God's Billboard

No matter where you travel throughout the USA you will always find commercials, billboards, magazines, websites and pretty much any type of media advertising churches. There is certainly nothing wrong with using advertising methods to reach people. But what is the bottom line? How many souls are being saved and added to the church with all the costly advertisements run each year? According to researchers approximately 4000 new congregation start up every year in the USA but approximately 7000 existing congregations close their doors every year. If fact even with the millions of dollars in advertisement each year, research shows that church attendance has been and is still declining. So how can the church in the USA save money on advertising and still grow? Simply, we must return to the very principles that have always caused church growth without paying one cent for advertising.

Jesus emulated before twelve men, His Father's will, nature, character, purposes and plan for three and one half years. During this intense time of training He sent them to do the same thing. Notice His instructions, "And when Jesus had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease...Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:1, 8) In Luke's gospel we see another set of disciples that Jesus also sent out, "After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest...heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you." (Luke 10:1-2, 9)

After Jesus' resurrection and before His ascension, He meets with His disciples and gives them further instruction, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs." Amen. (Mark 16:15-20)

Do we see the picture that Jesus has painted not only for His disciples but for all who believe. As soon as a person became born again, God planned that they should advertise the transformed life that they experience in Christ by healing the sick in the Name of Jesus no matter where they would go throughout the world. Jesus' entire ministry was a battle against demonic forces. It is the same for the church today. All sickness, disease, pain and sin is a result of Satan's hatred of all humanity. The very ministry of Jesus was carried out in the early church as normal life in the Kingdom of God. No matter where believers went, miracles, signs and wonders were always present at the preaching of the Gospel.  What Jesus told His disciples is true for today also, Freely you have received, freely give.

Unfortunately, the church has missed its greatest method of advertising. God's method of advertising that reveals Himself to the natural mind was and still is through miracles, signs and wonders. Due to the lack of sound doctrine being taught today, there is a severe lack of spiritual development or growth among most believers. The apostle Paul had to deal with such with the church at Corinth. "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?" (1 Corinthians 3:1-3) The writer of Hebrews faced the same problem. "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Hebrews 5:12-14) Ouch!!!

Now I know that some who read this may have been taught that God does not do the miracles today as He did in the early church. That God uses sickness and disease in a believers life for various reasons that only He knows as a means of the continuing work of sanctification. That God chooses who He wants to heal and when He wants to do it. But this is extremely distant from the truth. Even logic should dictate that we are missing it when we look at so many in the church today that are sick and diseased.  Disease and sickness are never the will of the Father, to believe that they are is to be disillusioned by the devil. If healing had not been in the plan of redemption, the Father would not have spoken it in His Word. Jesus healed all who came to Him, because He was carrying out the will of the Father.

The only reason sickness is in the body of Christ is due to a low state of knowledge of our rights and privileges in our redemption that has been provided by God through Jesus Christ. It is only our ignorance of our rights and or refusal to act upon God's Word that keeps believers ill. Every believer has a right to be free from sickness and disease. You are the ruler of your body. You have the greater one in you. All that is needed is for you to command sickness or disease to leave in the Name of Jesus. Healing is not only for the believer, but for all believers to also "lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." This was, is and always will be God's method of advertising and revealing Himself to the natural mind.

"Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy] But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole. (Isaiah 53:4-5 AMP). "He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24 AMP)...

"And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; They will pick up serpents; and [even] if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get well." (Mark 16:17-18) This is free advertisement God's Way!!!