The Past Tense Reality of Your Healing

On By josephbarlowIn healing, Ministry, TeachingLeave a comment

NIV 1Pe 2:24  “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

KJV 1Pe 2:24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

I was so frustrated! While attending college I developed a rash across my stomach area. It was reddish and very irritated. I just wanted to scratch continually. The school nurse tried to help, but nothing worked. On Sunday I went up to my pastor to have him pray for me. I was attending a church that believed in and regularly saw supernatural healing. The pastor would preach every Sunday night on healing, for years this was the pattern. So going to the pastor for prayer was a normal thing for me to do.

I expressed to the pastor that I needed this healing now! I was in so much discomfort. But, his answer frustrated me deeply. He said, “Joe, the truth of the matter is that you’re already healed.” With the agitation I was still feeling his answer almost made me angry. I wanted the responsibility for my healing to be on him and he was pushing it back on me. He was challenging my faith. He was forcing me to face a reality of the past-tense nature of my healing. From where I was standing, my current reality was that I was not healed. He was telling me that my healing was past tense. I could only see it in my future because the symptoms were screaming at me, demanding my attention.

This is where it’s time for a wrestling match. When we’re faced with a truth and it doesn’t fit our reality, we need to wrestle with it in prayer and meditation until we ‘get it’. Our old or current ‘reality’ or ‘truth’ says one thing, but there’s a message coming to us from the scriptures, from preaching or from the Spirit of God speaking something to us. The old ’truth’ wants to stay in place and not give up its position in our minds and hearts. But the new ‘truth’ is Truth! You know that it’s right but you don’t see how it fits. You don’t understand yet.

Remember, in Mark chapter 4, in the parable of the sower, the word that is understood is the word that went deep in the soil and produced a harvest 30-60 and 100 fold of what was sown.

As we meditate and pray and seek to understand the Truth we are welcoming that new ‘truth’ into our psyche, into our soul. It begins to make sense. We are literally creating new neural pathways in our physical brain for this new truth to reside. The old ‘truth’ had its own neural pathways in our brains, but as the new Truth is installed the old neural pathways will quickly dissolve and be no more. Our mind is actually being renewed.

Well, when my pastor told me that I was already healed, my mind wasn’t renewed to this. The Truth of the Word had not been installed in my psyche. So I struggled. My healing did come within a few short days of the pastor praying for me, but the agitation of this new Truth started agitating me more than the rash had been in the physical. 

In the passage shown above 1 Peter 2:24 puts healing in the past tense. It’s not future. Is it a bad translation? Or is there a Truth there for us? Is this something we need to mine out of the Word, then wrestle with in our souls until we really get it.

He has already given us everything we need for life and godliness.

2Pe 1:3  His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

  • There He goes again! It’s in the past. We’ve already been given everything we need. But what if we don’t see it with our eyes? 
  • Is there a reality we don’t see?
  • So the Truth is I already have everything I need?
  • Where is it?
  • How come I don’t see it?
  • We need to learn to see with what some call
    • The eyes of our faith
    • The eyes of our understanding
    • Sanctified imagination
  • We need to meditate these truths until they are fully installed in us so that we can see them clearly in our understanding.

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

  • Again, He’s saying that He HAS blessed us
  • It’s already given
  • Well where is it?
  • Is my healing unseen because I have to first see it in the unseen?
  • That sounds paradoxical.
  • But spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
  • I’m assuming that if you’ve read this far, something from your spirit is pulling you to continue on with what I’m saying.
  • God is demanding of us that we perceive something that to the natural man is unseen.
  • This requires faith.
  • This requires you being willing to believe that God is trying to draw your attention to something that He sees clearly but you can’t see at all.
  • We will have to switch from seeing with our natural eyes to the eyes of our faith.
  • Even now, by reading this, you are being told that something exists that you can’t see.
  • So this starts a process with your inner eyes.
  • They start looking.
  • There’s something I can’t see? I want to see it. 
  • So, even this process is awakening your inner eyes.
  • What is there in the spirit that I need to perceive?
  • What are these riches in glory that He wants to supply my needs with?
  • What about this list of every spiritual blessings? What is on that list? I want to know! I have to look! If by faith I just start to look, I will start to perceive.

