Press On!
by Gloria Copeland
Do you know what happened to you when you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? Not only did you receive forgiveness of sins…not only did you become a new creation on the inside…you were born again into the kingdom of God.
His kingdom is a wonderful place!
It’s the place where God has dominion and His perfect will is done. It’s where His righteousness reigns, peace abounds and joy in the Holy Ghost overflows (Romans 14:17). It’s full of divine BLESSINGS, such as healing and prosperity.
Those BLESSINGS don’t just start falling on you, however, like ripe apples off a tree, the moment you’re born into God’s kingdom. For them to manifest in your life, you must press in and lay hold of them. You must believe God’s Word, get it in your heart and your mouth, and put it into action.
Doing that will involve fighting your way through some opposition. At times, it will even require you to be as fierce and determined as the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5. You probably remember her story.
She spent 12 long years suffering from a debilitating illness. Sick, weak and dying, she was forbidden by Jewish law to even be out in the street. But when she heard about the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus was preaching, and about all the sick people in His meetings who were getting healed, faith rose in her heart.
“If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed” she said (Mark 5:28, "New Living Translation"). And, getting up out of bed, she headed out to find Jesus.
Talk about having to fight through opposition!
This woman not only had to press through her symptoms and defy religious law to get to the healing meeting, once she got there she found Jesus surrounded by a huge crowd of people. It looked impossible to get anywhere near Him! Even so, she didn’t give up. She forced her way through the throng, touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, and instantly, the Bible says, she was healed.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, “A share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion” ("Amplified Bible, Classic Edition") “and the violent take it by force” ("King James Version"). That’s a good description of how this woman went after her healing. She went after it with intensity. She exerted a lot of effort and overcame a lot of opposition. But the results were worth the press.
They always are! When you press through and receive THE BLESSINGS of God’s kingdom, even if you have to fight your way through some obstacles and resistance, in the end you’re always glad you did. The results are always worth the press.
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26 : BVOV
