Shalom,

Our Bible reading for today is from Matthew 8. There are two points about this chapter that are really powerful to me in my walk of faith in God's Word. Verses 2-3 and verses 5-13. We'll look at 2-3 first:

²And behold, a leper came up to Him and, prostrating himself, worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You are able to cleanse me by curing me.³And He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed by being cured. And instantly his leprosy was cured and cleansed.

That passage should forever answer the question of "if it be Thy will" - IT IS!!! The leper never questioned the ability of Jesus to heal Him, he just wasn't sure about God's will in the matter! That is, until Jesus made it VERY clear - "I AM willing"! Hallelujah, and He still IS! AMEN!

Then verses 5-13:

⁵As Jesus went into Capernaum, a centurion came up to Him, begging Him,⁶And saying, Lord, my servant boy is lying at the house paralyzed and distressed with intense pains.

⁷And Jesus said to him, I will come and restore him.

⁸But the centurion replied to Him, Lord, I am not worthy or fit to have You come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant boy will be cured. ⁹For I also am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.

¹⁰When Jesus heard him, He marveled and said to those who followed Him , I tell you truly, I have not found so much faith as this with anyone, even in Israel.¹¹I tell you, many will come from east and west, and will sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,¹²While the sons and heirs of the kingdom will be driven out into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

¹³Then to the centurion Jesus said, Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed. And the servant boy was restored to health at that very moment.

The centurion understood the power available in the spoken word of ONE in authority! Because he understood how authority worked, he knew that anyone or anything subject to that authority HAD to obey! He knew that sickness and disease HAD to obey Jesus! The other amazing thing is that this was a Roman centurion who had this kind of understanding of how faith worked and the religious leaders, who SHOULD have known, didn't! Don't rely on others to do your believing for you. Sickness, disease, poverty, lack, weakness, infirmity, attacks of darkness ALL must respond to the WORD OF THE LORD, spoken by Him OR HIS OWN! That's us! Start speaking! Settle for nothing less than God's best for your life and your family! AMEN!

Shalom in Him!