The healing you need in your body right now already exists. It’s already been given. We now need to look in the spirit and see. 

Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

  • We need to take this scripture, say it, study it, pray it, meditate it, perceive it until we ‘get it.’
  • Once you get it in this way, it can’t be taken away from you.
  • Once you see what Jesus has done for you, you lay claim to it. You agree with the fact that it was produced and given to you, but you must receive it personally by faith. You know it is yours and you get a determination within you to resist anything that says otherwise. You even find yourself resisting circumstances. 
  • My stomach area was itching profusely, but the reality of my healing had to overcome those screaming symptoms.
  • Now the Holy Spirit was right there with me through this whole process, because not only was His objective to get me healed, but He wanted me get this process of receiving things by faith, from the unseen realm into the natural seen realm.
  • He was nurturing me, guiding me, assisting me all the way to the victory that I needed. My stomach doesn’t itch and that feels so good.
  • But it really feels good to know that I have the Holy Spirit leading me into every victory that I need. 
  • Your healing has already happened. Now let’s meditate, pray and install this into your thinking, into your soul, so that you can believe it with all your heart and be fully convinced. That is the faith you’ve been looking for.

An Unexpected Challenge

On By josephbarlowIn MinistryLeave a comment

This is an excerpt from my book, For the Healing of the Nations

This is available on Amazon

A while back, Schlyce, a friend of mine, said, “Pastor Barlow, you need to spend more time in heaven.” Her comment surprised me. I had not considered that I should be walking around the streets of gold until after I had died! 

But as I thought about it, I realized that I am a spiritual being. The Lord has shown me things in the spirit and even taken me places in the spirit many times. I realized that maybe her comment wasn’t that far out of line. Then I thought, “Wait a second, I am a citizen of heaven. I have a right to walk around those streets of gold!”

During my prayer time a few days later, I began to see myself walking around in heaven. I saw the river running through the middle of the city, and the tree of life on both sides of the river, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). As I pondered this and looked at the tree, I decided to reach out, pluck a leaf, and stick it in my pocket. I was half-thinking, “Let’s see if I can get away with this!” However, after I left that prayer time, I distinctly remembered that I still had the sensation of that leaf in my pocket.

Fully Persuaded

On By josephbarlowIn MinistryLeave a comment

Here’s a simple Bible Study I did just in my journal:

Romans 4:KJV 17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Romans 4:NIV 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

  • Abraham received a promise from God: “I have made thee a father of many nations”
  • Abraham put his trust in God “in whom he believed”
  • Getting to know God’s character and ability a little better: He gives life to the dead and calls things that be not as though they were


Romans 4:KJV 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Romans 4:NIV 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

  • When there was no reason in the natural for Abraham to believe he went ahead and believed God anyway
  • God told Abraham, “look at the stars, so shall your offspring be”
  • Because he believed and continued to believe he now has become what was promised: the father of many nations

Romans 4:KJV 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
Romans 4:NIV 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.

  • If he had considered his own body he would have become weak in his faith
  • If he had considered the fact that he and his wife had been trying for years to have a child but Sarah was fruitless – it seemed her womb was dead.

Romans 4:KJV 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Romans 4:NIV 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

  • Abraham did not give up. He still counted what God had said as bigger, stronger, more important than what he saw with his eyes.
  • He gave the prize of his faith, the prize of his attention, the prize of his judgment to the promise God spoke to Him rather than giving all that to the circumstances

Romans 4:KJV 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Romans 4:NIV 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

  • Fully Persuaded

Romans 14:23 whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Hebrews 11: 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

What Has God Promised You?

Be Fully Persuaded!

From my book: 21 Days To Hearing The Voice of God

On By josephbarlowIn MinistryLeave a comment

To be released soon… 

Introduction  

If a child could never hear the voice of their parents that would make for a very sad story. The communication that happens from a parent to a child builds a bridge; it builds a relationship. All future communication between them happens on that bridge. 

Our Heavenly Father has not written a story for you that is without connection. He wants to build a bridge between you and Himself; a relationship that will last through all your years. The heart-cry of God is throughout the scriptures… 

Jeremiah 31:33 NIV

…I will be their God and they will be my people. 

