me, “If I can speak to my legs, and I can move one step, I can move two steps, right? And if I can move two steps, that’s two steps further than it was when I sat back in that wheelchair, just a minute ago. If I can move two steps, I can move ten steps.”

Ashley—Just a little bit.

Carlie—Just a little bit more. Just start where you’re at. Bite size amount is all it takes.

Ashley—You can eat a whole elephant one bite at a time.

Carlie—One bite at a time. And before I knew it I had taken ten steps. I’d reached the front door. So I opened the front door and I looked all the way down the long hallway in our house. I looked all the way back down that hallway at the wheelchair at the end of the hallway, and I thought, “I’m not going back. I mean, I’ve come this far. I’m not going back to get into the wheelchair. That’s not part of my identity. That’s not who I am. I’ve got a mountain to climb. I’ve got places to go.” Amen? And so, just that stubbornness that faith just rose up inside of me. And I opened the front door, and I decided, and I remembered actually that my friends were playing tennis about two miles down the road at the community tennis courts there. And this is before cell phones, so I couldn’t phone anyone. And so I figured, “Well, I’m just going to walk there.” Right? “I couldn’t walk two steps just a minute ago. So why can’t I walk two miles? I’ve already seen the impossible. So why don’t I believe for the whole elephant.” Right? So I just carried on walking, and I arrived at the tennis courts. And I got to the tennis court and my friends were like, “What are you doing?” “I’ve come to play tennis!” And I probably played my worst game of tennis my whole life. But you know what? Two hours earlier I was in a wheelchair. Three months later I climbed a mountain. You know, and that, people might think, “That’s an amazing gift of faith.” No. That’s taking one step at a time. And having a confident expectation and a picture of where I wanted to be. And not giving up, not letting go. If we can just get that down on the inside of us, you know, expectation is the key to seeing the power of God flowing through our lives, to have an expectation of good. God has got good things for us, right? If we can just take our minds away from what we’re seeing with our five senses to where God is taking us to be, that’s the first step towards getting there. So I want to look at something. This is Matthew 13:58. Let’s look at this real quick.

Ashley—Matthew 13:58.

Carlie—Mmm hmm, [she is leafing through her Bible.] Matthew 13:58. All right. This is talking about Jesus. “Now He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” So this is talking about a particular town where He couldn’t, where He couldn’t do many mighty works because of the people’s unbelief. And what we take from this is: How we are going to believe [that] we are going to receive from God is directly linked to how the power of God plays out in our life.

Ashley—Was that like Jesus said, “As you…as your faith…”

Carlie—I think it’s Matthew 9:29. It says, “According to your faith let it be unto you.”

Ashley—That’s right, “According to your faith let it be done to you.”

Carlie—Right.

Ashley—It says, how we believe we can…it’s almost like it’s up to us if we want to receive, how we want to receive the harvest. If we receive it instantly, if we receive it gradually, how we receive it. Right?

Carlie—Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, in this is Matthew 8:13. “Jesus said to the centurion, Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour.” “Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” In other words, how we are going to receive from the Lord is how we receive. So, can you see yourself in a different situation to where you are at today? You know if we believe, like in the area of healing for example, if we believe we are going to receive healing gradually, we are going to receive gradually. Because that’s what we give God to work with….

That is half of the video. It’s address is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCVAJ8a3xsI. This ministry is built upon the same principle that we hear from the servant of the Lord.

“From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him, ‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’ The sick man might have said, ‘Lord, if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy word.’ But, no, he believed Christ’s word, believed that he was made whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk, and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave the power. He was made whole.” Steps to Christ, p. 50.

This all by itself is an amazing thought. But, there is even more to the act of healing. Love and promises from the highest authority in the universe.

“The Current of Life-giving Energy. —The power of love was in all Christ’s healing, and only by partaking of that love, through faith, can we be instruments for His work. If we neglect to link ourselves in divine connection with Christ, that current of life-giving energy cannot flow in rich streams from us to the people.--DA 825 (1898).” Mind, Character, and Personality, p. 761.

  

“Jesus was the healer of the body as well as of the soul. He was interested in every phase of suffering that came under His notice, and to every sufferer He brought relief, His kind words having a soothing balm. None could say that He had worked a miracle; but virtue--the healing power of love--went out from Him to the sick and distressed. Thus in an unobtrusive way He worked for the people from His very childhood. And this was why, after His public ministry began, so many heard Him gladly.” Desire of Ages, p. 92.

It was the draw of hope in Jesus’ mercy and love that led the leper to be within sight of Jesus. And then it was the sight of Him healing, and the visual of people healed, that completely possessed the mind of the leper, and made the leper’s desire for healing irrepressible and irresistible, his determination as firm as iron, and his footsteps unstoppable. That downtrodden man became wise unto salvation, as he became blind to the world around the Messiah. All he could see was the Messiah and himself being made whole.

 

“The leper is guided to the Saviour. Jesus is teaching beside the lake, and the people are gathered about Him. Standing afar off, the leper catches a few words from the Saviour’s lips. He sees Him laying His hands upon the sick. He sees the lame, the blind, the paralytic, and those dying of various maladies rise up in health, praising God for their deliverance. Faith strengthens in his heart. He draws nearer and yet nearer to the gathered throng. The restrictions laid upon him, the safety of the people, and the fear with which all men regard him are forgotten. He thinks only of the blessed hope of healing.

