Daily Bread
PARABLE OF THE GROWING SEED
Dr. Allen Barber
June 8, 2010

Healing Insights For The Body of Christ

Here are some things I gleaned from Mark's Gospel this morning as a read again through the  New Covenant:
 
Mark 4:26-29 ESV - The Parable of the Growing Seed:

26 And he said, "The kingdom of God is as a man should scatter seed on the ground.
27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.
28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

In the Parable of the Sower, the first Parable of Mark 4 and the key to all Parables, Jesus said the seed is the Word of God.  The ground is the heart of man or the spirit and mind of man.
 
Jesus is using an agricultural setting to show the power and hidden meaning of the germinating seed in the spiritual realm.  The farmer plants the seed IN FAITH  believing it will sprout and grow into a full crop. He goes about his business and in time the seed grows to maturity and the crop is ready for harvesting. Notice Jesus said the earth produces by itself meaning God has placed in the ground the natural law of germination or you could say the womb of the soil so that when a farmer places a seed in the ground, the ground acts as the womb of germination and eventually brings forth a crop the farmer is expecting (key).
 
Faith in the word works the same way - it is a process. As we plant the word of faith in our hearts and speak it out our mouths, it takes root in the spiritual realm that controls the natural realm.  As we continue to stand on the word in faith and confess it out our mouths and over our bodies, the Word of Faith takes root and begins to germinate in our hearts and in our bodies.  The Word becomes flesh in us permeating our bodies bringing healing and health to our whole being, that is, not only does it heal our bodies, but our minds and our spirits are trained in faith to believe the Word of God over the natural realm.  It makes our spirits strong. 

In reality, it is the life of Jesus in our new spirits that heals and protects our bodies. As we yield our bodies to Him as a sacrifice (Romans 12:1), the Lord gives us His life in our bodies. This is the meaning of our bodies are for the Lord and the Lord is for our bodies. In doing this, we prove the will of God is good and acceptable - Romans 12:2. 
 
By continuously confessing the Word out our mouths over our bodies (the process of faith) we eventually reap the harvest - a healed vessel for God to pour His life through for the benefit of His Church.
 
The second insight is from Mark 5:25-34.  A Jewish woman and daughter of Abraham had an issue of blood for 12 years and spent all her money on doctors who only made the affliction worse (appropriate for today).  She heard about Jesus and kept saying (The Greek text says she kept saying), "If only I touch the hem of his garment I shall be healed.".  In other words, she spoke the word of faith out our her mouth continuously.  She touched Jesus and was healed. 

In verse 34, Jesus said to her, "Daughter (That proves she was Jewish and under the covenant of Abraham), YOUR FAITH  [you could put the words "in Jesus" next to “your faith” for that is the implication] has made you well, Go in peace and be healed of your affliction."
 
Jesus was saying to this covenant daughter of Judah, YOUR FAITH IN ME [MY WORD] HAS MADE YOU WHOLE - GO IN PEACE AND BE HEALED OF YOUR AFFLICTION."

The Old Covenant was based upon the blood sacrifice of animals by which God temporarily forgave Israel of its sins and more importantly the verbal and written Word of God. When Israel stood on that covenant and believed the Word of God great blessings accrued to them including divine health, but when they stop believing it, the curse came upon them. Well, as the book of Hebrews says, we have a much better and stronger covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus which includes not only forgiveness of sin and eternal life, but also physical healing.  Read Isaiah 53 carefully and notice the difference between forgiveness of sin and healing of sickness and disease. While modern day theologians try to make the blood sacrifice of Jesus only a spiritual atonement, that is unfortunate and a lie, because both forgiveness of sin and healing is in the New Covenant. Then why do not more Christians believe in this wonderful New Covenant for healing?  Answer - they had rather put their faith in the doctors and in a pill rather than to believe the Word of God.

Even when believers take medicine, it takes time for the it to work and most of today's medicines have terrible side effects.  Trust and faith in the Blood Covenant has no side effects only blessings of permanent healing and strengthening of our faith; however, we must do our part by believing and practicing what the Parable of the Growing Seed teaches.

Warning! If your faith is weak and you cannot  stand solely on the New Covenant of the blood of Jesus, by all means consult your physician and take your medicine.

Confession: In March of 2009, I took my annual physical (up to this time I had not been to a doctor or taken any medicine for any illness or disease, not since 1992 when I saw for the first time healing in the Blood Covenant of Jesus) and the doctor told me I had high blood pressure and put me on medication (lisinopril 20 mg.). Then in May 2009 I began to have heart arrhythmias, so he sent me to a cardiologist who diagnosed I had atrial fibrillation and put me on a beta blocker. Finally in July 2009 while taking an echo-stress test, I was told that I had a slightly enlarged root aorta. Since 2009, the doctors have prescribed numerous drugs for my BP and AF, but so far nothing has worked to curtail the AF's. Actually, the only cure for AF's is ablation surgery where they insert a catheter in the groin to the heart and bombard the area where the premature heart rhythms originate with a force of energy that cauterizes the veins and cells of the heart preventing the arrhythmias from reoccurring. My electro-physiologist wants to preform this surgery on me the latter part of August 2010.

I originally wrote the above article for my wife in 2006 when she discovered a large lump in her right breast.  We daily practiced the truth of the Parable of the Growing Seed and confessed the Word of God over her body. We did this three times a day and let nothing interfere with it. We would talk on the phone at lunch time and pray together the healing covenant.  We did the same in the morning and at night before going to bed. During the day we went about our business believing by faith the lump was not cancerous and that it would go away.  The first week there was no change in the lump and her breast had a large black and blue bruise.  During the second week, we noticed the lump was getting smaller and softer. We watched that thing respond to the Word of God and by the end of thirty days, the lump was completely gone. We knew God honored our persistent faith (the key) in His Word. It is not as if God Himself intervened personally, but faith in His Word by itself (the seed) brought the crop (harvest) of healing.

Christians make a big mistake by pleading and begging God for healing when He has placed the seed of healing in His Word and in the ground of our hearts and spirits. Our responsibility is to believe His Word, which brings great glory to God.

After reading this article again this morning, I realized that I had misplaced my faith and gotten off my former standing on the healing covenant. I shall not hesitate to return to it for the doctors say there is no cure for AF's or an enlarged root aorta without surgery.
 
This truth should blow our spiritual socks off!
 
May the Lord heal his people and may His people believe Him!

Addendum

My AF condition became chronic  in 2010-2011 and I had to have ablation surgery. I prayed and asked God for a rhema word for healing and as always, He was faithful, but in a way I did not expect. The rhema was Proverbs 14:30 where the Hebrew language for "sound heart" means to heal by stitching and to stop disturbances and interferences.  AF causes disturbances and interference with normal heart rhythm so I knew this was a word for my healing. To heal by stitching obviously means surgery of some sort.  Therefore, I submitted to the surgery on October 7, 2011.  Today I am 90% in normal rhythm and my cardiologist believes I will 100% within six months from the surgery. Why didn't God heal me without the surgery?  Not sure, but it is probably my spiritual condition or lack of one. By that I mean I had become lazy and was not confessing the healing Scriptures over my body daily as I knew to do and should have been doing.  I still believe in divine healing without  medicine.