He has always been longing for us.

Most of man’s religions have relegated God to simply sit on a throne somewhere far away and quite aloof. They hope that He is pleased enough with them that He will allow them entrance to His hallowed home upon their demise.

But His desire stands, I will be their God and they will be my people. God’s desire for you is now. He’s not asking you to come to heaven right now, He’s asking you for an invitation into a conversation; a relationship. The actual answer to the very first thing He disapproved of in creation. He never wanted you to be alone and has always wanted to be with you. 

With your permission, the relationship begins anew today. He wants to speak to you in such a way that you can actually hear Him. He wants to communicate with you in a personal, helpful, encouraging, and loving way.

It’s always been His desire. Is it yours?

Dive into these pages. They’re not perfect, but they’re helpful.

God invited me on a journey many years ago, it has made my life one that I would gladly live again. Mainly because He was with me all along the way and I knew it. His voice has been there for me. 

My prayer for you is to know Him as closely or closer than I do.

Be hungry! 

Seek Him! 

He’ll reward you!

Podcast 25-02 Guarding Your Heart – How? Even When There’s A Fire?

On By josephbarlowIn MinistryLeave a comment

Latest Podcast Episode: 25-02

Or you could watch it on YouTube

2 Peter 1:4
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Friends, there is a lot of corruption in this world. We are given the opportunity in Christ to rise above it. We are not to be subject to this world and all the corruption and mess.

Jesus said in

John 16:33  I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Jesus overcame the world. He wants us to overcome the world, not to undergo it.

Do you have a plan to rise above all the mess and corruption in this world? Do you see yourself as a victim, helpless and hopeless?

No! No! No!

In all these things we are more than conquerors. We must have the mindset that we live in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God rules over the kingdom of this world. We win. But we have to get this mindset. We have to get His word in our hearts. We have to get these very great and precious promises ready on our lips. Let’s prepare to be victorious. Draw close to God. Let Him draw close to you. Do business with Him. If He seems far away then call on Him. He promised He would answer. He promised He would draw close to you if you draw close to Him. He promised that whoever would join themselves to the Lord, He would be one with them.

Be one with God.

From there you can’t lose. You can’t be defeated.

Friends, Jesus is the only way to rise above all the mess of this world.

Blessings

Joe

New Podcast Episode – Happy New Year

On By josephbarlowIn MinistryLeave a comment

Or click this link to go to the podcast.

Hey Friends,

I’ve been quite focused on my podcasting more than blogging recently. So I wanted to let you know about the podcast and at the same time start blogging more.

Besides the podcasts here’s a couple thoughts for you.

Honing The Flow

I had dinner with my daughter Sarah last night. She took me out to a fancy restaurant as a Christmas present. We always have excellent talks, we challenge each other and the food was off the charts delicious.

While we ate she said something about my music that kind of hit me and challenged me. I need wisdom from God on how to implement it, but she said, “You need to become your favorite artist.“

Think about that for a second. I need to become my own favorite artist. I need to love the music that I make more than anyone else’s. From an artist’s point of view that means I can’t just lay back. I need to be pushing my own music forward more, being more creative, honing my product to be the best, making sure that the flow that’s coming from within me is what I absolutely love. This is not necessarily an easy process.

When I was pastoring this principle was true. I enjoyed my own teaching more than anyone else’s. The reason I don’t feel this was self-centered, prideful or negative is that when I was teaching I was also listening and learning. My guess is that when I was preaching and teaching 40-60% of what I would teach would be new to me as well. Because I was listening to the Lord at the same time as I was sharing. It was a prophetic flow. I still teach this way. But because I’m listening while I’m teaching I still need to go back to listen to the messages again to learn the very things that I was teaching. I needed to give myself time to digest them, enjoy them and implement them. The discovery process was prophetic and beautiful.

