In The Spirit

“Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.”
1 Chronicles 21:1

Then we go to verse 3:

“But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt in Israel?”

“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalm 20:7

Who are you trusting in today?
You see, David became the greatest warrior in the history of Israel and after God had given him all those victories, then, he decided not to trust in God, but to trust in his own strength. He wanted to count how many fighting men he had in Israel. He started in The Spirit and he finished in the flesh, that was why God was so angry with him.

“Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:3

We cannot trust in our own ability. We started off trusting God... Why are we not trusting God today?

It seems like yesterday, we had a healing meeting in Durban many years ago. When we made the call for people who were sick to come forward a man came forward and he wanted prayer for healing. He could not hear, I was very bold and very excited. There was a large crowd waiting in anticipation to see what God was going to do but I got the shock of my life... before I prayed he took out, not one, but two hearing aids - one from each ear. They were flesh-coloured, I couldn’t see them. Anyway, I had already committed myself. I anointed him with oil, prayed the prayer of faith and then asked him to walk a few paces away and face the crowd. I called his name out quietly: “John” and he spun around. We were all so excited. I said, “Walk another fifty paces and face the crowd.”

He walked amongst the crowd, everybody was quiet. I called his name. He spun around and we were ecstatic. I then told him to walk to the other side of the auditorium and face the wall. I called his name extra quietly and he spun around - He was healed! Everybody was so excited. I remember taking those hearing aids, he left them in my pocket. I took them home to show Jill, she said, “I don’t want those in my house please.” So I took them and threw them in the boiler. We had a wood-heated boiler for hot water in those days.

The next morning I got a very excited phone call from my young pastor, Mark. He said to me, “Uncle Angus, have you still got those hearing aids from yesterday. I said, “Why?” He said, “There is a man who has just phoned us and he wants them back.” I said, “Well, he won’t get them back because I have burnt them.” He said, “What are we going to do?”

I said, “I will phone him.”
I phoned the man. I said to him, “Why do you want them back?”
He said, “They are worth over R20,000.”
I said, “But God has healed you.”
He said, “No, but I want them for a friend of mine.” And then he broke down and said: “No, I wanted to keep them just in case.” I said to him, “Sir, if you had kept those, you would have lost your hearing...” and with that, we prayed on the phone and he went off happily.

I want to say to you today, “Why did you start in The Spirit and now why are you are finishing in your own strength?” Let's look to Jesus today. He is our healer, He is our deliverer and He is everything we need.

God bless you and have a wonderful day today.