     He is a loathsome spectacle. The disease has made frightful inroads, and his decaying body is horrible to look upon. At sight of him the people fall back in terror. They crowd upon one another in their eagerness to escape from contact with him. Some try to prevent him from approaching Jesus, but in vain. He neither sees nor hears them. Their expressions of loathing are lost upon him. He sees only the Son of God. He hears only the voice that speaks life to the dying. Pressing to Jesus, he casts himself at His feet with the cry, ‘Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.’   

     Jesus replied, ‘I will; be thou made clean,’ and laid His hand upon him. Matthew 8:3, R. V.  

     Immediately a change passed over the leper. His flesh became healthy, the nerves sensitive, the muscles firm. The rough, scaly surface peculiar to leprosy disappeared, and a soft glow, like that upon the skin of a healthy child, took its place.” Desire of Ages, p. 263.

Today there are many ministries for physical healing. We see and hear of them all over the television. It draws in the masses, and their money. We are rightly hesitant to believe in healing. That’s because we are in the investigative judgment of the last days. There are many delusions taking the world by surprise. But, on the other hand there are many souls that need to be saved from those delusions. And we also know that during the Latter Rain “miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers.”

“Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works, with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Revelation 13:13. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand.” Great Controversy, p. 612.

    

Notice that in much or most of Ellen White’s counsel on healing, she links physical healing with spiritual healing, forgiveness, pardon, justification, salvation. “…The helpless paralytic is healed! the guilty sinner is pardoned!...”

The following is the larger context of a paragraph quoted above.

“You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised. This is the lesson which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us, we must believe we do receive, and it is ours. Jesus healed the people of their diseases when they had faith in His power; He helped them in the things which they could see, thus inspiring them with confidence in Him concerning things which they could not see--leading them to believe in His power to forgive sins. This He plainly stated in the healing of the man sick with palsy: ‘That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.’ Matthew 9:6. So also John the evangelist says, speaking of the miracles of Christ, ‘These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.’ John 20:31.  

     From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him, ‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’ The sick man might have said, ‘Lord, if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy word.’ But, no, he believed Christ’s word, believed that he was made whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk, and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave the power. He was made whole.

     In like manner you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise,--believe that you are forgiven and cleansed,--God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it.  

     Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, ‘I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised.’” Steps to Christ, p. 49-51.

Mrs. White never veered from the plan laid out for our full restoration into the image of God. She followed right along with the Bible.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.” (Ps. 103:1-3).

And David goes even further into prosperity.

“Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (vs. 4,5).

I don’t believe in prosperity gospel preaching. But, I realize that Jesus has much to provide for our happiness in Him, and if we turn down His blessings we may stumble into Satan’s control. His benefits create in our hearts a hedge of protection so long as we remain humbled at the sight of the Law-loving Son of God, whose natural body and soul He had perfected in all respects, the spotless Lamb of God. So, when we talk about miracles and healing, my recommendation is that we not throw out the baby with the bath water. Let us incorporate the details of Carlie’s healing, and her lessons learned, into Mrs. White’s statements in the Spirit of Prophecy.

“Now, in words that fell like music on the sufferer’s ear, the Saviour said, ‘Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.’  

     The burden of despair rolls from the sick man’s soul; the peace of forgiveness rests upon his spirit, and shines out upon his countenance. His physical pain is gone, and his whole being is transformed. The helpless paralytic is healed! the guilty sinner is pardoned!  

     In simple faith he accepted the words of Jesus as the boon of new life. He urged no further request, but lay in blissful silence, too happy for words. The light of heaven irradiated his countenance, and the people looked with awe upon the scene.” Desire of Ages, p. 268.

“Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” (Isa. 27:5).

“According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2Pet. 1:3,4).

“And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.” (Matt. 8:13). When Jesus said this, He was giving this humbled centurion the priceless privilege of the sons of God, the status of a creation of God, and even the liberties of the first and highest creation made in the very image of God. Jesus was restoring to the centurion the status of Adam in the Garden—royalty, nobility, “the image and glory of God.” (1 Cor. 11:7). We lost that from God, and have since continued to lose it in our thinking. But, Adam’s kind of thinking Jesus brought back. When beholding Him we are convicted of sin and humbled. And when we submit to the conviction and humbling, and come to the Saviour for the help that only He can give us, then we receive His glorious mind, one that thinks high and holy and noble things, the things of God.

“The true principles of psychology are found in the Holy Scriptures. Man knows not his own value. He acts according to his unconverted temperament of character because he does not look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith. He who comes to Jesus, he who believes on Him and makes Him his Example, realizes the meaning of the words “To them gave He power to become the sons of God.” Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 1, p. 10.

“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan’s control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.  

     The only condition upon which the freedom of man is possible is that of becoming one with Christ. ‘The truth shall make you free;’ and Christ is the truth. Sin can triumph only by enfeebling the mind, and destroying the liberty of the soul. Subjection to God is restoration to one’s self,--to the true glory and dignity of man. The divine law, to which we are brought into subjection, is ‘the law of liberty.’ James 2:12.” Desire of Ages, p.  466.

When we look at Jesus, the spotless One who was one with mankind, then we receive the vision without which the people perish. We receive the spiritual sight of what we can be through the power of God that is in Christ. We receive the expectations that are higher than the heavens, higher than the highest human thought. We can be pardoned and justified. We can be healed. We have the great expectations of the sons of God.