I guess I don’t really need to change systems, this same system that I used when I was teaching is and can be the same system I use as an artist. For me, all my art/music doesn’t come from me, it comes through me. Just like my teaching, I just need to turn on the faucet and let it flow. Invite it and allow it to come through me. I’m going to enjoy that so much. Can’t wait to get started. But it’s 4:08 AM so I can’t be playing my guitar or piano right now; it would wake the family. But I’ve got to make the time, position myself in the right place at the right time with the right attitude and the right equipment and the right emotional atmosphere to play; turn on the flow and just allow God’s gift to flow through me.

I hope this blessed you. It did me.

Servanthood Is A Place Of Great Maturity

On By josephbarlowIn Encouragement, TeachingLeave a comment

Psalm 19: 11 by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 

I was imagining someone telling me 

“I am a son not a servant.”

Then I thought about telling them 

“Keep going, you will mature.”

You are born into a family. Son-ship is given to you.

In the Kingdom ‘servanthood’ is something you choose.

He calls you. But you choose to obey or not.

Jesus took the very nature of a servant Philippians 2:7

Php 2:3  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

Php 2:4  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Php 2:5  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Php 2:6  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

Php 2:7  rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Php 2:8  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Php 2:9  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

Php 2:10  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Php 2:11  and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 I don’t think Jesus was immature.

I think he was mature in his son-ship.

So as a fully mature son, he took the nature of a servant.

When he was 12 he was found in the temple saying “I must be about my Father’s business.”

We receive sonship when we are born again. We need to know who we are as a son, we need to know our position in the Kingdom, we are sons.

We need to know that we are the target of God’s love.

But as that love transforms us we become convinced of our assignment and his strategy to reach the world and we become aware of the Father’s heart’s desire. Our own hearts become filled with desire to fulfill His heart’s desire.

So this is where we begin to operate in a servant role or attitude.

Paul considered himself a bond-slave of Christ. This was not an immature stance.

This was a mature posture.

You take the role of a servant.

Even though you are a son you are filled with the father’s heart’s desire and you want to serve that. 

But for now, just receive the role of son. As you receive that role, the love will transform you to the point where you choose to be a servant.

Remembering My Father

On By josephbarlowIn Encouragement, Family, Father, Ministry, Word From GodLeave a comment

Daniel Patrick Patrick Barlow was born in November of 1923. By the late 1940s, he was attending Notre Dame University, where he met Teresa Murphy. The two found quite compatible dreams and visions in each other. They both wanted to change the world, but they knew they could not reach as far as they wanted to if it was just the two of them going out and becoming missionaries or the like. So they decided before they got married to have 12 children. Train them up and send them out! That was the motto. When they got to 12 children, my father said, “That was supposed to be 12 boys.” They ended up having 14, and the last 6 were all boys. My father said he finally figured out the system. Who’s to argue with him?

As the 10th child of this family, many of the harsh edges in my father had been worn away by the time I came along. So I got to know a very sensitive man. A deep-thinking man. A kind man. one who was always trying to get me to dream bigger. As an adult, I am very thankful for this. I know that this trait has been one that has made me quite valuable to those who need encouragement or hope. As a pastor, I meet many people who need encouragement and passing along to them the lessons of my father is rewarding.

Years ago, when our older children were young, Nancy and I took the family down to visit my parents when they lived in Quincy, Illinois. We had a wonderful time. It was an enjoyable weekend, but then we were all standing in the front yard getting in the car to head back to Chicago. We said our goodbyes, got in the car and started driving toward the highway. Just as I got near the edge of town, my car started to act up. It started making funny noises, and I knew I needed to pull over to find out what was going on. I looked in the rearview mirror to see if the right lane was clear. When I looked, there was my father and my mother right behind us. I pulled the car over, and my dad walked up to me and said, “As soon as you left, I knew right away that we were supposed to follow you.” He seemed just to wave his hand over the engine, and it worked perfectly. I’m not sure what wires he fixed or what he did in there. But I was so glad that he was there to help me.

Another time my mother was out on a walk in the afternoon, as she loved to do, while he was taking his nap. She was two or three blocks from home when she tripped and fell on the sidewalk. She was over 60 years old at this time. So as you could guess, this would be a very vulnerable position for her to be in, but as she turned and looked down the street, Daniel was pulling up in his car. He knew he was supposed to go and find her. 

