Healing Your Faults 2
(week 26/09)
Olubi Johnson
In our last article, we saw that we all have the faults of pride, greed, rebellion and stubbornness in our souls because they are intrinsic in the vestiges of the sin nature still in our souls.
We saw that these faults are typified in Saul and can be removed by developing a ‘David’ heart: this week, we will see how to do this.
Now, in the New Testament the change of Apostle Paul from Saul to Paul typifies prophetically the change we must experience to heal our faults in this season in which God is removing the veil of spiritual darkness from our minds.
Saul in his pride, stubbornness and rebellion was serving God in the way he thought was right: by persecuting the Christians. On his way to Damascus a great light from heaven knocked him off his horse and blinded him and the Lord then spoke to him telling him, he was serving God in the wrong way and called him to serve God in the right way: through the Lord Jesus. After a three day fast his eyes were opened again:
Acts 9:1-18 ESV But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest (2) and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (3) Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. (4) And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (5) And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. (6) but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” (7) The men who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. (8) Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. (9) And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. (10) Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” (11) And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, (12) and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” (13) But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. (14) And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” (15) But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. (16) For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (17) So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (18) And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;
This speaks to us prophetically today; like Saul here in the New Testament and Saul in the Old Testament:
1 Samuel 15:18-23 ESV And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ (19) Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” (20) And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. (21) But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” (22) And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (23) For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Now Amalek is a type of the flesh (Gen. 36.12). Many of us, like Saul, get rid of the external works of the flesh like drinking, smoking, fornication etc; but we retain the internal ones: pride, stubbornness, rebellion, greed, ambition on the pretext of using them to serve the Lord! In particular, Saul did not kill Agag the King of Amalek, who is a type of our pride: the king of the lusts of the flesh; and it was the descendant of Agag, Haman who the devil tried to use to kill all the Jews in the time of Esther (Est.3.1-6). The lesson is this: if you do not get healed of (or kill) your pride by the Spirit, later on your pride will kill you!
So, we are serving God as it seems right to us; however, in this hour, revelation light from heaven is casting us to the ground: humbling us and revealing to us our spiritual blindness. As we seek God in fasting and prayer, this blindness of our spiritual eyes is being removed and we can begin to receive accurate revelation from God on how to correctly serve him.
The light of revelation and the power of God released in fasting and praying is healing our hearts of the faults of pride, rebellion, stubbornness and greed, which we see here exemplified in Saul but is intrinsic (and many times hidden to us) in all of our hearts because of the vestiges of the sin nature still in our souls.
Psalms 19:12-13 MKJV who can understand his errors? Oh make me pure from secret faults; (13) and keep your servant back from presumptuous sins; do not let them rule over me; then I shall be upright, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Furthermore, to be healed of these faults, we need to confess them to our elders: those in spiritual oversight over us who are spiritual whose prayer God will use to heal us of these faults and restore us:
James 5:14-16 MKJV Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (15) And the prayer of faith will cure the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. (16) Confess faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous one avails much.
Galatians 6:1-2 MKJV Brothers, if a man is overtaken in a fault, you the spiritual ones restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. (2) Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the Law of Christ.