Another episode that quite intrigued me was when we were living in our first home. I was finally a homeowner. There was a problem with the light switch in the bathroom, and I wanted to fix it, but I am not an electrician. Daniel was an electrical engineer, so I called him to talk me through it. He was telling me what to do and what not to do. As we were working through the problem, he says to me, “Do you see that red wire laying down in the back of the box?”  I said, “yeah.” He said, “That’s hot. Don’t touch it.” Now, I know enough about electricity that there should be no red wires lying down in the back of the box. My dad was hundreds of miles away, and we did not have FaceTime or camera phones at the time. There was no way in the natural that he could have known that there was a red exposed wire laying down in the back of the box. Things like this made it easy for me to place my dad in the superhero category, even as an adult. Good fathers are the first superheroes in their children’s lives. 

Remember to say “Happy Fathers’ Day” to all the superhero dads out there this weekend.

A Word About Faith

On By josephbarlowIn Ministry1 Comment

God spoke this word to me in my journal years ago. Let’s see if it blesses you.

Son, don’t get so focused on the answers as the solutions to your problems that you forget to come to me for the answers.

I am the answer.

Don’t leave me out of the loop.

Trusting me for every answer brings my presence into every area of your life. I want that. I want to be able to work miracles and show you my glory.

But if you only rely on your knowledge base for your answers and not on seeking me then the miracle touch you desire can never come.

Seek Me Son!

Seek My face. Seek my love. Seek my wisdom. You will be satisfied, not only in that your problem will be solved in wonderful ways but you will have me.

If you seek me you will find me.

If you seek me, you can have me. Come, son. Come and seek me. Come to know me. Come, I want to love you. You’ll see my hand. You’ll see my glory.

FAITH:
Faith is applying pressure to the unseen realm.

Faith is applying pressure with belief in your heart and speaking out of your mouth; pressure against that which you don’t see. As you do this, the spirit realm feels the pressure.

You can’t tell in the natural what is happening, but in the spirit much activity is going on. As this pressure remains and is consistent things develop further; the path or the bridge from the spirit to the natural is created and put in place.

There is opposition but your faith overcomes it. You win as you continue, knowing that what you see on the inside of you will soon be seen with your natural eyes.

If you look close in my eyes you can see the thing you’re believing for. But if you’re not close to me, you will lose sight of it, your faith will wane and the gift will be lost.

So stay close to me.

Continue to take steps forward with full view of the vision. You’ll begin to see things you’ve desired. This is the path of faith. This is the path that delights me. This is the way my glory is to be revealed in your life. I love you son and want to see more of my glory in your life. Walk this out.

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Let Me Introduce You To Faith

On By josephbarlowIn MinistryLeave a comment

If I was teaching an algebra class and I said “X=3+4”

I would teach you that you need to solve the problem to find the value of “X”.

So you add 3 plus 4 and get 7. 

So X=7

If I moved the context out of math and said X is how bright the sky is after sunset and before sunrise. You’re a logical thinker so you would come up with 

X = “dark”. 

Correct!

Let’s solve another problem:

Solve for X:

  • If I said, “If you have X, you can have anything you desire.”
  • If I said, “Without X it’s impossible to please God.”
  • If I said, “The only way you are going to have life is by X.”
  • If I said, “Your X has healed you.”

You would definitely want to solve for X.

You would be allowed to research and ask more questions like:

  • What is X?
  • How do I get X?
  • How do I use X?

If you are a Christian, you probably area already familiar with some scriptures I referenced above, but X=FAITH.

That may be good news to you or you may be no better off now than when all you had was the letter X. We need to define faith. 

Faith obviously has some great benefits. Let’s go ahead and read some scriptures with the word faith in there. Then we’ll discuss further.

Rom 3:28  So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

Mat 9:22  Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

Mat 15:28  “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.

Mat 21:22  You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

Heb 10:38  And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”

Heb 11:6  And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Today, right now, just take some time and read over these verses and begin to ponder this, “If I had faith, Lord, what could you do in my life?”

I believe God is trying to draw you closer to Himself.

Faith is how things operate in heaven.

Let’s learn faith and our lives will become more like heaven.